Onto plan C

A few months ago my Mum asked if I would make her a lap-sized quilt for her living room to throw on the back of the sofa. I have already made her one which she loves but she has changed her colour scheme slightly and thought a new one would go better. She asked for green and cream - that's it - no other colours. Now as I am a scrappy quilter at heart I thought it may be a challenge. So that was her Christmas present sorted I thought.

Anyway as I had been feeling so rough with this wretched flu I was very behind on lots of things ( after 4 weeks the bloody bug is still lingering around - I can't seem to shake it off completely ). Time was moving on and so I needed a simple pattern if I had any chance of getting this done in time to give my Mum for Christmas. I decided a simple chequerboard may be just the job and so cut loads of 2 inch strips in lots of different greens. Lots of soft florals - nothing too bright. Off I went. After a few blocks I knew this was going to be possibly the most boring quilt in living history - bland, bland, bland. See what I mean. . . .This photo actually makes it look better than it really is - lol !

So onto plan B. Which was ? erm no plan B. So I made a few 9 patches hoping for inspiration.

Then added a bit more

then a bit more. This is actually a nice forest green but is showing up very dark here.

Things were starting to come together. I remembered a nice piece of green in my stash that went from light to dark across the width. Yes I liked it.

I didn't have a lot of anything suitable for borders and a quick trip tp my fabric shop came up with nothing. I had a green which would have gone but it just was too much dark and I went with the lighter option. Once borders were on the quilt just started crying out for some applique to zaz it up a bit.

Here's where I ran out of time and admitted to myself that there was no way this was going to get done it time. I decided to finish this after Christmas without rushing and making a bad job of it and so I moved onto plan C. This involved me frantically hand quilting a cushion ( pillow ) on Christmas Eve so my Mum would have something hand-made to go along with the other gifts I bought her. In my rush I forgot to take a photo but the cushion was lovely - pretty green hearts in a circle and hand quilted background. Mum liked it and is waiting patiently for her quilt to be finished.

On Monday I will be putting my swap packages in the post. These too are a bit late but as they are private swaps and Fiona and Carolyn have been so nice about it - it's not the end of the world. Something to look forward to in January at least.

In between other stuff I managed to make this little Santa from a pattern from a friend.

All my decorations have gone away now but I'll leave him out a while longer. Once Christmas is gone ( which was great despite us all feeling rubbish ) I can't bear the decorations out for too long gathering dust. My Mum always tells me I should wait til 12th night to take them down or I'll have bad luck for the coming year. So Santa will hopefully ward off any heading my way - lol !

To try and get my sewing motivation back in I am planning Bonnies new mystery quilt. She is hopefully posting the first clue today so I am off to check if it's there yet. With the time difference I may not get very far today but I am very excited about this.

Just remains to wish you all a wonderful 2009 and to thank you all for continuing to visit my blog and being such all-round lovely people.

Happy New Year !!!!!!

Never again !!

Well my cross-your-legs cough developed into full blown flu and infected sinuses - how terribly convenient just before Christmas - lol ! I feel weak and am sick to the back teeth of coughing. Over the worst now which is just as well as along with everyone else I have a ton of stuff to get done. I won't panic - not in my nature. Will just plod along and hope for the best.

One good thing about being unable to run around at my usual pace was I got the 15 year old sampler done. Here are a couple of photos of the HAND- quilting. AARGGH. So much cross hatch quilting in them sashings.

I will never be persuaded/ cajoled/ bribed again to do something like this. Lesson learned ! It did look lovely when done though. I'm glad I perservered. It has been passed on to my friend who will pass it on to it's owner. My quilt group have assured me she will love it. So glad it's done and out of the way. DH Jason has never heard me moan so much in my life - lol !

Got a couple of little Christmas swaps to finish up so no photos of those yet.

Quick post this - got to wrap up my pressies - well got to buy them first actually. Haven't dug out the decorations or anything like that yet. Help . . .

One last thing - I have signed up for the pocketfullofmysteries quilt. I have printed out fabric requirements and may sort out something later. I think the first clue is published Christmas Eve - what fun ! See ya.

Catch up !

Thought I'd best squeeze in a post before you all desert me - lol ! Oh for a few more hours in the day. So what have I been doing ? Let's cast my mind back.

I finished this

I've shown this before when I thought it was finished. BUT it would not lie flat and I decided it needed some hand quilting. I traced a leaf shape in each triangle ( not the flying geese ) and hand quilted it with a dark green thread. It is now as flat as a pancake and I have actually got out my drill and hung it in our bedroom. Cheers up a dull day a treat and all from scraps. Talking of scraps I am working my way through this

This is a huge laundry basket and the plan is to cut all of these into ready-to-go pieces. So far I've started cutting squares in 3 different sizes and a few 2 inch strips as well. I have bought a load of really useful boxes and am trying to get organised. Takes forever though but will be worth it in the end.

My favourite fabric warehouse - Abakhan fabrics had a sale evening with free mince pies and wine and it seemed rude not to go - lol ! I don't drink wine but did manage a little shopping.

About 20 yards here and so cheap !

And the really big news for this post is that I have finished my first stitchery quilt.

Now I went about this a little differently than the pattern suggested and so it was a bit trickier putting it all together but I managed it with only a bit of ripping. Ithink Iam in love with this. I aimed for an old-fashioned look with lovely dark country colours. Need to get my drill out again and hang some hooks. I first saw this on Belvies blog a while back and just had to get the pattern. Brilliant fun. The pattern is by Bareroots and I am dropping hints to Santa for more of their patterns. I did not follow the border ideas as the pattern suggested either.

I have so much I want to be doing and instead I am plugging away hand-quilting the 15 year old sampler quilt that I was talked into finishing. Not fun but I have decided it is not going to be starting the New Year in my house and I want it done and GONE.

Going to catch up a few blogs now. I have a bad cough and am hacking away like an old donkey - I am driving my family mad. Annoying thing is now I'm getting older I have to cross my legs when I cough - lol ! Too much information ?

See you all soon.

ALQS2

A lovely bit of post this week. My much awaited little quilt from Kates swap. And here it is

Gorgeous ! As my favourite block is log cabin and I love blue and yellow together this suits me down to the ground. The maker of this little beauty is Sharon from Canada who did a fantastic job of this. Perfectly sewn with amazing hand-quilting. A couple of extra gifts of a great notebook and some Laura Ashley sticky notes too. Thankyou Sharon - another successful swap. I have some lovely little mini quilts now and I absolutely love them all.

I have done a fair bit of sewing this week although I have been naughty and not done any quilting on the sampler. I will try harder next week. I would love to have it gone to it's owner by Christmas. I have been sewing a new project and an old one. I want to do a bit more before I show photos though. Next time . .

By popular request here is the recipe for the chocolate beetroot cake. Measurements are in metric as that is all the recipe stated. I usually use imperial ( pounds and ounces ) and I know US cooks use cups. I think there are probably conversion tables lurking about on the net somewhere. As promised the cake was very moist and although you could not actually taste the beetroot it had a slightly earthy taste. Very good cake and if you make it I'm sure you will enjoy it.

Chocolate Beetroot Cake

125g butter

100g dark chocolate ( at least 70% cocoa solids )

250g beetroot - cooked and obviously without vinegar

3 large eggs

100g cocoa powder or hot chocolate drink mix

225g self raising flour

200g caster sugar

1. Preheat oven to 180c/160c fan/Gas4 and line tins. I used 2 8 inch square tins.

2. Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Leave til melted and stir to mix. Remove the bowl from the pan and set aside.

3. Puree the beetroot. Beat the egg and stir together. Sift the chocolate powder and flour together into a large bowl and stir in the sugar and beetrrot mixture.

4. Divide mix into the tins and level out.

5. Bake for about 35-40 mins until cooked through i.e until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool.

6. Make some filling. I made a fudgy chocolate crean with some melted chocolate, a little butter and some icing sugar. Sandwich cake together with this and dust top with a little icing sugar.

Our weather has been very cold this week and my cats have stayed in a lot.

Here are Marley and Tizer giving my new quilt a try.

And here they are a couple of hours later.

Tizer ( the tabby ) loves Marley and follows him around like a shadow when he is in. I thought this was so funny. Seems like he's copying his sleeping positions too - lol !

Have a great weekend !

Doing my bit . .

. . to help the global economy - lol ! What's a girl to do when she has birthday money burning a whole in her pocket and the worlds in financial crisis ? Spend it of course - here's a few goodies

Helping out Amazon in case they run into difficulties.

Spreading it internationally. Order from Thousands of Bolts.

A few plains from my lovely fabric seller who comes to our local quilt group once a month. I would miss her if she had to give this up through the recession - lol ! Not much chance of that.

A few bits from a local shop or two.

So there you go - I can sleep easier at night knowing I've helped out all these people :-) Who am I kidding ?

Anyway do you remember these blocks ?

To recap these are for a quilt for my DH Jason to keep him warm through the winter. Well originally I planned to make 35 blocks and set them 5 by 7. BUT after sometime of making these I couldn't bear it. Each block seemed to take forever and I was itching to get them finished. After a quick count I only had 18 blocks. Almost half of what I had decided to do. Not nearly enough. I had a think and wondered how to make these into a decent sized quilt. Maybe I could set them on point or make BIG borders. AHA - what about doing both these things ?

Job done..

This is now a great size - actually bigger than I thought by quite some way - lol ! Will try and get this quilted soon. Just gearing myself up to struggling along with my domestic sewing machine. I can feel my shoulders aching just with the thought of it.....

A couple of non-quilting things to end with. If you have been wondering about the little rescued cat - Tibbles ( Susan and Margeeth have been enquiring amongst others ) here's the latest. A couple of weeks ago we went off to see him at our local rescue center only to be told he wasn't there as we had been led to believe. I was perplexed at this and made further enquiries at the vets we had taken him to. Apparently for whatever reason he had been taken to a centre run by the RSPCA about 50 miles away. I tracked down the phone number ( would have been easier to get the number of the Queen I think ) and gave them a ring. Yes he was there under a new name of Oliver and was doing very well. He is being assessed soon and will be re-homed when he is ready. The very nice lady I spoke to said he will be better going to some-one in a new area as that is something they usually do with stray cats. I asked her would she do me a favour and let us know when he has found a home and she has promised to do so. However I know they are busy so will probably ring soon to find out the latest. We were all a bit gutted that we never got to see him - I so wanted a photo of him but at least he is safe and sound and will make a great Christmas gift for somebody. I am just pleased we managed to get him sorted before the cold night hit us.

One last thing. Here is a cake I made earlier in the week from a cookery magazine. I am always searching for a good recipe for a moist chocolate cake and this one promised just that due to an added secret ingredient. I made it when no-one was in and then asked them to guess what the secret thing was. They all enjoyed the cake - it was rather yummy but they didn't guess that it contained pureed beetroot. Strange but true. I am the only one in my family that likes beetroot and I don't think they will eat it again now they know what's in it - lol ! But I had a laugh watching their faces when I revealed all - ha !

See you soon xx

The good - The bad . . .

Not sure about the ugly - lol !


Life is running away with me just now and I am a bit behind on lots of things. Behind on blogging and answering emails. Behind on ironing - but I can live with that. This week I'll be playing catch-up I think.


Anyway first the good. It's a great feeling when your son asks " Mum - are you expecting a bloggy parcel because the postman is coming down our path with a box ?" And even nicer when that parcel is a complete surprise from a lovely lady called Karol-Ann. It was a slightly belated birthday present and is absolutely the best bag I own.


Here is son very kindly modelling it for me. ( No of course your face isn't in the photo Patrick - just keep watching The Simpsons - lol - bad mum ).



I cannot tell you how lovely and gorgeous this is in real life - so well sewn and I'm very impressed with the magnetic fastenings. Thanks KA - you are a star ! There were also some sweet little candles in the box and some fantastic threads which are very beautiful and unusual.



Now onto the bad... I mentioned last post that I am working on something NOT fun. It is this.








It is not mine and I don't even know the lady who owns it but here's the story. Two of my friends from my small quilting group ( who happen to be sisters ) first discovered quilting 15 years ago when they did a sampler quilt for beginners along with another lady they know. My two pals duly finished their quilts and made others and joined our quilting group etc,etc. The third lady however got so far and abandoned her quilting career in order to take up other hobbies. So this poor quilt has been sat in a bag for almost 15 years waiting for some unfortunate soul to take pity on it and finish it. Yes - that some-one is me. I was persuaded to take it home and finish it off. Now the lady whose quilt it is had started hand-quilting it and although my friends said that finishing it off by machine would be fine I just thought it would look so much better finished off the way it was started. So hand-quilting it is.


I have umpteen projects myself that I would love to hand-quilt but instead I'm finding myself working on this. A bit musty-smelling ( well wouldn't you be if you sat in a bag for all that time ? ) and absolutely not my colours. I'm doing my best quilting on it but my heart isn't in it - in fact I can't wait to get shot of it. I'm trying to do at least an hour a day on it but there is still a way to go. Lesson to self - Just Say NO !! One day I will learn. Meant to say my friends have assured me she will pay me for my time but not sure how much. She is quite an elderly lady and would love to see it finished. You know the saying - There's one born every minute - lol !







Quick last photo - there were no cats in sight when I got this opened up to take a photo - quilt magnets !!





I have been doing a bit of fun stuff too but have no photos just yet. I got shut of some quilty stuff on Ebay last week too so that was good - made a little room for more :-)

See you soon.

Quick update - Patrick came in and rumbled me - he saw his photo and said I was a terrible liar - lol ! He doesn't mind really...

Small quilts.

First of all do you remember that batik quilt I made for my friend Jacqui's birthday ? Well she phoned me on my birthday last week full of aplogies for not letting me know earlier that she had received it. She is a TV producer and has such a busy life it makes my head hurt so I told her it was fine. Anyway she absolutely loved the quilt so much etc. She opened my parcel as well as her other presents during a dinner party - she said she cried so much that some of her guests started crying too - lol ! Wish I'd been a fly on the wall !

She can't post my present apparently but will bring it to me in person in the next few weeks but in the meantime she sent me these as a sort of birthday present but not - lol ! Beautiful. If you click on the picture for a close-up please avert your eyes from the dust - must do that !!

Anyway Kate and I had arranged a little swap in honour of our 40th birthdays - hers is next month. Here's what I sent

and here's what I received.

Now Kate couldn't have chosen better colours for me as blue and yellow is my favourite colour combination. The fabrics are SO lovely and the quiting is brilliant. I love it and it was a great swap. Are you on for another for our 50th birthdays Kate ??

I've also finished my little quilt for ALQS round 2. I need to label this and get it off asap. It has a LONG way to travel. I will be sad to see it go.

Here is a close-up of the quilting.

I was a bit unsure about what colour thread to use and was dead brave and went with blue instead of playing it safe with white. I like how it came out. It is hand-quilted except for the borders.

Here's my new quilty notice board I recently bought. All sorts of bits and bobs on there. Some I have plans for and some I don't.

Next post I will show you something I'm doing that I'm not enjoying. I want to do other stuff but this is weighing heavy on my shoulders - it needs to be done. All will be revealed - sorry can't help teasing a bit.

See you soon.