Happy New Year

So after yet another long gap in posting anything, once again I've got loads to catch up with. Christmas has been and gone, with lots of quilty and knitting presents. I had my second dose of radio iodine treatment in November. Unfotunately, it didn't show any tumour on the follow up scan, so I had another more detailed scan which showed three tiny tumours in my neck. These will need surgical removal, so I had an MRI scan shortly afterwards and am now waiting to see the surgeon who performed my original thyroidectomy in 2008.

I seem to have got my quilting mojo back, and have constructed a list of all my UFOs. It's turned out to be a lot longer than I thought it would be, so it's shamed me into actually doing something about it. I've resolved to work on these UFOs as my main priority this year. Doing OK as I finished the cushion in the US retro rabric that I bought in Lowell. It was all pieced, so it only needed quilting, and a zip putting in for the backing. As I'm writing on the laptop, I need to work out how to load photos through here now as well as the desktop. Pic to follow by whatever means!

My next project was to be the pictoral mini blocks, I'd had a dream about exactly how to finish it, and set off dyeing some fabric for it, but it's come out too orange, so back to the drawing board with that. I'm not confident enough in my dyeing to be able to mix brown from the pots I've got, so I'll see about ordering some darker brown. In the meantime, I might just buy a couple of yards of light and dark brown so I can finish it off. For quilting it, I think I'll go in the ditch around each mini block (using my new Q-i-D) foot, and do something squiggly in the sashing and border.

I'm also going to try and keep a record of what fabric I bring into and out of my stash during the year. I'm not going to measure how much I'm starting with, as I've got so many scrappy pieces, but hopefully I'll be able to keep up with that!

Hopefully I'll keep this more up to date, and plan to post next weekend.

Lots to say

What a busy few days I've had. Sunday was the Plymouth Half Marathon. We were up really late as next door decided 9:30pm was a great time to set fire to a vast pile of cardboard, and were still burning it at nearly midnight! Managed to get some sleep and set off in tme for the race. It was incredibly hot, warmest day of the year so far, so my plans of walking the drink stations and run-walking the hills looked to be a good one. What I'd not banked on was a) needing so much water at the stations that my walk lasted longer than I'd anticipated b) the later stations running out of water completely and c) just taking so much longer because of the heat. Still I finished it, so that's my first Half since my operations done. Next one is 21st June in Torbay.

About 4 miles



Relaxing in the Athletes' Village



No blisters anywhere, my worst problem seems to be a really sore toe nail, feels like it's been bashed against the end of my running shoe. So after the race, the next day was Bank Holiday, and I'd decided to bake!!

Apricot and Almond Cake:



Not much left of it now, except the plate!

My finish for this week's quilting was the ballet raffle quilt. I'd had a major crisis of confidence and ended up sitting in front of my machine for ages just gazing at it and not having any clue how I was going to quilt this one. This in spite of planing it weeks ago in my head. For some reason what I'd planned just wouldn't come through. Eventually, I did a small bit of FMQ on some scrap fabric, weeded and pruned the flowerbed, hoovered (I know that's how desperate I was!) and about 2 hours later made a very tentative start. I like how it's turned out, but I hated feeling so helpless in my sewing. Anyway, FMQ-ed in lop-de-loop with frequent heart meanders throughout the top, in a sugar pink thread. I bought the binding fabric from Janet a month or so ago, and I have to admit I love the way the bias stripes have worked. I'd have preferred more pink/white, but this pink/multi gives a definite "end" to the quilt and makes quite a statement. The corners I cut using a side plate for the curves!

April challenge completed!

This is my April challenge quiltlet from the BQL online group. Paper pieced handbags, hand embellished and machine quilted with random loop de loop squiggles and hearts. Although I didn't particularly enjoy the hand embellishing, the final piece is OK. I'm waiting now for the password for next month's piece...hope I feel more inspired than I have been with this one!

The reason for the particular FMQ design was I've just finished piecing the pink and white log cabin quilt for H's ballet group raffle in June. I'll be quilting it using the same FMQ idea, and hopefully using a pale pink thread.

This weekend I'll be working on a small wallhanging which will be going to my mother in law in August as a thank you for looking after B and H while Mike and I are in Boston. Win, win both ways, I get to try a new technique that's not really "me", and give a gift to Margaret, and if she doesn't find it to her taste either, she only has to hang it if we visit her!

And I got my number for the Plymouth Half last night...eeek!

April quilt progress

I've finally got back from holiday. This time it was a week long narrowboat trip between Alvechurch and Stratford on Avon up in the midlands. We had a fab time, very relaxing, and even managed to get through the locks without too much trouble. By day 3 we'd realised that if you wait a bit longer than you think you really need to, anyone can open the gates.



I even managed to get a few snaps of some paintwork that will go into my inspirations file for possible trapunto or applique designs:





Once we got back, I knew I had to put a lot of work in on the outstanding projects so I can have time to do some paid sewing work. On Sunday I pieced the Jacob's Ladder blocks. Originally I was going to make them into a baby quilt but not for anyone in particular, so they've been made into a table runner instead. There's a couple of spare blocks that I'll make into pot stands.



I did some work on the Plympiecemakers Round Robin. Not too much detail in case the person I'm making for reads this:



Finally, I went round to a friend's house last night, and accidentally came home with 5 metres of fabric OOOPS!!!! I've not started stealing people's stashes, she sells it. Her workroom/stockroom was amazing, lined on one wall with bolts of fabric sorted by colour, then boxes under counters with pre cut FQs, more with threads, but these could have been her own, and rolls of wadding hanging on wooden poles from the ceiling. Talk about envious!! Here's my haul:



The cream is just for stash enhancement, you can never have enough light neutrals. The pink stripe is for the binding on the raffle quilt for Hannah's ballet group and the hand dye look alike is for the stash.

Another top pieced!

This is the baby quilt I made from the fat quarters I bought in Bath. I'm really pleased with the colours in this one, and the way the prairie points have turned out.

Just as well really, as Hannah's other teacher is also pregnant and I'll be making a quilt for her!

Off to Exeter on Saturday with P. She's giving me a lift up as Mike's having to sit of lie on his right side for 50 minutes every hour for the next two weeks. Makes my instructions to take it easy and not overdo things look a bit tricky! While we're at Exeter, I need to pick up the roll of wadding I've pre-ordered with Lady Sew & Sew, plus get enough FQs for the baby quilt. After that I need some more threads, and rotary blades and just a general browse.

Less than 3 months till the Plymouth Half marathon now!!

Bath shopping trip

Half term holiday and B in Austria, so the three of us planned a shopping trip to Bath. Last time we were there it was so horrid and rainy, we didn't get time to see any of the sights...of course there was also the small matter of a half marathon too! This was a chance to make up for that, and also to meet up with C and her children from my running forum.

Much nicer weather, perfect for sightseeing. We were a bit rushed as we were meeting for lunch at noon and only arrived at 10:30. We parked the car behind the Royal Crescent, where Hannah showed us how strong she is:



Once we'd dashed into the town centre, I found the first quilt shop of the day, Country Threads. Half an hour later, and I'd bought the fabric for Hannah's teacher's baby quilt. I was determined not to make it "baby", so we settled on lemon, pale green and teals. A bit "boy", but there's some pink roses in each of the colours so will work easily no matter what she has:



The piece top left is more teal than it looks, and the pieces that look peach are lemon yellow. This green is for a narrow border, and the cream is for the sashing and also for prairie points.



I've pieced the main body of the top already, just the prairie points to do. I'll press the squares tomorrow and baste them on in the evening.

Once we'd met C, (yummy Chinese buffet at the Ocean Pearl) we pottered around the shops. We were going to "do" the spa, but the queues were a bit too long for us. Anyway, I had another quilt shop to visit, Midsomer Quilting, outside Midsomer Norton. There's a vast selection of fabrics, including my favourites, a whole section of half price ones! There's a man creche in the centre, so M was left there while I browsed.

Here's my haul from there:



The pink is an Anna Griffin, the cream is for backgrounds, I'm always running out! The florals are "just because". My last temptation are these fat quarters:



How cute are these?? I'm going to make them into a grocery shopping bag!

Keeping on keeping on!

Guess who's back on sick leave? Long story but essentially it boils down to me trying to do too much too soon and having to realise I'm not invincible and maybe (just maybe) my consultant does know what he's talking about. Despite being younger than me! Anyway, I'm back in work on Monday, taking it easy (through gritted teeth), blood results are in and I'm OK to re-start running more.

On my quilting, I'm doing well with keeping up with finishing some of my UFOs. The longest standing one was the Devon flag, but that's all finished, quilted and bound.



I like the effect that dark green quilting has on the block. I could have done it in white I suppose but couldn't fnd the cone!

Next finish is Heidi's baby quilt:



Close up of the butterfly:



...and of the caterpillar:



I've really enjoyed making this one, the fabric's all preprinted so just one big panel in the ecntre with borders around it. I decided not to go with the individual blocks made into the two plain coloured borders but just to use one plain colour instead for speed.

Next quilt on my to do list is the extra quilting on the DJ siggy quilt. I think I did about 4 blocks today as I've still got the machine set up from doing Heidi's. It is a deadly dull thing to do though, just re-sewing over the blocks on an already finished quilt. Hey ho, it'll give me something to do tomorrow!

Friday I'm being taken to Bath by Mike. We were planning to go to the quilt museum, but it's not open until March, so we're meeting Cathy for lunch instead. Of course I'm planning a diversion to Country Threads, and I've been told about Midsomer Quilting around 10 miles outside Bath. Two new quilt shops in one day!! And Duo for new boots if they've got any to fit me.

Second post within minutes!

So while I've been off sick, what have I been up to?

My DH bought me a book on machine Trapunto for Christmas, so here's my first attempt:



Naturally I ran out of thread 3/4 of the way through, but I quite like the effect. The FMQ-ing is coming along nicely too! I love the tiny stipple, but this is going to be one for small pieces, I'm not sure I'd have the patience to do something that tiny (even for background)on a full size piece.

Here's a much nicer pic of Hannah's Christmas quilt (we ended up buying a new camera as the old one threw a hissy fit and kept dying):



She loves it, but I'm going to have to borrow it to take to quilt group tonight. I stippled it in a bigger stipple than the Trapunto sample, and added in a freehand flower in each of the pink squares. Every time I remembered, I drew a leaf in as well.

I joined in a block swap with one of my online quilt groups:



These are going to be made into a table topper ready for next year...arrived too close to this Christmas to do anything with!

I've made blocks for a Jacob's Ladder swap with the same group. I posted them this morning, but have these 2 left over ready for a baby quilt:



Finally, I've joined in a mini quilt of the month challenge with the same group as had the bag challenge last year. So far I've completed January, and pieced the top for February. I'm heading to the sewing room to quilt Feb right after writing this!

Hannah's quilt finished!

Not the greatest pic in the world, camera was playing up, and I couldn't load it onto the computer last night, wrapped the quilt and then realised this morning the flash hadn't worked. Anyway excuses over. More about the quilt.

I bought the plain pink and purple fabric in Birmingham with Hannah in mind, and the bundle of batiks I picked up somewhere (Truro?) I went for the same pattern that I used for Carly's 18th birthday quilt last year, and used a purple fabric I bought without taking the top woth me, so I was really lucky to get such a great match for it.

It's FMQ'ed in a random squiggle, but to make it different, where the pink squares are, I've drawn a freehand flower. I aimed for 5 petals, but some of them have six, and I know there's one with only four! Also at random places throughout the quilt, I've drawn a freehand leaf. I was trying to keep the individual parts of an ash leaf in mind while I was doing them, but some are a bit fatter than others.

The borders are short leftover bits of strips, and a narrow purple stripe, and I used more leftover strips for the binding.

My other finish this week has been this tessellated top:



I'd bought the fabrics from eBay, they're a Moda collection called Portugal. I knew I wanted to use them together in a scrap quilt, to show off the colours to the best I could. I was flicking through a really old magazine that I'd got as a freebie with one of the current ones and found a tessellated quilt. I've looked at them and loved the way all the blocks interlock and the edges between block and pattern are blurred. This one had a simple enough looking block and the cutting instructions looked straighforward! Ha! Famous last words. They suggested using the same fabric for the background blocks to make piecing easier, but I didn't have enough of any single fabric to do this, so first of all I worked out how many blocks I could get out of a FQ (3) and then how many I needed (pattern said 42) then started slicing fabric.

I quickly realised the pattern hadn't been written very well, and I needed a lot more background fabric than they suggested. OK, this is what EQ's for...a quick re-draw and colour!! 3 days later I had my quilt drawn and printed. I went for greens around the border and a repeating colour design where the variety of patterns would give a scrappier look. I'm thrilled with how it's turned out.





Now I just need to work out how best to quilt it. There's no specific plans for this one, but I might think about asking Serendipity how to go about selling through them

It's beginning to feel...

I've been working hard on finishing some UFOs before the turn of the year and radio iodine treatment. The first one I wanted to get done was the Christmas quilt I saw in a magazine last year. It was designed to be assmebled in wiggly rows, then turned through 60° and cut into a large rectangle. Hhmmm! I really don't have floor space big enough to be able to do that, so I unpicked some of the shorter rows, and re stitched them so I've got a rectangle. It's big enough to cover our king size bed, but we'll be using it as a snuggle quilt for the lounge.



I was going to go for a totally scrappy look, but in the end decided to stick to a red and white colour scheme, with one stripe of green.



I bought some muticoloured thread from our new Hobbycraft store which I'm planning to quilt it with. I'm not sure whether to go for straight lines (contrasts with the wiggles of the quilt, but boring to sew) or to use a pre-programmed stitch on the machine and do wiggly lines down the centre of each wide stripe. Decisions decisions.

I finished darning the ends of Ben's quilt in this afternoon as well, so it's all wrapped and ready for the tree. I've not done a label yet, but I'll practice on some scrap fabric before doing the real one.

Finally, my BQL list Secret Santa present arrived. I've been a good girl and put it on top of my wardrobe until the big day.

Ben's quilt

Backdate this one to early October!


I was in Truro in summer to track down some long dead ancestors and once I'd finished at the record office, strolled down into town. I turned onto a street I don't usually use, and imagine the surprise I got as there was a quilt shop there! No honestly I'd had no idea. I knew there was a shop on Lemon Quay but not about this one. I browsed a bit and picked up some black T-o-T to use as the background to a table topper I was making and a roll of black and white batiks for no other reason than I liked them! You see the resolution not to buy more fabric unless it's for something specific? Well it's like the January Pledge where wine used in cooking doesn't count, if I see something I really really like it's allowed. I got them home, and B claimed the batiks. I'd bought a pattern ages ago for a strip club quilt with bright stars in the corners of a block, and he asked for this for Christmas. He picked the BRIGHTEST orange fabric imaginable for the contrast...His quilt, his choice!



While I was at the FoQ, I was led astray by a roll of 6 metres of celery green fabric for a bargain £20, then once at home realised it would be a great backing for this quilt. Ben picked green and blue thread, and I've quilted it by outlining the stars then going inside by 1/4" and outside by 1/4". I copied the star shapes in the blank spaces using the same method and using blue thread on top and green on the bottom, then swapped the threads over and stippled all over the quilt top.



2 months later, I've still got to stitch the ends in, and label it but it's all bound and ready for Christmas.

Progress

Looking good this morning. It didn't take so very long to piece, I followed Carol Doak's instructions for paper piecing, and found them great! I've done PP before, (of course, see my Dear Jane quilt!) but I'd always had trouble cutting pieces big enough so they covered the patch once they were flipped over, and also reversing angles kind of got me confused...reminds me of the time I was steering a submarine and got totally lost between left and right as the boat went in the opposite direction to the way I steered...anyway I digress.

Carol recommends measuring your patches first, then adding a nice big seam allowance and cutting each piece as a rectangle. You then pin your first patch in place on the reverse of your pattern (I found flower head pins helpful here) Next you fold the pattern back on itself along the first seam line (use a postcard as a guide) and cut the fabric using either the 1/4" line on your rotary ruler, or the add-a-quarter ruler. Next you line up your second patch with the newly trimmed first patch, flip it to make sure it covers all the pattern it's supposed to and sew it down.

My only trouble came when I realised I'd not got the pattern pieces marked out as well as I could have done with EQ6, I'd ended up having to sub-cut them into smaller pieces. Good to note with a small piece and not with the full quilt! It still came together reasonably well.

I need to applique the central circle in place then applique the whole thing onto a cream backing square and it's done. Maybe tomorrow?

getting closer...

This is the current position on the night garden quilt. I've got all the main cabling done now, just 3 short ones and 4 Vs to do. Should be no reason why I can't get them finished today. I'm still not sure whether or not to go round each section again as an echo. DH thinks it's fine as is, but I'm not convinced. I think what I'll do is get it finished for the show and see what happens there, then once I get it back I can make a decision before I get it to its final destination.

Back off to the sewing room as soon as I've finished my drink.

Busy weekend behind me.

Yesterday was the Plymouth Half marathon which me and DH were both running in. I wasn't sure how my achilles would stand up to the 13.1 miles, but knew I could always walk if I needed to. Weather forecast was for heavy rain and high winds, great! In the end we had a brief shower at 8am, and sunshine for the rest of the day.

We got to the Hoe, met DS and sorted ourselvs out with baggage drops and meeting the various groups we needed to say hello to. Group photo for the running club great...around 50 of us. I managed to get on the back line, saying I felt more at home at the back ;-)

By the time I'd left the loo queue, I lined up facing the wrong way I was so far back. Nearly 5 minutes before I crossed the line, and I was off. Felt nice and easy, and I hit the first mile point at 10 minutes.

No major traumas and I was feeling great at Saltram. I'd planned to walk the hill there and at Haye rd, and that was exactly what I did. As I got more comfortable and further round the course, I began to target people in my vision to over take. One woman took me over a mile to get past, but she didn't come back after me. I was definitely passing more than were passing me. The other club runner finally got away form me on Billacombe rd, which despite being downhill I struggled with.

Another clubbie supporting boosted me by running with me for a few yards, and I gave him my gel belt in exchange for a couple of wine gums. 10 miles down and still bang on time for 11 minute miles

I kept plodding on overtaking people until I got to the Barbican. Dashed into Jacka's to yell HI to Marge, then walked up the hill. Less than a mile to go and the PB was looking dodgy, but I caried on regardless. As I got to the final turn, I glanced at my watch...my course best was smashed and the PB was still on. I passed a guy with Cooky on his T shirt on the Hoe (last 50 yards) and stopped my watch with 11 minute 11 seconds off my PB (rounded on the official time to 1m 10s off)




yes it was as painful as it looks! Best bit about Plymouth is the runner's exclusion zone with as much food as you can eat, an excellent goody bag, stuffed with freebies. I also got a medal, t shirt, mini mars bars, water & apple juice thrust at me as I crossed the line.



As if that wasn't enough for a bank holiday weekend, I've been quilting as well. Dear Jane is just about finished!!! All the machine quilting is done on the main body of the quilt and the triangle borders. I've just got to darn the ends in and put the binding on. That will be my task for tonight, to bind it.





I'm still doubtful as to whether it might need more quilting, but if I decide it does, I can do it once it's been bound.

So another UFO finished (nearly), another quilt ticked off for the exhibiton in August, another PB. DH got a PB as well, 10 minutes off his Bath time! No blisters and all my toe nails look intact.