Another finish

This week's finish is the mini wall hanging for my mother in law. Debbie showed us the technique at Plym a couple of months ago and although I couldn't see myself using it for a piece for myself, I wanted to try it out. After all what's the point of going to a group meeting if you don't join in with what's being demo-ed? So I dutifully bought my bunch of silk flowers, ripped all the plastic off and started to place them on the background fabrics.

Both of them are some hand dyes that I did to try out the dye box I bought in Birmingham last summer, but didn't really have anything planned to make with the samples once I'd finished them. I like the way the pink of the vase is picked up by a swirl in the blue background. There's also hints of pink in the edges of some of the lilac flowers, so all in all the colours seem to have worked quite well.

I free hand cut the vase, then started placing flowers on to resemble a free style bouquet. Once I was happy with the flowers, I FMQ-ed them down using invisible thread. After I'd put the border on, it sat there in my box for a month as I'd run out of ideas!!

Eventually I decided not to do any more quilting on the main body of the wall hanging, but to go with some gentle curves around the outside border. Simples! I found some beads in my button box that looked like they came with a sparkly top, so used them in the centres of the flowers to add a hint of sparkle.

Just need to pack it in tissue paper ready to send over with the children when they go to stay with her in August. Less than 2 months to go now!!

PS camera won't let me load photos on the laptop, or if it will I can't work out how to do it, so photos later when I can get them sorted out. It's worth the wait honest!

Short but sweet

Just a quickie before dinner time, here's my BQL monthly challenge for June. Can't believe I've finished it by the 2nd. I'm 4th in the photo gallery for the group too. Nice easy one this time, for the quilting, I used my walking foot and just did squiggly lines in a Madeira Lana thread I got in a goody bag at the FoQ last year.



The thread broke a few times, mainly when the machine was tying off at the start of lines, but the texture is lovely. I used a slightly longer stitch length and took it nice and slowly. I don't think I'd use this on a big machine project, but it would be fab for hand embroidery and it worked well in this small piece.

Quilt group tonight with a sale table from Janet so hoping to buy some green and some red from her. When I was in Exeter, I bought some Japanese charm pieces, and finally decided last night what I wasnted to make with them. Obviously a charm quilt, but I didn't want to go for just sewing them in rows. I found an old quilt I'd designed on EQ6 with snowballs and think it'll work well with these squares and the green/red borders.

Thyroid update and a bit whiny

Sorry, this is going to be a totally self indulgent whine. I'm waiting for a week of injections, blood tests and scans to determine if the radio iodine treatment I had in January has worked. It's coming up next week, and frankly I'm terrified of what they might find. Work has been pretty quiet so every time I have nothing to do my mind has been drifting to what's coming up. I ended up making loads of stupid mistakes and forgettng to double check what I have done, so I've had my manager on my back, yelling across the office at me and on one occasion across the main corridor. I was on my mobile to the hospital trying to sort appointment dates and put it down the second a customer came in the shop.

I'm struggling to make simple decisions (what to make for tea, what colours to use in a quilt, what to wear for a run) and panicking about stupid things. Because I've been so scared about what they might find and that I might have to go through radio again, it's been coming out as anger, and I've been veering between bursting into tears and snapping people's heads off. I eventually went to see my GP who has signed me off with stress for a couple of weeks which has given me a breathing space, and I'm going to see him again this afternoon to see if he'll extend it till after next week's tests. I'm also going to ask about anti depressants. Hubby phoned the nuclear medicine to check how long I'd be waiting for the results, and it seems that I should get the in the middle of the week after.

Some photos to make up for the whine, I've been following the Carol Doak scenic block of the month, here's some of the blocks so far.

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!

Another race, another quilt!

So last Saturday evening was the return of the Ivybridge 10K. I did it last year in my slowest ever time, so I had a date with that big hill going towards the viaduct. You do about a mile, then the second one is vertical! I just took it easy and didn't try to run the whole hill, but I ran a fair lot of it doing run/walk. I'd been timing myself and the K that the hill was in was a full minute slower than every other K in the race. My unofficial time was 50 seconds slower than 7 minutes per kilometre, so I know exactly where I have to make time up next year!



This shot is of the club before the start, and



This one is of me with less than 150 yards to go.

Still nothing with both feet off the ground!

And today I've been working hard on finishing my block of the month from my online group. It was a machine trapunto block, so I was keen to have another go at the technique. I loved doing it, but on reflection, the quilting pattern has mad my fabric look a bit like lizard skin. Ooops



My other finish this week is the next of the Plym Piecemakers Round Robin. No sneaky peek yet, as I've got to press the blocks for a final time, then another close close-up so the person it's for can't tell what it is.

I'd love to know what mine's looking like...as long as there's no Sunbonnet Sue, I'll be thrilled with it. I put the lime green fabric in my bag in the end, so each row will have some of it in there.

This time next week, I'll have run my 3rd Plymouth Half, and my 5th Half Marathon ever!

Log cabin paradise

What a fabulous day it is here in sunny Devon!! Mayday Bank Holiday weekend, and lots planned. It's funny before we got the car, I'd not even thought about day trips out to the Moors, but tomorrow, we're all piling in for a trip out to the wilds of Dartmoor. Must remember the camera! Tonight, me and Mike are off out to a Jazz festival in the Barbican, and then on Monday they're holding a New Orleans style umbrella parade through the streets, so we're all going down for that. More camera opportunities.

I've finished piecing the log cabin quilt for H's ballet group, and know exactly how it's being quilted, after practicing it on the April challenge quiltlet. Loop de loops with random hearts thrown in for good measure. I took the top to ballet this morning to shown them and they all seem to like it, so with luck they'll raise lots of money for this year's charity.



My other recent finish is the wallhanging for my mother in law. I've finished sewing round all the silk flowers to hold them in place, and have to admit it's looking better than I expected! I've found some gorgeous hand dyed fabrics that I bought in Birmingham last year and haven't used yet, and one of them's the exact shade of blue I was thinking of using for the border. I'm going to play with widths this afternoon. I'm thinking about 2" would look good.



The vase and background are from fabric I dyed myself last summer and didn't quite know what to do with them afterwards.

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!