Sorted!!

After we'd got back from Bath, I realised I had far too much fabric to fit into my boxes. I sent DH to the local homestore to buy a couple more, then set to sorting all my fabric out. I tried banning everyone from the lounge while I did it, but they kept creeping in anyway!! (Usually when the stash was looking its worst)

I threw out a carrier bag full of tiny pieces. I mean seriously small...less than 1" square, or 1/2" wide strips. The rest was re-sorted into boxes.

1. Pre-cut strips. This is in a panettone box from Christmas a few years ago
2. Paper piecing sized pieces. In an old hat box that was stuffed with baby gifts from when DS was born.
3. Large scraps, less than FQ size. In a plastic tub
4. Fat quarters. In 2 specialised FQ storage bags
5. Small yardage. Pieces bigger than FQ size but not full yards. In a plastic box
6. Large yardage. Pieces bigger than 1yd. In a big plastic box.
7. Orphan blocks, sample pieces, pre-cut squares and WIPs. In another plastic box.

I've been out running twice in the last week as well, must be feeling better!! My blood results came back with the T4 slightly high but the TSH at .5 which the consultant seemed happy with. I'm booked to do two races by the end of March, but DH has just been diagnosed with a detached retina so I've no idea if he'll be able to drive me there!

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!

Much too long without a post

2 months without posting...what was I thinking about??? So in brief, I went to hospital and had my radioiodine, felt sick, had a scan on day 2 that the consultant looked concerned about, went home, panicked on day 5 when i realised I'd made a mess of a simple diet. The only things he'd told me not to eat was fish and fish oils. Just imagine how I felt on the Saturday when I spotted the olive oil I'd been using was enriched with fish oil!!

Anyway the good news is I had my repeat scan on the following Monday and it was fine, great and all clear. I know this because I made the poor doctor repeat it about 5 times. How embarrassing is that?

I'm struggling now because I'm back in work and slowly trying to increase my activity levels after I've started on thyroxine tablets. Typically though I'm ending up doing waaayy too much and then crashing at weekends. I'm not used to my body letting me down and I hate it. I've been back to work 4 weeks, but only on shrt hours, then they moved me to work in the factory shop and clean it but I ended up sleeping over 10 hours a night then sleeping in the afternoons at weekends as well. I've been signed off for another 2 weeks, and so far have spent most of today yawning!

No-one tells you what "taking it easy" actually is! Do I slob out on the sofa all day, or only run once a week?

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

December bag challenge complete

I really enjoyed making this one. The fabric was a piece of Designer's Guild glazed cotton that Pat gave me a couple of years ago. I liked it but wasn't sure where I was going to use it. When this bag pattern came up, I knew I could use the Baboushka fabric. I started it, then checked with H that she liked it...she loved it, so looks like she'll be claiming it for her own! Another great pattern from the BQL bag challenge, and once I've got it posted on the thread there, I can get a bonus pattern for having finished it before December 21st.

I had my 4 week post TT check up yesterday. They found two small primary tumours in my thyroid, and another secondary in one of the lymph nodes the surgeon removed. This doesn't affect the course of treatment at all, and I'm all set for the RAI in January as planned. Back to work on Thursday. I mentioned to the surgeon that I was planning on running a full marathon next year, which he supports, and when I said it was at St Austell, Eden Project, he may well do the same one himself. It sure helps to have a surgeon who's a runner!! He might see me on the start line, but by the time I finish, he'll have finished, showered, changed and driven back to Plymouth!