Quick pictorial update from my mobile

I have done a lot of hand sewing in the last few weeks.......a whole pile of random hexie units completed

and about 20 more sewn into strip sets ready to go (yes, it's organised!).

I cut more hexies as I needed some for the rainbow hexie, one large section complete now......

 More strips ready to go.... (excuse the bare feet!)

The bins were refilled, much cutting (I did a fabric swap with a Bookcrosser friend): this is the random bin...........

Hundreds more sewn up already

This weekend I looked at all the offcuts from the hexie cutting and decided as they were all the same size they should be sewn into strips NOW for the next crumb quilt-it took about 7 hours but at least it's manageable this way, crumbs from one cutting project are the same size-last time I had a giant unmanageable bin of mixed sizes.  I like the fact that every piece is angled.

I had cut more strips for the new leader-ender project, Bonnie's Perkiomen Daydreams; I sewed these into pairs today, that took a couple of hours.  A few weeks of pressing and cutting ahead into 1 1/2" pair units. 

I tried a few out to see how bulky the seams would be on 1" finished patches-seams OK!

I have almost finished the bow ties!  There will be about 1200. This was supposed to be a leader-ender project but it didn't work out that way.  Last few pairs waiting to go......

I sewed the badly cut hexies into units of the right size, these will go into the random hexie bin.  It's going to be fun finding these in the finished quilt. I tried for contrast.

I am all nine-patched out!  I think I have enough for a double with some sashing now; I haven't decided on the setting yet.  I have hundreds more 2" squares cut, its hardly touched the surface. 

 .

All the black and white nine patches are complete for 'Morphie'.  I need to decide on the next block pattern and cut more black and whites, triangles this time.   No planning, this is a decide as I go project.

As this little project will NEVER get done at home, I have taken the 1/2" diamonds to work to do in my lunch break. All the chaps I work with have asked with varying levels of puzzlement, 'What....': they haven't seen paper piecing before.  When I explain it will take about 10 years and need 14,000 pieces they just shake their heads!

This weeks read

Chosen from Mount 'To Be Read' because of 'A Good Read' on Radio 4 this week.

Kindling a debate

I have neglected my reading this year in favour of sewing.  I've had an enforced sedentary period in the last couple of weeks, so I'm steaming a head now, with 21 books (6670 pages) read since January.  These two are recent reads that I enjoyed equally, for different reasons. 

I keep a record of how much I read to track my habits, which can vary wildly over the year. January/February is always a bookish time of year. I have read 165 books in 6 years. Not great really. That's about one a fortnight, some less than 200 pages, some near 1000.  At the rate I'm going I will not read the books I have by the time I'm 100 if I'm lucky enough to get there!  I have stopped buying books in charity shops (mostly!), unless they are science fiction. There is one shop I go into every three weeks, that's it.  No more muti-town days out cruising the charity shop bookshelves, coming home with 20 or so books. I am proud of myself, I have conquered an addiction, I let them go through Bookcrossing when I have read them now!

 

Now I'm on to........

 I loved the film, I have no idea how the book will compare. 

I can read longer and quicker on my Kindle than with a book.  I thought at first this was coincidence, but time has shown it's not. This rather stings my sensibilities, as the only reason I relented and bought the Kindle was because there are so many free classics available and my second hand book issues were out of control!  I passed on about 60 classics from the shelves that I was able to get for free on Kindle. Perhaps Kindle reading is faster because I seldom buy new books (if I'm let off the leash in a bookshop I don't know where to start as I want the whole shop): if I buy a Kindle book, it's something I really want to read. 

 I spent my childhood with my nose in a book. I was a member of two local libraries and the school library.  Additionally, my dad was a  school caretaker and I used to sit in the library whilst he worked, I had it all to myself for hours. My own library (almost)!  Books made me feel connected to the world-we often lived in out-of-the-way places and we moved every 5 years or so.

I have around 1000 books waiting to be read now, that's almost a library.......................

One of life's greatest pleasures, reading in bed, or going out for the day and finding a quiet spot to rest and absorb a sci-fi universe.....

300

No, not really!  I got your interest though!

Three hundred bow ties with spun  centre seams.  With those I have already bagged, I recon I have about 700 done now.  More still on the machine and more sets ready to sew up. Overdoing it again!

Reading: just finished

I'm sending this off to another Bookcrosser. then I will be reading

 for the same person, both are tags for the 'Wishlist Tag Game'
http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/10/488977?&page=1

Off topic

Not much sewing done in the last two weeks. Life has conspired.   I have been taking stock of where I am and where I'm headed. I am Rubenesque girl, I have been for along while now anyway, since I stopped competitive sport.  My dad was a big  chap, I take after him in a lot of ways. These days, a lot of my interests are sedentary, which isn't doing me any favours  as I approach middle age, I can see me having similar health issues in 20 years. A lot of things have come together recently to make a reality check necessary in all areas of my life.  I have listened to other peoples life experiences, taken advice on board.   Time to stop struggling and change my health status along with a lot of other things.   I have a week off work this week, to look at jobs that need doing and put a different regime in place-literally getting my house in order!     

Happy to say that lots of quilty projects will have come together by the end of the year, as I have overcome my doubts about free motion quilting and stopped striving for immediate perfection (a character fault that often stops me trying something as I know I can't achieve it immediately!)  

This week I have to finish the baby quilt, before Master Gurr is actually here in the middle of next month! I can show you that once its completed and handed over. 

Then  this charity quilt to be bound, along with two more VE1 series table mats.  Then, four more charity quilts that are already pieced are ready for my free motion practice.  Lets face it, children aren't the quilt police!  

I have been reading a lot: losing myself in a book separates me from reality a little and gives my mind a space to ponder. I struggled getting through Moby Dick by Herman Melville for a month- it was a fascinating historical document of life on board a whaling ship, so I'm not sure why I found it so much hard work!

This weeks read is a RABCK (random act of Bookcrossing kindness)  for fellow Bookcrosser 3vie, My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurrier.  I have a lot of books bought form charity shops to read. Literally hundreds!  As a way of choosing my next read I ask Bookcrossers to pick one for me, I read it and send it to them.  On the 'to be read and sent' pile are Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, The Difference Engine by William Gibson, Creatures of the Earth by John McGahern, Treasure Island by RL Stevenson and The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera.  That will keep me busy for the next 6 weeks or so!  Sadly, I can only send within the UK now s its often more expensive to post a book abroad than it is to buy a new one!
 

I had a couple of days on Brighton this weekend house sitting for my son. Saturday was rainy and dreary, no one about at all in the morning,  sad to see my home town like that on a bank holiday weekend.  There were eldery ladies out for the day on the pier prepared with wooly blankets!  In August! I took lots of photos for the Flickr 'empty seats' group-thankfully Sunday and Monday were warm, otherwise it could have been another financial disaster for local businesses, on the tail of last years bank holiday washouts.


Off to move furniture, I need a third coat of white on my bedroom walls, the streakiness is disturbing me! 

Bookcrossing

I have two books on the go at the moment, not a usual state of affairs for me.  I have been coming across references to Moby Dick for about a year, so I free Kindled it.  Wayward Girls and Wicked Women is for another Bookcrosser, from my 'Mount To Be Read': I tagged someone this book in the wishlist tag game.  I was tagged back with Fahrenheit 451 from my wishlist.

I have so many secondhand books to read that sometimes I need help choosing-I recently ran a UK competition to choose my next read, then I would sent it on-as there were only about 7 entries, they are all winners and I'll read each one and sent it to the choose in the next few months. If you are a book fanatic, take a look at Bookcrossing and join the community, its free!

Not much sewing done today, horrid headache,the pressure is on as I have to quilt a baby quilt tomorrow, not much time left!

I sat down with the box of crumbs and rummaged

A few half-and-half hexies and about 30 normal ones. It appears they are very nice!
I didn't want to trim up big pieces from the crumbs box as I can make better use of these somewhere else.  I will look out for more appropriate trimmings like these as they will look good in the random hexie quilt.

Booksnobbery

This weeks read was the Sugar Camp Quilt, which I read via Bookcrossing.   I have realised I'm rather snobbish about my reading having studied it at university level~these books are well enough written, sometimes a girl needs a gentle easy read with a bit of history, quilting and romance for good measure!  It did me the world of good in a very stressful week.  



On to this, that I was sent by the author in a RABCK (random act of Bookcrossing kindness).  I will be sending it to the International Sweepstake winner in Canada when I'm done, so its back home to Continental America for this book.

Next,  The true history of the Kelly Gang, for a swap with another Bookcrosser.

Sewing is still Kiss in the Corner, I am approaching the second corner!!  One long side, one short side done by the weekend!  I think my technique is improving slightly, though its a good job there is a 'busy' backing.  Moo!


I have been watching shows from thequiltshow.com whilst I sew.




A few brown hexies over the last week or so at lunchtimes and at a picnic.......

Remember these from past posts?

Vitreous enamel sample plates from work as design inspiration.  I asked if we had a manual of defects (not that we EVER make aything like that!) and we did.........

Dry old reading for most people, I know, but it's an atlas of quilting inspiration for me!

I'll be doing some design work on this at the weekend.

Kiss in the corner

A little progress has been made this week towards edge filling, I'm approaching the second corner.  I didn't get much done in the evenings, this was my first full week back at work after 5 weeks of on and off illness and I was tired! 

Sunday morning, I woke early, sun streaming in.  I made a pint of tea, went back to bed and caught up on Quiltcam whilst I did some sewing.  Very cozy.













These are the colours I am choosing from to quilt with











Lunchtime therapy has been brown hexies this week, I took them visiting yesterday too.

I found these synthetic threads on ebay for machine quilting, aren't the colours delicious?   Don't know what the quality is like, or even if they're colour fast ( I will be testing that as they are manufactured abroad). I'm not going to recommend the seller as my delivery got 'lost' and my emails were ignored, then my questions were not addressed (there's more but don't start me off!).  It was a MONTH before they arrived. Gr. However wonderful these threads are I will not be using the seller again. I'm a professional purchaser and deal with suppliers all day long so I know things go wrong sometimes, but customer service is about what you do when it IS going wrong and a lot of the time it was nothing!

I have never had much luck with ebay (:</




About a month ago I was charity shop browsing and I found a bigger-than-king size white cotton duvet cover, all soft from use and wonderful quality.  I'm having that for backing, I thought, for a minuscule  £4.   It's now on my bed as it goes with my newly painted white room!  It has a really high thread count, is slightly textured-extreme close-up.  Yesterday I found another one, but I think that will end up on my bed too for the time being!

I think its time for a tea refill and a to start my new book, promised as a gift to DubaiReader, another Bookcrosser.  I have about 850 books to read so I had to organise a draw as I couldn't make my mind up!