Eclipse II

Another UFO done. This flimsy has been on the shelf for 10 years!!!

Applique detail:

• 10 year old flimsy from strings and crumbs
• pieced onto calico making it heavy (novice error) 
• 66 x 110"
• backing from economy buys in deep stash
• Mickey Mouse cotton duvet cover pre-made binding. 
• gifted pale orange and pale blue wavy line quilting on the front, dark cream polycore on the back. 
• appliqued motifs to cover split seams!
• heavily quilted to stabilise  the many seams as sits so heavy! 
• poly batting
• this will probably be a gift. 

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I did a little more on the postage stamp quilt

 

 

Lots of reading this week. I finished the 1250 pages of 

I needed something lighter, so it was quilty chick-lit on my Kindle!

Now I am onto something more complex from a favourite author

Cat-napping

It seems the word went round the neighbourhood that I no longer have a resident quilt inspector. The vacancy has been filled: he does have a home (somewhere), but obviously no duties there. Every time the door is open, he is in! So much for ironing the backing and patches!  Encourage him? Noooo, 'course not!

Testing my lap for comfort too-my last cat didn't do this in 17 years so I made the most of it! 

 He is a bit gorgeous, is genuinely pleased to see me and had a marvelous purr. I am clearly not properly trained yet as I don't act like his real servants at home, he tries to tell me what he wants but I don't understand!

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 Allietare four patches have been waiting since December to be sewn, so I cut the strips that had been hanging over the door for three months and got on with it. 

Then I cut the next stage. The patches were not meeting at the points properly when I sewed a few. (:@{

I had leftovers of the 2" strips, rather than add them boxes, as I had cut a few as goose blocks (too small) I trimmed all the leftovers down for the mini broken dish blocks and goose centres for future use. 

 

Then I sewed a few goose blocks to work out where the accuracy was failing by two whiskers on Allietare blocks. 

I think I have worked it out now, after much goose beheading and broken wings. 

Next update will tell!   

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I have sewn up trimmings from other things to 10 1/2" strips as I go for the crumb quilt, to keep the piles down.

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I am wading my way through ironing several hundred pinwheel and broken dishes blocks, sitting on the floor in front of the TV with the mini board and iron on my lap, on top of a cushion!

These will take a couple of days. 

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I was feeling stressed yesterday morning so sat down to push a few random mini triangles through the machine, it did the trick.  I am thinking these could make Ocean Waves

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We have Storm Katie hitting the south of England today, roof felt/fence panel lifting winds. I will venture a short walk, then it's back to sewing related occupational therapy for me  and finishing this...

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Happy Easter!

Reading this week........................

Second in the series.................a favourite author.

This has useful bite sized chapers for that large cup of tea moment!  Eclectic travels and social history of trees. A pleasant, light read

Found this by change in the library, highly recommended workbook for design, contains the basics I learned on my City and Guilds course.

Another fine mess

A new portable project: I bought this pattern from Ravelry-I'm using it for yarn I buy in charity shops, small balls and random oddments of DK, in the spirit of scrap quilting.  I'll be keeping a ball of something and a hook in my bag for odd moments. I have decided ugly unloved yarn has it's uses.

It's an easy pattern if you can crochet, made in individual units and joined as you go. 

Of course, this colourway is gorgeous!

And this weeks read: informative and poetic.

Chilled out sewing and pondering on psychedelia.

I needed a bit of mindless to de-stress, so I sorted the 1 1/2" strip bin and did prep for sisters choice. Pressed, ready to cut to 1 1/2" pairs.

 These, will eventually become these-over a very long period!

I also trawled the sales for reds, pale blues and yellows, these are now washed and pressed ready to cut a few 1 1/2" strips from, then join the stash.

I have been pressing a few random 9 patches now and again, of the 200 or so I made, whilst browsing Pinterest for an interesting setting.  Nothing appeals yet. 

 They can always be stored until I find that perfect pattern!  Some of them will make their way into a linus quilt this year.

All the black and white nine patches are done, about 100. 

Morphine is a design as I go quilt, where the blocks sill be set on point.  I have a few ideas for other rows-all in black and white- but nothing is decided yet......

I want the effect to be a little jarring as the ceiling light cover that inspired this quilt as I was coming round from my anaesthetic was doing crazy things!

I have papered several hundred more hexies in the past month, I only need another 5 of these random sets to complete a double quilt top

 I had completed these tree tins of rosettes a few months ago (pic from a previous post) ready for sewing: I decided to split them half in the random hexie box, half in the rainbow hexie box, it seemed crazy to leave them sitting there for another few years when they were needed for something else. Believe it or not, real progress being made!

And this weeks read...

Linus

I found a string of corners I had sewn onto 2" neutrals-I had forgotten about these.  They were clippings from sisters choice in pink that I thought I may be able to use for something.  I am putting them together with more neutrals to make mini butterflies that I will quilt in variegated pink to boost their visibility, as they are rather disappearing at the moment.  The neutral squares are from the pre-cut stash. This will be a small Linus quilt about 40" square.

I have been reading this book for about a month now, I'm 2/3 of the way through, its a 1,200 page trilogy.  I thought I wasn't going to like this SF classic at the beginning, as it's not overly 'scientific'.  Themes of planetary evolution and inter species war are addressed then after a while the SF angle comes in (no spoilers!).  Aldiss is a wonderfully imaginative and articulate author,  I highly recommend this work. It is half the price on Kindle!  I bought the heavy hard-copy, which was still reasonable priced, as I want to lend it to my son. 

I am also dipping into

I wish maths was easier for me, I grasp something and it slips away again-I had originally hoped to do a physics degree with the Open University, but I had to rethink due to the maths!

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.....

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.