Puttering

I've been struggling with illness for a couple of weeks, and went right off sewing-the horror! I did a bit if this....

  

......then picked up on the old knitting habit.  

Don't worry, I have not gone off quilting: I discovered 

Pinterest 

and have spent  lots of immobility time looking for free motion quilting inspiration-follow me!)

I bought some yarn about 6 moths ago in a fit of enthusiasm to make tops for my daughter in law and myself,  then promptly  forgot it.  Perfect for an immobile occupation, I have almost done the vest top from this yarn in white, it was very quick to knit up. 

I was looking for my knitting needles to start,  I have around 50 pairs, mine, my mums, my aunties, I put them somewhere safe a month ago. VERY safe. 

After an hour and a half or 'tidying' to find them, no luck.  They will turn up eventually!

So, I have been knitting on circular needles.

 I found a ball of yarn that I chain crocheted about 5 years ago from (5 x 1 ply=DK) industrial yarn bin end cones in the 'tidy up':  it is too tight really and has made a rather unyielding yarn,  but in the effort to use it up I made a cowl, it came out rather well.  It only took me a day on giant  circular needles.   I'm making one as a Christmas gift with the rest of the ball.  

Now winter is here I can get out my Kaffe Fasset inspired woolies.  I would be lost without this coat. It's the second one I made in this colour way, I have had one for 20 years. It has become part of my identity. It's calf length, absolutely huge and snuggly (much bigger than ME and I'm 'generous'!)

I made a grey and blue one for my mum but she won't wear it as its too heavy, so it's my winter dressing gown now. Cozy.

I am gluten free and there are not often treats in the house for visitors as I have no willpower if left alone! I wanted some of those old fashioned recipes for biscuits where you store a roll of stiff dough in the fridge and cut rounds to bake-I found this 1970's gem in the charity shop, that also has lots of gluten free un-messed about with (i.e.  not modern and faffy!) recipes for sweet treats in.  

8000 recipes for £2!!  There will be warm fresh biscuits, cheezy and fruity, on the menu to go with tea and coffee for guests this Christmas.

There is also this surreal section-Tales from the Raj!!

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! 

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!

Fuzzy headed

Everything it taking me so long at the moment whilst I recuperate, it's frustrating!

I have three of the five playmat flimsies with borders on, backings chosen and bindings cut ready for sandwiching, which I can't do yet until I recuperate some more.

All of the blocks that made up the five came from my scrap user bins. 

I deliberately chose backings and borders to try to use up older/ cheaper/ up-cycled fabric.

1 .

Backing: charity shop pure cotton curtain

Border: charity shop heavy duty poly cotton 'sheet' from a valance (the under the mattress part, so its perfect!)

Binding: a 'not so neutral' that I have had for too long- I like the pattern but it's not very useful!

2.

Backing: My eldest sons  cotton bedroom curtains from when he was growing up

Border: inner-from the 1 1/2" bin: outer-a long awaited home for a random piece of fabric I got in a bargain mystery parcel

Binding: a pale yellow oriental waves pattern, I bought 5 bargain yards some years ago.

3.

Backing: brand new cotton duvet cover I was given some time ago (not a pattern that I could sleep with)

Border: Two discount/sale fabrics

Binding: another discount/sale fabric, same as the pink

I had some of the border strip left-rather than stuff it into a scrap bin I made four orphan blocks to go into the orphan box-these will one day in the far future find their way into a pieced backing.

Acquisitions

A new charity shop has opened with an 'antique' theme.  Some lovely dresses from the 70s, wish they fitted me!  

They had a 50p rummage bin in an old suitcase-even the display items are themed-and I found this to cut shiny red centres for my Isle of Man log cabin, which is mixed fabrics and ugly greens.

This will be perfect.

A couple of weeks ago I went into another new charity shop and found neutral cotton curtains and bedding, I bought the equivalent of 20 metres of fabric for only £15.  Some for log cabin strips and lots for good quality backing.

Love a bargain! 

 All washed and ready to go.

As of today, I have still only bought 1 metre of 'new' fabric this year.  I am doing very well, considering the enormity of my habit!

Sewing this week has been hand quilting 'kiss in the corner', I have actually reached an edge of this double now.  Probably have the same amount still to quilt as I have already done but that psychological barrier had been crossed! Yay!  I really bit off more than I could comfortably chew for a first hand quilting attempt, a double with lots of different shapes means a lot of hoop wrestling on my lap.  Now I know why so much of the traditional hand quilting was simple lines and patterns.

The next one I will do is a hand pieced hexie top in baptist fan pattern, to stabilise the hand sewn hexie joins.  Only one sewing direction too and wool wadding, so it should be easier. It will be done on the quilting frame a friend made me for Christmas.

This weeks Kindle read is

Really enjoying this.

Blue

This week, back to work, no endless days of sewing (:~{

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I  did some cutting in the evenings: 9 3/4" squares for the tile log cabin backing.  These are from the 'big piece' stash, some old cotton curtains (the paisley and the blue), some misfits and some from the 'very big piece stash'.  The colours blend better in real life than in the photo: it's a good 'use it up' project.

I cut a few extra green and cream 2" strips while I was in the mood, I should have enough for the whole project now. It's going into storage for the time being.  Other things need to take priority.

The parcel of texture fabrics (cotton drill, fleece, soft lining material) arrived for the tactile quilts so this weekend I'm washing and ironing.

I went Charity shopping for backing at the end of the year and found 3 quilt covers in good condition. The Mickey Mouse is cotton and perfect!   The stripey one is a double, yards of fabric there.  I will be using the cream one myself for tile log cabin squares and strips.

This weeks work will be on the 'moth in the window' and cutting for tactile quilts as well as the hand quilting.   I have to get Moth done for the end of the month and at least one tactile for early February.




No time to join the  blog Linky party for 12 finishes this year, I won't be sewing if I'm messing about with the computer.....hm......

Reading this week is escapism, part three of the Xeelee anthology.  Amazing set of eleven linked books. Definitely in my top five favorite authors.