Heaven

I made these yesterday. A big trimming session ahead.

I still have all these 'twosies' to sew up.

And all this on the machine!  I am so glad I didn't throw these crumbs away.

I have an idea for a design to use these.  Drawing it up later........

And finally.... I'm not much of a food blogger, but this really hit the spot for tea tonight.   Home made gluten free drop scones with three spoons of fat free yoghurt-blueberry, raspberry and Greek-and a sprinkling of vanilla sugar on the strawberries. Oh. My. Word. And best of all, there are two more for breakfast!

The best laid plans.....

... have morphed into mindless relaxation sewing, its working!

I started by inserting some strips into 'orange and blue' blocks.  I wasn't relaxing into it.



Next I picked up some strips from the crumb project, trimmed and sewed them up into 13" squares-better!

 I pieced the scraps from the crumb bin into strips for a couple of hours.

I have run out of separated chain pieced scraps, so now I'm stopping sewing, putting on a film and snipping for a while. After I have put the chicken soup on to simmer for tea. Numnum.

I had pieces left over from cutting 12-set hexies for 'project 29'-they have been sewn together to add movement to the strip piecing, with bigger pieces cut into spare hexagons and diamonds.  I just can't bear to throw it out!

I finished this one last night.  The bag is sorted out again after the dropping incident and stowed away for now.

1K

No sewing done this week, I had the big push to finish this little 

 read at almost 1000 pages-it took three weeks!    

I picked up project 29 yesterday, mainly because I dropped the bag and the bits got mixed up. It will go back to work under the desk soon for lunch time sewing.

Kindle shopping-instant gratification!!

I have given in, and bought a Kindle.  

I like to get into long books but have trouble holding them up close enough to read with the new glasses that were bought for hand sewing. At over 1000 pages, Dombey and Son was the final straw!  

I am trying to read 10,000 pages this year, as I have so many books, I'm planning to calculate how long it will take to get through them at that rate.

All the classics, which tend to be tomes, are free on Kindle: I had a sort out this weekend and have a box to donate to a teacher friend who is setting up a shelf in her classroom. I lowered the bottom shelves on  my units and have almost managed to get all the books on the shelves now! 

I sleep under these shelves! I have avoided charity shop book sections for about 8 weeks, without counselling, I am very pleased with myself.  Kindle shopping could be a replacement. Oh dear!

I have been logging my reading for about 5 years now and seem to read less from now until Christmas, so I'm determined to make the effort this year, as it really relaxes me to zone out with a book.

I haven't done any sewing for a month or so, since my holiday.  I only did a few 1/2" diamonds whilst I was away.  I have the urge to do more 'orange and blue' this week......

 and I need to work on the hand quilting for when the recipients come back from traveling!

 It has got cold here in the last couple of weeks and I need a curtain for the back door. 

These blocks will be it. 

I am not too happy with the accuracy on these so a curtain is the best use. 

Holiday by the sea

I have been away with my family to the seaside for a few days: poor Archie had a bad back so we had to take it in turns to dog sit as he was on instructions to rest:  it was gloriously sunny all week and the beach 200 yards away was 7 miles of sand.

Best of all was dolphin watching at Dungeness: they were there for the three days we went to that area.  I didn't get a clear  picture, sadly .There is lots of design potential, such a surreal landscape.  Rusted winches, collapsing fishing sheds and decaying boats, on miles of shingle, overlooked by the nuclear power station!  There were TWO lighthouses, a cafe and a miniature railway that takes you 13 miles along the coast. Just a few photos.....

 I went to Rye one day, and looked round the Church- the floor was quilty..........

 ....and they had a commemorative hanging done for year 2000, with small panels done by the local people, here are a few of my favourites-the seaweed was very realistic!

Decisions

I'm off on a seaside break soon, what to take?  The  main requirements: portability and  quantity.  I decided on something I haven't touched  yet and won't touch for a while when I get back; no organising or  careful packing necessary......... 1/2" scrap diamonds. there are quite a few-thousand!

I have done some this week to see how I got on with small pieces.  I have to be careful to get the corners tight on pieces so small to eliminate assembly problems, so progress is slower than hexie paper piecing-especially with the half diamond triangles!

Work bag

I cut  a few 12-sets of brown hexies this afternoon: I'm making 'Project 29' my stay at work lunch time sewing.  It won't move on quickly as I only have a half-hour break.  I knew I would find the right project for my Clippy bag sooner or later.

Better.......

...............but that's only one corner!  At least it gets tucked behind the kitchen door with the elephant doorstop.

I have 'issues'

I'm having a clear out. There appears to be something about post-it notes. I used  them a lot when I studied at home as  learning aid, along with coloured biros. Perhaps that's it.  I also have a pencil case stuffed with biros and ordinary HB pencils.  I can't draw for toffee (yet!). This a portion of what I found, they were all over the place!

I decided to investigate the issue as I got a spam mail from 3M at  work, who make post-its: I found myself putting things in the basket..........I stopped, thank goodness!

Of course, if I had more colours I could design a block quilt with them.....hm!........the little plasticised  tabs are my favorite type of bookmark, as they don't fall out of the book.

I will sort out my drawing materials too, I'm going on holiday soon so they will come with me.   

Now I have started to move things around in drawers to accommodate groups of things instead of having them all over the place I am making MORE mess, instead to tidying up. Ho hum. As for the paper and notebooks and the used envelopes I collect at work to make the paper hexies...we won't go there!

Sand art to quilt art?

Just found this this website, amazing sand art patterns...........

Bank Holiday Retreat

We have a long weekend, yay!  The clouds are accumulating, not so good, but with 33 projects to choose from I'm happy.

My son is off at a festival so it's a silent weekend, much needed after a stressy week or two (not that he is a problem to  have around!).  I that's why the paper piecing has come out in the last two weeks, I need to meditate with something in front of the TV for a bit.

I will get one long walk in between showers, today will be the best day as the forecast is cool and windy, my perfect day. I can hear the wind in the trees at the end of the garden now.  Love that sound, and the way my weeping birch moves in the breeze.

The workroom (lounge!) needs a serious tidy before I work on the 'orange and blue'............ how does shoe polish, two boxes of matches, a voucher for a pack of tea and a packet of plasters end up on my work table???  Er, that would be the party boy preparing for his festival.

That unsightly pile of fabric is the mending pile, that must be tackled before anything else!

I will piece the remaining sets for project 29, clear up, work on orange and blue and maybe do some cutting-papers and the crumb scraps for 1/2" diamonds.  And lots of papers in hexies.  Oh, and the mending!

A friend at work gave me a bunch of dried sage a while ago when I was stressed-she is into alternative healing.  You light it, it smokes rather than burns, you walk round the house with it to banish negativity.  For me it worked as a reminder, not because it had mystical properties: every time I caught a whiff of the burnt sage, for the day I was able to pull myself up by my intellectual bootstraps and think positive about everything. Those matches are about to come in useful!  Only thing is I have to walk round the house again after I have done it, not to sniff, but to check if burning embers have flaked off and set fire to the house!  The convoluted lengths I go to to find peace!  Have to laugh at myself sometimes ~{:¬?

I have a new book to start a Bookcrossing ring, looking forward to this....I am the last of 9 readers, the book has been to continental North America, Australia and is back home in the UK now.

Potential project 29 now a reality!

I found 12 brown matching hexies in the 'random' bin so I thought I would just try it out...........I sorted out the creams too......and we're off!

I only found four more sets of identical brown, so that will be it for quite some time.  Next time I have a cutting marathon, there will be a few more sets.

I am sewing in papers for a while, for the rainbow and random hexie projects.  The creams will be pulled out for number 29.  Not very interesting to post as you've seen it all before! 

Tesselation with my son for scale (5' 11")

Shoreham Harbour