Wet Sunday......

....sooooo unfair!  It was lovely all week, I had planned a walk by the sea today.  It will be sewing and reading this afternoon instead.

I went to the library yesterday to pick up this weeks read: Psychogeography by Will Self, a favourite author.  I want to go up to London to walk along the Thames-I may do this over a few days in the summer to the estuary: I am interested in this series of writings on the influence of environment on society. Must get walking and get fitter. Not in the same shape as a couple of years ago when I did my 13 mile charity walk. If the rain stops I'll go out later, otherwise I will have to resurrect the dreaded exercise bike!

I also picked up a book on Cathedral window quilts-the reason I have been snapping up sale bargains since Christmas of  black and white fabric.

I have, very sadly,had to take the decision to give up wheat products- I have known it was necessary for a while and have been dabbling with gram flour, potato flour, coconut flour, ground almonds and many Indian flours, making use of my electric muffin maker I was given for Xmas-it seems you can throw anything together and its great-very good cornbread muffins!  I tried making bread from the bag of  'wheat free' flour, it's not the best, but fills you up as it sits in your stomach for 6 or 7 hours!  It's cruel at work, the toaster goes on at 8am and doesn't seem to go off until 2.30pm, meanwhile the smell wafts round the office.  I may remove the fuse. 

Today's breakfast was Carrot and Walnut muffins made with coconut flour. And very nice too, I can get used to this!  Low carb, gluten free, low sugar.  Numnum. A nice little book for me to explore....on cooking with coconut flour

Lunch was tacos with home made corn and brown rice flour tortillas-need to work on the shape of the tortillas but the taste was good. 

The first day of spring sun.....

....and the neighbours have come to say hello.  In fact, there are SIX cats in the garden this morning-my cat is glaring out of the door at them all!

Kitties come to see us when we squeak for them and spend most of their day in my hanging baskets.  Methinks I won't be growing herbs this year.  We named the three tom kittens Familiar, Spot and Chav.  Mum has never been friendly: she is however, entertaining the neighbourhood ginger tomcat this morning-I think these three can expect brothers and sisters soon.  There is a black and white tom in attendence as well (making six!) looking for an opportunity to introduce himself on the speed dating circuit. We like cats, but really, one can have too many neighbours!

The green shoots of recovery

I picked up a needle this week-I resurrected a shelved hand sewing project that will go on for years, It hasn't seen the light of day since November!  I needed something to hone my technique so a couple of years ago I went chop-happy with the uglies for three weeks and cut enough for four quilts. 

This is all the greens have done in 2 years, not a lot!  I seemed to have many ugly greens so I started sewing up those first.  Many of them are SOOOO ugly that I think I will be using red triangles to lift the design.  Way too much browny-mustardy stuff.  The finished size squares will be 1.5", so they're small, thank goodness. Chop it small and it will fade into the background!

I stole all the 2" blue squares for a leaders and enders project and I have run out, so yesterday I fished out ugly/large pieces to cut more next time we have a wet weekend. And a few 2" strips from the stash box......



I have bought more creams in the last couple of years so I pulled those out as well, to cut for variety in the hand pieced project.

And finally.......I would like to introduce Archie, my grandpuppy- the most loving, adorable, clever, playful, confident, happy little dog in the world! 

He loves people and dogs and gets buckets of attention from everyone as he's so cute (and boy does he work it!). Archie would even  like my cat if she wasn't such a grumpy, hissy-fitty old lady.  He is a daschound-labrador/staffordshire terrier cross with stumpy legs and bags of energy. 

The pictures of him were taken on his his first trip to the beach at 5 months old, last weekend. He wasn't so keen after he fell in a rock pool up to his neck!  I went with my son and daughter in law to choose from a litter of six: it was tough to come home without one for me as they were all lovable! 

All sewed out

I admit to doing NO sewing at all, not one paper on a hexagon, for over a month now. I over did it at Christmas! I work for a sign company and saw this is production for a customer, a good motivator that should be on my wall!

I like the close-up as well

I have done a lot of thinking about future projects and made a mental note:

• finish two very late quilts that are gifts
• plod away at the Darwin's Flower garden(see profile pic)-this is going to be given to my son and daughter in law.  She asked me in the autumn if I would make them a quilt and we came up with a drunkards path idea, however, I started the Flower Garden on the day I first met her, so I thought it would be appropriate for them to have it and they are very happy with that (or they will be!)
• there has been much designing in my head for my own quilt, to be called Event Horizon-much of the fabric for this will come out of the stashed blocks and strips-black stars with a rainbow of colour

• I have been acquiring black and white fabrics for a Cathedral windows quilt-this will be a hand made project and I MUST NOT START this year! Its time consuming......

• also acquiring fabric for a split 9 patch garden-stream-stepping stones idea-pic from another quilt.

I have been doing a lot of reading since Christmas, I often do at this time of year, something to do with being tucked up in the warm with a quilt and a book and a mug or a glass!

Property-Valerie Martin: a new author for me, Orange prizewinner, loved it!

Xeelee Omnibus (RAFT)- Stephen Baxter: a favourite author

Rant: the Oral History of Buster Casey-Chuck Palahniuk:  another favourite, crazy, keeps you guessing with one twist after another, brilliant.

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers-Xiaolu Guo: this has been on the shelf for three years, a thought-provoking read on the culture gap in British and Chinese couple

The Honorary Consul-Graham Greene: a favourite author, if you overlook the treatment of women in his works!

Greybeard-Brian Aldiss_ a horrible disappointment!

Now I'm reading The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, a 600 pager. That should keep me occupied for a week or so.  Time to go and have a sort out in preparation for bringing my Bernina to life again.

I didn't do this in infants school!

I  read a book called Journal Spilling this week-I thought I would be uninspired as it didn't particularly like the artists style.  The book was very good at telling you to go create your own work. 

Particularly useful was 'work quickly" so I did. I made three collage bases with about half a pint of glue in half an hour and loved it!  I will have to wait for it all to dry now for a couple of days...

I have something in mind for this one, a quilt I have been meaning to make forever.  More experimentation on this theme to come.           

    Two more fine sticky messes!

Christmas failure!

I got the laptop working again: the power lead died after my last post......I'm now on a borrowed
pc to order another one, posts will be  later in January!

Another fine mess!

I  needed a few yellow and purple hexagons and it's got out of hand with the rotary cutter again!  This is just the growing 1 1/2" strip bin, for the 'one day' lego quilt, it uses those odd bits up at the end of a FQ.  

...........and the other strips that I thought I would do-as I had the fabric out-for the quilt I will be making myself next year! I have been avoiding yellow and purple for years as difficult colours (I actually don't like yellow much): but a stash isn't a stash unless its rainbow coloured so I have been picking up yellow and purple FQs (fat quarters for the uninitiated) for a while in the sales.  I needed to cut some hexies for ongoing projects..........

A few more to do yet.

The random hexies had got rather too pinky-brown!

I am having a horrible time with the pile of 1/2" scraps, soooo many its almost a FQ, such a waste!  Some of them are 'saved' as I am keeping a few diamonds back for an unfinished baby blocks project that I will resurrect.  The 'ends' go into a bag to be cut down later into 1" diamonds.   Yes, I know, crazy, but I can't waste anything.  I have to draw the line at the cut off 1/2" ears but pretty much anything else I'll try to keep to re-use somewhere. That's why I have so many things on the go. 

The giant Ikea bag is now almost full of strings for the next spider web quilt, though that's a long way off as I have to FINNISH things before I start more!

Desperate Remedies

I have been riveted to Desperate Remedies by Thomas Hardy this week, so have not sewn much: just a bit of hand piecing 2" squares. Yes, I have ruled the 1/4" seam allowance in pencil on all of the cream squares, as if I don't nothing will ever go together properly! 

18 months ago I went a little crazy and cut hundreds of squares and triangles to make this quilt designed by Bonnie Hunter........................

.........but hand pieced using the method taught by Jinny Beyer.  If are interested in handwork, her book is amazing and even though it is expensive, you will never need another pattern book.  You can also see a demonstration of her method on the TQS website: this is a free show for non-members, number 313. 

There are enough triangles and squares cut for at least two quilts.  I will only make one by hand, the rest of the pieces will join the cut scraps

Comforting Light

This is the first paper pieced item I sewed: it's made from really old fabrics: scrounged items, old clothes and lightweight furnishing swatch samples in a mix of poly cottons and cottons.  I started it over 20 years ago before I had a cutter or cutting board without any idea what I was going to do with it as I couldn't afford wadding then! When I moved to my current house 17 years ago I lined it with an old sheet to turn it into a  door curtain.  It's really faded now.  I took it down when I re-decorated 3 years ago and discovered it again on Friday.  I love the way it looks with the light shining through it, so now its my bedroom curtain and faded or not, it's really comforting, and proof that I have always been a fabric hoarder!

Retreat

Bonnie Hunter is running a mystery quilt-I almost started cutting this morning, then I realised that I have patches cut for TWO quilts already.  I shelved this project out of sheer frustration (and inexperience) about a year ago.  A friend recommended using a corner cropping template when I cut the patches.  I really wish I hadn't done this!  My cutting is accurate, the stitching isn't bad, but I miss that perfect corner line up check and the flying geese units are not behaving!

I made all these about a year ago that need to be checked!  There are lots of pieces in this quilt.............

I am having an 'internet'  quilt retreat day along with the girls doing Bonnie's Orca Bay quilt. Me and Mozart and all day to sort out the piecing puzzle!

One star completed. Not very happy with the accuracy so proceeding slowly. I have 88 to do!  If all else fails and I just can't make the pieces fit, I have several large cushions that need covering, that should make the whole thing more manageable  and I won't have to throw the patches out in frustration!  Tip of the day: don't trim your dog ears until you are happy with the fit!

I just looked at this after uploading the picture-spot the mistake-I SHOULD HAVE SEWN BLUE SQUARES IN THE CORNERS!!  AGGGHHH! 

Time for lunch I think.

That's better.  The size should be 6" finished, they are a little small.  I'm not sure how persuasive I can be with the iron. The piecing could be sharper.  This will be a very busy quilt with a strong pattern so the imperfections will be lost in the overall effect I hope. Am I being overly critical? I want perfection!





Scraps...

I couldn't resist these in the sale, broccoli, beans and BLAH. The broccoli has a planned use, beans and BLAH I just like.  I haven't done much sewing this month, I've been reading a lot. 

This was my first ever try at random applique with bits from the scrap bin sewn on to a muslin backing.  I liked doing the curves and random shaped bits best. I'd like to make an  old fashioned quilt with the embroidery round the edges one day but there are other things I want to do first.  I haven't done embroidery since I was at school! 

I would rather make a cathedral window quilt, I enjoyed this more and I can see possibility with it too, rainbow colours flushing from one side to the other across the whole width of the quilt.

Poochie Progress

The huge full box of random hexies is almost used up: four sets of 91 each to complete.   The selection left is looking rather-pink-cream-brown so I may stop here for now.

 The hexagons are 1  5/8" across.  I wish I had done them smaller really, too late now with thousands cut!

Nine sets fully complete, total 819.   I will need at least 64 sets plus fillers for the edges for a double quilt, around 6,600 hexagons. Sounds a lot-next post 2017ish..........when I have taken all the papers out!! 

All of the solid colours were sorted form the box for the Rainbow hexie and there are a few more strips done, with a small bag left to add-I'm not going to add these now, or the centre will look too uniform, they can wait for the next batch. 

This little angel called Jake came to visit on Thursday and stole my sewing!  He is 5 months and it was his first visit to someones house.  He acts like hes 8 weeks old still, full of mischief.  He is a well know toilet roll and shoe thief on Facebook so we had to watch him, just as well as the sewing had a needle in!



A little bit more

I like it. It seems to grow quicker than the random hexies.  I'm going to do the rest in sections so the centre doesn't get dragged about and frayed over a period of several years and the patches will mix and match better as the scraps get cut up and mixed over time