2013 January second half

 

Easily Distracted

I've been have a email chat with Nicky, aka Mrs Sew and Sow about starting a new group.  She's going to have to find a snappier name for the group: it's working title is the

Can'tfinishthethingI'msupposedtobedoingstartsomethingelseinstead Group. 

I've not been much help with the title, but I certainly qualify.

Today the tax return should have been high on my list, and I have a few things left on "The List" that weren't needed for Christmas, but still need to be done.

Instead I worked on the Spiral Rainbow:

And when I got bored with that, I did the first block from the And Sew On paper piecing project: Measure Twice (and cut once)

I'm sure the tax man will understand?

Working from The List

Well one item from the list has been achieved.

The October block for the Star Of Africa bee was a book, and Nicky plans to make a wall hanging based on a library shelf.  I guess I could have used a favourite book, but the background to the bee is that we come from lots of different countries (although Nicky isn't actually that far from me), so I decided to base it on Windsor, or more specifically the Thames.

So I would like to present Wind In the Willow - Mr Toad driving his motor vehicle

(sorry the photo has reduced the contrast, I think it looks better in real life!)
 
Now I just have November (sorry Janine) and December (sorry Sana) to do and I'll be up to date not be behind any more.

Not on the list was the Rainbow Swirl (Rainbow Vortex?), but that now does have another round of triangles (it now measures 36 inches acros at the widest).  It will go away again for a while but I wanted to make sure I had the method sorted before I did Janine's Africa block and then I can return the books she very kindly lent me.

Darn Distraction

Most of you assured me that the tax man would be understanding that I had chosen patchwork over filling in his boring paperwork, but Hadley didn't think he would be quite so accomodating.  Given that she works for the man himself I had to pay *some* attention to her comment.

So I did a little bit of tax return, and then got distracted again!

And I cut a whole load of squares for a Boys' Toys quilt 

How to store fabric

I found this on Pinterest, and it seemed very apt (although she is at Uni, not college)

But when I got a phone call " mummy, I'm not well, no one will make me a cup of tea, can I come home, and will you make me tea, and soup, and hot bread, and more tea?" I couldn't really refuse, even though it did take me ages to clear her bed, LOL

Stripping and Speed Dating With My Daughter

No, not that kind of stripping, OR that kind of speed dating!

When you left me yesterday, Lisa had come home feeling poorly. 

After TCL, and cat cuddles . . .

 

(two dozen patchwork quilts in the house and I photograph her with a shop bought knitted blanket, sigh!)




. . .  she was up stripping wallpaper in the kitchen

  

. . .  and helping me speed date some quilt blocks.

 

Thank you sweetie x x x

These blocks started off as a 'will this work?' project with a few blocks

  

Then went into mass production with 2.5" pink or turquoise strips being sandwiched with black, 

Then being cross cut into 2.5 wide three patch blocks (and added to 2.5" x 6.5" pink, and turquoise strips)

And finally being speed dated into a woven pattern . . .

. . . which will hopefully look better once it is stitched.  There are enough blocks to make another one too, but it would have been much easier to use one pink and one turquoise fabric - not three of each!.  The second one will also be woven but the fabric will vary along the 'ribbons': switching between batik, dotty and plain.

I've got a good idea where these quilts are going too (no, NOT on the UFO pile) but I'll tell you about that tomorrow

I'd like to Introduce You to . . .

First I'd like to introduce you to the lovely Jess who blogs at The Elven Garden.  She lives in Tasmania, where huge areas have been devastated by some huge bushfires in the last week. Many, many homes have been completely destroyed and families have lost everything. The latest report is that about 200 homes have been either destroyed or severely damaged in the bushfires.

There are appeals for money, but Jess is arranging for donations of baby's and kids quilts to pass on to the families who have lost so much in the fires.   If you can help out with this, please click to go to this post, and you can contact her for more info.

I'm in the UK, and as Tasmania is half a world away, the cost of sending a full quilt will be expensive -  but Jess has though of this - she says "If you have quilt tops that just need backing and quilting, I'd be happy to accept these too and quilt them up myself to give to the families who've been affected"

Remember those two pink and turquoise and black quilts I mentioned yesterday?  I think they have a good home to go to!

Just need to finish them

I'd also like to introduce you my real life blogger friend, Annabelle, who blogs at Annabelle Serendipity. Annabelle cooks and blogs and patchworks and quilts and blogs and knits and crochets . . . lives life to the full, being a tourist both home and abroad!  She has this fab looking book to give away - with birds, butterflies and beasties to knit or crochet, so go and visit her [here].

I cant knit or crochet but [look away Lisa] I have a daughter who can crochet, and who has a birthday coming up soon - hum, actually, I rescind the suggestion that you enter the giveaway: please don't go and enter Annabelle's giveaway, as that reduces my chances!

Tops For Tasmania

I've finished one pink and turquoise woven top to send to Jess for her Tasmanian Bush Fire appeal,

and I've got about an hour's work left on this one. 

It's actually assembled on a pink sheet, so it only looks as if there is a lovely pink border, but I've run out of useful lengths of fabric, and it's not as big as the other one.  I think one black border, then a scrappy pink and black one should bulk it out to the same size.

I really didn't mean to get distracted, but . . .

I know lots of bloggers are on a mission to clear UFOs in 2013, and I know I have a lot of them too (some are confessed on this page), but I'm not ready to commit to finishing any of them just yet, I need to like them again before I can finish them!

But I really didn't mean to ADD to the list, so I decided that I would finish the Tasmanian Twins before I moved onto anything else.  I was doing well . . . but yesterday I went to the January meeting of the Richmond and Kew quilters, and took along Stained Down Under to ask for quilting advice.

Until I took it out of the bag to show to the other ladies (and the gentleman) I'd forgotten how much I love this quilt.

So today, when I came home from work to an empty house (yippee) I quilted it (just in the ditch, along the sashing), machine stitched the binding to the front, and FMQed a kind of label to the front (really difficult to photograph black FMQ on black: this section photographed best)

Not quite a finish as there are a few hours hand sewing left to do, but a very satisfying distraction.  Stained Down Under will be going in the sitting room, so mum, you can have this one for your bed if you want!