oops!

Ok folks, sorry about the rather negative post during the week.  You will be pleased to know I have given myself a shake, brushed myself down and about to start all over again!  I'm almost back to my old self.

As I said, talking to a computer keyboard sometimes just does the trick.  I have updated my Gallery Page, I have cleared my sewing table, I've defluffed my sewing machine and given it a new needle.  Ive changed my rotary cutter blade and turned my cutting mat.  I've gone through my notebook to see what UFO's are in the baskets and I'm ready to get going again.

You haven't  seen this one for a while, its been lurking in a basket at the edge of my table - not even on the bookshelf.  I set to last night and sandwiched it up and put it back up on the design wall to see if inspiration for a quilting design would strike and it did.  

So some progress.

I am looking forward to having a more positive week and perhaps might even turn over a new leaf and start a new project in that notebook.

PHEW!

Sometimes you just need a day of doing things just for you.  I seem to  have been busy doing things for other people recently and sometime you just snap. Well I did!  Poor Techie got my angst last night when he was only trying to help with dinner.  I promise I will make it up to him!  Tiredness can creep up on you even when you don't think you are tired, when you are on a roll and busy every minute you just keep going until something just gives.  I think the subconscious also plays nasty tricks.  Then you find yourself in need of some 'Me' time.  I could be doing all sorts of  housework today, I could take myself off for some retail therapy or a visit to a fabric shop but..........I just can't be bothered!  What an awful admission to make and a very public one at that.

So I can't just sit and stare into space, so what have I been doing?  Lazy breakfast, browse on the internet, a little tidy in the kitchen.......hmm put the kettle on another cup of calming camomile and lemongrass tea.  Put some music on and lift one of the baby quilts to bury the quilting threads - a very pleasant half hour spent and the pink baby quilt is now finished.  What's more the sun is now shining so I gathered up two more quilts needing labels and headed out into the summerhouse to sew in the sunshine.

Our Charity of choice at our quilt group this year is PHEW.  This is another one close to my heart as this local organisation gives respite for young adults and teenagers with learning difficulties.  My nephew has been attending for a few years in order to give my brother a very well earned spot of 'Me' time now and again.  The ladies have been working hard on these quilts since the beginning of the year and I am hopeful we will have about 20 to hand over to the lady from PHEW next Tuesday evening when she come to collect them to distribute them to the teenagers who attend PHEW.

So here I am sitting at my computer and one thing led to another. I decided to update the gallery page of my blog.  Well I haven't actually done that yet as instead I just started typing this.  Which certainly has made me feel a bit better thumping away at the keyboard and getting by guilty feelings out of my system.  Maybe I will tackle the Gallery Page after lunch........or if the sun is still shining it maybe after dinner.......or the weekend!

The plan is to add a couple more photos and annotate the ones already there to let you know where and to which good causes my quilts have all gone.  It is almost three years since I started blogging and it was for a reason, as you will read on the sidebar. (oops I need to update that too - as I am now a Grannie and he is already 18months old)  Sometimes the posts are a bit erratic and don't appear when they should but in writing these pages it helps me in my quilting and healing when things get a bit tough.  Usually when writing a post some new idea pops into my head or a good thought or a memory.  So bear with me when I get bogged down or you appear to have heard it all before.  

Its lunch time now so I will leave you while I ponder what I will make for myself to feed my rumbling tummy.  Hopefully I will return later today or it might be at the weekend to update the gallery.  Thank you for following my ramblings.

Preparation and organisation

It's raining here this morning so it's a good opportunity to sit and drink coffee, write a blog post or do some sewing.........what are you all planning today?

This week has found me thinking once again about our quilt group.  We are planning another little outing to our favourite quilt shop.  Each summer we try and get together on a Saturday to visit Kaleidoscope in Glasgow.  Perfect fabric choices for everyone, an excellent selection of books and lovely owners and staff.  We meet for coffee before hand and usually enjoy a nice lunch and a chat.  Some of us have been known to return to the fabric shop for another look.  I am in the final stages of the arrangements and now just need to wait and see if the date chosen suits most if not everyone.

Our group continue to meet throughout the summer but over the last month we have been dragging our heels a bit with more chatting going on that actual stitching, numbers have fallen a little as many members have been on holiday and have not been able to be there every week due to all sorts of other commitments.  I personally have been finding it difficult to have something to take along to classes to work on each week.  Equipment is taken out the store and returned at the end of the night unused.  With this in mind I'm hoping to come up with an idea which will be a project we can all work on over the summer at class and will not involve any major preparation when I have gathered everything together.  Watch this space!  There will be no need to pack bags, look out projects, or even think what we need for Tuesday night.  All the utensils, notions, fabrics, instructions, etc will be in all in one box for everyone or anyone to pick up a piece and sew, sew, sew! Perhaps our fingers will work faster than our tongues.

So I have been preparing this box of goodies this week as well as working on the baby quilts.  The first little one is complete for a little girl - a small pram cover/car seat cover using these fabrics and a disappearing nine patch block

A little boy quilt is now in the making using this fabric

This will be a cot quilt using the fabric for the borders and uncut 9" blocks interspersed with a blue and cream more traditional pieced square in a square type block.  I'm sorry I'm not able to show these for the moment maybe in a few weeks time they may appear in the gallery.  

This coming week I will be continuing to prepare our summer project and working on my baby quilts.  I hope you will all continue to enjoy your quilting projects.

Cutting it a bit Fine

As you know I tend to be a thrifty quilter and like to use the last possible piece of my fabrics.  Well I nearly came a cropper this week.

I've been working on Monkey Business, this was a fun quilt to make and I enjoyed the variety of colours and simple sewing - no seams to match up on this one and as long as you keep trimming the edges it works out just fine.  The kit produced twenty 13.5inch blocks, which when put up on the design wall made the quilt too big for purpose.  It's another PHEW charity quilt.  I took out five and decided they would be used another day.  Bordering the 15 blocks with a silver grey solid and binding it with the navy supplied in the kit finished it off nicely.

Oops Ii should have hung it the other way around - it needs a good press.

........... but what to do with the 5 left over blocks.

I really should be making a start on the 2 baby quilts I have to complete by the end of July, however 5 blocks sitting on the edge of my table - too many to leave unused.  Improvise, Audrey, improvise.  K at class has designed and sewn a beautiful flying geese quilt using colourful batiks for the geese and a lovely black/charcoal version of Moda Grunge.  It's stunning!  This reminded me of my dark blue Grunge fabric sitting in my stash.  

A Solid/Tone on Tone/Marble all mixed together  - I like this range

Let the improvisation begin,.....  I cut out four 15inch squares, slashed into them and inserted a contrasting lime green 1.5in strip in each one.  Then I slashed again and inserted another strip.  How liberating and so much fun to have no idea what the end result was going to be.  Trimmed down to size and voila four more blocks to be added to the orphans and another quilt was born.  I continued on the improvisation theme and added two green borders and two blue, backed it with a lime green fleece and then..........bindings required.  This is where I came off the rails.........my intention was to bind the blue borders with the green and visa versa.  

It's great to improvise but perhaps I should have checked before starting out that I had enough fabrics to complete the project.  I had plenty grunge blue but, aargh! I was about six inches short of the green, and nothing, nothing in my stash would do the job.  Asked at class if anyone had the fabric without success, I even had a browse around the websites but didn't know if it was a Bella or a Kona nor did I know the colour name/number (bought before I started taking notes).  It's only 6inches, get a grip woman, no need to buy more fabric.  The poor quilt was put aside then last night I thought I would check the scrap bin.   There hiding three quarters of the way down was a glimpse of green, would there be enough?  Yep, sorted.  It's now all complete and for some reason I find myself fulfilled at using up the 5 extra blocks and finding that last wee piece of fabric.

Improvised - and that little scrap of binding is on the left hand side

The kit fabric still goes on.  I will get three good sized quilts tops from this kit which cost me no more than $30 US from Connecting Threads. Equivalent to about £20    It has provided a lot of fun and no real hassle. (Except for my shortage of that last 6in of binding). I still have offcuts of the 10 fat quarters which will need to be used up some day but not for now.  I need to get on with the baby quilts.

I hope you are all enjoying the lovely sunshine we are having at the moment.  Its not that great for sewing or housework but its good to get outside and into the garden.  Have a good week!