Monkeying Around

Since coming back from our week holidaying in the sunshine we have been lucky enough to have lots of sunny days here at home.  The garden has burst into colour and all our lovely acers are showing lots of new growth.  I have even managed a few snatched moments sitting in the garden and have enjoyed the warmth.

We had a little visitor today with his Mummy and Daddy, our little grandson is coming along in leaps and bounds. I can't believe he is 17 months old today he is finding his words and is beginning to mimic everything we say.  He makes me smile at his antics and brings back lots of happy memories when our own two boys were at this stage in their development - what a joy!

Two quilts have been completed this week. Galaxy Party, the Connecting Threads Kit which was on sale.  It is very bright and quite busy, however I know it will make someone happy and cosy.  

Galaxy Party - it even glows in the dark!

The New Wave quilt is a little calmer and was great fun to do too. 

New Wave Quilt - pattern Eliz Hartman

As the title says I'm monkeying around now!  Yet another bargain quilt kit from the aforementioned Connecting Threads. A slightly different technique for me but we will see how it progresses.  Once again there seems to be lots of leftover fabrics so I feel a scrappy quilt will be produced from the offcuts.

On the Design Wall

I hope you have all had a lovely week and have been able to enjoy the sunshine hopefully it will continue, but I hear there is frost forecast for tonight.  Oh Oh!  Cover up those tender plants.

AWOL Again

This might just explain why...........

                                      

4 fab friends sunning ourselves in the Canary Islands while our other halves played golf. this lovely villa was situated right on the edge of the golf course and had stunning views over the lovely little village below.  Clear blue skies, mid 20s in the sun, lying by the pool, great company and fabulous food.  Do you blame me for not blogging?

Sadly that all came to an abrupt end on Thursday evening when we returned home after a wonderful week in the sun, to -2 degrees and a blizzard which accumulated to 2 inches of snowfall overnight!  What a shock to the system.  Fortunately it disappeared very quickly but it's still so cold.

No sewing other than a few stitches in a redwork stitchery I took on holiday, just in case I was bored......no I wasn't bored or fed up who could be when the sun is shining for 12 hours a day? I just wanted to be able to say I had done a bit of sewing.

Hopefully this week I will get back into the swing of things and now my machine has had a rest too she should be stitching a few things on my list.....I have two baby quilts to make by the end of July, I have my circle quilt to sandwich and quilt and I have at lease two others waiting to be sandwiched.  So no shortage of things to do.

I hope you are all enjoying the first of the May holiday weekends.  Perhaps some of you managed to the Knitting and Stitching Show in Edinburgh.  Sadly I didn't make it this time but hope it will return in the future if the footfall was good enough to satisfy the vendors.  

Have a good week - hopefully the temperatures will rise a little and get a wee bit warmer soon.

Halfway Through April Already

What a strange day - the sun is shining we have blue skies, but it's very cold, we have had a shower of rain, then some sprinkles of snow and now there's been hailstones.  I wish it would just get a little warmer.

I've had another busy week doing things for family so no great progress with sewing.  All I have managed is a few more strips of the new wave project and that's about all. 

Elizabeth Hartman's New Wave Pattern

Oh and I suppose I could count cutting and piecing some blocks for another charity quilt which I worked on at our class on Tuesday.  

A Connecting Threads Sale Kit

I have also done a little preparation for some handstitching and made a small A4 quilt sandwich for some freemotion practise at class this week.

Hexis and Embriodery

Following the trend of last week I had my Molly Mop hat on and also spent a day babysitting our little grandson who was pleased (I think) with his new Aran jacket with all the buttons in place!  I can't believe he's 16months old already and enjoying playing outdoors and watching all our birds in the garden.

Waving to the birds on the feeders

I have some wool left over from his cardigan so have decided to knit a hat rather than have yet more bits lying around.  It's been much easier this week to pick up my knitting which requires no real concentration than trying to concentrate on my quilting.

To clarify a question I received re the difference between the two battings I used in the little quilts - I did not and have never prewashed any batting, nor do I prewash my fabrics!

I hope you have all had a more productive sewing week than I've had.   

And the Verdict Is ......

Not Proven!  The two little quilts have been washed in a cool wash, hung out in the fresh air to dry naturally on the line, then finished off in the tumble dryer.  They have been measured and guess what - no shrinkage, exactly the same as before laundering.  

The ladies at the class did a comparison test and all in all couldn't really tell which one was the warm and natural and which one was the vilene 80/20.  Although I did have them marked so I would know which one was which I did actually tell the ladies the wrong thing by mistake.  When I checked my notes quilt No1 was the Vilene and quilt no 2 was the Warm and Natural.  So ladies if you are reading this I got it wrong!  I told you my head was not in the right place last week!!  

Thank you K for trying out some hand quilting on both - once again no significant difference.  The only factor and a considerable one is the cost per metre.  I buy a full roll for the class to share and the difference in price is £3 per metre. The Vilene being the cheaper of the two and it's also 97"wide in comparison to the 90" of the warm and natural.  As always the choice is a personal one depending on the quilt you are making.  It was a good and informative exercise though.

Our son and his little family were moving house and I had my Molly Mop cleaner's and helper's hat on last week.  A very busy week but delighted that the move went well and they are now settling into their house in the country where our little grandson will have a lovely big garden to play in as he grows up.  

So I'm afraid there was not a lot of stitching done.  The Circle still waits for backing, however this is what is on the design wall at the moment.  

'New Wave' designed by Elizabeth Hartman with alternative fabrics of course.  Sorry I missed a post last week, I hope you are all still managing some sewing progress.  I'm off to spend an hour in front of my sewing machine.

Where Does the Time Go

Not a lot to report.  Quilting started of the Mountain Majesties,

Easter cardigan finished - but a button short!

Circle progressing - enjoying the hand stitching although just a wee bit tricky trying to keep it flat!

Happy Easter weekend everyone!

The Jury is Still Out

........... on the little quilts. I took them along to the class for the ladies to compare - I'm not sure if I would be able tell the difference myself if I hadn't made them.  

We are comparing Warm and Natural with Vilene 80/20. Thicker, softer, lighter, couldn't tell .......were some of the comments.  They will be laundered this week and then we will see and compare once again. Then after that there may be some hand quilting and more comparing.

I haven't done very much this week, unfortunately a tweaked muscle in my side has hampered all the things I had planned but I can only rest and hopefully it will be better soon.  I am not a good patient and hate sitting around. I'm not really able to sit at my machine for any length of time so short sessions are all I can manage meantime.  Unfortunately I don't have a hand sewing project at the ready - any I could be doing requires a bit of preparation first.  My main pastime has been knitting an Easter Aran cardigan for our wee grandson and reading.  I discovered I had some catch up to do on my Missouri Star Block magazines. The second Mod Block magazine has just been issued so I'm looking forward to downloading that one.

A gloriously sunny day yesterday and today has brought a feeding frenzy to our garden bird feeders with the blackbirds enjoying the apples we put out for them.  It's so nice to sit and watch their antics - discovering indeed what pecking order really means.  A pair of bramblings have been spotted, beautiful wee birds in their bright plumage which are not a common sighting in the garden.  The little wren was hopping around on the blue conifer and a pair of robins were pecking around in the bark under the shrubs looking for nesting materials. Spring has sprung!!

We may even get to sit in our summerhouse soon - Hubby decided he could no longer sit surrounded by the garden furniture, bay tree, bird seed, and plant pots which have all been stored there over the winter.  It has now been all swept out, the cobwebs dusted down and is looking much better.  All I need to do is give the windows a wash and tidy the shelves and our little seating area is ready for use - roll on the warmer days when we can enjoy some quiet time sitting there drinking our coffee and hand stitching.

Trials

Having finished off four quilts last week I haven't finished one this week.  I have made a start to a project for our class this week.  I recently bought a roll of new batting and took  along a sample to let the ladies at the class see and compare it with our usual one.  Of course there were questions:  how far apart could you quilt, was it good for hand quilting, did it wash well, was it lighter or heavier, was it as warm as the other one?  Well I didn't know all the answers did I.  I did take along the instruction sheet but not all the answers were there.  So what do I do when I don't know the answers to questions?  Try and find out of course...........

A New Roll of Batting

...........another project - I decided to make two small quilts 30" x 30" using the same fabrics, the pattern below, backing, thread etc but I used the two different battings one in each.  The plan is to get them finished for Tuesday and let the ladies decide and see if they can spot the difference.  Then next week I will throw them in washing machine and see how they turn out after the usual cool wash and dry.   Watch this space.

I have become a member of a Facebook group UK Quilters United and have found it a great resource for information, tips and ideas.  There are so many talented quilters out there.  As a sub group there is a band of ladies and probably gents too who belong to a group called Helping Hands - stitching and sewing for good causes.  This is just what it says, folks who like to sew and give their time and efforts to others.  Many sew for their local community and smaller charities.  Someone had requested scraps and offcuts of fabric and I found this was one way to pass on my leftover pieces of fabrics.  Many of us have scraps - and many like to sew put them both together and you get lots of projects being made - quilts for children, syringe driver bags, quilts for elderly in care homes, flood victims, Girl Guide groups making small items to sell for fundraising for cystic fibrosis the list goes on.  You name it,  it's being done within this group all over the UK - the power of Facebook!  One lovely lady coordinates wishes and gifts and marries them up, you then get an address to send your envelope of scraps or completed items.  She does a grand job!  Well done N.A. 

My circle project is progressing slowly but it's still on the design wall - not quite sure which method I'm going to use for the next step though.  I don't have any set plans for this week so I will just wait and see what pops into my head - I've got plenty on my 'to do list'

Have a good week whatever you are planning to do.