Sunny Days .........

.............Are Happy Days!  Its been a lovely weekend here with the sun shining most of the time but a few rather heavy showers in between.  We spent a lot of our time over the weekend in the garden tidying up fallen leaves which we hadn't managed to pick up before now.  The grass was cut and we swept paths and patios, repotted some lovely polyanthus which had been forgotten about at the back of the border and pruned and manicured some of our acers and roses.  All in all a very productive weekend and a much tidier neater looking garden........ for a wee while anyway until the weeds start appearing.

I think a few of you know that I have a Grace Frame for my quilting.  I bought this a couple of years ago with all good intentions.  It was to help me master free motion quilting and allow me to lay out a quilt and quilt it with my Elna 740 which is a mid arm domestic sewing machine with a slightly larger than normal harp space.

Excitement overtook me and as always when in a rush to try a new piece of kit I didn't spend the proper amount of time researching it all before jumping head first into this new to me method of sandwiching and quilting quilts.  Techie helped me build the frame which was great, however I now know it wasn't set up at the correct height for me.  The thread I was using kept snapping, needles kept breaking and my tension was all over the place with loops appearing everywhere on the quilt.  Then family life took over and I was too busy doing other things to spend the time needed to get things right and practice did not happen.

I joined the Facebook page for Grace Frame owners and lurked there, reading up on everyones tips, what tension they used, what threads were best etc etc.  I also spoke to a lovely lady when I was on holiday last September who gave me a tremendous amount of tips and ideas to try and how I should go about getting things just right so that I could actually enjoy the process.  So since last September when Techie moved to his new home I have gradually been sorting out the room where my Grace Frame lives.  I started all over again.  The height has been adjusted, it now has locking castors, so I can move it with ease should I need to.  My machine has been fully cleaned, needle changed tension fixed, feed dogs lowered and this week I took the plunge (special thanks K for giving me that final push and encouragement).

I loaded up a quilt sandwich - no it wasn't a real quilt, just calico for the top and an ikea fabric for the back and an offcut of warm and natural.

The thread is Glide, yes its a polyester and the needle is one the lady in Canada suggested I try Inspira Topstitch 90/14.    Well all I can say is Thank You everybody!  it worked like a dream - none of the previous issues and best of all I had Fun!  Here is the proof.

I know I have a long way to go but at least it is now looking brighter and I know I can do it all I need is practise.

Back Home

We had a lovely holiday and an enjoyable relaxing break in the mountains, we did manage to succumb to very bad colds for our first week and a half but it didn't matter too much because the weather was very snowy and cold.  we relaxed indoors sewing and reading.  We arrived home last Thursday evening after a long uneventful and reasonably comfortable journey.  Perhaps that had something do do with the overnight flight and the extra legroom and I managed to sleep well this time on the flight.  Jet Lag was minimal and I think I only had one night of middle of the night forays to the kitchen for tea and toast.

I am gradually getting back to the routine, of course we saw the family at the weekend and I had lovely Mothers Day treats.  Dad managed fine with his extra help when we were away and is looking well.

This week I am hoping to get back to my quilting, I have all these quilt tops to finish for the little arrivals due this summer.  I have almost finished Harry Hedgehog and it will be gifted soon and I will be able to show the finished result.

As you probably know I am in the process of gradually moving things around and transferring some of my quilting 'stuff' from the dining room upstairs.  This afternoon I spent some time sorting the fabrics I bought when I was on holiday.  This is the result

Did I really buy all that?  Yep! and I know I hear you all shouting - FAT QUARTERS!!  PRE CUTS!!   ah well we all have senior moments.  

I have used some of these fabrics already for the baby quilt tops I have made while on holiday so now they are all ready to go upstairs to be stored in my lovely new unit with all my other fabrics.

The clocks have changed for me twice this spring, its lovely not to have to close the curtains so early in the evenings.  Its great to hear the birds singing, its one thing you don't get in the Rockies until later as most of the birds there are migratory and won't arrive until things warm up. We even have a little Blue Tit looking at the new bird box which has been put up, hopefully we will have new residents and a new family building their nest. 

I hope you all have a lovely week - sewing might be a little slower for some of you now, gardens need tidied, grass needs cut and there are so many other Spring things needing done.  I will continue to sew - I don't know what I would do if I couldn't, and I have so many ideas and projects I want to do.

Snow, Snow and more Snow!

It seems as though it hasn't stopped snowing since we arrived and the temperature I don't think has been above freezing.  We have both now recovered from our dreaded colds and hopefully will be out and about a bit more this week - it is supposed to stop snowing and the temperatures should start climbing a bit hopefully.  The skiers are having a whale of a time with lots of powder!

Talking of whales - this is the next quilt on the table.  Under the ocean was a fun panel which was designed to be made into a story book, I as always buck the trend.  This fabric was in the bundle I bought in Addies at Cochrane.  This of course will be quilt number two.

So what do you do when it's cold and snowy and it's too early to start sewing............ I made a lovely big pot of soup for lunch, sweet potato, cumin and ginger.  Delicious, even although I say it myself.   Then I put the oven on and pulled all the ingredients together to made a lemon drizzle cake - I've never really had much success with baking here, I've been told it's to do with the altitude, well I'm not so sure.  The lemon drizzle cake turned out just fine so I am even more convinced now that the problem with my baking was not the altitude but the old oven!

I'm pleased to report baby number one has arrived on time, Finlay was born earlier this week.  I think Hazel will need to change her name to Harry!

Well we have had hedgehogs, whales and next up on the cutting mat will be bumblebees! Isn't quilting fun!

Hmmm, I was going to say the gremlins seem to have gone for now but although I've managed to get the photos here I'm still not able to do the formatting and size the photos............oh well you just have to make do with what you've got.  Have a quiet week everybody. 

Gremlins

They are still around and causing mischief, however I have managed to add some photos of the near finished top.  Another border has been added - the medium blue, and it's looking good.  I will put it away now and sandwich it up when I'm back home and nearer the due date of the first new arrival.

                               
We have had another snowy day today I guess you could say we've been snow bound with continual  snow falling since early morning.  We have about 8inches lying on the deck now and the trees in the back yard are hanging with soft puffy clouds of snow which remind me of Christmas cards.

I don't think we would have been moving very far today had it not been snowing - we are both suffering from the usual flight cold - hubby was laid low at the beginning of the week and I hoped I might escape it but he has very kindly shared it with me and I'm feeling quite miserable today.  However tomorrow is another day and a new week and I hope I'm not feeling quite so washed out and low tomorrow.  It think too it's true when people say that when you've been so busy and working hard your body just keeps coping and when you relax so does your immune system and all the germs attack. Hmmmm more Germlins!

It's good to be able to cuddle up under a quilt when you are feeeling poorly and I sure have plenty of those.  Knitting and reading tonight - I can't concentrate on planning the next quilt just yet.

Have a good week folks.  I believe you had a nice sunny day back home and hopefully lots of  new shoots and plants will start to appear in the garden soon.

Hazel Hedgehog

I have admired Elizabeth Hartman's projects for a long time and have purchased a couple of her patterns over the years.  I enjoyed making the New Wave quilt which was one of her designs, remember the one with the bicycles which I donated to PHEW.  It was a fun project and turned out really well it was just that little bit different. See it on my gallery page

I also have Fancy Forest downloaded as an ebook.  This is what I call a challenge.  K at class has made a lovely crib size quilt with this pattern and while I enjoy a challenge now and again I didn't really feel up to doing every little animal.  I'm having trouble with photos tonight so here's the link for fancy Forrest  Here

Remember the outing I had recently to Kaleidoscope, well I bought some lovely fabrics to start on one of the baby quilts which had happy little hedgehogs dancing along the fabric.  I thought this would make a cheery little play mat for one of the new arrivals.  The design hat was on and lots of ideas were beginning to form in my head.  The centre block of this quilt will be Hazel Hedgehog from Elizabeth Hartman's fancy forest pattern.  I've made a start and the pieces are all cut out ready to go.  I'm looking forward to piecing this one together!  

Add caption

This blog post tonight is frustrating me, I can't get the photos to load and there seems to be gremlins preventing me formatting.  Apologies I will try again later in the week. 

Happy sewing

Work Hard.......Play Hard

I have certainly been working hard this week and I am pleased to report that I am finally turning the corner and getting my house back in order.  Some rooms are looking so shiny and new and I am hoping to keep them that way.  

Techie's bedroom now my Sewing and Storage room

The others will have to wait a few months but they in turn will get a new look too eventually.  I am gradually moving my sewing fabrics, and equipment upstairs to Techie's old room where they will be still on show but will not be in the dining room!  I haven't yet decided whether to move my worktable and machine upstairs too, I do enjoy watching the birds and enjoy the changing seasons in the garden from the diningroom window as I plan my sewing projects and do my cutting.  

I had an unexpected visit to Kaleidoscope yesterday, hubby had an appointment in Milngavie, just along the road from the quilt shop so I just tagged along for the ride.  We had a nice lunch and then went our separate ways.  I spent a good couple of hours choosing fabrics and chatting to Susan and Merrilyn. They were in 'show' mode making preparations for the up and coming quilting shows.  Ingliston Spring Festival is next weekend 17th - 19th February, I hope I might manage a visit.  I selected a few fabrics for the baby quilts and a background fabric for my Arcadia Avenue Whirligigs.  A phonecall just as I was paying let me know the driver had returned to the car park.  A very successful and  enjoyable day out.

I spent a busy morning today polishing all the stainless steel in the kitchen and I was suitably pleased with myself to allow me to play hard this cold, windy and snowy afternoon.  The background fabric was chopped and sliced and the sewing machine was humming along sewing all the chopped pieces back together again.  I think it all looks rather good now and I'm pleased with it, especially as the Whirligigs were all made from my scraps in the 'box under the table'.  Here are the Whirligigs on the design wall.  

On the Design Wall

I have really enjoyed the whole process of this project and delighted that I have finally and  successfully mastered Foundation Piecing without losing my temper or throwing the bits in the bin.  The only downside in the whole process was removing the paper foundation.  however by the time i had got to the fourth one I had it sussed and like everything else in life the more you do something the easier it becomes.  What do you think?

Completed Top measures 52 x 47inches

Have a fun weekend and a good week ahead whatever you might be doing.

I Think I Have Finally Mastered It

Foundation piecing is a technique I have been longing to master since embarking on my quilting journey.  I have tried more than a few times to master the art with varying degrees of success, most of the attempts have ended in the rubbish bin they were so bad.  My brain would just not comprehend the reverse/mirror image thing and sewing on the foundation side etc etc.  We even had a tutorial given at the class of a paper pieced Hunter's Star, which is a lovely block. It would have made a lovely Christmas Quilt but mine was doomed to failure - I think I eventually did make the block but I cheated and pieced it as normal not on a foundation.

Having spent a lot of last year making Charity Quilts and using simple blocks I was determined I would try something more challenging and a bit different for the start of the new year.  I save  images from various internet sites and browsing through them once again decided on 'the one' but was dismayed to discover it was all paper pieced.  I jumped in with both feet - I ordered the pattern which duly arrived and I have spent hours looking, admiring, pondering, looking for the right foundation paper and the fabrics. The instructions are well written and it even gives you the measurements to cut each piece of fabric.  I did chicken out though and decided against purchasing all the rainbow fabrics. My stash has plenty of fabrics calling.  These are the ones I chose, only because they have been hanging around on the shelf for a long time.

I decided to make just one segment of the pattern to see how I managed.  After much head scratching, and a few stitching lines unpicked the first one was complete - it was all a bit stressful.  

Perseverance and determination overtook the stress and I am pleased to say this one's a keeper!  

The segments have even made it to the design wall!

I am so enjoying this now I have mastered the concept, why did it take me so long to overcome this particular hurdle?  There is no going back I really don't think this quilt will be ending up in the UFO box.

Sometimes you just need to give yourself that little extra push to try something different and then you discover a whole new area to enjoy.  Enjoy whatever you will be making this week.