Lots of Lilies

I am still hand-stitching* my Carolina Lily by Marti Mitchell the English Paper Piecing way. (*The original pattern by Marti is for machine sewing, but I changed the sizes and just decided to do it the long way.)



Slow and steady wins the race as they say although I am in no rush anyway, I only work on it in the evenings or while waiting at hospital or physio appointments if I can. Now that I feel more confident about my leg, I sew for a bit on the machine on other projects or sometimes I just relax - vegetating in front of the TV is new to me, but sometimes neccessary as hopping and crutching around the house all day is exhausting, so I'm not always up to much even though I have many projects in hand yet again!

I discovered fabric glue works a treat for keeping those stems nice and straight - my second Lily's stems were very wonky after they had only been pinned in place...



Two whole Lily units are completely done with all three flowers and stems. One Lily unit needs the leaves and stems stitiching down, another needs the 4 units sewn together and then stems and leaves... and then I have many other flowers in various stages...

All in all I need 8 units with 3 flowers, stems and leaves and then some more flowers for the borders so I was delighted to receive a swap parcel from Elsie with more reds! Thanks Elsie! (Of course I have forgotten to take a photo of Elsie's great parcel, but perhaps I'll take one later and show it together with what I will send Elsie in return...)


The pink Monkey quilt has been basted, S.I.T.D.'d and I hope to sew the binding on tonight if I don't fall asleep while putting the boys to bed...


So more Monkey business next time...

Monkeying around again

Our friends have had a baby girl and so I thought I would make use of more of the wonderful monkey fabric that I won on VickiW's blog some time ago. Thank you yet again Vicki!! There were so many great bits of fabric in the parcel as well as one 8" nine-patch orphan block (with the green squares) and one 8" plain square of fabric (the one in the centre) so I used those as my starting point.

I decided on a simple layout which meant that I then just needed seven more 8" nine-patches which I cobbled together from some of the pre-cut strips and scraps. Then I needed sashings. I searched my stash... I'm not really a pink girl and only had a fairly bright pink that I could use. I cut the sashing strips only to realise I was a bit short, hence the pieced centre sashings :-)

I am not good at quilt maths which is why it is no surprise that I was short for the sashings, so even though I believe that "if you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail", I also believe that quilting is fun and that surely you are meant to 'patch' things together with hopefully happy results...? I am happy with the result:


I am not going to put any borders on, but I am going to use some of the lovely stripey fabric in the parcel for the binding and also in the parcel was some soft and gorgeous flannel which I will piece together for the backing...

I hope to baste it and quilt it as soon as possible.

I had a hopsital visit today and although there is a tiny vision of bone regrowth, it's very slow and so I am still non-weight-bearing or at a maximun 'touch'-weight-bearing until further notice. I am so exhausted from these crutches and when my surgeon asked how I was, I moaned: "I'm cooking, I'm putting kids in the bath and to bed, I'm doing laundry, I'm running around after kids etc etc" and he said:

Drum roll please.

"Good!" LOL. I guess it's better than lying around all day, but it really is quite tiring!

Something Old, Somethings New

A few observant people noticed that I changed my blog header to a photo I took almost 2 years ago. . .



I guess that's not really UP-dating then is it LOL!

The original post with a few other photos of my version of Bonnie's Orange Crush quilt on a travelling caravan is here. I remember I drove around with the quilt top on my passenger seat hoping for just such an opportunity and even though a German tour bus stopped to watch me, it was a thrill to see my quilt displayed on such a work of art. I think these caravans are just amazing. Slow and a traffic nuisance, but amazing!!

Chris, the Longarmer, says my Double Delight quilt top is ready so perhaps I will drive around this summer (crutches and or leg - willing) with that quilt in the car, with the hopes that a friendly traveler will let me have another photoshoot. I do hope that wasn't a once in a lifetime thing :-)

On another note, I have put some of my coin purses in my Etsy shop.





More to come, I hope, but quality production cannot be rushed :-)

Of Mothers & Others & Hints of Spring

The boys were talking about Easter the other day and of course they remembered hunting for eggs last year with their friend Luca. I had some Easter fabric bought at Birgit's shop absolutely yonks ago and decided to make them each an Easter basket for collecting eggs. (DS1 wanted to know if I was going to put a Bionicle into it!!)

I was going to do a tutorial on how to make an Easter Basket, but to be honest it's basically just a simple interfaced tote bag with a bit of 'Cheater's Binding' around the top...



Here on the farm we have some lambs...


And the Crocuses are out...


So it's starting to feel very Spring-like indeed... :-)))))

It's still a little on the chilly side, so I just had to include this photo of Granny C showing DS2 how to keep his hands warm when you go out for a walk :-)




Last Sunday was Mother's Day in the UK and I was lucky enough to spend it with my Mother and my Mother in Law. In fact, I was lucky enough to hobble around and cook a roast dinner for 8 adults and 2 children! :-) It was a really nice day and the day started with 2 very excited little boys wanting me to get out of bed at the crack of dawn to be given some presents. At school, they had both made me cards and cute boxes (filled with iced cupcakes). And they were so excited and sweet. Silly really as everyday is Mother's Day - when you have kids there truly is no rest for the wicked :-D

DH bought me these seeds for Mother's Day:


He clearly has high hopes. I was hoping to start small. A few tomatoes, maybe some pumpkins, but it was very kind of him to show such faith :-)

I made my Mother, MIL and SIL a coin purse each...


My MIL & SIL are off to Disney for Easter so I popped in a few spare dollars from my last trip to the US which was also ages ago (definitely pre-kids!!)


And here's a parting shot of a parcel DH ordered last week. Actually he didn't order a parcel, he just ordered the washer, but it came all the way from Germany in this box!


We had a good laugh about it especially as the delivery chap insisted I sign for it!

Love is...

Love is...

... being able to use my sewing machine again for very short periods (until it gets uncomfortable to sit or until my 'bad' foot starts feeling weird and cold LOL)

Love is...

... making 5 heart blocks for bedside table toppers. All our beside tables need toppers so I thought I'd make them with some of the beautiful reds I recently received.

Love is...
...Lots of sunshine
...New lambs on the farm
...Blue eggs from our neighbours

Love is...
(fill in the blank!)

Bish-Bash, Lilies and Gifted Stash

I have now completed 2 whole Carolina Lily blocks with many others in parts. I am still not sure of my final layout, but I think I will make about 8 blocks and then decide :-)
Each block is about 18 inches in size.
I took this photo to show the back of a block too so that the papers can also be seen...

I swear my stems are worse this time round!!! I shall have to start taking some of the good advice I have been given on how to do them especially as I fancy some more applique after I've finished these Lilies.


I have some very overdue thanks! Andrea sent me these fabrics while I was still in the hospital (6 weeks ago! Sorry!)


Thank you Andrea, I remember them brightening my day, they are so cute and will be great for some of my Linus projects. Plus a friend has an eye on the cats, so I shall have to make her something fun with that fabric. The owls are my favourite.


Jenny (no time for a blog) made me this gorgeous needlecase as a get out of hospital gift.


It's lovely. Thanks Jenny.

Kandy and Vicky made huge contributions to my red and green stash!!
Thanks Kandy!:


And Vicky C!:

(This is just a small selection of what Vicky kindly gave me!)

Kate sent me 2 African blocks for our swap. Now it's my turn - eek! Perhaps I can handsew them?

Kate also included some gorgeous rose fabrics and 2 magazines that were gobbled up immediately. (They are next to my bed and I'm not crutching up and down stairs just for a photo!) Thanks Kate!

Josie (my patron :-D) sent me the most lush reds and this beautiful sheep fabric. Thanks Josie!


Josie said the fabric reminded her of where we live.

A while back I drew a sheep wallhanging idea on the back of an envelope and this fabric has got me thinking about that project again... Then Anne sent me some green fabrics this week and I'm thinking that some of her green fabrics with the sheep fabric would work really well in realising that scribble on that envelope!!

Thank you so much Anne:

Such a wonderful selection and some tasty hand-dyes too!

I hope I haven't missed anyone, but I can honestly say that I am blown away by the kindness of fellow bloggers and friends! Thank you.
Thank you also for the kind comments when I was feeling so low. In the end we discovered that perhaps I wasn't ready to come off all the pain medication so soon and that the pain was indeed counterproductive. So I am back on a some pain relief and suddenly the whole world seems brighter. (I'm very tired again, but comfortable at least!)

And now for the bashing!:


We like to help Dad especially when it means we get to swing a hammer around! DH is making dust again, but at least it means the old kitchen will finally become a new bedroom/play-room or office. I joked it would be a great sewing room, but I think it was a no LOL!

Book Review: A Quilt for Baby

~Especially after my last post I am happy to confirm that this book review is not my way of blogging any significant news! :-) ~

I took photos of this book, "A quilt for Baby" by Kim Lewis, absolutely ages ago, but never got around to blogging them. This week, the boys needed baby and family photos for a family tree project at school and while I was hunting for those photos, I found these...


My dear friend Josie sent me this book about 4 years ago (I think I was pregnant with DS2 at the time). Thanks Josie!


I had grand plans to make a similar quilt inspired by the one in the book, especially as we live on a farm, but you know about grand plans ;-)))
(Which reminds me of another favourite joke:
Q: How do you make God laugh?
A: make plans!)

I like the illustration where she is still quilting it AFTER the baby is born! That's my girl LOL!!:


Anyway, it's a gorgeous book and the illustrations are lovely and perhaps when I'm old and grey and looking forward to a grandchild from one of my boys, I may dig it out and think about making such a quilt again... We'll see. I better not make any plans about it though! LOL

Sewing therapy

Q: Why did the banana go and see the doctor?
A: Because he wasn't peeling well!

This is my 3 year old's favourite joke and because it makes him laugh so much, we have to laugh too. Today I don't feel much like laughing. The sun is shining, my operation is 6 weeks behind me, but I'm so low. Not because after today's x-ray I still can't weight bear on my leg, not because I have to rely on everyone to carry stuff for me, not because I can't just get in my car and do something different or fetch my kids from school. No, I feel low because of all of those things, but probably more because I miss my sewing machine. I miss my foot on the pedal, my brain on the task and the way that makes me feel about my troubles!

I have physiotherapy every week, but what I really need is some sewing therapy!