It May Not Seem Like Much...

... but it's the little things that make all the difference.

I have been clearing and tidying my sewing room or should I say re-shuffling and re-jiggling my sewing stuff around a very small room that I share with the laundry, the washing machine, the tumble dryer and all sorts of odds and ends that have nowhere to go :-(

Upstairs in our bedroom I had my treadle machine (still not operational, but a great table for dumping books and cardigans etc.) The treadle table also needed to be re-shuffled to make space for the baby's crib. So.... down came the crib out the loft, down came the treadle to my sewing room creating an extra horizontal surface for sewing use! Yippee!

I sew a lot of bags and non-patchworky things and I use a machine for that (more about the fact that I may have a new second-hand machine for that another time LOL). Anyway, anything 'patchworky' gets sewn on my Janome Quilter's Companion. I have previously sewn bags with this machine, but the repairs afterwards were very expensive indeed that I swore never again!! So just like one has a pair of scissors just for fabric, I have a machine just for patchwork-piecing!!!!

It's wonderful having the space to have both machines out and so I have already sewn Kate's Corn & Bean blocks into the layout I need for our dresser and I also started putting together some blocks* for a quilt top:

*One of the online groups I belong to was doing a springclean of their list and it got me to thinking of all the swaps I had done with this group and all the blocks just sitting there waiting for something to happen to them. Many have been donated to Linus, but these Maple Leaves were just waiting for a layout... So I laid them out on the bed like this and now they are being sewn together.

I'd rather have tops than blocks lying around!

***********

For 8 days, I had a poorly little boy. Today was his first trip out. We went to the Beck for a paddle. We didn't stop long, I think it was a little bit too much for him, but at least he's on the mend.

A better, but busier week

It has taken me days to get over that nasty bug and I still don't feel myself, but maybe it's just a sign of getting older. After we were all sick, no-one wanted to touch a thing except DS1 who had lunch and then dinner! In fact, last night was the first proper meal I've had in days - sadly I will not be needing to change my entire wardrobe for a smaller size LOL

This week I won't be blogging much or sewing either, I imagine, as we have lots of birthdays coming up.
Crazy to think that it's been 3 years on Friday that I first screamed my lungs out with DS1 and next week it will be a year that DS2 smoothly and more calmly joined this little family of ours. Here DS2 wants to know who to talk to about getting some good stuff...


This time last year we were building an extension which needed a roof and I was going insane trying to 'nest' in the chaos. This time, this year we are renovating and needing another roof...

At least we've got a good view...

And DH managed to get the plastic sheeting back on just before the big rains came!!

My Mother is back safe and sound in South Africa so there was no holding me and my mess back in the 'spare' room..

I get so distracted...

I was meant to be working on my brown strips.. They are going to be Bento Boxes or something. I can't decide, I guess that's why I'm not working on them...

Then I started working on these..

(Note the little person who kept grabbing them!) They are from Bonnie's wonderful Quiltville site and are called Pineapple Blossom
Lots of people have done wonderful versions of these and it's a fun block to make plus it's using up almost all of my butterfly fabrics that were just sitting in my stash making me feel quilty.

But then I signed up to make Maple Leaves for a BlockBuddy Swap. These are already cut and in rows ready to be put together so no pictures yet.

But while I was doing those I wanted to make someone special a block...


But then I realised the reason I can't focus is because of all my mess and clutter in my life, so I started tidying my spaces. Why does it always look so much worse before it looks better???

Access denied

This is the sorry state of my sewing room! The outside is covered in thick black plastic because DH is currently taking the roof off of the conservatory.
The conservatory is directly above my sewing room. I have been dreading this moment. Yesterday the plastic was put on. Today I begged for a slit and therefore some access. Luckily I have been in strip and piece cutting mood for a few days now and I have a few projects on the cutting table. I slowly and ever so quietly moved some cutting equipment (small table, mats, cutters, fabric, iron...) into our old bedroom which is now quite bare and I have been quite productive with the old rotary cutter and so much space to use it in.

The whole house is to be renovated in stages and at every stage I get the jitters. I worry I will have no access at all soon especially when a door gets bashed through into my sewing room making it accessible from the house.

On a happier note, the sun shone and we took a short drive

to picnic and to 'pick our own' raspberries. It was great for the kids, they even had a sandpit and a tractor Wonderful!

Big trouble brewing

I'm about to be in big trouble.... Around about this time last year we started building work on an extension to our little cottage. We decided to add a new bedroom downstairs. The cottage has/had an unusual layout with the bedrooms and bathrooms downstairs, and the lounge, kitchen and conservatory upstairs (for the views one presumes!). Anyway 2 bedrooms (and one very small one at that) was not going to be enough with another little might on the way, soooo we decided to extend. I was about 6 months pregnant at this point, but not worried because the builders 'promised' (don't make me laugh!) they'd be done in 6-8 weeks. I'd still have a 6 weeks to prepare and nest and if all else failed they had a months grace and I'd have about 2 weeks to prepare and nest. I can't remember the date of this picture, but I remember we were way over schedule already...

As if that wasn't bad enough with no kitchen wall and exposed to the elements, we then had no roofers. I got extremely 'excited' and made it pretty darn clear to the builders that this was no good. My midwife said I'd probably not have the baby until a roof was on as I was, needless to say, pretty stressed. (Toby was born about a week after the roof was on - he was 4 days late!)

A year later, why are we still building? Well DH has decided to change the entire layout of the house... the bedroom we added became the lounge, the old lounge became the master bedroom (still next to the old kitchen at present!). We will gain 2 bedrooms and a bigger lounge, we'll have access to our garden and we will have access from the house to the laundry/my sewing room. This will all be fabulous as I currently have to go outside to get to my sewing room EXCEPT I will have to move everything out to allow for the wall to be bashed into a doorway. EEK! Firstly, where am I supposed to put everything and secondly, when he sees the sheer proportions of my fabric/UFO/sewing stuff will I still be a happily married woman?

I phoned a friend to see if she'd like some baby fabric for one of our LQG's charities, she said if I made it up into tops, she'd finish them for me. What do you mean for me? I was trying to give the fabric away! Now I have to find the time to make tops and 'distribute' my stash around the rest of the house - not easy when the house is chaos! Being charitable is hard work or as my Step-FIL says "No good deed ever goes unpunished" LOL.
Joking aside least a few FQ's will find a good home, but where am I going to hide the rest!!!


I have been uncertain to post photos of my sewing room, as this is probably the worst it's been for a while, but I see it as a bit of a 'before' photo. Perhaps 'after' will be an improvement. DH was tidying up today and it always makes me nervous. I said to him..."lets just face it we're both messy, and not one is messier than the other". I thought if I sounded tolerant of his mess he might be a bit more understanding of mine... Here's hoping.

This dang Blog!

I've done less sewing since I started this blog than I used to do! Admittedly, I have had a sick clingy baby who I'm pleased to say is much better...

In fact he's even been eating a little something...


The only 'sewing-related' thing I did this weekend was to attempt to clear out my sewing room. This is a BIG job as I share the space with the washing machine, tumble dryer and freezer! I was tempted to take a 'before' and 'after' pic, but 'after' may be a while and 'before' is a bit depressing at the moment. But here is the camera (being investigated) when the time comes for a pic...


Oh, and a few days ago I did sew a bit of my PP rose together only to discover that one of the greens ran when I steam ironed it!!! So annoying as it had been prewashed. However I have been washing the whole piece using colour catcher sheets and some of Birgit's tips. Fingers crossed. Will post a pic of my progress soon. Want to get that finished and back in the UFO box so I can show another one.