No sewing today!

We have been visited by the chicken again!

Toby has chicken pox - the nasty little spots came out today. Last night was very disturbed so I have nodded off each time I had to put Toby down for a nap instead of doing anything creative today. In fact, I had to cancel all the days plans... coffee with a friend, lunch with another and any chance of finishing the hospital quilts I started last night.

Trying to see the lighter side of it, I thought I'd show this little chicken wallhanging from a BlockBuddy Spring/Summer wallhanging swap from last year. I made 2 from a pattern called "Silly Chicken" by Quilterscache and received a beautiful bird wallhanging in return for the one I sent off to swap.

So no sewing, but a few photos of the countryside, caught on the way home from nursery and just before the big rains have started! Jack enjoying some tractors!



These beautiful foxgloves are all over the place - here they're swaying in the wind...
Some of our neighbours sheep
A barn outside our closest village

Pretty pink pincushion post

This little lovely deserves a post of it's own...

I got it in the post from Anne.
It's really lovely and is going straight down to my sewing room. What do they say you can never have enough pincushions (or is that pins? LOL) Thank you Anne!

Not much sewing, but soon...

Yesterday DH moved the wardrobes up to the new bedroom, this meant unpacking them all and repacking them again. It's amazing how it's easier to unpack than to repack. Somehow you can't just sling it back in as before, you feel the need to tidy it back, weird? Not like me at all LOL!
Here's the view from the new bedroom window

Here's an action shot of DH vaccuuming the carpet so that I have no excuse, but to repack the wardrobe...

Here's the view from the en-suite


So not much sewing done, although I did make a few decisions and did some preparation along these lines...

1. I am going to use my stash to piece together a backing fabric for my scrapbuster top and I will not be buying backing fabric. So I went through my boxes and chose fabric that I had liked at one point, but couldn't see myself using for a while as well as left over fabrics from other projects that would remind me of things when I turn the quilt over..Now I just need to sew them all together!

2. I am setting the scrapbuster quilt top on point and I am not buying any fabric for this purpose. In fact last night after packing some of the wardrobes back, I cut out the setting triangles (after much mathematical muddling on my part) from a large piece of navy fabric that I had. I was pleased to use this up as I had bought it by mistake! Don't ask, let's just say it looked like black when I bought it online LOL. The squares had to be 23" so it was a real fiddle to cut, but they are done now and waiting to be attached as soon as ...

3. I washed the fabrics for the hospital quilts, I hope to make a start tonight. They are very simple so I hope when I visit Vicky tomorrow, I will have at least one or 2 to take with me... this will depend on how my day pans out! As well as if I get the fabrics cut, ironed, pinned, sewn... Where does one find the time?

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.

Budding beauty

The only sewing I got done today was a little bit more foundation piecing on my Ula Lenz rose. Almost all the greenery is now complete and it's just all the fiddly bits left that are needed to construct the final full rose (It should look like Birgit’s). I know I should have done the fiddly bits first, but I wanted to make sure I'd have enough of the background fabric and I think that's a good enough excuse LOL! Once I get going, I really do enjoy foundation-piecing and after re-designing a block for my 'Bag O' challenge last night, I have even more respect for foundation-piecing designers. I don't have the brain to think in reverse. With 2 small kids, I hardly have a brain at all LOL

Creative Embroidery

DH was trying to watch the rugby and DS1 just would not go for a nap even though he was exhausted so while Toby napped, I put Jack in the car and took a trip to Clapham (about 10 mins away), I was barely down the road and he was fast asleep! So I had lots of time to look around Jenny Scottt’s Creative Embroidery.

I had a great chat with Jenny Scott and just had to have these little beauties!

Feeling challenged

My artistic director (a.k.a DH) was full of ideas tonight while I was working on my BlockBuddySwaps "bag O' stuff challenge. Sadly, I can't show you what I've been doing because it's supposed to be a secret... However, as soon as it's quilted and if you promise not to tell (LOL) I'll post a photo of it, but I'm pretty pleased with it and DH's imput was quite useful actually. I would have been in bed already, but as he had got me going, I couldn't stop, but now I'm off... but I'll leave you with a view of Toby's finished quilt hanging over our garden gate and with a view of the countryside beyond. It was a beautiful evening after a scattery showered day.

Binding and baby on

Both kids had a morning nap which is completely out of our normal routine as Jack is normally in nursery and not at home almost over the chicken pox, but not to look a gift horse in the mouth, I dashed down to my sewing room and sewed down the binding. This is not a 'winning' quilt in any way except maybe to the boys who've both been enjoying it already... a big hands up from its new owner.

Stash and grab

Yesterday I met Chris at Embsay Mills to pick up my quilts. She did a fabulous job on Toby's First birthday quilt (deadline October).

It's just a simple all over design, but I'm very pleased with how it's come out...

Now I just have the binding to do. We have had new carpet laid in one of the converted rooms in our building site, er.. um I mean house, but it was a great place to attach the binding and Toby gave his new quilt a test run at the same time....



Chris also basted my Ostrich and as soon as I've finished handquilting the heart quilt, I'll get going on it.


Because Jack has the pox, I couldn't bring him in the shop, so with both kids asleep in the car, I ran around the shop and 'grabbed' this little lot. It felt like a 5 minute trolley dash LOL...

Quick out of the starting Block for a change

Feeling inspired to do some sewing again to get away from those with spots LOL, and having printed off some lovely patterns by Carol Doak I thought I'd try one out for Kate and myself for our African Blockswap. Normally I would have taken a lot longer to do a return block, but I need to get going on the Bag o' stuff challenge and I knew I wanted to try one of these patterns so here's my block...

It's called 9-Patch Star Block and was fun and easy to do. I think the colours are a bit wild, but luckily I had a big fingerprint (not mine) on my lens so the blurriness may make it a bit calmer .

Blocks, chocs and the pox

Yesterday was 'one of those days', I had meant to post, but got nothing done. The hightlight of my day was getting this block in the post from Kate as part of our one on one African Blockswap.


The lowlight was discovering that my little chicken has the pox! Jack (DS1) has picked up this lurgy from nursery. We're pleased to get it and then be done with it, but the nights are bad as he is itchy and doesn't want to sleep.

I was going to do more hand quilting on this


but decided it was more important to eat an entire tub of chocolate ice-cream to cheer myself up and didn't want any chocolate stains on it. The pics are not good, but show up the quilting better in this light...

Also received my baggie for the BlockBuddySwap Bag o' Stuff quilt challenge this week and have been thinking, thinking, thinking. Can't show you the baggie as it's meant to be a surprise. We only find out afterwards who's bag we had and who had our bag. Should be fun.

A Blast from the past a.k.a. the Mother of all UFO's

Having a quilty visitor on the weekend gave me a bit of courage to do something I've been meaning to do for a while now.... open a suitcase with a quilt in it. This suitcase as not been opened for at least 2 years. In it, not just any quilt, but my first ever quilt! And it's miles from completion... I started it when I was still at school. It's basically 4 star panels that were batted and backed (with muslin) and quilted with thick-ish embroidery pearl.

I was frightened right up until it was completely unfolded, I thought it might have gone mouldy or been eaten by my little sewing room creatures, but other than needing a bit of an airing, it looks ok.

It's been put together as a King-size quilt on a cream backing with cream sashing in between and I've started hand quilting it with circles and stars... but that's it. There's loads still to quilt although I will only outline the stars which were originally paper-pieced and 'quilted' in pearl to the first lot of very thin batting and muslin.

Here are loads of pictures of it to show the 4 different star panels (although I've just noticed only 3 can be seen clearly), the quilting in the embroidery pearl and the little bit of hand quilting in one of my made up designs....









It's still destined to be a UFO, but perhaps this winter if we don't go to South Africa and I'm freezing in the UK, I can sit under it, keep myself warm and finish it before it's more than 20 years old!

Visitors: welcome and otherwise

Today I had a lovely visit from Lynda whom I met on the BQL list. It's always great to meet up with a fellow quilter and we had a great chat. I dug out loads of UFO's and appreciated a different perspective. I decided that later I would go down to my sewing room again and take some photo's so I could feature some of them as "UFO's of the week". DS2 in bed, DS1 outside with DH, camera in hand I started taking some pics when I heard a sort of squeeking-squawking sound. Let me first explain that this week DH has found 3 baby shrews in the house (Shrews). I know we live in the country, but I've never been that keen that the country lives in the house with us so this has been a bit too much of an 'animal' week for my taste. I moved a briefcase out of the way to see some scuttling in the corner. Well obviously I had to shriek er... I mean call for my hero. DH and DS1 came running to rescue me. Here I can be seen hiding behind Jack while Hubby investigated...

He who is at one with nature here a.k.a. DH gently removed this little thrush and put him out the window. Image is bit blurry as it was taken as quick as humanely possible as the little bird was quite frightened (just a tad more than me LOL)

So it's a bit of a catch 22... I need to keep my sewing room aired, but then I risk having all sorts of things flying or crawling in to make their homes among my stash!


Lynda absolutely loved my blocks from the Scrapbuster swap that I did with Kate and others on the Delphi Forum (these were blocks made up of 16 x 2.5" squares). I also had some blocks made up of 64 x 2.5" squares from the BlockBuddySwaps Postage Stamp Round Robin (PSRR). I have been putting the scrapbuster blocks together in sets of four to be the same size as the PSRRs with the intention of putting them all together to make a picnic blanket (with a waterproof backing) for the family. A lot of the Delphi swappers have been doing quite different things with their blocks, but I just wanted them together as a manic scrappy quilt/blanket.


A few days ago when I was tidying my sewing room, I had a look at the backing fabric again and noticed that it is very narrow and I would either have to piece it together or alternatively make 2 smaller picnic blankets. After talking to Lynda, I think I will just make a big snuggle blanket for the sofa that the whole family can use and if it ends up outside well that's ok(ish) too. So (when I find the time) I will continue to put them all together with a narrow border in a dark, possibly navy, fabric and back it with a dark fabric.

The days are just packed

This week has been a bit of a blur and I feel like I have been busy all the time. Jack is back at Playgroup in the mornings and Toby is better so I have actually been getting some sewing done. I've added the borders to 3 kid's quilts (won't post pics until they are quilted), but they are 'I spy' quilts made up of Novelty snowball blocks. Chris phoned to say that my quilts were ready for collection so I thought I'd try get these ready to go when I pick the others up. I have been hard at work hand-quilting Toby's heart quilt (and really enjoying it), but Chris beat me to the finish line as I still have loads to do on that! Silly to try race a Longarmer with hand quilting, but it was worth a try LOL.


I have also been making a few tote bags for gifts and some lavender sachets for all my fabric boxes and drawers. So all in all the sewing side of my life is looking up. And of course with this glorious weather I am almost caught up with my laundry which makes getting into my sewing room that much easier (don't have to trip over piles of laundry to get to my sewing machine LOL)

In the post today, this book by Susan Briscoe: 21 Terrific Patchwork Bags. I hope to give one or two of them a try (When I find the time... yadiyadiya).


ps Grandma has just got back from a holiday in Scandinavia so we have 2 resident vikings in the house.

Everything is coming up roses

Here's half my rose by Ula Lenz. After it's been washed with Vanish, ironed, rewashed and each time with Colour Catcher sheets in the water because the dang thing ran when I ironed it the first time round. Not sure how that happened as the culprit (the dark green) and been pre-washed and ironed! Never mind, the green stains are out now, the rest of the green fabric has been re-washed and when I can find some more time I hope to finish it. It really is a beautiful pattern (see Birgit’s)

Can you tell my favourite things are hearts and roses?

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.

..And they will come home, dragging their fleeces behind them

It was a gorgeous day here today. So hot in fact that this particular sheep decided it was time to take her fleece off! Now, those of you who knit, don't get too excited, that wool, I've been told by the local farmer, is sadly not top of the range. I remember when we first moved here and I saw bits of wool lying on the grass, I wanted to run around collecting it with dreams of spinning and dyeing, but he said that it's not what they make jerseys out of, or good carpets even, in fact it costs the farmer more to have the sheep shawn then he gets for the fleece. Sad isn't it?

We were back at the doctor's today with my youngest, he's not been well at all, poor little might. I have just managed to pry his little body off of mine to write this, so no sewing, but lots of bonding and loving. (Thanks to Anne for reminding me that even though it's hard and you get nothing else done, you do get a chance to love them!)

The Patchwork Cat

We have a new book in our house. It's called the Patchwork Cat by Nicola Bayley & William Mayne. It's a great book and it arrived today and we've already read it 3 times. I was looking for patchwork books and just stumbled across it.

I love the illustrations...

And of course who wouldn't love a cat who loves its quilt