Giving my Longarmer Nightmares!

I am very lucky to have found

a lovely lady who offers

a longarm quilting service

very close to where my MIL lives.

This is handy for 2 reasons:

1) I can drop the kids off at 'Grandma'

while I pick up and drop off

quilts at Chris... and

2) 'Grandma' sometimes collects quilts

from Chris if I'm not passing for a bit.

 

Before I tell you the terrible thing

that I have done to Chris,

let me tell you about her new blog:

www.longarmchris.co.uk

which is as lovely as she is

(am I sounding a bit too smoochy here?

- I don't mean to. Chris really is great,

but my latest offering for her to quilt,

is well, it's um... well let's just say that

when I blogged about it in 2007,

I titled the post:

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

 

Yes, I wanted to finish

the darn thing and I went seeking help,

advice, anything...

 

Well Chris, Bless her!!!

Helped me unbaste and unquilt

the monster and it's now waiting in line

for it's chance on her Gammil.

 

My oldest UFO may someday

be a useful quilty object!

Chris probably slept restlessly last night,

but I slept like a log!!!

 

Hat Therapy

My dear friend

starts Chemotherapy

on Tuesday...

She asked me to make her a hat

for when she loses her hair... :(

This is a very sad time,

BUT she's strong and she'll pull through

surrounded by all of us who love her!

And boy, do I love her!!!

My youngest son modelled

the hat I made for her:

Everyone needs a bit of leopard print

to cheer themselves up!

Hello Africa

Kate and I have traded African blocks

for a while now, although we have had

a few stops and starts...

When Kate came for her recent visit with her family

she brought me a new block:

And while we had a few spare minutes

together in the studio, I made us each an

African block too:

 

This pattern is called Ribbon Star.

*****

Kate had sent me these African blocks previously:

(which I had forgotten to blog)

I really do need to dig

all our African blocks out

and decide how to put them together!

*****

The studio needs a srious tidy up,
but it was great to share the space with a friend

*****

Kate also brought some quilt tops for Linus!

These will be passed on to be quilted and donated.

Thanks Kate!

So Behind...

My blog is stuck in traffic!

My mind is full of thoughts...

mainly concerned thoughts for a sick friend,

thoughts for a friend with a troubled marriage,

happy thoughts about my children...

So I am behind on many things.

*****

The summer comes and goes here

so we try and make the most of

any sun we can get...

Last week the children had a great day out

at a water park

and the handy thing about crutches

is that Mummy gets a seat

to sit and watch the children play! :)

*****

We had a lovely bloggy/quilty visitor

and her family to stay

which was a lot of fun.

The men got on like a house on fire,

the teenage visitors were fabulous with baby

and the boys played well together.

Here Kate and I are sewing

(Kate is doing Cross-stitch and I am EPP-ing)
at one of our picnics where the sun eluded us...

Both of us, were wrapped up under quilts,

while the men and boys climbed the Fells.

I managed to finish another rose-star...

And I have African blocks to show

(in another post!)

from Kate's visit.

*****

5 houseguests means a lot of shoes :)

(I have a shoe ban upstairs on the cream carpets

so the bottom of the stairs was a good place

to pile them up LOL)

Not that many considering there

were 9 shoe wearers in the house ;o)

*****

Now that things are back to normal here

we can spend time being silly again...

Wordless Wednesday

I don't want to be wordless,

I've got lots to say...

...but I have a lot on my plate...

some good, some not so good....

I'll blog soon.

Wordless Wednesday - Drawing of Abby

To London, To London To Buy...

... Lego!

Well that wasn't the plan,

but it certainly made 2 little boys

VERY happy!

 Create your own LEGO people!

 (Some people took rather a long time

to build their people!!:)

 The best pick-a-mix

in a little boy's world!!!

Basically you fill a tub
with LEGO of all shapes and sizes,

just like sweets.

(Sweets for Lego-fans!LOL)

 'Better than Christmas'

apparently!

*****

No room for us to get in to the Olympic Park,

which was the disorganised plan,

but all was forgiven by the LEGO shop!

*****

The next day we had a trip to Camden Market,

which provided much needed

Eye-candy for Mummy!!!!:

 Gorgeous!

 The whole shop window was

FULL of these old beauties!

 A little wander around the market...

 Very tiring for some...

Lovely to see old friends and treat the boys!

But I am so glad to be home again!!!

Summer (!) School Holidays

Means less time to sew than ever!

But it also means trying to spend time doing fun stuff...

weather permitting!

We keep hearing how other parts

of the country have glorious sunshine.

Not us! Today it poured with rain again
as I drove to fetch the boys from Grandma.

Yes, you read right!

I am driving again.

Just short journeys to get back into it,

but it certainly feels good to be free again!!

** 

Last weekend we went for a picnic

in the fells.

The kids love it there

and we can sit on a quilt

and watch them paddle and potter around.

Baby-Kalico loves crawling around

 trying to eat the long grasses :)

*****

I am so behind on my blog!

I forgot to post that the week before last,

a friend came to visit

 and while she looked after our 2 girls,

I sewed up some dribbly bibs for her daughter.

Here the 2 girls are modelling my samples...

I didn't sew Miss-Kalico any,

as she's a weirdly non-dribbly baby ;)

But her friend has enjoyed testing her bibs out...

Even though it's exhausting work!

*****

Miss Kalico is now 9 months old and

has been enjoying the singalong at a local coffee shop

 where the shop owner

has kindly stocked some of my sewn items...

I'm never going to be rich,

but it helps make the school holidays

a little bit more fun :)

*****

Here's a parting shot

of Miss K on 'my' quilt...

 Nothing is sacred in this house :)

When I grow up, I want to be a quilt...

... said the rose star block

as she was pinned to her friends :)

Quilt Inspection

I'm still sewing these rose star hexagons....

I'd like to be sewing more in the studio

and on a sewing machine, but time is limited...

Miss Kalico has given the latest block her approval :)

*****

Lately, I have managed to do quite a lot of basting

and sewing while being the broken-legged passenger...

We are about 45 minutes from

anywhere 'big' so I can get quite a lot done,

as long as I don't look down for too long...

Well, Actually I Have Been Patching...

I worked so hard to get those bags made

for a local shop and completely forgot

that I have been slowly,

(very very slowly!),

working on my rose star hexagons...

3 more finished to go into this quilt.

Did I mention I'm making it single bed size?

Thinking it's for when Baby-Kalico

gets a 'big girl' bed in a few years time.

With any luck I will have it finished by then ;o) 

I only work on these blocks every now and again.

Sometimes I'll get lots of pieces basted while waiting

for a hospital appointment.

Other times, I might manage a few stitches

while watching (the rain delays

during) the Wimbledon tennis.

Somehow, as I try to do more

with my leg, I get less time to do anything else...

*****

And rain! Boy have we had rain...

non-stop rain. And when the sun shines

you can't hang your washing out

because a few hours (minutes!!) later

it WILL rain...

Yes, the UK weather is a sad state of affairs!!

*****

Little people, keep me cheery though!

Baby-Kalico is still toothless,

but we have had all the symptoms

(for weeks now) of teeth! :o(

So for a while now she not been feeling 100%,

but she still manages lots of smiles!

And she never says no to some fun food.

Here she's eating her favourite sweetcorn rings ;)

Not been Patching...

... I've been a bag lady instead!