February Update

Being away from home means not a great deal has been done on the sewing side of life.

Quilting the Pineapple top has taken a great deal longer than I thought it would, not only because of my wanderings, but it also because it has become a battle of wills between me and the quilt top!!  Until now I seem to have been the loser, but finally I can see an end to it all!  The sheer size of the quilt has made it almost impossible to feed through the throat of my machine as most of the quilting has been on the diagonal, and all the pulling and tugging causes the arthritis in my hands to flare up, so it's been a very slow process!

I think that perhaps 'straight lines' was not the most intellegent choice of quilting for something this size as I've ended up with quite a lot of  rather wonky lines , but they are my wonky lines and.......they are all finished ! Just the borders left to do so hopefully it'll be done in next couple of days and then there'll only be a trillion or so threads to bury and the binding to get on with!

All things considered, my target of one finish a month was disappearing fast,so I took some time out and finished another  UFO -  small yes, but at least I have a finish for February :-)

My mini quilt version of  Kelly's Flower Garden Pillow.

You can find the tutorial on Kelly's blog if you're interested.Can't remember how long this one has been hiding in the cupboard, but the date on the tute will give you some idea:-)

I'm also adding a couple more items to Myra's PhD Challenge as I need to tackle something smaller and easier to finish in March after  all the push and shove lately, so, remember this post ?  Well, not long after, DGD decided that the bedroom was not to her liking and it changed it to pink!  D9P really did  disappear into the cupboard and there it has stayed. I'm hoping to finish it in the next couple of weeks as its on a promise to Project Linus! 

Next it's to do something with these - Soot & Ashes by Cheri

I did finish all 15 blocks, put them together as per the instructions, didn't like it, so I took them apart - as one does!  Time they went back together again I think!!

Mixed Bag = Long Post !

The time has come, the walrus said ................but with apologies to Lewis Carroll, it's time to think of fewer things ! I seem to be trying to balance more than usual at the moment so - unfortunately a couple of items have been shelved and 'disappeared' from my side bar!


I am going to stick with 'Once Upon a Time' and 'Verandah Views' BoMs for the moment and keep 'Quilters Blessings' until the end of February, when there is a trip to the UK scheduled - it will be easier to cart about as I am using just the one colour thread ! Rapunzel is finished



though I still haven't finished the January 'Noah's Ark' block ,it is so tiny that I can barely see the markings even with the specs on (!!) in the kind of 'day'light that we're having at the moment so it'll have to wait for a bright sunny day! I need to limit my stitchery so's I can try and teach myself to needle turn applique before I get to the borders on the NYBs - Ahem !! any tips/hints would be very welcome !!!

Sunday was a 'play'day so I went to this link and made two Kidlets!

with William as usual keeping an eye on things !! The green one is slightly smaller than the pattern as I only had a FQ of the novelty fabric and check out my selvedge pocket!! Never let it be said that we are behind the fashion here in France!! This might count as my Gift of the Month for January and go to one of my quilting friends with a couple of fat quarters - what do you think ?

Finally, my first finish for 2009!

An almost photo of my first attempt at a raw edge applique quilt - could also be my last ! Rather rumpled I'm afraid as it had been packed away waiting for a fine day, then the sun came out momentarily a little earlier , so I grabbed it (complete with creases!!)threw it on the (wet) grass, a quick click then just made it back indoors before the next hail shower!!! It had been packed up in this bag

made from a spare block that 'appeared' because the background fabric was too light when compared to the other blocks - so waste not want not, which I guess is everyone's motto in these difficult times! The pattern is a slightly modified Chook Shed pattern from Australian Patchwork & Quilting ( thought I'd better mention the modification, don't want anyone thinking that they've changed to speaking French 'Down Under' :-) )

A New Start !

I was up to date with my Noah's Ark stitchery until a couple of days ago, then the January block appeared, but as it is such a tiny thing I am sure it'll get done before too long - then just one more to go and time to put it all together - which brings me to one of my new starts!




I (as well as lots of others!) have found a lovely stitchery BoM at Capricorn Quilts which is going to be based on fairy tales - how nice is that- and I've decided to sew along with these to replace Noah's Ark ! I never thought I would admit to having enjoyed ' hand sewing' as much as this :-)





This is the second series I have found by the talented and generous Bea, I also stumbled across her Quilters' Blessings blocks about half way through the year. Unfortunately, there was a time limit to their availabilty and I missed quite a few, but once again, a very generous quilter came to my rescue and sent me the missing ones - thank you Annelies !! Please go visit Annelies' blog , she does some amazing stichery!



I am well behind with Quilters' Blessings as I have only managed 5 ( 2 more since the photo!), but will keep going and use them to fill in any spare time , but my main priority is to keep up with the monthly postings if I can !!






Another new start is that I've joined in Kathy's Gift of the Month challenge. This sounded like a great idea as I was full of good intention last Christmas to make gifts for everyone and as I left it until the last minute (as one does!!) so very little got done because of my various health issues!! Go along and have a look - maybe it will help you too!!



My third new start is the Shipshewana Amish quilt by Sentimental Stiches - I've made 2 blocks , but am a bit worried that there have only been 4 so far! I know that Gayle has been having some computer issues and really hope that all is sorted for her soon - otherwise what am I going to do with these









and all of this !!!




WOW! Only one photo turned by Blogger today !!

September Deadlines !

I have been sewing flat out lately to meet the September deadlines for various swaps . I managed the Birthday Block swap and Kate's ATC Challenge with plenty of time to spare but only just made it with my FPC for Brigitte ! What I hadn't managed was to complete my Journal Quilt for the challenge I joined on Suzanne's blog some weeks ago and thereby hangs a tale !

The challenge was to make 3 journal quilts over 3 months all depicting 'Nature' - now I have never made a journal quilt, managed a couple of journal pages a while back, but not a quilt, so this became a double challenge! All was going well on a landscape I'd put together and was busily thread painting and near to completing it when disaster stuck in the shape of William

(innocently !) aided and abetted by DH !

One rule I 've always had is no drinks allowed in my sewing room other than water - until Disaster Day that is!! DH, thinking he was doing me a great favour appeared in my room bearing a cup of coffee and because I was engrossed in what I was doing, I said to put it down and thank you very much, meaning to take it out again once I'd finished!! What I failed to see was where he had put it down (next to my JP) and that I also had a second visitor - William! Well, we all know what happened next - Will jumped up onto the work surface , collided with the mug of coffee which promptly changed my landscape from a quilt in progress to a soggy mess and no amount of soaking or gentle persuasion made any difference to it , and into the bin it went !

My own fault you are saying for having the coffee there - and yes, I do agree with you as this is typical of what happens when you break rules !! It still didn't alter the fact that I was one JP short and running out of time. Having made my apologies to Suzanne and the rest of the Group thinking I would never get anything done in time, especially as I had no heart to try another landscape - I suddenly decided yesterday to change tack slightly and came up with this

Not quilted or bound yet ( but it will be in the next day or so) a little fun item to represent the bounty and colours of Nature. Raw edge applique and some TP, not quite what I started out to make in the beginning, but I am quite pleased with it and have managed to post about it hours before the deadline! Phew!!!

And before I forget yet again (!!) I must say Thank You to Jo in Tas for the lovely parcel of Christmas goodies that arrived last week after her give away! Christmas FQs, ric rac, buttons, bells and the smallest hanger ever ! I can certainly see an extra something in the stocking for one of the younger family members thanks to Jo !!

Blogger's done it again - turned the picture and won't space between the paragraphs!!!!