Have I mentioned before that I'm a bit of a night owl? I feel sure if I haven't actually said it, you may have picked it up along the way. Last night I crept into bed after midnight sometime. I don't know the exact time - I didn't look. That way - if questioned by DH, I can honestly say "Ohhh, I don't know what time it was". Why was I up so late? Well, I finished the quilting on my scrap quilt, and I thought I'd just pop the binding on. There isn't a clock in the sewing room, and it's easy to get carried away.
There is something of a method to my madness though, Marty's friend Peter is flying in on Thursday, and will be staying overnight before they head off together on Friday. This means that I need to convert the sewing room into the guest room, and I don't want it to interfere with my sewing time at all. Now that the machine work is done on this quilt, I can spend a couple of days de-cluttering, folding away the cutting table and sewing table etc. and making the room feel like somewhere you'd want to sleep.
But anyways, Yay! the binding is on the quilt! I got it done a little earlier than expected, so I just need to write the directions now and make a few 'in progress' pieces. I can relax just a bit. I have drawn up two other quilts, both of which I've pretty much decided which fabrics I'll be using. I'll give myself a little bit of a rest and send the drawings off to see what sort of response they get. Super fun!
Thank you everyone for your fun commentaries on your footwear. Clearly it takes all kinds to make a world, and we've got all the footwear types covered. I never expected to be at the medium-high end of the shoe collecting scale, as my Mum has more than one hundred pairs. She's someone who travels a lot, and frequently brings home a lot of pairs. Because she seldom wears them out, she has a LOT. So I guess my perspective on a lot of shoes is slightly skewed. However, like many of you have stated, if I could find the perfect shoe that fit all occasions, I'd gladly trade them all in. Well ... maybe except my patent strappy sandals ... I love them just too much!
Also, thank you all for your tips and recipes for using up the lemons. I know I'm going to love each and every one of them. I'd never heard of Lemon Bars before, they sound super yummy, I think they may be first on the list. Also the lemonade is right up there. I'm going to get some soda water tomorrow, how nice it'd be to have the extra fizz in there.
Well, that's it from me, I hope you all had a great Mother's Day, just like me! x o x
Tomorrow is Mothers Day, so I'd like to wish all the Mums out there a wonderful day, I hope you're able to spend time with those you love. I spent this evening with my Mum, as she's going to be out all day tomorrow. I love and appreciate her so much. I'm lucky to have her.
My Mum is always shopping for me and the kids, and she bought me some gifts for Mothers Day too. A lovely dressing gown and a cute pair of shoes which I've pictured.Now, I wanted to check something with you all (this is completely non-quilt related, so here's your chance to look away!) ... I have a friend Jane, and we often lunch and shop together. This one particular day I wanted to find a pair of shoes, and Jane wanted to know how many pairs I have. I thought about it and told her, "I don't know, how many do you have?". She answered that she has four pairs of shoes. This surprised me a little, as I hadn't really paid attention to her footwear. I asked her if she was sure, because I felt reasonably confident I'd have more like forty four. I was pretty close - I checked at that time, and I had forty five. I was thinking it wasn't too extravagant, because I've probably taken almost a decade to collect them.She and her hubby must have discussed this at length, because the next time we saw them at a party, he asked me about it, he couldn't believe it, and ever since it has been a source of fun and jokes for us all. But what I'd like to know is this: Which one of us is more like the norm? How many pairs do you have? I'm curious to know, just for interest, and I'm not encouraging excess.
I think tomorrow I'll have a Flylady session in my closet. It feels like the right thing to do :-)
Ohhh my word, our tiny lemon tree is groaning with lemons this year! This is only the second year this tree has actually borne fruit, it's really young, and it's going gangbusters!
Because I've never really had so many lemons to play with before, my lemon recipe repertoire is extremely limited. Does anyone have a favourite lemon recipe they'd like to share? I'd like to try real lemonade sometime soon, so if anyone has some tips for that too, they'd be much appreciated :-)
On the quilting front, I've started quilting on the latest scrap quilt this afternoon. I pieced the back last night, I used some fabric I got in Paducah last year. One half is a cute blue toile, and the other half is a Kaye England print, I think it was Travels in Time, it looks like scenes from Gone with the Wind. Loving this stashbusting! More quilt news as it breaks! *vbs*
First up, a huge thank you to my amazing friend Linda. I received a wonderful parcel in the post today, and it contained the yummiest goodies. There were three charm packs of fabric, two of them wonderful reproductions and one lovely Moda. I especially love the Rocky Mountain collection, Linda knows my taste inside and out, she's entirely fabulous. She also knows that I plan to make a Double Wedding Ring quilt someday and she sent me a book by John Flynn with the most wonderful techniques. Another big thank you!
Also in the mail, but not pictured were wonderful brochures from Disney World and the Kennedy Space Centre. We plan to travel there next year, and since she was there last month she has done some intelligence gathering for us :-) Gosh we can't wait until next year! Thank you a million times Linda!
And here is the completed top of the quilt I've been working on. This morning I was thinking about whether or not I should post the picture here, as I was reasonably sure my contract with the publisher stated that I shouldn't be sharing pictures of a quilt once it had been commissioned. So, I had a chat with my editor this afternoon "Hi Marianne :-)" and she assures me it's fine to share my pictures. It's a relief to know with clarity what I can and can't do, I feel sure you all know what a minefield copyright issues can be.
Back to the quilt top - when I drew it up I decided I didn't want to border the quilt, and I'm still happy with that decision. I will bind it with the burgundy fabric I used in the setting triangles, and hopefully that will finish it off nicely. I don't have any more of the nine patches left that Linda and I made, it was so much fun exchanging them with her. I love seeing the fabrics and wondering about the other projects they were in. I know the patches I made had fabrics from my first quilt in them. Surely there can't be any more of that left in my scrap boxes now?? Another thing I like to do when I'm scrap piecing is to use up left over bobbin threads and other odd cottons from other projects. It's going to sound nutty, but I get all happy when I run out of odd threads I've accumulated :-)
On a final note, the current issue of Australian Patchwork and Quilting has one of my projects in it. It's the Applique Special Vol 15 No 8 June 2007. My Winchester Weave quilt is in there, not applique at all, but very happy to be included. There should be three more projects in the coming months - very happy days indeed!
As you may recall, I had plans to finish up the top of my quilt yesterday. It didn't happen. Somehow I managed to put my back out, and there was very little of anything happening at home. It's rare for me to have a sore back, and never quite like this, so I have new sympathies for people with back problems. I think I may have just slept funny or something, and I'm sure it's just muscular. Today with the help of some Voltaren I'm feeling a good deal better.
So, instead of quilting, I was able to work on my knitting. I had already finished the second of my pair of socks. I was thrilled that on the second one I was able to execute the kitchener stitch perfectly, so the finish on the toe was wonderful. My joy was so complete that I was brave enough to unpick the toe of the first sock and have another go, which worked out perfectly too! Happy days! Actually, if the truth be told, I did such a determined job of securing the two slipped stitches I had to snip the last row of stitches off entirely and then start pulling back the stitches ... but it wasn't too much of a horror story, and the finish was worth it! But shhhh ... don't tell the knitting police!
I eyeballed the last of the ball of wool, and thought I may have enough to make a matching pair of mitts. See that little scrap there - that's all I had left over at the end. I have been so lucky thus far not to have run out on any of my projects, however I'm not going to get all cocky, I don't want to attract any bad wool karma!
I have decided that I will give the socks and mitts to my Mum for Mother's Day, along with some Chrysanthemums. I know she'll appreciate them on cold days at the football. Well, that's it from me today - have a great one! x o x
As you can see, Holly has a lot going on in her life, she really doesn't have time to help me piece on my quilt! It's just all sleep, all the time. Actually, that's not entirely true - when she is awake, she's very energetic, much to the other cat's chagrin. Can you believe how much she's grown? When we took her to the vet not so long ago he told us she's going to be a big girl, that would explain why her tail doesn't seem to fit right now :-)
I'm still piecing away on the current scrap quilt. I'm well past half way now. I'm enjoying it more now that I can see it coming together. Funny tho, this picture doesn't look that much different to the recent picture. Honest ... it's getting bigger ... trust me! If I'm a really good girl, I may be able to finish the top this evening. If not then, definitely tomorrow. It would be nice to get quilting on it next week. Let's see how I go.
This transmission (doesn't that sound official :-)) is coming to you from the computer in the study. I feel all out of sorts using this computer, it doesn't have my favourite bookmarks, and it just doesn't feel right. My laptop is still unhappy, though it sounds like the problem has been found. It works okay when the wireless networking is turned off, but goes haywire when it's turned on. So, yesterday I frantically backed up all my work on it, which was such a relief. I didn't realise, but it had been a couple of months since I'd done it. Amazing how time flies. Anyways, if a few laptop problems are all the worries I have, I've got it pretty good right?
Well, that's it from me, I must get back to sewing. I'm looking forward to catching up on all your blogs too. Be sure to have a great weekend! x o x
My laptop was unhappy. I don't know much about computers, so I booked it in for a service call with the husband. Yes ... I booked it in. This morning it spent some shed time with him while I was at the quilt store.
I explained to him that it was unhappy, and when the laptop is unhappy, wifey is unhappy, and I can't create when I'm unhappy. Oddly enough, he understood.
I'm now way behind with my blog reading, so I promise to catch up with you all really soon. This evening we have parent teacher night at Amy's school, and then she has dancing. I hope we can fit dinner in somewhere.
Be good, and do some stitching for me! x o x
During the school holidays I was trying to come up with a table runner project that I could share with my students. I wanted one that would use up scraps, wasn't too hard, and of course that looked cute.
After playing around with an applique project unsuccessfully, I had this idea this evening. It's not like it's ground breaking or anything, but I think it'll look really cute made up with scrap greens and backgrounds, and would look wonderful done in a Christmas theme. I think I'm going to call it "Among the Evergreens".
I'll use my 2.5" strips to create the half square triangles, so the squares and tri's will be 2" finished. I don't know that I'll have the time (with the other quilt on the go) but it would be nice if I could make this up for my Mum. If you like it, go ahead and make it, and be sure to share pictures :-)
Vickie W asked yesterday about the finished size of the squares in my other project. I'm sorry I couldn't reply to you personally as your email address doesn't show up, but the finished size of the squares is 1.5". Hope that helps - but I'm sure any size would work great too.
Have I mentioned before that I'm a bit of a night owl? I feel sure if I haven't actually said it, you may have picked it up along the way. Last night I crept into bed after midnight sometime. I don't know the exact time - I didn't look. That way - if questioned by DH, I can honestly say "Ohhh, I don't know what time it was". Why was I up so late? Well, I finished the quilting on my scrap quilt, and I thought I'd just pop the binding on. There isn't a clock in the sewing room, and it's easy to get carried away.
