shamed

I rejoined the fabricholics yahoo group to take part in their NYE mystery and there was chat about all those dreaded UFO's. Up for a challenge I started to drag out what i could lay my hands on without looking for and guess what 27 projects now all on the dining room table. I still have a quilt on the quilting frame to be hand quilted only a couple of rows to go, and I have a quilt in bits on the design wall. Plus heaven knows how many leaders and enders.

I then decided maybe i should actually clear up the piles of mess now scattered all over the floor and came across many orphan blocks, all different sizes all different backgrounds and styles. Those i just popped into another box, maybe I will do something with those at some time.

This purge also found some Japanese quilt magazines I want to sell on eBay, some magazines that I had kept and have marked with quilts I want to make, patterns downloaded from the net and some bought. I found fabric I didn't know I had and it really is too nice to use!

Earlier in the year i catalogued all my books and numbered them, and organised strips into boxes.

So now my computer desk is covered with papers and patterns with barely enough room for a keyboard, and there is a heap of everything else that was lying in a corner now in the middle of the floor.

I suppose I'd better go and do something about it I dread finding more UFO's Happy New Year to all

another finish

This quilt is a basic churn dash ... but with a difference as you see its curved. This is for my grand daughter of 14 hence the mad colours and as you can see another inspection

Finally at last

This is the quilt that has been on my little Grace 11 for almost 2 years. The cat has used it as a hammock all that time !! The had shredded the wadding into holes and I neded up taking it off the frame and leaving it with Susan Taylor a local long armer. As you can see the cat is still inspecting it. this was a 9 patch swap originally using 30's fabrics with an online yahoo group quilting sisters

Short break and doings

I was doing some leaders and enders and turned them into 4 patches, put them up on the design wall and they looked pretty boring, being just all 4 patches. decided to try some HST (half square triangles) made a few up my way!. Really easy cut a strip of fabric in light and one in a contrast, decide the size of finished triangle you want remember to add on the 7/8th ( i cut 4" strips, I don't fiddle about with an !/8th of an inch i'd rather trim)) with a pencil mark of vertical lines every 4" then draw diagonal lines from corner to corner, making where you ended the start of the next diagonal marking so that it zig zags, then stitch 1/4 " either side of your marked line in a continuous line then turn and stitch the other side of the marked line 1/4 " in. With your rotatry cutter cut along all the pencil marks hey presto HSt's quick and easy. Time to play and make a load more 4patches and HST's

I managed to get my Orange Crush quilt back from the long armer ( Susan Taylor) photographs show the finished top and the back of the quilt it is now safely transported to New Zealand. Really pleased with this.

Also completed a disappearing nine patch for my niece to give to her best friend, this is one i was playing around with and didn't finish at the time..

I see Bonnie has another mystery on for Labour weekend , unfortunately I can't start this one with everyone else, I'll be over in England visiting family.

The dogs have been groomed and all ready for the kennels, found a few lumps under baileys 'arm pits' so he wll have to go to the vet when i get back. they don't look like spaniels at the minute. Oh I have blocked the washing machine I had put all the dogs soft toys in the machine to wash and hadn't realised some of them were coming apart, the washing machine was full of little bits of foam ( just shows these child safe toys have filling in them that shouldn't be there) yes the foam has blocked the machine now i need to get someone out to get rid of it all, can't you just there the guy!!

I am really getting tired looking at rain everyday. If the grass gets any longer I'll need to invest in a goat!

Another month

Why does life hurtle by like a rate of knots. All the plans seem to fall by the wayside, I am settling in to the new job well , could do without the long travel to work over an hour is ok in the summer but its gonna be deadly in the winter. Finished the Orange crush quilt .. finally.. I was late starting it with the new job and only settled down to do it this month . I choose a grey for the background , it looks better in real life the colour seems much brighter in this photo.

As soon as i get it back from the longarmer It is going off to Alan in New Zealand, the first quilt I have made him!

Managed a few real nice days this summer and got the work finished round the pond really pleased now with the way the garden has turned out, just the piece behind decking and the dogs to fill out next summer and it will done as far as done goes in a garden.

I need to sort out some of my UFO's most just need quilted, really must knuckle down and put one together this evening, maybe choose one that can be hand quilted i can always take it into work and do it at lunch time, providing it isn't too big.

Want to start the friendship star for Spain as well, but more about that later.

I bid and won 100 x 2" squares on eBay, its only afterwards and u work out that it is really only a FQ's worth, it was real bad value. i paid double what I normally pay for a FQ, only plus is that the squares are all different. Wont do that again. I haven't even done anything with them yet , which makes it even more stupid to buy!!

The world needs to slow down!

I really can't believe yet again another month or two has passed. Life became very hectic, and I seem to be chasing time and never catching it. I have been having fun tho. The week before my birthday Jim took me out on the Goldwing for a birthday surprise. We wove our way through country roads and turned up at a field. Yes I could see what was in the field and I could barely contain my excitement. I immediately knew what the surprise was.

We climbed of the bike and walked over to a building beside the field, and waited outside he had been told to arrive early and indeed we were. Elderly gentleman starts talking , "is this your first time ?" he says. "Yes" says Jim and I in unison. "I do it all the time" says the elderly gentleman. "Wow" says I looking at this guy who wasn't a day under 75 and walking with a stick. "You do" says I. "love it" says he.

Then a few more people arrived all smiling and happy and some do it every week and would do it more often others like me it was a first time, and was given as a gift. Now you are all asking what is it. Clues coming up

We all went to the fence round the field and looked " gosh its smaller than I thought" says I. Rather nice man comes across and says ok we need to give you all a briefing first.

So everyone including those who were regulars and the beginners had a briefing, we were to go down the field in order and as it was such a good day it could take 30 mins. I was third so i trotted off down the field and watched and felt quite sick.

Then my turn came out across the field another briefing and the parachute went on ( it weighed a ton) then instructions how to step in. I stepped in slid down was belted in. more instructions. Then the front plane took off and hauled us up to 3000 feet ... yes you got it , it was a gliding lesson. The tow plane dropped the line and we were gliding in the glider oh myyyy , even when the vertigo kicked in i was going of this is fantastic.

We 'flew' around for about 30 mins catching the wind< i had a go at controls and turned the glider and went up and went down then we finally came into land The instructor took over and very gently put the glider down in the rough field... it was so good I could have gone up again... a great experience and a wonderful gift. This was something on my I want to do before I die list.

The following week on my birthday off we went on the bike again to Slemish which is a 'mountain' or a very high hill depends on your perspective. Another i want to do though I really only wanted to see it and was expecting to walk to the base say very nice and go for a cup of tea. No not Jim after i went this is great etc. he says oh we are going to the top! I took his temperature and no he wasn't sick. and being fairly adventurous i said OK but i didn't like heights and he promised to turn if it really got bad. I thought this will be a gentle sort of amble up the side of this .. NOPE got that wrong we climbed oh let me rephrase that he climbed and he pulled me up I got dragged up, My legs don't go as high as they used to and everything is so stiff, not supple anymore. we climbed the rock face, i muttered mightily at first under my breath and as the climb got steeper and more difficult louder and louder. Each mutter was dismissed by we are nearly there.

we did get to the top and we could see all 6 counties of Ulster and see the islands of Scotland the view was worth everything, till i thought how do we get down! He scrambled down I came down 2/3 of it on my bottom, sliding and manoeuvring my feet to find something solid to step onto.

We did make it to the bottom and another tick of the list.

The next day I started a new job 1 hour drive to and from work adds on a lot of hours and not mcuh sewing gets done.

I did finish topping a cot quilt and I normally would quilt these myself but the baby is now born so I will leave it with the longarmer this weekend. It is only small but if i dont the baby will be a teenager before he gets it.

Where did the week go

Last weekend I went to a QGI ( Quilters Guild of Ireland) retreat. I left home at 5 am and drove to co. Tipperary not sure how far but I arrived at 9.15 am in time for my first day workshop with Sally Schneider. The work shop was on woven stars and i really liked this. Browns aren't my colour but I decided id take down autumn shades to do my workshop in.boy did I ever get the green wrong. I was trying to do browns, rusts and muted green... I'm going to have to do the two green blocks again maybe in a golden yellow.

The sashing forms a star really like this idea where the sashing forms another pattern and makes the quilt look intricate.

Sewed most of the day and generally had a good time. Saturday was another class with Sally.
However, in the morning I had my shower . Well the first thing that happened was that because I wear glasses and am as blind as a bat without them i turned on the sower and stepped in ... onto this soft wet thing. yep it was the bath mat... what a stupid place to put it .inside the shower!.
I flung the sodden mass out onto the floor and turned the shower up full .the shower head shot up vertically and washed the whole of the opposite wall in the en suite. BY now I'm wrestling with the shower head trying to get it to point down and trying to turn the tap down..
I was exhausted nearly had to lie down .

Gathered all my bits and headed over to the next class with Sally all about borders.

This is really very simple but again looks difficult.
She was so full of ideas.
She suggested for scrap quilts to cut up a FQ along the widest part in the following strips
1.5 "
2"
2.5"
3"
3.5"
5"

This uses up most of the FQ what a clever idea especially for these FQ's we no longer like

Monday and Thursday of this week I had two job interviews , the first interview was relaxed and went well, the second was the interview from hell, I could barely string a coherent sentence together. Dreadful.. On Friday I got word to say I got both jobs!!,
They are both 60 miles away, they both are in the university, one was easy the other more challenging. Guess which one I took? The one that is gonna send me nuts lol .. I like a challenge.

Talking of which I started the Orange Crush mystery quilt with Bonnie, and did half of clue 1 and I thought no i want something different and instead of using cream background I am doing mine in grey I now have about 1/3 done and still step 2 to do So far behind

Will have to knuckle down next week as I am going to France on Sunday for 2 weeks.


Now I am almost embarrassed about this next bit. I was looking for something in one of the bedroom cupboards and thought ah great there

those 3 boxes they will be perfect for the strips
I'm cutting as I was short of them I couldn't figure out where they were.
I opened them up and they were full of fabric. I had not missed this fabric, I had not looked for this fabric, It is all 1/2 yards, all hand dyed, all colours. I can't even remember why or when I bought it all. I don't even know if I had a project in mind when i did buy it.

Scarey!!