Tuesday 27 October 2009

My sewing machine loves me.

Cos i was a good Mummy and gave her a clean.



It was only because i was finding the squeak really annoying but don't tell her i said that.

She is purring with happiness now. She loves me.

Sunday 25 October 2009

Momo on the prairie.

My cold turned into Pharyngitis (i think i might have just made up that spelling!) so rather than doing all the things I'm supposed me to be doing i felt perfectly justified in starting a new quilt. Oh, and spending a whole weekend watching a Little House on the Prairie box set!

I had a Momos Wonderland jelly roll and layer cake that i bought when i was feeling the need for those cute lil packages of fabric, and have been wracking my brains for weeks trying to come up with a pattern that would make maximum usage of the fabric. I told Curly Boy and within about 5 minutes he'd come up with a pattern idea!! Yay for Curly Boy!

So I've chopped up my jelly roll, my layer cake and some yard goods (that's what Ma Ingalls calls it!) and I'm all set to go.

My half square triangles are trimmed and ready



and I've even tried a block to see whether i like it, and now just need to park myself at the sewing machine for a bit.



I will when I find out whether Laura and Jack the dog have both caught rabies from Jasper the raccoon!

Saturday 17 October 2009

Aaaaaaaaaahhh...CHOOOOOO!...

Had the mother of all colds this week so although my heart has been very willing, my body hasn't. I've achieved little of what i set out to do but luckily i haven't missed any deadlines!

Mostly I've been obsessing about my Dear Jane quilt and luckily i got a few things done last weekend that i never showed you.

First up, Curly Boys' quilt is done!





Here's the back.



He loves it and is very pleased to have a quilt of his very own - finally. I figured he's worth it for putting up with a house full of fabric and always being covered in thread ends!

I got some bee blocks done.









October is my month in 2 bees and the blocks are coming in thick and fast now so although the posties are still threatening to go on a national strike, for this week at least i love my postman.

For my Eurovision quilt i planned on sashing the blocks with unbleached cotton and Curly Boy came up with the idea of making mini log cabins for the corners - genius!
These were GOOD fun and are 2.5", so will finish up at 2" square. I think i might just be tempted to keep going and make a whole quilt out of these. Would be a great way of getting rid of all those stupidly small pieces that i insist on saving!

Monday 12 October 2009

Dear Jane....

Dear Jane....

I seriously wonder whether you were as mad as a lump of wood when you make your quilt in 1863



...and i wonder whether I'm also mad as a lump of wood to even contemplate making one now.
Now the excitement has worn off fear has set in!

Yours,

Flossy.

Tuesday 6 October 2009

I think summer's over...*sigh*

The weather has really turned wintry this week....and rainy....bbboooo!! I guess summer is finally over.
It feels really strange getting home from work and it’s already starting to get dark, and although I hate winter with a passion I do find that when the days start getting shorter I’m strangely comforted by it.

I can also tell it’s winter as Cliff Richard has crawled out of the woodwork and is starting to do the chat show rounds – just like he does EVERY year about this time. I apologise to all you Cliff Richard fans out there, but i really dislike that man. I have absolutely no grounds to dislike him, but i just can't help it. Even more than Kerry Katona and that’s saying something (for those of you in the UK you’ll know who she is, for those of you in the US you probably have no idea who she is and i wouldn’t bother wasting your time googling her!).

Anyway, back to a much more interesting subject - my ‘To do’ list for this week was to: Make placement for Flickr place mat swap and work on Curly boys quilt.

The place mat will have to remain a secret until the recipient has received it so i can’t show you that, but i can show you curly Boys quilt top.



He has been pouting for months for a quilt and i have been able to use the excuse that it’s summer and that it’s too warm for one but as i can’t use that one anymore i figured I’d better crack on with it.
I can’t remember whether he looked through my books or whether i threw some suggestions at him (not literally, as he’d have thrown them back!) but we arrived at the Colour wheel quilt. He’s an arty boy (with a degree in Fine Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago) so it’s perfect for him. Colourful but not too girly, and if he should ever forget colour theory he can just look down on his lap and he’ll have the answer! It's a bit heavy on the aquas but for him to snuggle up in, and spill his dinner down, it will be fine.

The instructions said i needed something like 7 ½ yards of fabric. I thought i was being clever and knew better and only bought 5, so i am short of fabric for the back and as that particular charcoal grey was a one-off i can’t even get anymore. Serves me right really!!

So, I’ll be bodging the back with stripes and pretending that that was my intention all along.

Sunday 4 October 2009

Birthday weekend.

This weekend was my birthday weekend!

It got off to a nice start with a trip to Katy's on Thursday so we talk about fabric and quilts for hours...and we did just that (in between 76 cups of tea and a bacon sandwich....Mmmmmm!)
She even got me a birthday pressie. Thank you Katy!



The rest of the weekend involved presents....



.....eating Brazilian food, Thai food and Hello Kitty cake...



...and hours and hours (and hours!) of hand sewing 1" bias binding while watching the Japanese Grand Prix.



With a bit of work on a new little project thrown in.



Weekends don't get much better than this!