Glorious Afternoon

The view

We spotted these fungi growing happily in a pile of muck

Having discovered one lot we found several more fungi and lots of thistles.

Having had such a yuckky week today hasn't turned out too bad after all.

We went to town this morning, bought a wedding gift, for my cousin's wedding tomorrow, no point in buying these things too early is there?:-) I have been unable to rouse my hairdresser so will be resorting to a quick trim of the fringe and hope for the best!

After town the nightmare of food shopping, and horror of horrors its half term the place was crawling with people and kids, it then took half an hour to get out of the car park, I abandoned all hope of getting petrol and headed for home.

After an extremely late lunch we took the pups for a walk, only to find the field we usually walk in has been filled with big beasties (cows) so we headed off to a really old abandoned quarry. It was so worth it I sat on the top of a small hill (maybe 10ft!) enjoying the view, listening to the birds, and the odd tractor spreading till on newly harvested fields, smelling the wonderful coconutty smell of the gorse and the heady scent of hawthorn it was bliss. We saw rabbits and hares along with fox and deer tracks, and discovered several fungi in a sheltered area growing out of a pile of muck!

I really wanted to get a few pix and cursed myself for not bringing my camera, but fortunately I had my mobile phone with me so used the camera on that. I am really impressed with the quality of these pix I had no idea they would be this good. I thought pix taken with it would only be any good on the phone.

We had a little adventure on the way home, I got stuck in the mud at the entrance. Fortunately we had found a plastic tube which we were bringing back for use in Dan's latest den. I had to take my feet out of my wellies one at a time and balance on said plastic tube whilst Dan pulled my wellies out, which were in danger of disappearing into the mire! Note to self 'be more careful where you place your feet next time'!

The to do list still remains to do! I have however, got all the place mats ready for quilting but with so little time left before the show the only quilting they will get is in the ditch. That is tonight's little job. I have sewn the blocks together for the table runners and have cut out the wadding (batting) and backing fabric. I just need to pin them all together and do a little quilting, again simple in the ditch will be all I have time for, hopefully I will have time for this on Sunday or I'm going to be up all night.

Not done any!

Oh heck its Tuesday evening and I still haven't tackled anything on my to do list. I have spent all my time doing paperwork and finding info for people about the quilt show, looking after family walking and playing with puppies etc... oh and there was the occasional game of spider solitaire.
I think I might switch the phone and computer off tomorrow and do some sewing. However, before I start I will have to tidy my studio again. How on earth can one woman attract so much mess and clutter in only a few short days?
I really am not having a good day, I took my youngest to football practise and thought I would do some knitting for the new niece, only to find, once I have sorted myself out, had the obligatory chat with other mums and it is too late to go home, I had taken the wrong needles. So spent the next 45mins watching several 12 yr old boys kicking a bag of wind around a field of grass, yawn. If I have something to do I don't mind sitting waiting and occasionally looking up and pretending that I was looking at the opportune moment of son's glorious triumph! But oh to be forced to sit and do nothing, now stick me in my studio with plenty to do and I can do nothing for hours on end! Ahhh human nature..... or is it just me?

Finished

I finished Charlotte's quilt on Thurdsay night, whilst watching Grey's Anatomy! Will post a pic after the quilt show. Spent Friday snoozing, I stayed up waaayy too late on Wednesday trying to finish the quilt, sons were watching the football so I was relegated to my studio, I got into the groove and didn't want to go to bed! It always hits me a few days later then I get to pay for it.

The puppies have had their jabs and are now able to go for walks so we have been going for short walks all week which probably contributed to the tiredness on Friday too. I haven't walked regularly since our last dog Zak died 2 1/2 years ago, I have to say I didn't realise how much I have missed it. My body has missed the regular exersise and I have put on waay too much weight.

So which project do I tackle next? I have some of the blocks made for the charity quilt here to make into place mats and a table runner for sale at the show, hardly an inspiring prospect but it has to be done. Why oh why do I put these things off then have them sitting looking at me at the last minute?!

My current to do list make:
table runners x2
place mats x 8
play mat for baby Beccy
cot quilt for Beccy

Oh thats not too bad and I have a couple of months on the cot quilt Beccy is only a month old so will not need the cot quilt just yet!

Oh dear its been over a week since I last updated, I have been busy so haven't had time.
Interestingly the blog hasn't caused extra procrastination so far, as I have been doing much more work than usual!

I have been busy with Charlotte's birthday quilt, it is her birthday today but the quilt isn't quite finished. I still need to hand stitch the binding in place and at 86" square it takes some sewing, I'm not a fan of hand sewing hence the delaying tactic/procrastination :-)

Region 15W of the Quilters' Guild are holding a Quilt Show at Cartmel Priory - 'All Quilts Bright & Beautiful" - in aid of Cartmel Priory and St Anthony's Hall (QG HQ) on the 5th - 8th June 2008. So I have been busy getting more of the last minute details for the show sorted.
It is likely I will have even less time in the next two weeks for either quilting or blogging, I'm sooo looking forward to June 9th :-) and am going to buy myself a lrg bottle of alcohol, a lrg bar of chocolate and put my feet up! Oh and Charlotte's quilt is going in the show so I have to get it finished.
Here is a link for the show http://www.furnessshorelinequilters.co.uk/cpqs/default.htm If you are in the area do come and join us.

I managed a day at the Loch Lomond Quilt show in Scotland at the weekend, will go for 2 days next time if I get the chance, or get there at 10am and use the bus. We found it difficult to fit into one day as we managed to get lost several times, so we didn't get to see all the exhibits which was a shame, as the ones we did see were all excellent. Janice Gunner's Shibori work was superb I left her exhibition wanting to get home and have a go. I think I will schedule some time for that on the 10th June, hangover permitting!

RBR III finished. It looks better in the flesh I'm not good a photography its a bit hit and miss with me and the camera. Its amazing how long it takes me to make and add a hanging sleeve and label to a quilt. The blog has helped keep me on track and pushed me to get it finished as I feel obliged to report on what I have been up to even if no one is interested!

RBR (blue) and RBR II (lemon) They are all the same size not that you can tell that with my awful photography:-)

Working on number 3 has given me new ideas of other ways to use this design.

But first, my daughter's quilt is waiting, no begging to be finished, its her birthday next week so I really ought to get on with it. I've got it out but am procrastinating about finishing it, I do so hate getting started on things, once I am begun it is usually ok but oh the thought of beginning. It is a double bed size so will need squaring up on the floor. I will have to vacuum the floor first, which involves bringing the vacuum down from upstairs and I haven't vacuumed up there yet. Which begs the question do I finish (that's a laugh should say start) upstairs before I bring it down or do I ignore the carpets up there? Aha but it is time to make something to eat, after supper it will be 'too late' to start and tomorrow it will all begin again!! "And what is left to do?" I hear you ask, squaring up the binding, hanging sleeve and label is all, so how long can that take?

On a positive note I have tidied one very small area of my table in my what.....? Do I call it a sewing room, a studio sounds so much more glamorous and like work might actually get done in it, but my room is not in the least glamorous and not much gets done here, apart from a lot of thinking, oh ok procrastination. But sewing room sounds so mundane, I will go for glamour and have a studio, just hope I can remember to call it that! But will it enable me to do more work?

On that happy note I will go make some food and listen to the archers!

A recently finished ufo. I started this a few years back at LVQS in Lancashire, it sat in my ufo box until we had a ufo show and tell at wordsworth quilters. I felt the urge to finish it when I got home.
I would like to get a few more of my ufos/wips finished this year, although some are forever destined to be samples:-) Fortunately most of them are small hanging size I seem able to finish large projects, it is probably the skinflint in me, having used all that fabric I have to finish the quilt! Though now I think about it one king sized quilt did take rather a few years!
My current major wip is a double bed quilt for my daughter's birthday in a couple of weeks, it is just waiting for me to bind and label it. She ordered/commissioned a quilt 3 years ago, though I only began to make it last year, it took time to design, she wanted pink I don't(didn't) do pink!!

So far its working

So far so Good!

I've been working again today doing much less procrastinating.
Rag-bag roses 3: I finished off the satin stitching. Then dyed some fabric for the borders and backing, unfortunately the dryer refused to work so I am now waiting for them to air dry. I had just put 3metres of black fabric for another project in the washer too, and its just started to rain, are the gods against me:)

I guess I could do a little housework whilst I wait for the fabric to dry but thats boring, so I will endeavour to learn a little more about blogging instead.

Day 2:
I feel I have to do some stitching now so I have something to put on the blog so maybe this will end the procrastination, one can but hope :) Today i was inspired to begin to satin stitch around the stems of rag-bag roses, tomorrow I will tackle the roses.

Tigger and Trixie, Tigger is in the forefront Trixie cannot normally sit still so we don't have many pix of her yet!

It begins

Welcome to my blog.

I've finally decided to take the plunge and start a blog.

Will this cause even more procrastination or will it inspire me to actually create some quilts and post them here? We will see.

I will begin with my current wip (work in progress) make that one of my current wips :)

This is the 3rd of my Rag-Bag Roses. I made the original in 2003 for a contest in Popular Patchwork magazine. After I made it I wanted to do it using yellows and also reds. I made the yellow one in 2004, then got bored of it and never quite got beyond cutting out the background fabric for the red one. With hindsight I realise I should have made them all differently then would perhaps not have got bored quite so quickly :).

All are made using hand dyed recycled fabrics.

Now I just need to learn how to upload pictures.