A sewing day at last.

Today's been a busy old day. I only had a couple of hours sleep on Friday night so I had a lie in this morning. Just what I needed and it meant that when I finally woke up I had loads of energy. I had some chores I needed to get done including catching up with my ironing but I had promised myself some sewing time.

I had an ironing mountain that had taken on the proportions of Mount Everest so I desperately needed to reduce this. I spent the early part of the day ironing. I had already done a couple of hours on Saturday but there was a lot of shirts to be done. I ironed for an hour and a half after which I needed to take Scamp out for his walk. The last few days have been wet and yesterday we had to cut Scamp's walk short as it got very wet and he couldn't cope in the wind. 

Today we managed to take a long walk over Wandsworth Common. The weather was dry and warm and lots of families were out. The leaves are all on the turn so the colours are looking beautiful ranging from greens to reds, oranges, yellows and browns. 

Once home and after lunch I got my machine set up and was ready to make a start. I want to finish the Star Trek quilt top this month. I thought I had finished all the blocks but when I got the project bag out I realised I still had two blocks to do and had to sew the border on the central block. I was sure I would remember how the blocks went together so got straight on with a block. Turns out that my memory wasn't so good so I had to rip out several seams on the first block. Never mind I finally finished all the blocks.

The blocks finish at 24 inches. I laid them out on the bed. The central block is just one fabric piece with a border but the other 8 blocks are pieced. There is sashing to be added and a border. Scamp came to help take the photo but when the doorbell went he disappeared in a blur (top left hand corner of the photo).  I thought the quilt top might be too dark but instead it is very bright and cheerful. Tomorrow evening I will add the sashing and hopefully the border. This will be a large quilt.

As I've been busy this week I haven't bothered getting the sewing machine out. Instead i've been sewing hexi flowers for my grandmother's garden quilt. It started will a red central flower and each row going out is the next colour in the rainbow. I am up to indigo or purple. I need 30 flowers for this round. So far I have made 18. I've got several more hexis made but need to sew them into flowers. I was working on that before I started this post and will do a couple more later.

I hate they way the camera changes the colour of the fabric. All of these are various shades of purple but in the photo they look brown, pink, well just about anything but purple. I must take a picture of progress so far.

I have also been knitting. I'm working on a jumper for John but in between I've been using up scraps of double knitting yarn to knit a blanket for a dog or cat at Battersea dog and cats home. It is very relaxing as it is all knit.. no purl rows, no pattern just knit knit knit.

Each band of colour is 10 rows. I only started this last week so it is growing quickly. Last week I decided to try and knit or sew for at least 15 minutes a day. This is so relaxing to do it has been my way of winding down after a day at work. It should be finished by the end of this coming week.

So my sewing day has been very productive. All blocks finished for the Star Trek quilt top and the sashing and border all cut out and ready to add. Quiet hand sewing making hexis and stitching them into flowers. Just another 12 flowers to make and I can add the next row to the quilt.

I hope you've had time for some sewing this weekend and the the weather where you are has been good to you. Here in London there is a weather warning for heavy rain and high winds overnight and into tomorrow. That will make the morning commute to work interesting!


Lyndsey