New plans, old ideas

I hope you all enjoyed a peaceful and relaxing Easter holiday. Normally I have the two week university break to enjoy my sewing, walking and reading but this year I had agreed to do some extra teaching and discovered that it took place over the holiday break. I've made a note to myself to be more careful about checking dates so I don't miss out on sewing time.

The break was very pleasant but unfortunately Picasso our cat was unwell. He was fine until Saturday evening when he began to behave very oddly. Sunday he spent either asleep or staring off into the distance. He was still eating at this point but by Monday afternoon he refused all food and even treats. We nursed him until Tuesday morning when our vet was open again. If he'd got any worse I'd jhave taken him to the emergency service but he doesn't always behave in a well mannered way at the vet and so we avoid going elsewhere if at all possible. Anyway they gave him a steroid injection and some vitamin B12 to help stimulate his appetite. Slowly over Tuesday he became more interested in his surrounding and began to eat a little. Now he's almost back to normal but has lost a fair amount of weight and as a result is enjoying tasty treats.

Because of Picasso I couldn't settle to my various projects so decided instead to go through my stash of fabric for potential projects. I often buy fabric because as soon as I see it an idea for a new project pops into my head. Unfortunately I have so many potential projects it can take quite a time for me to start work on them. Barbara's NewFO challenge at Cat Patches used to give me the push I need each month to get started on a new project but unfortunately she doesn't run it any more, so now I have to find the motivation to get started on something new all by myself.

Anyway back to my stash of fabric for new projects. I found this fabulous elephant fabric that I'd bought with plans of making new cushion covers for the cushions on my settee. Now that all the major building work has been finished it's time to get started on restyling by making my cushion covers and new curtains. One of my purchases today was some plain deep red fabric to use with the elephants and I'm hoping to start work on the cushions next week 

I didn't buy this fabric instead it was designed and screen printed by Richard, my son, as part of his art course work when he was working on his GCSE's. He would have been 15 at the time. The fabric was on display in the school long after he had left. In fact Lucy, who is 7 years younger than Richard collected the fabric when she left the school.

The colours in the photo above are true to life. I trimmed the fabric and added a white border. The top has now been turned into a quilt sandwich and is ready for the quilting to start.

I was given this fabric ages ago as i wanted to make some bath mats and this matched the theme of our bathroom which is seaside. The fabric is called beachcomber and I love all the shells. I quickly cut out to mats and made the quilt sandwich. These will be very quick to quilt. I'm planning on using the mats to practise new motifs for my FMQ. I let you know how I get on.

Scamp and John eventually got tired of watching me stroking fabric and settled down for a short nap.

Scamp looks very scruffy at the moment but has an appointment at the groomers on Friday afternoon and will soon be looking well groom and cute again.

Finally I had set out to join in with the snowball and nine patch sew along run by Terry at terry's Treasures so this morning I cut the 6 and half inch squares and sorted out my 2 and half inch squares. The are 49 snowball blocks and 50 nine patch blocks to make. I'm hoping to get some of them stitched on Friday evening, 

I still have quite a few potential projects that I put back into my stash store. I need to get some of the projects finished before I start any more new ones.

i hope you've got lots of fun projects to keep you busy.

Lyndsey