Yipee I made a block

I had hoped to get my machine out at the weekend as I hadn't done any sewing since the beginning of August, before we went to Switzerland but in the end I had to wait until today. I had forgotten that on Saturday afternoon we were out at a church fundraiser and then we had an invitation to a barbecue in the evening. Sunday I did some hand stitching so the machine stayed off the table. I had some badges I'd planned to stitch to my camp blanket and I lay my blanket on the floor to see where I was going to put them. Along came Picasso.

Picasso had great fun fighting the blanket and hiding underneath it before he settled down for a nap. I felt guilty disturbing him but I needed to get the job done. In the end I only managed to stitch two badges on. The first badge had a plasticised backing and it was very difficult getting the needle through the fabric. i almost gave up and used the sewing machine. The second badge was soon sewn on but by then my fingers were hurting so I put it away for the day.

Today I hunted out the blocks I made for the Austen family album quilt. I found I'd made less than I thought, either that or I've lost some. I lay the eleven blocks I'd made on my bed as I don't have a design wall and Scamp and Picasso were busy playing in the living room so I couldn't easily use the floor.

The blocks finish at 12 inches and there should be 36 in total. With the one I've made today I have 12.

I now need to decide whether to make all of the 36 blocks and complete this quilt with sashing and a border or whether to use the blocks I've made and intersperse them with some embroidered blocks I want to stitch. Last year I found this pattern for an embroidered Pride and Prejudice quilt.

I'm thinking I might make two quilts. First make the blocks to finish the Austen family album quilt and then next year when I've finished all the bag ladies I could stitch this quilt. john likes the idea of the two quilts so that's probably what I will do. If I could piece one block a day the quilt would be done by the end of September. I should be able to manage one block a day but you never know until you give it a try.

Tomorrow John is teaching one of my classes. I know he has retired but this was arranged before then. Anyway I'm travelling with him and will be having a little shopping spree whilst he works. I need some essential sewing supplies, in particular some new blades for my rotary cutter and some new machine needles. We will also be able to have lunch together. The effort of getting up early and the travelling will also help me to decide whether I should go back to work next week or take another weeks sick leave.

Whilst I haven't been sewing I have got back into reading and in a little while I'm looking forward to curling up in bed to read the next chapter of my book. When I was a young teenager this was the best part of the day in my head. Say goodnight to my family and then use my imagination to bring the characters in the book I was reading alive. I learnt to limit myself to one chapter as I could read all night if it was an interesting story. I hadn't been reading much over the last couple of years and so I set myself a target of at least one book a month and so far I'm on target.

I will post about our Switzerland trip soon but some of the photos are on Lucy's phone and some in John's camera. I need to get them all in one place and then I can write the post.

Lyndsey