Slowly stitching.

During my holiday, which already feels as if it was months ago, I worked on my hand stitching. I had considered taking my machine with me but I'm pleased I didn't. Instead I took my christmas tree cross stitch and my millennium sampler. I managed to do some work on both and I also bought some wool to knit a baby blanket. I haven't seen my christmas tree cross stitch since I got home so this weekend I must track it down.The bag where I'd put it was unpacked for me and it was put away but not where I keep my stitching!  So I can't show my stitching on that piece but I also worked on the millennium sampler and that I unpacked myself. I have 4 squares to complete and I made a start on the spitfire. It doesn't look as if I did very much but there are a lot of stitches in the square even though it isn't complete. In addition I did some back stitching on other areas of the piece.

I was only able to stitch during the day as the lighting was very poor in the evening. Normally I like to sit and stitch whilst watching TV

Since getting home I haven't touched the work as I've been knitting. I bought this pattern and yarn whilst on holiday. 

I didn't start knitting until we got home as I hadn't taken any needles with me but since then I've done some knitting every day. This weekend we went to Suffolk to visit John's father. He's 91 years old and has developed a few health problems.

I took my knitting with me as it's easy to do whilst chatting.The pattern is quite straightforward once you've got it set and I'm pleased with how this is knitting up. So the whole weekend was spent slow stitching . As I haven't done any knitting for a while I'm really enjoying the activity.

Yesterday when we got back from Suffolk we took Scamp for a walk and the sight of the bluebells starting to open made me so happy.

There were only a few in flower at the moment but in the near future they will form a beautiful blue carpet.

I'm linking this post with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching. I'll be back tomorrow as I try and catch up with my machine stitching.

Lyndsey

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

New puppy, poorly kitty and some knitting.

A couple of weeks ago Lucy's boyfriend got a puppy. I saw the pup briefly when he bought him home. He was lying on the back seat of the car looking a little perplexed by what was happening but still very interested and with a slight wag of his tail. Yesterday Richard took Scamp to meet the new pup who is about 14 weeks old. Pup, whose name is Buddy, is a Mastador which is a hybrid dog. He is a mixture of a purebred Mastiff and a purebred Labrador Retriever. He is going to be a large dog so Lucy felt it was important for him to meet Scamp so they could become friends. I think she plans for us to take them out for walks together as Buddy gets older.

Buddy seems to be a cute dog and I'm told he is very placid. I haven't had time to go and visit him yet.  Scamp was a little perturbed by this puppy who is larger than he is but they got on quite well.

Scamp is in desperate need of a trip to the groomers especially now the weather has gone so hot.

Whilst Scamp has been enjoying trips out we have had to keep Picasso in and we also had to take him to the vet. On Tuesday we noticed that his third eyelid was protruding. As it was covering a large amount of his eye we took him to the vet, who gave him a full check up and decided he had an eye infection. We were told to keep him in and it would resolve over a few days. Keeping Picasso in is very hard work but he is now looking much happier and behaving more like his old self.   

Picasso loves to hide in my sewing machine bag. Still a little way to go until his eyes look as good as they do in this photo.

My sewing machine should be back later this week and I will be able to get on with some FMQ. However until then I've been doing a little knitting. Earlier this year I knitted three prem baby hats in blue. I've now got a ball of pink yarn and will knit three more hats

These hats are perfect for the delicate heads of prem babies as they are knitted on 4 double ended needles so there aren't seams to cause unnecessary pressure. The other good point is they knit up very quickly.
I'm linking this post with Anything goes Mondays at Stitch by Stitch

I hope you've had a good Monday. Today has been busy but good. Now all I need to do is order my son's birthday present. His birthday is on Thursday but he only made a decision about what he wanted yesterday evening. Never mind it will be delivered on Wednesday. Then all that's left to do is try and get the family all together so we can have a family dinner. It was so much easier when the children were young. Trying to get three adult children in one place at the same time seems almost impossible at times.

Lyndsey

It's nice to be back

I'm sorry I've been unable to post for the last week but I've been having various technical problems. First of all my computer wouldn't connect to the internet. John and Richard bought me a lovely new computer for my birthday last December. My old one was still working well for everyday tasks using the office package but its touch pad and internet connection was broken. The touch pad wasn't a problem as I prefer to use a wireless mouse anyway but not being able to go on line was a big issue. My new one is beautiful and hasn't caused any problems until the end of May when I just couldn't access the internet. At first I thought it was our network but since Richard and John were happily connected I realised it was my computer. Richard is excellent with computers and tried every possible ploy to make it work, short of taking the back off it as I didn't want to invalidate my warranty. All to no avail and so my computer has gone off to the repairers. When I phoned the company they told me to back everything up and then press the emergency reset key. That didn't do anything so they made the diagnosis of a hardware problem. 

As if that wasn't enough my sewing machine has been playing up. It started with the tension being a bit iffy (highly technical terms are my speciality) when I was free motion quilting but then it started playing up on the straight stitches. So my machine has gone off to the hospital as well. Lucy's machine is at home so I can use this for straight sewing. 

So for the last few days I have been being miserable as I couldn't find the cable for my little mini notepad computer and it was dead. Finally I've found it and with the notepad fully recharged I can get back on line. Unfortunately I've missed the end of the month link ups but I'll give you a run down on how last month went and my plans for this month.

As far as my objectives for May went I had a poor month. I still haven't finished the top of my 'Votes for women' quilt and I didn't do any work on the millennium sampler. However I did get other things done. I finished two baby quilts. This first one for Thomas.

and the second for Arthur who is due in August.

I used the same green fabric from the sashing as the backing on this quilt. I knitted a blanket for Arthur as well.

I spent quite a lot of time cutting my scraps into usable pieces and the Brownies have been working very hard to sew the charm squares into 9 patches for making into quilts for charity. We are hoping to have at least four tops made by the end of term so I can quilt them over the summer.

I've spent the last few evenings doing some knitting. I started a jumper for John in double knitting wool. I completed the back quite some time ago but haven't touched it for a while as I was knitting the baby blanket. I'm almost at the neck now. It's not the easiest pattern to do and watch TV as it has cables in it. 

Unfortunately knitting doesn't seem to look very interesting until you have finished it. 

So goals for the month;

1. Finish 'Votes for women' top

2. Make Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks. This months colour is yellow.

3. Finish 'star trek' quilt top.

I'm keeping this month simple and hoping I can complete them. Now I'm off to upload my camera software onto this notepad so I can upload my photos easily.

Here in London we are enjoying a lovely hot summer day. Hope the weather is good where you are. 

 Lynds

Two finish Friday

This week has been a good week for finishes. A while ago I was asked to make a quilt for a baby boy, Thomas.  The suggestion was that I made it in Chelsea football club colours as his dad supports Chelsea. That sounded fine but I decided to make the front using some boy friendly prints. I just love the car patterns. However I used blue white and yellow. I took the quilt to the boathouse to take the photo but it was difficult to find a place to drape it. Unfortunately it was raining outside.

For the back I stuck with solid colours and managed to find a blue the same as the one used by Chelsea. 

The quilting is a large all over meander using a variegated blue thread. Because the meander is large the quilt feels really soft. It has now gone off to it's new owner and I'm told it is greatly appreciated.

Staying with the baby theme my second finish of the week is the knitted baby blanket. This is for Arthur who is due in August. The yarn is double knitting and really soft. This is the second time I have made this pattern. It knits up very quickly but looks really effective.

I took the photo out in our garden. The plants on the table are begonias which are waiting to be planted in our window boxes. Unfortunately we run out of time. The chair is going to the tip as we are getting a new table and chair set. As it was so messy the blanket is draped over a plastic sheet.

My third job for the week was to cut up my child friendly fabrics into 5 inch charms. The Brownies are going to stitch these into quilts for young girls who are either in hospital or living in a shelter for victims of abuse and domestic violence.

Cutting fabric sound a very light activity but I was really tired by the time I had finished. We are all ready to start our quilts after the school half term holiday.

This weekend is a long weekend with a bank holiday on Monday. We are having an away weekend staying in Folkstone. This is a seaside town in Kent and will gives us a base to explore the area a little more. We've left Richard at home looking after Scamp and Picasso. Scamp looked very miserable when we left him behind. Never mind we will be home again on Sunday.

I'm linking this post with Richard and Tanya Link a finish Friday and Crazy mom quilts finish it up Friday.

I hope you all have a great weekend

Lyndsey

Review of April Goals

It's that time of the month again when I look back to see how well I got on with my goals. Overall I feel that April has been a good sewing and creative month. 

Goal 1 Complete the quilt for Jennifer. Completed

Lucy was going to make this quilt as a birthday present for her best friend Jennifer. Unfortunately she run out of time so asked if I would be able to help. The quilt was completely finished last week. 

This was my finish for April for the 'A Lovely year of finishes' challenge.

Goal 2 Complete the 'Votes for women' quilt top. Not completed.

It is so nearly finished but I wanted to add a white border but I haven't got any in my stash and unfortunately my local quilt shop has run out. I will finish the top this weekend as the fabric will be in on Saturday.

This is the last photo I have but I have since stitched all the rows together.

Goal 3 Complete my 'Super Power' blog hop projects.  Done

My day was Friday 18th April and I made a cushion cover using scraps. 

Goal 4. Make the blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Done

The colour this month was purple. I am making 4 nine patch blocks

Also I'm making a hexie block each month.

Goal 5 Start my April NewFO Done

My NewFO for April is a knitting project rather than quilting. Kathryn has a friend who is having her first baby in August and I wanted to knit a baby blanket I am making a pattern that I used a couple of years ago. Here is the blanket I made then.

This is a lovely blanket to knit and the yarn is so beautifully soft. I started this a few days ago and it is growing quickly.

So April has been a good month for getting projects finished. I'm hoping May will be a good.

I'm linking this post with Melissa at Sew Bittersweet Designs for the April finishes party and Barbara at Cat Patches for her NewFO linky party.

I hope April was a good Sewing month for you .

Lyndsey

Catching up with red work

Today I remembered that I started stitching one of the blocks for the 'It's a dogs life' quilt. It started this morning when I decided to make an inventory of all the projects I've got in progress at the moment. I got as far as 19 projects before I got into a panic about being able to finish them all. Being English I took the only possible course of action... I made a cup of tea to calm and soothe my nerves. Mmmm most relaxing so I decided another cup was in order and I'd better catch up with reading some of my favourite blogs.  For fun I started browsing through some old posts on Barbara's blog Cat Patches and what should I come across but her post about her 'Love me love my cat' quilt. That set me thinking about my dog quilt and where had I put it. Lots of searching (and finding even more projects) later I found the ziplock bag with it in. I'd started the third block ages ago, it may even have been the end of last year. I'm not sure why I stopped work on it,  maybe I put it in the cupboard and it just got lost with things being put on top of it. Anyway there wasn't too much to do on it. I just had to finish a bit on the third dog, all of the 4th dog and three of the words. So this afternoon I sat and finished it up.

I then set up the 4th block. I'm using sticky Fabri-Solvy to transfer the image onto my fabric. It works well. You copy or print the image onto the sheet using the draft setting. You then peel the release sheet of and line up the image on your fabric. Once you're happy it's in the right place you finger press it onto the fabric and it's all ready for stitching. The next block is about working dogs.

Having finished sorting that out I decided to do a little more on the baby blanket I started yesterday. It is growing quite fast and is a very straight forward pattern to follow. Here's how far I've got. I usually like to use bamboo needles as they are lighter but the yarn is very soft and light so at the moment the weight isn't putting any strain on my wrists. This type of pattern is perfect because once you know the pattern you can knit whilst watching TV.

So that was my Sunday stitching. I hope you had a peaceful day. I'm linking this post up with Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.

Lyndsey

Jenny's quilt all finished.

Jenny's quilt has been all but finished for about a week. I machine stitched the binding onto the front and had started hand stitching the back when for some reason it came to a halt half way round. Yesterday morning I decided it just had to be completed so I rushed through all those other little jobs that get in the of sewing...you know the ones I mean, cleaning, doing the laundry, grocery shopping and so many more. I put an Agatha Christie recording on the TV and settled down to finish the binding. I'd already done more than half way so it wasn't a huge job and it was lovely to have it all done. This was my goal for April for A lovely year of finishes.

Taking a photo proved difficult as it was raining and no way could I take it outside. So I resorted to putting on my bed. Scamp and Picasso kept getting in the way and Scamp thought it was a huge game. Finally I managed to get one half decent photo.

You can just see Scamp in the top left hand corner after he retired in a grump to sit on the pillow. The blocks are quilted in the ditch and the sashing has a leaf trail along it. The border has an all over meander. The job for Saturday is to go to the post office and send this off to Jenny.

I also started my April NewFO. This month it is a knitted baby blanket. One of Kathryn's friends is pregnant and baby is due in August. She knows she is having a boy and they have decided on the name Arthur. I knitted this pattern a couple of years ago for Indie's baby and it was lovely to make. Here's a photo of that blanket.

So far I've knitted the first 20 rows but I've given myself plenty of time to get this done.

I'm linking up with Richard and Tanya for Link a Finish Friday and Amandajean at Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday. Now I'm off to cut the backing for the baby quilt that's near completion and hopefully that will be done for next Friday.

Have a great weekend.

Lyndsey

Good gracious where did the time go?

Good gracious where did the time go? It seems like only yesterday I was writing my post 'for the boys' and here we are a week and a bit later. I had promised myself that I wouldn't let the time run away from me this month but as always it's proved impossible. Still moaning about it won't make the time reappear so I'd best get the sewing machine wound up and get a wriggle on with my projects.

Back in September, Sandy, the owner of one of my local fabric shops asked me if I would be willing to teach a beginners quilting course. I agreed as it sounded fun and I wanted to pass on my skills. The idea was for the participants to make a quilt 30 x 42 inches. Around the time the course was due to start Moda, the cutting table were running their 'Size Matters' blog hop. This gave a range of different quilt blocks with a variety of sizes. This certainly made my job easier. We decided to concentrate on squares and rectangles and make the blocks 12 inches. 6 ladies joined the course (all there is room for) and we had a fun time. 

2 of the ladies decided they wanted larger quilts and made 9 blocks.

One of the ladies made 6 different blocks including some with HST's. She was very pleased with her quilt which is a present for her baby nephew. I love the musical notes on the one fabric.

Several of the ladies hadn't even used a sewing machine before but all of them completed their quilts and were looking forward to starting another project. Sandy has asked if I will run another course in the new year and maybe a follow up one for people who have already got the basic skills. I must admit a fun class to teach  and there's no marking involved!

I recently took part in the fall mug rug swap at Quilting Gallery. My partner was Meg from Japan. I received two beautiful mug rugs and additional presents.

The rugs are perfect for Autumn and I love my Tokyo Starbucks mug. The coffee is also lovely. Thank you so much Meg.

I had a little space last weekend to make 4 more blocks for my Votes for Women quilt. I'm nearly finished making all the blocks but I have some appliqué ones to do.

I've also been knitting. I bought the wool for a jumper for John when I visited the Stitching and Knitting exhibition at Alexandra Palace back in October. This is supposed to be a Christmas present but I don't think I'll have knitted it by then. The pattern doesn't really show up very well unless it is across the two needles but it has cables and chevrons in it.

Tomorrow I won't get much time for sewing as I'm out all day at a training for Guides but Sunday is free so I want to try and finish the remaining blocks I need to make. For now I'm going to deal with some emails and finish some marking before bed time.

Lyndsey

Bindings and Pom Poms

This week has been very busy. In between working and the usual round of housework I set out to finish my Happy Anniversary quilt. This is a large quilt (80 x 80) and I've used my home sewing machine which makes the job rather tiring but I have really enjoyed working on it. The quilt is now finished and I added the final stitches to the binding this morning. The quilt is currently in the wash and will go to it's new home on Wednesday evening. I'll post the pictures after  I've given it to my friends. I've now got to decide what to work on next.

As today is Sunday and a slower pace is called for I decided I needed to finish making the pom poms for the little hats I've knitted. These will go on the tops of Innocent Smoothie bottles during November and for each bottle with a hat sold the company donate 25p to Age UK. They were aiming to have 1 million hats this year.  I've knitted 50 and they now all have pom poms. These will go in the post tomorrow.

I took some time this morning to finish up the second block for my 'It's a dogs life' quilt. 

I love these embroidered blocks, the dogs are so cute. I'm using fabri solvy instead of marking up the pattern myself and I'm finding it works really well. I read on several posts around blogland that people have found it leaves a sticky residue but I haven't had this problem. Once I've finished the stitching I cut all the excess transfer sheet from around the stitching. I then rinse well with two or three changes of water before I put it to dry. This has been rinsed and dried. Once all the stitching is done and the quilt blocks are made the embroidery will need to be pressed. I'm not bothering now as it will be folded for storage  purposes until then.

Back in September I took part in the 'Crazy about wool' blog hop run by Denise at Pieced Brain. This was such a fun hop and was even more wonderful when my name was pulled for the participants prize. I have now received all the goodies and I can't wait to use them.

The wool thread chart is really useful as I love using wool for appliqué and I really like Aurifil thread. The 50 felt balls from Handbehg Felts are such fun and great colours. I am going to be making some jewellery with some of these. My daughter also wants to use some. The five charms squares are hand dyed and are by Woolin Rouge Designs. I'm taking part in a quilt swap and some of these will be used for my project. Finally a $10 gift certificate from Fat Quarter Shop.  Thank you Denise for inviting me to join the hop it was great fun.

Having finished up several jobs today I'm going to work on my millennium sampler as I seem to have lost momentum with it again. I'm linking up with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Stitching Sunday.

I hope you've had a good Sunday which has included some time for stitching.

Lyndsey.