Upcycling and reading

I'm getting on with the Star Trek quilt but seriously when quilting such a large item on a domestic machine you need some diversionary therapy. My arms and shoulders are aching from hauling the fabric around. I know FMQ  means you can stitch in all directions so no need to turn the quilt but you do need to get the area you are working on under the needle to begin with. Then as you finish an area it involves re rolling the quilt sandwich to the next area to be done. Just so you know I'm having a great time doing the quilting, it just makes the old arms ache.

As a rest from the quilting I decided to a little upcycling. I bought this plain linen skirt from a charity shop for just £2. It fits beautifully but is very boring. 

I love bright colours and purple is favourite at the moment so I choose this dye to pep it up a bit.

Before I started the dying I used elastic bands to tie the skirt a little up from the hem. I followed the instructions to the letter (which is a little unusual for me) and the end result is a much more cheerful linen skirt for the summer.

Now all I have left to do is shorten the lining a little as when I bought the skirt it was peeping below the hem.

Over the last year I haven't been doing very much reading, well not reading for pleasure. I have read a lot of students essays and in preparing my teaching I read textbooks, research papers, government documents and guidelines and other tedious reports but nothing for fun. I decided to get back into reading for 'me' and decided to start with something light weight but fun.

Stella Rimington was the Director General of MI5 between 1992 and 1996 and since 1994 has written novels about a female intelligence officer. I enjoyed the book a lot. The plot was interesting and not about Russia plotting against the UK and the US. It was good easy reading and if you like spy fiction I can recommend it.

This book, that I've only just started is a lot heavier, in content terms not weight of the book. Last year Lucy and I visited the World War 1 exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in London. It made me realise just how little I know about this period in history. Lucy is very knowledgeable as this is the period of history she is really interested in and she filled in a lot of the gaps in my knowledge. I decided to get a short history and find out more. I've read the first chapter so far which is about the lead up to the war. The book is well written in a witty opinionated style and as a result I'm enjoying reading it.

When we took Scamp for a walk this morning I commented to John how slow spring was this year. There are snowdrops out and some daffodils but the trees haven't really started to take on the greenish tinge that shows the buds are developing. Although we haven't had snow this year in London it has been cold and not many sunny days. With Easter next weekend I was hoping for some better weather. 

This evening I think I'm going to catch up on sewing some blocks. I haven't done this months rainbow scrap blocks and I'm way behind with a couple of other projects. I'll get back to Star Trek later in the week.

I hope you having a good weekend where you are.

Lyndsey

Why didn't I finish it?

I was looking through a cupboard yesterday checking out the contents of the various bags and boxes when I came across a bag I had completely forgotten about. The bag contained an almost made summer dress and a partly sewn blouse. I'm not sure why they had been relegated to the depths of the cupboard but on closer inspection I found the dress only needed the buttonholes made and the buttons sewn on. I have vague memories that around the time I'd been making the dress a little argument had blown up along the lines of  'all you're interested in doing is sewing'. Not a comment I hear these days as John realises I'm much calmer and happier when I'm sewing, knitting or generally being creative. 

Anyway today I reminded myself how the buttonhole stitch on my machine worked and then got the dress finished. The pattern is by McCalls. I've used it before and it makes a comfortable well fitting dress that is great for wearing to work.

I can't show you a photo of me wearing the dress as there is no one around to take the picture. When I wear it I'll get John to take a photo. I hope the weather stays warm a little longer so I can get some wear out of it this year. I really should have pressed it before I took the photo. I know this isn't a quilty finish but it is a finish so I'm linking up with Link a finish Friday at Richard and Tanya Quilts.

The blouse is still in the project bag untouched. I have some mending I need to get done before I start on it. I also prepared Hannah's quilt ready for quilting and need to get that done. Do you want a sneak peek? This is the fabric I chose for the backing. Hannah loves her music and I know she'll like the fabric.

I was going to make the blocks for this months Rainbow Scrap challenge. The colour is green. Earlier in the year there was a green month but that was dark green. This month is light bright green and I don't seem to have any scraps matching that remit. I need to do some swapping with my friends. 

Last weekend I started some peach wine. Today I moved it into the demijohn and it is bubbling nicely. It is very cloudy at the moment but over the next few weeks that will settle and I'll syphon the wine into a clean jar (racking). It will gradually clear over the next few months and after being racked a few more times. I'm hoping to buy some peaches tomorrow to make peach chutney and then once our apples are fully ripe I'll make some apple chutney. We have two apple trees, a Cox's Orange Pippin and a Egremont Russet . The Cox's is loaded with fruit but the other only has a few apples. Last year it was the other way round.

It's nearly bedtime here in the UK so I'm going to knit a few rows of John's jumper whilst I catch up with the news on TV and then I'm off to bed. I'm hoping to get some quilting done tomorrow. Sweet dreams when bedtime comes to your part of the world.

Lyndsey

Lots of cutting out and a little jam

I started the quilt for Hannah yesterday or rather I started the cutting stage. I needed a lot of 2 and a half inch squares in a range of colours and patterns. I had a jelly roll of solid colours but I wanted to use some of my scraps. Hannah will recognise several of the scraps as fabrics we used when making the prem baby quilts. I also needed a pile of six and a half inch squares. That job didn't take long so I've been able to start the sewing. This is a start and finish quickly quilt as Hannah's last week with us at Guides is the 17th September. The following week she starts at University.

On the 21st July I started a diet and exercise plan. I've cut out cakes and sugary things and generally being more careful on what I eat. I've found it's about making choices - yes I would like the chocolate cake but I'll have a piece of fruit instead. I have also increased my exercise and the great thing about that is that you can have chocolate cake occasionally. Anyway the great news is that I've lost 9 lbs in 4 weeks and I haven't felt hungry at all. I do feel tired from the extra exercise but the knock on effect is I sleep like a log, in fact I've started going to bed earlier. This is good as I would often only get 5 hours sleep.

In preparation for the new me I decided to cut out a couple of patterns in the next size down. I thought of waiting until I am down to my ideal weight but decided a girl needs a treat to keep her on the straight and narrow. Plus I've had the fabric in my dressmaking stash for ages  and the garment can easily be altered later. I've had the pattern for a while and made the blouse and tunic top for several people but never for me.

I'm taking part in the See you in September blog hop at Sew We Quilt and the quilt and blouse will be part of my projects. We have to make something using Riley Blake gingham and I'm looking forward to getting started on that.

Yesterday I also made some jam. When out and about in town I found that the peaches (and nectarines) were super cheap and large and juicy. I decided to make some peach jam and also start some peach wine. Going back a few years I regularly made jams and pickles but got out of the habit. Barbara at Cat Patches got me started again. I've been following her blog for a couple of years and she bottles fruit and pickles. Reading her blog reminded me of the pleasure of homemade chutneys and jams.

I used the recipe from In Jennie's Kitchen for the jam and the wine recipe was from Wine making guides I used to have a great wine making recipe book for country wines but vaguely remember giving it to a friend. Not a problem with friend internet at hand. 

I have a large ironing mountain that I'm ploughing my way through so I'm off to iron a few more items so I can reward myself with some stitching. Mmm a good film and a little hand stitching sound like a perfect evening.

Lyndsey

Veronese, Bunting and Eagles

On Friday evening John and I went to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square to the Veronese exhibition. Generally when we head out to an art exhibition it is on at the Tate Modern so paintings from the 1500's was a little unusual but we really enjoyed it. Paolo Caliari known as Paola Veronese was an Italian Renaissance painter who was based in Venice. His painting are of religious and mythological subjects. 

The painting are full of detail and exquisitely painted, a pleasant change from bold colour blocks or very abstract works. The children in the pictures were all doing typical children activities such as stroking the cat and they had very expressive faces. A good evening out.

When the gallery closed at nine we grabbed a coffee and then took the opportunity to take a walk down the Mall. The banners and seating were up ready for the trooping the colour on Saturday. Trooping the colour is the Queen's annual birthday parade.

This week I haven't done much sewing but i have completed a commission. I was asked to make some bunting for the pub where my youngest daughter is working. They wanted some England flag bunting for going behind the bar during the world cup. I made 8 metres in total. The background fabric is calico and I used quilting cotton for the cross. 

I seem to make bunting regularly. Last year I made a 'Happy Birthday' bunting banner.

and I made a lot of purple bunting for some boats that were taking part in the river pagent  to mark the Queen's diamond jubilee.

Over the weekend I've been continuing with my knitting but it is very slow going. I was going to finish the Vote for women quilt top this weekend but I will do it on Tuesday. Instead I did some tidying up in the Garden. It's such a shame to waste the good weather.

Tomorrow night we have tickets for the Eagles concert at the O2. I'm really looking forward to it. It's going to be a rush getting from work in time for the start of the concert. Then on Tuesday I will be catching up with my sewing.

I hope you've had a good weekend.

Lyndsey

September NewFO and review of goals.

Oh where did September go? I have hardly got started on my projects this month and here we are with no more time. So how did I do on my goals?

Goal 1. Quilt my Anniversary quilt and give it to my friends.

The top was all finished and the quilt sandwich made at the beginning of the month. It should have been an easy goal BUT you have to take into account that if it can go wrong it will. When I started the quilting I thought it was going to be easy. My machine had been sewing very nicely but it had made an odd grumbling noise a couple of times. As I put my foot on the pedal it groaned and snapped the needle and the stitch was awful. I tried everything I could to get it working properly but in the end I rushed it to the service doctor. My machine was gone a week and a half and now I was running late with other commitments. Sadly goal 1 will move to October's list

Goal 2 was to complete my project for the Pin It blog hop at Sew We Quilt. This was a really good hop with lots of lovely pin cushions appearing everywhere. Henry, my cockerel and Mouse took centre stage on my blog.

So goal 2 was a success. Yippee! On the down side Picasso has run off with mouse and I can't find him anywhere. It's a good job I hadn't put any pins in him. Henry is proving to be a very useful pin cushion.

Goal 3 was my September NewFO. Apart from my pin cushions I have two other NewFO's this month. First I started the baby quilt I had been asked to make. During the first week of the month I was asked if I would be interested in teaching a beginners quilting class with the possibility of further and more advanced classes later. Being me I said yes (and then panicked later!) Anyway when planning what to make I decided to use the blocks from Moda.. the cutting table size matters blog hop. This had 9 days worth of designers showing how to make and use different blocks. The cutting instructions were given for a variety of sizes which is such an amazing resource. I decided to use these blocks for my quilt and then the photos could be a teaching aid in future.

The top is finished and I just need to quilt it which is a job for this weekend. I have also made several other blocks from the hop for use in another small quilt. I'm taking this with me tomorrow when I teach the first class. For this class we are sticking with blocks made using squares and rectangles.

My second NewFO was made for the Crazy about Wool blog hop at Denise's blog Pieced Brain. For this I made a skirt and showed a photo of myself. 

I was really pleased at being able to match the seam so well.

The icing on the cake with this hop was that I won the Blogger's give away from the sponsors Denise had found. Lovely packages to look forward to.

Goal 4 was to complete the blocks for my Votes for Women quilt. Unfortunately due to the machine being in for service and repair this didn't happen but I did add several more blocks to the collection. Nearly done now. In fact it should be possible to finish these up in October.
Here's 4 of the blocks I managed to complete. The blue on these pics is actually violet / purple.

Goal 5, my final goal was to complete my first block for the 'It's a dogs life' quilt. I was also using fabri solvy for the first time. What a genius invention! It worked really well and because I cut off all the excess sheet I could when I washed it out it dissolved very quickly and didn't leave any sticky residue.

In fact the first block worked so well I started on the second one. This one is very straightforward so shouldn't take very long.

So my score for this month is 3 goals completed out of 5. Not too bad considering the machine was out of action for a while. I'm linking this post with Melissa at Sew Bittersweet Designs for her September finishes party and  Barbara at Cat Patches for her September NewFO party.

On the side bar you will find a new button. Madame Samm from Sew We Quilt has designed a cute button to show what type of blog Sew We Quilt is. She organises loads of blog hops covering all sorts of themes which enables all of us to sew and show folks what we've made. I love hopping around the blogs as you get so many great ideas for projects. I currently have a list as long as my arm with ideas that are perfect for some of my Christmas gifts. I just need to get on with the sewing. Madame Samm has lots of ideas for future hops so check regularly to see what's going on.

Now I must go and marshal my thoughts for my October goals. Realistically what can I achieve this month?

I hope you have enjoyed the last day of September and here's hoping that October will be a good month for sewing.

Lyndsey

Sunshine, Olympics and stitching

I have really been enjoying the sunshine and started the garden tidy up since the weeds have grown huge as a result of all the rain. It also enjoyable to walking Scamp without getting soaked.


I haven't seen much of the Olympics so far but I did catch most of the opening ceremony which I enjoyed and the men's cycle race yesterday. Neither of these were good for sewing to as they needed to be watched but I got quite a bit of knitting done.


Yesterday I decided to make a straight skirt for the summer. I have had the material for a long time and just hadn't got round to using it. It is Laura Ashley and was bought as a remnant.

The skirt has a side zip and a slit at the hem on the left side. The back has two waist darts but the front doesn't. Really quick and easy to make. I must get someone to take a photo of the things I make being worn. 


Lily Pad Quilting is gearing up to Pets on Quilts which runs during August. Click the button on the right to follow the link and find out what it is all about. They ran a test 'linky' party to make sure the links will work for the event. Whilst having a look at the links I came across Happy Quilting where Melissa is running a Tetris Quilt along. As I love the game I decided to take part. Follow the link to find out more. Here is my block for week 1

The blocks should be 5inch squares but I am using 3inch. The quilt along makes 6 blocks and the finished size was too large for what I wanted. My quilt will be 30 X 45 inches without the borders. This will be my Linus quilt for August. I now need to make my week 2 block as I am behind having started late.


Finally got round to getting started with free motion quilting. When I was last doing quilting over 20 years ago I did it all by hand. The machine really speeds the process up but I was wary of trying this technique because I had been told how difficult it is to control the machine when you first start. This is my very first try.

I started with just getting used to the machine without the feed dogs and then tried doing a leaf. I was not too unhappy with this start and have already progressed on with the technique. I will post next week to show my progress.

I have finalised my design for the little quilt swap I am taking part in, the fabric has been bought and later this week I will be starting work on it. However before then I have a quilt to bind and one to quilt and bind.

Very busy Saturday

Yesterday was a brilliant sewing day. I spent the whole day at my sewing machine. I did get my exercise as I had to keep going out to the kitchen where I had set up the ironing board. I know everyone says set it up near your sewing area but I like to make myself get up and move around. It also reminds me to make cups of tea.


First thing in the morning I sewed in all the ends on my latest knitted baby blanket. This one is going in the pile to go to Linus later in the year.

I then cut out the skirt pattern I had bought whilst out shopping with my daughter. It was the material that attracted me first, a Nel Whatmore design called Sleeping Beauty in enchanted brown. It is a 2011 design and was half price in the sale which made it even more attractive. I wanted to make a half circle skirt and although these are fairly easy to draw out for yourself I wanted to save time so bought a pattern.

I am really pleased with the finished skirt and it fits really well. It would have been lovely to hang this outside to take the photo but London was very wet yesterday.

Unfortunately the photo doesn't do the colours justice. The fabric is 100% cotton and I have some good sized offcuts to go in my quilting stash.


Having finished that I hunted through my stash to find a border for the toddler quilt in progress.

I choose a light border which appears blue in the photo but is in fact lilac. I will use the same colour for the back and bind it with royal purple used in the 4 block. I would have liked to have got this quilted today but I haven't got any batting and my local quilting suppliers isn't open until Monday. I will quilt this on Tuesday as I am working tomorrow.


I also finished off a couple of the small premature baby quilts that the guides had been making. A couple of the girls moved away and their quilts just needed the fleece backing added. These will go to the hospital local to where we meet. There are twelve to go there and a job for today is to sew the Linus label onto them.


In the evening I sat and worked on my cross stitch whilst watching TV so there is quite a bit of progress on that this week.


I am pleased to have had such a good day at the end of a busy week. The elderly gentleman friend that I visit broke his hip last Sunday in a fall so he is in hospital having had surgery. Our older daughter arrived back home after a year in Paris. It was lovely to see her on Thursday and I look forward to our visits to galleries and exhibitions restarting once she is settled. The younger daughter is making a quilt and knitting an elephant toy for her boyfriend's 21st birthday which is the 24th July. Both are progressing well but she is now in Spain for a week. Lucky girl as it is set to be very wet in London over the next week. I said I would knit the elephants body whilst she is away.


So I am now heading back to my sewing machine for a couple of hours. I can't take the whole day as I have marking that must be done for tomorrow. Never mind I don't work during the holidays so there will soon be lots of time to spend sewing.