Two stitcheries finished (52)

Sorry the Noah's Ark block (Lynette Anderson) photograph is a bit fuzzy, but I've tidied it away now for the Estate Agents' visits so it'll have to do. I gave the front kangaroo some flowers to carry because I'd drawn an extra line in by mistake. A happy piece of serendipity.

The Mr Men sampler is for my nephew, who will be 4 next month. 

Being normal! (36)

It seems ages since I last posted, but I guess it's only a couple of days. But this glorious weather, plus the fact that I have been feeling really well, has meant lots of being outside and doing stuff and not much time on the computer or sewing.

On Sunday we went to a Cowpie Rally - no idea why it's called that, Desperate Dan was nowhere to be seen. It was a bit disappointing, very commercial and the displays weren't that good. We didn't spend a penny apart from the (rather expensive) entrance fee. Even the queues for food and drink were too long to bother with - luckily we had taken our own bottles of water. BUT, we did see a splendid sheep demonstration. A chap from New Zealand was showing and talking about several different sheep breeds, and he demonstrated sheep shearing. Doesn't sound much, but he was extremely funny as well as informative, and finished with 'sheep dancing' - I imagine they were trained to move in response to the music and food treats. Great fun. (And don't worry, the sheep were in the shade, with food and drink and looked perfectly well cared for)

Yesterday I did something normal! I went to Marks and Spencer for a browse, tried on some trousers and bought two pairs, AND I went to Sainsbury's for a big food shop. Now, for most people that sounds ordinary and a bit boring. Not a bit of it! It's so long since I have felt well enough to do both of those things at all, let alone both in one morning, and it was brilliant!

I've even managed to do a bit of sewing. I put the log cabin edges on the Noah's Ark blocks, finished making a sun dress, completed another section in the Mister Men sampler and finished step 4 for the Quiltville mystery. There's rather a lot of purple in the blocks, and some of the purple bits ended up next to each other, so I'm hoping the addition of the pink yardage will tone down the purpleness a little.  Not bad eh? Long live being normal!!

Long arm quilting machines (25)

I was fascinated by the little video that Ruthie has put on her blog Threads of Mine showing her long arm quilter in action. One of the things that I have noticed on the quilting blogs is how many people seem to have their own long arm machines. Are they cheaper in the USA? I enjoy quilting by hand - but start to get bored by doing the same quilt long before it's finished. I enjoyed the free motion quilting I did on DH's quilt, but my machine wasn't too keen and I had to do it in chunks as I couldn't manoeuvre very much at a time. I don't think I have the skills or the patience to do anything more precise either. One answer would be to send them out to be quilted - but the cost is prohibitive (it seems to cost about twice as much here in the UK - like fabric). I think my favourite method of quilting so far is hand quilting using big embroidery stitches. At least I can change them regularly and don't get too bored. 

Yesterday I made a card for my mother-in-law, finished Number 3 on the Mr Men sampler and made a few crumb blocks - destined to make a second quilt for Rosie so that I can have two to alternate and wash. That cat moults so much - the first quilt I made a couple of days ago already looks like it's ready to be washed. I don't think I'll get much done today, as I was really poorly last night - probably a reaction to the latest anti-biotics. Do other people have so many problems finding medication that doesn't upset them? I don't seem to be able to tolerate anything these days. Rosie seems happy that I'm still in bed though!

Well, reading this back it seems like one long whinge after another! Sorry folks.

Blogging (21)

I've been wondering how other people go about reading blogs. I belong to just the one webring - Mystery Quilters - and that takes me the best part of an hour to get through, so how people belong to more than one ring  mystifies me. I tend to wake at about 5am, so that is a good time to go through the ring, reading the new posts and making comments on some. It's almost a relief when someone hasn't posted anything new! No, of course I don't mean that, as I have so enjoyed reading other people's blogs and learning a little about their lives - especially America, where so many things are still very different from the UK.

I've decided to be a party-pooper and not join in on the 'tagging' and 'round-robin' type of fun that seems to go on between bloggers. I don't really understand how they work, or what the point is, though I can see that many bloggers get a lot of fun out of them. Also I don't want to risk passing them on to other people who are reluctant to join in. Sorry folks, I don't want to spoil the fun, but there it is.

On Wednesday

 I felt really well in the morning, so got out in the garden to set up my mini-greenhouse and planted some seeds - tomato, radish, cut-and-come-again lettuce and some cottage garden flowers. Luckily, I decided it was still a bit chilly outside and bought most indoors, leaving just the radish seed tray outside. As you can see, the wind got up yesterday and blew the darn thing over! 

Ah well, that's life. I've also made a good start on OC Step 2 - I've made the pieced triangles, so just have to stitch them to the solid triangles. I had run out of light scraps so all the triangles are made from the same material, and there's not a lot of variation in the dark squares and triangles either. Then, while 

I was resting yesterday afternoon, I managed to get Number 2 finished on the Mr Men sampler. So, on target there. Drat! Having uploaded the image I've spotted a mistake - can you see where I've gone wrong with the lettering. Do you think I can get away with it, or do I need to unpick it and do it again?

Mr Men (18)

I didn't do much of anything except resting yesterday. I did manage to sew a few 'cut-off-corner' blocks for the quilt I am making to use up some of my left-over 4patch blocks. They are really scrappy except for a cream stripe which will run through it in a zig-zag pattern. Before cutting off the corners I 'did a Bonnie' and did a second row of stitching, and have ended up with a whole bunch of the tiniest little half square triangles - they are about 1" square and will probably end up in a wall hanging. Somebody's blog, or email, (sorry, can't remember who so can't say thanks) pointed me to Pat Speth's website where she has some free patterns for waste triangles, so I will have a go at one of those.

Today I've been working on my Mr Men sampler, trying to finish Number 1 to keep up with the programme. Here it is so far. One number a week should enable me to finish it in time for my nephew's 4th birthday. I had a lazy afternoon watching  - or more like listening to - television and really worked hard.

A quiet Sunday afternoon (14)

After the excitement of this morning's snow, I'm having a pleasantly quiet Sunday afternoon. Number One Son came for lunch and is now working on the set-up on DH's new laptop - and there's a tale. DH has been ironing his shirts for next week, and is now having a 'short doze' and I've been doing some cross stitch. I'm making a Mr Men sampler for my nephew's 4th birthday in June - eleven weeks to go and there are ten pictures to work, so that should work out nicely.

Yes, DH's laptop. Well, he did have a rather nice Mac Book, just over a year old. He took it to France on business last week, put it on the floor next to the bed while he had a 'short doze' (something you will have realised he is very fond of!). When he woke up he jumped off the bed and promptly did a clog dance on his laptop, completely wrecking it. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall! On second thoughts, I think the language would have made even a fly blush. So, except for the battery and power cable, the remains lie interred in a French skip. Hence the need for a new laptop.