Naughty purchases (67)

Having had yet another visit to the dentist yesterday, to have a broken tooth rebuilt, I think I've seen enough of my dentist - sympathetic and kind though he is - to last me for some months now.

Today I went to Hobbycraft to get some wadding, and ended up buying some fabric too, and some cute cat buttons (they're the quite unrecognisable thing in the middle of the picture) for my niece's quillow that I'm about to make. Well, they were having a half price sale for their fat quarters, which worked out at about £4 per metre. Now, I imagine that sounds like a lot to all you Americans, but take it from me, for the UK that's pretty cheap.  Don't you just love those colours. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, so it was rather a naughty purchase, but I'm sure I'll think of something in due course.

I also managed to get up to date with Bea at Capricorn's BOM. They're very cute stitcheries, and will make a lovely quilt for my sewing/craft room/study when we move. 

We haven't had any firm nibbles from Saturday's open day, but are still hopeful and have three more people coming to view tomorrow. We had a couple of very silly offers, people just trying it on because of the difficulties in the housing market. The weather forecast isn't too good, which is a shame because houses and gardens always look so much better in good weather (and it's better for Wimbledon too), but we shall just keep our fingers crossed.

Dentist, delights and a dilemma (51)

Yesterday was the next visit to the dentist, supposedly to have the fitting done for a new crown and bridge - but then he found some decay under a filling in the next tooth along, so had to fill that as well. I felt decidedly battered when I left, so went for a short walk before getting back in the car. My dentist is about seven miles away (that shows you how difficult it is to get a NHS dentist nowadays - there must be about fifty that are closer, but their lists are full) so I don't often visit the village. 

There's a wonderful shop there called Godstone Antiques and Curios Emporium. It's a real treasure trove with stuff tucked away into corners and under shelves, everywhere. I often find things I like in shops like that, but rarely buy them because they seem overpriced. But yesterday I found three 'must haves'. Isn't the little chicken basket cute? I think it's probably supposed to be a plant holder, but since there's only two of us at home now we rarely have more than 6 or 8 eggs, so it's just the right size.

The little chicken hook 'thingy' is so 30s looking and cute. It will look great with tea towels hanging from it - or shopping bags, or something else that I haven't thought of yet. Can you see a theme developing here for my new kitchen when we move?

And finally, the piece de resistance (I know there should be an accent in piece but don't know how to get one). I spotted this quilt hidden under a shelf. I could only see a corner of it and when I pulled it out I was astonished at the size (it's folded into 4 in the photograph) and the price - £10!!! So, it's found a new home with me. It was a bit of a squeeze to get it into the washing machine, but I did manage to get it dry outside yesterday afternoon. Isn't it great? It's machine pieced and hand quilted, and I love the soft muted colours. I don't know where to put it yet, but for the time being it looks really cosy just draped over the banisters.

And now, my dilemma. Step 6 of the Orange Crush Mystery has been posted and I really don't much care for it. I have loved all of Bonnie's quilts since I discovered her site, but this one is really too bright and too busy for me. I really don't like my blocks together either. So I'm toying with the idea of making two quilts - and adding in some plainer blocks with the solid colours I used. The spinning stars seem to get lost in there, and I'd like to see them properly. So, today, I shall be playing around with the blocks and see if I can find something that I like better. I did tell myself to 'keep the faith' and all would be well, but there's no point finishing it if I'm really not happy with it. I don't imagine anyone will be calling out the Quilt Police. Sorry, though.

Joy and Jubilation !! (44)

Please imagine me throwing my hat into the air and shouting hurrah! Yes, the black and white quilt - from now on to be known as The Scarlet and The Black - is finally finished. I stitched on the bindings and handstitched them down this afternoon, and THAT'S IT!! This was only the second proper quilt that I ever started - and the third that I've finished, and I am chuffed to bits with it. 

So now, what next? There's a huge quilt shaped hole in my life now that needs to be filled. One of DH's nieces has a birthday coming up at the beginning of June, she's at university so I think a quillow would be a really useful gift for her. And not too arduous for me to make in a short time, especially if I tie it or do big-stitch quilting. 

It's been an odd couple of days. Yesterday I visited a homeopathic doctor. The GP can't seem to get to the bottom of my health problems (not that he wouldn't like to try, but he has no time and no money to do many tests) so we thought we'd start looking at alternative medicine. It's going to cost an arm and a leg I fear, but I want to know that I've tried everything. I spent an hour and a half with him, going through every aspect of my present and past health - and nearly 60 year's worth of health is an awful lot. I came away with a forest of paper to read and questionnaires to fill in, a load of blood tests to get done and some other tests to be arranged. Let's hope something comes of it.

Then today, I went to the dentist to get 'measured up' for a couple of new crowns and a bridge. I'm going to run out of arms and legs at this rate! After that, we went to visit my mother-in-law in hospital. She seemed reasonably bright, all things considered. They've removed a whole load of fluid from around her heart, and need to drain off more fluid from her lungs, so she is likely to be stuck in hospital for several more days yet. Poor thing, she can't get about without help and gets very frustrated and bored and unhappy being away from home. We'll probably visit again in a couple of days.

Thank you to everyone who gave me some suggestions on where to go to get some help with Blogger. If anyone needs help here are the addresses:

www.splitdecisionz.com

www.bloggingbasics101.com

http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com

And finally, here's a picture of my new kitchen curtains. Please try only to look at the curtains and not the rest of the clutter.

Post-dentist - and Post (28)

Well, the visit to the dentist has been and gone - rather like my tooth! Thank you so much to everybody who wished me well. I don't know why I get so nervous, but I do. I just shook the whole way through. I have a new dentist, and he was so calm and gentle that it helped enormously. Now I have a big hole and a big bruise and have to wait for three weeks before my next appointment - and then the really big expense starts.

But I have saved some money on buying some fabric from America. I just can't believe the difference in price. I bought from the Wish Upon a Quilt sale. I didn't buy anything I really needed this time, just in case it all went wrong and the fabric didn't arrive or was horrible when it got here. But it came in no time at all and was fine. I bought 5 yards and 5 FQs and even with the postage it came to only just over £23 - in the UK the fabric alone would have cost me £58!! So I will certainly buy in that way again. Does that count as saving??

My half triangle patches for Step 3 are finished. I found these pretty easy to put together, although I did count out half and leave them over the other side of the room so as to be sure to make mirror images out of them and not stitch them all the same. The colours look a bit weird here. I've also now cut all the dog ears off from these and my 4patch blocks.

I was pleased with the fact that I managed to finish practically all my jobs for April. The black and white quilt progresses slowly - I have so many other interesting things on the go for hand sewing, and it does get a tad boring quilting the same pattern all the time. But I shall persevere. I am determined that it continue as a WIP and not become a UFO.

Keeping busy to quell the nerves! (28)

I've just been reading Taniwa's latest blog and it's got me thinking. I won't repeat everything she has said - you can follow the link and read it for yourself - but I'd love to know what you think.

I had a preliminary visit to the dentist yesterday - it's been far too long since my last visit due to feeling so poorly for so long, but I really couldn't put it off any longer as I KNEW I had some work to be done. And yes, I've got problems. So I'm visiting him again today to have a crown removed and the tooth underneath which is decaying badly. Oh, I hate visiting the dentist. I had some bad experiences when I was a child - the worst being a power cut in the middle of some treatment and the dentist finishing off with hand tools! I did pretty well when my children were young to hide my fear as much as possible so that they wouldn't have so much of a problem, but the old nerves have re-appeared now. Hence the rather frenetic nature of this blog, typing away to try and keep my mind off my nerves!

On Monday I gave in and visited my LQS. I just didn't have any light scraps for Step 3 of the OC, though I managed to forage enough for the dark scraps. As always - and I bet I'm not alone - I spent far more than I should have done. Mind you, that's easy enough when you see the cost of fabric and books here. I don't have any square rulers, so that should be useful. The two books on machine quilting have already come in handy, and I've been practising for my next quilt. I'm hopeless! The fabric is earmarked for some stitcheries combined with patchwork that I have in mind and the cat wallhanging kit just leapt out at me and refused to be left behind. And right at the last minute, just as I was about to pay, I remembered my reason for visiting and bought some light fabric for step 2!

Well, I can't write any more or you'll all just give up on me. So, off to do some ironing I think to pass away the next 45 minutes until I leave.