A Sewing Day (68)

I've had one of those rare days where I was able to settle down in front of my sewing machine and just keep going, no interruptions, no phone calls, no domestic jobs. I stitched the top for my niece's quillow this morning. We have booked a few days in Bath (in Somerset) next week and I realised I'd better get a bit of a wiggle on or I'll never get it finished for her birthday on the 27th. It's a pretty basic pattern, 9 inch pinwheels alternated with plain blocks, so it went together pretty quickly. It's a good opportunity to use some fun focus fabric in the plain blocks too.

This afternoon I completed the cushion/pocket, though not without its own little drama. Having read Amy's enthusiastic account of her machine quilting I thought I'd use some of the stitches available on my new machine and do the same. However, in my usual way, I went off half-cocked and didn't bother to baste it first - it was stitched together round the sides for pete's sake, and it's only little, so what was the need! Well, of course, I didn't check as I was going and then, when I'd finished, I realised that it had gone wrong, not laying flat, all bunched up in places. I cursed a bit (only a little bit, honest) and then set to unpicking the whole lot. Two hours later and it was done. It's difficult to see here, but I've used several different cat fabrics for the pocket.

I spent an hour or so this evening hand quilting it with big stitch embroidery and tying. Then Rosie gave it her seal of approval, so that's okay.

I mentioned earlier in this posting that we are going to Bath next week. We haven't been there for over three years now, and it's a beautiful city. We're going to look round the area a bit more, with a view to moving in that direction (we hope) and also have a break. We've not planned a holiday this year, because of our potential move, so will settle for a few days here and there. We've booked into Pratt's Hotel, right in the city centre, and I will of course take my camera and laptop and try to keep blogging and posting pictures of Bath.

Piecing wadding and a visit to Brighton (65)

This morning I spent a jolly couple of hours piecing together hundreds (okay, I exaggerate, but there were probably about twenty) of scraps of wadding, enough to fit my single bed size Strawberry Crush. I found a perfect serpentine stitch on my new machine, and the whole thing ended up perfectly flat, which was amazing. So -- do I feel noble or what!! A virtually free wadding can't be bad.

We went to Brighton at lunchtime to meet number two son and his partner for lunch. The weather was gorgeous today, bright and sunny but not too hot, and we sat outside for lunch at a restaurant right by the sea. Then we found a fabric shop and I bought some material to make a shirt for No 2 son, as well as a shirt pattern and a trousers pattern for myself. We also went into the shop that I bought my new sewing machine from and I picked up the even feed and quarter inch feet that I forgot to buy when I bought the machine. So now there's no excuse. Then we had a cup of tea back down by the sea, and played a game of chicken with the waves. All in all, a lovely day.

So, I've got plenty to be doing over the next few weeks - shirts to make for DH and no 2 son, trousers for myself, as well as all the quilting and stitching I've been planning.

I know I put this Dear Jane quilt in my slide show yesterday, but I thought you might like another look at it. It's the first I've seen 'for real' and it was quite stunning. Perhaps I'll make a start on it for myself one of these days.

***&&&@@@!!! (38)

No pictures today because I don't want you to see the crumpled pile I left the black and white quilt in yesterday evening, I was so fed up with it! 

In the morning DH and I cleared the sideway, in the rain, because a chap's coming this morning to dig up some dead and dying conifers that make up our hedge. That was a job and a half, since we use it as storage space for garden rubbish and old pots that aren't being used yet. Then DH had to go up to London for the rest of the day and was going to a show in the evening, so I was more than ready to devote the rest of the day to sewing.

I'd finished quilting the main part of the quilt so 'just' had to put the borders on. Aaaaggghhh! They take as much time as the rest of the quilt I'm sure. And could I get the blasted things to go on straight! Because I was 'quilting as you go' I had to do the wadding and backing too. I decided to use the method from my new book Machine Quilting in Sections. I WON'T be doing it that way again! I'll stick to the method shown in Quilting-on-the-go by Carolyn Forster, it takes longer but it works first time. Eventually, after much wasted thread and rather bad language I got them stitched on. Then I decided to be brave and machine quilt using a template that I'd bought, so I marked up one border, set up the machine, took a deep breath and the plunge. Yet more wasted thread - yes, you've guessed it, tension problems. Finally, one border done. WONKY!! UNEVEN!! A MESS!! So I spent the next two hours unpicking it. Then I re-marked and started quilting it by hand. I don't think I'm cut out to be a machine quilter (perhaps it's my machine? I wish.)

Perhaps I'll have better luck today.

Google Reader (30)

Thanks to Candace, I spent some time yesterday working out how to use Google Reader. I was a bit disappointed at first, because I couldn't seem to see the original blogs, but I've worked that out now and I'm really happy with the way it works. It's going to give me much more time to really look at some of the features on the blogs. People work so hard to add content and make them attractive, that it has seemed a shame to rush through them. 

Unfortunately, we didn't get down to Brighton to visit number two son on Monday, as I wasn't feeling too well. 

So, I'm making sure to get lots of rest this week so that we can get down to see him on Friday. It's not difficult to rest when the weather is like this - there's nothing better than to sit in the shade in the garden and read or hand sew. I did manage a bit of quilting. I've been using a small scrap quilt to practice my free motion machine quilting. I must say, it isn't as easy as it looks in the few videos I've seen! I started to get a bit smoother and more accurate towards the end but I have a couple of problems - which may be down to me or to my machine.

Firstly, the machine kept 'jumping' when it came to the seams. Secondly, I found it really difficult to co-ordinate my hands and feet, so the stitches were often either too long or too short. Any help would be welcome.

Isn't this azalea beautiful? DH has a real knack with keeping them and always manages to bring them indoors at just the right time. This one's about ten years old now and never fails.

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.