slow, slow, stitch stitch slow.

hello and welcome to my last blog of the year!   Its been a lovely, peaceful Christmas,the family have visited, some dear friends have visited, I have spent a lovely day with some of my quilty friends and we are no longer haunted by turkey, gammon,sausage rolls and quality street.[this is mostly because I have eaten them all] I hope it is not a bad omen for the year that I have spent most of the day ironing the laundry mountain, it seems like all people do in our house is eat food and wear clothes, but I have fitted in a bit of sewing, some of it here and the Dresden plate quilt is coming along nicely, I have quilted the entire centre panel and am starting on the sides, its been quite hard on my fingers because  I am using 80/20 as a wadding,  because the quilt will be washed a lot.   I would much prefer  to have used some of the beautiful wool wadding that I buy from bramble patch-- its the very best I have come across,---but I don't think it will stand regular  hot washes the way the cotton wadding will.

anyway, my new years resolution is to give myself a day a week to sew and insist on it because I am getting a bit frustrated with always sewing at night, when I am tired and the kids have gone to bed.     I am going to ignore visiting relatives[ even the small cute ones]  and hungry shedmen and annoying small dogs who gaze at me with mismatched eyes  hoping for a long walk and just sew! my wish for every one else?  eat more midget gems and SEW a lot more!Happy new year wishes to everyone....

Back from the flu!

Hello, and Merry Christmas, back from the flu, just in time for the peeling and cooking and eating too many chocolates[is that actually possible?] a bit of sewing been going onhere  .But about  to start a new quilting project I have made this for a short person who chose it from a book about two years ago, a piece of cake book ,as  I recall, I have been saving this top to quilt on the quilt machine, but as I havnt got to grips with the dreaded machine yet, I thought it would be nice to hand quilt over crimbo. I

intend to watch a lot of telly---yay... doctor who is back! and sit and cough quietly  as I stitch a lot!         MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE, MAY YOUR NEEDLE NEVER BE EMPTY!

SNOWED OUT.

Its lovely,its beautiful,its fun, love it, love it, loved it up till I slipped in it and landed on the small maniac dog, she howled, she cried, one back leg was limp,so I carried her poor broken body to my nearest friends house to get a lift home, as I stood in sallies sitting room with dog in my arms----she spied the cat asleep on the sofa, in one leap she was gone, chasing said cat round and round house, Sally has two flights of stairs so it took some time to catch small maniac dog, maybe her leg isn't broken after all     hmmm.....
I have done a little sewing this week click here,not much  on the gecko quilt yet, as usual, life got in the way, one of the short people brought home a hideous lurgy from school and shared it with the rest of us[Frankie says all children are germbags] so a lot of lemsip has been drunk[sloe gin being saved for Christmas
In the midst of my coughing and wheezing, no.5 daughter came round to visit as I was struggling with the Ipod that I got for my birthday and she showed me how to set it up and put all my cds on it.

WOW-fantastic ,because I am partially deaf, I haven't heard much of my music clearly for the last ten years, wow ! earplugs , clear music and its soo skinny, like a  little purple wafer of happiness, and I can sew whilst I am listening as it fits down my bra a treat!

chameleon quilt

Hello again, wow, isn't it cold  outside ? all the better to stay inside and sew!  been pretty occupied stitching something on my other more arty  blog, if you want to see click here  also been busy cutting out chameleons for no.tens multicoloured quilt         no.six of the not so short people has been making a wall hanging for  Christmas, pretty good for a twelve year old- a tall twelve year old  she says-[towers over me]  I am getting nervous now as she is starting to cast her eye over my stash,- and its mine all mine!

Also, look at these, a string of basketty Christmas shapes   £1.79p in dunelms  I should be able to paint them cream or gold or in my case purple and  gold and they should look quite nice....

Time to sew

 Alas I have had too, much fun recently,christmas shopping, ironing, cleaning maniac dogs who  like  the mud etcetera,  and now sadly, its time to sew.....oh, boo hoo... anyway,the smallest of the short people has asked  for a new quilt in her favourite colour, with chameleons on it.  Ever since she could talk her favourite colour is------multicolour!   
She has picked out a batik and I have a gecko template, so, wish me luck, I may need serious  jellybeans for this!   

to see a couple of other new projects click herehere

Great big stitched postcard swap.

             WOW, what a lovely postcard I have received
 in the post, it came tucked inside a handmade card and it is both lovely and well made . I have really enjoyed this postcard swap, its been fun, the theme was home,and I made two cards, one to send to my designated person and one to send back to shanda to say thank you, want to see some more cards click herehere

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Autumn Gold

A very blowy and autumnal hello today.  I am finding it quite nippy, walking to school in the mornings, scarves and gloves are required but the short people and the maniac dog are loving it. Great piles of  gold and brown dry, crackling leaves are appearing everywhere and they all run  [including  maniac dog] from pile to pile kicking throughh the leaves  and throwing handfuls into the wind, which soon catches them and tidies them back into their piles.hmm  I am feeling very poetic today.

I drove up to the wolds last week, for a workshop near Louth with Sheena Norquee and the viewes were stunning, every hedge was golden, and at one point, I caught a glimpse of the sea in the far distance.

Sheena was great,she had so much to tell us, about needles and wadding and threads,she knows so much and yet is such a quiet and pleasant lady.

We were painting fantasy birds on fabric using various objects to print with, cotton buds and old cut up credit cards  and little screws , it was great fun.

Sheena had brought quite a large collection of small quilts featuring fantasy birds which she very kindly allowed us to examine, they were all wonderful, her hand stitching is as precise and perfect as her machine quilting.



,I have to say, mine was a bit rubbish, ahem, a work in progress  and I do intend to do a lot more to it,every one else went on to to very careful tiny machine quilting to their very nice fantasy  bird I had to leave early as it was Halloween,when I got back mr shedman had finished decorating our house and was lighting the candles. The short people were putting on costumes and waiting for me. We are very keen on trick or treat in our village, so the night was filled with witches and vampires, and we collected enough sweets, to sink a boat,brilliant.

Great big stitched postcard swap

Fancy a quick swap?this looks fun!  just hit the link on the postcard picture, go over to beths blog and join in,sew a postcard, send a postcard and get one back in the post,go on, how hard can it be?

A bit more of Newark show

Wish me luck, here we go again, I will try to show some piccies of some nice quilts, again.

              I particularly liked these two, because, although fairly small they had tremendous detail in them.

I liked the calmness

and restricted colour pallete of this one.   

I have tried to catch the circular balcony.....

                       I thought this sketch book wasreally impressive.....

                       

And finally, this is trudi from quilting prolifically s really big, one and only giant pumpkin.!

Quilting in Newark

I am going to attempt to show some nice piccies of the quits on show at Newark last week, the show was held in a lovely old  victorian  Methodist  church with an astonishing circular balcony running around the main hall, perfect for hanging quilts on!AAGH BLOGGERS FROZEN AGAIN!

Larger bossomed ladies.

First of all,apologies for not blogging sooner,my laptop has been getting stroppy and nomber, one son had to come back from Newcastle to refresh his proper southern accent and also fix the infernal machine, Thank you son!

Busy sewing  tonight as  I foolishly volunteered to shake a bucket for charity at the Dunelm stores Charity evening tomorrow night, and today my friend brought the tee shirts round--oh dear, we are both larger bossomed ladies and although the tee shirts did go over our heads, they didn't go over anything else, not in an attractive way, in fact my kids nearly wet themselves laughing.

So, I suggested that I  cut out the logos  and  fuse them to some  pelmet vilene  and  edge stitch them in yellow and we will just wear big badges. Voila!  
Bish Bash Bosh--job done. How clever am I?

As my friend left tonight, she said, these are brilliant.,but what will I say if they ask for the tee shirts back?   aaaagh.......

Crazy Chicken returns!

Finally- I have broadband, I am back in the virtual blogworld- and oh!I have missed it so. and why have I been gone so long?- one word - B.T. Boxes are still being unpacked and paint colours chosen, but,by and large, we are in and settled. The sewing room is being fitted outwith shelves and stuff by Mr shedman--possibly we should now call him Mr no shedman.

I have really missed everyone Else's blogs but most of all I have missed sewing. The only stuff I have done this summer is the four journal quilts for the guild.But a wonderful return this weekend. I joined the other members of expeditionquiltart at a workshop tutored by Madeline Millington, who is a very pleasant and cheerful artist who uses dyed blankets for her work. We had a rainbow of colours to work with, and after instruction she gave us all free rein to do what we wanted-- hence the crazy chickens!

this will be a bag front, it will be quilted, adorned with stuff and of course SEQUINS!, we had a lovely relaxing and happy time and I thoroughly recommend her workshop!

expeditionquiltart.blogspot.com

GREEK DREAMS

life is flying by madly at the moment, I am just returned from a wonderfull peacefull holiday in greece and have returned to the news that our house move has been moved forward to this weekend so, panic, wrap, box, dig up plants, empty lofts, discover stuff still there from last house move , eat strange things left in freezer, argue with bt, who wont give me new broadband for two weeks. and no sewing, boo hooo, when it gets rough I will dream of greece....

as you can see, I have had a terrible time in Greece, forced to eat wonderful food in wonderful tavernas at the waters edge and sunbathe and swim on differant beachs every day, look after no-one but myself and just totally chill out!The most energetic thing I did was wave the camera about occasionally and catch a few viewes and some images of the lovely houses and streets I will cherish these memories for the rest of my life....

thank god for sharpies

A short respite from the saltmines,I have had to stop sewing F.O.Q. quilt to pack rucksacks as 3 of the short people are off to P.G.L.-so-names on everything,towels,jammies,socks sunhats ect.thank god for sharpies!..as I wave goodbye to them tomorow night so other short persons friends arrive for sleepover followed by small sons seven mates for saturday sleepover.. plus, did I mention I sold my house? buyers are coming to visit, measure and bring extended family to see their future home on saturday. also grandchilds birthday tomorow also must have hair cut, coloured, removed on saturday also buy euros , bite cream , pack books , for holiday to greece on thursday also finish and post quilt also make labels tonight for luggage for PGL aaagh I am so very ,tired at the moment, this morning as I returned from the school run and neared my house, I noticed the grass verge was on fire, I came in put a load of laundry in, potted up a plant trimmed dogs hair and was aranging windscreen replacement ,when the fire brigade arrived , and I remembered the fire in the verge...back to the saltmines....

PEAROOM SATURDAY,

Hi everyone,I am afraid I haven't blogged much lately as I have been working on my quilt for the festival of quilts. As usual-leaving it to the last minute.Yesterday the pea room ladies set up their exhibition and today-we opened. The quilts were fabulous and we were mostly swayed with compliments-exept in one case.... I was hovering around my quilt when an older married couple examined it-closely-very closely-so- in stewarding mode,I said brightly "do you like it?" whereupon they verbally ripped it to pieces they were extremely descriptive in their dislike and criticisms--I shrank to the size of a mouse and crept away. on reflection it was quite funny really, it certainly takes all sorts to make a world..Anyway, the African fabric shop was there, and whilst I have made a pledge not to buy any more fabric till the F. O.Q. I can still buy threads beads and buttons and a really nice big basket that is both strong and soft,yahoo!
And when I got home I got out a journal page that I hadn't finished and I sat and sewed quietly for a nice long while.

happy stitching

I feel all nice and soothed now,I am back there tomorrow, and I will keep away from my own quilts!
p.s. two great blogs I have discovered- stitching life- a brilliant Yorkshire lady and a link from her blog[ I cant seem to load it up]called while I was waiting, check them out-they are great! p.p.s.- another blogger said if I really want to move then I need to stitch a cloth depicting all of us moving to a new house-- hey, its worth a try!