Creations - of all kinds

Well, the house has been a shambles these last few weeks. With the cold hitting the household very hard, then a few days of building tear-downs and refits (the Blighter's bedroom) and the plasterer going through the house to plaster the bedroom, then today new windows are being fitted in 3 rooms upstairs.....

The place is a skip. A real mess. Dust, plaster, clothes everywhere, furniture has been moved from various rooms to accommodate the window and wall replacement. The sewing room is full of my last craft show stock plus stuff that has been dumped out of the way (see previous comments) so is also a mess.

Am fed up.

On the plus side, have had a birthday with cake:

There's even the gymball I sit on to sew! Fab, fab and delicious :D Although it looks more like my mother than me - this is what I have to look forward to!

And took the Blighter to pony club on Saturday, as a reward for getting enough stickers on her chart of good behaviour (the only thing we have found to really work).

And have been making wee xmas decorations that have worked out chuffingly well:

Just one of my ideas for the next Craft fair - and will hopefully be putting some up on Etsy once I get my finger out. Check me out at Fankle Quilting :)

And I managed to finish this too, which I really enjoyed making:

Single bed size, stitch in the dicth zig zag quilting, plain turq backing

And got this top finally finished too (Space! On the sewing room floor!):

Single bed size, will be big floral patch backing. Quilting - prob crosshatch.

And here's my boy who is just lovely :)

(Spot the sock mitre blanket in the corner, up to 50 squares now...)

Hope you're all having a good Monday. If that's at all possible.
Cheerie!

In praise of the internet

Hallo. Apologies for the lack of blog posts on here lately. At the moment I am stuffed to the gunwales with snot, with throbbing sinuses and a rumbling toothache thrown in to boot.

Part of the joys of being diabetic, I reckon. Your immune system is shot to hell, because Diabetes type 1 (which is what I have) is caused when your body attacks itself and knackers your pancreas, so no more insulin, hello injections for ever.

 

Which is fine, except my immune system likes to keep itself amused by throwing huge viruses at me every so often. Hence my overwhelming tissue usage and my amazing ability to power a wind turbine with my sneezes.

Nice.

Oh, and a filling needed replaced the other week, got replaced, grumbled ever since, and there is now extended root treatment in my near future. And I hate going to the dentist. (shudder)

Ha! If only....

But, I am powering away on the mitre blanket, seeing as I am mostly anchored to the couch. Have got 6 blocks by 7 blocks done and working in the 7th row. Still looking good, and its keeping my lap toasty warm as I knit.

And thank you everyone in blogland for continuing to post beautiful pictures of your work, and thank you lovely bloggers like Crazy Mom Quilts for giving people a showcase to let them be admired. Yay for the internet when you feel rubbish!

Much snottery love to all xxxxx

Stuttering to a halt...

Ha. So much for my lofty ambitions. Ill again, Flu-type cold again. Am so utterly fed up of this state of affairs that I have booked a session of acupuncture to see if it will help my desperately failing immune system. Hubby has had a course and swears by it, and I can see the improvements every time he goes.

Hopefully this will be me on Thursday!

So, my turn now. Another way for a quilter to be involved with pins :) Will be attending a preliminary consultation on Thurs morning and hopefully it will be gravy from there!

Wish me luck....

Blue Funk

I feel a bit sluggish of late. This is most likely a mixture of things - flu-type virus reappearance, looking after my hubby who is suffering another attack on his immune system, and my daughter who is being 5 and a half as well as she knows how. Thoughts of passed family members are weighing heavily too, especially poignant with Mother's Day tomorrow - well, today now. So have been a bit melancholy and low-spirited.

Surprisingly, there has been productivity despite this malaise. I finished knitting a pair of men's socks for a friend; made a cafetiere warmer for another friend (well, for her cafetiere technically) and finished the last square of a blanket I have been knitting for ever. It only needs sewing together and knitting a border round the edges. I am currently wrapped in a blanket I finished last year - a monster effort which took over a year to make, and no wonder: I used 3.25mm needles (that's old size 10, for the UK folk) to knit a single bed-sized blanket out of Rowan Felted Tweed. It was a labour of love, log-cabin stylee, and I really truly enjoyed it. I still havent taken a picture of this beauty, but now that I think of it, it deserves to be shown off for it's example of my fragile mental state testament to perseverance.

I'll get on it. And pics of all the other finishes.

It is nice to know that even in the midst of the lassitude there is comfort to be had in creation.

And I'm going for a cycle tomorrow.

Ta-dah! A finish!

Guess what I managed to finish? My two commission quilts, Oh yeah!

Have some loverly photos :)

This is the two of them together, not identical but fraternal twins. I used the same fabrics for both but went with whatever star fabric content I felt like at the time.

 

Another shot of the pair of them against my lovely beech hedge :)

I am quite chuffed with how they turned out, after being a bit ho-hum about them to begin with. I still have to finish some pillow covers but am not going to be long with that (despite all the ills that have been hitting me this last 2 weeks. Am beginning to think we are a secret germ-testing laboratory).

Really enjoyed this finish! Really looking forward to making something new! I sense some buckets in bright spring colours in the near future...

Getting better every day

I have some sewing going on, despite feeling a bit rubbish - we had complete viral overload in our house for the last fortnight - and there is some sewing progress Yay! Simple stars and contrasting fabrics, am feeling the love on this commission :)

Chain piecing preparation :

There has also been knitting: Chunky wooly beanies and a couple of cowls and snoods, trying out stuff, and there has been selling: been to a couple of craft fairs, and sold a quilt, xmas decorations and wooly beanies. Photos of knitting soon, when I get myself organised...

It's getting better every day! Thanks Mama Cass.

Hmmmmm.

Am quilting the Arrows Quilt. It is going------ well, it's going. I tried a loop stitch, and that was silly. 3 hours of unpicking ensued. I started outlining the arrows on the white, which went well except for my tension issues, which meant another hour of unpicking. So third time lucky - have outlined all the arrows in white.

Now I'm wondering what to do next.

1) Should I quilt inside the arrows with colour?

2) Should I do another smaller design in the white areas?

3) Should I fill in the gaps with stippling or other patterns?

4) Should I just leave well alone and bind it?

All help appreciated! Linking to Crazy Mom's Finish it Friday for some help!


PS My hubby has a vomiting bug. Oh yay. We're all treating him like a leper. Yay for another bathroom. Not yay for him feeling even more ill than he has been already :(

Finish it up Friday - the Sock Version

Hallo you lovely crafters!

Have been doing flip all* quilting myself here this last few days (and I cannot believe it is Friday already) but I have been doing some sock knitting. Because sock knitting is Very Portable. And when the place has been heaving with nieces and nephews and all manner of children needing to be entertained in the holidays, portability (is this a word?) has been essential.

In fact, these socks have been to: Heads of Ayr Farm Park, Troon Beach Park, Fullarton Woods, Craft Daft, Adventure Planet, and any number of stops inbetween. And socks are for niece who has been entertaining us, and esp her cousin, with her presence for a few days.

So as my finish it Friday, I present one Finished (WOOHOO) sock and one ALMOST and as good as finished sock. Used 3.25mm needles and James C Brett's Moonlight Sonata. I am usually a bit snobby about non-natural fibres, but I have to say I am pleasantly surprised by this one, It doesnt feel plastic, and knits up really nicely. I'm not sure how it will wear as a sock, but it has 10% mohair, 10% wool, 75% acrylic and 5% metallic for that extra glamour. This is my favourite colourway out of the lot.

I will be quilting as soon as normal service resumes, which will be from Tuesday because the schools go back. To say I am looking forward to this is quite an understatement.

Any return to normality will be welcome because my hubby, who is already ill suffering from post-viral fatigue (90 weeks and counting), has been struck down with a heavy cold, and has been unable to leave the house even more than usual, leaving us all slightly cabin-fevered. Yay for school and immune system recovery! Yay for me getting some free daytime hours!

* means none, nothing happening, to all you non-Scots out there :)

Small but perfectly formed

Updated to join with Crazy Mom Quilts linky Finish it Friday party!  (I think that it counts that I've finished my quilt top, even though its not the whole thing yet )

Even though I have been a bit under the weather, some things are ideal makes when sitting cosily by the fire, in front of some excellent telly (or in this case, Supernatural on dvd).

Check these out - what do you think?

Cushions were bought, and decorated, little brooch motifs are detachable for washing. Each one I finished was my new favourite :)

PS Borders on Arrows quilt, just needs basting and quilting and binding. Well that will keep me busy for about 10 minutes. ha.

Deja Vu again

Have not got rid of this cold. It had been lurking in wicked glee in a dim corner of my being waiting for the moment to strike out again, and boy has it ever. Today I have been mostly lying asleep on the sofa leaving the parenting to my ill husband. Luckily the shopping got delivered so we have food in the house yay.
Crafting has been minimal. I have managed a cushion decoration but the sewing machine defeated me today - I was pinning my borders onto the Arrows top when I was hit with a wave of nausea. Clearly this bug has issues with handmade items.  Luckily it seems to have no problems with me watching Mrs Brown on iplayer.
I am now on my way to bed to see if I snore this virus into submission.