The Patio

So our garden is a blank canvas.  This is a vast improvement from the 'mess' that we inherited when we bought the house

This was the overgrown back garden when we first moved in:

And here's the patio:

We worked hard to clear the whole thing including the rubble and brambles that were the biggest part of the end patch:

Yes that was once a pond!

Which led me to have big plans which we were due to get started on 18 months ago. And we all know what happened then...

So absolutely nothing happened in the garden for the whole of the last year. DH doesn't do gardens. He grew up in a sixth floor apartment in Athens, gardens confuse him LOL. He did keep the grass cut (sorta) but that was about it so this year I am on a mission to get started with my plans. Stage 1 is getting the patio sorted.

This is what it looked like after the winter:

And this is what it looks like now (minus the bread which the birds have removed):

A friend of ours jet washed it for almost two hours to get it to that state - there's just no escape from the fact that they are old and nasty slabs but we cannot afford new and nice ones so we're going to repoint these ones and make the best of it for now. 

Do you see those decorative bricks down the left hand side?  We have enough of those to build two walls at the end of the patio either side of the steps (it's about a foot and a half drop from the edge to the garden below) to make it a bit safer for the boy toddling around.  I will also finish painting the side of the garage so it's all blue (I painted the first bit two years ago LOL).

Once that is done I have plans for a veggie patch and a wildlife garden as well as leaving a large chunk of kid friendly lawn.  We won't get too far with it all this year but we will definitely make progress on last year!

Bags, bags and more bags

So I've had a bit of a lull in my bag making but I've made 14 now:

My name is Joy

and I'm addicted to Angry Birds.

Very addicted.

So much so that I have had to leave my iTouch at home so I don't get sacked for playing it while I should be working.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about please do not try and find out as I take no responsibility for you too falling into this addiction - it is spreading across the planet already.

There is no hope for us.

This weekend I...

- Watched my husband run (and complete) his first half marathon
- Spent a fantastic day with visting family
- Was extremely proud of Lia who played with her cousins all day without a whinge or tears (this is a minor miracle given the kids are 5,3,1 and 0!)
- Took the kids to the park
- Had to get the sun hats out the weather was so lovely
- Made buns
- Cooked a great lasagne
- Started the great spring clean in the house
- Stitched on Snapperbets
- Got relieved of my swimming lesson duties - DH took the kids so I could have a lie in
- Was thrilled as Connor said 'Dad' yesterday quite distinctly - not sure if he associates the word with the person but hey, it's a start!

Beaded Heart Biscornu

Here's my finished stitching on the biscornu - I need to get going on the finishing so it doesn't languish in the 'to do' pile...

Better buns

Much happier with the icing today:

Avast me car keys...

It's Red Nose Day here in the UK.  Lia's gone to school dressed in red and Connor had to dress in costume for nursery.  One of my absolute pet hates is dumb costumes for babies - anything furry or with ears or pumpkins and Christmas elves just gives me the horrors.  Once they're big enough to choose to look ridiculous then that's up to them, before that you just shouldn't dress them in anything you wouldn't be seen in yourself LOL.

Obviously this is my personal point of view and I will not hold it against you if you are of the opposite opinion LOL.

So today I went with the tried and tested pirate option - I had suitable clothes already and all that was required was a bit of face paint...

Oh and in case you're wondering, the blog title comes from Lia when we were trying to teach her some pirate phrases...

Ten Pink Bags!

That means I'm half way.  No pics as had too many chores to do last night but I will get some soon.

I've been talking to a fellow stitcher about Bent Creek's Snapperbets recently and because of this got the urge to pick up this WIP.  Unfortunately for me I couldn't find my charts for it but after a bit of frantic searching I found them this morning so I think I will be working on this one for a while.

Tomorrow is Comic Relief here in the UK so I should have a good few stitching hours in front of the TV in the evening which should help me get back into the design.  I'm about half way through and, if I recall correctly, it was quite a quick stitch so hopefully I'll make good progress before I get bored and move on.

Ho Hum

Thanks for your comments on yesterday's post.  I am trying to protect myself and my family and DH is doing a good job of that too.  I made sure right from the start that I discussed it all with him - I don't want to be keeping secrets from him for a start and he's good at helping me talk through how I feel and supporting my decisions.

I have obviously got the message across to B though as I'm getting hardly any text messages from her when they were almost constant at one point.  This can only be a good thing.

In other less stressful news I've had a HD with the Biscornu and I'm up to seven completed pink bags.  The construction part of the bags involves some sewing then some ironing and then the final sewing so I started a bit of a production line rather than doing each bag individually.  I've done the first part of the sewing for all of them now and most of them are ironed so I'm on schedule to have them finished by the end of the week so I can then get on with the boy bags over the weekend.

Life is never dull

But sometimes I'd really like it to be.

I'm currently in a position I never, ever, thought I'd be in and it's giving me a total headache. I should say I'm fine, my life is fine, my husband is fine and my kids are fine.  What isn't fine is that a friend has embarked on an affair and has confided in me which has left me totally sideswiped and, in trying to be a mate, I've gotten deeper into things than I would ever want to be.

The problem is that I know both couples - couple A & B are good friends of ours and couple C & D are also friends and now B & C are having an affair of which A & D are totally unaware.  To make things worse their daughters are Lia's school friends.  I should point out that none of them know I have a blog let alone how to find it so I'm not going to cause any issues by writing this down.

B and I are good mates and I've known since we first got friendly that her marriage isn't great.  I also know that C had an affair not long before I met him and the general opinion is that his marriage isn't that fantastic either.  The pair of them were always pretty open about their attraction so in one way I'm not surprised the affair has started but I am surprised because they live 2 minutes apart, their kids are friends and they socialise together so I can't believe they'd actually do it.

I'm a pretty moral person and this has landed me in a situation where I feel really compromised.  I always thought that in this position I would tell the person being cheated on but now feel like I can't because it's my mate that's doing the cheating so my loyalty should be to her instead.  But should I still be loyal to her when she's having sex with another friends husband?  It's a circular argument and I'm certainly not expecting any of you to be able to give me a solution but it's starting to drive me nuts.

The problem is that once B confided in me that she had snogged C I became complicit in the affair.  I spent a lot of time talking to her and trying to get her to stop before it really got out of hand but the truth is I was never going to be successful and sure enough, a couple of weeks later, the consumation was done and dusted and everything was full on.  The problem for me is that because of my initial involvement she still felt like she could continue to confide in me and she absolutely did.

I did lay down some rules - I would never lie for her or be used as an alibi and he cannot know that I know because I don't want them to feel like they can behave like a couple in front of me.  I had thought that this would mean things are abstract enough that I could kid myself I wasn't really involved but that's just not the case.  Besides the rules got bent.  Last Friday she spent 20 mins on the phone to him whilst at my house and it was extremely uncomfortable for both me and DH.

So more rules got made.

No talking on the phone to him at all in my presence and there will be no invitations for both of them to be at my house at the same time ever again, with or without their spouses.

But the trouble is this doesn't feel enough for me - it's been 4 weeks and I'm so totally sick of it that I'm actually praying they'll get caught soon.

Now I know you're all probably shouting at the screen at this point telling me to tell her to stop talking about it, I don't want to be involved, but it's back to that loyalty to a friend issue.  She really doesn't have anyone else to talk to and, affair aside, she really needs support as she's considering leaving her husband.  The leaving her husband has been on the cards for some time but the affair has definitely speeded up the process.  How can I not be a shoulder for her when she's having a tough time?

As I said, I'm not looking to you to give me answers I'm just dumping stuff out of my brain in the hope that I'll feel better.  I have tried and tried and tried to talk sense into her but she's so loved up at the moment that she just won't listen.  They've already planned their happily ever after (them together with the kids) and they are like a pair of loved up teenagers.  She can't help talking about it and is extremely indiscreet about it all so I know it won't be long before the cat gets out of the bag.

I'm now also in the position of feeling crap for her husband as he's a nice enough guy and he has no clue she's thinking of leaving.  Because I understand her reasons for wanting out of the marriage (which I will not bore you with) I was happy to be a shoulder for her but now she's moved to a position where she actually appears to loathe him our chats always seem to include her slagging him off.  It's not a prolonged tirade about him or anything, it's throw away comments while we're talking about other things (eg 'yeah I'm off to the gym today as I need to burn off some energy because every time I look at A I want to punch him in the face).

And the pair of cheaters are also seriously out of order when it comes to their spouses.  Of course the very fact that they are cheating is bad enough but because the cheating pair are so desperate to see each other they have started arranging things for both families to do together!  Last Saturday she was in the park with both blokes for two hours of football and bike riding with the kids and yesterday cheating husband went round to A & B's house and spent the evening drinking beer with B!

I can just about cope with them fronting it out if they have to see the wife/husband that is being cheated on during the normal course of the day but the idea of popping round and spending the evening drinking beer with the bloke whose wife you have shagged in the very house the shagging took place just blows my mind!

Day by day they are losing my sympathy and my ability to bite my tongue and not give them my opinion on their actions is failing.  I keep telling myself they are adults and it is absolutely none of my business but if they are making it my business how do I protect my sanity?

This weekend I...

- had a very early wake up call from my son
- completed the St Patrick's Day Angry Birds with three stars on all levels
- took Lia to swimming lessons
- made a lot of buns
- entertained old friends
- watched my son climb the stairs from the bottom to the top!
- swapped out all his 9 - 12 month sleep suits and body suits for the next size up
- made bags!
- drew a line in a situation with a friend
- had a fab lie in
- found my son upside down in a bin after he slipped off the sofa
- hoovered
- had too much junk food
- discovered a reason we might end up going to Greece this year after all

More Bags

So here's the next three bags:

Okay so I'm not going to post every single one of the millions of bags I'm making but these show you the three different materials I'm using in the main panels of the pink bags.

I may have trouble giving them away though as every time I make one Lia decides that's the one she wants LOL.  I've told her to wait till they're all done and then she absolutely has to choose one!

Oh and Kathy, the floss for the biscornu is Polstitches Dragon Floss No 43 - Steaming Needles.

Sunshine Buns

It's an absolutely glorious day here - I was out early this morning in flip flops and no coat - spring has sprung! (It'll probaby be pouring and freezing tomorrow LOL)

We have friends coming over this afternoon (they're due any time now actually) and I baked buns this morning.  I love baking - I certainly don't do enough of it - but the main reason I went with buns is that I'm planning on making lots and lots of them for our party so I wanted to know how many buns I could get from a specific amount of ingredients so I can work out how much I need to buy.

I also wanted to have my first practice with my icing set as I hope to be able to do nice swirly icing on the top but I'll definitely be needing more practice judging by the way these look LOL.

If I don't improve between now and the end of April I think we'll be going with avant garde icing LOL

Beaded Heart Biscornu

I've been doing a little stitching too - here's my progress on the Polstitches Beaded Heart Biscornu:

The First Bag

Finally I've stopped talking about the party bags and started making them!

Here's a pic of the first one (apologies for DH's luminous running jacket in the background!):

 

And here's a pic of the bottom of the bag:

 

The threads you can see hanging off the side are just from the last bit of sewing around the top band and I just need to tie them off properly.  As you'll see from the pic of the bottom I messed up the seams of the base just slightly (top left) - my own fault but I know why it happened so I'll be more careful on all the rest.

Finished bag size is approx 9 inches high.

I'm using a pattern from a book called Simply Christmas by Sarah Wellfair.  I've adapted it slightly but only for ease of making it up as I have a fair few to make (22 of this style!).  I've not bothered with wadding and quilting and the top band is supposed to be hand sewn around it's base but I've machined it.  Oh and she hand sews the handles on at the end but I've sewn mine in when stitching in the lining and top band.

I've cut all the fabric for the rest of the bags:

 

The lining is also all cut so now it's a bit of a production line!  I've used all the pink fabrics I could find in my stash so there's a real mix - hopefully no two bags will be exactly the same.

It's about 45 mins to an hour per bag so I'm hoping I can get two or three done a night now they're all cut so fingers crossed I should have them done by the end of next week.  I'm using a much less complicated pattern for the boy bags - they'll be one fabric draw string bags and there's only 12 of them so they should hopefully stitch up even quicker.

Another old finish

And it's another Sue Hawkins

This time it's a biscornu.  The sides use two identical thread colours but alternate the highlight colour:

An old finish

I realised I have one or two finishes that I never got round to posting so here's one:

It's a Sue Hawkins pin cushion

This weekend I...

- Cooked a killer lasagne (in a good way LOL)
- Motivated DH to work out a plan for getting patio cleaned and sorted
- Had a lovely lunch out with the family
- Met a friend for coffee
- Bought some of the Godparent gifts for the Christening
- Found the bottom of the ironing basket
- Started thinking about paint colours for the hallway
- Had a lie in
- Sold some more items
- Listed some things on eBay
- Tidied my bedroom
- Made the first party bag (only 28 to go!)

Birds of a Feather finish

So I tried taking pics outside today given the weather was glorious and they're better than my usual efforts but I think the main problem is that the camera is just sooooo old!

Anyway here's the pics (the fabric colour is quite washed out - it's a lovely lilac IRL):

Both sides of what will end up as the bag:

A close up of the stitching (you can see the sequencing on the birds)

Please don't comment on the date in the stitching LOL.  I was considering unpicking it and putting this year but I just couldn't face it - I was so sick of the repetition on the piece by the end but I'm pleased I stuck with it and got it finished.

Ugh

A 6.30am wake up call from the No 1 son isn't too bad unless you were dumb enough to stay up till 1am the night before.

I. Need.  More.  Sleep.

Hormonal five year olds

Today Lia has a non-uniform day at school (or a dress down day as they are now referred to).  Without fail this event leads to instant stress the moment she wakes up compounded by whinging and whining and, today, tears.  My issue today was that it was zero degrees outside and therefore a summer skirt was not acceptable.  And neither was a summer skirt teamed with leggings that clashed so badly they could bring on a migraine.

Generally I have no issue with Lia choosing her own clothing - sure she's lacking a certain sense of style given she's only five but it's not like her wardrobe is extensive enough she can get into too much trouble - but for dress down days they have to still be smart and therefore my input is required.

We are generally suffering from her attitude at the moment.  There is so much answering back and whining and shouting that some days I despair.  I have to admit it's surprised me that this is happening so early on - I was thinking I'd got a few more years before the door slamming stage (it's only happened once but the next time it happens toys will be in a bin bag). 

The biggest issue is her hair.  She wants it long.  I say she can only have it long if it's tied up because it's so fine and whispy that it looks like she's been dragged through a hedge about a second after it is brushed.  This of course is not her fault, neither is it her fault that her best friend has perfect hair but I cannot stand it looking so awful plus she's all over Connor at any opportunity and therefore her hair is all over him too or in her mouth when she's eating and so on and so on.

However she majorly objects to having it brushed (or brushing it herself) and while she now accepts it's a french plait and only a french plait for school, weekends are still a nightmare.  She has to have it in a bun for ballet and this always causes ructions.  She actually missed ballet one week because I refused to take her due to her atrocious behaviour about her hair.  We are now in a final warning state - the next time she even starts a scene about it I'm cutting it off - only Daddy's intervention saved her last time and he now knows I'm serious too.

And we're not even going to discuss the tidying her bedroom.  Last time I told her she had to I got the response 'I'm not poor, my name is not Cinderella'.  So now this is another issue that will result in all toys in a bin bag. I do wonder if I expect too much from her as she's only five but it's not like I'm asking her to clean the house or cook the dinner, I expect her to keep her room tidy so that I'm not stepping on all her toys when I go in there and that's about it.

Having said all of that, I suppose can hardly complain about her stubborness and attitude when I really don't have to look further than a mirror to see where she gets it from LOL

A Finish!

I had a night in with a mate yesterday watching The Breakfast Club and St Elmo's Fire (I think my impending birthday has kicked off a serious nostalgia vibe) and I stitched like crazy and finished the Dilly Bag.

I can't tell you how happy I am - it's a lovely design but it's repetitive and extremely dull after a while.  It only uses four colours and I made it harder on myself by deciding to sequence the birds in it - ie I stitched every bird with the same colour sequence on the thread so they all look identical.  I'm glad I did it but it wasn't exactly a fun process.

No pics as yet - my photos are bad enough when taken in daylight so taking one at midnight would be pointless LOL.

I'm thinking now to focus on the Noah's Ark quilt and get that done and out of the way then the birth sampler so I get rid of the obligation stitching.  Hopefully neither will take me too long and then I might pick up one of my more neglected WIPs.

Confessions of a slap-dash quilter

I started quilting about four years ago when I discovered that a shop in my home town ran quilting courses - this meant I was able to drop Lia off with my family for the day and I could go learn to quilt.  This was back in the days when I could take leave from work whenever I wanted because we weren't tied to school holidays which was lucky because the courses tended to be during the week rather than weekends.

I don't remember exactly how many courses I went on, probably about 8 or 9 (it's a long time ago and I've had another baby since then LOL) but it was love at first class for me.  I'd never really been inspired to use my sewing machine, in fact I have no idea why I bought one as I had no clue how to use it or what to sew on it, but all of a sudden a new obsession was born.

I've made around a 20 quilts in the intervening years as well as smaller items and, of course, my ever expanding WIP pile and one thing I've learnt about myself is that I'm not a precision sewer.  I absolutely prefer speed to perfection and I'm certainly not into quilting by hand as, if I'm going to sit and stitch, I'd rather it be cross stitch than quilting.

I should clarify that I love, love, love making quilt tops.  I love the designing, measuring, cutting and sewing of them.  I like it when they're fiddly (just as well since I have a Dear Jane quilt on the go), I love the fact that seemingly random pieces of fabric can come together into something gorgeous and I love the 'wow' moment when the top is finally completed.

What happens next is the problem for me as I'm pretty slapdash at the whole quilting part of the project - they're not going to fall apart but they definitely couldn't be entered into any competitions. I like to think this is lack of space to layer and pin properly and having a small sewing machine which makes quilting larger items a real struggle but in truth it is really just my impatience and dumb ass attitude that causes the problems.  I don't know why but I seem to look at the quilting bit as boring sewing rather than being creative and if it's boring sewing I therefore have to get it over and done with as quickly as possible.  I also think that my lack of experience doing it means that I worry about messing it up and ruining my hard work on the quilt top.

Apart from one class on free motion quilting I've only ever done the stitch in the ditch method and most of that has been wonky LOL.  So one of my goals this year is to get better at putting the quilts together and I've just found a blog post over on Stash Manicure that I think might help.  I'd never considered the idea of quilting blocks as I go - to be honest it hadn't occured to me that I could - but I'm thinking that I could use this method to make a bunch of smallish blocks that I can practice free motion quilting on and then if I do mess them up I at least am only messing up a small block rather than a whole quilt top.

I have no idea if this will work but my pile of quilt tops is just going to grow and grow if I don't get more confident in my skills.  One thing's for sure I cannot afford to pay someone to quilt them for me so it's definitely time to bite the bullet.

Rabbits Rabbits Rabbits

And a pinch and a punch just for good measure!

Oh and Happy St David's Day for any Welsh readers.

Can you believe it's the 1st March already?  The last two months seem to have flown by (admittedly in a haze of germs).  This month is officially sewing machine month as I have to make the party bags for next month and given I have to make 30 - 40 of them I think I'd better get started.

It's a Greek tradition to give out Bombonieres at Christenings and Weddings - I believe the do it in other countries too but it's definitely not something I had any experience of until our Big Fat Greek Wedding and Christening.  Basically it's the tradition of giving sugared almonds to guests but wrapping the almonds up in something fancy. This can be as basic as taking a square of tulle, putting some almonds in the middle and then tying some ribbon to make a little pouch (ie cheap and what I got for our wedding) or little decorated ceramic pots with the almonds in (ie not so cheap what my MIL got for Lia's Christening).

With Connor being Christened here we don't actually need to get bombonieres - all the English guests wouldn't expect them and all the Greek guests could be told we don't do it here but now I know they exist I really wanted some because the stuff they have for kids is just so cool!  When we were in Greece last year I popped into a shop that sells these things and was completely overwhelmed with the choice.  My Greek sister in law has been helping me sort out what I want by sending me a link to one of the biggest shops in Athens for these things.

Traditionally you would only have one type of bomboniere so every guest would get the same but me being me I want to differentiate between adults, boys and girls so I've ordered a selection of things (whistles, bookmarks, pencil holders, etc) and will be making each child a little bag and they'll get four or five different things.  Here's an idea of the ranges I've chosen:

You can see that they usually come with some kind of pouch that holds the sweets but I'm not having those, I just want the toys!  I was expecting them to be quite expensive (they would be buying them here) but they're all under a euro each.

For the adults I've chosen small squares of murano glass.  I don't have the actual ones I've chosen but they're similar to these except ours are brightly coloured:

They come with the box which includes room for the sugared almonds (or sweets of my choice I haven't yet decided). I think I'm now more excited about the bombonieres than I am about the party itself LOL.

So my extra goal for March is to get the little bags made - I've got lots of pink fabric I can use for the girl's bags and I've got quite a bit of pirate theme fabric I can use for the boys.  I intend to make a start tonight!

February Roundup

So I managed another full month of posting daily!  I am pretty much out of WIPs to show though so I am going to have to get productive if I'm going to keep up the posting in March.

My goals are currently looking like this:

1. Blog more - Yep, a post a day
2. No stash purchases - nothing interesting came through the letterbox this month so that's a yes
3. Reduce my stitching WIP list - made great progress on Birds of a Feather - hoping for a HD soon
4. No new stitching starts in the first half of the year - check
5. Find the quilting bug again and reduce my quilting WIPs - Not really but I'm itching to get going and have 40 gift bags to make in March!
6. Read at least 50 books - 7 read in Feb
7. Reduce the clutter in the house - yep stuff has gone
8. Lose weight - ah, well this'll be a no but can I have some points for thinking about it?
9. Stick to the household budget and find ways to reduce expenditure - budget got a bit mashed at the end of the month but we didn't go over it so that's good
10. Work on the garden - nope

I also had the additional goal of selling stuff this month.  I didn't put that much effort into this (I was sick, Connor was sick) but I did get my finger out in the last week and sold enough stash to pay the second half of the money for my stitching weekend away in June so that is good

Sick boy!

Well what was supposed to be a fun half term week with the kids has been taken over by one sick boy.

Tuesday afternoon his temperature shot up to 41.1 degrees so as you can imagine I took him straight to the Drs who diagnosed an ear infection with a perforated ear drum and both his tonsils up.  He was prescribed a course of antibiotics and we were told to keep a close eye on him.

Cue several days of rocketing temp - it never got quite that high again but was often hovering around 40.  Thankfully he slept well but has been extremely whingy and clingy during the day.  His temp dropped to normal on Friday afternoon and has been okay since but yesterday morning he came out in a rash.  Another treck to the Dr and it appears it's one of two things, the last throws of whatever virus was causing the problem or an allergy to penicillin.

We're now waiting to see whether the rash gets better (and is therefore the virus) or gets worse (and is therefore the penicillin allergy).  Dr reckons we'll know one way or another by tonight.

So instead of all the fun things I had planned I haven't actually left the house for six days and have spent most of that time with an extremely hot and extremely grumpy small boy attached to me.

Cottage Garden 2

I love Michael Powell designs and I probably have 80% of them in my stash and usually at least one WIP...

The Brightest Star in the Sky

by Marian Keyes is the 11th book I've read this year and I totally loved it.  I have read several of her novels before and really enjoyed them and this was one of those 'can't put it down till I've finished it' books for me.

Review is a teeny bit of a spoiler so be warned

It tells the story of a group of people who all live in flats at the same address.  A 'presence' appears that the reader comes to realise is a baby waiting to choose it's parents.  This presence flits in and out of the lives of those at 66 Star Street and gets to know them through their current activities and their memories and, at the end of the novel it picks the couple it wants.

It's an interesting idea and, in my humble opinion, a good way of pushing the narative along.  The characters are all really well drawn and likable and there are some unexpected twists that keep you guessing till quite near the end which revolves around an event that I really didn't see coming.

So this one is a definite recommend for me - Keyes is a fab writer and I am now looking forward to the next novel from her.

Santa's Journey Afghan

A Margaret Sherry design that was serialised in a stitching magazine.  Again there's quite a lot left to do but the footprint and writing blocks are obviously quite quick so it's not quite as bad as it looks!

Baby Sampler

I can tell you why this is still a WIP - all that hideous backstitching required on Tatty Teddy designs! Still I must get this finished as said baby is now heading for a year and a half old...

Hand dyed fabric for sale

All Sold!!!

9 x 13 (all £2.50)
Abaracadabra 28ct Lugana
Blue Fusion 28ct Lugana
Inspiration 28ct Opalescent Lugana
Mystic Glow 28ct Opalescent Lugana
Rock Quarry 32ct Lugana
Cashmere Glitz 28ct Opalescent Lugana
Mountain Rose 28ct Lugana
Treasure Trove 28ct Opalescent Lugana

13 x 18 (all £5)
Monarch 28ct Cashel Linen
Ametrine 28ct Opalescent Lugana
Frosted Pumpkin 28ct Cashel Linen
Jamaica Sunset 28ct Lugana
Tiger's Eye 28ct Lugana
Summer Sunset 28ct Lugana
Desert Sky 32ct Lugana
Jungle Boogie 28ct Lugana
Mystic Night 32ct Linen

18 x 26 (all £10)
Desert Sky 32ct Lugana
Mountain Rose 28ct Lugana
Autumn Sunrise 32ct Lugana
Inferno 28ct Lugana

Custom Cuts
22 X 16 Autumn Breeze 28ct Lugana £7
31 x 21 Sparkling Promise 28ct Opalescent Lugana £11

This weekend I...

- managed to get Lia to swimming lessons
- didn't take her to ballet due to her having a tantrum over her hair being done
- finished a book
- started another one
- celebrated a friends birthday
- had a great curry
- was amazed by a gift for Connor from friends
- organised the bombonieres for the Christening
- drove 150 miles
- stayed out till midnight!
- had a fab lie in
- discovered Connor has another two teeth through
- taught Connor how to use his shape sorter
- got told a secret I'd rather not know
- tidied the boys bedroom and put some clothes aside he's too big for

Dragon Virtues afghan

Oh how I love Dragon Dreams designs!  I was even lucky enough to win their limerick competition a number of years ago now and this was one of the chart packs that I won.

As you can see it's a long way off finishing - from memory there are 14 dragons, 14 stars, 4 moons and a sun and I've done 1 moon and 1 dragon.  I think I can safely say I'm a long way from finishing this one!

A Weekend with Mr Darcy

AKA book number 10 read this year.

The book is by Victoria Connelly, another new author to me and is well and truly in the realm of chick lit.

The story takes place at a Jane Austin conference and focuses on two women and their love lives. I have to say there is absolutely no surprise as to the outcome of the book but it was a fun quick read. The characters in the book are obsessed with all things Jane Austin and I did find myself moved to read her novels myself (I read two or three a long time ago but so long ago I don't really remember them).

The author obviously has a love of Austin herself (it is very well researched) to the extent that her next novel is called 'Dreaming of Mr Darcy' and it would appear from the taster chapter that is included at the end of this novel that the story is likely to be very similar.

A recommended read only if you like your fiction fluffy, girly and ever so slightly predictable.

I should also say that I can count, books 7, 8 and 9 read this year were the final three Harry Potter books.

Halloween Sampler

Lizzie*Kate's Halloween Sampler - one of the WIPs I'd totally forgotten about! Apologies for yet another crap pic - I don't know why some come out so dark!

Wild Ones Alphabet

Yet another design I love - I had plans to finish this for Lia but now they've slipped to finishing it for Connor and, more than likely will end up as finishing it for Grandchildren along with Noah's Sub LOL.

Beaded Heart Biscornu

A Polstitches kit

Noah's Ark Quilt

This really shouldn't still be a WIP. I literally only have the backstitching on the elephants left to do but it's so unpleasant to work on I have to force myself to pick it up LOL.

This weekend I...

- enjoyed watching my son walking round the furniture
- took a very excited 5 year old to see Tangled
- did some colouring
- found the bottom of the ironing basket for the first time in 2011
- finally confirmed the time for the boy's Christening
- caught up with old friends
- entertained new friends
- had the first proper meal out as a family of four
- failed to take Lia swimming for the second week in a row
- had a lovely lie in
- finished two books
- picked up my stitching for the first time in over a week
- introduced a friend to my fabric stash
- played Angry Birds a bit too much
- invited even more people to our party in April
- did the food shopping online
- sold something on Amazon
- bought my husband a whole pack of Rolos cos I love him more than just the last one*
- ate out twice in the same day
- cut my son's hair
- enjoyed a peaceful hour with the sunday paper while the family was either out or asleep

*for anyone who didn't grow up in the UK in the 80s Rolos are chocolates with soft toffee centres that used to be sold with the advertising slogan of 'do you love anyone enough to give them your last Rolo?'

Table Topper

This design is from a magazine - I'm just not 100% sure which magazine now as it's been so long since I started it LOL. I believe the original was a lot more subtle than mine (not hard) and I'm sure it had some applique in the spokes.

I've just got to finish quilting the spokes (if you squint you can probably see I've sewn three of them top middle of the pic) and then sew on the binding round the centre circles - again so near and yet so far from finishing. I must get better at seeing a project through!

Spring Fever quilt

Another one where the blocks are made I just haven't put them together.  The fabric range is a Me and My Sister design for Moda and I bought a fat quarter pack, a Jelly Roll and two Charm packs as I thought it was just lovely - very fresh and light.  Oh for the days when I could splash out on stash LOL.

I saw this block design somewhere on the web and the quilt will be made up with 2" white sashing between the blocks.  I have used the jelly roll and charm packs making this top (well half the jelly roll anyway as the other half is making my bag pictured yesterday).  I'm thinking to back the quilt with some of the fat quarters but that will still leave me with quite a few fat quarters for other projects.

Jelly Roll Bags

Yet another 'hang my head in shame' post.

The summer before last we went on holiday to a wonderful set of cottages in Devon that happen to also include a quilting shop on site.  We went with my Mum, DH's parents, my Sister and BIL and my Niece and her husband and little girl - a really lovely family holiday (apart from the rain!)  So my Mum saw the pattern for this bag and asked me to make her one and my MIL wanted one too.  They chose the fabrics (spookily they both wanted the same ones) and I said I'd make my Mum hers for her birthday.

My Mum has had two birthdays since the fabric was purchased and I still haven't finished the bag.  My MIL did get hers which is even more shaming.  Anyway I am determined that this is to be the first project I work on finishing and I also started one for me that I was making up in parallel so hopefully I'll get both of them done this month.

You can probably guess that the top one is hers and the bottom is mine.  I think my biggest issue with it has been that I really don't like her fabric choice so haven't enjoyed working on the bag (hence the idea of making mine in parallel).

Oh and if you're at all interested in the cottages it's Villavin Farm on the Devon/Cornwall border.  The cottages are super and Jo who runs them and the quilting shop is just lovely, I can't recommend them enough.  Again the website isn't great and certainly doesn't do justice to her stock but if you're looking for something do give her a call as her service is fantastic.

Silly Safari Quilt

This again is a quilt I started a very long time ago.  I should add that I made four quilts out of this fabric collection and gifted them to various baby boys so I was kind of 'safaried' out after that.  I also knew that it wasn't something that Lia would appreciate so I'll admit that I put it aside in the hope that I would have a boy myself at some point.

So now I have I need to get it finished up.  I've got all the blocks made and all the strips for the border cut so I just need to get my finger out and put it all together. Here's a taste of the fabrics:

The backing fabric is the centre fabric of the bottom left hand block and I also have a fat quarter of labels (not sure if that's the right term but they're little squares each with a pic of one of the animals in) that I'm thinking to applique on the blocks with the plain colour squares in the centre (bottom right)

Tutorials

You may remember I lost my blog list last month well on my quest to repopulate the list one of my blog discoveries was 'Stash Manicure'.  This may well be the start of my downfall LOL.  And if it isn't, this one certainly is: DIY Bag Lover.

There are so many drool-worthy projects shown on these blogs and I want to do them all!  I haven't had a chance to look into archives but just the projects shown in the last month are enough to keep me busy for the rest of the year.  It is because of this that I added the 'tutorials' tab on my menu - it's a way of me keeping track of projects I'd really like to try one day when the rest of my life gives up some free time.

The good news is that the sewing bug has really come back with a vengence so this weekend I will have the sewing machine out and dusted down so it can have a good workout!

In other news Connor can now stand himself up and shuffle around the furniture, Lia got a literacy award at school and my ear hasn't popped yet...

Heart Quilt

So I finally did a thorough sort out of my quilting WIPs and here's the first to show - it's a 'heart' quilt for Lia that, for some reason I totally lost track of (something in my brain is suggesting this was originally planned as a fourth birthday present which is terrible as she'll be six in June LOL)

Most of the blocks are made so it is just a case of putting them together and then doing the quilting

Witches Hollow

The Primitive Needle's Witches Hollow - another design I love but haven't done much on. It's 1 over 1 on 40 count!  Oops!  That should be 36ct.  I'd edit it properly but then the comments wouldn't make sense!

We Interrupt the Usual Schedule

To let you know that the lurgy monster has well and truly lurched back into existence and has dumped a shed load of lurgy in my ear!  I have never in my life had an ear infection but I sure as heck have one now.

I woke up on Tuesday last deaf in my right ear and basically every time I attempted to get vertical I threw up (which made the trip to the Drs extremely interesting).  I get extreme travel sickness and even a normal head cold can leave me throwing up for days so you can imagine anything going on with my ear has the same effect.  I have been taking antibiotics for five days and the underlying infection seems to be cleared up but the ear still feels it needs to 'pop' and until that happens I guess I won't stop feeling really nauseous.

The good news is that I can just about stay upright and, as long as I keep my head perfectly still, I can surf and read.  Not that I've had the energy to read anything much so, whilst I have finished books 5 and 6 of the year I have reverted back to Harry Potter (books 3 and 4).  Still, given I haven't managed to stitch anything at least I should be grateful I can do something to stop me going totally mad with boredom (TV makes the sickness worse and radio doesn't work due to my current wonky hearing).

So thank you all for your recent comments on my WIPs (scheduled blog posts I should add) and I apologise to Lesleyanne - I haven't forgotten I said I'd get that code to you I just haven't gotten around to it.

Once this annoying ear sorts itself I will be getting the sewing machine out as I have set myself a crazy task of stitching 'goody bags' for the family party at the end of April - I think I need to do about 100!!!!!

ps - a quick look at Wikipedia tells me that a 'Dilly bag' is a traditional Aboriginal bag worn around the neck to transport food in.  The design is from The Cat's Whiskers, an Ozzie design company, so I guess that's why they picked the name.  This one comes with a needlecase, scissor keep and fob and I can't see me ever wearing it round my neck!

Here's a pic of what it should look vaguely like when I get it made!

Birds of a Feather Dilly Bag

I've stitched all the accessories for this design (but haven't finish finished them). I have to finish this panel and stitch a second identical one too!

Sleigh Ride

This has been a WIP for a while - it's one of those icky Dimensions colour charts that's a nightmare to follow plus there's loads of blends and it swaps between full and half stitches all the time. Oh and it mainly uses just slightly different blues which is a nightmare. But other than that it's a dream to stitch LOL.

I do love it though so it's worth the effort. I picked it up at the beginning of December with the idea that it would be my Christmas focus piece but then I was ill for three weeks and not much stitching got done - I mainly worked on the left hand side house which was no more than a roof when I picked it up

Snowman Trio

Stitching Kitty's Snowman Trio stitched on an unknown piece of Polstitches fabric with the recommended DMC and Weeks.

Thine is the Trick and the Treat

This was my last start of 2010 - I put the first stitch in between Christmas and New Year as I knew that come 1st Jan I wouldn't be starting anything else...

Butterfly Cushion

I got this wool tapestry kit in the sale in John Lewis a couple of years ago - it appealed to me because it's so bright and cheerful. It's currently the only tapestry I have in my stash but I love the way it looks (and feels) stitched up so I'm sure there'll be more in the future (although stitching the wool through canvas has knackered my thumb!)