Pictureless thursday

No pictures today - no cable
Just words.

daylight savings
Sleep ins
Lazy days
Knitting
Crosswords
King size bed in accomodation.... Sharing with teenage daughter....

Back to normality next week

Christmas muffins

Thanks to an extremely generous friend I have ben awoken today at 5am! with a mery christmas text....
up early when the kids are asleep - what is the matter with them? they are both exhausted from working all week while I have been on holidays. No early excitement for Santa at this house today.
I have been Nigella like and made her xmas morning muffins ready for breakfast - in  my pyjamas.

nigellas xmas morning muffins before cooking

Also pleased to announce that I have started to quilt my SoTA piece yesterday.

back of art quilt

Suppose this is not the time to notice that the oven needs a clean? 19 people for lunch - oh well it will almost be all BBQ anyway.


Merry Christmas, hope the day is cheerful and full of friends, family and fun.

Inspired

Halfway through my holiday I have relaxed enough to be inspired to sew!
I am madly trying to finish a quilt for my friend that was a demo quit at the last QQ quilt show, and also trying to be inspired to get an art quilt done for the 2QAQ SoTA exhibition. There are other things on the list but some things have deadlines. QQ Challenge is one of them.... almost started- have done lots of drawings.

The inspiraton has come for the SoTA quilt- one I had started  already! I have marked some quilting lines, found the back fabric, bought the batt- and have pinned it ready to quilt. It's amazing what can be achieved with both kids at work and a husband at his cellar...
Gone with the Wind is on TV- can't get that channel in my sewing room alas - so its head down and hard at work.

Liberating Time

Add caption

Usually when I am on holidays from work I do not wear a watch, much of what I do at work needs to be timed, or have the time written. When a baby is born every body wants to know the 'time of birth'. Documentation must be timed.
It is very liberating not to know the time, to do what I want, eat when I am hungry. The teenagers are hungry all the time so unless they are all hungry at once it really isn't a problem, but I do come unstuck sometimes and get carried away with something like quilting, reading or just watching a good movie. A whole day can just slip by and I can achieve more than I ever thought possible -or  without much being done at all.
Its all or nothing sometimes!

almost finished

I indulged in a christmas treat for myself this year at the craft show- a panel of "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" I have made it into a banner, almost finished- just another last minute  thing to do.

Now what about cocktails for xmas lunch?
Table decorations?
Do I have enough food for the 19 people coming for lunch? pudding boiled and ready to heat - will make some brandy butter- the hard variety - which I have discovered lately is not as common as I once thought.
Off to the supermarket for me,  few last minute things to get and I can relax and sew. Oh and of course the gym to wear it all off before I eat it!

Making a gift

xmas decoration

One if the most satisfying things about Christmas is not going to the busy shops and trying to find a car park then jostling with the crowds - its staying home in your quiet sewing room and calmly sewing a hand made gift. I have made some lovely rustic hanging decorations - layered felt and bright fabrics, stitched, a second hand button in the middle and then joined at the back with some ribbon. For the picture I curled it around, but it has a loop at the top to hang and is 5-6 stars long.
I have made something else but will not post a pic till after xmas as it's a secret.

labels for xmas biscuits

These are the labels for the other gifts we are making- jars with cookie mix- just add eggs and butter and cook. A nice gift for the families coming to xmas dinner. Isabel has been madly doing the labels and instructions on the computer - at last something constructive to do. Shame the kids of today are so bored!

I found a link to this site
http://heikeweber.net/installations_en.html
on another blog - well worth a look, some fantastically fun installations - not sure if I could get away with it at my own home! Interestingly after lunch yesterday we found some cushions with quilted designs not unlike some of the drawn ones on this web page, but they were only cushions not whole walls and floors- scroll down her site to see some fun whole floors and rooms.

A quarter of a metre is 25 cm not 30 cm!

How to be irritated by a shop worker.
My daughter  (16) has been making dear little pencil cases lined with felt, so we went ot the local habedashery to get some from a roll rather than small squares. The sales person argued with me when I asked for  1/4 of a metre of each. Do you really mean  30 cm or 25 cm, "no I asked for a 1/4 metre- that means 25 cm", are you sure ? she asked as some people say 1/4 and mean 30 cm!!! She continued to argue and check if I knew what I was talking about!
I had just got out of bed from a night shift sleep on my 9th day straight and need to go back to work again tonight so I was not in the mood for any discussion, just wanted to make my purchase so she can pay her wages and rent.
At least at Spotty they don't argue about what you are trying to buy.
Serves me right for shopping locally.

pencil case

new felt and zips

 The new felt is bright and some funky coloured zips. But when mum says don't cut the end off the zip she says it for a reason! its really hard to rethread a zip.
So wonderful to hear the sewing machine humming away, my sons girlfriend has been madly sewing dresses and skirts too which is lovely. He is even knitting!

I am determined to get the quilt top  previously pictured put together this week ready for quitling in the new year.

Block refiguration

The blocks had a little shift this week, they look so much better now, just need to sew the last three, and it might be done soon.
I bought the best fabric today for a xmas gift, can't show, but am very happy with my find.
Off to bed for this tired person, night shift and me don't mix very well sometimes...
Holidays soon!

If I sew faster will the thread last longer?

This is a block from a friends quilt, there are 9 blocks each side, the front is girly and pink, and the back is blue and nautical. The quilting on the front in each larger square is a flower, which corresponds with the sashing on the back, so the blue thread on the back makes a nice pattern too instead of being random. I only had a little of the darker pink thread, and I kept quilting faster and faster to hopefully make the thread last longer-  it doesn't really work-  but it did today!

The  octopus looks a bit sneaky peeking out of the corner.

The raffle quilt is coming along slowly, I  have added some red blocks and have several more ready to sew the last seam on and a few blocks with yellow, as these are the College colours. Notice how College had a capital C, must have learnt something along the way in all my correspondence!

Theres a new fabric shop in the city, off today to check it out. Might be only dress fabric, but you never know.