Small Steps

I've realised how much of my crafting equipment sort of floats around my working area.  I'm now a little reluctant to pile it all in the workroom just yet knowing that both the electrician and the blind fitter will need access to the windows around the back of the desks and units.  I have an idea where everything is and I'm working towards replacing shoe boxes with plastic ones but the bulk of it can stay in the spare room until the moving around has finished.  (Sorry Elsa, your bed is still in there somewhere!)

A finished block 2 of My Tweets.

A book. (Fabulously informative).

And a new rug.

We also have two smelly, muddy dogs thanks to the rather wet start to the weekend that will now need a bath before I can sort anything more and then settle down to an afternoon of rugby!!


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Where This Woman Will Create

Last night we managed to sneak in a few of the larger pieces of my workroom furniture.  This is probably the only time you will see it this tidy, there is plenty more to move in!

Of course Tully's bed was one of the first things to be put in, and is hogging the warmth from the radiator, naturally, and you can just see the foam board design wall up above it.

I had been worried that putting in the cutting table would make the space feel small.  On the contrary a 6 foot and quite tall lump is absorbed and hardly makes a dent in the space!  I will be ordering some more units to help organise and hide the clutter along the back wall and a nice rug I think too.  Just the power and lights to go in and the blinds to be fitted.  

And just for Maggie, this is our version of the doggy pedicure.

Have a great weekend, mine is going to be rather busy sorting 'stuff'!


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And Today Has Been Mostly Spent...

Making this bag...

It's from the series 6 Quilting arts DVD and has two pockets on the outside and is nice and roomy.  I added an extra pocket with a zip on the inside too.  The original was made with all those bright Amy Butler type fabrics but I'm not really into them so I chose some Jinny Beyer and a couple of Alex Anderson Whisperings (recognise them Maggie?  You sent them ages ago and I have been using them!)

And this case to go in the bag.

The case was made in some curtaining sateen I had and is quite a vivid blue that would just not photograph well.  I made it large enough to carry my sketchbook, watercolours and a few other bits when we go out and about.  I'm going to try and find this spontaneity thing I'm supposed to fill sketchbooks with lol.

Julie you are set to no reply so I can't email you.  There's nothing badly wrong with my wrist as yet but I do have a spot of tendinitis, De Quervains I believe, that flares up when I do a lot of hand sewing.  The support is a sports one from the supermarket and was just white.   It helps a lot and saves me lots of pain and the ability to drop things when I forget it especially hot pans and heavy crockery!


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Today I Have Mostly...

Prepared the appliqué on My Tweets block 2 for sewing...

and then doodled on my wrist support.

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Friday Night Sew In February

Last night was the FNSI for February and I actually managed to join in a little.  I did have Elsa with me though but it did mean I could help her set up an appliqué table runner she had found in one of the magazines I brought back from Australia.  It's all fused down and she has started the buttonhole stitch.

I so love the Australian magazines!  I wish I could go back soon and add more!  They far outstrip any magazines from UK or America and are just always packed with things to make.

I then actually managed to make a start on a piece of Gold work I bought as a kit and totally forgot about.

My new workroom has a dehumidifier in it sucking all the water out so hopefully Andy will be able to lay the floor sometime next week.  Stuart the electrician is on standby with the plugs and lighting and the blinds are being made.  I could actually see next weekend as being a possible!!!!

Andy did come back from the builders merchants with an 8 x 4 foot x 50mm (love those combo measurements) sheet of Celltex insulation foam for my design wall.  He said there was a pile about 5 foot high and he went right through most of them to try and find the straightest one.  Bless him, he's done really well working with a frustrated crafts-person continually pacing around!   I have the wadding ready to cover it too so that will be a nice stage to pass very soon. It's lurking out of the way at the moment so it doesn't become damaged.

Elsa and Mike leave us today but we have Chris and Becks arriving for lunch first. This evening I will catch up on some DMTV and see what the Kemshall's have been up to.


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Plate Glass and Pasta Bags

I added some gyrocopter bubbles to my SAH Robin for this month, silk ones of course.  Don’t ask me why, I was feeling quirky.  I also had some silk tops lurking so I couched them down too.  Nothing wrong with a little surrealism!  Couldn't to do too much as we still have a few months left.

The end of last week was so wet everything came to a halt on the conservatory.  Of course Saturday was absolutely glorious and Spring was so strong in the air.  We had a total muck out of all the building grit and dust and the windows were wide open with the fresh air and birdsong.   Yesterday was dry enough again for Andy to at least put on the roof which has helped with today's morning downpour.  He is now fitting the glass, in the rain, and we will hopefully have a weather tight room by this evening and the heaters can go in to dry it out.  It’s becoming exciting, even Tully has her new bed ready for her days of dosing while I play.

Thank you for all the lovely comments about the folder cover.  It really was a quickie play.  Julie, Ari is Ariadne the longarm quilting machine.  It really is just as easy to mount up a small section of fabric and use the longarm as it is to sit at the Bernina.  It’s more like drawing though and great fun.

Thank you for the book list Maggi, I will look into them.  A girl can never have too many books.  Or fabric.  Or shoes.

Unfortunately the Harrier was pulled from Ebay.  Apparently those of us with the odd 100k lurking under mattress (ha ha) and who were likely to buy it would be full of evil intentions and convert it for use in our own world domination plans. 

Last week Nina, Gilly and I were invited to for lunch with Jacky.  Whilst there we had a good arty natter, Nina runs the pastel group Gilly and I attend and Jacky has a dabble with paints too but she also has a pottery studio and has done some amazing pieces including the entire dinner service and extras that were all around her kitchen and used for lunch.  The reason for the lunch though was for Nina to photograph Jacky’s three lovely Labradors so she could portrait them as a birthday gift.  It was a great afternoon chasing dogs around trying to convince them to pose, not to eat all the Bonios at once and to put on ‘that’ expression that would be paintable.  And a trick to gain ‘that’ expression?  A crinkling pasta bag as ably demonstrated here by Gilly as Nina snapped away at one of the dogs.   

Elsa and Mike arrive this afternoon, post holiday, and I have instructions for roast rib of beef.  I suspect the champagne may come out too whilst we admire the ring.

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Slow Going

And now it’s raining!  We have a frame up but no glass in so it’s rather damp in my workroom to be.

Not a lot of action in the making department, I’m still feeling very unsettled.  I did need to cover an A4 ring binder though so I had a little practise on Ari and was quite pleased with how tight I could go.

This book arrived in the post so of course I want to go and play!  NO room!! Patience patience.  (The title is a bit gangsterish don't you think! )

Barbara, I am hoarding the MM4 instructions and will catch up as soon as!  Still not decided on those fabrics yet though.

Yesterday I had a morning with my ladies.  We haven’t been together since the beginning of December because Heather, who usually holds the groups, is still very poorly.  It was strange having quite a few of all four groups together but it made the hired hall quite lively!  I had to do a show and tell with the tops I had been doing on Ari. 

For anyone doing the Friday Night Sew In the next virtual gathering is the 18^th of this month.  See the button on the right.

We’re still excited about the family news, No Elsa I don’t make dresses, No Maggi and Benta I don’t wear hats! Lol!  Here’s a quick glimpse of the ring and doesn’t she look literally on top of the world!

Lastly, I know we are in aviation but do you think I should be worried that there is a Harrier Jump Jet in our eBay watch list?

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We're Gaining a Son!

Just had a call from Elsa to say that Mike proposed in the sunshine on the top of a mountain and she said yes!

                              



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Calm

We've had a wonderful week with Elsa and Mike here.  Quite surreal that the past 5 months has just gone and now the next phase of their lives begins as they start looking for a home down here.  First though, they have both gone off for a well deserved holiday skiing and the house has resumed it's calm with the dogs wondering where everyone has gone.

For said trip we had to have a couple of days shopping of course.  There is nothing worse for a young lady's demeanour than being confined to a gritty, mass laundered uniform 24/7 for weeks on end!  Girly stuff was the order of the day and a nice cooling down session for the wallet afterwards!  On one of the trips John did buy me this mug so I had a look in too.

Friday and Saturday I finally put the Waves quilt on Ari and had a go with a pantograph and I finished the binding this morning.

Again it was more of a learning curve with seeing how doing a panto needs thought.  The rule of  'if the piecing or fabric is too busy, don't knock yourself out with the quilting' went out of the window though.  You can't really see the pattern of shells in the photo but I'm quite pleased with it.  I used YLI invisible.  I haven't used invisible on such a large scale before and had no idea what colour to use on this multi coloured top so it seemed a good opportunity to see how Ari would take it!  Like a dream of course, loving that HQ machine!

I'm having a quick scoot around the blogs and then catching up on two weeks of Lisa's beading.  Have a good Sunday.


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