Wordless Wednesday.

All work and no play.....

I think I finally managed to shake off that virus.  I was still able to go to work and do my job, but it left me with very little energy for anything else. I very slowly added a couple of rows to my crochet blanket and managed to finish a hat for DS Joe. Just when the weather gets even warmer! I also spent some time resting, lounging about doing nothing. How decadent, it was wonderful.

While out doing chores in town I spied a treasure in a local used items shop and had to go peep. This beautiful wooden bed frame looked terribly neglected. The head board looked like it had been sat under a leaky roof.

 The foot end had obviously been sat against a wall, one side was weathered badly.

 The whole thing needed a good wash and several coats of wax. I fell in love with it and paid up there and then!! My lovely Mister liked it instantly too and has helped me with the restoration.

 Only one problem......

Our previous wooden framed bed didn't have a tall foot board and most of my quilts are made to fall off the end of the bed. Shame, I'll have to make some more!  ROTFL

Speaking of quilts, my charming hearts is lying neglected while I decide if I should un quilt my last effort or carry on regardless. I blame myself for buying that awful polyester! I'll never buy it again. 

Gently does it....

I have me another virus!! Not ill enough to stay off work. I'd go stir crazy!! But I am taking things a little easier. No wrestling with quilts at the moment. Instead I've been doing a little crochet. My blanket hasn't grown much to be honest. Next time I'll lay a tape measure out before taking the photo.

 DS Joe wants a hat. So I've cast that on too. I really need a quick finish to boost the ego.

I'm off to curl up and hook? Knit? I'll see when I get there.

Out damn stain!!

I finally started quilting my Charming Hearts quilt. I stitched in the vicinity of the ditch around the pieced hearts. That was easy to do. 

 Now that it's pretty much stabilised I pulled the pins out of the middle and started marking for some more quilting. I'm not ready to tackle free motion quilting in the middle of this so I'm going with some nice simple and continuous petal shapes. I have  templates coming for the setting triangles and one of the borders, hopefully they will be here soon.

Look at what my naughty walking foot left right in the middle of the quilt!! I hope I can get it out. 

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Finally Finished

I finally pulled my finger out and finished the Daisy Quilt.

 All I had left to do was to neaten my thread ends.

 I added some extra daisies and even quilted a few daisies in between to appliqué.

I'm rather pleased with how this has turned out. It's already had it's first wash, (To get rid of my blue guide lines) and the edges of the flowers have already gone fluffy.

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As for that batting I showed in my last post, I finally beat it into submission by tumbling it one more time with a pair of wet jeans!! It got a good half hour on a medium heat. There are still a few lumps and bumps, and a stretched area but it's so much better than it was. In future if I want a man made batting I'll stick to my dream green! (Though I do have a queen size piece to use up. I see another quilt as I go project for that one).

So the Charming Hearts quilt is all layered and ready for quilting. Unfortunately I won't have sewing machine time until Monday and Tuesday of next week, so it's folded loosely over a chair in my sewing room. It was over the top banister of the stair, but I'm awaiting delivery of a new bed today, so I moved it out of the way.

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Happy Mothers day!

Tomorrow is Mother's Day for us Brits, so my hunney suggested that he take both me and my mum out for dinner tomorrow. Isn't he a sweetie. XX

I won't be using this again!!

This is after two days stretched out on the spare bed.  10 mins on a dry cool tumble. 10 mins on a dry warm tumble. 10 mins with a damp cloth warm tumble tumble.

What else can I try? Any suggestions?

All arriving at the same time!!

I've been keeping my poor postie busy!! All of my purchases seem to have arrived at the same time. As you know my batting came on Monday afternoon. I unwrapped that and laid it on the spare bed to rest. Maybe I'll feel up to layering tomorrow. Let me see, my extra black and white charms are here and the extra blue yarn for my crochet project. Last week I got a knittng magazine and ordered yarn for another project and today I got another knitting magazine. That just leaves two packages outstanding. A quilting template and........ yep, more yarn! LOL

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I seem to have gotten myself another virus, I'm not so ill that I have to stay off work, but definitely not firing on all cylinders. So what could be better than curling up on the sofa with a new knitting project. A lovely sleeveless cardigan from the March Lets knit magazine. If anyone has this magazine and fancies doing this one. There is an error in the yarn amounts. Read 12 X 100g balls. Not 6 x 50g Huge difference!

It's the end of the financial year at the end of this month, and as usual I had just a couple of hours of annual leave to squeeze in. So I took em today and now I'm home early and off to play with some yarn. I just need to decide which project.

Progress

 So yesterday I made progress on three projects. I finished making the back for my Charming hearts quilt. I had planned to use more slices of layer cake, but in the end took the lazy option of using a whole piece of figgy fabric. I had to stop there on this project, to wait for a piece of batting.

So then after a quick cuppa I got stuck into the black, white and grey fabrics I showed off back here. (Scroll down a bit). I had three packs of charms and decided that wouldn't be enough, so stopped here to await the arrival of more.

Another pause for lunch and I got stuck into my crochet again.  My batting was delivered late yesterday afternoon, but I had one of those awful sleepless nights last night and I really don't think trying to quilt is such a good idea today.

Slow progress

Here's a peep at the colours I'm using for my crochet blanket. I'm a sucker for blue and white. :-)

As the post title suggests, this one is going to be a long term project.

The foundation chain was 300 stitches, that means 100 of those (UK) triple clusters, which means about an hour per row, or two hours per colour!! 

Oh! And I need to go shopping, I did buy plenty of this yarn, but didn't realise what I would be making when I made the original purchase. Hehehe.

No hooky fun for me today, I'm off to play with my sewing machine.

A New Start.

My latest crochet project may take some time.

A king size blanket.

Here you see the foundation row plus the first three and a half rows!

The yarn I'm using is two shades of blue and an off white. It's a blend of acrylic and recycled denim cotton. I think I may need to do a few smaller projects alongside this one. That's OK though, I bought a knitting magazine today which has two must knit projects in it! :-)

Time to curl up on the sofa and get hooky with a movie.

Sometimes............

Sometimes, just once in a while I regret giving up my spot in the living room and making my crafty nest upstairs. Yesterday was one of those times. My design wall has shrunk, from super king size, to barely twin size!

There isn't even enough floor space for this top. Oh yes, and that's door frames it's hanging from, I have to move it if I want to go to the loo or off to bed. (Mind you the super king size used to hang over the kitchen cupboards and the stove!)

Enough whining, look what I did yesterday.  I got the two borders onto my 'Charming Hearts' top. And I started piecing the back. I found some buttery yellow and I figured I could add some slices of layer cake. Maybe I'll do a little more to that today.

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Sometimes, things just don't go according to plan.

I sat with my crochet yesterday afternoon. Having worked away at it for a while I reached for another ball of yarn and realised that I wasn't going to have enough to finish my project. The yarn was an impulse buy and I know I can't get more of it, so.....

Rip, rip, rip.

I dug out another pattern and started again. I DO have enough yarn for this pattern, but now that I see it in real life, I don't like it any more. Sigh.......

Nothing to report

But you can't have a blog post without pictures! 

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My latest quilty creation is still not complete. I did go back to it and add more flowers and a little more quilting. I brought it down stairs so it was handy to sit one evening and tidy away threads while watching a little TV. But that hasn't happened. In fact, it's managed to work it's way DOWN the pile. LOL

It's turned very cold again and the cuddle quilts got used then put back on top of the WIP. I really should dig it out and finish it off.

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The reason for this lack of productivity? I'm not really sure, I get in from work too tired to do much more than sit in the comfortable seat you see here, where I crochet or knit. My latest is a crochet bag. That's it there waiting for me.

OK I know that you know that I work late shifts too and do most of my sewing in the mornings, but I didn't have many of those recently, and the few which came my way were swallowed up with domestic stuff.

Maybe over the weekend...............

It's for me.

Someone asked me who my latest projects is for. It's for me!!

It was a quick project to complete. I feel the need to stretch it a little, I think I'd prefer it to be a little longer.

Things

Knitting. Remember the variegated  yarn I showed in this post? I couldn't get a decent photo of it no matter how I tried. Here you go, I'm a third of the way up the back of a sleeveless sweater. Thanks for the encouragement Julie. :-) I already have the front finished and hope to have completion over the weekend.  I have to say I'm really enjoying this project. Especially the fact that it is chunky yarn and very quick to knit up.

Word Verification!! Personally I don't have a problem with it, not even the new version that seems to be making some people go googly eyed. But, after reading Chookys post here I've adjusted my settings and gotten rid of it. Lets see what happens.
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Family. My DD Kaiy has been working for the local brewery for a while now and has been doing lots of training. I find it very hard to believe that someone put her in a managerial position!!! My daughter managing a pub! LOL (Well done sweetheart. I'm very proud of you.)
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Quilt shows.  Sigh, my dear baby sister has chosen to get married on the same weekend that the International quilt festival is on at the NEC!!  What am I going to do? The NEC is so convenient, I can do it in a day trip. Harrogate means staying over for at least one night, it's a possibility. Anyone want to meet up? I threw the idea open at home, the other two sisters are pleading poverty and I don't think mum likes the idea of an over nighter. Anyone else got any suggestions for a day out at a quilty, yarny, crafty style exhibition show thing..... later this year? It doesn't have to be a day trip, but something within spitting distance of an airport is good. I could get lost in my own wardrobe!
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The End. It's a beautiful warm sunny spring day here and I'm off to knit a few rows on my chunky warm woolly sweater!!  Typical.