Zooming Along.

I joined in with Chookys Zoom along yesterday. Most of the ladies were busy with hand sewing, but I opted to get on and finish my Summer berries blocks. Then as there isn't enough space to spread them out on the floor, I got on with tracing some of my Gail Pan blocks. I have done very little to them since January. So I now have four the monthly blocks traced and ready to stitch.

And then it was lunch time.

It was good to join in again and listen to everyone chat while we all sewed along.  There were some new faces too and it was nice to meet them. 

Thank you Chooky for hosting another fun get together.

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So where is Summer Berries up to now?

All the blocks are currently sitting awaiting their turn on the design floor.

Here they are....

Block one x 16

Block two x 16

Block three x 16

And block four x 16.

Once I am done here I plan to spread them out on the bedroom floor and begin the switch about game.

Hopefully I'll have a completed top before I go in to work at 3pm.

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In case you are wondering, yes I enjoyed my day out with Debbie last week. We visited Cathy at the quilting shed. I did buy a big piece of fabric, but I just can't get the right picture. I also bought quilting thread for the Jelly Roll Race I recently finished.

Debbie was very good, she asked Cathy's advice about something, but didn't spend any money!!

Now she wants to go back, soon, and buy a fabric she saw. LOL

We also visited a place called Wisteria Cottage, I'm sure I have mentioned it before.

I found this gorgeous cross stitch pattern. 

And Debbie who has recently joined the local Embroiderers guild purchased a kit for a cute wee humbug. 

For a woman who cringed when I said to her 'just add the details with a little stitchery', she is really getting into hand stitching and has started to collect some Sue Spargo projects too. 

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Right I'm off to play on the floor with my berries blocks.

Hopefully the cat will stay asleep in her spot and not notice.

 

Have you had your Vaccine yet?

Have you had your COVID vaccine yet?

I've had the two part Pfizer vaccine.

Part one was OK, gave me a doozy of a head ache, but ok really.

Part two wiped me out!!

We were warned that part two could be worse and we may feel 'a little unwell tomorrow'.

Understatement!

It wiped me out for the better part of three days.

The information website gave a whole bunch of side effects, most of which I had.

It also said they should only last 24 - 48 hours. 

Today is day 7 and I still have pain in my arm, not at the injection site, but in my elbow joint. It's not as bad as last Wednesday, when all of the joints in both of my arms and hands were sore. I couldn't hold a crochet hook never mind a needle, I could barely hold a cup of tea.

My head ached, my whole body ached, I had the shivers,

And sleep!! Boy did I sleep.

I have since been told that only about 1/1000 people have a reaction as bad as mine, but please if you didn't have your vaccine yet, be prepared. make sure you have Panadol or similar in your house. Drink plenty of water, you will be thirsty and have some aches and pains. The 24 - 48 hours bit is nonsense, two of my clients who were injected on the same day as me showed symptoms 5 days later. 

I don't want to put any one off having the vaccine, so please, please don't let my experience stop you from having it, but be prepared to be off colour for a day, maybe more. Look after your self. 

All of that said, I did manage to work some short shifts and have just completed my double shift weekend. So I'm tired, but all better now.

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I did no crafting of any kind last week, until Friday. By Friday I was well enough to put together the block 4 parts for my Summer Berries project.

And also spent some time cutting up the last of the 2.5 inch squares for the remaining blocks.

Guess where I'll be today.

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Tomorrow Debbie and I are off to visit Cathy at the Quilting Shed.

I'll need to plan a bit of a shopping list.....

 

Bite sized pieces

 Well, it would seem that my Mojo is still with me. I have to say, it's good to have it back.

On Monday I showed you a lovely kit called Summer Berries, by Marg Low.

I had just pressed all the fabrics, and was ready to begin cutting.

On Tuesday I got all of light fabrics cut and on Wednesday I did the reds then left all of the pretty squares nestled in boxes. 

On, Thursday I made a start on the piecing and left them all ready to sew the second seam.

Today I completed the blocks.

Summer Berries, Part one is complete.

I have no work to go to today and could continue, but in an effort to get caught up on my Christmas ornaments, I've been working in bite size pieces and stopping each day at a convenient point in order to make time to pick up my ornament project.

So far it's working. A little time this afternoon should see the March instalment complete, and I may even make a start on April!!

By the end of June, I might be caught up. LOL

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I have a couple of acquisitions to show off.

As you may recall, Tony is a fine scale modeller and a bit of a history buff. 

He has a particular passion for Spitfires.

The WW2 British fighter planes. So when I saw this pattern for sale, I had to have it.

He has seen the pattern and knows that I might get to it, one of these years. LOL

He hasn't seen this one though.

I went to the sewing centre the other day to get more supplies for my ornaments and this sleepy chap was watching me as I joined the socially distant queue.

I couldn't resist, he seemed to be saying "Take Me Home".

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Time to swap seats and get on with my ornament.

Work stopped play.

I've just had a huge weekend at work, working 5 shifts in three days. Phew, looking forward to a rest. While you were all settling in for your FNWF, I was off to work.

Before my work marathon started on Friday I was busy in my wee room again. Whilst hunting for the border fabric for my Jelly Roll Race, I came across these pretty leftovers from a Moda Frivol tin. Sew I quickly put them together to make this table runner.

I have quite a few runners now, all made from scraps and leftovers. It's a good way of preventing the scrap bin from filling quite so fast! LOL

As you see, it's not layered or quilted yet. I'll get to that one day.

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Next up I pulled out a kit I purchased last year.

There are some very pretty fabrics in the kit.

I managed to press all of the browns and even made the first few cuts before I went in to work on Friday.

It's calling out to me today and I really want to go play with those lovely fabrics, but I must get on and make some more progress on my Christmas Ornaments, I have still not completed March!

So I think that will be my day today. Feet up, David Attenborough on the TV, ornament in hand. A nice way to recover from my marathon of work. 

I hope your weekend was more relaxing than mine. 

 

I'm on a roll......

A Jelly Roll! Well two of them actually!

But first this.

Remember the fairies?

I started this back in January, and had some issues with it. The kit was disappointing fabrics had been swapped out and no matter what I did I just couldn't get the friendship stars and sashing fabrics to lie flat and behave.

Back in January, I pulled out my trusty seam ripper and rip, rip, ripped all that work out, then dumped it into a box and left it to stew.

Well on Tuesday before work I got stuck in and had another go.

 I had ripped and resewn the stars in the main panel so many times the fabric was pretty stressed.

So I gave up on the friendship stars and opted for simple blue corner stones.

(Sideways picture sorry.)

As you can see, everything is much better behaved this time.

Next it was time to tackle some more stars.

I only got chance to make one, before I got a call from work, asking if I could be there in 30 mins???

So I went off to work leaving a production line of stars on the design floor....

On Wednesday, after my chores I got stuck in again. These stars were much better behaved than the ones I attempted in January and in n o time I had then attached and the borders were on.

TaDaaaaaa!

I was dreading getting back to this project, and I think it may be what has been blocking my sewjo recently. But now that it is done, I love it again.

I plan to do some custom quilting in the fairy panels and will need to sort through my tin of pretty threads for just the right colours.

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Sew, about the jelly rolls.

Some time ago I purchased a black and grey jelly roll, I stashed it away for 'one day'.

While we were in Auckland over Easter I found a half jelly roll in rainbow brights and a plan was born.

Sorry, I don't have pictures of either.. At 8.30 this morning after getting dinner into the slow cooker I opened up my jelly rolls and the race was on.

It took a long time to join them all together and over an hour to join that first looooooooong seam.

So long in fact, that the supervisor got bored and went to sleep.

But as anyone who has made a jelly roll race knows, after that it gets faster and faster and faster.

And by mid afternoon I had another completed top.

Two completed quilt tops, in two days.

I still didn't do any more work on my Christmas Ornament.

Maybe tomorrow before work.

I have to say, I really do prefer shift work over Monday - Friday 9 -5.

Still catching up....

 In my last post ( The first in what feels like a very long time. ) I mentioned that I had tried my hand at macramé, with mixed results. This here is the best one.

There are two others, that will be broken down and redone!!

Or maybe just broken down! I was using the wrong type of cord, it wasn't soft enough.

When I found the cord I've used here I had much better results.

Hopefully this will stop Belle (Damn Cat) from chewing on the tips of my spider plant.

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I also mentioned that I have been doing a little crochet, I started this project simply because we were off to Auckland to see friends over the Easter weekend, and I knew that taking sewing along was not an option as I would need something mindless to fiddle with while we chatted and caught up. (I also finished two books in that long weekend.)

I pulled out some yarn that has been sitting for a year or three. LOL

I remember buying just because it was so pretty and I wanted it., no plan in mind at all.

You know how that works right?

There are also some leftovers that seemed to be the right colours in there too. 

While we were in Auckland I visited Spotlight and purchased more yarn, in similar colours.

And yesterday I ordered a whole bunch more!

It's just big enough now to keep some of me warm on the cool evenings.

I'm not going at it hard every night though, so it will be a while before I decide it's done.

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And do you remember the Lottie Da! quilt from way back in January?

She got a second mention when I found a retro sheet to back her with. 

Well here she is complete.

She has been finished for some time, but for some reason I didn't have a picture in my phone, so had to get one this morning. She is a nice lap sized quilt, or maybe as a wee throw on a bed. She will be donated to work as a raffle prize for the staff social club. 

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Speaking of work. As I said all is going well and I have progressed from being a casual staff member to a contract holding staff member. It's good to have that security again. A few more hours would be good, but that said, there are always extra shifts.

I work mostly late shifts, which should leave me lots of time free for crafting, but as I said in my last post, I've been mostly reading and resting.

I do need to catch up on my Christmas Ornaments, and I did manage to do a little over an hour after my last post. I plan to do the same today.

There are lots of things waiting for me in my room, even some new things I didn't share yet!

Well I have to keep something in reserve, just in case I don't produce something to share!

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Well that's me for today, time to get on with something more productive.