Knit, sew, zoom.

So Chookyblue called a short notice zoom session for Sunday. 

As she does!

It was a quieter than usual session. But still very good. Our hostess Chooky was on a binding mission, keep an eye on her blog for a great show and tell on all of that. 

No pressure Chooky!

(What am I saying? Yes there is. I want to see pictures on your blog, lots of pictures of beautifully bound and finished quilts). 

I dithered, unsure of what to do. First I tidied up all the thread ends in the Frankenmats.

Next I pulled out a much larger needle and tucked away the yarn ends on this knitted washcloth. Which I had knitted over Friday and Saturday.

It is square honest! 

I seem to have pulled one corner out when smoothing it for the photo shoot.

 There is Lucy of course and I did add one block onto the top, but stopped there, my fingers were itching to hold my knitting needles. So I cast on another dishcloth.

But I somehow managed to break one of my beautiful knitting needles!

(Here is a closer look at the lovely colours on the larger needles).

I had to quickly pull out my interchangeable needles and after selecting the smallest set in the box, I was able to continue knitting. 

The knitters in the group, (I was not the only one) gained the spotlight twice during the session as we discussed needle styles and educated the non knitters. LOL

If you would like to know more about my lovely, lovely knitting needles, look here where you will see that they are made in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way.

Tony did try to repair the broken one, but sadly the repair did not last and it very quickly broke again in the same place. I'll be off out to the shop soon to look for a replacement set.

I had to absent myself from zoom for a few hours in order to go to work. But I re-joined during my meal break and later once I got home when I added a few more rows of knitting to the days tally.

Chooky, thank you once again for a fun day. Lots of laughs, lots of chatter, lots of stories, lots of inspiration and most of all, lots of blogger love.

We all enjoy these sessions that you organise for us. 

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In other news....

The scrappy Fig Tree HST's that I have been fiddling with have made it this far. 

I've pulled out an opened Fig Tree Jelly roll that had a few slices used in another project and I have started to play about with border ideas.

I'll keep you updated on any progress that is made.

And for those who are interested, an update on the jigsaw puzzle.

The majority of the detail has been found and placed. Progress has slowed considerably, but I still spend a little (or a lot of) time with it each day. 

I'm enjoying the process.

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I have two days off work, but they are looking pretty busy, I do hope I find time to sew.

Time to get out of the house and do some town chores.

Flu shot at work at 1.05pm, if the Doctor consents to do it as I still sound weird.

Then hopefully a restful afternoon, maybe with Lucy, maybe with my knitting needles.

But definitely in my armchair. 

 

Slow progress.

I missed a zoom! 

Chooky invited me and everything. But I hadn't checked my email for a day or two.

I said some rude words and moved on.

Even without zoom, I have been making some slow progress with Lucy. All of the individual blue blocks now have their white honeycombs attached.

And I need only add one more block to complete another row of large blocks.

I have some favourite blocks and will let you look a little closer soon. 

If you are wondering what the brown paper is all about, just there by Tony's feet.

Tony received a package the other day and it had a few yards of brown paper as padding.

Miss Belle came running as soon as she heard it rustling and before Tony could clear up after himself, she had claimed it as her own.

She checks on it regularly throughout the day.

If I move it, or step on it, she arrives in a hurry to see what is going on. 

I have to be sneaky about getting photos of her.

Or I get the look!

I'll leave it out for a few more days as it is still getting a lot of her attention.

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My jigsaw puzzle is also making slow progress.

And for some reason blogger insists on showing it sideways!

I knew this one would take a while, but that's ok I'm enjoying it.

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Health wise? 

I know some of you were asking Chooky if she knew how I'm doing.

I'm still not back at work.

After getting my hopes up last week and planning a gentle return with my boss, she called me and said that I could not return yet. Her boss had gotten involved and said no.

As my respiratory system is already compromised she did not want me at work.

My boss was very disappointed for me, she knows that I have cabin fever and I just want to get back to normal. That said, extending the break has meant that I have had more time to improve.

Tony took me out yesterday, we had some chores to do and also a very short shopping list.

I survived wearing a mask and being towed around various stores at Tony speed. 

The only time I struggled was after climbing the stairs at Farmers. That wasn't fun, but I did recover pretty fast. 

So, all being well, I will be returning to work on Wednesday afternoon. 

Right now, I'm off to make a cuppa and then I plan to sin and sew until it's time to pop the roast into the oven. 

A Jigsaw Finish and Lucy Progress.

As predicted the quilt block jigsaw did not take long.

It really did not take much time to sort the colours and put the rows together.

It was a fun puzzle to work on and I was thinking it might be good inspiration for a scrappy quilt, using up lots of coloured scraps.

I'm sure it would not take too much time or effort to find free patterns available for each of those blocks.

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I promised an update on Lucy and here she is. 

I have added another row of crosses since the last picture taken in mid March. 

But that is not all that I have done. I've been working slowly making more of the corner stone blocks and adding white honeycombs to completed blue blocks.

I'm fairly sure that I'll be stopping at a 5x6 layout, but I'm not half way yet, I still have plenty of white pieces to add and of course I'll need to add the edging.

So Chooky, there is no need to worry, it will be a while before I'm done with Lucy.

And of course, like all good quilters, I have about 6 more EPP projects planned and 4 more have been shopped for and I've pinned about a billion ideas, so I don't think I will run out of something to sew. 

LOL

Speaking of sewing, that's what I'm off to do.

Another puzzle

The courier delivered not one, but two packages early yesterday morning. 

A new puzzle board and also a new puzzle.

When I saw this for sale on the puzzle exchange page, I had to have it.

It took me very little time to sort the pieces and create the edge, working on the puzzle board.

Which Blogger has tipped upside down for some reason!

As you can see, some of the pieces are not the traditional puzzle shape.

You can't really see it in my pictures, but each block is named.

Sorting the coloured pieces is very easy this time.

It really didn't take long to complete the top and bottom rows of quilt blocks.

I think I could probably have completed this one in a day, but a headache arrived in the early afternoon, so I stopped there.

I feel much happier using the puzzle board, I can cover my progress and if Miss Belle does jump on to the table, she will not be able to disturb any of the pieces. 

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My Lucy Boston quilt top has another whole row of crosses added, I'll get a picture of that soon.

My voice continues to sound weird, but I seem to have more energy, I'm able to do more chores before running out of steam and needing to rest and the breathlessness seems to have passed. That seems positive and right now I need to feel positive. 

Still Croaking.

It's been almost 4 weeks, and I am beyond had enough. Some days it seems like I am improving, then as I said to Chooky in an email, every time I let myself get optimistic, I go down hill again. Three steps forward and two steps back. After waking up at my normal time over the last couple of days, I slept way past nine again this morning. When I spoke to the cat I sounded almost normal. I managed to make the bed and get the washing machine on without too much puffing and wheezing. Sounds good right? Surely that means I'm improving? And now for the two steps backwards. Speaking to Tony when he was home for lunch my voice deteriorated back to the croak and after making Tony some lunch and putting our plates into the dishbasher, I'm exhausted and feel the need to curl up and snooze someplace. Maybe I will, after I get this post written. 

Lucy Blue has taken a bit of a back seat over the last few days. I felt like I was spending a little too much time sitting in my armchair sewing while the TV burbled away, keeping me company.

 If you remember Tony did some shopping for me when he was away on one of his work trips last year. He not only purchased some beautiful blue fabrics, but also a jigsaw puzzle. Those of you who have read my blog for a few years will know that this is not new for me, though I have not done one for over 10 years.

This is probably not a puzzle that I would have chosen for myself, the dark background would probably have put me off.  Although it has many beautiful flowers, butterflies and moths, which Tony knows I love. So I pulled it out on Friday morning and made a start soon after lunch.

By bedtime I had completed the edges and even put some of the bugs and flowers together.

Here is a closer look at some of those bugs.

There are two of these cute little golden bees.

And some very bright and colourful caterpillars.

I was rather nervous about leaving it uncovered on the table. You see there were boxes involved and lots of little bits and pieces. And I saw a certain someone sitting on the window sill, looking intently at the table...

And, well, you know how cats are with boxes, and how they like to concern themselves with everything that we do. I'm happy to say that if she did hop onto the table for an inspection, she did not appear to have disturbed anything.

Things progressed over the weekend, with a little help from Tony and in spite of two nasty headaches. One each on Saturday and Sunday.

This is where I left it Saturday.

I forgot to get a photo of where we left it last night. (Sunday).

Tony was surprised to come home at lunchtime today and see that I had not touched it this morning. and was delighted to fit two or three pieces before returning to work.

I completed it about 30 minutes after he left

All of the flowers and bugs are native to New Zealand. 

Tony went off into town on Saturday, in search of a special pen that he needed/wanted for one of his model aircraft, while he was in the stationery shop he spied a jigsaw section and wandered in to have a look, and came home with this one.

Wow! 

Another puzzle that I probably would not has selected myself. 

But it is lovely. There is a huge amount of detail and at 500 pieces larger than the NZ natives, it might keep me busy for a couple more days.

I'll try to resist starting it though as I'm still nervous about Miss Belle giving in to her desire to investigate so I have ordered one of those fold away jigsaw boards. I used to have one, they are great, not only for protection from pussycats, but also good if you need your dining room table back to full seating capacity in a hurry. 

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I was sorry to find that I had missed out on a chance to zoom with Chooky on Sunday. Between the headache and the puzzle I was away from my laptop nearly all day.  I hope you all had fun.

Speaking of headaches.....

I'm off to find panadol.