Weekend fun

I don't know about you, but I had a great weekend, even though I had to work.

Friday was an extra day off, we were all awarded a wellness day, as a thank you for all the hard work and effort that we have put in, even me who was off work for eight weeks. So I took it on Friday.

I played all day, with my floral scraps, making up blocks and even adding the first sashing strips.

This is how I left them when I went off to prepare dinner. Debbie and her hubby joined us. We had Prawn toasts and spring rolls, followed by chicken and corn soup and Tony's amazing crispy shredded sweet chilli beef.

Debbie brought a HUGE banana cake.

That was a late night, and I thought I might be late for zoom on Saturday.

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I wasn't late for zoom, I was awake in plenty of time to grab a cuppa and get logged in.

I spent the morning working on my Lucy Blue EPP project.

Of course.

It was good to see everyone and I enjoyed myself, listening and chatting until it was time to head off to work.

I added three large blocks and four smaller spacer blocks.

I'm on to the last row!

Then I'll need to go around and add the edge pieces.

Chooky, thank you once again for a great day. 

A little while ago I wondered about making it a little bigger, but decided in the end, to stick with original size, it's a good size for hanging in my hall way.

Tony wasn't available for my photo shoot today, so I pegged it on to my quilt hanging rail to get a good picture.

And decided while I was at it, I would change the guard.

I like to change the quilt hanging at the end of the hallway. Some stay for only a few weeks, some stay longer.

This one is a regular, I'm very fond of it.

It sometimes gets used as a table cloth too.

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Also today I played in my sewing room pretty much right up to the moment I had to run out of the door for work. LOL

I was determined to get the floral scrapper together and to get the first border on.

And I did it. I had just enough fabric, though there are a few more joins than I would like in some of those longer pieces.

I think I'll add a tiny peeper border (Chooky you've started something.....) before adding another neutral border.

That is a job for tomorrow.

I did think this one might be a donor quilt, but I've fallen in love with it.....

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On the whole, I think I had a fantastic weekend.

I hope yours was just as good.

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. 

 

That Pesky Squirrel.

Before I went off to work on Monday, I had sewn all of the bindings on to the Frankenmats, then pinned all of the bindings to their backs. Usually I enjoy closing bindings by hand, but I thought that as these mats are already such experimental pieces, why not try another new method and close the bindings on the machine?

Yesterday, (Tuesday) I set about doing just that.

The results, are not perfect, but the bindings were successfully closed.

I worked from the front, using my ditch foot as a guide.

And I'm really rather pleased with how that worked out.

One table runner.

And six placemats.

Does that mean that I have seven finishes for April?

LOL

And here are five more finishes.

To add yet more to the monstrousness nature to these mats, I used up several odd bits of bobbin thread and finished off five odd spools of thread. 

One more thing I did on Tuesday was to have another play with the floral scraps. I laid them all out on the floor, in no particular order, I just wanted to be sure that they would all play nicely together.

I went off to work and left them that way.

Hmm, it looks like a fight broke out and some of them disagreed.......

Or maybe Belle decided to have a little play?

LOL

When I went into my room this morning and found them like that, I picked them all up and put them back on to the table, then the squirrel appeared and I found myself playing with some completely different scraps!

I've had these tiny little HST off cuts for many years.

You can see their donor quilt here.

Try as I have, I cannot find the beginnings of that project. I thought there may have been another project that had also donated triangles, but I cannot find evidence of that either.

So anyway, .....

following the squirrel on some historic date I had sewn some of the squares together and then abandoned what ever I had planned. Something else I can find no record of!  They have lain tucked away in my Fig Tree Fabrics drawer, for quite some time. I have pulled them out occasionally, fiddled with them, then put them away again on more than one occasion.

Today the squirrel led me to join more of the squares together and create flying geese units.

Some are tidier then others and I know that where ever this wee project goes, I'm going to end up losing a lot of points, which is I'm sure, why they have been repeatedly returned to the drawer, but today I carried on anyway.

I stopped here when Tony came home for his lunch.

I'm really not sure where this is going.

But right now I am sure that I'm going to make a cuppa, then I'll sit n sip while I unsew some that were on one of their previous outings sewn up in a different way.

Do you have scraps that behave like this?

Finally!

After just over 7 weeks, I am finally allowed to return to work. I just had to record the moment before I headed out of the door on Thursday afternoon.

It was good to be back, with many hugs and we missed yous from colleagues and residents. 

I'm still not 100%,  My voice continues to come and go, and I was encouraged to take things slowly and grab extra breathers if I needed them. I'm happy to say I took only the rostered breaks.

So, moving on......

On Wednesday I found myself pottering in my sewing room. The first time is almost two months I had gone in there, except to cut fabrics for Lucy.

I'm not sure what prompted it, maybe the news that I could return to work.

Anyway, for some reason I found myself sorting through my drawer full of floral scraps.

And this is the result. I have half a plan in mind, which will probably change a few times before I settle and start cutting, or throw it all back into the drawer. So I won't say anymore at this time. LOL

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My jigsaw puzzle is growing slowly as I pick away at it each day. Sometimes I stay with it for only 10 minutes, sometimes a couple of hours passes. I'll get a photo another day, as I like to record my progress. 

And finally ...

Nails.

I've dallied on and off with pretty nails over the years. 

A few weeks ago, on the spur of the moment I went and had gel polish applied.

Blue, of course.

 My nails are usually quite weak and tear very easily. Wearing gloves at work and constantly washing my hands doesn't help I'm sure. So it felt good having pretty nails. So good that I went back and got another colour done three weeks later.

Green this time.

I'm not sure how long I'll keep it going, but for now, I'm enjoying pretty nails.

I wonder what I'll do next time.

Do you have pretty nails? I think we should blog nails too if you do. 

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That's my news.

I suppose I should get a move on and go grocery shopping. 

And yet more scraps.

 Yes, I've been bagging scraps again. I scored this bundle on FB.
The courier dropped it off this morning. It's quite a big package

Which contained this big bundle of scraps..

Which were not really what most of us call scraps.

Hmm, blogger, why did you turn my picture sideways??

This floral stripe is folded double over my ironing board.

And this pink is folded in four! It's a BIG piece of pink.

There are lots of new stars in my stash. LOL

They were quite big pieces, with all sorts of odd shapes cut out, so needed a good tidy up once I had pressed them.

There were some other surprises too.

George was a very lucky doggo to have such a cool bandana. LOL

And how about this handkerchief? 

Pretty good for a Leo who loves blue.

I think it might make a good centre for a medallion quilt. 

There were several of these.....

In all it took me just over two hours to sort, press and tidy everything. 

The fabrics in the above picture still need to be trimmed in to shape.

As well as the big pieces there were also some very pretty smaller pieces.

Which will make nice additions to my scrap and crumb drawers.

I have been incredibly lucky with my scrap finds recently.

I might give it a rest for a while and try to use some fabric. LOL

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On the subject of using fabrics...

I mentioned last time that I was hoping to have a play with my quilt rulers.

WRONG!!

I foolishly had it in my mind that the ruler foot off one Janome, would fit on to the other Janome.

NOPE!

I knew of course that the feet were not interchangeable, but broke a needle before I remembered that wee gem.

So Tony and I went shopping.

NOT paying NZ prices. Nearly $200 plus P&P.

Aus prices were a little better, but the post fee made it more expensive than buying local.

USA prices were pretty good, post was ok too, but I'll have to wait...........................

UK prices less then half of the NZ cost, post was even ok. But no one responded to our query.

USA it was then.

I'm waiting until the end of March for my new ruler foot. 

NZ retailers, if you want me to buy local, then set realistic prices.

It is cheaper to get something shipped in from the other side of the world, where do you think I'm going to shop?

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So, I'll keep myself busy with something else while I await the arrival of my new ruler foot. 

My scrap drawers and crumb baskets are bursting. 

Oh Crumbs, another squirrel.

 My growing collection of scrap fabrics all needs to be sorted, pressed, tidied up and put away, which has meant that my baskets of crumbs were filling up fast. So over the weekend I've sat down at my machine and started to sew.

I wonder where all this little girls friends are? 

She's not really a crumb, but as she is alone I popped her in to the basket.

I'm not sure which bundle she arrived in but I do know she was the only one.

I made sure that she has good company.

It really does not take long to make up these crumb blocks.

I started to put them together in to placemat sized blocks, thinking they would be good for practising using my rulers, but as I laid them out on the floor a squirrel planted another idea in my head. LOL

If I just turn one this way, and one that way, add a little sashing, where is my tape measure.......?

LOL

There are plenty of crumbs left, so that particular squirrel may just happen.

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How was your weekend?

I'm tired, I've done three extra shifts over the weekend, this evening and tomorrow evening with be 6 and 7 shifts without a day off, I'm looking forward to Wednesday.

Right now I'm off to prepare a very special Valentines lunch for Tony, to make up for the fact that I'm working this evening. 

Happy Valentines day.