Finally.

Well after a couple of false starts I believe I'm finally feeling better. I seemed to go up and down there for a few days. I still have no voice and tennis balls for tonsils but all the aches and pains have gone and so has the desire to sleep and sleep and sleep.

This morning I sat and put the final touches to the 'Another Little Quilt Swap' It's all ready to go, I just have to find some packaging for it.

It was prom night on Thursday for my DS1. Here he is all dressed up. It was a beautiful sunny evening as you can see and his father is useless with a camera! But hey, he's a man.
Moya has the baby quilts all finished and they are on their way to their new owners. She has started a new quilt to be raffled at her DD2 ballet club. She came here to do the cutting because I have a larger mat than she does, so I snapped a quick pick of the main panels, there were several other ballet themed fabrics being bandied about but I wasn't quick enough with the camera.
Hopefully I'll get some WIP pics and a final pic before it goes to it's new home. I'm sure some little girl would be delighted to have the winning ticket for this one.

Have a great day.

Moyas update

While I've had no time to quilt Moya has been busy. She finished her twin quilts yesterday. I'm not sure exactly what size these finished up at she didn't tell me, but I'm guessing at about 25-30 inches going by how they looked on my floor last time I saw them in real life.

They were made with flannels from the giggles range. Very cozy.

She used her sewing machine to make the labels, she had thought to stitch the babies details onto the front but, I talked her into the labels, this way they can be used again by other babies and more labels attached as necessary.

She has quilted in the ditch,

which shows up a little better on the backs.

I hope Gracie has a huge personality, cause she is only half the size of her brother.

Moya is coming to see me today now most of my germs have gone. I wonder what she'll have with her?

Thank you all for your good wishes, I really do feel a lot better today, in fact yesterday I started to perk up. My fever and aches and pains are all gone and I now just have the sore throat this all started with on Monday. Hunney has enjoyed the peace and quiet, he's teased and sympathised in equal measure. But he is a wonderful carer, he did all the cooking, bought me flowers and kept grapes in the fridge. :-)

Speaking of Hunney, He is settling into his new job and starting to enjoy it, he is slowly getting to grips with fastening a tie, although this morning was a frustrating time. LOL He says from now on he'll leave them all fastened and slide the knot up and down like a school boy, pulling the tie over his head. LOL Maybe I should stitch them all and put them on elastic, then he really could do it school boy style. He thanks you for your good wishes, he's gotten to know some of you, well, he knows your cats! He likes to have a peek over my shoulder when I'm reading blogs, just to see what your quilt inspectors are up to.

When I started to feel better yesterday afternoon, I went shopping at my favorite online store, it's a British one, so I paid a little more than buying from the states, but they are fast, I should have my package today. That would really make me feel better. I trawled through the sales pages and bought some batiks in half meter lengths . I also bought some charms, whoever it was that posted recently about using charms for a disappearing nine patch, thank you, you helped inspiration to slap me in the face.

I've done nothing to DS2 quilt, so hopefully today before I return to work I'll get some cutting done.

Have a good day all.

Nothing to report

Here's my hunney. He started a new job last week, after wearing a polo shirt and cargo pants for years he suddenly has to wear a shirt and tie. Here he is all scrubbed up for his first day.

Poor soul, he was soooo nervous. I barely got him to stand still long enough for this pic, I knew I'd get no second chance. LOL

Life for me has been work, work, work. Ugh! The only reason I'm here now is because I'm off sick! (Cough, splutter) .

I have just about finished my swap quilt, it needs only the hanging sleeve to be attached. Then it will be on it's way. Nope no pics. I decided in the end after a lot of swearing and unpicking, then more swearing and unpicking that I'm not yet ready to hand quilt a gift! I'll need to practice some more on something for myself. So out came the sewing machine and down went the feed dogs. I stuck with the idea of following a template that reflected the theme of the quilt though. Maybe not the tidiest, but my very best and first ever effort at something more creative than a meander.

I want to get one or two little local souvenirs to pop in with it and something yummy too. So a question, what is the best way to send it? Rolled? Folded?

Right, I'm off, back to my sofa and my CSI DVD collection, I'm in no fit state to pick up a needle or a cutting blade.

Hope you're all feeling a lot better than me just now. Have a great day.

Twice in two days!

Another day off, too good to be true. A sad day though, one of my colleagues lost her mother on Sunday and today is her funeral, I'll be attending later.

On a brighter note, I got a good start on cutting pieces for my DS2 quilt top and will be doing more today, I may even get to the point where I can start putting it together, that should keep him happy for a while.

I've been looking at the swap quilt, it's here on the table all sandwiched ready to go..... I've decided I'm going to have a bash at hand quilting this one. Up to now I've only ever used my machine to stitch in and near the ditch! And I've done some meandering, this top really is begging for a bit more than that, so I've found a template to follow and I'll give it a go.
I sat last night and stitched the label, I've dated it May so I have a whole month to do the quilting, I see a few more nights in front of the TV, shouldn't be too hard with no late shifts huh?
I just need to decide which to use, matching or invisible thread.

Sorry, no names! This is the first time I've made a label like this, I usually just stitch on one of the tags Hunney bought for me. I enjoyed doing it and may have to start adding them to all of my quilts.

Have a great day.

Feels Good

It really does feel very good, to finally get a day at home and time to play with fabrics and my sewing machine. Life has very much been getting in the way lately, well not life as such, more like work! I seem to have very few late shifts these last couple of weeks and when I did get a late shift found myself having to study all morning to catch up there. All I really wanted to do was sew. So I apologise for not posting for ages. I've had very little time to read your blogs either, I managed one or two here and there, so today I had over 50 feeds to catch up on! I'm sorry, but I didn't comment on each and every one, suffice to say, I found inspiration, advice and good ideas as well as all the friendly chit chat and gossip I've grown to love. It was nice to be back in the land of blog and catch up on what you have all been doing.

Today I've made the top for my 'Another Little Quilt Swap' Here's a taste of some colours, I haven't used all of these, just some of them. I don't want to say which ones 'cause I know my partner reads my blog.
So with top completed I've laid it to one side while I think about how to quilt it. In the mean time I have the label all ready to go, I'll stitch it in hand using stem stitch, I'll do that tonight in front of the TV.

For now I'm off to cut some pieces for DS2 quilt, poor boy was so hoping I'd have it almost finished by now.

Have a great day.