Feeling Blue.

I didn't do very much yesterday, I don't know if it was a weekend of worry about Jonny that caught up with me, or if it was all that blue fabric, but I really started to feel a little blue myself. I stopped work on Joe's quilt and sat instead in front of the TV and finished off the last of the place mats, then I put the feather stitch and some beads onto the pear.

When Tony came home I was asleep with an old homespun in my hands! To be honest I'm not feeling 100% today, but I'll make a start on another colour for Joe's quilt.

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Take care.

Sons and Lilies.

Jonny is slowly mending. His throat is still pretty swollen, but he is able to eat and keep food down at last. He's still only picking at ice cream and jelly, but it's a start. Thank you to everyone who sent healing thoughts and good wishes.

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A colleague of mums has given me a huge pile of fabric. There are lots of quite big pieces, some off the roll and some samples. Curtain fronts and backs as well as some old cushion covers. There were one or two pieces of polyester, they barely stayed in the house 10 minutes! LOL Ew! I hate that stuff.

There are also a couple of pieces of linen. They are both quite big and I may use them as quilt backs. What do you think?

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As a thank you I made her a shopping bag. Well, mum had been boasting about my bags.
(Scuse the laundry awaiting it's turn) I just made up a quick very basic bag which she can carry a few purchases in. It has a pocket to keep her keys and purse from being buried at the bottom.

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Once that was done I set about making some sense from the fabrics DS Joe had chosen for his next quilt. I let him lose in the scraps box and he promptly rejected 90% of the contents, after a little reasoning and some bargaining we came up with enough fabric for a good sized quilt.
I started with the blues, but I assure you, there will be other colours. I've never done foundation piecing before, I quite enjoyed the experience. The pattern is from a back issue of Australian Patchwork and Quilting. I'll give more info another time.

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My dear Husband bought me the most beautiful Valentine card, filled with love heart sprinkles and there was a delivery of Stargazer Lilies (Christmas Lilies). I don't think there could have been any left in the shop. There were also some red roses hiding in there. We spent the evening together watching a movie. Though I was also stitching away, closing the bindings on my place mats.

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My time off work is running out and I feel like I'm not going to achieve all that I wanted to. I'm off to sew for a while.

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Take care.

Did I tell you how much I dislike hospitals?

Jonny is still in hospital. He is having difficulty breathing and cannot keep food down, not even ice cream. I did go in to see him yesterday and will be there with him for a while today. I took cordial and jelly (Jello) yesterday. Today I'll take a Thermos with ice cubes!

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I really couldn't settle to anything yesterday and flickered through magazines and books. I rifled through my scraps and after a few hours came up with a pear!

I'll need to put some pretty stitches up the seams. I couldn't believe the mess I came home too. Did I do that? There won't be much happening today, maybe tomorrow or Monday I'll start cutting more scraps for my next quilt. I'm off to do my shopping before I go see my boy.

Not so quick finishes.

I wanted some quicker finishes, so set about something I've been planning for a little while. I pulled out my stash of Kiwiana fabrics and started to make myself a set of place mats.

While we were in NZ I kept looking at all the beautiful mats, showing wildlife and birds as well as beautiful scenery.
The birds in particular I adored. But I never actually got around to buying myself a set.
Well, now I almost have my bird mats! These little pretties are Fantails. Aren't they adorable?
I just have to sew down the binding. I have a set of six large and six coasters. Three each in black and white backgrounds.
I couldn't bring myself to quilt them, if I had meandered around the birdies on one side it would have spoiled the kiwiana on the other side. It's the same for the kiwiana, if I had tried to work into that, it would have spoiled the birds. At 10 x 11 inches I'm sure they will be just fine without any quilting.

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The pile of hand sewing beside my seat in the sitting room is getting larger by the week, maybe over the weekend I'll make time to sit in there and get on with some of it. Hopefully I'll get to see a little of Jonathan. Right now he's in hospital. He started with a throat infection on Tuesday while at sea, when it became obvious that he wasn't going to be able to fight it alone his skipper brought him in and he was admitted at 3am this morning. He's getting fluids and antibiotics through a drip, but they are confident that he will be released later today. He'll need a few days R&R and may be able to rejoin the boat next time she comes in. (They got him to hospital then went straight back out to sea). I don't do sitting in hospitals, not even for my own son, his father is with him though and will keep me informed. So today is a busy day, a doing day, there's no way I could sit still and do hand work. What to do?

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Take care.

The Finished Quilt.

It's all done. I put it on the bed this morning for a quick photo shoot.

Before folding it up and leaving it here.......
It will stay here for a while, then get a turn on the bed in a couple of weeks.

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I think it's time I got on with some smaller projects and did some finishing of other projects. But the scraps box is still calling! What's a girl to do? Well today I have chores to do in town, before I do anything else. Maybe I'll pop into the charity shops and see what they have while I'm out.

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Have a great day and take care.