Daffodils and Sunday Sewing

Yesterday I bought some daffodils whilst doing the weekly shop in the supermarket, for just £1 a bunch.  Believe it or not they were all in bud, but as soon as they were placed in water the daffodils decided to flower, you could almost watch them.  This morning they looked like this

 then later in the day

I just love them for the first signs of spring.

Towards the end of last year on one of our trips from Yorkshire to Dorset I bought a pack of fabric and instructions to make placemats from a fabric design called "Le Poulet" from the Bramble Patch and this week made up the placemats with plenty of strips of fabrics left over for some matching coasters and today I was trying to get the binding around them when I ran out of black thread.  I never realised that I used so much black thread!  Before I made the placemats I used one of the cockerals in the fabric to make a postcard for Carole for her birthday this coming week.

Carole\s birthday postcard

One of the Le Poulet placemats

Not being able to finish what I've been doing I had a play around with a couple of things I've wanted to try.  First of all I used some scraps to make 4 patch blocks taking 2 sets of 2 fabric squares and sewing opposite sides before cutting in half and after taking one of each of the 2 sets joining those by sewing the other 2 opposite sides and cutting those in half, et voila 4 sets of 4 patch squares! Not sure where I got this from I just have the notes scribbled down on a piece of paper!

One of the blogs that I read, though I don't participate in is the Block Lotto.  There's some lovely red and white 4 patch square that when put together and re-cut an sewn together, which you can see here
called "D4P" or Disappearing 4 Patch.  Having a play and trying out this is mine below.

Quite impressed with that!

Gardening and Bits & Bobs

It's always amazing where the time goes, March already and only 19 days before the first day of Spring.  Out and about, there seem to be daffodils everywhere and it's nice to see them.

One bit of the garden weeded and cheered up with primroses

One brave daffodil in a weedy flower bed

Buddleia after its drastic haircut!

Getting carried away with the warm weather of last week I've been out in the garden to make a start on the work that badly needs doing after 2 and a bit years of renting out.  Of course the tenants are expected to cut the grass but everything else has been left so the garden is very weedy and though some plants are doing well some have died or look very sick so it will be a long job to get it back into shape. To make a start I have bought a couple of packs of primroses and cleared one flower bed to put them in and that at least looks cheerier. Just the week before I cut back the Buddleia to half it size and David finished off the job for my by sawing off the thicker branches and I think looks a lot better for its (somewhat severe) trim.

At the beginning of this week I received my Quilters Guild magazine and just loved the colours of the front cover - the quilt is called "Pickles" by Frances Cakebread - just my colours! Gorgeous purples and greens. 

Another lovely this week was a postcard from Janet of Jan's Musing.  I liked her postcards on her blog from last year and I said I would swap with her, which I promptly forgot when the move came and went.  I think it was worth waiting for, thanks Jan.

Yesterday I caught up with washing some fabric (some of which I bought at the back end of last year) and until then hadn't realised just how much I'd bought so more to all to the stash.  The fabrics on the left are from Cherry Tree Fabrics in Boscombe and the rest are from visits to Bramble Patch which was halfway point on our trips between Dorset and Yorkshire.

And to keep me busy I'm also doing some knitting.  I bought some yarn when visiting Whitby back in January.  Found a pattern the other day and made a start.  It has grown since the photo was taken.  The yarn is called Riot, made by King Cole, and found this Sirdar pattern.  Starting on the back which is just plain knitting with shaping for the arm and shoulders it'll be something to do while watching the television.

Saturday and Reviewing UFO's

On Saturday I went with my friend Brenda to Parkstone for an event called "3 Corner Day", which is run by Jean. Originally as a Quilters Guild Area Day when she was an area rep but has carried this on as it's so popular.  There are 3 groups with 3 tutors giving mini workshops and the groups move around to each table after each mini workshop. This time Carol Dowsett was giving a mini workshop on making felt flower brooches, Becca from Becca's Quilt Emporium gave a lesson on using the Clover Yoyo makers in their different shapes and Barbara Cheeseman on making small triangle bags.   Its a very good day for catching up with friends, hand sewing and learning something new at the same time.

Here's the result from my efforts there.

Today has been a dismal day, raining most of the time and misty as well.  So time to go into the sewing room and start digging through my box of UFO's some things have been up to Yorkshire and back and not been touched and my thoughts are to do something about them or ditch them. Tough, but it has to be done.  First thing I got out was a cover that I made for my needlefelting machine.  Made from charm pack pieces of Kaffe Fassett fabrics into half square triangles I got stuck when making binding around the top and bottom of the cover.  Of course the top is awkward with a hole having to be cut out to accommodate the handle and in the first place I hadn't cut a with enough bias strip for this so cut another strip of purple fabric wider this time and that solved it.  So are pics of the front

and the back.  Job done, only took a few hours.  Why hadn't I done that before?

Another is an Ostrich challenge, like a Round Robin but you keep adding to the rounds instead of passing on to someone else in the challenge to complete the rounds. I think I started this  in 2005 as part of a BQL challenge. I lost interest in this and this remained a UFO.  I even had strips of flying geese (called Migrating Flying Geese in Karin Hellaby's book) to add to the strips.  I think this is all a bit bitty and I may undo the pieces and make them into separate items which may be more useable.

Another UFO this time going way back to 2001/2 is a single quilt size piece that was part of a birthday block swap - BQL offshoot.  The person organising this for 2000. Jayne, was celebrating her 40th birthday that year and as there were 17 of us (and only 12 months in the year!) we each had an "official birthday" and mine was March 2001.  We'd each requested a block and preferred colour/s and in some of my photos you will see a purple Flying Geese quilt which was made from the blocks I received.  Whilst making blocks for the other Birthday girls I made spare blocks and these were put together for this quilt plus some smaller ones as the middle block was 14" square.  It not a bad looking quilt but I hadn't got around to quilting it.  I must put that right if its been hanging around to 10 years so I'll make the effort and get some wadding and think about how I'll quilt this.

There are more things lurking in the UFO box but this lot will be enough to get on with.

A postcard revisited

Earlier today I went over to Kate's blog via facebook and was surprised to find one of my postcards in her posting here.  

2011 BQL Challenge

I belong to a Yahoo Group, BQL, and have been a member for many years.  I've taken part in challenges that have been set up the moderators of the group and one of them, Kandy, has set challenges in 2008 (the Bag challenge) and 2009 (the Perpetual Calendar challenge) and last year I took a year's gap.  You can see the items that I've made from these by looking at the photos in my Flickr ablum (on the sidebar). I've liked doing these because and item is completed each month rather than as an installment of an item in progress as I lose interest and end up with a UFO (Un-Finished Object to the uninitiated).

This year is with a difference a "Skinny" quilt challenge with a finished item to be swapped with another member.  I've not only got a piece made it also has a label too.  This challenge was to be made through January/February and amazingly there's still half of February to go.

So this is it, a re-visit to the "Ghost Images of the Orient" and more fans - smaller than the one I made in the workshop that I too at the end of November and this time in purples/pinks and I adapted to make 3 smaller fans for added quilting.

Above is a close up of one of the fans with one of the little fans.  It doesn't show up well in the photo but there is a rainbowy metallic thread used to couch the outline thread and also to quilt the little fans.

Talking of skinny (though I'm not the type that ever be that way) I have started going to a Rosemary Conley slimming class in Bournemouth.  My weight is the heaviest it has ever been (I was weighed in at the class with 12st 12.5 lbs, which at 5'2" is quite bad).  Going to class tonight and see if there's some progress).  Let you know how I get on.

Oder out of Chaos

This past week has seen some sewing, some job hunting and more sorting out.  I've been into Bournemouth to the branch of the agency that I was signed up to in Sheffield in the hope of gaining temporary or permanent work and wait and see what happens on that front.  I've also applied for jobs that have come up on the e-mail jobs alert, though ones through agencies have the note "due to the number of applicants if you do not hear from our representative assume that you have not been successful...." or something like that.  That's terrible keeping people on a string like that, but that's the state of things in the job world at present.  But meanwhile....

I've got 2 postcards sewn and sent out last week. A belated one for Lesley in Edinburgh (similar to one I made for Claire last year (see here).

This one I made for Pascale in Wiltshire who requested Red and White.  I've gone back to a technique which I've not done for a while - fabric weaving, which I think looks quite effective in these colours.

At the weekend some things were sorted out in the house.  David replaced a wall mirror in our en-suite with one that has lights either side and a shaver point (this one here) and it looks very modern.  He's also resurrected some of our lightshades which we originally had in this house including this one with little crystal balls.  We found that we can get another one of this design so may do that this week.

He'd also fitted a new light cluster in the dining room too. Looks posh, but it came from Asda where we found that it was reduced - bargain!

I've not been idle either and managed to tidy the sewing room so that I can try and be more organised (or as organised as I can be!) when working in there.  I promise I'll try and keep this tidy!!

In my nice tidy room I made a start on a BQL Challenge piece.  Kandy on BQL had started a Skinny Swap challenge and I've got until the end of February to make this.  Following on from the weekend workshop that I went to at the end of November I decided to make a smaller version.  The finished size of the small piece is 18" x 12" (not that skinny I guess the size might slim down as the year progresses).  You can see in the pic above the greeny blue piece on the bed and the pic below is a purpley pink version and as I only took a few notes of what I made in the workshop it was to remind myself of what I made.  At the moment I can't say why I'm attracted to fans but recent work seems to be that.  Am I being artistic and working in series?  Here's my effort so far today.

The fans look a little lost in this pic but I've yet to couch some thread in and around them.  Quite pleased with the progress so far.

Started Sewing

It's taking a while to get organised and I'm still not there yet.  I have, however been able to get the sewing machine set up on Thursday and do a bit of sewing and put borders on the curved pieced block that I made at the workshop in Barnsley a couple of weeks ago.  Here's a photo below of my effort.

And here's a view of my room now (the drawers at the front of the pic have been moved)

I've even had the chance to put up a couple of quilts

I have missed a birthday with the postcard swap and will catch up with that today (the birthday girl's day was last Friday) and there are a couple of birthdays this month so will get head (and hands) into gear to get that done.  Today's a good day for this as I've got to wait in for a delivery of a new washing machine - the old one (and it is old, about 13 - 14 year) has drum bearing wearing and sounded as though it was about to take off.  So here's a photo of a postcard I sent to birthday girl Janet which I sent before the move.

With our move to Poole came a strange twist in the tale of David's job.  From my posts last month I said that he was being made redundant and his notice finishes in March so he requested gardening leave to look for work and for moving back down south which was granted.  The evening before the removers came he had a call from his boss that his redundancy notice has been withdrawn as someone else had given notice to leave their job - we were shocked to say the least!  So as well as moving he's also had to work out how he'll work from home and hope to get a desk from a regional office to work from.  Meanwhile this week he's been headed up North.  Looks like a story that'll continue.

We've moved

No piccies to show in this post but just an update.  David and I moved into our house on Friday and it looked like box heaven.  We've emptied out quite a lot of the boxes and now finding homes for things, the kitchen has been especially difficult as I'm not sure what should go in what cupboard.  I'm sure I'll have it sorted as time goes on.

I'm typing this from the laptop as David is sorting out our office, but I've not ventured into my sewing room yet, think I'll have to get in the right frame of mind to get organised in there, but once the other rooms are sorted I'll be able to get in and try to sort that out.

One thing I must do is to get a job. I was quite pleased to have more work around Christmas and New Year but I don't want to out of work for too long. 

Its a bit cold for now but when the weather improves then we must tackle the garden. As the house had been rented out the tenants kept the grass down but that was it. Our first thoughts are to start over with the planting as the flower beds are very weedy and what was growing there seems to be no more. It'll be good to have a garden to work in and enjoy as we couldn't in the house in Yorkshire.

All in all there's plenty to do around the house to keep us out of mischief for a while.

Break Away in North Yorkshire

As we continue to pack up we have been surrounded by more boxes.  Below is or was my (sewing) room.  It's not until the packing is done that I realise just how much stuff I have.

And then there's what was the spare room...

That's just 2 of the rooms there's more boxes in the kitchen, dining room and living room too.


David and I have managed a couple of days away as I had some unexpected time off when my temp job came to an end on Wednesday.  On Thursday we went to Harrogate, which I'd only seen going to and from the Knitting and Stitching Shows.  Apart from visiting Bettys Tea Room, which on a January Thursday morning hadn't got a queue, but that was a different matter by the time we left when it was approaching lunchtime, we were a little disappointed with the town.  We then went on to Ripon, a tiny city with a cathedral where we stayed for the night at the Royal Oak, just a short walk from the cathedral. In the evening after a lovely meal we went out for a walk to take some night time photos when we saw the Watchman in the Market Square at 9.00 pm.    He blows a horn from each corner of the market cross, a tradition that dates back from 886, then reports to the town's Mayor that all is well. There's more about this here.

This looked ok on the camera but it did turn out fuzzy

Friday saw us going to Whitby for the day and it was lovely, weatherwise, although a bit blowy.   We walked from the Marina to the sea walls which shelters the boats coming in from the North Sea.  As it's January a lot of the local shops and cafes are closed down for the winter but there were still a number open. We had coffee in a cafe called Sherlocks, quite a fascinating place with dark walls and Sherlock Holmes paraphernalia.

No queues outside the famous Magpie cafe - it's closed for January

St Mary's church with the Abbey behind

Walking along the sea wall

The whale jawbone

Captain James Cook and friend.

 After a wander around the town, we then headed for Whitby Abbey to have a look around.  The audio guide went on about imagining what it was like in year so and so, but being cold and windy we were not up to imagining anything.  Though we did take pics - here are the views below...

Saturday was my last workshop with the Barnsley Embroiderers, :o(! They'd invited Phillipa Naylor to do a lesson on Curved Piecing, which she's done on several of the prize winning quilts.  I've taken her workshops last year and just as before it's very informative and she goes into a lot of detail.  I did get as far as getting a block completed, but it will need borders (2) on the outside of the block.  I've got the patterns for those and will get this done sometime after the move.

But for now, as you've seen above it's all packed away!

Packing away

I've not been involved too much with packing stuff up for our move to Poole on 21st.  David has been working from home and combining that with the sorting out and packing.  What was our guest bedroom is now full of boxes.  I came home from work to find that he's taken down pictures from the walls so the rooms do look a little bare. I've just got this week at work and I'll be finished, then I'll have to look for work down South.

I have been sewing a couple of postcards, one was for a birthday today, but unfortunately I didn't take a photo so I'll have to ask the birthday girl to take a photo for me. 

To give us a break from the house we decided to go out to Sheffield and visit the Fire and Police Museum, which is housed in the old Victorian Fire and Police building close to the ring road around the city.  It's only open on Sundays and Bank Holidays as it's run by volunteers.  The space is small and it was difficult to take any decent pictures as the vehicles there were crammed in.  However I managed to take one of David in a fireman's helmet (which I think may have been left for younger visitors).

I hope to have some photos soon of a workshop that I'm going to on Saturday.  This'll probably the last bit of sewing before I move.

Quote of the Week

I was given a diary from my hairdressers just before Christmas though I won't be seeing them again before the move.  I found that there is a quote each week so I thought this would be an addition to the blog.  This diary started on the third week of December, not just from the beginning of January so there's two additional quotes to start off with.  Here goes...

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted" - Aesop

"Short is the joy that guilty pleasure brings" - Euripides

Moving Forward

Its a bit of a sad time taking down the Christmas decorations as the rooms downstairs look so naked without the brightness of tinsel and lights, but Christmas is over and a New Year begun, so onwards and upwards. 

I took time to take photos first before I started on the task

Here's the tree

 The mirror and fireplace

 

 The wall unit above, and the pile of decorations before being packed away for another year.

Further to my post a couple of days ago, I am looking forward to a workshop in a couple of weeks and got out the requirements list for this and whilst trying use what fabric I had I decided I would go for this purple Kaffe Fassett fabric for the feature fabric for this workshop.  I am certain on this but not so for the dark/medium/lights to go with it. Whether to go for different colours or shades of one colour.  At least I have a little time to think about it.

 

 Moving forward from there we are now starting on packing up the house here in Yorkshire and 21st January will see us return to our house in Poole.  Just over 2 years ago David was made redundant from his job in IT in Bournemouth due to some restructuring of the company and he immediately found a job with a banking company up here in Yorkshire.  We couldn't sell our house at the time so rented out the house and here in Hemsworth we've rented a house and we'd thought we would settle once I had found myself a permanent job.  This hasn't happened, though I have had a series of temporary jobs and meanwhile he is facing redundancy again with notice up to the end on March.  Our tenants in our Poole house have now vacated it and so made our decision to return.  On our last trip down South at the beginning of December we had a chance to look over the house and its not looking too bad considering it was rented out though we could see that we will need to redecorate and make it our home once again.  The ironic thing is that I reluctantly took up a temporary job in Wakefield which was to be "just a couple of weeks" just after our trip down South and it looks like it could be permanent, which is a shame.

So where we go from there I'm not too sure, but hope that I can get some temporary work until things sort themselves out.  David's not sure either what will happen with his work, but hopes he can get some contract work which may mean he is away from home, but at least we know where our home base is.