ALQS4

I have cheated by doing the Snails trail by sewing onto gridded vilene - instead of the seminole method. My excuse is that I wanted accurate seams, I have to do sewn strips 1 cm wide to produce a narrow enough pattern strip to fit in with the other pattern strips.Left handed trimming!

Doh! I've sewn the strip on the wrong side!!

I have since unpicked it and sewn the 2 strips on.

Also I have sewn together the strips for the "syncopated piano keys".

I need to finish off the end of a couple of the pattern strips, but the main decisions to be made now is the placements of the pattern strips, and the choice of the strips inbetween.

I am off to London tomorrow to see the Quilt exhibition at the V&A and am returning quite late, so I won't have any time for sewing tomorrow.

This is not necessarily the final order. The size of the Quilt will be something like 17" x 20".

Doesn't this calf look so cuddly?

The Process Pledge

I was looking at my favourite blog list entries, I looked at Tallgrass Prairie Studio and she has a post about the process pledge. Well for those of you who read my blog you will know that I like to share the process and my progress - especially on the Quilts I do for swaps. So I just had to swear my allegiance and grab the button for my side bar.



Have a look at Tallgrass Prairie Studios blog, and The Process pledge, then all the other people who have signed up.

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Friday night sew-in.

The spacing on this post has gone completely to pot. When I uploaded the pictures I did them to the side instead of in the middle and I can't get rid of the big spaces that show - you'll have to keep scrolling down.

Not an awful lot got done due to

a) bad back - I can't sit and machine for long

b) I got home and Andrew had started the barbeque, and it's been a long time since I have enjoyed sitting in the garden doing nothing much in particular. Usually I feel pressurised to be doing things.

But here is the progress I have made partly last night.

This is the seminole quilt I am working on. I am using ( mostly) strips left over from my log cabin quilt - they are 1 1/4" wide, but I have to add a few other fabrics in as I will need a few wider strips.

1. This pattern went together like a dream. It's about 17" long so I need to get the other strips the same.

2. Sews together OK but I thinkI will cut down the width of it as it may be too pale overall. I'll see as and when I've finished all the strips.

3. Not going together well at all. Despite pinning the pieces together I have repeatedly stitched them together wrong. Friday night unpicking more like! So I have unpicked them and will have to try again.

4. The construction of this one is like no.3, so is a potential problem too!

5. I've not done this pattern before. I'm a bit short of fabric so I've had to unpick a few pieces of this too in order to trim and re-sew. I don't have a photo of it - perhaps tomorrow.

So I have 5 strips on the go - I'll do a few more then together with the spacer strips I should have enough.

I took the boys out for a walk this evening as we must make the most of the lovely weather.

Here is a lovely Leicestershire Rape field.

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Hmm, just frightened myself by looking at the Quilts on previous Quilt Swaps!
I am using up strips left over from my log cabin quilt.
I have started piecing - it's a seminole quilt I'm working on.
So I need to do some more then think whether it's good enough!

I have suffered all week with my bad back - no doubt due in the main to going to sewing last Saturday and sitting in the chair for so long. So far today it's been quite a lot better, but yesterday I rang the Chiropractor so I'm back there tomorrow. She'll be able to tell what I've been doing!

The weather has been good all week and the forecast for the weekend is promising. Well for my husband it promises torture as he is doing a sponsored run on Sunday - in the heat!. He did 2 miles last night and said it about killed him so I don't know how he'll do 7.

Last year we went up to Derbyshire and stayed at Grindleford. We went on a walk to Eyam. It was so hot we had to get the bus back. We would have rung for a taxi if there hadn't been a bus - it was that hot!. Oh boy did those children moan. Joseph did his usual trick of leaving something somewhere- in this case it was his top in the pub garden, and he only remembered just as the bus was due. Run Joseph!
Once we went to Paris and he left a toy Monkey hanging in a tree in the hotel. We rang the hotel and asked if they could make sure it still spoke English when they sent it back to us. I'm glad to report that it does.

This is the boys playing Conkers, but with Dandelions!

Last week 3 cows strayed from their field into the field that we jointly rent with neighbours to grow our veggies. Here is one of the ladies by our neighbours bean sticks!

and here you can see her rather lovely horns - I was the other side of the fence at this point. Fortunately they did not do any damage - they just nibbled a bit of grass.

Bluebells.

There are some more sweet little baby calves up on the top field.

Tchuka Ruma

I wrongly called the game that Liam was playing “Little Goat”. It is in fact “Tchuka Ruma” from Indonesia.
We have a wonderful book “More Mathematical Games and Activities from around the world” by Claudia Zaslavsky. So, Tchuka Ruma.

Draw yourself a row of 5 boxes. Label the last one Ruma.
1. Place 2 beans, counters or coins in each of the 4 blank squares.
Moves are made from left to right.
2.Pick up the counters from any square and drop them, one in each square, in the next few squares ( to the right), including the Ruma. This is called “sewing the seeds”.
If you drop a counter in Ruma and you still have any more counters go back to the first square and continue sewing. You need to plan your moves so that the last counter does not fall into an empty square.
3. After you have dropped the last seed, pick up all seeds in that last square and continue sewing as before. If you last seed falls on Ruma, you may pick up the seeds from any square and sew them. But if the last seed in your hand falls into a square that was empty, you lose the game. You win when all 8 seeds are in the ruma.

This is a game that is easy to play whilst sitting in cafes and the like, but I have to say we haven’t won this yet!

I went to sewing on Saturday, and I made up enough strips for 3 blocks of my Postage Stamp quilt. I am not making up blocks as yet - I am making up small blocks of 3 or 4 strips of squares. When I have enough I will sew them into blocks of 17 strips of squares. I'm doing this to ensure I get the prints spread evenly over all the blocks.

6 hours of sewing wasn't good for my back - the constant sitting gives me pain over my hip and the the top of my right leg. I need to make sure I do all those leg stretches I'm supossed to be doing.

Today I went to pick up Josephs new bed, and then after he had done his homework we made it up - then we carried on and tidied up the rest of his bedroom. It looks wonderful, and he has his bright Batik quilt on his bed.
The rest of the house needs a bit of tlc, but not tonight.

Outnumbered and useful information

Yes we are one of the many familes in the UK that relate to "Outnumbered."

Todays episode of "it's just like an episode of outnumbered" was when Liam once again (yes, he's done it before) remarked on my pin number. Tell everyone why don't you. So now I have to change it, and that's annoying as being mathematically minded I have a logical number assigned to the card. And now I have to think of another one.

Here is the little do-dah in question. He fell off a scooter in the week - here it is difficult to tell where scab finishes and chocolate sauce starts.

Here he is prior the the profiteroles arrving - he is playing "Little Goat".

This is a Rape field - when I manage to get a good photo of the glow of the yellow I'll be sure to post it.

Now for the usefull information. We went to Birmingham on Sunday and my 12 year old has more useful (!! ??) facts than you could point a stick at.

Did you know that there is LOTS of empty space in atoms, that if you removed all the empty space from all the atoms of all the people on Earth, you could reduce the entire human population, all 6.8 billion of us, to the size of an apple?

surely not!

The other fact he told me was so useful to me I've forgotten it already!

Posting whilst watching TV!

How sad -watching TV and typing a post at the same time. But time seems to rush by and I have to do this, it's over a week since I last posted.

So, various things.

Went to see Melody Gardot last Monday - enjoyed it - not as much as I thought I would - I was so looking forward to it so I guess that was the problem - she didn't sing the songs the same as they are on her CDs and it took me a while to adjust to that. I also enjoyed the time out with a friend - nattering about things and eating out. I'm a Mum to young boys so I don't get out that often!

My postage stamp quilt is not going as well as I hoped. We all know that sometimes when you sew strips together things go a little wonky..............

I really need to use my extension table to be able to control the strips a bit better. So I will be carrying quite alot tomorrow when I go out to my sewing class - Bag, Iron, Machine, Extension table, and Mat and stuff. I will need a BIG bag.

I only hope that as the strip sets are cut into 1 1/2 inch strips I can level things up.

Also it has been taking over the spare bedroom - that sometimes Mrs Snorey has to sleep in - it's only a small room and it's getting quite claustrophobic with pin boards with sewn strips all over the place. So tonight I have taken all the strips down off my pin boards and I'll have to pack them away after each sewing session - it looks so much tidier.

I have also been working on a block that I need to do for a group I belong to. I used a no sew fusible bond - I have actually sewn through it and it's gumming up my machine needle and breaking the thread. Not good.

On Saturday Liam went to a party - dressed as a Knight. It took lots of Thursday and Friday evenings, and some of Saturday morning to make his outfit.

I am a vegetarian, not a Vegan, but on Saturday I bought a Vegan cookery book - "Vegan with a Vengeance" by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I will let you know what I decide to cook from it. Biscuits may be first - it's bank holiday weekend coming up and the boys enjoy cooking yummy things.
Isa has a website - http://www.theppk.com/There is a recipe for Jam Cookies on her website, in fact there are lots of recipes there.

On Sunday Andrew and I went out on the Harley.

The cows didn't like it very much!

Andrew is going camping for the whole weekend - Friday to Monday. I have warned the boys that we will be going clothes shopping for me on Saturday, and they need to be good. ( No running round the shops, no whinging, no bickering, no pestering) I can hope! There is the promise that we will go somewhere nice one of the other days if they are good - perhaps Sealife at Birmingham.

No no, that's not a garage!

But it does look sort of neat doesn't it!

Postage Stamp Quilt

This is one of the single track roads I go along every day to work. Sometimes I need to parp the horn if the cows won't move, but I don't like to parp the little calves because they jump vertically upwards in fright!

Oh I have been busy - I have stitched together half of the Strip sets so I guess you could say I have done a quarter of the blocks.

Things have improved a little since this picture -

My husband and the boys have been away for a few days so I have been sewing, I have had another stupid cold so have not been able to sit up as late as I would like.

Some of the sewing is going to be fiddly - I didn't just use FQs so I have some strips less than 21" long, and I have to sew together similar length pieces and trim to size after - and then utilise any small pieces cut off. It just takes longer than production line sewing.

The trips to the chiropractor are definately working - but I do have to watch how much time I sit for - sitting at work, sitting in the car, and then sitting all evening sewing isn't really very good. I went on Thursday (having had two nights of lots of sewing).

"oh your shoulders are so tight and knotted - what have you been doing?".

- how can she tell I thought, I'd better not say I'm planning on hours more sewing tonight!

Last Saturday was our big boys 12th Birthday. We went to Waterworld in Stoke on Trent. Then we went to the Indonesian Restaurant that we like to go to. Liam was rather tired by the end of the meal.

On Saturday one of the Cats bought home a dead rabbit. We told the boys that we hoped it wan't the Easter Bunny that they'd killed. Fortunately it wasn't and the EB left a fair number of eggs spread around the garden for them to find. They still have some left, and have generously shared some with us.

This is Itchy on Sunday letting his stomach digest rabbit.

I have decided not to bore you with anymore Japanese holiday reminisces, but will just post a few photos when I have scanned them. I've been too busy sewing to scan! They are just photos, the best pictures are the ones still inside my head.

Today I am meeting up with Maria before she goes back to Spain. Before I meet her I need to nip round to my mums house. Yesterday a car reversed into their house demolishing the front, the car is still in the hallway and the house boarded up as it is un-inhabitable. They are fortunate to be OK - Mum had been sitting in the living room and my step dad was in the back garden, but had they been in the hallway it would have been a different story.

Last nights Postage Stamp Quilt sewing, and 6 years ago today.

Last night I managed to sew some of my Postage Stamp Quilt Strips. I stitched together 27 pairs of strips. I will continue to sew the 21"wide strips together into pairs then have a session making up the 17 strip strip sets.

Not all the fabric I had was 21" wide, so I will have to do shorter strip sets, how fiddly that will be. Might not get round to it tonight, but possibly tomorrow evening.

Yesterdays blog started me reminiscing.

6 years ago, we were in Tokyo. We had a breakfast of bits purchased in a grocery shop, including Egg Mayonnaise and Crisps!
We got a taxi to the Station and got the Train to Hakone, then a bus to Miyanoshita. We were at the back of the bus, with luggage, and no idea of where to get off. No one spoke English, so we must have been very amusing when we spotted the hotel and jumped up and rocketed down the bus to get off one stop along. We had chosen to stay in the Fujiya Hotel. http://www.fujiyahotel.jp/english/index.html
The Fujiya Hotel is very grand, but we were early so we left our bags and went for a wander. We found a small restaurant and had Spaghetti, cheese sandwiches and ice cream. I told you we were vegetarian and we had decided that we'd just manage, we wouldn't die if we ended up with strange things for our meals, the language was a barrier. Inside Japan Tours had given us a booklet which contained the phrases "I am vegetarian" and "I don't eat meat or fish". We would show this booklet to all places we went to, it would be studied and we'd eat what ever they suggested.
Our room in the Hotel was in the modern extension, built in 1960 for the 1964 Olympics. it was very roomy, ideal for a lively 5 year old.

We rested in the afternoon, jet lag still affecting us, whilst Joseph watched TV, listened to the walkman or read.
In the evening we went out to a Tempura restaurant.

The Hotel had a private and 2 Public Onsens. We hired the private onsen for about an hour. Onsen etiquette is strict. You must wash before you enter the bath. You sit on a little stool facing the wall and use the bowls filling up with water from the taps in the wall. You wash with the soap and shampoo , and rinse it all off before entering the bath. The bath was big, and hot hot hot. Joseph, being 5, wasn't supposed to go in the bath but he was more than happy to play with the bowls of water, though I think we had to tell him to stop running round on the wet floor a few times.
Andrew and I were still jet lagged and were walking up 3 - 4 am. Thankfully Joseph wasn't jet lagged at all. We planned what to do the following day.

Country fun

My 3 boys, having fun.Cloudy skies

Country bumpkins making their own entertainment on a cattle grid.

Low sun

The bees on a warmer day a few weeks ago. I can't believe how good a photo it is of the bee that's looking at the camera!

ALQS 4

I have signed up for another swap - Ann J who sent me her / my winter quilt told me about it.
It works differently to the other 2 swaps I've done before. You make a quilt - send in photos, Kate the hostess posts all the photos up on her site and you say which quilts you like. She then tries to organise who sends to who. So if anyone else wants to join in please click on the button to the right - the more the merrier.

Blog hopping.

I've been blog hopping.
Firstly I look at my blog list on the right to see what my blogging friends have been up to. I say my blogging friends - some of the ladies have so many followers that I am just one of many, I look at their blog but I'm sure they don't visit mine!
Anyway I was looking at Carols blog http://ascotintennessee.blogspot.com/ Carol found me in the first instance, I should imagine as I had signed up for the Fall Mini quilt swap and she was checking out anyone from the UK. She has a weekly plan for her blogging and Monday is "Blog of the week"
Here is this weeks - http://georgiannalane.blogspot.com/Have a look. Truly wonderful flower photos.
Then I start looking at the blogs that Georgianna likes to visit - "Places of Beauty and Inspiration"
Off I went to http://ohhellofriend.blogspot.com/
- beautiful mood photos.

Where do I end up? - http://hellosandwich.blogspot.com/

It bought back such wonderful memories of our trip. We went to Japan 6 years ago. Joseph had his 6th birthday out there. It was a wonderful holiday - 2 weeks travelling around central Japan - Tokyo - Hakone - Nara - Kyoto - Takayama - Nagoya. 2 planes, 13 trains , 11 buses and 15 taxis.
We pulled together an itinery of where we wanted to go and Inside Japan tours http://www.insidejapantours.com/ made all the arrangements. They put together a mixture of traditional Japanese Ryokans and modern hotels. They provided us with booklets about the culture and restaurants, and booked the Rail pass for us. It was a marvellous holiday - culturally very different but we all felt totally safe. The Japanese loved our little blonde boy.
In fact I can tell you exactly what we did this day 6 years ago. It was a day in Tokyo. We slept in and had a breakfast of rolls and various odd unknown bits that we had bought the day before. Then we went shopping and we had lunch in a Tempura restaurant. We were all vegetarian and on the whole we managed quite well. In the evening although it was raining I dragged my family to the Government building where you can view Tokyo from the 45th floor. Everyone we met were so helpful, I could bore you with various tales of how people went out of their way to help.... but you are spared.
We would love to go back again, but in the meantime I will just have to look at hellosandwich.
Oh now I am restless...

A busy busy week.

Last Tuesday I had been at work about an hour when my husband rang to say he had had an accident whilst driving the youngest to school and had "written off" the car. They were OK, Liam survived with no injuries, Andrew only has bruising on his leg and arm, and on his chest - obviously from the seat-belt.

So that's a second lesson Liam learnt - the first being not to put stuff in your mouth that you don't want to swallow, the second being the importance of a seat belt and the booster seat. Because no matter how many times you till them to sit up with the seat belt on properly they always seem to want to lean sideways or forwards to pick up something they've dropped!.

We are very fortunate that they have no real injuries and no other car was involved. We live in a rural area and Andrew needs to drive Liam to and from school, a broken bone would be really inconvenient, and I won't even contemplate the worst. Obviously I went home on the Tuesday to see to him - I had to take Andrew to the local hospital to get him checked out.

He went out in the evening to a meeting - he has been chair of a local group and it was the AGM and he was keen to go to relinquish his position. He has done it for 2 years, he has contributed new ideas, and he managed to get a grant for nearly 10k for the village hall, an application that took considerable effort, and frustratingly a lot of chasing other people. I will say no more, other than he is happy not to be doing it any more. Now if this was a diary, not a blog, I would have written a lot more, my pen would be scratching holes in the paper!

Following the crash Andrew went through the range of emotions. He has had the laughing, the "it's great to be alive", the "I'm so lucky", the guilt, the fear, even a bit of the "wake ups" - the "what am I doing with my life?". He has had several sleepless nights, but is catching up now.
We are also fortunate that we had a bonus from work, it went in the bank account one day and out the next on a car that we found. So that's another weight off our minds - we hate car-hunting. We found a Saab 93 in the 3rd car dealership we went to - my last car was a Saab 93 and we loved it - so he is fortunate to have found a car he can be passionate about.

I took Friday off as we needed to finish shopping for Liams Birthday. He was 7 on Monday, and it was my birthday the day before.
I had a lazy morning sitting in bed ( breakfast in bed) reading my new Quilting books. I had visited a quilt shop the previous week, and I had looked on Amazon and come up with a list of a few books I wanted. Andrew bought me 5 - 2 of which I am disappointed with and will send back.
The 2 disappointments -
Rule-Breaking Quilts (Paperback) by Kathryn Schmidt
Modern Quilt Workshop (Paperback) by Bill Kerr (Author), Weeks Ringle.

Both are books that have nothing really new for me, the Denise Schmidt particularly disappointed me.


The 3 books I love are -
Material Obsession Two (Paperback) by Kathy Doughty & Sarah Fielke- I loved no 1 and no 2 is just as inspirational.
Applique Outside the Lines: With Piece O' Cake Designs (Paperback) by Becky Goldsmith , I haven't done much Applique and want to do big free pieces. It was Maria from Marias patch who bought this book to my attention.
Crocheting on the Edge: Ribs and Bobbles* Ruffles* Flora* Fringes* Points and Scallops (Hardcover) by Nicky Epstein. A lovely lovely book and it's easy to crochet in the evenings or on the move. I'd like to make some scarves. I've got one on the go at the moment- I'll see if I can post up a photo soon.

Mum gave me some money, so I think that might go on fabric, at some point.

I've cut the most of the plains for the Postage stamp quilt. I need to put my machine in the sewing / spare room so I can get started sewing. I'm way behind everyone else. I would like to say that I did some sewing on my birthday, but by the time we had gone out to eat, and visit 78 Derngate, Northampton http://www.78derngate.org.uk/ - a house remodelled by Charles Rennie Mackintosh - I was tired and had a snooze.

I have 3 days at work then it is Easter. It is my eldest 12th birthday on Easter Saturday.
Please feel some pity for me with all these cakes and chocolate eggs!

I think I've swallowed something I shouldn't have..

said my 6 year old with tears streaming down his face.

"What have you swallowed ?"I asked,

"I can't remember" was the reply, ( really means "I don't want to tell you because you'll tell me off"). I sent him off to wash down whatever it was with a drink of water.

Well the daft chipmunk has swallowed "BluTack". Not alot, just a small bit.

So I sat him on my lap and told him he'd be fine, and all that would happen is that it would take a few days but would be pooed out like a bit of sweetcorn.

He was obviously scared that he'd die!

"Have you ever swallowed BluTack?"

"No Liam, I haven't"

"Do you know anyone who has swallowed BluTack"

"No Liam, I don't, but you'll be fine"

Is he one of "those" kids I wonder - trips to the hospital with things stuck up his nose. We went to the Think Tank in Birmingham a few weeks back and there was a hands on session where the kids got to handle various things, one of the things that was handed round was a turtle shell. The girl running the session told them to look inside it - I was worried that Liam would stick it on his head but she was wise enough to tell them before she handed it round that it wouldn't fit!

Think of Mr Bean with the turkey on his head.

His big brother has gone of on a school trip for the week so it's just the 3 of us until Friday afternoon. Liam is enjoying having us to himself.

On Saturday I went to one of my sewing groups and made some progress on the 4 patch I've got on the go. Had to do a bit of un-picking but I am going in the right direction now. The photo is my usual poor standard - bad lighting in a cramped room! I'll try to do better when i'm off on Friday.
The plan is for irregular blocks, edge them in cream next, then more of the acid green, with enough space to let them all "breathe".

I really enjoy going to that group, I've known them for a while now and I've had comfort from them in tough times.

I was very happy on Saturday as another friend said she would go to see Melody Gardot with me in April. I love her songs.

Last week I gave another 2 Morsbags away. This one to a Harley rider, and a pig fabric one to a pig fan.

Oh, and I've ordered plain fabric for my postage stamp quilt. The samples finally arrived and I made a quick decision. So I'll be able to start that soon.

All day, every day...

I have had a bit of a clear out today - very satisfying. There is still a load to do mind you, but it feels good to have shifted a bit more.

Kirigami.

I am a bit behind with my Kirigami calendar. I have had a few sessions of cutting a number of sheets, and I've nearly caught up. Here is the sheet to cut,
Here it is folded up,

And here is my cut work. Another that would work well for applique,One from February!
Here is one I cut out in Silk Organza, and bonded to another piece of Silk.Quite what I'll do now I don't know!

As it was Mothers day we invited my Mum and Step-dad and my husbands mother over for tea. Here is Liam deep in conversation with Granddad. He has on a Batman hood and cape, he has pushed back the hood and I love how his hair sticks out through one of the holes.