Trying to Catch Up

It's amazing how social media suddenly takes over your life. Too much Twittering and Facebooking;  suddenly life is spiralling out of control and you don't know where the time has gone. Hence, one very neglected blog!

Anyway, I hope to rectify the situation. I've temporarily desactivated my Facebook account and am sitting on my hands trying my hardest not to click on the Facebook icon!


So what's new in the Worthy household?

The Old One is still The Old One and up to his usual tricks of selective hearing, pretending he's lost his voice, etc, etc, as all husbands do.

Miss P Black Cat is still with us. I thought we were going to lose her, but I think she was getting fed up with the very wet weather we've been having and sprung back into action when the sun finally started to shine a few weeks ago.

The Young One? Well long long story there! Where do I start?

Last September she went to Bordeaux Uni to read Sociology. Did you know that? Can't remember. Anyway, she realised half way through the course that perhaps it wasn't for her and looked for something else to do this coming academic year.

The upshot is that she is moving to Limoges where she'll read Law and move in with her boyfriend. As I type this she is working very hard at a restaurant in Brantôme, trying to earn enough money to keep her going next year and leaving the boyfriend to do the flat hunting.

So all in all life trundles on Chez Nous. I'm sewing up a storm on my lovely Singer 1425, but unfortunately cannot really show what I'm working on (Big Secret). However, here is a taster to whet your appetite.

I've got the String Bug!

On that note, I'll leave you with some photos I took in Bordeaux when we were there in April. They should be clickable.

A bientôt.

Chaos Reigns Supreme

 And loving every minute of it.

The sewing room has remained tidy for far too long!

Monster Finish!

Do you remember the craze last year for Lego quilts. When I started building bricks with fabric and it just got bigger and bigger and bigger,

until it got so big it could only be photographed outside?

All That Jazz

I decided it was time this monster was actually on the bed and not idling away in a cupboard taking up  space.

Getting read to start sewing the layers together

The kitchen table was cleared of all detritus. The Old One's favourite armchair was used to take the weight of the quilt as I turned it round. After about an hour I had 3 layers sewn together. A bit haphazardly, but sewn. Those seams are definitely not straight!

Then I rolled it up and left it for 48 hours. I wasn't at all sure if the backing was going to be strong enough. It's an old cotton sheet which has definitely seen better days.

After a lot of cogitating, I decided that if it was going to be finished I needed to get on and do it. Now!

Cleared the kitchen table again, turned it inside out (or outside out [grin]), pushed the corners out and stayed up until 2.00 am closing the open seam. I was determined to sleep under it that night.

Et voila!

It is still be be tied and I'm going to sew some orphan string blocks on the back to reinforce the sheet and cover up a few holes. That should also help keep the layers together.

I think I've got my mojo back. I rescued the Liberated Amish project from the dust bunnies under the bed and hope to start hand quilting it again soon. In  the meantime I've got Greengage Fool to finish.

More soon.

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Spring 2012

I don't usually enter Amy's quilt festival as I don't have that many finished quilts.  The tops are hanging on coat hangers waiting to be quilted.  At the last count there were 4!

Anyway, I decided to this time, just because I'm missing "my baby" and showing her off to the rest of the world might help ease the pain a bit.

For new readers, I make quilts for children suffering from Leukaemia.

Last year I made a quilt for a special little boy called Morgan, who unfortunately became an angel in April of the same year. So sad.

I had already started making a red and white string quilt, based on Mary's Heartstrings's pattern, but had put it to one side as the fabric was getting repetitive and I was getting bored with  it.

A nice person in America took pity on me and sent me a box filled with red and white fabric.  My juices started flowing again and within a few days another 4 blocks had been  made.

But what to do with what was turning into a large quilt?

Morgan's mother had started to raise funds for the children's ward where Morgan had been treated so I contacted her asking if she'd be interested in auctioning this quilt in Morgan's memory and to raise funds for the West Suffolk Hospital.  She said yes!

So I sewed and sewed and sewed, showing pictures here as I progressed.

Last November she was finally finished

I used the berthing/pillowcase method to back her, with a very cuddly cream flannel, and tied her with red and white DMC Perle Cotton No 5.

She had been part of my life for over a year and I was devastated when I had to pack her up and send her on her way to England.

I finally heard this week that she will be auctioned at the West Suffolk Hospital ball in a couple of months and the money raised will help buy equipment for the children's ward, as originally planned.

I'm so pleased that finally she will find a home and hopefully will be loved as much as I love her.

I have 3 blocks left over so I'm going to make myself a memento quilt.  It won't the same as my lovely Strawberries & Cream, but at least it will be something to remember this quilt by.

So there you have it.

The story of a very much missed quilt.

More soon.

Phew!

As I type this the sun in streaming in through the kitchen window and it feels like Spring.

The oak trees are still  in leaf, although the leaves are golden coloured, and for the first time in about 6 months the grass is green (and needs mowing!). It doesn't feel at all like 1st December.

The UK trip was a bit of a whirlwind. Lots to do and not enough time to do it in.

Mother loves her quilt. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a photo of her with it. Her 80th birthday party was a huge success. Afternoon tea for a select few (50!) in the local village hall. Lots of tea, sandwiches and cake, with a few glasses of Cava to round the afternoon off.

The centrepiece (apart from Mum) was the most amazing birthday cake with accompanying cup cakes.

Mum adores Creature Comforts, the cartoons made by the same person who makes Wallace & Gromit. Us sisters like The Old Bats being asked about speed cameras.

"Cucumbers" has become part of the family vocab!

Mum, however, prefers Shaun the Sheep.

So my lovely little sis arranged for a friend of a friend to make the cake and cup cakes along the lines of Nick Park.

This is the cake. The house is home in Kent and sitting/lying on the lawn from left to right are The Young One, with Tolly the spaniel, and my nieces Estella and Isabelle, oh and the chickens. Isn't it brilliant!

And here are 2 of the 40 cup cakes.

All in all a great day!

Right, on to the subject title. It is definitely a Phew!

All That Jazz

I've decided to call it "All That Jazz" because there are some musical notes fabrics in there somewhere and, of course, the cat jazz band.  It covers our queen size bed with more to spare so goodness only knows how I'm going to baste and quilt it, but I'm not even going to think about that at the moment.  Thanks again to Tonya for the inspiration.

I've now got to run up a name banner for The Young One's best friend's birthday in a few weeks. Bright green background and black and white letters.  Mmmmm interesting!

More soon.

A Finish!

Strawberries & Cream is about to start it's journey to the UK.

For once I don't want to see this quilt go. It's so beautiful and cuddly and I hope its new owner will love and cherish it as much as I do.

I knuckled down last week and decided that this quilt had to go to its new home. Choosing the backing fabric proved to be more of a nightmare than I thought it would be.  I couldn't find a flannel sheet anywhere. The French don't seem to sell flannel, or flannel sheets, so a trip to the fabric warehouse at Javerlhac was called for.

It took ages to find the right fabric, but find it I did. A cross between flannel and fleece in a dark cream. Very soft and cuddly.

Then a couple of days while I plucked up courage to "birth" it. Never done that before and panic set in.  Took a few deep breaths, pinned the two sides together and sewed.

Turned it inside outside - that was so easy - sewed up the top and then started tying the sides together. What a mammoth task that was!

and here she is again - all tied together and ready to go!

I'd like to thank Mary for letting me use the Heartstrings Project pattern and for giving me moral support and help throughout this project.

More soon.

Do Not Disturb ....

.....  quilter at work.

Sorry Pipette. You can scratch and yell to be let in as much as you like, but your Mum is busy, busy, busy.

Look at this lot!

Clockwise from bottom right is Strawberries & Cream waiting to be tied;

Liberated Roman Strings being hand quilted;

another Q4L quilt waiting to be tied; and 

All That Jazz (aka Brick Building) still being built.

Phew!

More soon.

OMG!

I've created a monster.

It's got me in its clutches and it won't set me free. I need Dr Who!

This is the only part of the house big enough to hang it and even that's not big enough.

I'm cutting one last lot of bricks for another row of blocks at the top and that is enough!

More soon.

First There Were Scraps ......

.... then strings, then blocks.

Now (insert drum roll) there is a part of a top.

(Click to enlarge)

There is a lot of infilling, because, as you know, I can't sew straight. Thank goodness I'm still making those strips. I knew they would come in useful!

Now where did I put that list of Autumn chores?

More soon.

Monday Mumblings

I've been at the machine for what seems like weeks, sewing away, and I think I've created a monster.

I am seriously addicted.

I've uploaded a large version so this photo should be click able.

I've still got at least another 2 rows to do. Then its infilling so the rows are equal in length. I think I'll add, rather than cut.

There are so many different fabrics in this. Lots of, to me, uglies, lots of fun ones and bits and pieces from all over the world. Notice the distinct lack of red, well not a lot!

I deliberating over doing a border for this. I'm loathe to, but I'm also think a narrow black one would make the colours pop.  I'll see how I feel when I reach that point.

I gave myself a break on Thursday to make a miniature quilt for the Liberated Quilts Online Retreat. I decided we'd have a bit of fun and quilt along with the quilters at Gwen Marston's Beaver Island Quilters Retreat, using the same theme - Gwen's current book 37 sketches.

I asked the group to take a quilt from either Gwen, Gee's Bend or the Brown's Amish Collection, reduced it in size if it was full size, and make it theirs.  I had a mental block and couldn't decide what to do. To help the thought process I rummaged through what is left in the string box. Right at the bottom was a bit of pink plaid lying next to a piece of black.

This is what I came up with.

I love how the plaid changes colour, depending on how you cut it.

Onto family stuff.  Someone asked me (can't remember who) what The Young One is up to these days.

She started her second year at lycée last month. She is now in Premiére and studying hard for her Baccalaureate Série Littérature (scroll down the page). There has been a reform in the French education system and the upshot is she has dropped Maths, which is her weak subject. She is overjoyed! We were a bit worried about this to start with (well, The Old One was - I'm not bothered), until she said that because the last two teachers weren't prepared to help her, she's basically missed out 2 years and to sit the Bac in Maths would mean losing those precious marks.

Instead she has gone for the English and Art option. I'm really pleased with the English part as she is studying English Literature and the book list is probably what she would have read if she was doing A-Level English Literature. She's starting with A Picture of Dorian Gray and Wuthering Heights is on the list too.

The art side I'm not too sure about and even she admits she's not brilliant at it, but she's got to better at art than Maths!

Spanish is also on the curriculum and it looks as if we've got a tri-langue daughter!

She's sitting her French Bac next June and, if she passes, will do Philosophy in Terminale, her last year at lycée.

I can't believe the little 3 year old who started in the Petite Section of Maternelle (kindergarten) is now 16 1/2 and nearing the end of her school life.

If all goes to plan, in 2 year's time she'll be at Limoges University reading languages.

To round off this post. The Old One has been busy busy busy.

Those of you who have been to this pile of stones know what the big barn normally looks like. Piled high with junk. The Old One collects junk!  Even he has decided there is enough to start our own brocante and been clearing it out.

Et voila!

Yes - it really is that big!

I've got a list of Autumnal chores as long as my arm so I'm going to give the machines a bit of a rest and see if I can reduce the list by at least half by the end of the week.

More soon.

Time to Clear the Decks

I reached an impasse.

I can't do any more Brick Blocks as I've run out of design wall space and I can't get an overall impression of how its going when the blocks are piled on top of one another.

So it's time to clear the bigger design wall. That means back to Music is Magic.

I started planning the layout and putting the first row together yesterday.

I originally wanted the letters to jump about a bit, but it didn't seem to work with this quilt. So this is how I feel it should look.

I'm starting with 1" strips between each letter, but I may need to rethink that as I progress.

I need to drop "beyond" down a bit so it doesn't clash with the A above it and make it more centred.

The second row needs moving down a bit too so the two A's are separated out.

I want to leave the "y" in "beyond" as it is, dropping down between "all" and "we", and the last line will need to be spread out a bit as the exclamation mark has still to be done.

Once the top is finished it can be pinned on The Young One's wall as is until I'm ready to quilt it.

In the meantime, I still adding to the pile of strings when I get an opportunity to play Leaders and Enders.

Changing the subject.

The  second series of  Downton Abbey started the Sunday before last. For me it's not hitting the same spot as the first series did. I'm finding the actors a bit wooden and I get the feeling they are reading their lines off an auto cue. All except the brilliant Maggie Smith.

We'll see what happens this coming Sunday which appears to be a bit more exciting. Lady Edith needs a good hard slap, but I won't spoil it for you!

And woohoo! The last in the current series of  Dr Who tomorrow night. I wonder if all will be revealed.

More soon.

And Then There Were Five

I can't stop. This is fun.

All the other projects have been put on the back burner.

More soon.

The First Block is the Hardest

and I'm still happily stringing along!

More soon.

Building Bricks

I've been making inroads into the waiting list for Leukaemia snuggle quilts. We've hit #42 - woohoo!

After days of non-stop sewing blocks and borders together, I was getting bored, bored, bored, and then Emma 1's light bulb went ping which meant changing to Emma 2 (note to self - find photos of the Emma's to put in side bar).

After a lot of swearing as I couldn't remember how to wind the bobbin, I stomped off in a sulk and decided to vent my frustration on the strings and fabric I've been hoarding.

Out came the bins. Out came the plastic boxes full to bursting of strings and scraps. The sewing table was cleared of anything resembling red and white quilts and the nice and tidy sewing room was no more.

I've been finding some forgotten about treasures

(the daisy fabric is from Heidi in Germany. She sent me some lovely strings)

and some really ugly stuff. Isn't this just so yuk!

I didn't realise I had such a stash of uglies.

Though some of them are quite fun.

Have you heard about the latest craze to hit the liberated quilting world?

Tonya has been sewing up a storm and has created a masterpiece. You can read about it here, and you can see other bricks being built by Siobhan (there are other posts below this one so make sure you read all of them) and Julie (again read her previous posts about the construction).

I'm not at all sure how big mine is going to be. I might end up with a king size (shudder - the thought of hand quilting that!), or a lap quilt for me.  

I have a lot of browns for some reason, so I'm putting them in a separate box and might make another fool quilt with them, chucking in a few oranges to brighten it up. Brown and orange? Clare, you cannot be serious!

No post is complete without a kitty pîc.

Pippi Longstocking is gaining in confidence and has fallen in love with The Old One. Wherever he goes, she's not far behind. He says it's like being stalked!

More soon.