Wednesday 28 August 2013

Happy Hump Day

One to make you smile...


Two that make me smile...

 


and our Buffy bunny, for a change...


PS - Happy 16th birthday to the most amazing, most beautiful leggy Giraffe girl!!!



   


 


 

Tuesday 27 August 2013

Back-to-work Tuesday

Sitting on the Met line on a grey morning like today certainly does remind you that the summer is over. The Bank Holiday weekend has been very welcome and very lovely, although with a decidedly bitter-sweet tinge. It was the last weekend I'll get to spend with my baby girl (yes, I can still call a 6'2" recently-fourteen year old, my baby girl - you'll always be my last born diddy-bit so I have the absolute right - live with it, Fed-Ex!) living with me, as this time next week she'll have moved to start her new life out in the 'wilderness' of Staffs with her dad and his new family*.

I know she'll be happy and I know we'll still be close, even if we're not physically close, but boy will I miss the signs of her around here: finding the tv volume turned down to almost nothing so mum doesn't know she wasn't in bed 'til late last night (aided & abetted by the puppy)...


the battered lilac DMs...


the sleep-til-lunchtime...


(sometimes in The Barista's bed)...

 
the youngest of the sisters...




*Yes - I'm very aware that was the most convoluted, badly constructed sentence (possibly) ever.

Sunday 25 August 2013

Dogwood Blossom Cushion

I have tried appliqué for the first time. Was it a success? Hmmm... not quite sure about that. I used the sew & turn method, from the Dogwood tutorial. I'm going to need a whole lot more practice before I'm happy with it. At the moment my curves are decidedly non-smooth and there are irritating bits of backing showing on the edges of my petals. 

I do, however, ADORE the sketch stitch thingies round the edges of the petals.


I used some totally yummy variegated purple thread* that the Goth Girl gave me (her: "Take it, Mum - I'll never use it" me: "Are you sure, love?" as it slips deep into my pocket and gets buried before any hint of daughterly mind-changing). It's thick and silky and the most delicious colours. It took a concerted effort to not sew over the same line each time round the petals, but once I let go of my Nan's voice in my head telling me that consistency was everything it was great fun. 


I think Bear likes it, even if I'm not sure. (Shhhh...  he's not noticed that I haven't put the binding on yet)

*Gutermann Sulky CA 02776 for anyone that's seriously into thread. Even if you're not, Go Buy Some! It's delicious.  

Thursday 22 August 2013

Fabric - the cheating way

Last weekend I went wandering around and, like any decent wander, my meanderings involved a slow drift around the local hospice shop. No surprise to anyone who knows me - almost all my crockery came from there when I moved into May Cottage, afterall. But that's a post for another day. This post is about fabric!

Look what I found: a king sized duvet cover with two pillowcases


Both covered with these sweet little embroidered flowers (27 little bunches of flowers) that are quietly whimpering, "Please quilt with us"


And two huge pillow cases... cushion covers... who knows...


They are 30 inches square! Who has cushions 30 inches square? They also have the most strokeable pearly buttons on the back. 


Guess whose Dogwood Pillow is going to have button closures instead of envelope close. The front is all cut and quilted and ready for pretty petals. 


Yes - I know. 
I should have ironed it first. Bad me! 
 


 


 

Sunday 18 August 2013

A Productive Sunday


Today my home has been filled with teenagers eating cupcakes - FedEx had her birthday party and insisted ~all~ the food was cupcakes. We had:
  Sausage and mash cupcakes - sound terrible but taste amazing!
  Macaroni cheese cupcakes
  Chocolate peanut butter cupcakes
  Raspberry cheesecake cupcakes


We also had plans for vanilla caramel cupcakes and apricot mescapone ones, but our place was already cupcake-full by then. 

Wednesday 14 August 2013

Wordless Wednesday


One to make you feel good...

Two that make me feel good..,



Happy Birthday, FedEx!


and Damascus, just because...



 


 


 

Monday 12 August 2013

A busy day

I have a whole week off work and nothing serious to do other than snuggle the FedEx kid and make a huge fuss of her on her birthday in a couple of days. 

Today I finally got the gravel laid under the pots in my garden. I'd love to plant borders but the cottage is rented and, much as I love it as my first ever home-of-my-own, I don't actually know how long I'll be here. The girls are growing up and won't be living at home forever. So pots it is. My plants seem happy there and every new pot means an excuse to acquire a new plant. 


I started piecing a new quilt top too, from a jelly roll of The Spice Trail by Freedom Fabrics. I had sorted out the strips and was happily humming away stitching them together when I realised that I still hadn't finished my Legacy jeans quilt and fished that out to work on. Now I'm torn between the two, but jeans first as it was started first. Bad, seductive Spice Trail fabric enticing me into starting something new. It's just such delicious warm autumn colours and I so want to snuggle under it soon. 

Sunday 11 August 2013

Penny Sampler quilt-along


I just signed up for an online quilting class: The Penny Sampler, run by Rachel of Stitched In Color. Actually, I signed up a couple of weeks ago, but put it to the back of my mind as the class doesn't start until the 19th August. 

I have been thinking about my fabrics though. I wanted to do something in warm reds, oranges and yellows because those have always been my favourite colours. I set up a mood board on Pinterest (my user name on there is treewytch, no surprises there) and had great fun looking for images.


I've realised that these colours on their own would be too much - they're all so shouty, so I tried to work out what else might work with them. I'll probably go with creams for my neutrals, but also maybe some mossy greens and purples, inspired by a gorgeous modern flower quilt that I found when I was browsing on my phone on the tube, but then promptly lost the details of. 

I can't wait to get started!
The first mini-project is either a cushion
 

or a quilt with the same pattern. 


I'm not even going to try to fit a whole quilt in around life, work, the minions and the zoo, but I've already ordered a cushion pad so I have no excuses not to finish it quickly. 
 


 

First finish

I finished my first quilt yesterday.


It's far from perfect, but I am still proud of it. I loved making it, from beginning to end. I had a huge growl of frustration when I cut the binding - I was all excited because the quilt was almost finished then suddenly I was standing ironing almost 10 yards of material and wondering if I'd ever get done. As it turned out, hand-stitching the back was possibly the most therapeutic part of the whole quilt-making process. 

Other than getting the finished quilt out of the tumble-drier and snuggling it, of course. 


It's now wrapped around its new owner. He put it straight on his bed - seeing him snuggled down wrapped in soft, quilty  goodness did make me smile. 
I've affectionately named this quilt the 'So Fluffy' quilt, partly because of the deliciously soft and fluffy vintage chenille squares from Alora's Adorables, and partly because it's one of The Barista's trademark sayings. The squares are boxed by Kona solids in pinks and greens, but please don't ask me which ones because I bought them from a real shop, not online. The background is Kona Snow and the binding & backing are Honeycomb by Kei fabrics, padded out with a patchy stripe of the Kona solids to make the backing large enough. There might by an little elephant hiding on the back too


I'm linking through to Lily's quilts too, so if you've hopped over from there, Hi! Pleased to meet you!



 

 
 

Friday 2 August 2013

Lammas

August first. 
Lammas. 
Time to celebrate the beginnings of harvest, of things coming together, progression, career, health and well-being. Particularly apt for me this year as I'm searching for a new job, a permanent job at last. My time of preparing is done - my time to grow and flourish is about to begin. 

Yes, I know. That was very profound and lyrical and a little bit icky. 

Being icky won't stop me lighting a candle tonight to welcome this new phase of my life along with the new phase of the year. I'll be burning bay leaf (for success), rosemary (for mental alertness) and cardamom (for eloquence) whilst opening my heart to strong relationships with those I love and a calm confidence through my job applications.