A comedy of errors ...

.... that's what Saturday was for me. It was the sort of day when, if it could go wrong, it would go wrong.

I was looking forward to going to a meeting of Yorkshire Modern Quilt Group. I had packed my stuff up the day before, and even made my lunch so all I would have to do in the morning was get up, shower and go by 9.30. Well, that was the theory. Unfortunately, the practice was a bit different. It started when I went to put some washing in the machine, and discovered that Mr Fixit had set off to the supermarket, but left his glasses and shopping list behind. I was fairly certain he would not remember everything on the list, so I grabbed it and ran (OK, I walked fairly quickly) towards the shop, thinking that I would meet him coming back for it. I got all the way there without seeing him and then walked all round the shop looking for him, with no luck. I therefore went home again, thinking I must have missed him. He finally turned up, and guess what? He'd remembered everything on the list. So I loaded up the car and was just about to get in when our gardener appeared and wanted a chat before he started work. So, I was late leaving.

I got to the meeting and unpacked my "stuff". We were having a demonstration of how to make a small, portable design board, and I don't know where my brain was when I was getting ready as I needed two binding strips, but only took one, so I had to use two different pieces, which isn't really me. Anyway, I made it and it's going to be very useful. After that I was going to do some machine appliqué but guess what? I had forgotten my foot pedal. I do have a button on my machine to start and stop, but that didn't give me enough control on pointy bits so I had to rethink that one. Luckily I had taken a mug rug with me that just needed the binding, so I did that.

On the positive side, I now have a mini design board, another finished mug rug, and I was lucky enough to win 5 FQs in the raffle. In the picture, you can see the FQ's and the mug rug sitting on top of my design board. So, all's well that end well as they say.

Look ....

.... I collect antique cranberry glass, and look what my lovely son-in-law has just given me. Thank you so much Mr Nomad.

I'm back ....

... after a great holiday.

We spent 11 days away, 9 of which were on a steam train puffing round the UK. We were with our friends L & C and Scrappy and Mr Scrappy.

We all ate wonderful food (I'm back on the diet this weekend), saw wonderful scenery and stayed in some great hotels. My favourite hotel has to be the one in the Lake District, which is right in front of Lake Windermere, and where we were lucky enough to have a suite. I wish we could have spent more than one night there. The weather was interesting and in the space of one week we had everything from snow to a positive heatwave.

One evening we were having a discussion in the bar about how something works, and as a result, we then spent some time watching this mucky video. (Ha ha, I knew you wouldn't be able to resist having a look!) On the one free day we had, Scrappy and I visited a quilt shop (surprise, surprise) but neither of us found anything we really had to bring home with us.

I should have taken photos of the steam engines, the food and the scenery, but, in my usual fashion, I forgot, sorry, but because a post should always have a picture, I am including this one.

If it could ...

... be done wrong, I did it! It's taken me all weekend, and I can tell you, I'm NEVER making another one.

Spring is sprung ...

At last. First coffee of this year taken outside. The eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted the stitch-ripper that accompanied me. Well, I can't go getting too excited about the sunshine, now can I?

I really want to show you my finished Lone Star quilt too, but so far I haven't been able to get a good photo of it that shows the colours and the quilting properly,

Yorkshire Modern Quilt group

... yesterday was our monthly meeting, and so I packed up my machine, my fabrics and my lunch, picked up Scrappy from the station and off we went for a day we knew was going to be full of fun, chatter, laughter and chocolate biccies, oh yes, and maybe, a bit of sewing too.

Last month one of our members showed us all how to make a Lone Star quilt that did not need any inset seams. Obviously, this appealed to most of us, cos yesterday at show and tell, just look at this. There were a couple of others that aren't shown here, but 14 quilts from a group as small as ours, is quite something.

Isn't it amazing just how different they all looked, with their different colours, borders and quilting? Thanks again Liz for a brilliant demonstration, which obviously inspired most of us to have a go.

PS I forgot to thank Scrappy for the photo I've used. Thank you  very much for being much more efficient than I was and actually taking photos.

I'm a cover girl again ....

.... this time I've been chosen by "Fabrications, Quilting for you" magazine, who have featured my Tubix pattern as the main picture on this month's cover.  Now I guess I should make another acceptance speech  but I haven't written one so I'll just show you the picture of the cover, which I have stolen from the magazine's Facebook page (I hope they don't mind).

I SPENT MORE THAN HER!

Yesterday Scrappy and I went off on one of our fabric buying jaunts. You know the ones - train journey, Costa coffee, fabric shop, lunch, train journey, Costa coffee. Anyway, this is what I bought,

Aren't they just gorgeous? They're all backings for quilts I have had ready for ages, so now I have no excuse for not getting on and finishing them do I? Oh yes, and Scrappy insisted that I had to write the title just as it is, cos it's such a rare occurrence, and in block capitals, so I have.

I can go for weeks with almost nothing happening, then suddenly I get a busy week like this one where "things" keep getting in the way of quilting. Last Sunday we had to go down south to be at a funeral on Monday, Tuesday was the above mentioned outing, today it was dental check up day (all clear for another year) and the oven cleaning man is here now to give it it's annual deep clean, tomorrow will have to be housework day and Friday is the start of Easter and son and family are coming up, so I won't be quilting any of my flimsies this week. Now I'm off to research to try and find an Easter egg hunt locally that we can go on. It's no good doing it in our garden; it's so small there's really nowhere to hide anything!

It's Finished ...

... well, it's a finished flimsy anyway.

The colours are way off, this is actually much brighter in real life, but I'm very happy with it.

Progress ....

.... on my Lone Star

Had fun ...

... yesterday at the Yorkshire Modern Quilt Group.

  

Now to do the other half.  Thanks Harry's Mum for the useful hints and tips.

I didn't mean to ....

... but it was too tempting

Yep, I swapped the bronken car (which had been mended) for this beautiful brand new, shiny version. The showrooms made me the sort of offer I found it hard to refuse, and by the time I'd finished negotiating with them, it would have been really rude of me to refuse. So I didn't. Let's just hope the old car has given the new one a warning of what happens if it messes with me!

I've gone ....

.... travelling. Yep, I packed my little suitcase and sewing machine and popped over to visit Amy at Amy's Freemotion Quilting Adventures, here.

 

Well OK, I haven't really gone travelling, it's just pretend, but I am a guest on her blog today, talking about the fun I've been having quilting with rulers.  Amy is the tutor of a great Craftsy class on the subject, and she also has an online shop where you can buy the rulers and quilting feet you will need. You can see more about the class by clicking on the Craftsy logo on my right sidebar and then searching for Quilting with Rulers on a home machine. It's a great class to get you started. and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Why not join me, give it a go, and have some fun?

Playtime

Just look at all these lovely, happy colours. I am really going to enjoy sewing these blocks with all the gorgeous thread colours I've pulled out to use for the appliqué (aka app-lee-kay)  stitching.

Yep, it's definitely ....

bronken.

It's gone off to the dealer this afternoon and let's hope they can find the problem and fix it for me.

It's bronken*, how Bizarre ....

.... What's bronken?

My car, that's what's bronken.

Why is it bizarre? Well, read on and (eventually) you'll get to that bit.

Yesterday was the meeting of Yorkshire Modern Quilters so I set off to the local station to pick up Scrappy so we could set off for a day of fun with friends, fabric and food. I got there, in the pouring rain and left my engine running as Scrappy's train was just pulling in. She climbed in, and as she was settling into her seat we were both saying how excited we were cos one way and another it has been months since we last went to a meeting. Anyway, once she was safely strapped in, with her bags all securely tucked in too, off we set. Except ....

... I moved about two yards, Just enough that I was more than half way out of the parking bay and the engine died. I tried restarting, but, nope, nothing doing. I tried swearing, but that didn't help either. As I was a bit (major understatement there) in the way of other traffic coming and going, we thought we'd better push the car back into the space I'd just left, but the car had other ideas. Because it was an automatic, and because I'd put it into Park before trying the restart, it was effectively all locked up and wasn't going anywhere. So, back in the car for us, and we became a human (or automotive) roundabout and all the cars had to drive round us! at least we were out of the rain, and I called the breakdown service. It was going to be about an hour and a half before they would get to us, so we settled ourselves in for a good natter and even did our own little show and tell in the car. We had food if we were there a long time, so we knew we weren't going to starve although we might die of thirst cos we didn't have any drinks. (I must remember next time to breakdown near a Costa or Starbucks and not in the car park of a small, unmanned train station.).

Mr Breakdown arrived a bit earlier than we expected, which was good. He found that my battery was totally, completely and absolutely flat. He was puzzled for several reasons and our conversation went a bit like this:
Mr Breakdown: How bizarre, Honda's don't just cut out like that.
Me: Well this one did
Mr B: Honda's are one of the most reliable cars there are, it's very bizarre.
Me: I know, that's why I have Honda
Mr B: it shouldn't have just lost power while it was running.
I shrugged my shoulders.

By this time I had come to the conclusion that Mr B was in one of these challenges where he's given a word for the day and he has to use it in every sentence and the word of the day for yesterday was "bizarre". Anyway, he jump started the car, Scrappy climbed on a train and went home and Mr B followed me home. When we got back the battery had fully charged - in less than 3 miles. So, no sewing day for us and I'll be on the phone to the garage on Monday. The breakdown guy did say it was probably a one-off that will never happen again but if it did then I should contact the garage. Hmm, I don't think I want to wait. I was just thinking that if it had happened 10 minutes later, I'd have been driving along on the motorway and I don't drive at 50 (or even 60 or 70) on the inside lane as a general rule, so it could have been worse.

* Bronken: the word Chatterbox used to use when he was just starting to talk when something was not working. It's just one of those words that the family adopted and still use, just like we eat chinken!

Handy Household Hint number something or other....

.... When you put leftovers/spares in the freezer, always label them.

Why do I say that?  Well, one very cold morning this week I pulled out a bag of puréed butternut squash, intending to make a nice warming soup. Unfortunately, it wasn't butternut squash in that bag, it was actually Snickerdoodle dough! Oh well, we enjoyed some nice biscuits (cookies to my American friends) even if they weren't as warming as soup would have been.

Book review

I was recently offered a copy of the book called Machine Quilting with Style by Christa Watson to review. Since I already had the book, I passed the opportunity on to Scrappy, so here, in her own words, are her thoughts.

As an apprehensive machine quilter, I found the introduction to this book both positive and encouraging - "don't get hung up on perfection" along with " the most important tool for successful machine quilting is a can-do attitude."

 The book begins with good advice about the choice of batting, threads and work surface around the sewing machine before starting the topic of machine quilting by using the walking foot. The author acknowledges that this is where most of us start and it is good to be encouraged to think beyond stitching in the ditch. Quilt designs and machine quilting suggestions then follow with clear instructions, diagrams and pictures. The pages and pictures on continuous spiral quilting were very appealing and I was glad to note the tips for avoiding spiralling out of control!

The second half of the book tackles free motion quilting favourites with useful tips for getting started. Of particular note is 'Quilt Daily" - that encouraging tone throughout the book is exemplified by the suggestion that fmq should be practised for just 10 minutes a day in order to see improvement. Different hand positions are illustrated so that the novice machine quilter can see which feels most comfortable when guiding the quilt under the needle. Quilting designs then follow such as simple stipples, loops and spirals all illustrated on beautifully designed quilts with clear instructions where to start. Freewheeling vs Precision is highlighted - the choice between marking out the quilting diagram or going for "free-form and somewhat imperfect".

For anyone who is seeking to become more adventurous with their machine quilting this book is an excellent place to start.

I will also point out that the book includes 8 designs using your walking-foot, 10 free-motion designs and 12 quilt patterns.

Happy dancing ...

... is going on over here at QuiltTimes Mansion. I've been practising quilting with rulers as you know from my previous posts, and this is my latest effort.

When I bought the special foot, it came with one ruler, but the company had also put together a "sampler" package which I treated myself to. While I was waiting for them to arrive I spent hours watching videos on their site and also found one or two others on YouTube so once I had all these goodies in my hands I couldn't wait to have a go. After a couple of days of just trying things, I felt ready to really push my luck, so, I made up a quilt sandwich about 18" square and this is what I came up with. It may not be perfect, but I'm happy. 

Not bad considering I've only had the foot and rulers for 7 days.  

(Mind you, when I proudly showed it to Mr Fixit, he looked at it and said, hmm, it's OK but what's it going to be? After I counted to 10 I explained the "practice, practice, practice" idea to him.)

Now I'm off to sew some poor little orphan blocks together so I can get quilting on them.

I've been playing....

... and having lots of fun with my new quilting rulers.

Here are my first efforts. I know they're far from perfect, but considering I have only had them for 5 days, I am very happy.

I was trying curved cross hatching here cos I love the effect. This was really my first try at doing anything with a purpose, and I know the photo is slightly out of focus, and my spacing between lines leaves much to be desired, but I still love the effect.

This is my effort at using an arc shape to fill a border. I have learned that I need to "draw" in the boundaries before I start otherwise I am not very good at judging the distance.

and yesterday I got really ambitious.

All in all, I'm learning a lot during my playtime, and who knows, maybe one day I'll feel brave enough to actually do this on a real quilt.