Lots Going On!

I have not blogged for a while as we have had some rather sad news. Our beautiful, funny, bouncy Standard Wirehaired Dachshund has been diagnosed with a slipped disc in his neck.  Which means any sudden jarring could mean a catastrophic event.

and yes he is that cute!

Anyway, back to sewing, I have done loads, more of my 'Bee' Blocks.....

 I still have a long way to go to improve my embroidery, but at the moment I am throughly enjoying myself!

I also love Jenny of Elefantz  and have joined her monthly stitchery club, so have done a couple of her small embroidery patterns.

I have also finished two presents, one for my youngest Great Neice

and this for my Great Nephew, the first boy in our family for over 80 years!

A Pirate quilt!

A Year Ago

A year ago I finished this lap quilt for my daughter. I designed it to fit round the centre panel I found.

She has Aspergers and is an avid reader, having read The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings whilst in junior school. When she went to senior school she was mentored by the Librarian who encouraged her to read different genres. Which she did with great gusto, one of her most favourite books then and still now is 'Memoirs of a Geisha'.

So when I found this panel you can understand why I grabbed it with both hands.

I hand stitched with gold thread all around the Geisha Girl, which was a challenge as, gold thread is awful!

I sewed in the ditch on the straight red strips and then hand sewed inside the grey panels to finish off.

This was the first 'hand sewing I had done for a while, I enjoyed it so much that I now do lots of embroidery.

BEE Fruitful

another block for the Bee uitiful quilt along done!

I love the way we are given a pattern and we all add our own individual tweaks!

Tidy?

When my girls lived at home, I always had a very tidy home, I was a bit fanatical about it to be honest. But since they have moved out and I have found sewing, I am terrible.

I have a set of drawers in the corner of my sewing room, the drawers themselves are relatively organised but on top is just bags of scraps and other things.

It was really annoying me, I use scraps a lot as I like sewing 1/4 inch hexi's . My plan is to sew a double quilt.

This is the start of it, I am machine sewing with invisible thread on the top..
Now to do this successfully you need a wide choice of colours. Do you not find that your choice of colours is limited? So at my Quilting group at 'Quilting for You' I asked my friends to save their scraps and they certainly have done, but so much so I had the mess above.
So hubby very kindly bought me 10 boxes.
Which I have filled.....

It gave me a fabulous opportunity to sort through all those bags, get rid of the silly little bits that where no use to anyone, so I have a box for 1) small scraps, 2) medium scraps, I found some quite 3) large pieces too, also in a box, 4) random bits of wadding, 5&6) two boxes for current projects, a 7) box for strips and another for 8) selvedges, yes I keep the selvedges and sew them too

cute isn't it! Box number 9 has fabric in saved from sample books. Box 10) has some stuffed dachshunds and tea towels in??? Don't ask!

So I have started the organisation of my room. I am going to take down the old cupboard front, make the top shelf more secure and once the cupboard front is gone will make the shelf more accessible.

Its still a mess, but at least its an organised mess. This used to be my daughters bedroom, hence the dragon on the wall. The tables in the middle I found on Gumtree they are the type you can stand at, so save my back.
The room is due a makeover, as I have to decorate and make sure everything can be put away from little prying fingers as my house is due to be taken over by my niece, her partner and their 4 children next year, when they come down for my daughters wedding.
You can follow it all here!

A Good Day

Yesterday was a good day.
This is the view from my window as I sew, and yes my Standard Wirehaired Dachshund is safe. He loves to be with me when I'm sewing, being short he also likes to see from a vantage point, during winter he loved to sit on the windowsill and watch the world pass by. I was very apprehensive about him being there during this current heat wave with the window open, so was very close by.

I needn't have worried, he is scared of heights (will not come down the stairs) so he was happy to lie here with his nose outside sniffing the air!!

I have nearly finished a birthday present I am making, for a one of my little Great Nieces.

I also found out how much I hate sewing curved seams!

I ripped this out, watched a couple of You Tube Video's and then successfully mastered it, thank goodness.

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Sew it begins!

I have sewn for donkeys years, clothes for the girls, myself. Curtains, Roman Blinds, basically I will give anything a go!

A few years back a friend and I where out for the day and saw a sign, 'Try Quilting' Workshop £5. Now we like a bargain so signed up. That is how normal people take a perfectly good piece of material, cut it up into small bits then sew it back together again, begin!

Here I am 3+ years later still cutting and sewing, but I have added, very recently 'Embroidery' to my list.

I am currently working on two 'sew alongs' the first is the  Splendid Sampler with Pat Sloan 2 blocks a week have been released, although I am behind, I am thoroughly enjoying this as it is pushing me to try new skills.

The other one is Bee-utiful Quilt Along

this is mainly embroidery blocks which will be put together to make a quilt!

It is ages since I have embroidered, currently I need something relatively simple to do as my concentration levels are very bad.

Due to coming off some medication, but on the plus side, the side effects have totally gone

The doctor is trying to find a new medication for me

in the meantime I sew, it keeps my mind occupied,

and I'm enjoying  myself. Any stitches I don't know how to do, I check out You tube!

Its fun

I like doing new things