We have sunshine

What to do with two little girls (Islay and my niece) on a beautiful sunny day? 

Take them to the park at the end of your street and have a picnic lunch.  Having Lady Kitty's garden (aka the Giants Garden aka the Secret Garden) at the end of our street does compensate for living in town and having a small garden - quite a lot when the sun shines too!

My sister-in-law's Grannie is in hospital.  She is an amazing lady, well into her nineties, who lives in her own home but sadly broke her lower back a few weeks ago.  She has been in hospital since then, and is recovering slowly, but is apparently very fed-up of wearing hospital linen around her neck when she's eating.  So.........K and I dreamed up the idea of adult bibs for her.

She likes brown mixed with bright colours and this fabric seemed perfect.  It's backed in a very soft off-white organic flannel (bought in the UK over a year ago but I can't remember where from.  I need to spend some time googling to find it again as it's wonderful stuff and I seem to remember it was good value).  Having made these bibs I think I may make some baby ones - to keep and to sell.  I hadn't realised how quick and simple they would be.

 I've taken a few photos of the pillow case and quilt for the commission I'm working on.  I do like the mix of fabrics and colours in this project.  The quilt still needs binding but, hopefully, I'll get that done over the weekend and hand-sew the back in front on the TV on saturday night.

The pillow case is quilted on the front which will gives it a lovely soft padded feel.  I made a couple in this style for Islay a couple of years ago and they are still going strong.

 I decided to quilt the quilt in random/freeform/squint (not sure what the technical word is!) lines to add a bit more interest, especially to the back which is quite plain.  I tried out using blue and green thread in the bobbin to blend in more on the back but decided I liked off-white better - the colour doesn't jump out and it gives the quilting a bit more definition (I think).  As usual the quilt could do with a good iron - I did iron the pillow case before taking the photo so I'm feeling quite proud of myself.  One out of two isn't too bad....compared to normal, anywayl!

I do hope everyone has a fun day tomorrow, whatever you have planned.  We have family coming over mid-morning and after lunch we plan to go out for a good long walk.

Quilt back::

Fun times

A couple of weekends ago I was lucky enough to have a day away from home to indulge myself in some sewy fun.  Lynz and I met up at Jo's lovely house near Linlithgow.  It's not far from our last house and I got quite nostalgic driving over there - Jo lives in a particularly pretty part of West Lothian. She had invited us over to teach us hand quilting (that was the excuse but we did an awful lot of nattering too!).....that was why I had to make the cushion top, which I showed last post, in such a hurry - I really didn't want to turn up without anything to quilt.

Jo let us have a look at her quilts - she has been quilting for a long time and has made some really individual and quirky quilts made with her abundant skill, and many of them have been beautifully hand-quilted.  We also rummaged in her fabric stash which, needless to say, was lots of fun.

We are, from left to right - Lynz, Jo and me.

After a yummy lunch we got down to the quilting.  Jo makes it look so easy, and I have to say so did Lynz, I think I'll have to work on my stitch length and neatness a little.  But the effect is lovely and I will definitely persevere.  We also squeezed in a trip into Linlithgow, to visit the two fabric shops, and amongst a lot of pretty uninspiring fabrics we all managed to find a few little bits to bring home - now there's a surprise!

My cute pin toppers  - very badly photographed.

It was so much fun to spend the day with such lovely people and to be able to talk about fabric, thread, needles and so on without being laughed at or ignored.  Lynz gave each of us a couple of gorgeous pintoppers made by her clever self and the even more clever Chook (her 8 year old little girl - who I think must be just as much of a character as her mum!). 

We're hoping to meet up again - yay!

The other piece of news to share is that we're expecting a baby.  After my miscarriages, and especially the late one last autumn, I've felt happier keeping quiet about being pregnant until now.  But at 21 weeks things seem to be going well and last week we had a 20 week scan which was fantastic (the first I've had as they've only recently been offered in this area). I was already aware that this baby is a wriggly one and the scan only confirmed that......it certainly doesn't like to keep still. 

Until the last 2 or 3 weeks, when I've been able to feel lots of movement every day and therefore know for myself that all is well, I've been very anxious and quite stressed out.  Which, while I know isn't a good thing and not good for the rest of the family either, I haven't been able to do much about although I have been trying hard to be positive.  I have also been feeling horribly sick until very recently and even on Sunday eating my evening meal was a battle (cooking has been a bit of a challenge too - but not one I could avoid with lots of hungry people to feed!).  I'm also struggling with tiredness but that just goes with the territory for me when I'm pregnant so I just have to get on with it! But I'm mostly much better now and am looking forward to enjoying the last half of this pregnancy and waiting to see who our new little person will be. 

I do feel very lucky to be here at this stage with a new life to look forward to - especially knowing there are so many people out there struggling to have even their first baby or with far more worries that we have had.  I will not be taking my good fortune for granted. 

I have had fun making a couple of pairs of baby trousers......don't leap to the conclusion, based on the colours, that we're expecting a boy.  We have no idea but I'm happy to dress a girl in these trousers.  The bird fabric on the first pair was rescued from a blouse I made that didn't fit well - you may just be able to spot bust darts near the top!  The second pair are flannel on one side and linen on the other.  I used the pattern in Anna Maria Horner's Handmade Beginnings book.  Very easy and straightforward and I'm definitely happy with the end result - tho' not my photography, but I'm afraid I didn't have time to play around with the camera or the sun (and I really don't want to complain about the sun).

Oops, catching up time

Oh, dear.  I really didn't intend to disappear for so long, actually until I logged into blogger today I hadn't realised how long it has been since I last posted.  Oops.  It's quite scary how time can disappear so quickly and relatively unnoticed.

We had a couple of weeks of house chaos and mess with builders knocking down a wall, knocking through another to create a new doorway and then building a new wall.  It was pretty horrendous while it lasted.  I can just about cope with dust and mess and noise but I really don't like having other people, however nice, in the house for so long quite - I guess I just like my space.  But now it's pretty much done, apart from loads of decorating that we'll need to squeeze in sometime.  The boys have bedrooms each, both with room for a spare bed and plenty room to play, and our study is smaller but a much better shape.  Definitely a good piece of work and worth saving up for.

We also had 3 days with no kitchen.  The built-in cooker that came with the house finally died to such an extent that even John agreed it needed replacing (yippeee - I didn't sabotage it, honestly, tho' I have wished I could for the last 3 years!).  Because it needed to be cut out I was able to wangle new solid wood (from Ikea - I love them) surfaces too.  The new cooker has a double oven and even four working rings (quite a revelation!) and with the new surfaces the kitchen looks a whole load better without too much cost.  Yay.  I do feel very lucky and am making sure to remember to enjoy it all.

There is a purpose to these cycling photos, really.  A few days ago we made a trip to Glentress - our closest mountainbiking centre (I've been visiting Glentress since I was a kid but in those days just for walking, as a student to get my chainsaw certification and for numerous fieldtrips, and many times for work too.  It is a bit of a leading centre for mountainbiking........which it does beautifully in amongst lots of walking and horse-riding and also producing some pretty stunning timber and wildlife habitat too.  That's what I love about forests - they can be so many things at once).  John loves his mountainbiking and, as a qualified leader, he runs a club for teenagers.  Finn and Angus probably made their first self-propelled trips when they were about 5 or 6 and Islay has been many times in the bike trailer or on the back of my bike.  The boys progressed to blue routes last summer which makes them feel very proud of themselves (trails are graded like ski-runs from green, blue, red and then black as the hardest).

We decided that Islay was ready to try the green run by herself.  And boy did she have a good time!  She did have a fall but picked herself up and carried on.  She 'wheee-ed' her way round the corners and finished, after 50 minutes or so, with a huge grin on her face.  Sometimes we remind the boys, when they have had enough of pink and girliness, that there aren't many not yet 4 1/2  year old little sisters or brothers who would be able to do what she does (she actually started cycling without stablilisers this time last year).  That's my girl!

I have a commission from a lovely couple to make a cot bed set for their baby boy who is due this summer.  I emailed pictures of suggested fabrics and after a few tweaks we came up with a set which while suitable for a baby will also work when he is an older boy using his bed.  It is lovely to be working with people who are so interested and really appreciate the value of hand-made.  Today I finished quilting the quilt (top shown pieced below), the fitted sheet is made and the pillow case top is ready for quilting too.  Then I'll be onto the bumper and mobile - he's going to be one lucky little boy! 

Alexandra asked for confetti blocks for her month of the Fresh and Funky Bee.  It really stumped me for quite some time.  Her gallery pictures were so pretty, as were those made by the rest of the group, but I couldn't think of a design that I was happy with.  Once I sat down and thought about what confetti means to me I knew what I wanted to do.  To me, confetti conjures an image of tiny paper hearts floating in the air at a wedding and also cherry blossom gently blowing in the breeze.  So I have tried to capture these two images in my blocks.  The heart and blossom shapes are stitched down in a continuous line that stretches from the top-most piece to the bottom.....hopefully suggesting gentle floating down to the ground! 

                                                                                                                          

I had an exciting reason, to be revealed next time, for putting together this cushion top.  It is intended for our bed - along with the quilt I'll make from my bee blocks....nearly all sent back and looking fantastic, I can't wait to show you them.

So,  thanks for bearing with me through that mammoth catch-up (if you knew how many things I decided you could do without knowing you would be very relieved!).  I have a couple of exciting things to share next time, including the reason for staying up late to make that cushion top!  I'll try and be back sooner.

In the meantime I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and get to enjoy some time with family and friends.