A temporary return to normality

I'm feeling a little disorientated today, as for the first time in over two weeks I have not put on threadbare, paint and glue splattered clothes and traipsed across the road, but have spent the whole day in our own house, doing the things I normally do!  

 Miss U-t-B and her boyfriend have now moved into the flat across the road, though they are having to put up with the fact that the kitchen isn't finished and that, although the new boiler is making it nice and toasty-warm for them, it has decided not to let them have any hot water!  Good thing Dad's next door for showering facilities!

So back to normal.  First of all I tackled an enormous pile of ironing, whilst I caught up with 'Lark Rise to Candleford'.  I do love Twister and Queenie, and so hope that Dorcas finally finds love (even though I'm sure no such thing happened in the book!) Ironing done,  I then felt justified in returning to the Snapdragon Quilt. When I last did any work on it, it looked like this... 

Today I added a plain and pieced border, so it now looks like this...

Sorry about the quality of the photo and the hopeless colours - Mr U-t-B has 'sloped off' for the weekend, with the decent camera.!  I am quite pleased with it, though I need to improve my ability to stitch a 100% accurate 'scant quarter of an inch' seam at all times. My measurements are a wee bit out, and therefore the block border is off at the corners (which, you may have spotted, I have squeezed out of the photo!)  Live and learn!

I also made a big batch of watercress soup, as everyone here loves it, and as the newbies across the road are without any cooking facilities, it's a useful standby.  It always looks so lovely and green - you just know it's doing you good!

Then I put a load of dried fruit to soak in tea, to make a couple of 'guilt-free' teabreads (no fat or eggs - though we won't think about the sugar!) one to welcome Mr U-t-B home tomorrow, the other in case the kitchen-less ones need a small smackerel of something tasty.

The smell of those is currently wafting up the stairs to the attic office so it must be nearly time to take them out of the oven! A spot of tea perhaps?

With Mr U-t-B back tomorrow, I guess I will have to get back to the scrubby clothes and join in with the final push to finish the kitchen,  But at least today has been an oasis of calm in the middle of the renovations!

Pieced!

Busy times mean that the only way I was going to make some progress with the quilt was to 'seize the day' when I found myself awake at five am and get on with it in the lovely calm of the early morning.

So now the quilt looks like this...

There are a couple of bits I would do differently next time, such as trying not to use the strips with the obvious stripe to them.  

Next stop, borders.

Not much chance of that this weekend though, as we have a kitchen to fit in the flat my step-daughter is moving into.  Mr U-t-B is very confident that it will go smoothly, but with the discovery late last night that the boiler is leaking, I think we may be held up by that needing sorting (replacing?)  And if it does need to be replaced, it will mean that my design could have been much more straightforward, as we would put the boiler in a more suitable place to free up floor space.

Off to phone the British Gas people!

Snapdragon Quilt - Day Two

Thanks to two sneaky half-hours yesterday, the rest of the snowball squares are done.

A bit of reducing bulk and thread trimming required today, then I can piece the nine-patch and snowball squares together.  Might just achieve this today in spite of being at work!

Snapdragon Quilt - Day One

Thought I'd show progress so far.  When books say that something is quick to make, I never really believe it, but this is what I've done so far, with just an evening's on-off sewing (some bits of 'One Born Every Minute' being too watchable to miss - makes me laugh and cry!) and about an hour squeezed in today between more pressing jobs.  I think it's pretty fast progress...

Hidden in the piles are all 18 nine-patch blocks, 5 of the 17 snowball blocks, a few short strips to go towards the border and all the cut squares for the rest of the snowballs.  Boo hiss I'm working tomorrow, but I'll try to squeeze a bit more in all the same.








Oh!  PS  Did you read this story today!


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12213615



Lovely news, but I have to say that if I was the generous woman who had gone through all that, I don't think I'd be pleased to be called 'our gestational carrier'!  Sounds like some kind of futuristic robot!

A Pause in Proceedings

Well, I don't know if it was the charity tin-shaker (see previous post) who jinxed me, but today I really do feel like the old lady he took me for.  My back, knees, elbows and some of my fingers are complaining with almost every move, so I've decided to take the day off from any further decorating and pursue something a less energetic.  I think it was all the clambering on and off the platform and stepladder for wallpapering and painting duties, plus scraping peeling paint off walls that did it!

Remember this book which I was given for Christmas?

From the very talented Pam and Nicky Lintott, of The Quilt Room blog  or The Quilt Room shop.

Well, last week I received a very nice parcel in the post...

...a Moda jelly roll - 'Lumière de Noël'.  


Sorry about the slightly fuzzy photos - gloomy days and our camera don't mix well.  I got this roll (which not many stockists seemed to have) from Pollyanna Patchwork, by post, and a very quick service it was!  


In spite of its name, it's not overly Christmassy, which would feel all WRONG now, but the warm tones will be great to work with just now.  


I chose the quilts I would like to create.  The reason the book is called 'Two From One Jelly Roll Quilts' is that each section details how to make two small quilts from one jelly roll (obvious really!).  Being an indecisive sort, I have chosen quilts from different sections, but this is still achievable, as one uses 20 strips, and the other 16.


Here are the ones I've chosen...

The Snapdragon Quilt

 The Jigsaw Quilt

I have pondered the strips in my roll and split them up following the instructions for each quilt..

Now all I have to do is decide which one to begin with, and get cutting, then stitching!


I will keep you updated on how things are progressing!