Another nameless quilt top

I've spent most of the week recovering from food poisoning, so have distracted myself with a bit of sewing. I've had the attention span of a gnat so only did 10-20 minute chunks. I wanted to use up my leftover strips from the bali pop I used for my blue crush top and added the cream to pad it out.

I had something totally different in mind until I started sewing but I wasn't firing on all cylinders so it came out like this instead. I'm really pleased with it and it came out bigger than I expected. I wasn't sure how far the leftover strips would stretch but they gave me a top 56 x 40 inches.

I really must start finishing some off now, its getting a bit out of hand. I have about 8 tops now that need to be done. Its not that I don't like the quilting bit, but the basting I really dislike. If the basting fairy could come and sort them all out for me I would be really really happy!

A cute giveaway

I'm so brain dead, I forgot to write this in my previous post, Gerry is giving away a cute tote bag and wallets. Go and visit her on her blog.

http://gerryart.blogspot.com/2010/04/tote-away.html

I think it is amazing some of the things that bloggers giveaway, such generous spirits.

Roller coaster weekend

Do you ever have those weekend when so much happens it is hard to draw breath. Last weekend was like that for me.

I started the counselling course friday morning and really enjoyed it after I got over my initial nervousness. I'm really looking forward to it now.

Went straight from there to the Oxfordshire countryside for two nights in a lovely rural hotel. Had a nice relaxing dinner with one of my cousins and her partner before an early night, the night shifts I had been doing totally caught up with me.

The wedding ceremony on saturday was being held in a big old country house but at the last minute because it was such a glorious day they held it in the garden. A first for all of us, no one in England would ever be optimistic enough to plan an outdoor wedding! It was held on the steps.

A view of the house itself.

Even the ducks came to visit.

A great day of chatting and dancing and drinking. I was seated next to one of my cousins sons who is only thirteen and I haven't seen since he was a baby. Some people might think that is odd as we live in the same city, but London is big. I have over 30 first cousins, never mind some of them have kids older than me and a lot of them are grandparents themselves. Its a big family. Anyway, this lad was a total joy. Nice, pleasant, chatty, fun. A thirteen year old boy who didn't just grunt at you!

Unfortunately with all the good there was some bad. I got food poisoning at breakfast on sunday and have been suffering for two days. Even worse, during some conversations it looks like someone hasn't divided up a deceased persons will correctly so things may turn very ugly indeed. Greed is a terrible thing, especially within familys.

Blog withdrawal syndrome and life changes

I've finished my second week of nights but am still going to be offline most of the time. I'm away this weekend for a family wedding and then back in the hotel all next week.

I find it really horrible not being on line more regularly and I'm a bit shocked at how many build up in bloglines for me to catch up on after only a few days. Its only then I realised how much time I usually put into browsing blogs, although until the last few months I was just lurking and was too shy/rude/nervous to comment much.

On another topic, tomorrow could be the first day of the rest of my life, (even though in reality it always is) but this one hopefully will be more significant. I am starting a short introductory course on Counselling Skills. Its something I've always wanted to do but once I went into full time work at 18 haven't ever really been in a position to give it go. This course should at least answer the question "is it the right thing for me to do?". If it is, I'm in a position to carry on studying and change my career entire, if it isn't I can put it aside and see what other options I have.

Basically, unless I win the lottery, find that millionaire to marry, enter a convent or run away to a commune I need to support myself  and I don't want to carry on doing what I'm doing for the next 20 years. Tomorrow is hopefully the first step in making the change!!!

My resolution for the year has been stop thinking about doing things and actually get on with them!

Still sewing

I've used up all the bits I had for these blocks, I managed to get 16 out of my pieces which makes a top that is 32x32 inches at the moment. I will have to dig out something from stash to make some borders to help it grow a bit. It will probably be ages before I get it finished, but I really pleased with how its gone so far.

I made these mini scrap blocks from some of the leftovers and the rest have gone into the string pile. I'll probably make a few more string blocks before I get on with anything else to help keep the scraps under control.

I was supposed to be working tonight, but there isn't any point in going in with all the flights still shut down. Will have to wait and see what happens tomorrow!

Playing with blocks

ne of the most fun parts of quilting I think is playing around with block layouts. I've only done a little bit of sewing this weekend, a few more of my log cabin corners but I've got enough to start seeing what sort of layout I might end up with.

 

Every ash cloud has a silver lining!

I have a confession. I am a bad bad person. The great ash cloud in the sky that has closed UK air space since yesterday has caused chaos for hundreds of thousands of people.

But horrible me, its been brilliant! I love it.

Let me explain, the job I am working on is a contract to service the food and drinks onto planes. This week its all gone horribly wrong and the system has crashed every night. Thursday morning it went yet again and it looked like another bad day. Then the cloud came and stopped all the flights.

What a lovely cloud! A gift from God! In a building in west London there were a lot of happy happy people. The only ones connected with the airline industry this week I think. Its given us time to put some fixes in and last night clean up all the crappy data that we have been getting. I left work on time this morning!!!

All thanks to the cloud from an Icelandic volcano.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8623806.stm

New wonky blocks

I've been trying over the weekend to adjust my sleeping patterns so I can cope with my night shift tomorrow night and instead I've just got myself stressed and more tired!

I decided to ignore the ironing pile, doing that in the middle of the night is not high on my list and got the sewing machine out instead. Much more fun and relaxing.

I made a load more mini scrap patches which has made a lovely big dent in the scraps box. I've organised the rest into suitable sets for string blocks and I started some new blocks.

These are wonky corner blocks based on the log cabin. Using some 10 inch squares of mixed fabric, I cut them into rough strips. I try not to think about the placement too much, just pick them up at random and see what happens. I'm finishing them off at 8.5 inch square. It will be fun to play with the layout when I have a few more.

Home for the weekend

I'm home for the weekend and I won't be doing much besides washing, ironing (on a dirty ironing board cover http://fairybreadmusings.blogspot.com/2010/04/one-of-lifes-big-questions.html) and catching up with my reading on blogines.

Its been a long week, I'm not used to 55+ hours, I think my age is catching up with me. Night shift next week then it should ease off and I can get my life back with a healthier bank balance to show for my troubles!

Bits of scraps

I haven't started anything new for a while as I'm not going to be home much but I got so twitchy going a week without sewing so I played a bit with my scraps.

I made a couple more string blocks and then pieced some of my smaller scraps into little blocks inspire by this post http://exuberantcolor.blogspot.com/2010/03/more-rows-sewn-and-little-play.html. I ended up making them 3.5 inches square. They came together so easily. I've still got loads more scraps but it is nice to see the pile going down.

I'll be offline again for the next 5 days, no time wasting at work as there is no internet access and I can't be bothered dragging the laptop to the hotel and paying their rates.

My names Siobhan and I'm a bookaholic!

No sewing going on but I did get some new books for paper foundation piecing. I can't help myself, I love books and as soon as I try something new craft wise I'm onto amazon looking for more.

These two books are really good, the 365 patterns book has 7 and 3.5 inch blocks that can be traced or scanned.

The 300 pattern book has 3 or 4 inch blocks and comes with a disk to print them directly. There are some great designs in both of them and I can see all sorts of things I want to make from them. And no, I didn't deliberately put this next photo in sideways - blogger in its wisdom thought it was the best idea!