Spring has sprung! Kinda...

After all that lovely weather it's actually wet and cold here today. But yesterday was dry and bright and I (somewhat belatedly) got out the Easter stuff. It's my first spring with the dresser and it just lends itself so well to displaying pretty things!

I haven't bought anything new this year. I haven't even made it to the Disney Store for a spring beanie! So it's mostly the same bits as last year although I did whip up some new bunting.

The daisies were a gift from my wee Mum. They're on pegs and I knew they'd be great for this as soon as I saw them. The flags are weighted inside with 2 pennies coz the pegs made them top heavy. Cute though, eh? And speaking of daisies (which I love!!) I also have somewhere nice to display my daisy water jug and glasses from my Gran.

She gifted me them when I got married (at my daisy themed wedding!) and they've been safely packed away in the loft for 11 years. All handpainted I think they were a wedding present from her own marriage to my dear departed Grandpa. They are just so pretty and delicate. I'm terrified something happens to them but love seeing them smiling at me in the kitchen so I'm taking the risk and having them out. She also gave me this recently.

A daisy table runner!! It's on the most beautiful linen. And, yes, I might've pressed it before taking the pictures, aye? *rollseyes*

All this frivolity was before we discovered the source of the yukky smell that's been in our kitchen the last few days. Long story boring? There's burst waste pipe under our floor so the sink and dishwasher have been dumping their water right onto the concrete floor under our house. Gak. No wonder it was smelling - there was about an inch of bleeurgh down there. It's mostly sooked up, though, pipe is fixed (fingers crossed!) and we're on drying up duty. I am married to a wonderful, wonderful man who can fix anything!

a christening and some courage.

We've had a lovely spell of weather lately. I mean, it's March in Scotland so it's none too warm (I think we hit 13C on Saturday - about 55F) but we've had some nice sunny spells. And my pic-a-nic quilt got christened by the Chook and her pal the Giggler on Sunday afternoon.

 I thought it was going to be huge but it's just nice! And it truly has been christened with some blackcurrant juice. *rollseyes*

And things seem to be getting back to normal with the daredevil kid after her unfortunate tooth incident in October (The tooth is still there, for all of those who kindly enquire after her and it!) Here she is getting back to grips with her trampoline. And giving her father heart failure in the process.



She's had a go on her pal's bike (the same Giggler up above) so I can see hers getting a wee MOT before the Easter break from school. Kids are nothing if not resilient! Or forgetful. *grins*

the Mental Quilt

I finished my "Bee Mental" 3x6 bee quilt! Yay!! A reminder of how it works? 7 people in a group, each making 6 blocks of the same pattern but in the colours the individuals choose. Time limit is 3 months (hence the 3x6). I made double Z's (that's my test block bottom left) and asked for pink, aqua and chocolate.

The backing is a teeny little print from "Timber" with little sycamour helicopters on. It's subtle but very pretty. My Mum says I need to keep track of what comes from where for future posterity so these blocks came from Lynne and Mandy in Derbyshire, Enger-land, Susan in Gurnee, Illinois, Krista in Seattle, Washington, Lucinda in Morrisville, New York and the other Krista in Anchorage, Alaska. And me up here in Scotland.



Actually, to be perfectly correct, Krista in Seattle's block isn't there, it's going to be the matching cushion. I'll be getting round to that this week, hopefully! I also had no idea where to put it but it's rather pretty in my bedroom now it's got some aqua in it.

Lovely!

the deets:
The pattern is just a weird white-space sampler I made up.
The fabrics are from all over (thanks again girls, there's some beauties in there!), Kona Snow, backing is Timber "seeds" by Windham, binding is Kona Chocolate.
Finished size is 45in x 60in.

It's been a great weekend here weather-wise so my sewing time has been reduced to nowt by gardening and cleaning the windows and all that other stuff that looms large when the sun comes out. The garden and me wee hoos are looking great, though, so it was time well spent. Onwards to the dresdens!

Lily's Quilts godzilla dresden quilt along.

Lily's qal, first pieced dresden a photo by ochil_lynz on Flickr.

This is what I've been doing with the pile of black/white/citron cuts from a few posts ago. This is a biiig dresden (and my first) and is part of a quilt-along happening over at Lily's Quilts and Flickr. This one block will be about 30in when finished and there's six in the quilt so it's another oversized block quilt. And we all know how I love those! It's also my first go at a quilt-as-you-go offering. Which means that the blocks are literally sandwiched and quilted as individual blocks. New technique for me, I hope it works out okay coz I'm loving where this is going.

And, yes, the circle is just sitting on the charcoal back of another quilt and not fully pieced yet, let alone quilted. I did get thread today, though, so only a wee third of Mental to go and binding. Yay!

Noses. (red ones, whiskery ones and an out of joint one)

Yesterday was Red Nose Day in the UK. (It is a UK thing, innit?) You can read about Comic Relief and the work they do in Britain and Africa here. What it means for the general populace is once every two years doing something suitably ridiculous to raise some money and a Friday night telethon of comedic insanity. I missed the whole lot on the telly last night (doh!) but had donated already. And Chook did her bit by wearing her jammies to school. Even some of the teachers had their jim-jams on! We'll find out the school's total raised on Monday.

I've spent the day going back and forth quilting the Mental quilt. I can only do about 20 minutes at a time of free-motioning before my shoulders end up round my ears, my eyes start to nip and my stitches get massive! So there's a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. Things were going really well, though. The thread wasn't breaking too much, the back was neat, it was starting to look really great. And then I ran out of thread. At 5.05pm on a Saturday. Meaning the only close shop that sells Gutterman cotton is closed until Monday morning. Poo. No, really, that's what I said!! Or maybe something along those lines....

So here I am debating cutting out the quilt-along pieces (I promise that'll be the next post!) and thinking maybe just slobbing out on the couch is the way to go instead. Wilson and Zepplin are happy doing it!

"whaaaaat? you're disturbing us, man!"



So, I'm kinda at a loose end. Maybe I should get down to that ironing. Naaah...

drat and double drat.

I really wasn't going to start any more quilt tops until I got my works-in-progress under control. Currently I have a Christmas Stars and the Hideaway Hexagons waiting to be quilted (the Tiffany's Strings are a long term project, I've decided, coz I'd like it to be quite big!) but since I'm waiting for a lesson from Jo on hand-quilting to finish one and payday to buy backing for the other I've hit an impasse. Honest. *coughs* Anyways, I started putting my Bee Mental 3x6 bee blocks together. Inspiration is from one of the style of scrapbook pages that were my favourite - lots of white space, stuff along one end and a wee accent in the opposite corner. Kinda like this.

(photie from phone due to laziness - apologies for pants quality!)


So I've spent the last few days putting this top together. That blue was horrendous to match! I didn't want a bright turquoise to detract from the blocks (the stars of this particular quilt) but so many blues were TOO blue. But I think it's okay. Well, hell, I love it.

 

AND (go me) I have batting, backing AND binding already for it. So I'm hoping for a finish and not another top-lying-about-waiting-for-a-decision. Yeah. Except I've started another quilt-along. Oops. I'm finally going to use this fabric that I got last summer from Pam.

But that really warrants its own post. Next time! Bedtime for sleepy girls. Or at least, time in bed with laptop. Heh.

post mid week mundanities

I remembered to take a new photo - go me!

My general mood? Is good! I'm really tired siince my boss was taken into hospital last Friday. That pretty much means I'm running the workshop on my own and it's pretty constant. I'm getting to like being my own boss, though!

What am I wearing? My favourite now very holey boyfriend jeans and a black vest.

What have I been watching? Want to see my latest YouTube obsessions?


I don't especially care if the film is no good, that's the coolest trailer I've seen in years. Cute bunny AND Blur? FTW!!

Then there's this one. It makes me a bit emotional.


For those not in the rock fraternity that's an Iron Maiden song. The kids' teacher had them learn it as part of a topic on ancient Greece! I don't even like Maiden but just all those wee voices and that cool-as-anything teacher gets me right in the solar plexus.

What am I reading? Nothing yet. But I picked up a huge hardback edition of Neil Gaiman's "Anansi Boys" in Poundland today! Making it a pound, obviously. Bargain!

What have I been listening to? My taste is nuts this week. And I may have to be trading in my rock chick membership card. My last three downloads are; "Lovecats" by the Cure, the Bangles "Walk Like an Egyptian"  and, wait for it, "When Will I Be Famous?" by Bros. Who, for those of you not in Britain, were a late eighties version of Justin Beiber. Damn you iTunes for your 59p songs!! *shakes fist*

What have I been creating?  Apart from the top for the Hexagon Park quilt? I've started piecing my blocks from Bee Mental. This is a departure for me - it takes its cue from my scrapbooking days. I'm excited!!

Hideaway hexagons

I started piecing a new top last weekend using the quite deliciously quirky Hideaway by Lauren and Jessi Jung (for Moda). I had spied a fabulous pattern on Moda Bake Shop by my cyber friend and erstwhile Bee Mental buddy Lynne of Lily's Quilts. I really wanted a go of making it and had been coveting a layer cake of Hideaway so figured it was a match made in heaven. Look at this wee cracker.

Lynne's pattern is totally amazing, by the way. Really clear and SO clever. I think it's probably the best use of a layer cake I've seen and is especially nice for those ranges with nice big prints that you don't want to cut too small. I LOVE it but wasn't prepared for its size! It's a very deceiving 60 x 70 (ish) and will be a challenge to quilt! I am well up for it, though. Just need to sort some backing and binding!

Also, a wee thanks to all of you who got your big girl pants on and hopped out of lurkerdom to say hi over the past few days. Even if you immediately hop back into the comfy shadows it was really nice to see you!! Now I must go iron. Sunday night ritual an' all. Hmph. There must be a better end to the weekend that still results in everyone having clean and neat school and work clothes....surely!

on why I blog

This blog started as a portfolio for an online photography course I did in 2008. I had to have a dedicated blog for it (I already had a separate one that had some bits and pieces from a Flickr scrapbooking venture in it) and the name popped into my head. For those not in the geeky know, it's a play on words of George Lucas' (Mr Star Wars) special effects company Industrial Light and Magic. Anyway, I never did finish the course (I didn't like the format) and the blog languished for a good six months before I spent a very happy afternoon re-reading a lot of UKScrappers forum posts before they were deleted in a cull. I liked how I'd recorded the minutae in conversations as although I was an avid scrapbooker of events AND moments, the teeny tiny snippets of nonsense weren't represented. So I smooshed the little used blog and this proto blog together and started blethering. Not to anyone. Certainly not as a journal since I don't keep one. Hell, I rarely even vocalise my innermost feelings and schtuff; I sure as eggs ain't putting it out on the internet for all to see! This was just a notebook. A life record. For me. And maybe for wee Chookie since my scrapbooking is almost nil these days.

And people started reading it. And commenting. And following so they were interested enough to want to read again, maybe. It's still weird. In a nice way, though! I know there's something like 80 odd followers over there on the sidebar and I get a couple or five comments on most posts. But I discovered the stats setting in the dashboard the other day.

Wow.

And WOW.

There's a LOT of you visiting!!! Something like 1500 pageviews last month!! And it got me wondering if there's any of you who aren't sidebar-following but are Google-readering me on the private setting. Fancy saying hi? Just for nosiness' sake, likes. Like I said up there, this is my notebook, I blog whether there's anyone reading or not. But it's nice to know I'm not a complete bore.

And on to more important things. I inherited some cushions and a throw from my Mum earlier in the week - they are gorgeous but I didn't know if I could use the weird aqua colour. Turns out it's really nice in my purple bedroom!!! I bought a new quilt cover but wanted to pull some purple into the bedding and remembered I had two really nice shaped striped bolster cushions. They are a fab shape but I think they're too dark for the aqua. Something mauve you think? More the colour value of the cushions? I think so. I need to shop (and yes, before anyone says, I'm just planning on new covers for them!)

Go on, let me know what you think. You know you want to! If it sways you any I discombobulated the word verification about 3 weeks ago (after reading this post) so it's easier and quicker!! And you don't need a Google account! Gwan......make my day. *winning smile* Say hi.

Monster High and hospitals

Yeah, that was a very quick month there and our monthly trip to the Glasgow Dental hospital came round very quickly! Long story boring? Chookie's front tooth is knackered; the root is re-absorbing (which we knew was highly likely) which means the lifetime of said tooth is drastically reduced. By how much no one knows but not in the next three months. Which is when we're to go back - yay!! Or, at least, I think it's yay. It means we're kinda on our own without the safety net of a monthly (or more often) visit and as it turns out they're so busy that the next available non-emergency appointment (of which we have had a LOT since October!) is at the end of June. Which is FOUR months. And three weeks before we go abroad on holiday. So at least the tooth will have been all newly cleaned out and stuff, right? *unsure*

Still, Chook herself was a wee star. We knew we'd be seeing a different dentist this visit and having built up a rapport with beloved Amanda none of us were looking forward to a new person. But it turns out that Naomi is a friend of Amanda and was just as lovely. She chatted to Nigel and Neville the cuddly ponies and was generally a sweetheart. Although due to lost notes and a learner radiographer (it is a dental school as well) we were there for 2 hours. Meh.

And this visit's toy? Monster High Dolls. I hadn't even heard of them until Chook's pal CoolGirl turned up with one last week. They are basically Barbies that are the offspring of famous monsters! So up there we have Clawdeen (the werewolf's girl) and DracuLaura (I don't need to really, do I?). We went for one but I fell in love with Mizz Vampire so I bought them both. The ranks have been swollen by the addition of Lagoona Blue today (think sea monster style) but we're on the lookout for a Frankie Stein, too!! I love 'em. And we really don't need any more ponies!!!