December - last furtle of 2019!

Well well! What did December bring in the furtling sphere?? A productive day at Killearn with the #stirlingshirestitch folks brought together my booknerd quilt top. I wont get it done and dusted in 2019, events have overtaken that goal but it will be done very very soon in 2020!

Again events overtook my goal of getting this done with early morning sewing. My vintage home quilt, this was a BOM by Jo Avery for todays quilter magazine a year or so ago. But hey the top is still done just needs quilting, so again hopefully another early 2020 finish!

I had a great visit to the harrogate knitting and stitching show with Ruth and Sheena, just a lovely break, look at the tea room!

And i bought loads of lovely fabric at Purple Stitches, Viv is so sweet!

I finished my I love to sew needlecase, bright and pretty

But sadly my mother was not well. She is a lot better now but i had to spend a lot of time looking after her up North, so all my lovely stitching plans didnt come to fruition. But i did get cracking with my Tresna shawl! I am now almost finished, I learned to wrap and turn, i think i am doing it right!!! not really sure to be honest but hey its a learning curve. I am now playing wool chicken .... can you see how much i have left???? Not sure if its enough but i can always buy more.

I should really mention christmas too shouldnt i! I will hold my hands up and confess i really struggle with Christmas, I could quite happily hibernate the whole month of december. I stress at the thought of presents both giving and recieving. But i did get some lovely presents, thanks to my Amazon wish list! Two Kaffe Fassett books from mam. When i was looking after her i spent a lot of time looking through these and plotting and planning quilts!

I got another two from Scoobs!

 Plus this book, fabulous and it has already paid for itself, I had no idea my presser foot setting for the walking foot was too tight! no wonder my quilting has been really puckered recently, I think it must have been reset when getting serviced. I have been wondering why my quilting was so puckered, been blaming all sorts, but this book sorted it out!

And while we are on it, lets say goodbye to the sewing room! well not totally goodbye just to the colour scheme and layout. I have a few quilts in progress that i want to keep and have on display, we have also been talking about redecorating it for a while too, the blue walls are a bit cold, so we have a huge tub of buttermilk matt emulsion, a very lovely Scoobs who is willing to spend January the first painting! watch this space!

Its been a good 2019, with a fair few ups and downs, but on the whole its been good and that is mostly due to lovely chums and a wonderful scoobs xx

October furtle

Well I couldnt forget to furtle could i!!! especially as its for the sooper luffly Mini Archie. So what have i been doing this month apart from having a wee melt down!! just kidding, I am feeling better and things are on the mend, slow but sure. So have i been doing anything fun??? well yes i have! hows about this for a stonking start on the My small world?? 90% left overs of Lucy Engles fabric from my OMCOC quilt, pretty and bright huh?

This is an embroidery for the Jo Avery Vintage home BOM  from todays quilter, I quite enjoyed getting back to embroidery again, although my ddugy eyesight (cataract developing in left eye it appears) means its a bit "improv" (skew whiff ...)

 I went to a lovely talk with the lovely Nicholas Ball, and i had gin and chips with the lovely Sheena and Ruth.

 "NOT MY WORK" :-) details of the bodice from a dress from the Romanov exhibition at the Queens Gallery

 My book nerd quilt top, slowly getting there, but i do love the ability to showcase big prints with this one.

 Lord I will still be working away on this when i retire ..... but its "ongoing"

 Ditto this X stitch but I can see progress

 Scoobs doing what he does best, holding quilts!!!

finally,  a wonderful new felty pal, he now resides on my desk at work to remind me of what is important - my lovely chums who i am so so lucky to have :-) thank you Mini Archie, you are rather wonderful xx

Septembers furtle

1Right september lets be having you, line up in nice reverse chronological order Ta very much.

WHAT A MONTH!!!! OMG so full of sewing and quilty goodness, lets start with yesterday. Well the whole weekend actually! Edinburgh Modern Quilt guild organised a weekend clss with Jenny Haynes, Pappersaxsten. OMG how fab. We were making her cogs and thistles quilt. Totally amazing. and WHAT a fabulous teacher. So attentive and worked so hard, every minute she was on the job. From the minute the class started to the minute it ended she was totally dedicated to looking after us all. What a star.

I had great table mates too, Lovely Helen and Barbara and Lesley from the borders. With Margaret and Ursula in banter distance :-)

 Sheena didnt get on the class so she organised an improv class with Jenny on the Thursday night. I made a twig, I am ridiculously delighted with my twig!

 My main cog, loved using up my batiks, plus a sweet little background fabric i got as a bargain at the FOQ.

 Look who came along!!! he was so well behaved and soopervised me reely well!

 So much love for this lady! , and her quilts ..... OMG

 The new venue for the Edinburgh modern quilt guild, Inch house, fabulous venue, lovely staff.

 awwwww, mini mini bud caught up with his Aunty Cat!

 And Kippa! Aunty Cat always has the best shoes!

 Oh yes, this got done! OMCOC done entirely in Lucy Engles fabric!

 This is all i have left of my collection of Lucys fabric! Ive been collecting since she first started printing ... yup, i wont lie. Cutting into this bunch was very hard!

 The cream fabric is one of the very first Lucy ever made

 Ditto pink at the bottom

 Right what else?? I went to the Region 16 area day. Dawn Cameron Dick gave the first talk, really enjoyed this.

Oh her basket of flowers quilts for her late aunt, what a sad story.

 My Scoobs was away for 4 weeks, I may have been over excited to have him back :-)

 But I put him straight to work holding quilts! these three are off to Alice Caroline for their 2019 quiltSOS

 Not really crafty related but this is my chum Andy, me him and Jacky go out several times a year. Andy doesnt do social media so i have no pictures of us together, hes a good chum.

Budsmam over and out for september.

August furtling!

Well i was a total wipe out for July, sorry Mini Archie! so im delighted to be able to join in for August, did i just say august???? where is 2019 going to!
right lets see whats on the camera roll shall we? Ahhhh I was up at my mams, working on my Tresna scarf and realised i had forgotten my cable needle, quick furtle in mams stationery drawer and i found this teeny pencil which was the fair dab! this shawl is going to be a long standing one on my FAL list but thats ok, im easing back into knitting.

 totes not craft related but i got a new job and a new dress for the interview and i think i look GORGEGOUS! (listen if we dont say these things to ourselves then we cant say them to others either, thats my motto! Anyhoo, new Head of Learner and Academic Services for Heriot Watt University and very proud of it too. For someone who was thrown out of library school in 1984 ive dont not too shabbily thank you very much :-)

this bunch went to a birthday pawty!!!! the lovely Sue and Mr David invited us all to sweet Boos birthday pawty,  we had a blast thank you!

 There were a fair few finished too, I pattern tested for Jenny - Papper Saxten and this is my version of her Pia Panda quilt. how sweet! all done in Japanese fabrics, I have just donated this to Project Linus in fife, sadly a childrens hospice had a fire (no one hurt) but they wanted quilts so this is one i donated to that.

 Oh my Scoobs! you are a twerp! but i love you, we took a lot of finish pictures before he left for his epic hike across sweden, this was made from 3 Janet Claire charm packs. simple to make but verey effective. I will blog about it separately for the FAL. This too went to the quilt drive mentioned above.

 Now thats better behaved my Scoobs! This is made from 2 charm packs of Bee Creative by Deb Strain. Its a pattern from Sarah Elwood - Sew Me so straightforward and easy to make, again just got sent off to the quilt drive mentiond above.

 Well it wouldnt be August without the FOQ!! here was Mini Mini Bud on the train.

 Me and my Farmers wife quilt!

 A detail of lovely Kims quilt, the green liberty was a donation from me, so nice to see this quilt, i saw it being made at our Killearn sewing days,

 I went personal shopping for Elaine - Greenandscratchy, great fun shopping for someone else!

 Look to the right of the person in the aqua top, thats a Lucy Engels quilt! stunning

 *blushes* part of my haul, i did go a bit batshit crazy ....

 Amanda - Metro quilter made this quilt top, you read it by going round not left to right, how clever!

 OK i have blogged all about how Mini Bud was the main attraction and him meeting up with all his loving Aunties ..... but this was a very special meet up, I have know Jane - two wednesdays since the days of twitter, I think she might have even known real life Bud on twitter! it was Helen and Jane who persuaded me to give Mini Bud his own instagram account, i know he may neglect it a bit ..... but he still loves seeing his chums on there. Meeting Aunty Jane was very special for him (and me too !)

 Awwww - Anuty Sharon too!

 The only thing which would have been better than meeting Aunty Cath would have been if the great BC had been there too :-)

fun and games at the gin bar!

 Jen Kingwell folks, yer actual Jen Kingwell !

 My panda pouch goes away but only till November because this year i am going to Harrogate for the first time!

Couple of late additions. The Balloon quilt is almost done!!! 

 I may have also bought from  Hazels destash ... cant resist a charm pack!

See you next month!