Sparkly

Well enough of the maudlin self indulgent posts :-) lets get back to the proper stuff, crafting.
My big sis, who is by the way the bestest big sis in the whole wide world, laughs at one of my Pinterest boards, it's called 'crafts other than patchwork'. Well, there is really only patchwork is there ;-) Before I got the quilting/patchwork bug my main craft was embroidery, mainly hardanger. Tendon problems in my arms put paid to me doing that as my main hobby but as long as I take it easy I can still do some.
At last years FOQ (festival of quilts) I signed up for a class taught by the fabulous Bella Lane what a marvellous young lady she is, so sweet and her needle work is out of this world.
I did the class called Tudor rose and I just got round to finishing it this weekend, sitting out in the sun.
I think it safe to say the Royal School of Needlework will not be calling at my door, but I like it and it makes me smile.

Tough

This is a tough time of year for me. It's a time of contrasts. I am sooper excited because the sun is shining, holidays are looming and the festival of quilts is just round the corner.
It is also exactly 2 years since I went to the doctors with a lump on my neck. It turned out to be stage 4 hodgkins lymphoma and for good measure it had spread to my liver.
Six months of chemo later I went into complete remission and am still there.
But because I do the same things every year (take holidays at the same time, go to FOQ) it all conspires to remind me of that time. In 2011 I went round the FOQ in a daze, a mere two days before I had been given the cancer diagnosis.
I seem to remember spending a HUGE amount of money saying 'life is too short'
Well do you know what?? Life is too short, it's too short to continually live in the past so today I will get out on my bike, do loads of quilting, practise being mindful and be very very grateful to be still here.

Groundhog Day

Since my disaster with the fruit tea and the scrappy trip blocks several things have happened.
I set up a rudimentary cutting table:

It does the job and keeps quilt blocks off the floor :-)

I have had to redo all five scrappy quilt blocks, bit of a scunner since there were one or two of the fabrics I didn't have anymore. Still I think they turned out ok. I did seem to have lost my nerve a bit with the exceptionally scant 1/4 inch seam so there are maybe or two odd blocks added to the orphan block pile.

So now these are all done and ready to post, I can get my festival of quilts groove on. As per usual I have the burning desire to finish off absolutely EVERYTHING in my to do pile in order to make room for the pile of stuff I will bring home.

Lists

I love lists, I'm a librarian it's in the blood to love lists. I have a gazillion productivity apps on the iPad which help me make lists.
I was slightly horrified when I actually used one of these to figure out how many things I have on the go at the moment ...
--> stitch gathering ticket
--> lanyard for stitch gathering
--> farmers wife
--> silk quilt
--> craftsy BOM 2013
--> hello moon
--> pile o fabric skill builder
--> marks mum and dads quilt
--> layer up and bind hot chocolate quilt
--> layer up and bind shadow box
--> layer up and bind sew a row
--> layer up and bind b&w runner
--> curvy quilt
--> craftsy BOM from 2012 FMQ
--> star blocks FMQing

Flipping heck, that's a biiiiigggggg list but it's a lovely day and I am aff oot on my bike first before tackling said list.
Before I go have a little bug on a leaf saying hello to the moon:

A bit partial

It's been a funny old week, I think a holiday is long overdue. On the plus side I get to go to graduations on Friday and see all our lovely students one last time before they go out into the world, a very special,time.
Didi mention that I love craftsy? Well I do, particularly the block of the month they do. Laura Nownes is doing an excellent job this year, I had always hated partial seams and would blush to show you my last attempt at a lone star but after following her instructions I am quite proud of this attempt for the June block.

What's also been on my new cutting table? This rather charming hexagon block for the Alyssia Lichner block of the month. I won't say EPP is my favourite technique but I'm happy with this.

And yes I do now have a cutting table no more red tea near fabric ...

Claiming my blog

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I think I am claiming my blog with bloglovin :-)

Cautionary tale from the patchwork room

Disaster has struck. I'm lucky enough to be in the scrappy trip around the world bee. I have five blocks to make, I made three dud blocks, at least half an inch too small due to seam error. But I persevered, spent lots of time carefully picking out fabrics my fellow bee members would like. I bought little packets of mother of pearl buttons to put in the packages, lovely postcards with vintage images of edinburgh on them to write a wee note on.
So all done ready to post off. I couldn't be bothered moving sewing machine to set up cutting mat on table so I just trimmed them up on the floor. I went into sewing room to have my lunch on Friday and had a cup of fruit tea with me that I laid down on the floor .... Well I don't really need to tell you want happened next, this picture paints a thousand words, there was not a single block left unruined. Needless to say a lesson has been learned.