Allsorts!

No not the liquorice type but a mish mash of stuff that’s gone on over the past couple of weeks!

Last time I posted I mentioned that the friend that I call Julie and her friend Steph were coming to visit and I was going to help them create a blog, right now I should give you a beautifully crafted hyper link to take you to it. But I can’t. When it came to getting started neither of them could remember the password they use to access their joint email account! No matter how many times they tried, they just couldn’t remember it so we abandoned the idea of creating a blog and instead spent the afternoon chatting about crafty things and them sharing hints and tips with me – they’ve been at this creative lark an awful lot longer than I have!

What else has happened? Probably not much worth sharing, I have to say I will not be sorry to see the back of January. It’s been a terrible month at work which, no matter how hard I try, plays a very large part in my life and in my thoughts. I’d like to think that February will be better – I’m not holding my breath though.

Oh yes, I started a new quilt project – it took me all last Sunday to cut the pieces, 210 of them. I’m using a pattern that I found on line and is called ‘Simplified Log Cabin’ with the skill level of beginner. Huh – let me tell you that he person who created this must be having a laugh! I laid out all of the pieces in order on the front room floor – unfortunately I don’t have a dedicated sewing room so I’m restricted in that I can’t leave things laid out. So anyway, there I was (OK there was John – my knees don’t do crawling around on the floor these days) laying out the pieces in a beautiful pattern, my mind knows that I need to take a photo to make sure I piece it together properly, and suddenly I find myself collecting the pieces for each square to pin them together – 42 blocks in all – after I’d pinned three rows together I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t taken the photo - doh! I nearly cried – I was so cross with myself but also very tired from all that concentrated effort! After a ‘light bulb’ moment on Monday I thought I know – I’ll lay the pieces out on the spare bed! So with John’s help, they were beautifully laid across the bed – where they will stay until the final square is pieced.

I’ve started piecing today – the first 5 pieces to make the first block were stitched and unpicked about 5 times but I persevered and after about 4 hours I had my first block completed – the next 3 took a lot less time! I have to wonder if the designer of this pattern actually asked anybody to test her instructions before she published, if this had ben my first project it would be in the bin by now!

What else? Oh yes – went to the cinema yesterday and saw ‘The King’s Speech’. I’m no film buff but strongly recommend that everybody should see it – no matter what nationality you are. *Warning* there is a little bit of strong language but not in a gratuitous way. The film tells of King George V’s endeavours to cure his stammer and also shows the love story of him and Elizabeth, Queen Mother and is worth a couple of hours of anybody’s time.

So that’s about it really – nothing much of any great excitement happening, Ipswich knocked out of the cup after putting up a valiant effort in both legs, the boys are both busy with their lives and John and I are settling into being just the two of us – not as bad as we thought it would be!

Thanks for stopping by!

Just another week gone by

Here we are again, Saturday morning time for a round up of my oh-so riveting week – not! To ring the changes this morning I am writing this post from the comfort of my bed! Outside I can hear the wind blowing around the house but I still have the curtains closed so can pretend it’s still night! Oh – and John has already been out for about an hour – something about a ‘first to find’ geo cache thingy! (Just heard him come back in ‘cos his batteries have gone – hehe)

I spent Sunday finishing the quilt that I’ve mentioned in the past couple of posts – I’m going to blow my own  trumpet here and say it’s very definitely my best effort yet! It’s the first time I’ve followed a pattern and I am so pleased with the results – even my mitred corners are good – not perfect just good! So here it is -

All of the coloured sections came from either a bag of scraps that I bought or from leftovers from previous efforts – the white has a tiny self patterned dotty print on it. The beautiful blue on the right hand side is lovely – it has a metallic sheen to it.

I found the pattern here as a freebie and have followed it (almost) faithfully, except for the binding – I used strips of most of the coloured fabrics instead – and the quilting – I ‘stitched in the ditch’ and kept it simple. My next goal is to practice free hand quilting on some scraps!

The rest of the week just sort of went really, Ipswich played Arsenal in the League Cup during the week. I didn’t feel brilliant when I got home from work and really couldn’t face a damp evening watching Ipswich lose again so I gave my ticket away. And of course the inevitable happened and we won 1-0 against the mighty Arsenal!! Having said that, we did lose 7-0 last Sunday to Chelsea! I wasn’t worried about the score against Arsenal because they were my first love anyway – a win-win there!

Today I’m expecting the friend that I call Julie and her friend that she calls Steph. Together they are JuSt Two here on Etsy and I’m going to help them create a blog – should be fun as it’s been an age since I did anything other than post on my own blog!

Ok – battery is almost gone so I’ll wish you farewell for another week – thanks for reading!

I think it’s fair to say…

… I’ve had better weeks! I won’t go into detail but work has been crazy this week. Some very harsh decisions being made, the impact of which will show over the coming months. Moods have been low, tempers frayed and tolerances tested to their very limits. Please keep your fingers crossed for us all for a better week!

Christmas is well and truly over now. We had a lovely day on Sunday with the Linda & John, the friend that I call Julie ( ) and Sue who we don’t see nearly enough of. Son 2 came with us and was proud to announce that he was having his first vegetables for a week! Repeat to my self ‘I will not worry about him’. Before we moved to Ipswich, Linda & John and Julie were our neighbours and people often commented that our road was like Ramsey Street in the Australian soap ‘Neighbours’. We were all very close, our children were close in age and we leant a lot from each other as we went through the phases of our children’s lives.

I decided on Monday that I was having a stay at home day. John and I took down the Christmas decorations – the house is always so bare afterwards – and had a general tidy up. I thought I would be artistic and arrange some of my Christmas presents in my newly acquired spare bedroom which we have now set up with new furniture ready for anybody who wants to spend a night or two. I’ve displayed my beautiful quilting and crochet books for my guests to browse, should they be interested! I also had a couple of wicker baskets which I’ve used to hold some of my fabric stash – I’m starting to become one of those women who have to buy it when they see it and am building up quite a collection (with more on the way!!)

Although Ipswich were playing at home on Monday, I decided to let father and son have some male bonding so gave Son 2 my ticket – I’m so glad I did as we lost yet again. Our manager was finally relieved of his duties on Friday this week – I hope its not too late for this season to turn around. Today we play the mighty Chelsea in the FA Cup – I don’t think anybody is expecting us to win but you never know in the cup!

Yesterday we drove to my cousin in Stevenage which is a round trip of about 180 miles – seems mad I know but it was to be the first time that I’ve met up with my extended family for almost a year. We decided to set off early enough to have a meal on the way, debating which route we would take and of course we opted for the wrong one. We went via the A120 across country and decided that, instead of taking that road for the whole journey, we’d take the M11 to the M25. As soon as we hit the M11 the warning signs started flashing that the M25 was closed at the junction we would be exiting from! Our only option was to head of at Harlow – with the rest of the traffic! The poor sat nav woman was almost in emotional meltdown ‘turn around where possible’ was all she could say until we managed to convince her that we had some sort of idea of where we needed to go! In desperation we pulled off of the road and had a lovely carvery lunch in a pub in Harlow – served by real Essex girls! (sorry Essex girls but they were stereo typical!)

We made it to my cousin’s in good time, even finding an opportunity for John to find a geo-cache in an ASDA car park!! The reason for our visit was to celebrate her daughter’s first birthday and it was lovely to catch up with the rest of the family, although it’s a little strange now because most of our offspring are otherwise engaged and don’t make it to the gatherings which just leaves us oldies to reminisce with one another.

Well – that’s a lot about nothing in particular! Today I’m going to bind the edge of the quilt I made last weekend – otherwise I’ll become one of those who have numerous WIPs (works in progress!) and feel bad for not finishing. John has already been out this morning (at 7am) to find a cache and, as the weather forecast is good for today, he’s planning to set off again soon. I expect Son 2 will arrive at some stage with his laundry but until then I will be home alone – bliss!!

How do I miss him… or how I do miss him?

So what do I miss about Son2 now he’s moved out?

His laundry – well make that his ironing ‘cos his washing machine doesn’t work at the moment

His untidy bedroom – I now have a beautifully tidy spare room, all guests welcomed!

We use less toilet roll – what the hell did he used to do with it?

The bathroom is so tidy with his shaving stuff and hair gel gone

We get through less cereal – he had a huge bowl full most evenings

The unpredictability of his moods – especially first thing in the morning

Hearing about his day and the tales of his clients while we eat our dinner

Wondering what time he’ll be home when he goes out (although I now don’t know if I need to worry or not)

His quirky sense of humour

His company

Him

Mmmm – bit of a mixed bag really. I do miss him, possibly more that I missed Son 1 when he moved out but that’s probably because we still had Son 2 here. I think the strangest thing is probably preparing meals – and buying two people sized packs of things! I thought I’d got plenty in the freezer the other day only to find I have chicken galore in big packs – I need to take a leaf out of Janet’s book and make up meals to freeze, if only I could be bothered!!

As I write this he has gone to football with John – the last day of the seemingly endless Christmas break this year (although I did work Wednesday & Thursday last week) – when he comes back we’ll need his strength to help put the Christmas decorations in the loft, I knew he’d be useful for something!!

Welcome to 2011!

Happy New Year everybody! It seems that this years ‘thing’ is to have a photo montage of the past 12 months – I tried to choose one photo per month but found that was difficult as some months I’d taken more than others but here is my contribution – in no particular order!

2010 was a good year, we had three great holidays, I completed loads of crochet projects and I learnt to quilt – mostly self taught and through books but also with help from Nicola both remotely and in person! I haven’t blogged as much this year but I’m getting the impression that this is a natural progression from newbie blogger to feeling more comfortable with only the occasional update. 2010 also saw us become empty nesters as both boys left home which has taken some getting used to – as Son 2 has so recently left it’s something we’re still learning to cope with! In my mind I have a post prepared about what I miss about him – I’ll try to commit it to the keyboard in the next day or so!

Today we’re off to friends for our belated Christmas/New Year celebrations – before I go I just need to finish quilting my latest project so I can show them!

Here’s to another great year in Blogland – hope it’s a good one for all of you!