Not quite a silk purse from a pigs ear!

I’ve had a great day today. Day off and all alone so, after waking early, I set about finishing the, ahem, ‘creation’ that I started last weekend. Although I knew it wasn’t anywhere near perfection I’d decided to finish it off anyway. I started the day with nine squares – none of which were actually square! I trimmed them the best I could and joined them together to make one big square – which still wasn’t actually square! I had it in mind to trim all of the sides with a contrasting fabric and then to finish it off with wadding and backing so I could quilt it. When I added the border it took on the appearance of something resembling a square and I started to feel optimistic. And then I had a eureka moment – I’ll turn it into a cushion! I have a lovely cushion that I bought from a craft fair a few months ago so I 'deconstructed’ it to see how it had been made and worked out how to back it with an envelope-style backing! I already had some calico that I had bought more in hope than anything else which would come in handy.

I had other things to do as well as sewing so I went off to the chiropractor, then dropped a couple of pairs of Son2’s old shoes into a shoe bank, nipped into the little Tesco and headed off to Dunelm for the cushion pad – fortunately I realised I hadn’t a clue what size I needed so called into home first! I needed a 20 inch cushion and hadn’t measured it in metric – of course they measured in metric but a helpful assistant helped my befuddled brain to work it out!

I also decided that I needed a ‘stash storage unit’ (SSU) and had an image of stacking boxes – I was delighted to find exactly what I wanted!

Off I went home all excited wanting to make up the cushion and to fill the SSU with yarn and fabric. I am easily pleased it seems! I now have a feeling of achievement as something that looked completely useless at 9 o’clock this morning now looks quite good and it will be useful as I need a cushion when I’m sewing because the dining room table isn’t really the best place to sit but the cushion will help!

Ta-dah – the Wonky Cushion, hopefully as I get better I’ll look back at this and smile!

 

I still have more yarn than fabric but I fully expect to so more crochet than sewing as I’ll do that in the evenings – sewing will be a weekend job!

And then (yes I know I shouldn’t start a sentence with ‘and’) I had a phone call form Quilters Haven to say I’d won a prize in the Quilt Walk from Saturday – I never win anything so I am really chuffed about that, I didn’t like to ask what it was but I think it’s probably a voucher, I’ll let you know when it arrives!

So that was my day, with the addition of washing and cooking a winter-type dinner, I’m exhausted! The weather has been great for most of the day but is just turning with the expected rain and strong winds – I hope this doesn’t signal the end of summer!

About time too…

It’s been a long time. So long I can’t even remember the last time. The last time I wrote just general lifey things. No reason. Plenty of excuses – such as I have nothing to say!

So what have I been up to? Well, the holiday is now a very distant memory and I’m well and truly back in the work thing – that’s another excuse, it’s been busy at work! I’ve been crocheting – another excuse, needed to get things finished! And I’m longing, yes longing to start the quilting that I mentioned in the holiday post – all will be revealed, hopefully, very soon!

A few weeks ago I left you with the promise of more about the Rod Stewart concert and I will be true to my word! We have seen Rod three times in the last five years and he never fails to please! This time we went to the O2 arena to see him, staying overnight at the nearest Travel Lodge – please do not take this as a recommendation for a night away, if you can afford it I strongly recommend paying the extra for a place that’s slightly more luxurious! We had seen this particular hotel from the road several times as we’d passed, it’s not a particularly attractive building – very block-like in construction and the inside didn’t surprise us, however the staff were very friendly and the breakfast was very good. Probably best to skim over the accommodation for the night.

Anyway, on to the O2 via the Docklands Light Railway which was very efficient. We arrived, we thought, in plenty of time for a meal before the show. Unfortunately the rest of the world also had the same thought and every restaurant had a queue a mile long. A friend at work had recommended the Thai restaurant and amazingly it had the shortest queue – but only because they were taking bookings for an hours time! We gave our name and went inside for a drink, sat ourselves at a table and were joined by another couple who asked if we minded if they ate – of course we didn’t and, as luck would have it, we managed to order food as well without having to wait for the hour!  After a delicious meal we took our seats for the concert. We had good seats, via the front of the arena and just one level up about three blocks away from the stage. Whilst we’d been waiting I was being uber-cool and Facebooking, Tweeting etc only to have some very disparaging remarks made about Rod from some of my closest friends. Let me tell you right now they were wrong – he may be 65 but boy he can still rock an entire arena. He sang all of his old classics plus some Motown and he only swore once! I think the best bit though was at the end when he thanked us all for turning out in such difficult financial times and said that we’d made the effort to get Grannies to babysit! I think he needs a reality check – most of the audience were Grannies!

So that was Rod – hopefully he’ll do more tours and we’ll get to go again. What else has been happening? Mmmm not a lot really, oh – I bought a sewing machine. As I write it sits in it’s box unopened because I haven't had the chance to start to use it yet. I had planned to spend all day yesterday ‘playing’ and making a start but I’ve not been well all week so that didn’t happen. I have though bought several books and viewed some fabulous You Tube video tutorials on quilting. I’m waiting for some very important equipment to be delivered now – cutting mat, cutter and ruler – and believe me I will be using them very soon. I am inspired. I can quilt. I think…

I mentioned crochet above and I have been very active in that department (‘cos it doesn’t take a whole lot of effort- just need to stay awake!) and I can now reveal my latest projects – ta dah!

   

My friend at work (who doesn’t read this so if you know her please don’t tell her!) is going to be a grandma in December (she does know that part) so I thought I’d make something for the baby but because I don’t know what the baby will be I thought I’d make one in each colour. The pattern was based on this here but I used a 4-ply cotton and a 3.5 mm hook which made tiny motifs so I had to modify it to make a reasonable size – I have to say I’m quite pleased with the results.

I’ve now started to use this lovely cotton yarn that I bought on holiday. The idea was a Cath Kidston-esque afghan but I’m not so sure it’s looking that way! I decided to be a little different with this one and am making big squares using every colour in every square but in a different order and only using the sage green around the edges – I bought three balls of sage but that won’t be enough to edge the whole thing :( I tried to order more online at Hobby Lobby but they don’t do international online orders so I’ll need to phone them instead!

Well, that’s about it I think. I’ve had an enforced week off work due to illness this week – started off with a gastric thing and then on Wednesday my back pinged as I was about to sit down – hence I can’t sort the sewing machine out yet! My lovely FDIL kindly drove me to the Chiropractor on Thursday afternoon and I have another appointment for Monday – hopefully by then the pain will have subsided.

Phew, this is long – if you’ve made it to the end thanks for staying with me, if you haven’t well you don’t know what you’ve missed!!

This and that

It’s that time again when I update you all with the exciting-ness (or not) of my week!

Where to begin – I know, Sunday. Well Sunday was not a good start to the week. John disappeared off to visit Son1 and I thought I’d catch up with some of the TV that I had recorded and iron at the same time. The one programme that I really wanted to watch, he had deleted after he had watched it – I mean come on, what was he thinking? In a tense strop I decided to find the programme on i-Player and watch it on the laptop – clearly I couldn’t iron at the same time, could I (that’s a rhetorical question – please don’t trouble yourself to find an answer!)? So, there I am on the sofa, lappy beside me, crochet in hand (couldn’t do absolutely nothing now, could I?) for an hour watching the programme. When it finished I tried to stand up. I say try, because I had the most excruciating back pain ever. In the history of back pain. The worst. It took me some time to realise that I had inflicted this pain upon myself due to the poor posture I had adopted. But, then I rationalised, it was actually John’s fault for deleting the programme in the first place – wasn’t it?

Anyhow, being the martyr that I am, I carried on for the week at work, trying to convince myself that I should keep as mobile as possible, while ending up walking like a little old lady, leaning to one side and unable to straighten up. I only had to work for four days anyway – what harm would it do?

On Friday I took the brave step, after tweeting with, and speaking to, Janet, of booking an appointment with a chiropractor for Monday  - she assures me that I will feel better – eventually. I am such a lightweight when it comes to pain – I am dreading what will happen but have to be realistic that I have to do something about my back.

Watch this space – I’ll let you know how it goes (if I can manage to sit up afterwards!)

Of course this isn’t me because I never got as far as the ironing board!