sampler HST flimsy quilt, Sofie , Alfie

On 26 february we very sadly had to have Sofie put to sleep as she was in heart failure and struggling to breathe.  Sofie was Catherine`s cat and Mum of Alfie who we lost on 26 november last year. Sofie was about 19 and Sal my granddaughter has not known life without her,  she is so upset and sat up all night on 25th with Sofie so she was not alone.  What a lovely cat she was and she brought so much joy into our lives, she is now with Alfie in cat heaven.  Helen and I plan to have a needle felted cat made from her photos,  Helen had one of Alfie done too.

This is Alfie   the needle felting looks much better than this in real life,  for some reason the photo shows in very much a funny shape, note the winking eye,  he used to wink at the camera a lot! The lady who made him is so busy now since Helen shared the photo on facebook and does all sorts of pets for people.

I have been quite busy this month,  finally got my 24 HST blocks which I did with Blossomhearts blog in 2016 put together into a flimsy.  I enjoyed this challenge as we used the 2, 4 and 8 way methods of making HSTs.  I did not like the 4 method but loved the 8 one and now if I have 6 or more HSTs in a block I use this way and just add the extras to my stash!   Not quilted yet as I do not have anything suitable for a backing,  it measures 86" x 56" so will hopefully be able to pick up a king size duvet cover on my travels for it and the other half will be used for another quilt.  Pondering about what I will use for binding,  yellow and orange have been suggested but will wait till quilted before I make my mind up

I also used a hexie piece to make into a pouch for my pintangle tast stitches   must get some more done. I do these with Sharon from pintangle who is about to bring out a crazy quilting book,  I have it on pre order from amazon.

At last I made the effort and got my Women of the Bible instructions out,  decided I did not want to do the blocks all 10" or 15" in size and altered them to 9" 12" and 15". I found the instructions very difficult and as most went together better as these sizes was able to work them out though some I could not work out so they were left out.  Some have been duplicated in the different sizes and I now have 25  12" blocks which I am pleased with and want a square quilt. I plan to add sashing and corner stones but have no idea what colour to do but as lilac is used in all the blocks to link them together I think maybe I will use purple and do the corner stones in the lilac.  It has not show up well looks more like pale blue  n the photos.

There are 12  9" blocks   not sure what these will be  maybe just go in the blocks box.

 now for the 15" only 6 of these but maybe will make some more if I have any lilac left

I have also made 3 more winter solstice blocks and have one more downloaded,  one Childrens library block, 1 crazy red block, 3 bee blessed blocks 2 I will send to bee blessed and keep one for myself and 2 red work blocks.
Now I am taking time to sort out my narrow scraps as I want to do some string blocks,  only got the purple, black and grey done yesterday so think it will take a few days to get them sorted.,
So far this year has been pretty productive hopefully it will continue.

Quilting, cats, Richard update

Beated happy new year to you all.

Now for the wonderful news,  Richard is now out of intensive care following his heart attack. It will be 7 weeks tomorrow  since he had the heart attack and fractured his skull.  We have had some very bad moments and there were times when the Doctors warned us he would not make it but now he is recovering,  has been off the ventilator for over 10 days and breathing on his own. Has fought off 2 chest infections, pneumonia, sepsis and a blood clot in one of his lungs so all in all one tough guy.  Now he needs to start building himself up, is on mashed food but hopes to have proper food soon, still unable to walk as he has lost so much weight only been eating just over a week and is extremely weak,  . The brain is much better than expected and knows us but memory not back to normal,  asked me when Mum was coming to visit,  she passed away 10 years ago but  when reminded he remembered.Cannot remember anything that happened in the 2 weeks prior to the attack but we are very hopeful. Praise be I am sure the prayers so many of you supported us with have helped and saved his life.  Thankyou so much.  His youngest son has to return to the Dominican Republic where he is a teacher next monday   he will go back knowing that his Dad will be well cared for and improving daily.

Helen has 2 new feline friends  unfortubnately Alfie died suddenly on 26th november  we were so upset but now Charlie  and Teddy have come to live with her,  they are rescue brothers 18 months old and vert naughty!  " new quilts to be made but they are not top of the list.

                                                                   Alfie

                                                                   Charlie

                                                                             Teddy

Now for some quilting   I have got the berry cross quilt to the flimsy stage and very pleased with it.

I also made a chair runner a couple of days ago,  I was given a large office chair on wheels  it is ideal for using at the sewing machine cabinet but oh so cold to sit on as it is leather so made the runner, quite pleased as I picked the blocks and worked out sizing etc and even finished it,  so nice to sit on! A couple of years ago would never have dreamt I could have made something without full instructions so feel I have progressed with my quilting.

At the novemeber Leeds MQG I started another urban neighbour hood quilt as I put it together wrong on the first one,  it is now in the flimsy stage, Made from a jelly roll and black fabric for the contrast.

here is the previous one   still a flimsy it might be wrong but I prefer it to the other one

Also completed was the last 2 blocks for the Blossom Hearts BOM

bejewelled

                                                                 nip and tuck

                                                               all 24 blocks  not joined together yet

I think that is enough for now!

Oh yes   facebook  many of you have requested me on facebook but though I do follow some private quilting groups I do not do the facebook thing,  nothing personal but that is why I have not added you   all too complicated for me,  still struggling trying to understand insatgram.

pin cushions,, Alfie, Orlando blocks, bag

The sewing machine has been a way the past few days as Alfie has been here,  this is an old photo but thought I would share it with you

and this is him today enjoying a bit of sun.

I have sent my latest pin cushion off for the swap   this is a bit of a cheat as I got the design from Gail Pan`s book Patchwork loves embroidery   one of my favourite books in my rather large collection.

and received a beauty from Turid in Norway   when I saw it on her blog I was all fingers and toes crossed that it was for me so you can imagine how delighted I was when it arrived the other day

.

Here is the little bag I could not find the photo of the other day when I shared the two others made from samples done in the 90`s and finally made into bags.

I have made 3 heart blocks for the Orlando quilt appeal which I will send off tomorrow.

  Not made the ones for the Jo Cox quilt yet as I do not have any more white fabric for the background and the shop has had to order some so will do those ASAP. when the fabric comes

Whilst having Alfie I have caught up on doing the embroidery in the 6 mini quilts I did with Jacquelynne,  they should have had applique in but way beyond me so used some of the designs in embroidery form and drew some for the other quilts,  will share once quilted   do not hold you breath

pin cushions, Alfie

I am taking part in a 3 month pin cushion swap and have received my first one from Janne in Norway
So thrilled with this,  it has little pockets on all 4 sides and the peacock fabric is wonderful,  even better I managed to buy some the other day to add to my stash.

This is the one I made and sent to Yanicka in Canada,  she has let me know it arrived safe and sound.

I have made my disappearing nine patch into a small quilt  24" square as I was trying some new wadding my local shop has not sold before so Sue asked me to try some out for her.  It quilted well and washed with little shrinkage so have ordered a roll for myself.

Catherine gave me back a large piece of stitchery a few weeks ago,  it was a piece I did for my city and guilds part 2   had forgotten I had  a sort of patchwork piece as I was doing the embroidery course,    It was made as a large fire screen to hid a hideous gas fire in a previous home,   now out of the frame as the frame was battered about, have it as a fire screen once again until I decide what to do with it, maybe remove it from the backing,  it is laced on and add wadding and do some more quilting. The fabric was all dyed by myself   well sponged with paint and then salt sprinkled onto it.  have just fond the paperwork and it appears the inspiration came from doors and balconies in Malta.  The  hand quilting was done with coton a broder    forgot I had used that seem to think there is a stash of it somewhere so might use it again for hand quilting.

Think maybe I will try and find photos of the other pieces I made and share them too,  no digital camera in those days!  some pieces I still have so can rephoto but one is in Australia and one I did when my granddaughter was born.  Oh yes Alison my sister is coming over in august   will get her to photo the 25th wedding anniversay sampler I did for her   that is if she kept it!

Alfie came for two days a few  days ago,  think he was happy here looking very content on the kitchen window sill in the sunshine.

Have made 10 more blocks in the stars and pinwheels QAL I have been doing with Susan of Dessertsky blog.  Now have 22 made and more cut out and have added to hers from books etc, maybe when completed I will get 2 quilts out of them,  using up scraps so very random.

small square cloth, daffodils, Alfie and Sophie,

I have now quilted and bound the small patchwork I did last week.   I am calling it a small square table cloth, it sits quite well in the centre of the kitchen table,  will just have to watch it does not disappear when Helen calls as she seems to think Alfie would like it to sleep on,    will see when he comes to stay if he is attracted to it!    I machine quilted this with diagonal lines through the centre of the blocks,  I drew lines with a washable pen so they kept reasonably straight and even did some in the ditch on the long rectangle pieces.  Think my choice of green for the quilting  was not the right choice but I live and learn,  maybe a lighter colour would have been better.  This is the most machine quilting I have done,  not bad really.  I backed it with some grey cotton,   to hard to resist £1 a yard and extra wide so I think I will be used as backing again.   I rather like the red I used to bind it,   maybe I could have used red for the quilting too.

back of work

spring is on the way!   here are the first daffodils that have appeared in my garden  taken on 26 feb.

They are the mini ones, very pretty,  this morning when I got up at 5.30 there was a thick frost and all the cars were iced up,  I think this is the first heavy frost of the winter and spring starts tomorrow,   we have been very lucky this year.

Now for photo of Alfie   the poser who does he think he is!

Have you ever seen anything as adorable as this? no adorable is not the right word but cannot come up with one that suits him.  

This is a photo of Sophie, Alfie`s Mum who belongs to Catherine my elder daughter.

She is quite an old lady now, about 13  so we have two beauties just wish I had one too but circumstances do not allow.

Alfie and Tula

I thought I would share a photo with you all today of Alfie,  he is my daughter Helen`s cat and he comes to stay with me when she is away. I had him for 2 weeks in august whilst she was suning herself in Portugal.  He is a very large or should I say fat cat and last week was under the weather, as Helen was on a 12 hour shift, she is a nurse I took him to the vets.  An expensive visit £88 and a big ticking off, he weighs 7.5 kilos which they say is twice what he should weigh!  He is now on a diet, 2 pouches of food a day, no biscuits or treats and if he does not lose any weight his food will be cut back further.  Just as well they did not see him a couple of years ago, I am sure he was fatter then!!

Now for Tula,  I have 2 weeks of photos to add blocks 46 to 51

We are working on triangles at the moment,   well at least we were  |I have now done all 100 and they are spread out on my lounge floor,   a good excuse not to hoover don`t you think! I cut loads of them out  early last week and then over from friday to sunday stitched 40 so was very pleased to get them finished, now wondering what to do with my time!  I do not know what I will do with them but wondering about adding a border to every block, this way they will all be exactly the same size as some are  not quite right. Maybe grey would look good, it will be hard to pick a colour that will go with everything , I do not want to use white or cream as I think it will be too pronounced, what does anyone else think?   Thought I would also off set them but no hurry as we only load 3 onto the site a week. Here is a photo of them on the floor. They are in number order but will move them around to get a better effect when I join them up.  If I am honest I am hoping my good friend Cheryl will help me, I will have to arrange for her to come and stay as she is  in London and I am in Leeds. It will be lovely to have her here and might even be able to unload some books onto her! Cheryl is an excellent quilter and a great friend who I met up with at the festival of quilts, we also met Queenie who I am sure a lot of you follow on her blog.

This is the 100 blocks, just as well I do not use my lounge isn`t  it.

I still have not posted any quilt photos, will do soon but her is one of Queenie with her quilt and with me.

I am the one on the left in the orange tee shirt!  It was lovely to meet with Queenie and she shared so much info with me as she is a far more experienced quilter than me a mere learner. Her quilt is really beautiful