block catch up

I seem to have not posted my Tula pink  blocks for 3 weeks so here is a collage of blocks 82 to 90,   thought it would be too much for you all to have them on individually!

Yesterday I was such a proud Mum,  Helen my younger daughter had her graduation for her Palliative care diploma.  It was held at Leeds University and brought back memories of when she graduated 8 years ago as a nurse.  Now she is about to start nursing in Wheatfields a Sue Ryder hospice in Leeds which has been her goal in life for a few years now.    I did take photos of her in her gown but she is not happy with them so I will not share them here, I think they are very good but she has said no.

Christmas will be soon here but we are not having our Christmas lunch till 28th as Helen is working 12 hour shifts over the holiday time.  Catherine and Sal will come over from Halifax for the day on 28th  weather permitting of course.

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and all the best for 2014,    keep on blogging.

9 more blocks

Time once again to add 6 more Tula blocks,   we are now three quarters of the way through,   well I have finished all 100 but adding them as I add them to the web site.   Oh dear just checked and it appears I have not added any for 3 weeks so have 9 to share with you today.  They are 67 to 75



blocks 67 to 70 still in the stripes design

block 67

block 68  I have really come to love the batik fabrics,  I bought a jelly roll a few years ago before I was quilting,  have now used it all so must replenish my stocks with more batik,   will have to wait till a quilt show then plan to but some half metre lengths!!

block 69

block 70  oh dear  can see a bit of a blunder on this one!

we are now in a section of blocks made using squares.  block 71, one of my favourites.

block 72

block 73

block 74    I love the patterned fabric here but have been unable to track it down,  have taken it to quilt shows and drawn a blank,  if I could find some I would buy 2 metres,  any one seen it anywhere please?

block 75 this is very plain but I find it quite pleasing.

that is all for today,  thank you all for all your encouragement, advice and comments how I love the blogging world!!

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

crazy quilting

At last I have got round to doing a blog.  It has been about 4 weeks, sorry will not overload you with things just my september CQJP piece and the latest Tula Pink blocks,, I have posted them every week on the web but not updated here so I have 12 to add.

CQJP september.

Not much happening in the garden now, just greenery but do have an apple tree so the centre block is just a branch of it with a couple of apples!  The hedgehog visited and was investigating the apple that had fallen. Sharon`s stencils have been useful again and a tatted josephine knot has taken up the top left hand corner block.Somehow this block looks rather dull not sure how to lift it, have used quite a bit of yellow, will see when they are all finished as to how to liven it up a bit.

Tula Pink blocks 34 to 45

 I have done these as a collage as there were so many, if anyone wants to see any in further detail I can let you have an individual photo.  I now have all 100 blocks cut out so ahead of myself which is good.

Two wonderful quilt shows will post some photos soon, sorry I have been lazy with my blog.

Yesterday I went to a group in Castleford, thought it was a quilting group but   well it is but it is linked to a flour mill that is being restored and the group meet to stitch things that are sold in the local market shop to raise funds to restore the water wheel etc.  I have come home with some blue fabric to make a cot quilt but will pop into the market this morning as I need some white to make up the blocks, They are using half square triangles in 2 fabrics 6" each a total of 15 squares so will see how I go on, if successful a photo might appear here.

crazy block

Another month has come so here is my block for the CQJP challenge for august. Think I might have been a little lazy with this  time, the centre flower is a little crochet flower and down in the bottom left hand corner was something i attempted on the embellishing machine  (can only improve). Only 4 left to do now hen will have to get the thinking cap on as to what to do with them all. There are a couple of Sharon`s stencil patterns here, a beaded dragonfly and of course more little bits of tatting. Over all I am quite pleased with it.

 It is also time for 3 more Tula Pink blocks. These are nos 31, 32 and 33.

6 more patchwork bocks

here are the next 6 Tula Pink blocks. I forgot to put last week`s onto my blog  although I loaded them onto the site so have last and this weeks to share with you today.

I have been busy,  on friday I did 12 blocks but holding them back until I have to add them to the challenge.

this is a bit of a mish mash with the colours, never mind I am learning all the time

think these strawberries look good enough to eat.

suddenly had a brain wave to photo them with a cut out frame around them, think this makes them look better as I am not planning to trim them to size till I decide what to do with them all.

not sure why this one has gone on smaller than the rest    oh yes I remember I took the photo wrong so flipped the block so that it was the way it should  be.

more patchwork

I am adding my latest Tula Pink challenge blocks this morning, seem to be keeping up with them, have actually done next weeks yesterday too but will not put them on till they have gone on the sew sweetness site.
                                                               block 22

block 23

                                                                   block 24

I am pleased with 22 and 23 but 24 leaves a lot to be desired!!  When I upload them to the site there is a cropping tool which I have now found and this does make them look a bit better but 24 was beyond help!

We are enjoying the most glorious weather here in the UK at the moment, how I love to feel the warmth of the sun on me, must admit would rather be sitting in the garden than walking about and it must be quite unpleasant working,some of the spuermarkets, shops, offices etc etc do not have air conditioning the air is pretty poor in these places,    the staff seem to be coping, our little Sainsburys is very bad but it is closing for a refit at the end of the month,   wonder if they will install a cooling system then as they really need it. Mind you we do not often have weather like this, they have said on the radio this morning it is the longest spell of hot weather we have ever had.

pinwheels and Tula

It is time to add my latest three Tula Pink blocks, when I load them to the sew sweetness blog each week I have to load them from flickr and I am able to remove the background and square them up but have not found how to do that here.

this block is not as crocked as it looks on the photo I have not trimmed any yet, will wait till the end and see what I am going to do with them.

pleased with this one, sorry about the thread, did not notice it till now.

this one is rather boring!

Have decided that doing small blocks is more difficult than the bigger ones, thought little would be easier but these have changed my mind, sometimes there as as many as 24 pieces of fabric so loads and loads of  seams. But I will not be defeated and plan to do all 100,   a big big challenge for me but enjoying it, maybe enjoying is not the right description!

A few months ago I bought the pinwheel magic 4.5" template and then could not work out how to use it but the other day it was being promoted on create and craft again and have now got my act together and have done it a few samples of the three shapes it makes, once again the poly cotton came out, they take more fabric than I expected and the A block has quite a bit of wastage which will go into the little scrap stash I am collecting.

this one I used 3 fabrics on  template A

this is template A again with just 2 fabrics.

here is template B

this is from template C

My favourite is template A and can see me doing some more of these but have not worked out about colours or if I can make a few all different and will they go together okay or will the pinwheels not be seen if multi coloured,   any information will be greatfully received.

Helen`s move went well, delayed by a day but she is in and loves it.We are still unpacking, I have had 2 days off since a week last monday and feeling very tired but at least it is only 10 mins walk away rather than over an hour and 2 buses from where she lived before. Will go round this afternoon, she has been on a night shift last night so plans to have a sleep this morning then plod on in the afternoon.  I took the lawn mower round on sunday and cut the lawns and also removed loads of dandelions, previous people obviously did not do much with the garden but they had a wonderful trellis with clematis, roses and other things growing, unfortunately the flowering is almost over but here is a photo anyway.

we have to bend our heads to get into the further part of her garden, you can see the rose, they are massive but past their best.Helen thinks she is going to do away with this trellis I do hope she changes her mind, need to find out about pruning and see if we can keep it.

one of the roses, unfortunately no scent but large and beautiful

more patchwork blocks and potatoes

It is tuesday and I am a day late in doing my Tula Pink challenge,  have had the blocks stitched over a week now  but one I did a replacement for as I was even unhappier with it than some of the others.

block 16

the redo of block 17

block 17 discarded

block 18

block 17 in the 2 shades of blue I took apart a few times and redid , now I see it on the blog it does not look much worse than its repalcement. I must learn how to put the photo on without any table showing, discovered how to crop them  at last when I load them onto the challenge site today and think they look better, not so out of line etc.

My younger daughter Helen (37)  is moving into her first house tomorrow, she has been living in shared accommodation for a long time but has now got a mortgage and is feeling  `grown up`. I have been helping her pack, yesterday we worked long and hard packing all her books , clothes, kitchen things and bits and pieces,  fortunately not too much left to do today ready for the move tomorrow, we plan to bring everything downstairs and I have been good and written on the boxes where they are to go at the new house. Alfie her cat will come and stay with me tonight so he will not be too disturbed by the move, he loves coming here, won`t be surprised if he appears at my door when in the new house as it is a 5 to 10 min walk form me. Helen will also stay tomorrow night as her bed does not arrive till thursday. She has very little furniture of her own apart form her wardrobe,  chest of drawers,  dressing table and bedside cabinet which we bought for her years ago and we have fingers crossed the wardrobe will get up the stairs! Also has a fridge,  freezer, washing machine and 2 TV`s. We do not think the freezer will fit in the kitchen, previous owners have them side by side but Helen`s freezer we think is too wide. She has ordered a suite but we have to go and finalise everything this afternoon as it was ordered on the scheme that if the house fell through she would not have to have it but she got it at the sale price. Will now take 4 to 6 weeks for it to be made but she has an old couch which will do for the time being.

Thought I would share a photo with you all,    Helen is not one for cooking, being a nurse she does a lot of shift work and is not adverse to getting take aways,    the photo  is what she found in her potato bag which is meant to stop potatoes sprouting or going off!!

 Helen thinks I am mad as I take photos of odd things but who knows what this might inspire me to stitch, or maybe another blogger will be inspired!

quilt blocks

Today I am adding 3 more of the tula pink challenge blocks.  Blocks 13, 14 & 15. I have made a bit of a mess with 14 & 15, not sure what I am doing wrong , I do as they say and measure at least twice and sometimes more and cut once but when it comes to sewing the pieces together it does not seem to go to plan.  I am wondering if because they are only 6" square the individual pieces are so small they easily get pulled out of shape,    or maybe it is too much ironing.  I will redo the ones I am not happy with after completing all 100 as by then I should have improved and if I have not then will not do such small ones again.

when I look at the above photos I can see on the last one that it looks as though the fabric has been pulled form here to kingdom come!!,   or maybe I am not getting it cut on the grain but slightly crooked,    any advice greatly received and also positive criticism preferable to negative please!

I have also completed the three blocks for next week, one of which I have redone 3 times and have now given up on it, you will see what I mean when I add it next week.   We are meant to be doing 3 blocks a week and can only load the correct three to the sew sweetness blog each week, of course we can complete as many as we want but cannot add them and if we miss a week I am not sure what happens.