Covet revisited

A while ago I did a bit of a mass covet and covetted 3 fabrics at once - just plain greedy, eh?  I've valiantly resisted the temptation to order Melody Miller's telephones from the States, (ostensibly to be loyal to Annie, but really because it's January, and with 6 weeks and Christmas between pay days, who can afford to splurge on fabric??)  What has helped with this is the little stack of one of the other covets sitting on my sewing table readily available for stroking and drooling.

However, I've discovered today that just being my fabric dealer for the last 10 months is no longer enough for Annie, she's now turned active pusher!  And I am going to have to resort to crime or selling body parts, as that other covet, Lizzy House's Pearl Bracelets, is now on pre-order as a fat quarter bundle.... at a discount!  

Just £60 will get you one of these scrummy bundles by the end of the month.

and I really, really, really want one.....  Click here if you do, too!

Amazeballs

The generosity of my bloggy quilty friends never ceases to amaze me. Look what the postie brought today for my new gizmo, from the lovely Kelly, who just can't bear the thought of a 'nekkid' iPad!

Last Christmas...

I promise this will be my last Christmas related post for a few months! I spent this weekend with two of my sisters, exchanging Christmas gifts as we didn't see each other during the festivities. I managed to finish some gifts for them in spite of the grumbly machine, and we got some lovely things in return.

Somewhat poignantly however, there were gifts from my mum. She was always very organised, and so there had been presents all bought for us, although not wrapped. Amongst the stock pile of things found, more amusingly, were set after set of Christmas chutnies! We've no idea who they were for....

We received a lovely ceramic garlic roaster and super-industrial garlic press. Because of our catering business she nearly always bought us food or cooking related items. Needless to say, there were tears!

One legacy she has left us is a determination, now we've lost our family's 'hub', to make more effort to spend time with each other - we're all so busy and geographically dispersed its not always easy to find time to get together. But we had a wonderful weekend with all our dogs (6 people, 4 dogs!) & we've already got the next gathering planned.

Wish it could be Christmas everyday!

At the ripe old age of 17, I had my appendix removed. While I tried to downplay the pain and other symptoms in a bid to avoid surgery, my dad was berating the surgeon who was suggesting the appendix be left to 'grumble' in the way that they liked (notwithstanding the risk of bursting and causing peritonitis....... I never understood that logic).

"Where the heck is she going with this and what does it have to do with Christmas?" I hear you ask. Well, I had to abandon plans for Christmas gifts in the week before the big day because I have a grumbling sewing machine. It only does it when there's fabric going through it (ie not when winding the bobbin or pulling the bobbin thread through) so I'm guessing it's something to do with the foot. It clearly needs a trip to the chiropodist!

I've noticed today two blogging friends talking about Cherry Christmas and one of my abandoned projects was a simple 10" square quilt for one of my sisters and her two children. It pieced ok, but the quilting made it look like the Himalayas!

So it had to be unpicked, which then lead to a tear and a tear or two of frustration! Luckily, it's near the edge so I can hopefully quite simply unpick it and replace the torn square. I've decided that as I replaced the quilt with DVD at Christmas, I have all year to get it finished, and so I'm going to hand quilt it.

I've got a couple of other Christmas gifts that need finishing by this weekend though, and so I'm hoping my machine will just get those done before it goes for a service. Think I might need to invest in a spare!

100 days.

Right then, one day to go, but with an event for 150 tomorrow night it's unlikely this list will change before the end of the year!

Having posted back on the 9th November that I had made progress on only 4 of my 17 projects, and that I would have to work hard over the coming 40 days, everything went a little bit awry.  As many of you know, less than a week from that post my life went through a pretty cataclysmic shift.  So, I'm sure you're not expecting great progress with this, and you'd be right!

Here goes:

1) design & make a cd holder using the Melody Miller records fabric - tried and failed.  Have something else in mind during the course of 2013.

2) Make double-sided quilt for niece Megan - finished, loved and delivered to Megan.  I saw this over Christmas hanging in her newly decorated pink bedroom! (1 finish)

3) use the brown batik Charlotte challenged me with - 2 projects in mind for this. I used the tote bag we got goodies in at Retreat and made the batik into a tree trunk.  The leaves are Innocent Crush.  Project two was a 40th birthday present for Charlotte - a pouch which you can see in her post here.  What she has failed to mention is that the pouch was lined with brown batik! (2 finishes)

4) Make an Amy Butler weekender bag using 'Newquay' fabric neeeeever gonna happen!

5) make the Christmas wonky log cabin into a mini quilt - Christmas was pretty much cancelled in my house this year, so no Christmas projects got done.

6) finish the double circle flying geese cushion cover from FQ Retreat scrapped...

7) make mug tree / Christmas cards  see item 5

8) make 3 thank-you popsicle mug rugs replaced with Bottle sacks filled with pink champagne! See this post for more details. (1 finish)

9) finish campers travel sewing kit oh dear, no excuse for this not getting done!

10) make 2 x hopscotch quilts with jelly rolls This may have been a tad optimistic, but will keep me busy in 2013.

11) finish Maison de Garance quilt for Christmas gift DONE!  Hurrah, I did manage to finish something, even if I was hand-finishing the binding on Christmas Eve!  This now graces the bed of my OH's parents, and looks lovely, though I say it myself.  It was finished with a border of the rich goldy-biscuity colour with the rich deep red as the binding.  Backing was a plain beige sheet.  Although I wasn't sure about this to start with, and it was definitely a 'well, they'll like it' I ended up loving the warmth and vintage-y feel of this one. (1 finish)

12) make 4 x Oh Fransson! bags for Christmas gifts 3 made, and then another one was made in black denim, 2 of those were sold for use as Christmas gifts, the other two are still here.  I also have wallets cut out ready for sewing, and I made 2 pretty pleats totes in Melody Miller Ruby Stars Vinyl telephones panels - one with the orange phones, one in the blue phone colourway. One sold along with the pouches and one given as a gift.  I also started another Christmas quilt for my niece and nephew but a sewing machine in need of service put paid to that!  (counting this as 2.5 finishes!)

13) make a notebook cover for Christmas gift well, I've got the fabric and the notebook, just need to get the two together! Nothings' changed there but I did make other Christmas gifts - see above!

14) make a duvet cover for the spare bedroom out of IKEA fabric another project for 2013.

15) make a QAYG version of Weekender bag using Tula Pink fabric.  see item 4.....

16) various bee commitments 

17) edited to add: finish raw circles quilt!!! Yay!! All done, hand quilted and bound and just gorgeous.  Currently over the back of the sofa where the feline in residence is also in love with it and spends most evenings asleep on it! (1 finish)

So, out of the original 17 items, I'm counting 8.5 finishes.  As 3.5 of those were quilts, I think that's not bad under the circumstances.  Had I not had a few weeks of other things to deal with, plus a sewing machine which gave up the ghost in the days before Christmas, I would have got a lot further. However, hopefully I can get the remainder finished in the next few weeks - at least they'll be ready for next Christmas.  

I'm linking up for the final round-up.  I don't expect to be in line for the prizes, but it was fun trying to get everything done!

ermmm.. remind me, when's Christmas again?

Next week, you say?  Ah, well I might need an extension on that - I still have umpty-billion presents to make, and today I decided to start a Christmas quilt for my sister and her two children who will miss Granny terribly next week.  It's a simple Cherry Christmas, 10" squares patchwork, and I'm sewing crazily to get in the post on Friday!

I also have wallets, make up bags, bottle bags to make and another quilt to finish.  The little change purses I was making to go with the wallets will have to wait (as might the wallets!)

I'm also supposed to be making a santa suit for a basset hound.... yep, my family are bonkers.

As well as all this, I'm working full-time and finishing off the planning for a party for 145 on New Year's Eve that we have to do.  

But in the middle of all this insanity, today I heard this on the radio, and I had to go and look up the lyrics.  And then I cried.... a lot, and now everything's slightly blurry....

Jealous of the Angels - Jenn Bostic

I didn't know today would be our last

Or that I'd have to say goodbye to you so fast

I'm so numb, I can't feel anymore

Praying you'd just walk back through that door

And tell me that I was only dreaming.

There will be another angel

Around the throne tonight

Your love lives on inside of me

And I will hold on tight

It's not my place to question

Only God knows why

I'm just jealous of the angels 

Around the throne tonight

You always made my troubles feel so small

And you were always there to catch me when I'd fall

In a world where heroes come and go

Well God just took the only one I know

So I'll hold you as close as I can

Longing for the day when I see your face again

But until then

God must need another angel 

Around the throne tonight

Your love lives on inside of me

And I will hold on tight

It's not my place to question

Only God knows why

I'm just jealous of the angels 

Around the throne tonight

If you haven't heard it, go and look it up on youtube, iTunes, wherever, it's beautiful.

2 for 1.....

OK, firstly, I confess there is some shameless stealing of images in this blog post!  Problem is I made things and gave them away, but forgot to take pics.... so I nicked theirs!

And then I had something made for me and I knew I couldn't take a pic that would do it justice, so I nicked that too! 

I do hope that Kelly and Charlotte will forgive me....?

Anyway, I had a great time yesterday playing with my friends at the Village Haberdashery's open weekend.  There was banter and shopping and a lovely day spent with Annie, Charlotte and Kelly.

I've been really lucky to have some great and much needed support from these girls over what has been a lousy year, so I made some little Christmassy gifts (although I realised the one I'd made for Annie was totally inappropriate & is having to be replaced!)  

So I made a couple of sacky bottle bags - I wanted them to look like a Santa sack, rather than a sleek tailor-made bag (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!) So I used some of my stash of Countdown to Christmas - I went a bit OTT buying it last year to say the least.  The bags are loosely based on the pattern in Quilt Dad's Pretty in Patchwork - Holidays book, and I made one with the same kind of inset and another using the robin embroidery from Annela's class in FQR.  Both bags are lined and one has a selvedge tie, the other a ribbon.  I also bought some reels of Lu Summers' tape, which they seemed almost as pleased with as the grog!

We had a great day together - Annie had some customers too, which we managed to be helpful to, I think.  But in the main, we just had fun and a lot of laughter.  (And heaven knows, that's been lacking over the last month or so.)

Anyway, in addition to all the merriment, Kelly arrived also bearing gifts.  I don't know if anyone saw her blog a few days ago with the wonderful cushions photographed in the park.  One was a fab scrappy rainbow cushion which was 'made for a very good friend of mine, I hope it puts a smile on her face! '  Well, it's safe to say my grin was ear to ear when she presented it to me.  It's a perfect cuddle size, and will no doubt be much utilised in the coming weeks!

On top of all that, I came home and got cracking on the Christmas sewing I'd been unable to get in the mood for, and the mojo is well and truly back!

Just as well, as there's a lot to do, not to mention a batch of brownies to whip up and send out to some lucky recipients...