Ever after kids’ panel – Part 1

I have a drawer filled with panels for babies or young children and I hardly ever look at these until I now cleaned the sewing room and decided I must turn these into quilts. This however meant I will have to work through my Electric Quilt manual for the umpteenth time, as I can never remember how to do what when.  I think the fact that I only use this about once every 3 years adds to my memory loss.

I did however take one panel out (without looking at the others for then I wouldn’t be able to make up my mind) and pinned it to a design wall for it to be a constant reminder of what I plan.

What a surprise it was when I opened the manual and things simply started falling in place and it only took me a couple of hours to have a layout and basic plan for this panel.  It seems the Thiamine prescribed after the tick bite fever (to help my memory as it attacked my organs including my brain) helps more than I ever imagined!

So this is what my initial EQ design looked like.  I was simply too lazy to draw all the finer detail but I knew what had to be done and the colour of the fabric won’t necessarily be the same.

Jo’s medallion mystery completed

We have the grandchildren over this weekend.  The young lady came yesterday afternoon and will most probably stay until Sunday after lunch when her parents plan to take her to our annual show and then leave the little man with us for the afternoon.

So while she and her granddad did some drawing and colouring I got to do the binding of this quilt.

With this done I printed the label, popped the quilt in the washing machine and got up early this morning to add the label.  Apart from the red and yellow, all the fabrics used were from my stash.

This is now big enough for a single bed and I guess the young lady will get it.

Hopefully fixed

I got released from hospital (again) last Thursday after 2 metal strips were attached to my jawline (side and bottom) to reinforce the old chap.  For two weeks after this my diet must consist of clear fluids only.  When asked to define this, the clever nurse said if you have the liquid in a glass you must be able to read your newspaper through it. So I said then it must be wine and water.  The doctor didn’t find this very funny and said no only drinks without milk in it.  Have your coffee black.  Now I would like to see this youngster read his newspaper through a mug of black coffee!

Although I don’t have much physical pain I am still occasionally dead tired and just feel like getting onto a bed and just be….. Not read, not watch TV or play a game on my phone.  Just be still.  I did however go back to the office on Friday as we neared the end of the month and some things simply could not be left undone.

Today I am enjoying yet another public holiday, quilting to my heart’s content while the interior decorator is doing the final touches in the entrance and I was not allowed to watch until finished.

This is the end result and I am so chuffed.

Not turning into a food blog

It is absolutely amazing when you can’t have food, how it simply becomes the one thing you constantly think about.  Planning most of my weekly meals ahead has almost become second nature but occasionally it can backfire.

This week I’ve decided to do the weekly menu of one of our bigger food retailers and guess what is on the menu tonight?  Smoked apricot and honey glazed snoek with “roosterkoek” (directly translated it would be grilled cake, but basically bread) with apricot jam.

There I was smoking the fish, smelling the flavours, spreading the jam and unable to eat a single thing.  So cup-a-soup, here I am again.

So this is what hubby got for dinner.

And then there’s mine….. at least I have “after dinner wine” – both served with straws!

Ah snap!

Satisfied with all the quilting I got done this week I got to do other things.  Shopped with my youngest, planning my menu for the upcoming week, washing everything made of material in the TV room, seeing that hubby painted not only the new ceilings but the walls in this room too, went menu shopping and so much more.

Got home, made myself a cup of coffee, took a plate with salty-cracker biscuits to my computer and just planned to relax the rest of the day.  As I chewed on about cracker number 5 I heard this gunshot go off in my head and even not being clued up on anything medical, I just knew this jaw, is no more.

Went to hubby, then painting the entrance and said that I’m sorry to interrupt but I think we should go to hospital.  A strange stiffness immediately made it very difficult to talk without pain, even swallowing my own spit hurt.

Got to emergency, had an X-ray taken and yip, the jaw was fractured in a Z shape but the surgeon, I guess the only one we have in our city, only returns on Tuesday, after Easter.  So I was given my X-ray CD, asked if I needed more painkillers and told not to eat, laugh, yawn or talk until I get to see the doctor.

What a way to not only end Easter weekend but my sick leave too.  I guess a new round coming up soon!

Quilting fun

Setting my timer for 15 minute intervals I had so much fun quilting my Mystery quilt.  I looked at a single section that needed to be done, selected a pattern from my heaps of books and then set out doing small portions at a time.  Normally I would just want to get this done and meander all over the place.  I am rather pleased with the results.

I also got a nice pile of strips sets done ready to be cross-cut.

I must admit after this I was out for the count regarding quilting and I guess I enjoy it so much because it is just a hobby and as a rule I won’t be quilting from the morning to the evening.  Getting my hour (if that much) of quilting in a day is about what I need to keep me wanting to come back for more. After this intense week of everyday quilting, I am satisfied to the brim.

Back to back set-up

Being Easter Friday and a public holiday anyway I guess my sick leave has come to an abrupt stop. Poor hubby and his fitters however still needed to work today.  We are doing the flooring of an X-ray department of one of the private hospitals and the work can only be done over weekends or on public holidays.

With our cats being overly annoying – I guess due to the rainy weather outside – I had a hard time quilting in peace.  So I set up my quilting station back to back.  On the large table I had the mystery quilt under the Pfaff grand quilter and on the desk I had my sewing machine and my strips in need of being sewn together.

If one of the cats preferred the quilt, I’d do the strips and if one decided to test out how it would be to sleep on the strips, I could quilt but I had to bring in a soft fleece to prevent both from choosing both fabric lots.

I set my trusty timer on my cellular phone and would free-motion for 15 minutes do 15 minutes kitchen duty, sew strips for 15 minutes, change seasonal clothes in my cupboard and this way a lot got done.

I think this picture sums up my cat situation perfectly!

Still enjoying my sick leave

The builders didn’t finish the ceilings yesterday and has kindly decided to speed up their Easter weekend and will only be returning on Tuesday, next week.  Now for most people that would mean living in a messy house over the Easter weekend but luckily for me, my dear husbands’ OCD won’t allow this.  He already pulled off protective plastic tarps yesterday evening, mopped the floors, moved some furniture back and has every intention of finishing the rest himself.

I then decided to satisfy my own OCD and gathered my trusty household appliances to swish and swipe the rest of the house and while doing this I noticed my poor Mystery quilt top patiently awaiting its turn to be quilted on one of the guest bedroom beds.  I’ve almost forgotten about this.

So once I had the house in a fairly respectable fashion, I cleared the sewing room table, backed and batted this and once the black cat gets the urge to pee I can start quilting.

Sick leave 2

Hubby left town at 5:30 this morning on a business trip and all I had to do for the rest of the day was to open up for the builders and to cook him dinner.  I only made dinner for him as I am still unable to properly open my mouth so I am left to slurp soup and rather mushy scrambled eggs.

I continued to cut my strips and I think I now have a nice pile to keep me busy for a while.

Then I did the binding on my Freestyle quilt to have this one done too.  Not a masterpiece of an artwork but a decent sized quilt and apart from the batting and backing, not a single fabric purchase made.

Sick leave

My procedure (removal of a cyst, 3 teeth which never came to the surface and bone transplant from the lower jaw to the upper jaw for a future crown) took place on Monday but they don’t play with these things lately.  I was wheeled into theatre at 17:00 and back home, even after we stopped at the pharmacy for my prescription, at 19:00.

The only thing I truly feared was pain.  I’ve been in just so much pain since December with my frozen shoulder that I didn’t know how much more I would be able to handle.  But, touch wood; apart from being terribly swollen I do not have any pain whatsoever.

So today I seriously cut strips.  I’ve been looking at scrappy quilts on the internet and blogger friend Chris and I fear we might not live long enough to make all of these.  This however made me realise you can never have too many pre-cut strips on hand.

We have a builder replacing ceilings in the front of the house – part due to water damage and part as renewed decorating – so I did little cleaning knowing the ceiling dust will be all over the place for the next couple of days.

The latter part of the day and evening I turned to my Owl Wall Hanging which I blogged about over here to try to make some progress. I got to add the body background and the beak.

A good day

Our newest grandchild got christened today and ah…. these family days are becoming o so special.  I was up bright and early finalising the lunch and then we all set off to the church for the big event.  Needless to say the little man made it ever so special to decide this was boring enough to take a poop and granddaughter had a ball sitting on her oupa’s lap ensuring her the right to misbehave and talk as loud as possible.

After church we returned home to enjoy our lunch and the pretty cake.  Granddaughter is still not ready to go home and will spend the rest of the afternoon with us.

I am having a massive dinner tonight; made up of the leftovers as after a small breakfast before 7am tomorrow I may not eat anything until the operation in the afternoon and with my jaw being operated on who knows when I’ll ever be able to eat a proper meal again.

I am however so geared up with quilt projects to do should I be up to it being off from work, so hoping not to have too much pain; I am kind of looking forward to these days off.

Scrappy strips 4

On Friday I woke up just before 4 am with the lovely sound of rain outside and decided this was too good to continue sleeping, so out of bed I got. Started cooking food for the dogs, ironed the laundry and then got stuck in my green scrap drawer to cut strips for my scrappy strip quilt.

I was also done with quilting my Freestyle quilt so I continued to cut strips for the binding.  I am having a cyst removed from my jaw on Monday and will be at home (swollen and blue, they say) until after Easter weekend, so I better get myself something to do when not in too much pain.

After work I managed to sew the binding strip to the right side of the quilt and then had the grand-kids over for the evening while mom and dad took a well-deserved break.

Got up early again this morning and tackled my blue scrap drawer but after cutting for more than an hour I haven’t even made a dent in this drawer opposed to my red drawer that has nothing in it.

Then quilting productivity stopped as I went to the salon to “wash that grey right out of my hair”, shopped for backing and batting for the mystery quilt, went for coffee with the quilter who kindly took over the books I didn’t want any more and started prepping Sunday lunch.

Scrappy strips 3

I was brought down to basic level rather hard.  Thinking I am making a scrappy quilt and there wouldn’t be much to it…… big, no HUGE mistake.  Some time ago, I decided quilting was my hobby and I’m not doing this to win any awards or be noticed by anyone, as long as I can find a bed for a quilt, I’d be quite satisfied.  This however comes with its drawbacks and I slacked on accurate cutting and piecing and it really didn’t bother me too much until now.

My strips were supposed to be cut 2” wide and then the plain (white) strips in between should be 14” long and I thought I did it well enough but not perfect and it just didn’t work.  So after unpicking a whole block, re-measuring and re-stitching, I remembered one of my DH’s favourite sayings “if you do it right the first time, you won’t have to do it more than once”.  Darn….. I hate clever people but I guess I have taken note!

So finally I have my first block measuring an exact 14” x 14” done.  Hoping to do at least one block a day (wishful thinking) I should be able to finish this soon.

Softening the stick insect

I really needed to do something to soften the look of the centre piece that stood out like a sore eye and decided to try branchlike beige strips curving in different directions.  I think I should not have made the ends of the centre piece straight lines but had these curvy or even pointy.

Free Books

This post is meant specifically for local (as in Bloemfontein, not South Africa) quilters.

In my attempts to clean and organise my sewing room, I am getting rid of a couple of craft and quilt books and I would give these free to the first Bloemfontein quilter who…

a) Leaves a comment on this post and

b) Will fetch these from me within 7 days of this post. 

Otherwise these would kindly be donated to the library or the Book Exchange Shop.