One 'L' of a Week!

 The 'L' referring, of course, to row L on my Dear Jane quilt, which I started making over eleven years ago!

I have decided that I want to finish all the square blocks (all that I ever planned to make) by Christmas this year.  It's becoming too long a UFO or WIP even for me!

So, last week when I knew that I had some sewing time, I tossed everything else to one side and concentrated just on this one project for the week.


I managed to make 13 blocks - that completes the whole of row L - in the week. I'm quite happy with my progress!

 This fabric - Bookbinder - has been in my stash for yonks.  Isn't it lovely?  Greens a bit richer than shown here....

 Of course, I'd like to be able to tell you that in real life they aren't as wonky as they look in the photos, but I'm not sure that it would be the truth!

I'm sure that they will all look fine when they are sashed and added to the other blocks.

Mind you, I haven't yet sashed and added the last row of blocks that I made, and that was nearly three years ago, so I have to hope that I can keep some sort of momentum going!

 We were also able to celebrate a bit more exam loveliness last week, when my second eldest niece passed her Italian GCSE with flying colours (we'd already had one celebration earlier in the summer when my eldest niece passed her A' Levels with similar style and secured her place at Cambridge.  Big congratulations to them both!

Naturally when I said NO other projects, I meant just one tiny one extra  - a quick 'microwave heat bag' from an extra bag of rice and some scraps. Less than 40 minutes including sewing the rice bag liner as well as the outer cover......so hardly counting as a separate item!

So popular that I might make a few for our craft table for our next quilt show.

Precious little sewing time coming up this week, so I shall have to rest on my laurels, I think!

Hope that you enjoy some good crafting or sewing time.

You're on the (rails) to nowhere.....!

 I wasn't really on the rails to nowhere!  I was on the rails to a place of much inspiration, however, the map (below, no, I can't seem to move it to the top of this post) made me laugh out loud.  No disrespect to the people who live there (and apologies, I can't remember which station it was, only that it's between Norwich and Cromer), but a map that shows nothing other than the fact that the station is on a road and near a track didn't seem the most useful to me!  Perhaps Greater Anglia could consider changing the scale so that it shows how to get to the village which didn't look to be too far away......!

Anyway, back to that inspiration that I was talking about.  I know that everyone and her mother has made an 'inspired by flooring tiles' quilt (or at least, that's how it seems!) but the photo at the top (even with my toes and the junk mail on the floor) shows just why they are so popular.  It's crying out to be made, isn't it?  A project to add to the list!

I was also inspired by these splendid pretend dwellings.

Don't you just want to run to your fabric stash and start creating crazy, whimsical houses too?

 Shaped for releasing rain from them?

 With a touch of the Dr Seuss about them?

In all sorts of colours?

Go on!  You know you want to!  If I have time to play with fabric this summer, this could make a fun jumping off point!

Thank you to my nephew for his entrance hall floor, and to BeWilderwood for the many and varied Twiggle houses.  We had a great day there and would heartily recommend it to any families who are within striking distance of it.  Completely charming with lots of outdoor fun to be had.

Work in Progress

 I started work on these hexies some years ago - all made with shirts from my late FiL.  This summer I decided to try and come up with a layout using these flower shapes - and this is it!  I agree, it looks a little muddled at the moment, but with a few more shirt hexagons I will head towards finishing this, and perhaps using it as a medallion as it won't make a particularly large piece.

Unfortunately it is still a WiP (Work in Progress) as I managed to fall over (playing crazy golf, not know as an extreme sport!), and I realise that I've hardly set a stitch since!

I did make this fabric postcard - but my plans to hand embroider the base fabric and add some lovely beads to it came to nothing.  So, some machine quilting to add definition had to suffice.

Now that I've realised why I'm not sewing (I can be a bit slow on the uptake!) I've had a thorough treatment with my osteopath.  I'm hoping that I'll be stitching again in a day or two, and that I'll be able to show a little more progress.

I'm also hoping to get a little machine sewing done - I've decided to get back into my Dear Jane which hasn't been touched for some time.  Wish me luck!

Street art? Street Craft?

 Not quite as 'street' as Benta's post but DD2 and I had fun with this last week.

More 'street' than actual loom bands, we made our own loops by cutting a punctured inner tube (thanks for changing it, Uncle Paul!) crosswise. 

We had fun making 'bobbletail' and 'fish tail' so that we could decorate a lamp post.

 They were quite tough to use.  DD2 let me make the fishtail one as she said that it hurt her fingers!

 She came up with a fastening using the valve, but we still used a couple of cable ties to hold the long one and the others around the lamp post.

More grunge than the average 'yarn bomb' - but I'm not sure that the leafy suburb my brother lives in will really appreciate our crafting efforts.  It will be interesting to hear how long our decoration lasts!

Not much sewing going on, apart from this 'under the sea' post card.

I did manage to finish the binding on last weeks quilt, and I have started putting some shirt hexies together, but nothing to set the world alight, somehow!

You might well know how it is in the holiday season - lots of time doing things with the girls, less time for sewing!