January to do list

I've a list of things to make this January.

1.  Make two crazy blocks in blues for group charity quilt.

2.  Make two Bee Blessed Ladder Strip blocks to send to Just Jude

3.  Make at least four more of NYB (New York Beauty) scrappy blocks.

4.  Start on Pretty Pouch swap when I get my swap buddy's details.

5.  Start on one dressmaking item for myself.


So far I've managed the following

1.  Two crazy blocks finished.  I just have to trim them down.

2.  Two Bee Blessed blocks made.  Here is one of them.

3.  Two more NYB blocks finished.  I now have 9 blocks made.  Three more to go and then see what I am going to do with them.  I have a couple of ideas but will wait to see.

4.  I will get my Pretty Pouch swap buddy's details around the 23rd of January so until I know what she wants I can't get started.

5.  I have a pattern and fabric picked out to make a top for myself.  As soon as I get my other two NYB blocks finished for this month I will cut it out.

For me that is not a bad going.  If I can keep on track then I will be very happy at the end of the month.

Workwise this is a busy month for me (end of year reports, start of new tax year and first payroll run of 2013).  Hubby also decided that he was not too busy (he is a market gardener/horticulturist, that's a posh way of saying he and his family grow vegetables and herbs) so he is redecorating our sitting room.   This involved moving everything except the sofas out of the room so the hall and every other room is now full of stuff.  I've bought the paint, new curtains, curtain poles, light fittings etc.  He has filled in holes and cracks in the walls, sanded, painted the ceiling and drilled for the new light fittings.  He's hoping to make a start on painting the walls today which will need two coats (as he lights the fire everyday the soot on the walls was quite bad and no amount of washing would take it all off).  Hopefully by Sunday we might have our sitting room back.  Tilly and Fudge (cat and dog) will be happy as their favourite sleeping area is out of bounds.  Fudge is getting bigger all the time.

Here he is getting a belly and chest rub (which he loves) from my oldest daughter.  He really is just a big baby.  You might spy a quilt in the bottom right of the photo.  This is the first quilt I made at the classes I went to in 2002.  Lisa loved purple then so it is an all purple sampler quilt.  I hand quilted it and lets say my stitches are all different sizes but it has lasted well and she still loves to snuggle up under it.

Hope you all had a great weekend.  Best wishes.

Where has the time gone?

It's been so long since I did a blog post.  Life dealt a few unexpected cards (my dad was quite ill in hospital but is now improving greatly having been fitted with a pacemaker, youngest daughter developed a mystery rash which doctors couldn't diagnose, eldest daughter had mystery headaches which turned out to be tension and pressure headaches and then caught the Norovirus).  Time just seemed to slip away.  Thankfully we have started the New Year with everyone being well.

I received a wonderful package from Chris who was my partner in Mrs Martins Christmas Angel Swap.  The North Pole Delivery was embroidered and taped onto the box she sent the goodies in.  She sent some beautifully embroidered felt items which I love.  Her work is so neat and really very beautiful.  She also sent some lovely Swiss chocolate.  I am very lucky to have had her as a swap partner as I was late sending my goodies to her because of my family's health problems.

I also received the a lovely bag and scraps from Tanya in the Scrappy Swap on flickr.

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas.  My two girls bought me a wonderful new camera so I've no excuse not to take some great photos now.  I was sick just before Christmas and they surprised me by decorating the Christmas tree as I hadn't had a chance to do it visiting the hospital.  I think they did a good job.

Fudge enjoyed his first Christmas with us.  Here he is with his Santa Paws bandana on. He's quite the handsome fellow now.

Tilly was in the wars over Christmas.  We had to take her to the vet as she had two large bites on her leg which had swollen up.  She couldn't jump up on her favourite chair so instead she settled for being on a nice quilt on the floor.

I am joining the Friday Night with Friends which Cheryl is running.  Why not join in.  My quilt group are making a crazy patch quilt in blue which we are going to auction for charity so I am hoping to get my two blocks for it sewn on Friday.

I'm going to make up a list of sewing/quilting things I hope to accomplish in 2013 and will post it over the weekend.  One of my hopes is to be better organised and to make more regular blog posts.

Best wishes everyone for 2013.

FNSI

It was Friday Night Sew in.  I was going to a play on Friday night so didn't have much time to do any sewing but I did manage to nearly finish another New York Beauty.
Here are my blocks so far.

As you can see Fudge was very interested in them.  He has commandeered one of my old quilts as his own for lying on when he is in the house and I think he might feel that this new quilt is his.

I also managed to make a felt christmas ornament but as it's for a swap and my partner might be reading this I can't show it to you until later on.

I'm also showing some photos of our weekend away at Brooklodge in Aughrim.

 This is a little private church where you can have a ceremony with family.

 This reminds me of the style of house from Gone with the Wind

 The pub (where we enjoyed a drink or two)

 This is the back of the hotel

 The old pump and trough.  They also had an old telephone box.

This is the little bridge over the stream to the church.
It was a lovely relaxing weekend away and I would go back again.

Here are some recent photos of Fudge.  As you can see he is getting bigger by the day.  He has taken this as his favourite chair (hubby is politely pushed off it if he tries to sit down)

 This is Fudge with our neighbours kitten Toby.  Toby will fillow him around outside and the two play chasing all the time.  If Fudge doesn't turn around at the door Toby will continue to cry until he does.

That's it for now.  Hope you all had a great weekend and for all those in the US I hope you had a great thanksgiving weekend.

Best wishes

Linda

Bank holiday weekend

YIPPEE!!!!!!! It's a bank holiday weekend here so a nice long weekend.  The clocks change to winter time which means we get an extra hour in bed on Sunday morning and it's also mid-term break for the schools who are off for the week.

It was FNSI yesterday.  I've been working on a 4 block wall hanging for a swap I'm in.  I need to get it finished to send away by Wednesday.

I'm away for the weekend to Brooklodge in Aughrim for the weekend ( a wedding anniversary pressie from our two girls) so I won't be near a computer.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Swaps

I've been busy making items for several swaps I'm in (over ambitious again) and looking after Fudge

 This is him asleep in the back of the car after getting one of his shots.

Here he is with Lisa.  He loves a lap to snuggle on.  He's gotten a lot bigger and cheekier.  No shoe is safe.  He knows where the press is with his food and will sit in front of it barking until someone feeds him.  We have to wait another two weeks before he can go for a walk so at the moment we can only walk him around the house.  He makes his own excersise by running around the hall and sunroom like a mad thing.  He goes so fast that he can't stop and slides around the corners.

This is the bag I've sent to Michell in the black and white bag swap.

 This is the front of the bag.  The bottom section is a row of pockets.

 The inside has a wide row of pockets at the bottom on one side and three smaller pockets nearer to the top on the other side.

 This is the back of the bag.  I really like the fabrics in it (which I picked up at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in August).

The second swap was a fabric cuff swap.  This is one of the cuffs I've made.  As I'm not sure of my partner's wrist size I've used velcro (thaty're the black circles on the left) so that she can move them to where she needs them to be).  I won't show the other one in case she looks in so it will be a surprise.

 It's mid-term break here next week for the schools and I have a couple of days off so I have to finish off
(1)  a four block (12 inches each) wall hanging (for a swap)
(2)  a hoop-la (an embroidery hoop enclosing a fabric circle) again for another swap
(3)  some surprise items for some people (NOT for a swap)
(4)  a scrappy surprise (for another swap)
(5)  some christmas (yes I did use that word) gifts for a swap.

I also bought the makings of a coat which I hope to get a start on.  I reckon if I can get one thing done each day I should get quite a bit done.

It's also the Knitting and Stitching show here in Dublin from the 1st to the 4th November.  I don't know yet which day I'll get to it but I'll be there eyeing up everything and wishing I had it all.

broken mac, winner, fnsi and fudge

First off I did a stupid thing.  I put the camera disk into the cd disk holder on my Mac.  They are so close together that I'm surprised that I haven't done it before now.  So my beloved Mac is away having surgery and I have had to resort to a backup laptop which I am struggling with as it's laid out completely differently.  Ah well, lesson learned.

Because I can't use my Mac I can't find the website that I used to download for picking out winners from the comments on my page for any giveaways so I've had to resort to good old fashioned pen and paper.  I had four comments and the winner was number 4 Judy from Knit, Quilt, Spin and Weave.  I'll send you an email Judy about your win.

It's FNSI (Friday Night Sew In) again.  Where is all my time going?  I have a swap item that I need to finish so that is what I will be doing, provided of course that Fudge lets me.  Who is Fudge I hear you ask?

Fudge is our new puppy.  A chocolate labrador who has teeth like razors, has discovered where his food is kept and will try anything to get into the press to get it.  Likes to be read to at night and loves to steal my shoes and play chase me.  He is 8 weeks old and already rules the house.  Because I put my camera disk into the cd holder on  my Mac I can't show you the picture I have of him but here is one from my daughters camera.

His full title is

Fudge Mozart Tully Bear

Fudge  because of his colour

Mozart after the lovely Mozart chocolates from Austria

Tully because he was born in Tullamore

Bear was the name that was given to him by his other family.

 

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

 

LindaC



 



The Weekend

It is a very exciting weekend for us.

Lisa and Fergus

Lisa, Fergus and his dad.

Firstly tonight my eldest daughter is at a debs with her friend.  It is his debs from his school and he asked Lisa to go with him.  They both looked great.  For some reason I am having trouble loading photos to Blogger today so I hope some of the photos comes through.

The next thing is we are going here
London 2012 paralympics

We are going to the athletics on Saturday and Sunday and I'm really looking forward to it.  We will be shouting for all the athletes but especially for any of the Irish athletes competing in the Olympic Stadium.

I will announce the winner of my recent giveaway next week.

Have a great weekend everyone.

My Memories Giveaway

I was asked recently to try out My Memories scrapbooking software.

I've just done up a couple of layouts from the templates that are already there but there are plenty of free templates that you can download as well.  I'm a bit of a newbie to digital scrapbooking but if I can do it then anybody can.

It's easy to import your photos's into the layouts.  You can also design your own layouts from scratch if you want to.  There's a lot that you can play around with (adding shadows, text, colours etc).

Due to My Memories generosity I have a copy of My Memories Suite 3 to giveaway.

I will leave the giveaway open until Sunday 27th midnight.  All you have to do is visit the My Memories website and then leave a comment here telling me which of the kits you like best.  Good luck.