..................When your hubby is home.

Yes Hubby came home Wednesday evening so I didn't get much time on the computer. I kept up with blogs and emails but that's it really. So what have I been doing.

Well I've made another block in the Moonlit Garden BOM



That just leaves one more to do and I've caught up

I've also finished Samba from the Dancing with Stars BOM



Apart from the connecting blocks I'm caught up with this one. Speaking of connecting blocks I did make three a few months back



But I managed ...

As I mentioned in my last post I've been getting my self organised, quilting wise. Now my How To works for me but it might not work for you. My system has evolved over the last two years into what I'm sharing with you today.
Aswell as Quilting it also takes into account the dreaded housework.
So first up we have the Quilting System.

Now I have a folder which lists all ( and I do mean ALL) my quilt projects under the headings of

• To finish/Bind
• To Quilt
• WIPS
• UFO's
• To Start/Kits
• Finished

Each quilt ...

Because my camera has decided that it doesn't want to play anymore.

Not much sewing yesterday as it was my clean the house day. I also spent a big part of the day working on refining my organisation plan that I will share later in the week.

I've kept up to date with the Batik BOM with block 9 now done



I'm also half way through the next block for the Dancing with Stars BOM and I've cut out, but not sewn another 8 pointed star. So far I'm on course for finishing early for ...

My darling daughter managed to download a virus onto her lap top on Saturday. Lots of pics of porn and adverts for Viagra. Lovely. So I spent ALL, and I do mean ALL Saturday trying to sort it out. Now my way of working on a computer is the " lets do this and see what happens" and I'm not really sure what I'm doing. It wasn't helped by the fact that my security package didn't even acknowledge that I had a problem. ( one vicious email went their way so they'll soon know). In the end ...

Well those of you who follow me on Facebook ( Gina Smith if anyone else is interested - profile photo's an orangutan) will know that I've not been feeling at my best this week. I woke up Wednesday with a throat and ear infection, aches and pains and fever and chills. Everybody say Aaahhh. Thank you. As a result I haven't got that much to show you this post. I am feeling better now though and much to everyone's delight (not) my voice is back.

I have started the Wedding quilt. I'm hand piecing it so it ...

Well after 2 days of sewing ( both of them spent in my PJ's ) I've finally finished Rose Trellis.



and a close up


It needs a bloody good iron and then I can sort out some backing for it. I should be sandwiching it sometime this week ready to start quilting on the weekend. It's turned out larger than I envisaged. It quite happily sits on my double bed so I think it'll be down to the floor on mum's spare single bed. Oh well, the bed never gets used anyway so it'll hide all ...

Well I've managed to get all the small blocks together into 28 large blocks.



I've now started sewing them together with the wider sashing ( 1.5") to make the rows. It will be 4 x 7 .

Here's the first ( and only at the moment ) row put together with the sashing.


Only another 6 more to go and then I can border it.

After a week of rain the forecast is fine for tomorrow so I'll be working in the garden. The weeds are taking over and I have a load of general tidying up to do ...

As my friend Sue says I don't like to make things easy for myself.

I opened up EQ this morning to check some sizes for my Rose Trellis quilt and had a brainwave and redesigned it all.

It's gone from this



to this




As you can see a completely different look. What you can't see on the EQ mock up though is the very narrow sashing between each block. A quarter of an inch finished size.



and the few I've managed to finish this morning



As the blocks edges are on the bias I'm not ...

(Or in my case Friday Day)



Yes I'm finally taking part in the Friday Night Sew In.  My aims today, after a few bits of housework, are

• Machine and hand sew the binding on Shellie's runner/topper
• sash the blocks together on Rose Trellis
• Border Rose Trellis

That should keep me busy inbetween dog walking and cooking dinner. Hubby is due home tonight some time so when he gets here will be the signal to stop machining and start the hand sewing. I won't be able to show you the topper/runner as that's a surprise ...

I started pulling the fabric together for the 'No sleep between now and Christmas' quilt.( or the wedding quilt as it's really known as). I wasn't looking forward to it as I needed 8 metres of the ivory background fabric and as even plain fabric is in between £8 and £15 a metre ( or US$14 - US$23) neither was my bank balance. Anyway on the weekend I had to go to our local haberdashers to pick up some zips. This is a shop attached to a Upholstry fabric producers and they sell fabric cheaply. Unfortunately it's ...

Well I've finished all the blocks I need for the Rose Trellis quilt. Mum and I are off to the LQS on Thursday so she can buy the sashing and border fabric needed. I'm doing the Friday Night Sew In  this week so guess what I'll be doing?

I've finally settled on a quilt design for my cousin and her new husband. As I knew I wouldn't come even close to getting one done for her wedding I said I'd make a quilt for Christmas for them.I designed a nice double bed sized ...

Well I managed a few hours doing my Christmas sewing. I spent so much time trying to decide what to make that I didn't have much time to actually sew.

First up I made a Lazy Girls Runaround bag for the lady I walk Stan with. She's always fancied mine so when I saw this fabric in my stash I thought of her.



While I was looking for the instructions for the bag I came across this pattern which I had forgotten about



I decided to make this as a table runner for Christmas for us.


All I ...

My friend Sue of Quilt Times is having a Christmas Quiltalong starting today.


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The idea is to have one day a month, normally the second Saturday, where you concentrate on your sewing for Christmas. As you know I'm not a Christmas person really but I thought it would be a good excuse to make a start  ( and hopefully finish) on some prezzies.
If you are interested in joining in either this month or next then pop over and say hi. There's a Mr Linky thing so you can see all the rest of the bloggers taking part. Apparently ...

We needed batteries for our canopy remote controls. They are the coin cell batteries that you get in watches but they are alot bigger and I was having trouble tracking them down. I finally found them on the website of an electrical wholesalers not far from where we live. So off Gem and I went.

Well we got to the shop and when I walked in I noticed a big sign saying TRADER'S ONLY. Ok I thought but surely they'll still sell me two batteries so undeterred in I went.

Well what a performance. I had to make ...

After working on my parents garden yesterday morning and then weeding and dead heading in mine yesterday afternoon, I finally got around to doing some sewing.

I'm now up to 68 out of the 110 blocks I need for my Rose Trellis Quilt. I've actually cut out enough to make 116 blocks so I've got a few left overs just in case some of them don't turn out that well.



When they are all done I'm going to use a narrow sashing between them because although you can't sew the alternative blocks together and ...

Well here's one of the BOM's I've caught up with.

Block 6



Block 7


Unfortunately the blocks don't appear to be named. They are great fun to do though and I'm loving the colours in the quilt more and more. One more block and then all the centre blocks will be done. As you can hopefully see from the photo of the finished quilt though there's still alot of work to do on it.



Apart from the very outer border it's all pieced. The sashings are flying geese and the outer corners are ...

Do you remember I said that I bought a load of fabric while I was away. Well I've finally got round to taking pics of it for you to see. They are all metre pieces.

First up we have some pinks and a green that I'm thinking of using in the quilt for my cousin that got married last weekend.



I couldn't resist this fabric. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. Maybe a new bag.


These may get used for a quilt that I've got in the back of ...

I've been on You Tube and found a Video of some one pronouncing Llanfair PG ( as we call it in Wales).

Just for the record I can pronounce it but it is very difficult to write Welsh how it's supposed to be spoken as there's alot of throat work . You'll understand when you see the video.



If you are interested the translation is

' the Church of St Mary's in the hollow of the white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St Tysilio's of the red cave.'

I bet you're sorry you asked ...

I promise this won't be like last year when it took me a week to show all my holiday photos. I've just uploaded a selection of the hundreds that I took.

Here's a few of my favourites

From the Sea Life centre in Scarborough

A huge tank of Jellyfish ( I feel a quilt coming on)


and a rescued Sea turtle

and some Sea Dragons

The Shambles in York, a very narrow street of old shops



All the way to York to see a sign for the longest placename in the world ( and it's Welsh.) We went ...

Yes girls I'm back from holidays refreshed and raring to go. I've caught up with the gardening and the housework and nearly all the laundry. I've now got to tame the mess in my sewing room. It seems to have multiplied over the last few weeks.
I've sorted out my photos and just about caught up with my emails. The blog reading is another story. I'll get finished eventually so bear with me.

I'll leave you with some photos of my gorgeous cousin and her new husband. We said we couldn't get to ...

I'm going to be absent for a few weeks. We're off on the family holiday on Saturday for a fortnight and then hubby has a nother week off straight away. The laptop is staying home so I won't be online at all in the first two weeks and rarely in the third week.

Rest assured though I will be back and boring you all to deathwith my holiday snaps. I bet you can't wait.

See you all eventually.

Great packages from the Postman this morning.

First up the reason that my daughter has declared her love for my friend Shellie. 

A couple of weeks ago I happened to mention on Facebook that I had fallen in love with the fluffy flip flops that I saw on there. After a bit of chatter between myself and Shellie in which it was established that I was useless at crochet, she kindly volunteered to make a pair for me and the daughter. Well they came this morning.

SCARY PHOTO ALERT

I got Lime Green



And daughter got blue. Please ignore the ...