{quilt} while you're ahead

68** - cap-sleeved top -

So.... next week is half-term... the kids will be home, Mr M will be away and the school year is almost over...how did that happen?  Didn't I just put away the Christmas decorations? (almost true.  There's a roll of wrapping paper behind my door).  I still have some Easter chocolate (true) and I'm still wearing woolly jumpers (true!! blasted weather).

And now they're telling me the summer holidays are just around the corner.  

No way.

I'm not buying it.

I have so many things to tell you I don't know where to start.

 

- Let's enjoy these tulips I found in a tucked away corner of the park first.

- I finished two items of clothing, a crochet shawl (awaiting blocking) and a mini quilt.  Yes, I know my windows needs cleaning, but my kids are fed and are wearing clean clothes so that's ok, right?

- I read "Il Postino" by Antonio Skarmeta.  Really cute story.  Can you believe I've never seen the movie?

- No 1 has been abducted by aliens and replaced with another 12yr old who showers everyday without being reminded, does his homework as soon as he comes through the door and has been known to volunteer to clear the table after dinner.  It's kind of scary. (And I know it won't last, he'll be returned to me very soon).

- But first things first.

The cap-sleeved top from Simple Modern Sewing.

It promised to be a quick project and buoyed by my success with the Tova pattern I was full of good expectations.... only it turned out to be slightly more work than I thought.  Thank you Ali for responding with such patience to my many frantic text messages!

I started off with on wrong foot when I traced the wrong pattern.  Doh.  Far too long in the body it was.  Attempt no 2 was slightly better but still too long in the body:

I felt frumpy in it.

I even tried to disguise the problem with my magic cardigan (it makes everything better, it does!) but still.... meh!

So back I went upstairs and chopped another two inches from the top part and added some Liberty bias binding to the high waist to give it some visual umph.

Of course I didn't have enough of the binding to make the ties as the book suggested so I made a loop on one side instead.

What could have taken a day ... dragged on for dayS instead and I almost binned the whole lot a few times.  The book has lovely ideas but it's very economical with directions.  "Now make sleeves" is just an example, and if I hadn't 'learnt the ropes' with my Tovas I would have been well and truly up **** creek.

I haven't even been able to wear the thing as the weather here has u-turned to winter mode... so I can't comment on the wearability factor.  Stay tuned.

67*2018 - scrap quilt -

I tried to resist the call of all the wonderful scrap quilts out there... but I knew from the beginning it was a futile effort.

My sister has claimed it for herself.

Sigh.

I guess with all the babysitting she does she's probably earned it.

All the material came from my stash and I wish I can say it made a big dent ... bit it didn't.

60" x 60".

 

66**2013 - Lecien cushions -

For the boys.

Long overdue project.

The gorgeous Lecien fabric was bought in Tokyo last August.

Ahem ahem.

 

What are you all doing this weekend?  I'm heading to the Malvern Quilt Show tomorrow and then flop with the family on Sunday. 

65**2013

For years I didn't have any green plants in the house. 

Flowers, yes.  Always.  

Plants? None.  Now something is changing; maybe it's an age thing, perhaps it's just that it is so cold and grey outside that having green inside feels good.

Who knows.

(Biscuits are nice too)

64**2013

Thirteen years.

Lucky me!

63**2013 - Nani Iro / Tova dress -

Neither the dress or the fabric need any introduction so I'm going to let the photos do all the talking.

The only modification I did was in the collar.  I used the directions for the Wiksten tank collar and I'm really happy.  So happy that I've already worn it once and can't wait for this nasty weather to go away to wear it again.

Sewing with double gauze was a bit tricky (actually I found the hardest part was accurately cutting the pattern pieces...) but it feels wonderful on and drapes just the right amount.

My two new wardrobe additions... any other pattern you can recommend?

62**2013

If you ask your son to decorate a pie...

make sure your brief is tight and doesn't leave room to interpretation...

or you could end up eating Homer Simpson's head.

61**2013

Bank Holiday Monday.

Incredible sunny warm weather.

We went for a long walk.

4 miles around the beautiful countryside around Sudeley Castle. (oh yeah, and a rewarding drink at the end, of course)

Perfect.

60**2013 - mending -

It is a beautiful day and I should be sitting outside sipping a latte and putting the world to right in excellent company .

But I'm not.

A sick child irrupted in my room at 5.05am announcing to the world he was about to be REALLY sick.

He wasn't.  

Well he did, but later on in the morning.... but that's something you really don't want to know.

My children have an uncanny ability to get sick on the most inconvenient of times and so the lovely plans were scampered and I donned my Florence Nightingale's costume instead.

Not really.

What I did - a part from offering lots of encouraging words, mopping up the bathroom floor (don't ask), and back up three years worth of photographs was to mend one of my favourite tops ever by covering ruined fabric with small crochet motifs:

It'll do for a bit longer now.

 

 

59**2013

Wordless Wednesday

 

 

 

58**2013

"Time for school, time to get up!!!"

... or not...

 

57**2013

Last week:

- I became a British Citizen

I swore my allegiance to the Queen in a ceremony in the local town hall.

No 3 was expecting the Queen herself to attend (actually when I picked him up off school he thought we were heading for Buckingham Palace...) but he soaked up the whole thing like a sponge nonetheless.

What a wonderful age 7 is.  He asked me afterward: "Mum, now that you are half English... does this mean that I become 1/4 Italian?".  Sweet.

No 2 was worried about missing cricket club and No 3 was just happy to have missed any school at all.  Philistines.

- Last week I also had an art session at school making felt with 7yr olds.  Mayhem.

Chaos.  Anarchy.  BUT they produced some really really cool 'landscapes' and had lots of fun, which in the end it is all that matters.  We used this method here.

"Is this real wool from a real sheep? ... I've never seen a blue sheep".

Oh dear.  City kids.

- I made Palmiers.  And ate lots of Palmiers too.  Couldn't be helped.

(basically I got a store-bought pack of rolled puff-pastry... covered in granulated sugar pressing the sugar into it with a rolling pin, folded the lot, sliced it and baked it.  Totally and dangerously delicious)

- And last but not least, I received in the post the most beautiful spoon rest in the whole wide world:

I bought it on Etsy from this shop.

Love it.

A lot more happened last week... the last hockey tournament, the last rugby session... Mr M and I went to a ball, my sister bought a  car and I lost 2lb (hurray)... I am reading "Wolf Hall' and am loving it. Hope you had a good one too.

 

56**2013 - Tova top -

The pattern has been sat on my shelf for what...two years? and then last week I finally took the plunge...

I cut the pattern pieces, studied the instructions, and over the course of a few days...

the ubiquitous and fabulous TOVA top emerged.

I used a light cotton fabric I bought in Italy during the Easter break.  I think it's French... but don't quote me on it, it's just something the guy in the shop said.  The selvedge was blank.

I'm very pleased with it!  I did it in a medium size and it fits perfectly even if it's not perfect... my gathering isn't brilliant (must practice 'gathering') and I'm not in love with the collar.  I think I'll try a simple bias binding doo-dah next time.  I also made it much shorter than the pattern suggested because it originally sat right on my hips and between you and me highlighting the widest part of one's body it is never a good thing.

(obligatory awkward self-portrait)

I will sew more Tovas, they're very wearable..  I have a Liberty fabric and an unknown voile that should be  just the ticket... stay tuned.

55**2013

Randomly.

Because it's Monday.

Because today I went running for the 2nd time in three years (both times in the past week, it's not that it takes me that long to recover!) and everything hurts.

Because I've spent the past three hours cleaning and tidying and I find it quite mind numbing...

See? running shoes.

I can't stop eating tomatoes.

On rice cakes and a veil of mayonnaise.

And those have got nothing to do with it but are my new shoes and they are beautiful soft and comfortable. (gosh I'm so pale).

if you give your children a blue slushy what comes out the other end... it's not blue but green. Bright green.  It frightened No 3 to death (he called me crying from the toilette, "mum my pooh is green!").  Sorry a bit TMI but quite funny.  I'll call it a life lesson; blue things are not meant to be eaten!

Talking of blue...

the sun has finally graced us with its presence. 

Feeeels good.

And you know what else feels good?

a bright patch on a boring dish towel.

 

Have a good week people.

 

54**2013 - Homin Shawl -

When I started this shawl dinosaurs still roamed the earth.

Seriously.

Then it stayed in hybernation for the whole of the last Ice Age.

Naturally though once I got it out from the bottom of the basket it got finished really quickly (why does that always happen?)

And it's not because I don't like the pattern, I do.  I still do... it's just that me and this pattern just didn't get along.  I was a cuddly herbivor apatosaurus and the pattern was a bit of a grumpy t-rex.  We weren't meant to be together.  I just couldn't memorise the thing, didn't make sense, I was counting stitches EVERY line and that gets tedious after a while, I tell you. T-rex 1 - apatosaurus 0.

Then I fretted about not having enough yarn so I started striping the garter stitch only to have LOADS of yarn left over at the end.  Of course. T-rex 2 - apatosaurus 0.

And during a senior moment I knitted a purl row, for reasons totally unknown to humankind, in the middle of the main part; can you see it?  I CAN!!!

The technical details are few and far between.  I've lost all the yarn bands, all I know that the border was knitted with a hand dyed yarn bought at Loop and the other one is alpaca. And who knows what size needles....

The pattern  by Gudrun Johnston is really lovely.  Don't let my stupidity get in the way.

53**2013 - No 3's new quilt -

No 3's room has been repainted recently and his old quilt just didn't fit anymore.

Oh dear.  What a shame...

Not.

I love this range of fabric and luckily so did he.  

Velocity by Jessica Hogarth purchased some from here and some - serendipitously - at the Birmingham Quilt Festival last August.

Simple squares because let's face it... it's busy enough.

I used quilter's dream wadding for the first time - I normal go for warm and natural - and I must say I was impressed.  Lovely stuff.

There.  Ready for the boy to come home from school.

 

52**2013

No 2 had to choose his favourite painter and creat art using him/her as inspiration.

Of course he didn't choose Monet or Picasso or some quiet pencil drawing artist... oh no.... he went for Jackson Pollock.

And of course No 3 followed in its steps.

After a few timid attempt at his splashing methods (read: paint everywhere) we moved the whole production outside.

(before you choke on the fact that I let my child paint with a white top... it's a very old stained white top that was rescued on its way to the bin!)

Here they could let the Pollock inside them go wild.

And wild it went...

Move over Jackson.

52**2013

No 2 had to choose his favourite painter and creat art using him/her as inspiration.

Of course he didn't choose Monet or Picasso or some quiet pencil drawing artist... oh no.... he went for Jackson Pollock.

And of course No 3 followed in its steps.

After a few timid attempt at his splashing methods (read: paint everywhere) we moved the whole production outside.

(before you choke on the fact that I let my child paint with a white top... it's a very old stained white top that was rescued on its way to the bin!)

Here they could let the Pollock inside them go wild.

And wild it went...

Move over Jackson.

51**2013 - crochet t-shirt -

1) I wanted a carry-with-me project for the Easter holidays

2) I wanted it to be a crochet project

3) Using yarn I had in my stash

4) Using a pattern I had in the collection

The pattern is called Flori T and I found it in an old copy (May last year) of Inside Crochet.  Sometimes my hoarding 'skills' are useful.

If you can see the Ravelry link you would have spotted the bright crochet flowers are missing from my version.  I'm afraid I'm not a 'bright crochet flower on my sweater' type person, plus I really like it as it is.

I used 7 or 8 (can't remember exactly as I lost the bands.... sorry) balls of Katia Linen, color 5.

3mm crochet.

It's slightly stiff at the moment but I'm sure that the linen will soften with a bit of wear.

The weather is shocking at the moment and I can't find a room in the house where taking decent photos.  Plus No 3 was not in a helpful mood and you have no idea how much dealing has been gone on for him to take the above shot.... I can't afford to have him taking more!

 

50**2013

Book Wednesday.

Haven't finished it yet... but it's promising, after all the protagonist is a quilter!