Blood and Bandages...

In an attempt to cheer myself up a little after a pretty rubbish day yesterday; no shows, sad news and crap weather to top it off; I flung myself into my July Bee blocks last night.

'Do what you like', Judith said; 'I like this', Judith said, 'OMFG', I said!!

With a bucketful of trepidation I cut into the lovely Oakshotts, in red and cream, with only a bit of a plan and these are what I came up with...  (It was very windy and I didn't want to have to retrieve the blocks from the neighbour's tree, hence the accessories)...

I have been able to post about these early, as Judith doesn't really want any repeats and has given us her blessing and I am pretty pleased with the results, so I am not going to keep quiet am I?  Now I just have to whip up a siggy block; but I'll keep that a secret for Judith.

I got my Japanese swap charms in the post today, so I am crossing off a lot of this week's 'To Do' list, and look what I washed today...

..twice, 6 colour catchers (thanks Cindy!) and I started cutting it belatedly for the Kaleidoscope QAL - a double whammy, as it'll gain me another tick if I can face cutting the rest!

Apologies I haven't got round to replying to all your recent comments, but for all those who gave the D9P a big thumbs up for my mum, thank you.  I will get on to it at the weekend, I promise, (ballet-free at long last!).

Lucky Strike...

Sonny boy's school was closed today due to the teachers being on strike, and had I not 'volunteered' to take a day's leave to look after him, I would of had to either strike myself or run the gauntlet of the picket line at work, so despite fearing for a retirement in poverty, it didn't stop me living for the here and now!

We took a trip to town for a late breakfast, and I obviously had birthday money burning a whole in my pocket!  We went to The Sewing Machine Shop, although the birthplace of my new machine I had not ventured inside before; do not even ask why, I have no response to that, other than I had badly misjudged this book by it's cover!  From the outside it is crammed with every sewing machine, over-locker and embroidery gadget ever made; and when trawling the internet for a good price on my chosen machine, this was not only one of the best deals, but a local shop for local people.  The website mentioned a fabric section, hubby didn't look when he went to collect, I needed to know.

The basement was an Aladdin's cave especially for Moda pre-cuts and I got to touch a real-life Go Cutter!

You know me by now, I couldn't leave empty handed and hurt Gavin's feelings.  I was rubbing my hands with glee when I found this Central Park layer cake under a pile of traditional prints, and I had to get a couple of skinny quarters...  just because they were there!

We popped to the usual fabric emporium, I needed some felt for a new needle book swap I have joined on flickr, and a few other bits and pieces and that was me done.

Well, until we got home...

My parcel and instructions for the July Bee blocks from Judith have arrived.  I say 'instructions' in the loosest sense of the word.  2 FQs of Oakshott solids and the use of my imagination!  Oh boy!

Also awaiting me was this charm pack from Quilttaffy in the US...

Summer House by Lily Ashbury.  It is part of my Kaleidoscope quiltalong plan which I will be perfecting this evening.

So now I am off to cut 400 triangles, and that doesn't include the solid which I only ordered last night!

Apologies if I appear to be ignoring your blogs - Blogger has been on strike too making commenting a bit hit and miss!

PS. Some of my parcels have reached their destinations... more on that soon x

It's getting hot in here...

...hence sewing in the south-facing conservatory was not high up my list of things to do earlier today!

But as the temperature dropped, I followed the manual and duly learnt how to fill a bobbin, thread the machine and auto-thread the needle!!  I even got to play with some of the fancy-schmancy stitches!!

OK it's only a start, but I've been making the needle go up and down and cut the threads at the touch of a button and going 'pedal-free', now that's bizarre.  So all is good, I am still very very happy!

I spent the earlier part of the evening making up parcels, lots of parcels!  It's the Brit Quilt Swap mailout later in the week - how excited am I to get mine on it's way to it's rightful owner!  So here's the last chance to see it here party-partner...

... next stop, your doormat!  Well, maybe the Postie's hand, as it's a big parcel (see those little extras too) and I'll send it recorded delivery!

Well now the birthday is over, I have some serious sewing to attend to - big Mystery block awaiting attention, tiny Farmer's Wife blocks to catch up on and the Kaleidoscope quilt and Japanese Swap fabric to cut... busy busy... the teacher's are definitely still striking right?!