More holiday crafty goodness.  Here's how the babette blanket is shaping up (these progress photos have mostly been on Twitter until now...) and my doesn't it go well with the rug???

And here's one where the Quilt Inspector has crept in:

He doesn't quite get crochet.  He tried to join in once, by chewing all my lovely wooden hooks.  All he got was a severely smacked nose  (I was rather disappointed he didn't get spinters, I must admit!)

Work in progress

So, the red quilt is coming on leaps and bounds, thanks to my new sewing machine...

This is the finished quilt top:

It's all based on log cabin blocks, with some traditional blocks in the centre, some offset log cabins in the centre of each row, and some corner blocks at each corner.  The sashing is (surprise, surprise!) Amy Butler chrysanthemum fabric. 

I'm particularly pleased with this corner block (top right corner in the photo above):

The piece at the bottom of the picture is  just a slice through log cabin corners - I like the 'plaited' effect it gives.

The offsets were simply done randomly and, again, some of them have worked out nicely:

The back uses up some left over log cabins from making the centre block, and a piece of modern (polyester) kimono I picked up at the Festival of Quilts:

The plain red was hand dyed with Jacquard Procion MX in Carmine Red, mixed with Omega Dyrect Poppy.

Here's a detail of the kimono:

Because life isn't particularly restful at the moment - and to compensate for so much red in the bedroom - I free machine embroidered an Om at the top of the kimono...

I traced the image onto a piece of sulky Solvy, and used the needle as a felt tip to colour it in, with a couple of layers of nappy liner behind to stabilise.  It's worked well, although because of the circular nature of it, it has ruckled the fabric a fair bit.  I'd have got on better if I'd used a hoop.  Must get a hoop!

Anyway, all that remains to do now is to make the backing bigger - more plain red - perhaps add some velvet to the head and foot end of the front, and put it all together... so not much work there, then!

Holiday snaps

Well, I was going to upload pictures of a lovely day spent at Lincoln cathedral with Mum and the kids, but it's such a ball ache to upload large numbers of pictures to Blogger that, instead, I shall send you to the Flickr page where I've uploaded the pictures, and commented on them. 

Holidays

Well, here we are in Lincoln, the kids, the dogs and I.  On our jolly holidays.  Only for 3 days because - well, you know - there'd be little point in reckless extravagance or unlimited enjoyment!

I have been playing with needles.  The cathartic potential of stabbing things for hours and hours, and coming out of it with a beautiful result, has recently occurred to me.  So I've been needle felting.  This is my first attempt at 'flying solo' - not a bad thing, but it could have done with a little more thinking through before hand - the design would have been better on the diagonal and the whole thing would be more useful if it were a little bit bigger.  As it is, it's an iPhone cover...

I've also been to the Festival of Quilts which was stunningly beautiful.  Some really inspiring work, there.  My particular favourites were an incredibly intricate mosaic quilt of a woman draped in a red fabric.  She was made up of tiny (3/4cm?) mosaic squares, each individually stitched on - presumably must have been bonded with something first, but it's not evident what, as all the edges were free... just a stunning piece of work!  And then the phoenix quilt, which was a beautiful blend of colour and technical skill.  The feathers are so beautifully quilted, and the tail and wings have little fiery trails of embroidery spinning out of them.  I came away feeling inspired and inadequate, in equal parts!  But, I bought a new sewing machine, so perhaps the inspiration will win out...!

And now we're at Mum's, eating and walking and doing not much.  In fact, I should go and chivvy the troops out of bed.  We're going to take a quick tour of the cathedral this morning, before bundling into the car and heading home for a visit from Dad and stepmother, tomorrow.

Obviously, I haven't died.  I'd have told you anything that exciting!  I am just, as ever, ill disciplined...

Where to start?  Hasn't the weather been glorious?!

It's been a busy time; I'm planning a restructure of two of my teams at work, which will begin next week, so large chunks of time have been spent thinking about team structures and roles and individuals and pulling together a business plan and a communication plan.  But that's there, or thereabouts, now.  The senior officers' team had a very useful awayday in Buckinghamshire recently.  Well, two days, divided by a really good meal and a wine tasting.  Was nice to spend some time with the rest of them, and I'm finally beginning to feel that I can offer my opinion without worrying whether I'm just being collossally stupid!

This morning, joy of joys, I'm off to Coventry for a speed awareness course.  Which will, I'm sure, be a useful and informative way to spend 4 hours, and not at all an extremely onerous way of avoiding points on my licence.  I question the wisdom of opting for this, actually, since I've just sold my car and aim to make do with the train and the bike for as long as I possibly can... but there you are.  There's probably a principle at stake somewhere.

I haven't been well.  On Sunday I had cystitis which, by mid afternoon, had turned to blood in my wee, and by evening a bit of wee in my blood, and a whole world of pain.  So off to A&E who were good enough to supply sympathy (really!) and antibiotics.  And a diagnosis of roaring kidney infection

So I've been phenomenally tired.  I have slept a good 18 hours, each of the last 4 days.  And still I could sleep.

Today, though, I have taken a bona fide day off sick.  It's quite sunny, outside my bedroom window, with a slight (chilly) breeze.  I thought I'd be brave, and *do* something, so I went and made a block of the red quilt.  And got two more blocks three pieces together.  Once they're finished, that's the end of the piecing for that quilt, I think - just some sashing to do and it can all be slung together (oh no!  I've just remembered the block I don't like, which will have to be remade.  But that should be straightforward).  The problem is, I have no idea how I want to quilt it.  Quilt it??  I have no idea how I want to back it!!  I have a vague notion that black and white might be nice, with the usual row of scrappy pieces, but I can't find any black and white fabric that's mostly white....  Any pointers gratefully received (any evidence of readers at all, actually!)

So then I fancied toast.  With marmite.  But there's no bread, so I wandered into town, and provisioned us.  And came home and felt tired, so have been in bed ever since.

I really want to crochet, but if I start anything new with the red quilt still incomplete, there might be trouble.  I have my eye on the babette blanket.  And there's an impending baby at work who could use a little crochet blanket like Joe's...

I'm watching some workmen instal a netting roof over the five-a-side football pitch in the park, opposite, and trying to convince myself that the dogs are *only* farting, and there's no need to pad around the house in case that horrid smell has a physical source.  And thinking about going back to sleep...

In the end, I did none of the solipsistic, moochy things that were making me so despondent, and gardened instead.  I found some poppies on special offer in the garden centre (I only went for a bag of compost) and so bought 3.  They're very beautiful, so I had fun on Monday morning, taking photos of them.

I love how my camera captures each hair on the stalks and buds.  The opening bud is still trying to shrug off its little cap, today.

Then I decided they were so beautiful I wanted to make one, so I spent half an hour in the shed with various bits of mulberry bark, crepe de chine and velvet, before admitting that the creative spark seems to have left me for a while.  Oh well...

 I also seem to have picked up one of these.  It's a bit of a triffid, with largish leaves and this lily-like flower.  I can't remember what it's called, but there was a hole just the right size for it at the back of the bed.  Which is no mean feat, considering just how little bed there is, in this garden.

So then I tied back the daffodils, and planted the bedding plants.  These are begonias, which the snails are enjoying very much, thank you...  There were also sweet williams, snapdragons, and marigolds.  I expect the snails will enjoy the marigolds, too, when they've tired of the begonias.  Oh well, I never was a huge fan of begonias.

I filled various tubs, window boxes and stray pots with geraniums.  I do like a good geranium.  And a couple of straggly tomato and strawberry plants went into the bottom of the tub with the clematis in.  I don't think they'll survive -they got rather too dry in their little plug plant pots - but it's got to be worth a try, right?

And then the aquilegia, which is actually rather coming to the end of its season, looked so stunning in its shady corner that I took a sneaky picture of that, too.

And after that, it was just a question of throwing some alpines in the front (which was just a series of gravel beds, and now has  fig tree (with 3 figs) in a large tub; some window boxes of peas, beans and tomatoes, and an extensive alpine bed.  Looks less ordered, but much nicer.