Project Shush

This is a baby blanket for a friend at work, whose baby is due imminently.  Well, yesterday, actually.  Although rather unsympathetically, I'm hoping it doesn't arrive for another three or four days as the Browne review into student fees and financing is due to report on Tuesday and life would be everso much easier if the new baby's daddy was at work, helping me to do the modelling.  Oh yes, I've got my prioirities all straight, let me tell you!

The blanket is a lovely mix of fibres.  The white is bamboo derived polyester - reflects the light beautifully and is lovely and soft, but a bit of a bugger to work, if I'm honest - the yarn splits far too easily.  The green is a mix of cashmere, merino and silk.  Not the most practical fibres for a baby blanket, perhaps, but it's washable will be lovely and warm...  All double knit, crocheted with a number 4, beech wood hook, if you're interested...

New Hair!

It's purpler than the photo shows, and for some reason (I think they think they're being kind) the children are unable to take a photo which includes my chin!

The cunning thing about this hair is that if I have the parting on the right (as pictured), it's purple on top, but if I put the parting on the left (where it normally lives) it's brown with just some purpley bits showing through - kind of night and day...!

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. 

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.

This, mes petits choux fleurs, is amongst the coolest gifts I have ever been gifted.  "Why is that?"  I hear you cry.  Well just look at it!  It's a Billy Bragg (I don't want to change the world, I'm not looking for a New England, are you looking for another girl?) autograph!  Not only is it a Billy Bragg autograph, but it's a Billy Bragg autograph written on an SWP leaflet, and collected at the Make Votes Count rally outside The Work Foundation this very afternoon.  How perfect is that?  Only very perfect!  How many years does that take you back?!  And who would give me such a perfect gift? Well, only my beloved who chose to go and rediscover his activist youth, this afternoon.  Yes, he went in search of his youth and he found Billy Bragg.  So many metaphors...

I am going to frame it, and hang it in my office, thereby firmly establishing my credentials-by-proxy.

So we went to Epsom, yesterday, to the family party.  It was one of those large events, 50 odd guests, designed to show how well my father is coping with my stepmother's new circumstances (mobility issues, dementia, high dependency and so forth), so high on emotion, tension, and stress.  It went remarkably well, but poor Dad was really struggling.

Lots of lovely people there, though - my favourite aunt and uncle; my sister, her husband and two small nephews; the dotty next door neighbour. 

In other news, a friend writes "am sure you must have more hours in your day than anyone else - which isn't fair!  Or perhaps you don't waste as much time 1) drinking 2) watching mindless tv 3) shouting at small children 4) drinking!"  So you might like to know, friend of mine, that I am sitting in front of The Daily Show (Global Edition), with a glass of wine beside me and the laptop on my lap, arguing with Daisy about whether she can stay up a bit later if she uses the time to have a shower or whether bedtime actually means bedtime NOW.  I'm just very practised at looking sober in type...

Look what I found today, in my lovely kitchen shop!  Aren't they beautiful?  They had to be tested, though, immediately.  The only recipe I could find that needed lots of mixing bowls was, unfortunately, for banana and golden syrup muffins.  So  I mashed bananas and beat eggs, and creamed butter and sugar to my heart's content. 

They didn't last very long, though, so I might have to try it again.

In other news, it has mostly rained today, and I either have a stinking cold or stinking hay fever, I can't work out which.  So I've blitzed it with lemsip and loratidine (?) and still the sneezes keep rolling in...

We have all stayed indoors, today.  My beloved has rigged up a television and freesat in the front room, so I have curled under a rug watching rubbish films on the satellite channels.  My poor son is being copiously and violently ill.  I rather suspect a migraine, but since he can't keep anything down I can't even offer paracetamol. 

Tomorrow, we have to go to my stepmother's birthday party, which will be trying.   And is a long journey.  Perhaps if small son is still copiously ill, we won't be able to make it...

So.  The apron.  It's delightfully fifties, and reversible (the other side is a white, floral Alexander Henry fabric which I will show you another time, the camera being almost as big as the photographer, today).  The ties and bodice top and waist strip are made from a lovely Alexander Henry day of the dead fabric, which there wasn't quite enough of to make the whole thing... but I love this pattern.  It's almost good enough to waltz around in wearing nothing but lingerie and high heels underneath...

And on that salubrious note, I'm going to go and cast my vote.  Do the right thing, people!

Chocolate mousse didn't go so well; failure was roundly blamed on the children but, in truth, I'm not sure it wholly belonged there. 

Still, it will probably taste good.  It's currently in the fridge, setting, and I am tempted to make some meringues, to go with it, just to prove that I *can* keep the bubbles nice and light and delicious.

And there was the consolation of 10 egg yolks that needed not to be thrown away.  Egg yolks which, as it happened, whipped up very nicely to make eggy bread.  What do you call eggy bread?  When I was little it was french toast, but that's something else these days.  At Uni, it was universally referred to as Tinkers' toast, but I'm not sure that's sufficiently enlightened to be encouraged.  Anyway, we had eggy bread (with golden syrup trickled on top) for brunch, and then I took my temper out to the shed.

The shed is a place of gloriousness.  In fact, it's two sheds in one.  The back door leads to a bike storage/general shed.  The front door (and windows) though are mine.  All mine!  It is my retreat from family life (and failed chocolate mousses).  It is a fully insulated, boarded and decorated room in the garden.  I have electricity, light and heat.  It is my atelier cum office (cum retreat from failed chocolate mousses).  Often, I make quilts and clothes in it.  Today, I am mostly making an apron. 

This image is very cleverly (if I say so myself) stitched together with a tool called Double Take which you can find here - I rather stupidly moved the chair half way through taking the pictures (contrary to the fisheye impression, the inside of the shed is a very tight space, not always conducive to spinning round taking pictures!).  I have lots of fabric storage under the cutting table on the right, and you can just see a little pressing board on top of the cutting table at the back.  The white blob just above the floor and under the laptop is an overlocker, and the main sewing machine is in the sewing cabinet on the left.  The zig zag shelves hold all my paper dressmaking patterns, and cunning thread storage boxes, while the book cases (there are two of them at right angles) hold books, magazines, art materials and so on.  My shed is truly a place of wonder.  And peace!

And that's enough for one day.  There may be a photo of the apron, later.  But there may not!

Coffee in the morning, when work doesn't beckon me early out of my bed, is one of my favourite times of day.  I am recently re-acquainted with the joys of the Bialetti stove-top coffee maker; and it's fast re-become one of my favourite things.  I can show you it this morning, thanks to a manic splurge of housework at about 9pm yesterday when a couple of friends texted to say could they come for a nightcap, since they were at the restaurant down the road.  Well, of course they could!  Friends always welcome!  But the house was a tip... about 45 minutes later, it was presentable, and I'd even put my makeup on.  And then they texted to say service was slow, and perhaps they'd better go straight home and rescue the babysitters!  Oh well, this morning we reap the benefit of a lovely clean house.

So, another blog.  If it only lasts half as long as the last one - no, I'm not going to link, those of you who know it do, those of you who don't, won't.  Anyway, if it lasts half as long as the last one, that'll be good going.

This will, I suspect, be mostly a rambling about things I'm making.  Which, today, will be chocolate mousse.  But since I haven't got started yet, here are some pictures of the very lovely creatures who inspired the blog name...

 This is Silas.  He's 8.  Or possibly 9.  I'm not so good with chronology.  He is, as you see, a faithful friend - mostly Border Terrier with a little Lakeland throwback, he is the sweetest natured, most obedient dog I have ever known.  Unfortunately, he is also hairy.  Very hairy.  And blonde.  Very, very blonde.  This is not always a good combination of traits.

This is Beano.  He's 8 months.  He is young, and bouncy, and very inquisitive - hence the odd camera angle and mischievous light in his eye.  He is a Lancashire Heeler, and while we love him very much, he has a lot to learn!  Although in the last few days we have made excellent progress with the "not climbing onto Mum & Dad's bed" rule.  *sigh*...

And this is Jip.  We don't know so much about her, as she's a rescue dog.  I got her in 2006, and think she was 8 then, so 12ish now.  We think she's also a Lancashire Heeler - or mostly.  She was a very unsettled dog when she first arrived, but is now sweet natured and loving.  But it was hard work!

And later, there will be chocolate mousse.  Which I'd better get on with!