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!

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!