Siblings Together Quilt

Siblings Together Quilt

This is a photo heavy post as I could not resist taking advantage of our beautiful location at Camusdarach Beach, Arisaig on the West Highland Coast of Scotland.

Camusdarach Beach, Arisaig, site of the photo shoot

This quilt has been a long time in the making. It began when Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet hosted a Row along back in 2012 and I decided from the beginning that this would be a quilt I made for a charity. It all went well for a while and then life got in the way and the Row along finished. This time last year I inexpertly pieced the rows together in anticipation of finishing the quilt. However various bits of life got in the way and it was only about a month ago after see all the quilts popping up for Siblings Together that I decided to get down to work. You can find out about the charity and the great work done by Lilysquilts by following this link for Siblings Together. When it came to finishing up the quilt I didn't have the information for the rows (as the row along was finished) so I decided to make mine up, three failed attempts - that I shared on Instagram - and I just went with patchwork squares. I used scraps to make the quilt.

On the rocks with the Island of Skye in the distance

My other problem was that the white I used for the background was finished and I had no idea what colour of white it was. After various fruitless searches I admitted defeat and decided to add the Riley Blake dots top and bottom and for the binding. The backing is a solid green teal and was bought for another partly finished quilt but it can wait.

Back of the quilt

Quilting this pushed my very limited skills. I first quilted horizontal lines along the white sashing and then the smaller rows. I decided to try quilting just inside the shapes to define them and add some interest to the back.

Closer view of the quilting and a huge sandcastle made by someone with a great deal of time on their hands

It took ages and was a real wrestling match between me, the machine and the quilt but it was so much easier on my new Janome and I used variegated aurifil thread which was fantastic. This is the first time I have sewn sitting down since the back operation and it went well. I've almost stopped all pain meds and have so much more mobility which is fantastic and something I couldn't even imagine 3 months ago.

We are currently on holiday at my favourite place, Camusdarach beach, Arisaig and there have been some wonderful sunny days and some very wet days which has not been a problem as I'm able to sew for as long as I want.  I have made progress with my English paper piecing and some of the stars are now cushions which I will post in a separate blog post.

At the dunes

There have been some spectacular sunsets, the photo below was taken at the White Sands of Morar.

Morar Bay

Thank you for dropping by and if you want to see some of my work in progress and photos of Jaspar the daft labrador you can find me on Instagram as Salamanda001.

Growing and Sewing

Chillis, peppers and aubergine

It's been a better week this week, or I'm more able to deal with stress, Lens Guy built my new Greenhouse for me and I've had fun moving my plants from the house to the greenhouse. It came with a complicated automatic window opening vent which caused much cussing and head scratching and trying to read poor written  instructions. Middle son came to the rescue and now it is on and works. I came home from work, on the hottest day so far, hitting 21degrees which is very warm for Scotland, and it was wide open and magically as it got colder it closed. Simple things give me pleasure! I find it incredibly soothing to potter about with plants and seeds and then hopefully eat the results,of my pottering.

You need to imagine a beautiful wooden bench in front of the Greenhouse to replace the plastic chairs once budget allows. I tried to take a better photo and it began to rain...

By this point Jaspar was looking at me as if I was very mad.

I have radishes, beet root, runner beans, sweet corn and peas sprouting and I have planted lots of lettuce,rocket, kale, garlic and spinach in the raised beds. In the greenhouse I have tomatoes, chillis, peppers, cornichons, aubergine, basil and coriander. When I asked Lens Guy what he would like me to grow he was against onions as he remembers them being too much work as a child but wanted lots of salad leaves and radishes. He is not convinced by the Curly Kale as he remembers feeding it to the sheep on the farm and the same with Turnips. For those that don't know, Lens Guy is my photographer husband, who grew up on a large farm in Dumfries and Galloway. He has mixed memories about living on a farm and used to entertain our children with stories of crashing the tractors (frequently) milking cows and herding sheep which surprised our city loving kids. A few years ago we were in the car with my in laws and our youngest daughter pointed to a hair bend turn on the road and loudly said, "That is where daddy crashed Nana's mini when he was taking Uncle Robin and Auntie Rachel to school." In the silence and shock that followed she realised that this had been a secret from Granny and Granpa.  We all have those.  My parents were very confused when they moved from our family home to find a collection of road cones, signs and other souvenirs collected by my irresponsible teenage self and younger brother. I had forgotten all about them, we probably blamed my youngest sister.

I have managed some sewing this week which always helps. I have completed two more Rose Stars.

and have been working on my Sibling's Together quilt. I began this a long time ago when Lori Holt held her Bee in A Bonnet sewalong. I joined this to try and improve my skills and push myself and decided that this would be a quilt made from scraps for Sibling's Together. When everything ground to a halt last year it lay abandoned in my cupboard, until I took it out briefly last summer to piece the rows I had together and then abandoned it again as the rows were different lengths and needed some fixing.
Another reason was that the  Row along had finished and the instructions were no longer available and I had no more of the white background material. I had no idea what it was and attempts to buy more now means I have 3 types of white material. (I have learned from this and now hold onto receipts with descriptions of material in case I need to order more). when I organised my scraps I cut a whole lot of 2 1/2" squares and triangles using my Sizzix. I decided scrappy rows of squares would work and added then top and bottom. On IG it was suggested I try another flying geese row. I had some grey crosshatch by Carloyn Frielander and after some very dodgy maths and various mistakes I found this site for calculating geese. I made a few geese, losing some points along the way and some triangles to my needle plate, auditioned them and have now decided it just looks wrong with grey. I will try totally scrappy geese or another row of squares but need to get a move on as deadlines are looming.

 This seems wrong

The geese seem to,grey as everything else has a white background

Perhaps leave and finish might be the best option.

I can then cross off another project of my WIP but it seems to be growing. I have to quilt my scrappy trip a long which is all basted but ignored as so big; make Lens Guy a quilt with solids and Tim Holt's Eclectic Elements; continue with mum's QAYG blocks; make something quilty for a friend's daughter heading to Uni in September that is gothic, quirky and probably Alexander Henry meets Harry Potter; make another EPP cushion for daughter as she loves the first one; learn to put in zips so I can make myself some bags; produce a baby quilt for a baby due in August; and on it goes but all fun and I'm not going to worry about deadlines.

Missing for a while

Blocks for Scrappy Trip finished and now it needs a border as not quite wide enough but I don't have enough material
for 6 more blocks, finished block size is 14 inches a 7 x 7 squares.

Yes I've been away and my explanation plus some suitably random photographs follows.
It's been ages since I last blogged and really it is just because work and family seem to have taken up all my time. For those of you who pop in from time to time the main reason has been mum. Following last year's falls, hip replacement, infection and removal of hip mum went back to hospital in the beginning of March  after 20 weeks with no hip. All was well for a week and then unfortunately she fell in hospital, as her care was not what it should have been, and fractured her femur in the same leg as hip replacement. And now... I don't really know apart from fact she will never walk properly without a zimmer and the next few months are crucial if she is ever to get home and be independent again. I am someone who likes to be in control of their life and it just ain't happening. We are currently trying to get our house ready for sale as whatever happens we need to be nearer than a hour's drive away as I am exhausted with work, hospital visits etc and then a long drive and several times have found myself on the motorway several junctions down from where I should be and not really sure how it happened and that is scary.

I have not had much time to sew or journal but have finished my trip along blocks and now creating a border and I have made some cushions. As I do not have enough material (or the money to buy more) I am thinking of a border along these lines...

The cushions are part of the tidying the house up project

 Envelope backs as not tried zips yet and needed to use walking foot to sew this heavy chenille material.

Luckily I have a wonderful sister who lives at the other end of the country and she came up this week to let me get away for a 5 day break. I brought no craft things and have slept and read and am now ready to go back to work and battle with hospitals etc. I have decided I need to find time to craft and blog as it allows me to escape into my own world.

Fingers crossed I will be back blogging and sewing and thank you to those people that emailed and asked if all was well. It could be a whole lot worse and I am sure life will resolve into new patterns.

What else happened?

In March Lens Guy and I went to Oxford for our oldest son's graduation and this is a very rare photo of us and in smart clothes too.

Doing the proud mother thing.

It was our youngest daughter's birthday this month and she has always complained that because I was working when she was growing up she never got homemade cakes unlike her older siblings who had me at home some of the time. Usual family guilt trip so I decided to make her a cake without any of the proper moulds. It tasted lovely but oldest sone said it looked rude. Can't imagine what he meant.

The houses in my Sibling's Together Quilt I am making through Bee in a Bonnet QAL but I am way behind.
Apologies for long and random posting but was trying to catch up on recent events.

Strip along a wrong...I can't count

Corrected block, spot the error below. I've just edited this page and I didn't spot this error with photos - time to rest I think...

I had planned to go to the EK crop and scrap this weekend but I have injured my back and can't sit so standing and sewing was the option for short periods. The scrappy stripalong has been an instagram and blog craze since start of year and I just had to give it a go using this  tutorial. The tutorial is very easy to follow, personally I blame the super strong painkillers and my inability to count... Once I worked out I had used 7 strips of material (instead of 6) I realised I could add another  set of squares to create a 14 inch block. Now I can't decided whether to revert to the original 6 square block or work out the maths for a 7 square block which I think is 20 or 21 inches not 16 inches. I am an English teacher and Maths especially fractions and inches (being metric here) cause me untold confusion.

Should I keep this for the back and revert to 6 squares or keep going at 7 squares?

I also completed another two rows in the Bee in My Bonnet Row A Long. I had completed first four rows and then fell behind so again with Maths not being my strong point I completed row 9 Twinkly stars and Row 6 Cups of Cocoa and this has nothing to do with the fact that the flying geese row looks too hard.

Again these are easy to follow tutorials with lots of photos and helpful tips. I am planning to donate my Bee A Long quilt to Siblings Together and possibly the scrappy trip along too. Please go and follow the link to find out about this charity as I think it is a great idea and if you don't quilt perhaps you knit. 

Thanks for dropping by.

Quilting Work in Progress

I have three projects on the go at the moment - never let it be said that as a beginner quilter I am taking on too much. I am linking this post to the Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday. The first are three scrappy log cabins at 12 1/2 inches as part of Ellison Lane Quilts Scrappy Stash QAL.

I have enjoyed creating these as they do not need as much precision cutting as other projects and I can mix and match fabrics as I go. I have chosen to repeat my fabrics a few times as I like the look of this and I have a small character in the centre of each block. I intend to make a rainbow coloured quilt for charity with this one. I am also going to try a quilt as you technique show on Maureen Cracknell's blog.

Row 4 of Bee in My Bonnet Row Along in Progress

Rows 1 to 3

The next project is a Row A Long by Bee in my Bonnet. I have completed three rows and am working on row 4, the instructions are super clear but require precise cutting and seams which I am still getting to grips with. I am improving with each row though.

The final project is a quilt for mum which she wants to be mainly duck egg blue. I don't think it would work so have found some bright pink and beige colours with a cream dotty background. But which pattern. I have both Elizabeth Hartman's books and am favouring the Small Plates pattern but after playing with logs I wonder about a skinney border between the square and log surround.