Mid month review

Time for a mid month review of what I've been upto. I had planned on posting this last week but I got busy and never managed to post it.

I've been out a couple more times geocaching but the darker nights are drawing in now up here and it's been cold so I suspect we'll not be heading out to do much more geocaching this year unless we get a really nice autumn day when I'm off work.

A wander at about 7.30pm gave us this wonderful looking sunset over St Mary's lighthouse. Pity we live on the east coast so don't get really good sunsets.

I also got some really exciting things in the post this past fortnight!

A box of goodies and some post from Australia!

Here's what I got from Australia! Dasha who blogs over at Patching Pixies read about my charm hexagon quilt and very kindly sent me a load of squares over from her stash to turn into hexagons! I am so grateful for them and they will keep me busy for a while.

The box contained some new Guide uniform just in time for the start of the new year of Guides over here. I've lost weight so I decided to treat myself to some new uniform that fits a bit better. I'm lucky that it turned up on the Tuesday right before Guides started!

The friend I helped with the giant green quilt gave me my reward for helping out too. It's a jelly roll of glamping fabric. Just what every Guide leader needs. This fabric will be to make something for me!

Pretty fabric and it's all mine!

Wedding quilt number 2 is coming on nicely. Not as fast as I'd like but I'm making progress. All the rows have been sewn together so I just need to get the long white strips sorted to join them up. That giant gap is where the pictures will go once I have them sorted.

It's been ironed since this photo. I promise!

I have managed to get some more hexagons made even though I've not managed to get any photos of them. I promise them next time.

In other news for those who have regularly read my blog I've had more disturbing spider experiences. But fear not this time it's me that came out on top. In August my sister and I came across a very large (by UK standards) spider in our hallway. Neither of us are big spider fans so by the time we'd argued over who had to get it with the hoover it was on the move. I chased it into our dining room (or my sewing room as I like to think of it) and lost it in there because it was so fast.

Fast forward to last week when I was sat minding my own business and putting together some strips fro the wedding quilt. My sister walked in, looked at the wall behind me and ran out the room screaming. Apparently the spider had taken up residence behind me to watch me sew. This time I wasted no time in getting the hoover and sucking him up. No more need to worry every time I go to sew about spider attacks now. Phew.

Tomorrow (or Friday for those of you in different time zones so who are already there!) we're taking th dog for her checks at the vets so she can start her chemo. Hope all goes well and my sister doesn't faint when the vet takes blood from the dog. 

...and finally

Apparently Christmas is coming. I know this because in the first week of September I walked into our local ASDA supermarket and was greeted with this selection in the bakery. I've also seen a chocolate advent calander in a shop today.

This is what ruins Christmas for me. In my head it should not even be considered until December. We should at least be allowed to enjoy autumn and bonfire night first!

Mince pie or Christmas pudding anyone?

P.s.. for a change this post actually shows no fabric that I have bought. My bank account is very happy with me at the minute!

August... gone in a flash!

Well I had a couple of update posts planned for August but it turned into such a busy month that I never got a chance to post anything.

At work I had a month of 1.30pm to 10pm shifts so that rather messed with my days a bit. I've never been a morning person and I always panic about being late to work so I spend most the mornings not doing much and waiting until it was time to go to work. That's not to say I didn't get much done.

The giant green quilt was quilted and finished off to be bound by my friend before she handed it to the lucky couple who were expecting it.

I literally had to empty most the furniture out of our rather large living room so that I could baste it. It's just huge! (Excuse the stuff on the sofas. This was done just before we went on holiday so things were all over the place)

And here it is folded a bit so that my friend could get an idea what size box to buy for it. I think she gave up on boxes in the end and just wrapped it in paper.

I've been informed that it was very much appreciated and loved by it's recipients. Now I need to get going on the quilt for my friend's wedding!

We also squeezed a weekend in the lake district into this month. We go over every year on this weekend and explore the lakes as a way to remember our mum. She loved it over there and we spent a lot of time climbing hills and mountains and wandering around lakes.

This time we went for a weekend instead of a day and it was much more relaxed (well except for some very narrow country roads)

And it was also wet. Not such a surprise in the lake district though. I did manage to forget my walking boots so had to buy some new ones when we were over there but they came in very handy on the muddy ground.

Would you believe this is the main road to one of the lakes? Just random sheep wandering along. I love it over there. So peaceful and relaxing compared to being back at home. I could happily live there with all those beautiful views. If only I could make this quilt thing pay the bills.

Skip forward a week and I was off to York races for a hen weekend. It was lovely to catch up with my friend's I've not seen for ages but it was a scary reminder of how close the wedding is and how much I still need to get done on that quilt.

Oh, and if you're wondering yes that is a horse made of vegetables (random!). It's the first time I've been to the races and my horse picking approach of putting a bet on horses with the best name did win me a whole 9 GBP (yes, I've yet to work out how to get the pound sign to work on my keyboard)

As for the hexagons... They are coming along nicely. At this rate I'll have a quilt by next winter. My problem is I want no 2 hexagons to be the same so soon I'll have to dig into the scraps to find hexagon sized scraps then I'll have to hunt eBay for scraps I think. I can't bear to cut random pieces out of all my stash fat quarters.

  

It's also been a rather sad week this week for us. We took our Uncle's dog to the vets in the middle of the month to have a lump removed from her leg. The results came back on Friday and it turns out the lump was cancerous so she's now going to have chemotherapy. Poor dog doesn't know what's doing on. We're having to wait for the insurance company to open on Monday before we can call to find out if they'll cover her. I hope they do or it'll be very expensive. Good job she has insurance.

Looking slightly confused after her operation

You'll also notice that for a change there is no photo of new fabric. Yes, I've been really good this month although this Petite Street fabric bundle from Plush addict is rather calling my name at the minute...

I do admit to buying a small amount of fabric but it's not that exciting, just plain coloured fabrics that will be useful stash builders.

What I am looking forward to this month is getting my payment for quilting the giant green quilt. My friend is very generously buying me a glamping jelly roll. the rest of the family aren't impressed that my fabric collection is growing again but never mind..

The other thing I've been doing this month, and the thing that seems to have been taking most my mornings, is geocaching. I'm fairly certain I've explained geocaching in previous posts but for those not in the know it's basically like a giant treasure hunt where you use a GPS to find a 'cache' that other people have hidden. Lots of them are boxes with log books and room for swaps of toys for children but some are very sneaky. I've seen some in shapes of rocks, some that are holes drilled into sticks so just a log can fit, some inside toys and hidden under trees and lots of other types.

This month there has been a challenge on the geocaching website to get a cache every day of the month so I've been heading out with my sister every morning before work to do that. Thank goodness that month is over.

This month 2 of my friends have also announced their engagement within days of each other. typical huh? I gained the task of organising the gifts from our friends which is like a military operations of getting 2 brides 2 different bunches of flowers and gifts and making sure I talk about the right things to the right people all whilst packing for holiday and having the green quilt to finish. I managed it somehow and both loved their gifts and flowers.

One of them has even asked me to be her bridesmaid in Cyprus when she gets married in a couple of years. 1st time I've been a bridesmaid so I'm excited. Pity I'm also terrified of flying. Something that we'll have to work on I think. The other had announced her wedding is in April next year. She better not want a quilt...

So, onto plans for September...

I love September. It's nearly Autumn (fall for you Americans) and I am finally justified in digging out my boots and wearing cosy jumpers with my jeans. I love all the colours and the crisp feeling in the air. It will be a busy month again though. We're back at Guides and I need to get the quilt made before the wedding in October.

So my list to get done this month:

1) Work out how to print photos onto fabric for the wedding quilt

2) Finish the wedding quilt (or at least just have binding to do)

3) Make a few autumnal cushions to try out some funky free motion quilting

4) Get some more hexagons made. I at least want to finish off the paper hexagons I have cut out

5) Make a start on that grey and multicoloured quilt for me

6) If feeling brave attempt to make the weekender bag so that I have something funky to take to the wedding.

At least I'm working slightly more normal hours of 9.30am - 6pm so I can eat with everyone else again and I can sew after work when I don't have the stress of needing to be somewhere at a certain time.

I hope you all had great summers and have slightly more relaxing Septembers planned.

Oh and linking up with Lily's quilts fresh sewing day and small blog meet so hello to anyone from there! I promise I don't normally post such huge posts.