Memories lost and made

It's been a busy and sad week for me this week. I think I'll start with the busy and try to pretend that the sad doesn't exist until the end.

At work I've now had mock certification week and I passed that. I'm currently in the middle of certification week. This is after 2 weeks of classroom training and 1 week of practical training. Who knew that working in a call centre required quite so much learning and faffing around? The air con isn't brilliant and the UK has chosen this time to have the nicest weather we've seen for years! Typically I'm stuck inside sweating and staring longingly out the window. I'm making the most of this by sitting on the grass outside at lunch time to enjoy my lunch.

The bag. grey and owls!

Unfortunately for me now that we are out of our training room and onto the call floor we aren't allowed our bags with us and as we don't have a locker yet we are expected to just put our stuff on top of the lockers. Obviously I'm not too happy leaving my expensive Kipling bag there with mu car keys, my purse and my phone. There isn't too much I can do about the car keys and phone but I've switched purses so I only being a small amount of money to work and I went out today and bought a new bag to use.

I think it's rather distinctive and cool :) Even better, it's oilcloth so when our normal weather returns it'll also be waterproof.

One of the Guide leaders, my friend Viki, has been making a quilt for her friend's wedding this summer. She finally finished the quilt top and has passed it onto me to be quilted. This quilt is a monster!

Before I made her remove some squares it measured a massive 123x132 inches! It's now a slightly more reasonable 111x101 inches. I still will struggle to get it laid out to get it basted.

giant quilt enjoying the sun in my garden

Certain things about this quilt will irritate me too when I'm quilting it. Mostly that the fabric isn't all going the right way. It's a pet hate I'm afraid. She's done a very good job for her first quilt but just seeing the wonky fabric makes me want to cry...

wonky turtles and rabbits :(

But because I'd gained this giant quilt a little bit of retail therapy was needed. Well I had to buy some batting didn't I? So I also bought myself a bag pattern...

The weekender bag

... and a tiny square of green fabric with baking/kitchen prints that was on offer.

Green fabric and it's pink friend

But I didn't realise when I ordered that how much white thread I had left and just how many pins I'd need to baste this monster! So a trip to Hobbycraft was needed. As any Brits know that's a dangerous place for crafty people to go. I think I did very well leaving with what I did! I bought the thread and some pink and white fabric that was just adorable... and a scrap book.

It's actually called a smash book and it comes with a pen that has a 'glue' stick at the other end. I say 'glue' because it's quite possibly the least sticky substance I've come across.

My pink stash book

At this point I should explain my sad news that I mentioned earlier. Last weekend my external hard drive died and I now can't access it. It contained all the things from my old computers, my iTunes library and even more importantly than that (although loosing my music is irritating) it also contained the pictures that I have left of my mum from when she was alive. I'm absolutely gutted I don't have them backed up somewhere. I'm just hoping that some of the memory cards I have hanging around my room have some pictures on.

This set me off on in a mood of wondering what if.... what if my computer dies again... what if something happens to me? will people have anything to remember me by? .. What if I get old and forget things? How will I remember what I've done.

So when I saw this book I thought what a good idea it was and bought one. I'm working my way through putting bits and bobs I've collected in there as a nice place to keep my memories together. No more relying on the computer for me!

The first page is dedicated to my mum. I found a couple of photos and I'm hoping to find another one to fill the gap. I've put some tickets in for events I've been too, mementoes and autograph books from Guide camps I attended, things from when I was at university and pictures of animals I've owned/looked after and I'm still going. I'll have this book full soon!

In other sad news Guides is done for summer now. We had a BBQ at the beach and our 2 oldest girls gained their Baden Powell awards and have now left our Guide unit. On the opposite end one of our new Guides made her promise! She's the last one to make that version of the promise as the new version takes effect from September.

I guess life is like that... just have to keep moving on. Or in my case at the minute just keep staring at the monster quilt and hope it quilts itself!

Hope you've all had better weeks than I have.

It's a new day... and I'm feeling good!

Well, as Muse put it in their song *.. It's a new day and I'm feeling good! And what a good month May was. I'll actually sad to see it go! Welcome to anyone joining me from the Lily's quilts blog hop and hello to everyone else!

It was a sad month too. I run a Ranger unit which is the oldest section of Girlguiding (the UK version of Girl scouts) that girls can belong to and our oldest member is moving away to another city with her boyfriend. I've known her since she was 10 and it's been nice to see her grow into a confident 22 year old from the shy girl she once was. We had one last meeting all together and my sister made cakes for the occasion. They were burgers and she make sugar cookie chips (fries) to go with them. they went down very well.

I FINALLY finished making the starry quilt that I feel like I've been making forever for a friend. She hasn't got it yet but at least it's done. It was my first attempt at free motion quilting and although not perfect I'm rather impressed with how it looks.

I've also been joining in with a paper piecing quilt along this month. The first quilt along I've done and also my first attempt at paper piecing. Subscribers may recognise some of these pieces but the first 3 are my new ones from last week and I have another 3 to get made for this week then it's all done! Sorry the pictures are sideways. No idea why or how to turn them.

I've also been working on that quilt for my friend's wedding. It's not until October but best to get things done early. The easy bit is all done now. I've got my coloured squares all made and I now have a fair idea of just how giant this quilt will be. The centre of these squares is blank for Guests to write messages and the big gap in the middle will have pictures in of the couple when I a) get them and then b) work out how to get them on fabric! This isn't the actual layout. I promise I'll mix the colours a bit more.

This month, inspired by watching the Great British Sewing Bee on telly, I've also tried my hand at making clothing instead of quilts or random items. I've made a trial version of a dress and a top. Neither have been made in proper fabric yet because I haven't worked out which fabric to use. I'm rather impressed with myself and my invisible zip inserting skills though.

I've also been shopping for fabric. I'm a bad person. My stash really is big enough already but I can't resist the pretty fabric, especially when it's on sale!

My ebay fabric

 And then there's what's been happening in my life. In the middle of the month I went on an occupational therapy open day at the local uni. I really think that's what I'd like to do with my life so I'm looking into how to do that. I think I'm going to have to go back to college to get some recent eduction and I'm probably going to have to try and get some work experience too.

The most exciting and recent change though is that after many years of searching and saying I was going to change jobs because I hated my current one I have a new job! It all happened so fast when last Thursday I got an email asking if I was interested. I went for 1 interview and then on Tuesday I was told I had a 2nd group assessment on the Wednesday then on Thursday afternoon I found out I had the job. It's not the most glamorous in the world - it's in a call centre but the money is better and the hours are more sociable. No more getting up at 3am for me :) I handed my notice in at work today and Thursday if my last shift.

That chapter of my life is over and another one is about to begin.

Now begins to great search for a bike so I can cycle to work... 

*other versions of feeling good available.

Birthday

It's been a rather odd month - especially these past few weeks. We heard on Easter Sunday that my dad's mum had a stroke and was in hospital down south. Dad spent the week worrying before receiving a phone call from his brother and deciding to drive all the way to the hospital (about 5 hours drive!) to see her. On the Tuesday my dad found out he was diabetic (My sister and I are refusing to move all the sugary goodness from the house. How mean are we?) and then on the Wed I found out that my other gran who lives nearby is having problems with her blood pressure and was onto her 3rd trip to the doctor/nurse in a week on Friday to get a heart monitor. I'm fairly certain my family are falling to bits.

Despite all this we've also managed to squash in 2 Ranger meetings this week (my big Aqua Guides - the 14-26yr olds) where we had a wii and movie night and then yesterday went geocaching in a local country park. We had the full age range of 15-22 there and despite what some people say about there being such differences in age range and life experience they really do all get on so well and encourage each other. At one point we discovered we were following other geocachers around and we started running and missing caches out to leave message for each other. So much fun. Unfortunately it's me who now has to sit here and log the lot on the website.

In other news, it's my birthday today and my sister very kindly decided to buy me some fabric as a pressie! It's a rather random selection because after her sitting next to me and looking through fabric on-line we very quickly discovered that although we are identical twins we have completely opposite ideas about what is pretty fabric.

In the end I sent her away with a website and told her to add stuff she liked (or thought I would like) to the shopping basket then i was called through to whittle it down to an acceptable price. lol. I picked a selection of fabrics - some in colours that I don't have many of in my stash (look no purple or light pink!) and some fabrics that I just loved. Who shouldn't have fabric with owls?!?!? I do love the expressions on the faces of the foxes on the walk in the woods fabric.

The pretty birthday fabric!

Of course that's not the only fabric I've gained... I wish people would stop pointing out sales to me. I finally gave in and bought myself a selection of fabric from the innocent crush range which I fell in love with when I saw This quilt. I'm not totally certain what I'll do with it. I want to do a quilt with the pattern I originally saw it used in but can't use the same colours.

Innocent Crush

The other fabric I bought purely based on the fact I liked the colours (as usual). Again, I have no project in mind for it but I love it all the same. it's from the Camelot Range by Jason Yenter. The colours are just so bright and vibrant and I even discovered I already had some of his fabric from my post xmas buying spree! Now I just need to think of a way to use it.

Camelot fabric

I have promised myself I won't start any new projects though until I get this star quilt finished for my friend. I'm ashamed to say very little has been done on it since last time I posted pictures. I think I need a week off work to get it done.

It was on a starry night...

I've just returned from a weekend away with my Guides in the middle of Northumberland with no phone signal or Internet or anything and it was fun!
We did activities based on traditional guiding, we did some archery with the village archery club (and I won the line contest although I didn't count according to the guides. Lol) and we had a campfire outside.
I think one of the things that amazed my guides the most all weekend though was when they went outside on the first night to look for cardboard rabbits and bats which we'd scattered around and stuck reflective 'eyes' on and my sister told then to look up. The girls are all from in a city and we've never really taken them anywhere that it's so dark and remote (at least while there's been clear skies) so they were all amazed at the number of stars up there, and the shooting stars they could see, and being able to see the milky way (even if faintly). I suspect if we'd still been up there this week we would have been able to see the northern lights and that would blow their minds! Every night some of them took their hot chocolates and just went outside to look at the stars in wonder.
I guess we often forget to take pleasure in the simple things like seeing the stars (or for me the peace and quiet and being cut off from everything, well once the girls finally went to sleep anyway).


But on the topic of different stars I've made some progress with the bright starry quilt for my friend. I'm about half way there with the big blocks but still have a few small ones to get started on.

My favourite blocks are the pink and purple and the green and grey. My sister is very drawn to the blue and blue block.

Been a while but I nearly have a quilt

Well it's been a busy few months since I last posted and the good news is that I actually did some quilting in it as well as being at the big Girlguiding centenary camp in Leeds with thousands of people from all over the world!

I started making my purple/pink quilt although I've still got to do the binding on it. It uses lots of random fat quarters I got, some random scraps of fabric a friend sent me and some cut up old sheets I found around the house. It's kinda scrappy and not organised but it's my first quilt and I'm actually rather proud of it. I learned a lot along the way and that's whats important.

I had to put finishing my quilt on hold as I'd decided to make some cushions for my gran's birthday and that was creeping up on me!

I found some random material around the house that actually worked rather well with the colours of her living room so decided to follow the patterns for the 3 cushions in my quilting book. It was a rather useful exercise as they all taught me something new. One taught me how to do binding, one 1 I didn't just do stitch in the ditch quilting! and on another I had to try some applique (which I have since vowed never to do again using my sewing machine). They actually don't look too bad from far away :) Yay!

 

I now have to finish binding my quilt and then I need a new project. I have lots of random material downstairs but I don't know what I want to do with it yet. I'm still very tempted to buy some jelly rolls and make that quilt I found the other month. Either that or I should get some tartan fabric and make that quilt that my sister wants. Oh the decisions! 

The other option is to make a quilt for a friend that I promised one to although that also involves buying lots of fabric (and I found some fab fabric to use as she used to be a Brownie leader - hence the owl - and she loves rabbits)

Guess you'll all find out what I do next time I post.

(on a side note: now very happy because Merlin is back on the BBC! I'm attempting to get the machine bit of the binding done by 7 on Sat so I can watch Merlin and do a bit of hand sewing too. I'm loving watching Merlin and recognising all the bits of the castle Ive been to)

The daunting 1st post

I guess I should use the first post here to tell you all a bit about me!
Let's start with the basics. I'm Alex, I'm 25 and I'm from Newcastle (the proper one in North east England - not the fake one down south...)
I'm currently unemployed so always on a job hunt. I'm also a Guide and Ranger leader so I spend at least 3 hours each week working with girls and young women aged between 10 and 26! The younger ones are just scary. This year I'm taking a group of Guides to the big Girlguiding centenary camp at Harewood house in Yorkshire. I can't wait!
My hobbies include reading, geocaching and listening to music. I have also taken up a new hobby too - one which I hope to blog about. For my Queens Guide skill I"m learning how to quilt! For those who aren't in the know Queens Guide is essentially the Girlguiding equivalent of the Gold Duke of Edinburgh (DofE). Over a year I'm meant to do 60 hours.
I think that's about it for now. I'll do a different post with an update on the quilting (part of my reason for starting this blog is so that I can hopefully get a bit of encouragement and poking with the quilting).