2014 FAL list of shame

 

I've decided it's about time to try and finish all my projects and so what better than a finish along with Katy. As I was compiling my list (which I'm ashamed to say is not totally comprehensive!) I realised that this is going to be very long, so please bear with me. There is no way I can finish all of these in one quarter but I'm hoping that just compiling the list will spur me on. Sooo:

1)Sparkle Punch Quilt

I can't even remember when I made this. The back is done, just needs quilting and binding

2)Quilt for Helena

Top is done, the back is half finished, then needs quilting and binding.

3)Lois's Quilt

 

These were my Bee block choice from FQR Kinky Bee 2012. All the blocks are done but need to be sewn together. I have bought the back ( extra wide botanics-lush!) , then will need quilting and binding.

 

4)Grace's Quilt

 



I made this quilt top for Harri's then girlfriend Grace, 4 years ago. She chose the colours. It's been languishing ever since. I decided to make it double sided and use mod mosaic blocks on the back. These are done, just needs the back finishing, then quilting and binding.

5) Star Bee Blocks

 

This Bee was a disaster. Four of the participants kept my fabric and didn't return it and a fifth participant sent the fabric back ( my month was March 2013!)  So I have 14 blocks and need to make at least another 6 minimum before I can continue. I have bought the backing fabric, so just need to do it!

6)Disappearing Nine Patch Blocks

 

 

I have all the blocks for this one, but I'm not loving it, so going to the bottom of the pile and maybe destined eventually as a charity quilt. This is a shame as the colours are fab.

 

7)Random Stars Blocks

 

 

 

 

I started this eons ago and even joined the Lucky stars BOM 2013 and now 2014. I haven't made one of the BOM's . So I need to do a few more blocks and then we'll see.

 

8)Red and White Sampler Quilt

 





I'm not loving this one much either. It needs more blocks and then I'll see.

9)Madlen's Scrappy Trip Around the World

 

 

Blocks are all made for this one. I just need to sew them together. I've got the back , so just needs quilting and binding.

 

10)Siblings Together Quilt

 

 



 Just need to quilt and bind this one before July

11) It's a Wonderful World.

 

 

The fabulous Bumbling Honey's made me some wonderful blocks for this quilt. I'm really loving this one, so working away at making a few more blocks before assembling it.

 

12) Kaffe Fassett Quilt

 

 

 

I foolishly decided to hand quilt this one. Once I've finished my hexagon stars ( see below) then I might get back to it.

 

13)EPP Hexagon Stars Quilt

 

 

This was started in March/April last year and is my retirement quilt. I have five full stars and two half stars to make, then sew them all together, quilt and bind. I already have the backing. I'm wanting to finish this by the end of March, but I have a lot of annual leave left ( and some skiing to do) so I'll see.

14)Economy Block Top

 

 

I have the backing for this one too, so just need to quilt and bind it.

 

15)Scrap Vomit for Lydia

 

 

 

Blocks all done, need sewing together, quilting and binding. I've got the back for this as well.

 

16) Oakshott Bolster

 

 

 

I started this last winter and had underestimated how much smaller it becomes when you use the lil' twister blocks. So it ended up too small. It needs quite a bit more adding before it will be big enough as a draught excluder for our French doors.

 

17) VW Cushion

 

 

 

A work colleague asked me to make this for charity. I've just got to make it into a cushion ( with binding).

 

18)Super Tote Bag

 

 

I 'made ' this QAYG fabric ages ago, just never got round to making the bag. Pattern is bought, just have to do it.

 

19)Lucien's Quilt

 



 

I have all the fabric bought for this quilt, including the back but have only made one block. Quite a lot to do then!

 

20) Oakshott Quilt

 

 

Again, I have all the fabric for this quilt top ( but not the back) but have only made one block. Not really any realistic prospect of getting any further in the immediate future.

 

 

I think that's the lot for now. I've realised that I need to do another post like this for knitting projects!!! Realistically, I'm hoping that I get numbers 13,14,16,17 and 18 done this quarter.

 

 

 



 



 

 



 

 



 

 



 

 



.

2014 : A new beginning.

2014 is certainly going to be a momentous year for me. Firstly, I turn 60 in just over 5 weeks. I have also made the decision to retire from work and become a lady of leisure. After 35 years as a doctor,  25 of these as a consultant, I've just had enough. The NHS is creaking at the knees and moral is very low. I really miss the excitement of Intensive Care but the long hours over many years have  worn me out. Mr Hare is not impressed!  He's going to carry on working for a while, perhaps another year and then have a rethink. So, from 1st April I'll be footloose and fancy free. I can't wait!
We still have a lot of work to do on the house  which will be easier to organise if I'm not working. And think of all those quilt tops that I will now be able to finish.  Like this:

 

 

And this:

 

 

 



So, I'm going to join Katy's FAL and try to reduce the number of WIP's. I'm also going to attempt a fabric diet as I have enough fabric to start a shop and have forgotten what some of it looks like.

Show your Joe

This was causing controversy in USA but I think it's hilarious fun.

Random observations ( USA related)

Well we are back from our holiday road trip ( Atlanta to Houston in 2 weeks).We had a very relaxing time, eating too much, drinking slightly less, though I may have had one too many Hurricane cocktails in Pat O'Briens in New Orleans ,while watching the duelling pianos.

 We also managed a little retail therapy ( it was Black Friday whilst we were there).It was unexpectedly cold, so we both had to buy a fleece and a jacket ( quelle dommage!). I won't bore you with any more  details. We visited a number of tourist destinations: Mister Hare developed a passion for Civil War History and made me go round an Oil Rig museum ( definitely the low point of the holiday).Some of the other touristy things like Graceland and the Nasa Space Centre, Houston were more interesting.



NASA Space Centre , Houston

 

 



Anyway, just a few random minor observations

1)When driving in the USA, as well as driving on the right hand side of the road( always disconcerting) drivers on dual/multi lane roads can overtake on both the outside and inside lanes. This leads to some Kamikaze moments when cars are weaving in and out of slower cars. Plus, there are the same number of middle/ and outside lane hoggers, who manage to drive in such a way that they are not quite overtaking the car in the inside lane so both lanes are blocked by slow moving cars.

2) In the UK the ground floor is counted as zero, the next floor up the first floor etc. Not so in the USA- the ground floor is floor one and what we would call the first floor is the second floor. Weird!

3) In the UK we write the date as day , month , year. For some inexplicable reason in USA they write the date as month, day , year. Why?

4) We don't celebrate Thanksgiving, so we totally underestimated the effects this would have. We did a lot of driving that day but couldn't find anywhere open to have lunch. Even the Macdonald's were closed, I suppose like Christmas here. In the evening nearly all the restaurants were closed, and those that were open were all fully booked . So Thanksgiving was a starvation day for us!

5) The Peabody Hotel in Memphis has a tradition dating back to the 1930's where real live ducks are led into the fountain in the middle of the hotel at 11.00, where they swim until 17.00 when they are escorted out again  to their residence on the roof of the hotel.

 

I have a video to share but can't work out how to place it in this post, so it will just have to stand alone in the next post

Gale's Quilt

I am currently on my hols with Mr Hare doing a tour of parts of the deep south in USA. More of that in another post. Before I left my sewing machine decided to stop working (boo,hoo!) curtailing my sewing activities. So I'm just going to do a quick post about my friend Gale's quilt. Gale is a very experienced seamstress but had never made a quilt before. So, she came to my house where she chose a quilting design and raided my stash to make a quilt for her granddaughter Abby, aged 3

The size of the quilt was determined by the pink solid, which I bought as a one off piece in Lancaster County on a previous holiday. It is not a Kona or any brand I recognised so we couldn't get any more.

 

 

We carefully selected eye spy type fabrics to coordinate and Gale took it all away to make the top. It's taken her a year to finish ( she moved house in the middle) but I think she's made a stunning quilt for Abby.

 



 

 

 

 

She chose a Pink Kaffe Fassett for the back ( I had bought 6 metres of this some time ago) and an aqua and white stripey binding. She quilted it with straight lines at 1/4 inch spacing  using a pink aurifil thread I had .

 

 

 

It  has a wonderful drape and is perfect for her grand-daughter. She has made such a beautiful job of it, I'm sure she'll be making some more



 



October Review

October has been a very mixed month for me. I've had a series of different viral infections ( 4 in the past 2 months) that have laid me low and sapped my energy (the consequence of working in a hospital I think and all the stress of the fire, burglary etc). I've had my flu jab, but it doesn't seem to have done much!
The last several weekends and some evenings have been spent trawling around Cardiff looking for somewhere for Madlen to live, now she is working for the Beeb in Llandaff. The stupid girl can't drive, though Mr Hare is trying very hard to persuade her to try again. It's not so important if you live in London, but public transport in the provinces/ countryside is just not the same! She has finally found somewhere that she is reasonably happy with. I've forgotten how shitty shared rental accommodation is !
I also took my mother to my Aunt Ruth's funeral ( a 500 mile round trip). This has stirred up all sort of memories, regrets etc. My Aunt Ruth was one of  my father's younger  sisters ( he was one of 9 children). My father died at the young age of 41 of a rare brain tumour. I was 16 at the time and it profoundly changed my families life. This was all a long time ago now, although my mother dwells on it all the time, partly because of her dementia but  she also never really moved on with her life after his death. Sadly, she did not recognise any of my aunts and uncles.  I had assumed her long term memory was reasonably intact, but it made me realise that she is confabulating most of the time. She told my Aunt Alice that she is living in bed and breakfast accommodation until she can move back into her own home! She is in fact living in sheltered accommodation because she is not safe to live on her own.
On a more positive note we now have a roof on the house (hoorah!) and the insurance money finally came through last Monday, only 10 and a half months after the fire.
I've had a reasonable month on the making front. I was Queen Bee for FQR Quilt Bee in October. I will do a whole post on this when I've had all the blocks back.

 

 

I've done a whole load of Bee blocks:

 

 

 



Dancing Stars for Natalie in the Simply Solids Quilting Bee.

 

Plus and cross blocks for Jo in Together @ do good stitches.

 

 

String block for Mary in Siblings Together.

 







Log cabins for Bee Blessed.

Most of my energy has been directed toward finishing my eye spy economy blocks quilt top. To be quite honest, making the last 20 blocks was a bit of an ordeal ( there are 80 in total). I was fairly sick of it by the end.

 

Trying to find enough fabrics to fussy cut was a bit of a challenge, but I managed it in the end.

 

 



I bought this pretty backing fabric from Ikea and only £3-00 per meter, so win, win!

 

Now, I just have to baste quilt and bind it!





Fleetwood Mac 2013 Tour

I've been ill all week with a dreadful cold and feeling lousy, so I'm only just getting around to writing a new post. On 27th September Harri and I ( and 20,000 other people) went here

 

to see Fleetwood Mac. Many months ago, in the depths of winter whilst the hole in the roof was really getting me down, I booked tickets for the O2 arena. I asked Mr Hare if he wanted to come and was very surprised when he said yes, as he's not a 'popular' music sort of person- he prefers Schumann. Anyhous, he said he'd come.  A few weeks before the event, I reminded him again, but yes he said he was coming. It was only the week before when he revealed that he was on-call and hadn't bothered to swap. So, cue Harri who was delighted to be invited.

 

 

Harri is never one to miss a party (I wonder where he gets that from!).

 

Harri drove us both to London with the car packed to the gunnels with his stuff as he was going back to Durham for his final year, the next day. I had to get the train home which I don't mind at all as I was able to stitch some of my hexagon stars.

 

We arrived early and watched the place fill up.

 

 

I'd never been to the O2 arena before and it is huge! It does mean that the band are a long way away, though they had big screens as well. However, the atmosphere was fantastic as were the acoustics.

 

 

This was rock soap opera at it's best. The band finally seem to have come to some sort of accommodation with each other and seemed genuinely to be enjoying themselves. They've already done a tour in the States this year and so were extremely well rehearsed  and put on a great show. The set lasted 2 and 1/2 hours which considering they are all in their 60's is some feat ( I suppose you could say it's their job!) and they still have that wonderful something that made them so famous ( and fabulously wealthy). They played only one new song and all the rest were old favourites.

 

Harri and I had a great time. The crowning glory was that Christine McVie appeared in the encore for Don't stop.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bmHQ_7x_tg

 

 

Fabulous!!