Big Hexies!

I have to start this post with thank you's.  Big thank you from mum to all who commented on her Siblings Together Quilt!  She was delighted.  Secondly, an even bigger thank you from me to everyone who commented on my freaking out Big Raspberries post!  Seriously, thank you so much.  Still think this whole baby lark is a bit of a conspiracy, but there you go - I suppose we'd never have them otherwise!
I had a haircut, which I hate as per usual.  Thankfully they didnt cut it as short as I'd wanted so I can still just tie it back!  I am terrible with haircuts.  Almost always disappointed.  I think there must be a hairdressers language, and that we should get one of those wee translation books for each time we have to go...  Imagine that in the tall spinny round travel books stand - where do you want to go? France, Italy, hairdressers...
Anyway.  Hair still falling out, thank god it was super thick to start with.  Must be stopping soon tho' eh?  Mum and dads drains sure hope so...

Fingers crossed me and Moo are getting a wee visit this weekend, from my longtimealltime bestie and her wee one.  Since I sent her a wee peek already I can actually share the wee quilt I made for my wee "niece".  First finish of 2014.  Phew!

Its giant hexies, obviously, in Cape Ann from Oliver & S.  I used a layer cake and 1 yard lilac solid, half yard gingham for binding, 2 yards Hopscotch by Sarah Jane for backing.  I think Cape Ann didnt get enough press when it came out, it really is beautiful but I never saw much done with it on our bloggysphere.  I was going to use the lovely, simple, half hexie patterns for this quilt, but then I wanted the prints with the clothes to remain whole.  There in started the nightmare that was the whole giant hexie quilt.  Never again! Man my template making SUCKS!!!  And all those Y seams...  I did 3 rows by hand, then tried the rest with machine.  Honestly couldnt tell you which took longer...  But anyway.  Got it done, loved it.

Mum came up with the genius Daisy quilting, and I sucked up the fear and went for it with the free motion....  actually thats a weeeee bitty of a fib cos I got mum to draw them all on first so I would have an idea where to go.  What can I say.  I'm no artist, either with pencil or needle!  They worked well though, I must say I'm chuffed with them.
Hope wee one will like it.  I look forward to showing her the fun stuff to do with a quilt.  Giant cape anyone?  Quilty sausage roll?  Inside Tent?  And, I hope, I might even get a wee sofa snuggle too.  If I'm super lucky.

Siblings Together Bee

As promised, I'm delighted to share with you mums Siblings Together quilt!

Mum took part in the first year of the Siblings Together Bee - her first bee - and had a great time!
Each member was allowed to choose a fat quarter bundle courtesy of moda, and mum went for the beautiful Blue Bird Park by Kate & Birdie Paper Co.  Choosing the bundle was easy, but the block?  That took a great deal of deliberation and many hours on EQ7!  Fortunately it also gave her something to do in between holding my hair back as I spewed my way through pregnancy...

Eventually she hit upon the Broken wheel block, and I gave up my hoarded Moda Grunge Cookies and Cream to use as a background, and it all came together.  I must say this block is now in my top 10 must make soon list!  Mum certainly made it look a lot easier than I'd expected it would be.

It was so much fun seeing the blocks come in, the bee ladies did mum proud and they all pieced together with no trouble at all.
The blocks came out at 18" finished, so with a little sashing and border, the finished quilt came to 60" x 80", a bit of a whopper in our house!


The batting was Sew Simple 80/20 and was kindly donated by Lady Sew and Sew.  For the back, Amanda from Westwood Acres generously donated yardage of a panel print from the range.  The panel actually looks like this,

picture taken from Fabric.com

but we needed it wider, so mum joined them in the middle of the flowery bit, canny huh?  It looks absolutely perfect!

We're not all that used to doing big quilts, mum and I, so the quilting became a bit of a mental hurdle.  It didnt help that the basting had been tricky and had needed to be re-done twice already.  Most bizarre, the tape we use to stick the back down when we baste just wouldnt stick to the back this time, kept pinging off mid pin!  Nightmare.  Anyway, the back puckered each time mum started quilting.  Third time lucky though!   It took a good bit of nagging encouraging to get mum started but boy when she got going it was done in a few hours!  A little glass of red may have been involved, but I think mostly it was down to the days I had spent going on at her about it.  Annoying?  Moi?  Well, I dont want mum losing her quilting mojo, its way too much fun having a quilting partner!
She did a free motion sunburst / bicycle spokes sort of thing in each block, and a lovely meandering line with hearts around the border.  To me the quilting is just an ideal fit for the "day in the park" theme of the fabric.

The binding was made with the off cuts from the back, mostly from the same pattern area too, and I think it works really well.  Suffice to say mum was awffy chuffed with it, and I love it too.

We'd like to give a big thank you to all the generous companies that have contributed to the making of these quilts for such a worthy cause, and of course all the ladies of the Siblings Together Bee.

Goodness knows I love my brother dearly and cannot imagine having had to grow up separated from him.  The work Siblings Together does is so special.  Here's hoping mums quilt goes some way to giving someone a big hug and a lovely reminder of fun times.

Big raspberries to it all

Cant for the life of me think of how to start a blog post.  Am I that out of practice?  Oh well, just dive in...

Mums Siblings Together Bee Quilt (to get a post of its own very soon!)

Am sitting happily with my metaphorical pompoms waving, watching mum (finally) quilt her siblings together quilt.  Glad the sibling wont hear the language....  Mum is more like me when she quilts that she'd admit methinks....  I have completed 2 quilt tops this month, but unlike mum I admit defeat right away and am sending them to the lovely Ms Strawberry Patch.  No, of course I didnt remember to take a photo of the tops first.  I cant remember what I'm doing in the time it takes to leave a room these days.

We made a quilt with these.  Lots of these.  I sewed and mum cut.  I got the better deal!!!

People, namely you lovely lovely bloggy people, have asked a lot how I am doing.  I've been a bit non-committal and not really answered properly.  On the one hand, I'm with my parents - all is well with the universe when I'm nearer them.  I have my wonderful, bendylugged beautiful wee Molly moo, whom I could not possibly love more.  Seriously, I well up and greet everytime I think just how much I love her, its unquantifiable.  She gets so many kisses, I swear the day she learns to say "mama" will be ever so immediately followed by "gerrroff!"

Kawaii squared

On the other hand.  There's been some annoying wee things wrong.  Infections, wounds, etc.  Lots of big OUCH.  Nothing at all serious though.  But with Narcolepsy, pain means exhaustion.  Pain means feeling shattered and miserable.  Bit sucky.  The extra weight I gained through pregnancy is not shifting cos I cant exercise and its taking its toll on my hip very badly.  As is carrying a 7.16kg "wee" baby!  So I'm getting less and less mobile, with no real medical help available, which is really upsetting me too.  I'm sitting here in my maternity jeans cos none of my pre pregnancy jeans fit and I refuse to buy more clothes.  I'm also wearing a nursing bra and nursing tshirt.  Not that anybody wants or needs easy access to these boobies.  I wasnt able to breast feed.  But I'd spent over £180 on nursing clothes!  Might as well wear them...  Oh.  And my hair is falling out.  Apparently its quite normal for 50% of women to start losing their hair after pregnancy.  The things you learn after the fact....  So, I try not to freak out at handfuls of hair coming out every time I brush, wash or just bloody touch my hair.  I am such an attractive bundle right now...

My wee bundle...

Its a scary thing, having a baby.  Its a little more scary when you are not 100% healthy.  I worry constantly about how capable I am, or will be.  I would be truly stuck without family.

Oh you have no idea how many times I've edited all that for TMI....

It would be easy to get caught up in "if I didnt have bad luck I'd have no luck at all" bullshit, but I've got more sense than that.  I've got amazing family, wonderful friends, and the bestest little babby in the world.  My cup runneth over.

We are surrounded by love in the gifts from friends

To take my mind off things during the nights I must have entered a few hundred giveaways in the last few weeks - not that I won any of course.  I've been ooohing and aaaahing at all the "coming soon" fabrics from peoples photos at quilt market.  I've been naughty and pre-ordered me some Mustang and Far Far Away. I'm telling myself not to feel guilty about the spend, when I've been so lucky to get quilting time with mums help.  As I said, that's one finish and two tops on their way to Emily, AND the wee mini for my mini me ready to quilt.  No' bad for such a walking disaster, eh no?

Girly wee mini for my mini wee girly

For the quilting, I'm thinking a big heart spiral maybe?  Well shucks I'm just full of the love these days!

happiness. we know a song about that dont we teddy...

 Hmm, becoming a monthly update this is innit.  Well, there has been a little sewing, little bits at a time that is, when granny babysits Molly.  The only things I've finished are a changing mat, and three neckerchief bib thingys - no photos of these as the changing mat is in use (as in it's been pee'd on) and the bib thingys are, well, no idea where they are right now!

I got some wee fussy cuts done for some economy blocks (baaa) and I've stalled at putting them together.  I always seem to forget that I hate triangles.  The project is on hold now anyway as a cup of tea accidentally landed on all my cut pieces.  I'll continue to sew them together at some point and save the washing and stain removal etc for when its all sewn up.   Bit dodgy doing that I suppose as it might result in time wasted sewing up stained ruined fabric, but I cant be arsed trying to clean teeny triangles and not have them fray and warp out of shape.

I got some free motion quilting done, some nice big daisies.  That was a lot easier than anticipated.  Well, dont get me wrong, I dont find it easy at all, but I'd built it up in my head as a near impossibility and it wasnt, obviously.  Sure do need a lot of practice though...  its definitely not my strong suit!

Most fun of all though was the afternoon sewing I was granted today.  Yikes!  More triangles!  You know what?  I've got 50% of the quilt top done with no starching, no pinning, no trimming and no pressing, and its been so far problem free with 90% perfect points.  Go figure!!!

Molly has been in a growth spurt all week.  Or at least we hope that's what it is.  A

It must be a growth spurt.  She couldn't possibly have turned into a demon child overnight for absolutely no apparent reason.... I jest, she is not a demon child at all, not in the slightest.  She has just been attempting to impersonate one every now and again this past week.  Ah now I feel bad saying that as I think back to bed time and her tears and snivels and pitiful cries.  Poor wee moo.  I hope its over soon as I'm missing my grinning wee darling terribly!

She's just been awffy gurney, and OMG she has discovered THE NOISE.  No "coo" or "goo" or "ba" or "ma" for my wee lass yet.  No.  My little angel has discovered she can make a noise, a noise so loud and so bloody awful it gets attention immediately....  A noise so powerful its rendition causes her face to turn purple and on 9 out of 10 occaisions to actually choke herself... Its not a scream, its not a cry, think more  unbelievably loudly straining whilst being strangled at the same time.  To the tune of NUAAAAAAAAAACH.  Usually followed by desperate choking coughs and splutters.... And I swear, she does it for fun.  There is the most fantastic look of mischief on her at the end of it. 

So anyway.  Granny gave me an afternoon off to sew, and let me tell you it was bloody marvellous.  Molly sat with us some of the time, and seemed to enjoy mummys musicals mix.  Ah my wee lamb.  She will get mummys music for quite some time.  (and like it...)  Talking of mummys choice, did I ever tell you about the slightly sad gathering I did for "when I have my own baby"?  Ah yes.  Started when I was 19 with my favourite old teddies, my favourite toys, buying up dvd versions of the kids tv, original disney classic movies I grew up with... etc.  All for when I have my own.....  

Well I've got my own now!  So far I'm delighted to say she is enjoying the music - she's too wee for the dvds and books yet.

I'm loving the excuse to listen to my childhood again too.  I'm sure I speak for more than just myself when I say that us kids of the 70's have had our childhoods fairly battered these last few years.  From the "cleaning up" of Enid Blyton to Rolf letting us down and thank god Jim never got my letter....   I might have to accept that Jake the Peg wont be making any more appearances on Junior Choice, and Two Little Boys will have me in tears for new reasons, but I'm not giving up on Noddy... Molly will grow up with Big Ears sharing his bed...