Hot and Bothered

Yesterday I was hot.

The thermometer on the balcony,

in the shade,

was reading 30 degrees centigrade.

Which is hot for me.

I decided to get my hexagon quilt out.

Truth be known,

it was already out,

just waiting for me to

leave the crocheting I have been doing,

and start stitching instead.

I've always thought that I tend to have

lots of projects on the go

so that :-

I don't get bored;

there is a project to suit my mood;

there's a project to suit the time (such as crochet in front of the TV);

or location (such as hand sewing to take on holiday).

I'm sure there are other reasons I could add.

But yesterday,

I realised that I have all these projects

because I can get a different one out when:-

I can't find the thread I need for the first one,

(that's the thread I found sorted out last week

and thought I had put in the tin with the hexagons).

Even if I did find the thread,

that I simply MUST use,

no other will do...

I can't find my sewing glasses.

When I get the next project out,

I can't decide on the layout for it.

And when I do decide on the layout,

I think,

I really do need to prewash the fabric.

In the process,

of all of this,

I come across some fabric left over from some other project,

(completed I might add),

and think,

shall I start a new project?

Do you have days like that?

In the end

I watched this bird for a while

helping himself to our plums

that aren't quite ready.

If you are interested,

you can see the right side of the quilt

from the first 4 photos here,

Just don't look at the date!

P.S. Can you tell I like hexagons?

Blogtoberfest Day ?, Lost Turtle

Ooops!
I'm falling behind with Blogtoberfest!

Well the weather has turned.

Earlier this week,

the lovely

sunny,

warm,

weather

disappeared.

Each morning we now wake up to

grey mist.

It looks quite gloomy from inside,

yet often,

when we get outside,

it's not as bad as it looks.

But soup helps.

Especially if it's homemade

and accompanied with some home made bread.

It almost makes the gloomy weather worthwhile!

Perhaps the colder weather

is responsible for the sore throat I had yesterday.

Or maybe I'm coming out in sympathy

with my grandson.

He goes into hospital

next week to have his tonsils removed.

I hope his mum has found his turtle,

the soft toy he wants to take into hospital with him.

I'm sure she has.

Remarkably though,

despite it being so gloomy in the mornings,

some of the afternoons have eventually

turned quite sunny and warm.

The photo above

was taken earlier in the week

when I sat in the afternoon sunshine

stitching my hexagon quilt.

I'm making progress with it.

Who knows,

I may finish it yet!

Well I hope you are all enjoying a good weekend,

whatever the weather.

To see who else is taking part in Blogtoberfest,

pop on over to Tinnie Girl.

Have fun!

Taking Shape

The '20 minutes a day' that MarmaladeRose initiated
has certainly been motivating for me.
Today I got my Hexagon Quilt out in it's entirety.
In yesterday's post I mentioned how I was removing templates from some of the hexagons.
Today I looked at it as a whole, deciding on the design.
I even did some stitching, about an hours worth before the light faded,
and I could no longer see to thread the needle, (even with the light on!).
At last I have an idea how it might look when it is finished.
Part of the problem in making something for so long is that:
you loose site of the original idea;
you get tired of it;
you change your mind on the design;
you run out of fabric!!
Eeek!
No not really, but nearly, very nearly.
I thought that was the case today when I set about laying out the pieces on the bed.
I always like to place a quilt on the bed to see how it's taking shape.
It isn't the same if I put it on the floor.
I wrote about this quilt back in 2008.
It looks a bit different now that I have the dark green pathways stitched on.
But it was the dark green that I thought I didn't have enough of to complete all the pathways round the diamond shapes.
But when I checked again, I did have enough for that, maybe not enough for additional pathways , but I can live with that design change.
But it does mean that the design will be dictated by what fabric I already have and also by what I have already sewn.
At this point I am not going to toil over making extra rosettes to fit in with a design.
I am going to work on completing it first and foremost.
That way, I get to start on a new one sooner!
When working on any quilt it's inevitable that you consider the alternative design routes you might have chosen.
At least, that's what I do.
This quilt has had a few design changes,
but now I know how I'm going to proceed with it,
there's no excuse.
So keep calling by and ask how I'm getting on with it.
Just to keep the momentum going.

Happy 5th Birthday...

... to my Grandson.

I had planned to be with him tonight,

but plans were changed due to the weather.

However it sounded as though he was enjoying himself

when I phoned earlier tonight.

Here's the boy himself a month ago when I visited the UK before Christmas.

I expect there's been lots of happy smiles today.

As for me,

I have spent my creative time today

working on my longstanding hexagon quilt.

Nothing to show for it here as not a stitch was sewn,

just templates being removed in order to reuse them in other parts of the quilt.

I have posted about it before.

Maybe this will be the year that it actually starts to take shape

at long last.

After all,

it has been around a lot longer than my Grandson!

Grandmother's Flower Garden

Anyone starting off with patchwork will often have some hexagons lurking around somewhere.

I am no exception. I can't remember when I started this "project," (who knows what it will turn out to be!) But we have been married 12 years and dare I say it was on the go then, (recently started). In fact I used to attend a patchwork evening class in which we all took our own things, so these hexagons were easy to transport. I couldn't be doing with taking my sewing machine. We'd have a show and tell for those who had something to show, (like a completed quilt!) The teacher might show us a new technique, but mainly it was very informal. So informal in fact that as it neared the date of my marriage I took along my wedding dress to sew. The large tables came in very handy. I didn't have that sort of space at home. It's no wonder that the hexagons didn't progress. I was remembered as the lady who made her wedding dress at the patchwork group, and no it wasn't a patchwork dress!

Anyway, I have been itching to do some sewing. I've even thought to pledge 15 minutes of my time a day to sewing. I might get one of my projects finished that way. I have many projects under way, I need to list them here on public display to urge me on. It seems to work for some people.

But back to the hexagons. They started out as a grandmothers flower garden design for a quilt. You can see the basic design forming in the photo if you're not familiar with it. It's all wrong of course. The dark and light green fabric is a polycotton mix. There is too much light green fabric. I could have used a variety of colours and prints within the dark green surround which is the path, and I should have planned the use of colour and fabric better. But despite all that I want to finish it. I've decided to continue with the basic design and use it as a throw on our swing seat out on the terrace in the summer. Not sure which summer it will be finished for. But I do enjoy hand sewing and would be lost if I didn't have something on the go. That isn't likely. I have a number of hand sewing projects and others on the go. I have disciplined myself (well nearly), to not buy any fabrics for a new project until I have finished most of them.

As an aside the photo was taken before we moved. So I have been doing a bit of it this year already. I always audition my quilts on the bed.

These hexagons have travelled around with me: on holidays, each new house we've moved to. But it's time their travelling days were over. So as from today, I am spending at least 15 minutes a day on the hexagons, until it's finished! Can I manage that? We'll see.

I'll keep you posted.

And yes I do realise I don't have much to show considering how long it's been on the go, but I'm easily distracted!

Unfortunately my camera seems to have stopped working. Not sure why. I'm desperate to get it working again. Not a day goes by without me using it. How can I monitor the seasons in this wonderful country without the picture to prove it? And it's on the change methinks!