New Project, a Star a Day.

 

I am still doing the other quilt but this one took my fancy. I bought Karen Styles Star a day pattern and templates but I just could get the precision I get with English paper piecing. I like the idea of committing to making a star a day however so I am doing mine in English paper piecing, from here on in called EPP. There are 66 pieces in each block unless I have miscalculated so it's quite an undertaking. Each 60 degree diamond measures one inch long the sides. So the finished block has five inch sides. There are many ways to assemble these Seven Sisters blocks. I am slow at producing these as I am doing about 24 stitches per inch. I know a lot of people do 8 stitches per inch, but I love the perfection of more stitches.  

At the rate of a star a day, it takes a week to have enough for one Seven Sisters block.  but it takes me another couple of weeks to turn the stars into a block. 

As I am working on the applique vases on the other quilt, I am prioritising those, but still committing to a star a day. 

Happy Valentines Day. 

Lost my mojo for quite some time..... but it's coming back

 This is block 9 of 25, 8 inches square. I stopped stitching quite early in lockdown and only finished it last night.  I would sit down in my chair ready to go, but couldn't. I have been trying to fathom out why and the only thing I came up with is my stitching is my thinking time and it is all so overwhelming.

We were lucky to have our daughter up to stay. We rented a holiday cottage in the village for her to isolate in for two weeks. During that time she came over in the evenings for a socially distanced glass or two of wine in the garden. 

Sometimes it rained, sometimes it didn't. Thank heavens our parasol is huge so we could socially distance in the dry..... And then after the two weeks, we could hug. Never has it felt so good. She stayed another two weeks, working in my bedroom, Monday to Fridays whilst my husband did the same downstairs. I felt like we lived in an office building.

We've had an odd summer. very hot in April and then cooler. Much cooler, I had the heating on in the mornings to take the edge off it. Then August hit us with a heatwave. That ended in lightening storms for days, in fact over a week and we are still getting the odd one now.  The flowers are rotting whilst in bloom on their stems.

One hollyhock has bucked the trend and looks fabulous.

We are still shielding and will be until there's a cure or a reliable vaccination.

Living in times of Covid 19

I have appliqued a few more vases. Somehow although I sit down to sew, it doesn't happen. My mind is on other things. Things like at the time of writing 30,000 of our countrymen have died. The figure is more likely to be at least 50,000 as only those who were tested have been counted. We are in Lockdown, or more precisely we are Shielding which is one stage up from Lockdown. We don't go out to buy food, in fact we don't go out for anything at all except a little exercise, and to walk the dogs.

We are so lucky to live in an area where we can do this without coming across others. In fact if it weren't for worrying about others, this would be great. My husband is home all day every day, and I am pleased to say we get on really well. On so many online groups I see partners breaking up under the strain of being together 24/7.Being in Lockdown with anyone on the planet, I would chose him.

 The dogs are getting shaggier day by day. I have managed to cut round their faces and a little round their feet, but I don't feel confident at all.

The area we live in is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and it is well deserved.

The bluebells in the forest have been magnificent this year. We had the wettest winter on record, followed by the warmest sunniest April. This hasn't been good for farmers, crops were drowning in the fields and then when they finally could get back on the land without compressing the wet soil to plant, then things withered in the heat and the lack of rain.....  All of this brings to attention how much we rely on other countries for food imports. Covid 19, panic buying, and people eating at home all day every day have meant shortages in supermarkets. 

Some people have fallen through the cracks but on the whole our government stepped up and gave companies the right to furlough employees (if they couldn't work from home) on 80% of salary paid for by the government. Self employed people have a similar deal based on what they've been earning in the same period last year. However there are some businesses which won't recover. Tourism and entertainments, restaurants, pubs being a major ones. It will be a long time before we are willing as a country to be with other people. 

That's the upside of what they have done. But there have been major failures. Huge failures. Putting the country into Lockdown when the virus already had a hold on the population perhaps being the worst. Not maintaining our supply of PPE and keeping it in date, not ordering PPE early enough from other countries, not making use of British manufacturers ready and will to supply. Not having a enough testing.  Not looking after those in care homes. The list is endless.

Our daughter is still in London, working from home in a shared apartment. She still gets to exercise round Regent's Park and discovers new areas. These were taken this week.

If you think when your children grow up, you worry less, miss them less you are wrong. I need to hug her. It's a physical need. We have Portals which are good but nothing like having her here.

Ellie bought us some of her eggs. They are just so  very beautiful.

I have used online supermarket shopping anyway, in the first couple of weeks it was hard finding a delivery slot, but now our particular supermarket have recognised us as loyal customers and we get a delivery every week. I used to have deliveries every 4-5 days, but this is an easy workaround. For things unavailable online one of the villagers goes to the supermarket down the hill in Monmouth once a week. She leaves it on the doormat, knocks then steps back about 10 foot. Everything coming into the house either gets washed down in a bleach solution or is left for three days untouched.

So far one person we've known for over 20 years has died, he has left 3 young children. We weren't close but it brings it home how dangerous this is.

Stay safe. x

A year since my last post.....

And still this quilt is a long way from finished.....
The paper pieced outer border is done. Ignore the jazzy pink red rug it's laid out on.

In this smaller house, the dressing room is the only space large enough to lay it out and even it is limited.

I have started the border of vases of flowers which shall go between the hexagons and the outer border.

Nineteen more vases of flowers to go....

On our lives, I don't think too much happened in 2019. Fliss and I didn't go to the Festival of Quilts this year but had a very nice few days down in Cornwall doing an applique course with Margaret Mew.

We are all doing well. Except I had a nasty fall which involved a  footstool and me ripping my leg open. I had to keep the leg elevated for six weeks. That put my weight loss journey back. All is back on track now. I think we've had they greyest rainiest winter ever. Today is the first two days of sunshine in a row since September. And it's been far warmer than a normal winter. Climate change is real. And frightening.

And then there's Brexit. What can I say? A nation has committed itself to losing it's biggest trading partner willingly. Insane. So much emotional energy has gone into fighting the fight against Brexit, I am exhausted and having lost I, and many others are grieving our collective loss of freedoms.

Update

The best laid plans go astray.  But to keep my own dairy of this quilts progress or lack thereof, I have nearly finished the second of the four outer borders of my English Paper Pieced quilt. And although these are the outer borders, there will be another one inserted between  these and the other borders in my last post. It will probably be applique.

I found this lovely Prussian Blue in my stash. These honeycomb shapes are one inch long on each side. I love this colour so much but it is a tightly woven glazed fabric and is hard to stitch by hand. I'll limit myself to just using a little because of this. Plus a small sprinkling will add a little zing.

Did I tell you we have gone on a Low Carb High Fat way of eating? It worried me eating all that fat but not only have I dropped 30 plus pounds, but my blood pressure and cholesterol have also dropped. We went off piste over Christmas and I regret not just going off plan for Christmas day. It's great being on a diet that not only works but doesn't leave you feeling hungry. Occasionally I find myself craving chocolate coated raisins but a little cheese takes that away.

I made cakes over the Christmas season but not for us, just as little thank you gifts for a few people in the village. They were triple vanilla and layers of red and green cake under the icing. And I didn't eat any of them! (Well, I did lick the beaters after I had loaded the cake tins...)

Rupert and Millie seem to be getting more laid back as the winter gets colder. Except when they are out walking when Rupert chases squirrels and Millie hunts rabbit poo........ My old Danes used to chase deer but these two seem to realise their little legs are useless for such pursuits.

Determined not to be stopped by Apple.

After the fail with my iPad Pro, I am trying to update on my phone..... Here goes...

Remember all those fussy cut half inch hexies, well they've become four borders.

I spent what seemed forever prepping honeycombs for the outer border. (Please excuse my pink toed socks) I also discovered how infrequently I use plastic bags. Safeway supermarket hasn't existed in the UK for at least ten years.

I think I'm over half way on the first border. 

Meanwhile Rupert and Millie are well and enjoying their lives. Rupert chases planes and helicopters whilst walking. He crashes when he gets home. 

And my life is getting better. I am on a Low Carb High Fat diet. Going down to 20-40 grams a day. My pain levels have dropped about 80%. The impetus was getting a prediabetic blood test result. After two months my bloods were nearly normal. As the blood test I had was indicative of the previous 3 months, I suspect it's well below now. And I've lost over 20 pounds. Win.

So sorry for not updating for a whole year?!

 I like blogging but not so much from my iPad or my phone. My PC is beyond frustrating, it is beyond slow. So here is an up date from my iPad not made easy as Millie is on my lap...

I am still working on the English Paper Pieced quilt. I love it but wish it were faster.

And now I give up..... I would love to post more but blogger is not uploading photos properly in edit mode from my iPad. I can see them  in the preview, the two are there but it won’t let me scroll down to write more. The 2nd photo shows one of the cornerstones of the first border. I am working on the third border but I cannot get the photos to load....... sorry

I am happy with the centre. I might touch up the white flecks round the birds with an Inktense pencil. The background colour is more of a green khaki but whatever I use to take a photo, it comes up as a variety of tan..

I just love doing these hexagon rosettes

My aim is just one per day with five of the background hexagons added around one side so the bulk of the adding the background is done.

I plan to lay them out as a border something like this below.

I think I have done enough for about two sides so far. I don't want to count them as I just want to enjoy the process.

I stitch away from myself with the furthest hexagon just slightly raised above the one in front of me. I find this makes it easier just to catch a couple of threads.

At the beginning and end of each seam, I wind the thread round the needle twice to strengthen the weakest point. It also means if the thread should fail at some point in the future, it will only be one seam which needs fixing.

 When I hit a dead end and need to get back to where I started, I travel the thread under the seam allowance winding the thread around the needle twice at the beginning and end of each seam as above.

  And I have found my Fiskars hexagon punch will happily cope with a double thickness of my 165gr paper. This means I can cut out about 150 hexagons in a matter of a few minutes.

Every time the phone or doorbell rings, everything has to be put out of Ruperts reach. This weeks damage.....

And the leg of the footstool. 

Thank heavens it was the cheapie kitchen footstool. He'll be two in March, it should have ceased by now........

Hexagons, English Paper piecing Tips

This is the back of the fabric with four different positions for these hexagons. I have another two to stitch.

Sometimes either because the print is very pale or just because the printing doesn't show well on the back, then you can use a light box or just tape your fabric to a window to see where to stick the papers in place. 

I cut our roughly round the papers. For plain or tone on tones I just cut squares, 1½ inches for a half inch hexagon.  I will trim them down later. The little clips hold each set together.

I cut them back after I have stitched them together but before I remove the papers.

 Half trimmed.

Fully trimmed. I find this easier than trying to cut to an exact size and it gives you more to play with when stitching the papers in place. I am not saying this is the right or wrong way to do it, just what suits me.

This was the very first one I sewed  and I loved it, however so did one little dog....

 I found it in his mouth. All but two of the papers had gone.......

I might be able to use it with some judicious use of starch...... I had been thinking he was getting better on the chewing front...... after all he's over 18 months old now.

I have decided to go against the tradition of using a pale tan background used in early hexagon quilts and to go with an olive green, also from Petra Prinns. 

There's a Facebook group for people making these hexagon quilts. People are making their hexagons in different sizes right down to ¼ inch! You can find the group by clicking on the name Libby Morgan Mosaic Quilt Sew Along. Or search the hashtag #libbymorganmosaicquilt on Instagram.