I Write The Book

My bookish friend, Liz, and I have had fun today, well, what passes for fun for us. We both like to read, both studied literature. Summertime however finds us both reading, well, the type of books a hamster could write running around its wheel. Books that follow a pattern, we joke that we will write one between us, and we could, I know we could. We don't like the "beach read", the "summer sizzler", too much sand, too much sand in awkward places. We like the sort of book that's set in the Cotswolds or Scottish Islands or South Cornwall. The woman has been disappointed in life or love or career and lives generally in London. She is, delete as appropriate, a knitter/never knit, a reader/never read, a baker/never baked a cup cake in her life. She leaves said life in the big city to head to a remote village, always a village, by the sea, in the country, on the island. She lives next door to a grumpy old woman and there is a rugged, handsome man living nearby also, usually driving a jeep. I can't tell you what happens, I wouldn't want to jeopardise our book deal! But ... generally involves her setting up a book shop/cake shop/ tea shop/ wool shop which becomes integral to the community. Ooops, just given it away. Anyway, we had fun, via whats app, making up new book titles.
Jane Eyre becomes Jane Ecclescake
The 39 Steps becomes the The 39 Scones
Wuthering Heights becomes Withering Biscuits
You get the picture, little amuses the innocent, or those with little to do. Liz's mother would have given us a cupboard to clean out! I am grateful for this fun which lasts over the years.

What has this got to do with a sewing blog? Very little, except my summer sewing this week has rather been like my summer reading. Plenty of it but rather inconsequential.

I have continued on with the quilting on my What's Out The Window?, the quatrefoil quilt. I completed another the white in another block and a half. I have definitely run out of white quilting thread. At the start of next week I will hopefully get some more, and some black for the black areas. I am nearly two thirds through the white quilting.

 I have the binding machined on and would love to slip stitch over the back.

 That is my favourite bit, the slip stitching. It seems a bit decadent though to go ahead, a bit like taking from the bottom of layer of chocolates before the top layer is finished.

Next up I quilted a bit of the Sandra's Scraps, the Plus Playtime quilt. I have finished all the blue shadow plus. Can't do the white background, for obvious reasons, no thread. I had a hunt and discovered I had some quilting threads which matched the pluses. More loops, but loose loops this time. Sort of restrained uptight swirls. Straight up and down with a curve at the top.

 Maybe I should have crossed some of them over, don't want to use up all my creative ideas in one quilt!

I even like the back, must be doing something right!

Next up I made a few more hexies for Kingfisher Stitch Along, hexies on a background made up of diamonds. Now .... as you may know I am not great at mathematical things. My dad was an accountant, my sons are scientists, obviously the genes skipped a generation. I followed all the directions to cut out my diamond, lining up my ruler and cutting at 60%. Needless to say, I ended up with a sort of trapezoid. My other half unhelpfully suggested that diamonds have 4 mirrored quarters. Yes, I know they do. That's not helping. In the end I drew around a smaller quilting diamond I had and then added 1/2" on to each side and cut it out of card.

 

 Every time I cut one, this card template gets a trim. I will have to bear that in mind. I have hand appliqued my first epp hexie to the first diamond. It was a beautifully restful thing to do. I will enjoy these.

My daughter was in London last weekend, and brought me home a little parcel of Liberty fat quarters. This will eke out my stash. The stitch a long uses 46 hexies, I was going to go with 23 x 2. Then I found a bit more fabric (...) . Now I am going to go as far as I can with what I have, repeat some, and make a smaller quilt. I think the quilt a long finishes the end of July, for those who have kept up. I joined in late. Interestingly, when you do a quilt a long with blog link ups, you "get to know" other sewists. This has been an instagram link up, and it seems much more impersonal, though there have been some lovely hexies.

Knit wise, I am on sleeve island in knitting my Beekeeper Cardigan. The knit a long finished a week ago,  I am just plodding along. It is a lovely knit, but the summer is so warm, I wouldn't be wearing it anyway. Not a great photo I am afraid, but we go with what we have.

The preparations for the visitors still continue. I have had my hair cut and coloured, my finger and toe nails painted peachy pink, my beard trimmed, and my eyebrows resemble two slugs. Why then do I look in the mirror and see Grayson Perry's alter ego Claire. Google her and see if I am right.
I baked a Victoria Sponge today, it sunk rather, my fairy cakes and more elfin then fairy, and my biscuits should crumble in the mouth rather than when coming off the baking tray. Apart from that I am wonderful! Domestic Goddess I am not. I am away now to have a chat with my courgettes, about the need to produce more fruit. I will tell them about  a handy tip I learned in a knitting group last summer. That's why we need the bees, and not the blasted slugs which have decimated my sunflowers. My daughter genuinely thought slugs were called b**t**ds when she was a little girl. And it's still only Tuesday.

Helen x
linking up with Beth and Cooking Up Quilts, Main Crush Monday and her fab new web site