Progress

Well, I am pleased to advise that I took my Japanese fabric to the Monday night craft group and cut more pieces for the blocks. That's as far as I got!! I have decided that I need more fabric (of course I do!!), and as I can't get to the appropriate patchwork shop until Friday (day off - yey!), I can't do much more on this quilt. Therefore, this weekend may bring more progress in the Japanese quilt saga - or maybe not!

I know what the problem is, I have been spending far too much time on my new iPod touch and not enough time on my quilting projects. I do not feel guilty (too much) about this, as I found a great quote that fits this situation perfectly - 'Time you enjoyed wasting, is not wasted time'!! That makes me feel a whole lot better about not getting anywhere on my sister's quilt.

Eureka!! I finally have my pc back (that was a saga of its own), and although my music on iTunes still jumps when loading other programs, I can download movies onto my iPod - how cool is that?!?!?! I have just tried a music program that the IT guy loaded for me called Foobar 2000, and the music doesn't seem to jump on that - which is good - the only problem is that I can't select playlists - but I can live with that. Anything is preferable to having the music jump and stutter its way from beginning to end.

All my readers (I think there's only one of you at this stage), will be pleased to learn that I bought some more Japanese fabric today (Friday - day off), and it is now washed and ironed, and one piece is cut. I then got bored, and played with my iTouch some more!

I also finished pruning the roses in the front garden today - filled the large green wheelie bin and a separate smaller rubbish bin, and gained two blisters on my fingers (yes, I did wear gloves!) - I must just have really soft skin!! Considering the wheelie bin was emptied on Tuesday, and won't be emptied again until Tuesday week, that seems to be the end of the pruning for the moment - and a great excuse not to mow the lawn - no room to put the grass clippings.

Until next week .....

Computer programs - who needs them??

Once I had my blog page happening, I thought I would only write one blog a week, and wondered if there would be enough happening in my life, quilt wise, to be able to live up to that goal. However, after trying for what seems like hours to get a program loaded on to my computer (unsuccessfully, I might add), I decided to write another blog, because this at least is interesting and fun to do!! I also spent a couple of hours pruning the roses in my front garden, and I have the cuts and scratches onmy arms to prove it.

I still haven't made much progress on my sister's Japanese quilt (too busy on the pc and in the garden), but I know what I want to do, so it shouldn't take long. It just needs motivation - anyone have any to spare?! I have 3 quilt tops ready to be quilted - 2 by machine and 1 by hand, and none of these are really needed until next year, so I have lots of time for the Japanese quilt - I just need to start.

Once that quilt is done, I would like to do another 'bug' quilt. That looked fabulous, and I know a couple of young boys who would love it. I also have 3 pillow slips to make - 1 with spiders, 1 with construction vehicles and the other is very girly - all pink with ballerinas.

I also want to scan all the photos of my quilt into the computer, so that I can put them on my iPod and on my blog page. Therefore, I should have lots to talk about in future blogs.

And about the computer, I have had enough - I will take it to the computer guy on Monday and see what he can do.

Quilts as gifts

I can't believe this worked! After one aborted effort of getting a name on my dashboard that I didn't like, I am now happy with everything, and it was easier than I first thought.

My sister laughs at me every time an event happens (birth, significant birthday, any other reasonable excuse), because I make a quilt to mark the event. I have made quilts for births, for weddings, for birthdays, for the fun of it, and with bugs, stars, shabby chic, guitars, cars, cats, cartoon heroes and Japanese fabrics, just because I can! I would much prefer to be sewing than out in the garden pulling out weeds. Some friends can't see the point of cutting up a 'perfectly good piece of fabric' and then putting it back together. I love it. I love the creative freedom it gives me. There are no rules. You can put spots with stripes and florals, and it does work! Quilts made of a varied design pattern generally look a lot better than those with just all florals, or all spots or all stripes. In my mind anyway.

I also like giving a quilt as a present - to me it says so much more when a present is hand made. Time, effort and thought has gone into that gift, and that usually means as much as the gift itself.

As you can see from the photos, I am not as artistic as a friend of mine who presents her quilts draped over various objects. Mine are just hung over my couch, so that the whole quilt can be seen.

I have a day off tomorrow, so I must make a start on a Japanese quilt - this time for my sister's 50th birthday!