It's official - quilting is good for your soul

I don't seem to have spent much time on things that I have planned this week. John and Steph's house is reaching a critical point so I have been spending a lot of spare time with them at the house or baby-sitting while they work on the house in the evenings. The plumber is due today to put the bathroom in. John and I have been putting together the kitchen which will always look awful until the last minute.

The wall units on one wall, the new boiler and the start of the units along the wall with all the pipes. This room had thick wallpaper with really dark patterns on.

Just making sure he's not throwing out anything important - check out the bright green wall.  Most of the house was bright green, blue or orange but had been on for years so really, really, didn't look modern and vibrant.  Steph is painting everything white and cream until they have lived with it for a while then going on to different colour schemes.  The house looks twice the size with the newly plastered and decorated rooms.  I didn't get home until nearly ten last night which is my my Sunday blog is on Monday morning!

I was at the dentist on Tuesday so naturally I visited the wool shop. (Not for consolation - I have a lovely dentist)

This might seem an odd choice of colours until you see what I had in mind for them:

I had painted some beehives for a garland but couldn't decide what to string it all together with.  Since I have been making crochet flowers I decided to give it a try.  This is the result:

On my quest to make little stocking fillers I have made a couple more face cleaners.  I want to be able to use something with natural fibres that looks pretty.  I stumbled across the idea of using coaster patterns but with finer yarn.  These are some of the ones I have tried:

This is using Patons 4ply in cream - I added a little chain at the back to slip your fingers through.

The pink and green are made from  Quince and Co linen yarn.

And the sunflower is made from Rowan Glace Cotton.  They make up quickly and are good little projects to carry around.  I'll put together a page with the pattern on when I have perfected it.

I've been working at home for a couple of weeks now and have found it strangely depressing.  At home I should be doing my things, not work things. By the time the weekend came I was feeling pretty low.  Saturday mornings on the Hill always perk me up though. I love seeing what everyone is doing and chatting with the lovely ladies. I finished the key holder:

When I came home on Saturday afternoon I took up my needle and started quilting.  It must be like opium because I started to drift into a world where only the rhythm of my needle mattered.  

I'm free quilting this one so the stitching is a bit wobbly but I love it and can hardly put it down.  I might even post a picture of the finished thing next week.  I am going to stop work dead on 4pm today and stitch while the light is still good because I everyone needs to have some soul time.  I hope you can make time for yours this week.