Home Run for Durham Quilt

First of all welcome to Josie - thank you for your lovely comment on the Durham Quilt.  

This week has been another roller coaster with a weekend cut short by our Summer Fair yesterday.  This morning when I got up I wasn't quite sure where to start. I had to squeeze everything into one day.  I must say I was hanging my head thinking, 'I'll just go back to bed'.  When things overwhelm me I always think of my mother who used to say "Just start somewhere".  So I did.  I tidied my 'nest' which was full of threads and drawings and little snippets of fabric as well as unopened post and an empty glass. I'm such a slattern. For those of you who do not know what my nest is - it is a sofa surrounded by shelves and a little table. I stitch, crochet, read, doze and snack on inappropriate amounts of sugar here.  It is in the bay window and has great light all day.

By the time my little area was tidied and straightened I felt better and decided to break for breakfast.  This week I bought some sliced bread that disappeared into a million fragments when it was toasted. Yuk. 

I got some sour dough bread on the way home from the fair yesterday and made myself a hearty breakfast (I was too tired to eat last night, so pretty hungry this morning)

 Doesn't that look good.

Blueberry and banana smoothie, toast and butter, some lovely sharp strawberries and a large mug of coffee. Keep your sliced bread Mr Warburton.

After  vacuuming and dusting I had a little play with the fabrics for my wedding ring place mats/table runner.  It'll quilt down....I hope.  I put them away because this a future project.

It was my birthday during the week - Steph got me some lovely little doo dahs and geegaws to play with.  They'll have to wait a few weeks because every weekend until the end of July is spoken for, but I have a little project in mind.

The babies were round this morning, Ben stayed while Steph and John walked to the local car boot sale.  He sat patiently while I finished piecing the Dancing Squares quilt then we went out to feed the bunny and hens.  Later this morning I was surrounded by a cloud of poly cotton - 17m of it.  I was tasked with the job of making a backdrop for our end of year musical - Grease - it had to have a huge fabric loop sewn in the middle so that it can be hoisted up half way through the performance.  It's not that easy finding dead centre of 17m - I'll only know if it's right when they hang it up!

I was up and down from the sewing machine filling the washing machine, dishwasher, washing line, tumble dryer (when the line was full) and am pleased to report that all the washing is done and food is cooked for tonight and tomorrow. The ironing can wait, I wanted to get on with the Durham Quilt. (Love all my domestic machinery that allows me the time to spend on my sewing)

I laid the pieces out,

 Stitched and unpicked,

 Measured a bit more carefully.  I couldn't get my head round the technique at first,

but I think I've cracked it.  The quilt is going to be very muted and soft.  I was a bit unsure about making the squares individually because I think sometimes the 'quick method' is either not that quick or not a patch (!) on the traditional method. I'll reserve judgement but I'm cautiously optimistic.

I'll be doing a line of quilting a quarter inch from each joining strip.  It will look much neater when it has been steamed as well.  So now I'm going to have a glass of Wylam Growler - an artisan beer which John brought over and write some instructions for the Thursday night ladies, hopefully before the beer reaches my kneecaps.  Don't ask me why, but when I drink alcohol I know when I have had too much because my kneecaps tingle. Luckily for my pocket it only takes a small amount - less than a glass of wine.

It's a lovely evening so I might sit in the garden for a bit. I hope your week ahead is a good one. xxxx