Loadsa quilting

We had a nice, not-doing-much kind of day today, with the exception of a brief excursion to Sainsbury's (supermarket) - not as bad as I expected for a Saturday - to pick up essentials like bread, milk, pizza (!) and return the DVD which we bought the other day, but already had (Toy Story - we used to have both 1 & 2 on video. Then we replaced one of them on DVD. The other day we say both for £5, so decided to replace the one we hadn't replaced. Could we (and I include the kids on this as they couldn't either!) remember which one it was? Of course not. So, naturally, we picked one - and got it wrong.... - I should say here that we aren't replacing all our videos - just the ones they still watch a lot - most of the videos are kinda dying and I don't think the video player will be long for the world. But I digress. As usual!)

Anyway, the kids mostly watched telly, played on the computer, played games, did craft stuff and so on. I mostly sewed. Or rather, I mostly quilted. Along with other thrills like doing laundry, of course. First I quilted this blue and purple piece, which I think came out well - I just made it up as I went along. This piece is going to a swapper in the ALQS whose partner had a death in the family and said she was going to finish up her committment, but hasn't yet done so. I hate to keep nagging her (the partner), so I just decided to send her (the swapper) something anyway. If she (the swapper) ends up with two pieces, that's fine - she was an angel for me anyway, so she made two quilts and deserves it. If she reads my blog (don't think she does) she'll know it's for her, but that's ok, it's going off to her next week, barring catastrophe.

I also quilted the baby quilt for my new sort of nephew, who I know now is called Kevin Andrew (named after his mother's brother and his dad (who used to be my stepbrother)'s father. Just did a quick stars and loops meader - it's for a baby, after all - just needs something to hold it together! I actually did that last, but the photo fit better there than anywhere else. I almost pushed it to tomorrow, but I really wanted to get everything done today so I went ahead and did it, although it meant I had small company and had to keep stopping to find objects which had been hidden around the hallway (but frequent quilting breaks are good for one's back anyway, right?)



I quilted the blue and orange piece (which looks a little more blue in this photo than it did the other day, but still not quite as blue as it really is), using simple loop flowers in the orange pieces - very basic, but really, it didn't need much as I didn't want to distract from the design, which I really love. I almost want to keep this for myself, but it's also going to an ALQS swapper whose quilt seems to have been lost in the post. I could have asked for an angel, but somehow it just seemed simpler to do it myself. Plus I wanted to try this pattern, so it gave me a good opportunity to do so.



And I quilted this - the block was already made up, just waiting to be pressed into service if needed. This is also for an ALQS swapper. I think that this person will eventually receive her quilt as her partner has been in many swaps and is generally very reliable, but for various reasons, the partner has been prevented from being able to make the quilt within a reasonable time, and I feel that the swapper deserves something for waiting so long. I had the block ready, so it wasn't too much a sacrifice for me to make this. As it happens, the basket block centre was actually a block I received when I won the block lotto (quite a long time ago now) on about.com and was made by Floribunda (according to the address label on the back of it). If she's reading (which I know she does, at least sometimes she may well recognise it).

Of course, now I have to bind and sleeve these quilts - well, I don't have to sleeve the baby quilt. So tomorrow, you know what I'll be doing - making binding! And I guess I won't be doing much cross-stitch this week as I'll be attaching binding instead (it won't really take long - all those pieces are fairly small).

Last but not least - here's what I got in the post today - some fabric from eQuilter (monthly fabric club) - this is a great selection of reds, which includes one batik and at least one, possibly two CW Repros, if I'm not mistaken. I also got these cross-stitch patterns - speaking of cross-stitch and Floribunda - she and I swapped patterns, neither of us being the type to do things more than once - and here are the ones she sent me - all nice, small, acheivable pieces.



I can't believe the Christmas holidays are nearly over - Olivia and I are going to honour the last staying up late night of the holiday by watching a film together (not sure what yet - I think she wants to watch the Sound of Music, which is fine with me, though she might fall asleep before it finishes - she's not nearly as much of a night owl as her sister, and it's a long film!). Too bad that binding isn't on yet - I'd be able to get a big chunk of it done tonight!