Archie The Wonder Dog

I'm going to make this a photo-heavy post so you can see what I've been up to while I've been away.  I don't really want to go into why I've been away but I do want to say thank you for all the lovely emails, cards and presents you've sent (you know who you are!) and to send you all a hug for the friendship, love and support you've given me.  It's very much appreciated - I love this community of ours and am so thankful and grateful to be a very small part of it.   I made a (very quick!) baby quilt: I channelled my inner Lynne and quilted a grid - I love it! I've also made a bedding set for my niece's Christmas present (a pram).  Here's Panda trying out the blanket, mattress and pillow: and here he is trying out the whole set! He wasn't pleased when he realised I was serious about it not being for him. I'm particularly fond of the dolly quilt (made with 'Rain' from the wonderful Si...

...but I do need a bit of help! Once again I'm going to have to work some ATWD magic and make it look as though I've been productive this month!  I think I'll show you lots of photos to distract you from lack of substance sewing.  I've got to admit to being really, really tired at the moment.  To give you an idea of what really, really tired looks like I can tell you that in the last seven days I've spent six afternoons in bed, fast asleep for at least three hours each time.  And that's after at least ten hours sleep on a night so it's not as though I'm going short!  When I'm awake I'm not necessarily awake and doing - you're more likely to find me flitting from thing to thing, not really able to settle on one thing but not able to just sit on the settee and watch telly either ('too tired to do anything, too tired to rest' would be a good description).  If it wasn't for my need to publish my Fresh Sewing Day post on the firs...

I don't feel as though I've done much sewing in July - I've mainly been concentrating on painting my garden fence and shed and as a result I'm too tired to do much else!  I have managed to do a bit, though (when I haven't been napping or complaining about the heat) so I'm going to attempt, as my title says, to make a little look like a lot(tle) - as I do for most of my FSD posts! I've managed a bit of machine piecing: 1.  Blue and white progress , 2.  Blue and white progress , 3.  Blue and white progress , 4.  Blue and white progress , 5.  Blue and white progress , 6.  Blue and white progress None of these short rows (five blocks in each) have been stitched together yet, that's the next job!  I'm afraid I'm finding this quite a tedious quilt to piece - I've developed a pinning strategy that gives mainly good results (only two seams had to be unpicked and re-sewn through all of the block joining I've done this month) but it...

It's time to declare my finishes for quarter two of the Finish-A-Long - I feel a bit of a fraud writing a new blog post when I haven't replied to the comments from the previous one but instead of spending time on the computer (I'm also way behind with other emails and reading/commenting on blog posts) I've been spending a lot of time crawling around my front room floor, listening to/watching six episodes of ' Broadchurch' and a fair few of 'Party of Five'  and tackling this: Hexy quilt top, wadding and backing, ready to tack and I'm pleased to say that late last night (with blisters on both index fingers!) I finished tacking my quilt and can now start to experiment with threads and choose which I want to use.  Oh, and I suppose I'd better give some thought to exactly how I'm going to quilt it - that very much depends on the threads I choose, though... I'll reply to comments soon (honest!) but I need to post my FAL Q2 finishes s...