I'm joining the Finish-A-Long!

This year Leanne@She Can Quilt is taking over the FAL responsibilities from Rhonda@Quilter In The Gap and, having been through all the boxes in my sewing room and listed all my 'In progress' projects on a separate blog page, I realised that there are a few things I could feasibly finish by the end of March.  Nothing huge (don't get your hopes up, Sarah, I'm not secretly planning to have my hexy quilt finished by then) but they'll be finishes nonetheless.  I'm deliberately being realistic with what I'll be able to manage - there's no way I can finish any of the quilts I'm working on in three months so I've picked smaller projects to focus on finishing and I'll continue to plug away at the larger projects.  So, expectations set suitably low, here we go!

 
1.  I'd like to finish making these gorgeous Marmalade fabrics into a cushion.  Leanne sent me these and I decided to stick to the hexy theme she'd started (although I did have to change it from EPP to hand piecing) and I was inspired by this beautiful cushion, which Fiona received in a swap.

2.  Stumpwork anemone.  This just needs the detached petals preparing and attaching to the flower and then mounting on a canvas block. 

3.  I'm afraid there's no photo for this item because it's a surprise and the recipient reads my blog.  Instead I've emailed a photo to Our Dear Leader and I promise to share that photo as well as photos of the finished item when I can.  I can tell you that it's knitting and that I've probably got another two or three hours of knitting to go before I can cast off and then it needs blocking and the ends sewing in.  It's the project I'm focusing on at the moment and I hope it's going to be my first FAL finish!


That's all, folks!  I told you to set your expectations low - if you want to visit people with higher expectations then visit some of these loonies people!  (To be fair I think everyone has a longer list than me and I think it says more about me than it does about them!)  Or, better still, make a list of your own and join the fun!



I must confess celebrate a 2013 finish.  I was lucky enough to meet up with Danielle@Mes Petits Elefants on Saturday.  She's in the area visiting her husband's family and we arranged to meet at my friend's Open Studio.  Danielle is the loveliest person you could wish to meet and by the end of the visit I felt like I'd known her for years.  She was much more organised than me and brought some of her (beautiful) work to show me, I must remember to do that the next time I meet up with a quilter - schoolgirl error!  We swapped presents and generally had a wonderful time.

The most beautiful fabrics from Danielle - I had to keep my eye on the dress pattern piece as several people professed love for it...

A flying geese hexy pin cushion (made with Oakshott Lipari 

and Kona medium grey) for Danielle.

Yes, I was four days into 2013 and I'd finished something - a new record, I think!  For me, at least...


Archie has been on antibiotics and painkillers, again but is on the mend.  It all started on the Sunday between Christmas and New Year when he squealed when I opened his mouth to give him his liver tablet.  (A tablet for his liver, not a tablet made from liver!)  He did it again on Monday and Tuesday so on Wednesday, after he'd squealed and then ran away, I took him to the vet.  Blimey, did we have a struggle with him!  So much so that he jarred his leg and went out limping!  (His leg is fine now, he just had short walks for a couple of days, much to his disgust!)  In all the struggles the vet managed to catch glimpse of the back of his mouth and said that one side was red and sore and she said he could have eaten something sharp and scratched his mouth and started with an infection/abscess.  (He's a bit of a scavenger when he's out on walks and it's quite likely that he's found a bone left by a thoughtless food fairy.)  Given his age she decided that the best thing to do was to put him on antibiotics (rather than knocking him out to get a better look) and hope that they did the trick and, fingers crossed, he seems to be responding.  He was never poorly (or off his food or walks!) but he's now letting me give him his tablets without squealing.  Although by the Thursday morning he'd taking to sloping off each time he heard me pop a tablet out of the foil and by Saturday he sloped off as soon as my alarm went off...he's far from daft!  In a way it's lucky I have to give him a tablet first thing each morning as it would have taken days for him to show any other symptoms.  The only other thing I noticed was that his catching was atrocious (he's usually very, very good at catching biscuits!) but it's not something you'd take him to the vet to discuss!!  I've taken to giving him a tiny bit of cheese with his tablets, to encourage him to swallow them and he's very keen on the cheese but not so keen being clamped between my knees and having his mouth prised open!

When you asked if I wanted some cheese you failed to mention the tablet that would accompany it #notamused

What?  Again?  Are you sure?  I had one last night, you know...any chance you could skip the tablet and just give me the cheese?

And it's been a little chilly in Archie Towers recently...

Any chance we could have the heating on?  Just for half an hour...

That's it from me, I'm off to make a cup of tea and do a spot of knitting!  I'm afraid that, as usual, I'm behind on my emails (46 to reply to and counting - that may not seem like a lot to most of you but it'll probably take me the rest of the week!) but I'll do my best to catch up...or give up!  Oh, and I've had to stop accepting anonymous comments as I was starting to get rather disgusting spam comments.  I hope it doesn't cause a problem for anyone - you can always email me instead!

Happy stitching!

Edited to add: I managed to get some better photos of 'Leftovers' when the light levels were higher.  It was much flatter after it'd been out of the drier for a few hours and I helped it on its way by putting it under my bottom sheet and sleeping on it - worked a treat!

Much better than my last attempt!