They're Multiplying!

I'm really quite busy at the moment with studying as there's an assignment due later this month. Unfortunately that means I have less crafting time. However I have discovered that a good way of breaking up sections of study is sewing one or two hexagons together. I find if I try to do a huge chunk of studying I realise afterwards that, although I've read the words on the pages, I haven't actually taken them in so I try to break it up a bit.

It's great that I've discovered I can work on my hexagons while studying and I've managed to do more in the last week than I have in the past year!!!

I now have 9 flowers finished.

I'm not entirely sure what these will end up as. I love the idea of doing a huge quilt with them BUT I'm really slow at sewing them. I guess I'll just keep plodding along for now. This is my stress free, no time limit project.

Lovely Sunny Weekend

Well the LotR wall hanging has taken a backseat for the last few days because we've been away camping. We went with some friends again and luckily this year the weather was much nicer. I seem to remember being thankful for a break in the rain while we pitched our tent last year and a little sun to dry it out before taking it down. This year it was gloriously hot and we were on the bottom field which is a lot flatter.

Had it not been for camping with friends we probably wouldn't have gone back to Holme Valley campsite. The site is great but one of the benefits of having a tent is that you can go to new places every year and this campsite is fairly close to home so we have already visited a lot of the 'attractions' near by. This year we revisited Holmfirth on Saturday morning and had lunch there. In the afternoon we went to Greenhead Park in Huddersfield, which is great for the kids. There's a miniature railway (we paid £3.50 for a family to go round the track twice), plenty of play equipment for the kids, a shallow pool for paddling in and places for a drink/food (though we didn't use those).

Paddling & Ice Lollies - what could be better!?!

On Sunday we came home via Wentworth Castle. We didn't visit the gardens but we did go for a lovely walk around the parkland trail. We grabbed a bite to eat and a drink in the cafe before letting the kids loose in the children's playground. We bought them a bucket & spade (bargain at £1.20 for a set) to do some digging in the sandpits.

I took some hand sewing to do. If I remember correctly I think I took these last year and I haven't made much progress. The plan is always to sit and sew while the kids play around the campsite and then do a bit more when they're in bed. However what usually happens is I'm too busy cooking food, taking one of the kids to the loo at the other side of the campsite or providing drinks & snacks to get any done while they're awake and by the time they're in bed the light is fading and I can't see well enough to do much sewing.

4 flowers done

So there you go, still working on the UFO's while on holiday, even if I'm not making much progress :-)

Friday Update

Well there's no proper finished object today. It's been a very busy week as I have an assignment due on Wednesday and am trying to cram in a lot of studying that I didn't manage to get done over the Easter holidays. When one part of my life is totally hectic I tend to try and do something very relaxing in my crafting, so I've only worked on my hexagons this week.

I'm enjoying doing these as they're relaxing and it's a much slower pace than when I'm whizzing things through my machine! I've got 68 hexagons so far. I'd like to get to 100 before starting to sew them together. I want enough done so that I don't change my mind and decide to stop at a flower on a cushion or something.

I also need to buy thread before I can sew them together. I was hoping to get some today when I was in the city centre but the market didn't have the colour I wanted and the other shop has such bad lighting I couldn't tell the true colour of the thread so I'll maybe try to nip out somewhere else at the weekend.

Since the weather was so bad earlier this week I didn't really get out but it meant I got to do some crafting with Orla. She loves painting so I opened up a magnet painting set I bought a while ago for the kids. It's basically 10 small tiles, a set of paints and then some self adhesive magnets to stick to the back of the tiles once your paint has dried. She took quite a liking to the black paint so I have seven "black blob" tiles with a few prettier ones!

I love this one:

See that paper behind? Well that's Erin's certificate. She got a Bronze Award at school.

I got to go in this morning and watch her get her award at an assembly.

 

WIP: Hexagons

Well, my paper pieces arrived yesterday and I started tacking fabric to them yesterday evening. I've got 20 done so far, which isn't bad considering I had a 5 year old's birthday party to prep for too. I'm not having a colour theme or a design in the quilt...it's a "whatever scraps I have, wherever they end up" kind of quilt.

Lots of different fabrics already!

 

WIP Wednesday

I almost forgot that it's Wednesday. I think with the bank holiday it has felt like Tuesday all day. Anyway, not much progress has been made on my current projects with it being the school holidays and being away over the weekend. The only thing I've done is 4 rows on my Simple Shawl.

However I have set upon two new projects. Yes, I know I already have far too many on the go but there's a reason for these, really :-/

Firstly I've ordered some hexagon paper pieces for some hand quilting. When I was in Keswick at the weekend I spotted a cushion in a shop window and had to take a closer look. To my disappointment it was a printed panel that had then been (badly) quilted but it did make me think that I really should start a hexagon quilt. I absolutely love them when I've seen them at shows/exhibitions/museums.

The other reason for starting one of these now is because I'm not really getting chance to study during the 9-5 day. Orla sometimes doesn't nap and my current course needs total concentration. I wanted something on the go that I can do in the living room (i.e. without a machine) that I can pick up & put down as much as I need to. I don't really have much enthusiasm for cutting my own papers though so I'm being lazy and have ordered them online.

I'm planning on making it from scraps and adding to it as I go along. It is most definitely a long term project, don't expect a Finished Object post anytime soon!

And that leads me to the reason for my other new project. I spotted this tutorial by Red Pepper Quilts for a Postage Stamp Quilt. It seems like a good idea to do both scrap projects at once so that I can make the most of the scraps. So today, I've been cutting jelly roll strips for it. I've decided that rather than follow the tutorial as it is, I'm adjusting it for 2 1/2 inch strips rather than 2 inch ones, mainly to save myself a lot of cutting as I have a lot of jelly roll strip scraps.

I got these cut this afternoon with Erin watching me. She's taking quite an interest in my crafting since I let her try out my sewing machine last week

It was pretty good for her first attempt! She took it to show all the relatives too.

So, while I cut out for the postage stamp quilt, she collected the offcuts for hexagons and the selvedges to play with. A teapot has become her fabric stash pot!!!