Finished and unfinished...

Above is the finished quilt for my sister-in-law, Helen (who doesn't know I've got a blog so will not find out about this).



By doing simple quilting from point to point on the tumbler shapes, quite a nice geometric result happened on the back, and I really enjoyed using the figure 8 template for the bands and borders because it had no stop and start points except for the floral corners, so is a quick pattern to use. Miind you, for some reason, this is a heavy quilt and the quilting was quite hard work. I think it is because I used an iron-on batting and the weight of all that glue stuff seems to make quite a difference.



Logan, the Quilt Policeman, on duty inspecting my stitches and finding a few knots on the back from that awful King Tut quilting cotton I used (King Tat, I call it and will never touch it again, however pretty the colour might be).

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I tried to enhance the colour of this photo as it came out rather dark but although it has left the cream border cream, for some reason it has changed our grey/beige carpet to vivid turquoise. Still, you can see the lovely corner pattern of this nice template.



And the finished article, just needing to be washed (christened) and labelled and then Stuart will take it with him to Scotland on his next visit as it is too precious to post.

Don't know what to work on next. Really want to use my Jane Austen-ish fabrics and my Civil War reproductions, all of which have remained untouched since I got them. But as we have had such warm weather, and it doesn't look like we'll be having a holiday this year, I'm tempted to do something sunny and holidayish to keep in cheerful mode. I have a charm pack of French Provencal fabrics and just might play with them for a bit...

The unfinished thing is my poor husband, who is now home from three weeks' rehabilitation but still not feeling too great. All is well with his heart, everything fine there, but he is having difficulty putting on weight after having lost 11 kilos in the last couple of months. The altered taste problem, which probably came from the anaesthetic or from his antibiotics before the op, has prevented him from eating much. It is getting better and now he is home I am able to cater more specifically for what he thinks will taste okay, rather than having what was given in the clinic (very little choice). So things are improving but slowly and he is an impatient man (probably how he got to be heart-stressed in the beginning) and wants to get back into his life and feel normal again. He is still not supposed to drive his car (but has been as there was a problem with mine this week), NEVER EVER supposed to lift anything above 10 kilos again (he is not a weightlifter or anything but this news has depressed him and made him feel old) and he is still not supposed to sleep on his side for another week. Poor lad, he is therefore underweight and sleeping badly with many interruptions, still taking a load of drugs and on top of that he has given up smoking. So he is dealing with a lot of frustration with no help from a cigarette. He's using an electric vapour cigarette to calm cravings and give him something to wave around - it's an excellent idea and contains no nicotine, just a flavoured vapour, battery-operated. So he is doing really well, considering. Not the easiest person to live with at the moment, however!! He has decided to go to a business meeting tomorrow (something else he shouldn't be doing) but I think it will be good for him to see clients and colleagues and feel he is needed again. It is in Frankfurt but he intends to go by train and stay overnight before the meeting tomorrow, which is a gentle approach.

Well, no quilting group today, so I need to look over some ideas for those provencal prints.