Block #19 Nearly Insane

Finished this one today.



And just look at the magnolia now - so luxuriant.

Sewing again...

This the beach at Noordwijk in Holland where Stuart and I went for a couple of days last week. We were very lucky with the weather; it was warm and very sunny, cloudless skies. There was a chill wind but we ate dinner sitting outside at a beach restaurant with glass wind protection and saw a wonderful sunset.
Our hotel was at the quietest end of Noordwijk and this is how I like my beaches - wide and empty. The dog loved it too.
This photo is of one of the tulip fields as we left the Keukenhof bulb and flower gardens at Lisse in Holland. I took it from the car window as we drove by - lots of these tulip fields look like abstract paintings.

Where have I been for the last two weeks? Doing research for my family tree and I don't think I've ever done anything in my life that is so addictive. Unlike a lot of families, I don't have many anecdotes handed down about members of my family - both my parents come from large families and seem to know very little about great-aunts, cousins, etc. I have found myself intensely following the trail of documents available online and alternately getting frustrated, overjoyed, sad and incredibly excited at the thrill of the chase and the real lives that I'm discovering along the way. Quilting has been put on the back burner but now I'm back at work for the new school term and I will not have so much time and quilting will take over until the summer holidays (or maybe a bit at weekends). The problem is that an hour is not enough - there is always just another search you can do that may turn up something interesting. As I say, addictive. Off for dog walk now and then to finish Nearly Insane Block 19 which is coming along very nicely.

Block # 18 (229 pieces)

At last, it's done. I have a few things to say about this one!

Firstly, if you start it, finish it - don't leave it for five months half done because you won't want to come back to it - ask me how I know.

Secondly, because of the number of little triangles, it doesn't seem possible to get the colours to go symmetrically so you end up with 'odd' bits in the pattern. I did not copy hers exactly because I didn't like two consecutive sides of flying geese and then different patterns on the other two sides so I tried to make all the triangles go the way I wanted - foolish wilfulness! I've still ended up with a pattern that doesn't quite work but that is partly because I made a couple of mistakes. I will correct these before I put the quilt together otherwise they will bother me...

Thirdly, it struck me that if I had put together 229 larger pieces I would have a complete quilt top and not a 6 inch square, which is a strange feeling.

And lastly, I just want to say that I've been seriously wondering about Salinda Rupp and her motivation for doing this. What was she thinking of? We are doing this because we see the construction of her quilt as a challenge and that's where I'm getting my satisfaction (and it looks good). But she did this for herself. When you are on the umpteenth tiny triangle and matching all those points and seams, you can't help asking yourself if this woman was seriously bored and deliberately setting herself challenges or did she have so much time on her hands that she had to make everything complicated? It wasn't just the look of it because there are already other blocks that look similar. Maybe she had a competitive friend who was making a similar one and they egged each other on to greater complexity but the other quilt is lost. Who knows, but I certainly couldn't help myself reaching back through the years to try and understand her.

Off to the hairdressers now, shall probably doze off while having my hair done!

Easter

Happy Easter to everyone! No chocolate for me, though. We did the usual Easter things a week early because my daughters were here, so the chocolate is done. Having lost 5.2 kg now, I don't want to go back up the chart again.

I've been doing lots of family tree research and am totally involved with it - it has given my sore quilting finger a welcome rest. I have, though, nearly finished the Nearly Insane block that was hanging over me - I shall have conquered it later and prove it with a photo. Off to speed walk now.

Magic Monday

...because I am on Easter break from school and although I finished work last Wednesday, the holiday feeling has only hit me this morning because that is when I would normally be at work. Thursday Friday and the weekend just felt like normal days off. So I plan to do more of my family tree research - have reached an impasse on one line of enquiry but have several more to follow. So addictive and enjoyable and so lovely to have the time to really get into it each day. I also have the intention of finishing the quilt block from the Nearly Insane quilt that has the most pieces in it - got three quarters the way through last year and got really sick of it, planned to finish it the next day and life got in the way. It got endlessly postponed and I need to eat the frog. I'm sure you have come across the expression, meaning get the thing that you don't want to do but need to do DONE so you can enjoy the rest of your day. I also plan to do a daily 'nibble' at wardrobe and storage clearing and sorting - a drawer a day.

Here's a task that has been put off because of the extended cold weather - Logan's spring haircut. I don't have a photo of him at his hairiest but if I tell you he had an Elizabethan collar/ruff of bristly fur around his neck, maybe you will get the picture. Here he is shorn:
And here he is just after I brought him back from the groomer - he had a small cramping attack while he was there - maybe the stress, we don't know - and so I need to go the vet and get him checked for epilepsy. He has had one or two attacks in the past but they have been very rare. Anyway, he was exhausted, so we tucked him up. Spoilt? Him? Ha!Logan has always loved quilting as much as I do.

It's good to have so many tasks and hobbies to distract me from thinking about my eldest daughter's first day in her new job (first ever job). I know she will have been a bit sleepless last night and I shall be thinking about her on and off all day and hoping she has a great start. The three day visit from daughters and boyfriends was lovely and I was so happy that when they returned she had this job waiting for her instead of more hunting and applications. I'm trying to send good thoughts her way today.

Well, my list of frogs needs doing before I get to the princes today, so I'm off to make some curried parsnip soup for lunch for Stuart and me, then get started.

16 degrees C

Yes, 16! After I got all excited about Spring in the last post, we had more snow, so I have been keeping quiet since. However, the crocuses are out, the daffodils are almost here and it is sunny and warm - perhaps I can talk again.

We have recently had some wonderful news. Our eldest daughter has been unable to find a job since she graduated - the economic situation is so difficult in England that law firms have been deferring graduates with training contracts for a year until the companies can afford to take them on. Naturally, the number of available training contracts is also very limited. So despite having a good law degree and a postgraduate legal practice diploma, our daughter was having a hard time. But last week she had a very good interview (which she enjoyed!) and this week she was offered a paralegal position with a good law firm, good starting salary, regular reviews and private health care included. Of course, this means a lot to us because we don't need to support her anymore but much more important is the way it has made her feel - that her years of study were worthwhile, that she is of value to a company. I have been going around all week with a very silly grin on my face - the day she phoned me with the news I drove to work and couldn't remember a single traffic light on the journey... The timing was perfect because both my daughters and their boyfriends are coming to Germany on Monday for a few days and now we really have something to celebrate together.

Quilting has been progressing slowly because I am having a problem with my left thumb - I've done some reading and I think it looks like repetitive strain and probably my gripping the fabric is the cause. I am now trying to relax my thumb when quilting and also having more regular breaks to relax wrists and move around. I am still doing the applique swags around the crescent and star quilt, still quilting the split nine-patch (just got the border to do now), still trying to do some Nearly Insane and have now started a cream quilted cover for the seat cushions on one of our leather sofas which have cracked and don't look very nice. I thought I could machine quilt this in an afternoon and started out with high hopes but I used a very thick batting and could not get all the fabric to go through the machine while I was quilting the lines - there was just too much of it for my ordinary sewing machine. A thin batting would have been okay but I didn't want to start all over again. Anyway, half of it is now hand-quilted in straight lines 4 inches apart and I'm sure the other half will be done in a few days. Consequently, I haven't finished anything for months and am feeling a bit stuck. So at the quilting group yesterday, I tried a Japanese method for putting a diamond in the middle of four squares - the diamond comes out folded and a bit puffy. It was an interesting technique and lovely to do something short and sweet and different. I haven't put a photo up because the fabrics were not nice - I was just using a few charm squares given me by a quilt shop - but I liked the method and the magic moment when you turn it over and the diamond pops out.

Sparkling Day!

Bad storms in Europe over the weekend but we didn't get much rain, just severe winds. Lots of branches down and some trees. It was a bit risky taking Logan for his walks as we have a lot of old trees where we live. But this morning was sunny and sparkling where the frost was melting in the sun. I took Logan to the river (two minutes away) and everything looked wonderful. Above is our view across the river.As you can see, the cycle path that goes all along the river is unusable because the water is so high just now - not our rain but from somewhere further up.Stuart and I just love this magnolia tree and we always track its progress from now (buds visible) until its glorious full flowering.
My two-minute walk to the river is through the United Nations gardens and here I found one of the casualties of the weekend winds. It is clearly not healthy inside and so must have been very vulnerable.
And here are clouds of snowdrops, which are making everyone happy.