WIP Wednesday...

Today, I'm linking up (for the first time) with Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday

It's a great way of keeping track of what you're up to (or not!).  I think the general format is to talk about any finishes, work(s) in progress and projects that have not progressed at all.  So here goes:

Stats
Finishes = 0

WIP
Sparkle Punch QAL = I have finally laid out all the pieces and hope that it works.  It was a lot harder choosing where to put everything than I had anticipated.  Here's the final layout:

taken standing on the sofa so apologies for the shoogly nature of it!

I don't have the patience to play around too much and kind of think that this is ok.  I'm glad I added the orange Joel Dewberry in.  So next job is to start sewing this sucker together.  Sharp intake of breath!  The good news is that I think I know how I'm gonna quilt this beast - huzzah!

Kitty's quilt = I finished the quilt top I am making for a friend's daughter and here it is:

no laughing boy's legs this time!

Simple but effective I think.  I used my 1/4" foot for the first time sewing this baby together and it is GENIUS! Why have I left it so late to start using it?  There are actually some pretty sharp corners in this *chuffed face*.  I hope she likes it - they are on holiday for a couple of weeks so I'll have to wait until they get back before getting the verdict.

No Progress
Lolo's quilt = Now I have found the 1/4" foot, I will crack on with this quilt although may end up ripping out what I have done so far - blinking wonky seams!

P's laptop case = I think that this may be a this weekend project, although I'm planning to go to the Maggie's centre on Saturday so I'll see if I have time.

UFO sighting = I WILL finish this soon, maybe next week.....

Plans
A kindle case for my littlest sister
A quilt for the wee man
To finish a skirt I started two years ago

grateful...

I've had a bit of a tough week, to be fair.  Some serious stuff that I can't do anything about other than be there for those involved as well as illness at home with Laughing Boy and the Wee Man both poorly.  They are playing Chuckle Brothers with various viruses at the moment (to you, to me...) but fortunately are both on the mend.  I feel weary and am struggling with being away from Scotland at the moment but am so grateful to have so many wonderful people in my life, who continue to show me the true definition of strength, bravery and dignity.

So yesterday, despite another cold brewing, Laughing Boy took the Wee Man out for the afternoon so I could get some rest.  I should have gone for a wee nanna nap but instead went quilting!  I finally finished sewing, pressing and trimming all 400+ squares for my Sparkle Punch Quilt

phew!

And my wadding arrived (thanks to Simply Solids) so this week I'll be arranging the stars before I start sewing them all together.  Still no idea of how to quilt it but I'll leave that conundrum for another day.

A friend of mine has asked me to make a quilt for her gorgeous little daughter who is about the same age as the Wee Man; so once all the Sparkles were squared, I got stuck into cutting the fabric for this quilt and then started sewing it all together.  Here's progress so far...

I hope she likes it.  If not, I'm sure I can find a good home for it.  I'm hoping to have the top finished by Thursday so I can show them. 

This afternoon I'm going to try to make one of those neckerchief style dribble-on bibby things - how hard can that be?  Possibly easier than understanding that description.

Boy versus fruit pot in tense staring contest...

So my "one week, one thing" challenge was a complete wash out due to an emergency trip back home to Scotland.  I'm back home and about to crank Bertha up for the first time in ages.  One of the highlights of my trip home was that the wee man is now totally into the whole weaning thing and is sleeping through with no night feed - result!  Laughing Boy has taken a bit more persuading to drop the night feed!

Here's the wee man, either trying to summon more food by the power of his mind or trying to out stare a pot of apple and mango rice pudding.....you decide :)

I could eat them both with a spoon!

One Week, One Thing Challenge::10

I've decided to link up with Amy's creative side and her One Thing, One Week Challenge::10.

The plan is to make my sister P a cover for her laptop using these fabrics....

some Outside Oslo (Jessica Jones) and Circa50 (Monaluna)

My beautiful sister visited us last week and chose the fabrics herself (well agreed with the Outside Oslo and chose the Circa50 for the lining.  I want to use wide ribbon as the closure which will involve a large buttonhole type thingy, which I have never attempted before.  I hope I can get this done this week - it's Laughing Boy's 40th bday and so a couple of days are lost to me.  I'm also about to start with a keep fit group called the Little Black Dress Workout, run by my pregnancy Pilates instructor Claire.  For me it's not so much Litle Black Dress as needing to do up my trousers without corned beef muffin toppage!  So fingers crossed that I can fit this bit of sewing in. 

The good news is that Day 2 of the wee man's new regime (i.e. going for his daytime naps in his cot rather than snuggling into his mum) is going quite well.  He managed 10 minutes this morning and has now been asleep for half an hour so far this afternoon - I'm doing huge "woop woooops" in my head right now.  Early days, small steps etc but it might give me a chance to at least get lunch and maybe fit in some sewing too.  Bless his massive cheeks!

UFO sighting

The weatherman was right, it did snow last night.

not really bbq weather

But the sun has been out all day so it's slowly melting.  Could that be it for snow this year?

Yesterday was spent indoors in anticipation of the snow coming and so I was able to try to finish the blocks for the Sparkle Punch QAL....

just these last ones to finish off and press

It's taking me aaaaaaages and I have wondered how (clearly more devoted) quilters can knock out their beauties so quickly.  It's not a competition, I know but should I be this slow?  Actually, not wanting to be so hard on myself, I have seen others note how long each quilt took to piece etc and so I think in future I'll keep a record just to see if I am a slow coach or not.

One of my new mum friends has asked me to make a quilt for her littl'un and we were pulling out fabric from my stash on Friday when I cam across this UFO....

It's made from the "offcuts" of the flying geese used to make the ruby ruby ruby quilt a long while ago.  I remember working on this before I got preggo so it's been hanging around to be finished for well over a year now - in fact I blogged about working on it in October 2010!  I still have some blocks to piece together but I now have a hankering to finish it. 

I also received two of these in the post this week from u-handbag.com..



graceful kelly bag frame

A couple of birthday pressies will be made with these using Lisa's free pattern - http://u-handbag.typepad.com/uhandblog/2011/11/free-bag-purse-pattern-the-graceful-kelly-bag.html.  My to-do list is growing and it doesn't freak me out :)