Wednesday in Wisbech

I made a flying trip to Wisbech this morning, My neighbour Nev had to go so I went along for the ride. I picked up the new slow cooker from Argos, I used 2 x £10 vouchers from work and made up the remainder from my Nectar card. Because of the way it works they had to take £7.50 off the card and give me 51p change?! So I interpret that as  "free" cooker and "free" money to boot. Happy smiling face.

Now it is no secret that I can not go into Wisbech without popping into Button Up & Stitch, and here you can see why.

Three lovely people, three generations with a wealth of knowledge.

She doesn't know yet but the one in the middle will be showing me how to crochet if I get into a muddle.

I am booked in for a lesson on foundation paper piecing, I have read tutorials and watched some on you tube but decided to go to the oracle, it is an afternoon out and I thoroughly enjoyed the last 2 that I went to.

Dig those fancy aprons, a pocket for everything, I am going to make one with 2 deep pockets to hold pegs, I hate fishing around in my peg bag, it always slides away just when I need it.

Enjoy this peak at the goodies, it will no longer be there, they are moving, YIPPEE!!

No I have not gone doolally, they are moving next door into bigger premises.

Rats, I have just spotted the Russian Doll print, I may have to call and reserve some.

I did buy some fabric, I will share later, what I am excited about is the iron on wadding that they stock. I read about it on a blog recently and am chuffed to bits that it is readily available. It is a little pricey but no more crawling around pinning what seems like acres of quilt and no more spray cans. I bought enough to do a small quilt and if I get on with it I will be buying a roll.

Dinner tonight will either be soup, I want to use up some veg, or an omelette. I intend to spend the rest of the day in the garden, once I have finished I will not want to cook. The soup will be done in the pressure cooker and will not take much longer than an omelette.

Reasons to be grateful.

1. Rain overnight has cleared and the sun is shining bright.

2. My sewing table is clear all but a heap of 1 1/2" strips that I am sorting out for the next quilt to donate.

3. I have some pretty fabrics to drool over.

4. I have pulled fabric for another project and it is cut and boxed ready to go.

5. I am infection free.

Part of my 52 week challenge is to be better organised, as I get near to the finish of a sewing project I start to fret. What shall I make, do I have what I need, and so on. So my ongoing goal is to have something planned, cut and ready in a Ziploc bag or plastic box ready to pick up and start sewing. My only concern is that I do not build a mountain of these, it would be so easy a trap to fall into.

Oh and my test results came back clear, so goodness knows what all that Lab test business was about. But I am drinking Cranberry Juice every day.

It is now 12.20 and time I had a brew and got my btm outside.

I hope you all have as good a day as I am.

                 TTFN                                     Pam

On Track Tuesday

A big hello and welcome to Frugal in Derbyshire, I have been reading your blog for ages and only realised yesterday that I was not "following", that has been remedied.

I had a stern talk to myself after reading your comments yesterday, I have only been off work for 12 days today, it felt nearer to 12 weeks, slight exaggeration there. Possibly because on the bad pain days my meds just about knock me out and on the good days I go round like a whirling dervish.

I have read your advice and set my day out to a rough time table.
Tea first, you have to get the priorities right, then a quick run through the shower etc etc. Ben is top of the list he gets as long a walk as I can do, this morning it was 30 minutes.

It was quite strange, the village is not huge and I left the cottage, turned right and after about 7 minutes walked into rain. That lasted for around 10 minutes and I gradually walked out of it, the rest of the walk was dry. Looking back I could see where the dark cloud had gathered over the next village and we must have walked through the leading edge as within 20 minutes of getting back it was raining in earnest.

I dried Ben off and fed him, had more tea and some cereal then cleared the kitchen and swept and washed the floor.

I had 30 minutes with more tea, priorities remember, and the lap top, blog reading.
I read Bee in My Bonnet written by Lori Holt and she had written a tutorial for some coasters, very cute. PING I have been asked to make some bits for a fund raising stall in 2 weeks time, so with no further ado i set my timer for 2 hours and started cutting and sewing.

Rather than use Christmas fabrics I picked reds and greens at random. These were 5" squares that I cut last week from my scrap bin, and the wadding is trimming from a quilt. I throw nothing away.

The first 4 finished, the red and gold star fabric is left over from a swap last month. This was a good way to use some of it.

I have made mine slightly bigger than Lori, she trimmed her hourglass blocks to 3 1/2 " before quilting, I quilted mine then trimmed to 4", I cut the backing squares to 6" but will use 5 1/2" on the rest.

My other scrap project is progressing nicely, I will be sewing again at around 4.00 and will start joining the rows of this.

It is going to be a Chequer Board quilt with alternate Penny Patch blocks and plain blocks. Mainly in Autumn colours but all from my scrap cutting session. The solid rust fabric was bought to back a quilt with but I changed my mind and used a print instead, the leaf one on the bottom left pile, that rust will be the borders as well to bring it to a full 72" by 80" quilt, the binding fabric has been picked from the stash, I just hope that I have enough. I am going to piece the backing out of whatever fabrics that I have, everything from 2" strips to fat quarters and some bigger bits. This is a stash busting project and I have had some of these prints for 5 years.

The rain has stopped and the sun is doing it,s best to break through, I will finish this and get Ben out while it lasts. When I get back I am going to tidy my bookcase, it looks as though someone threw a hand grenade in there. Then 2 hours sewing before I make dinner, meatballs in tomato sauce, enough to freeze 3 meals, with spaghetti.

Reasons to be grateful.

1. Support and help from all you peeps.

2. Sunshine after the rain.

3. 1 hour in the kitchen and 4 days dinners done.

4. Ben bounding round my feet in a mad rush to get out on his walk.

5. A happy and fruitful sewing session.

I swear that Ben can read my mind, as soon as I think about walking him he is there, in my face wriggling and squirming with joy. Dumb animals HUH.

TTFN                                    Pam