A busy day

I have done lots today. I went shopping this morning and bought some things for the house at Kitchen Warehouse and Spotlight, as well as doing the usual grocery shopping. Because I went to a supermarket that I don't usually patronise I found myself retracing my steps often so I got a bit of a workout that way, which has probably contributed to my tiredness.

When I got home I completed my entry for Stitched and Bound. I had to copy the professional photos onto another CD because the images were labelled as Untitled, rather than the proper name of the quilt. Then I had to print one image and found that the colour wasn't true, which is a requirement for the entry. A bit of Photoshopping and prints from 3 different printers resulted in an adequate image. Checklist complete, we took the entry down to the Post Office and sent it off. Hooray! another TO DO crossed off.

Then I made some twisted yarn cords with my machine for the journal making workshop I plan to do with the Embroidery Guild tomorrow. Finishing the collection of the materials required took quite a bit of time and fossicking in various storage places. I also had to decorate some paper to use as the cover. I finished this after dinner, so no photo - the flash wipes out the detail. I promise a pic of the finished journal.

Over the weekend I have to finish the framing of one of my entries for ShowOff 6. The others are done. Delivery is Tuesday.

Finished

I have just finished stitching a label to the back of my Stitched and Bound quilt. Tomorrow morning early I will go to Bunnings to buy some lath and some eye screws if I can't find any in my box of picture fixings which is somewhere . . ) Then I will deliver it to Margaret so it can be photographed on Monday.

I am reasonably (actually quite) happy with it. I just hope it is selected for exhibition.

It was Designing Women meeting today. We worked on finishing off UFOs. I took bits to do the Back in Black challenge, but ended up working on the reverse mola T-Shirt which Iris demonstrated last month. I decided to stitch the design by machine before cutting it back, and am very glad I did. Now I need to stitch around the design by hand. I think I might take it along when I have chemo next Wednesday.

I lasted till 2pm today before I had to pack it in. I had very bad diarrhea last night, but was much better today.

Moving right along

I have finished the machine quilting on my Stitched and Bound entry. The next step involves hand work - I am arranging some embellishments and tomorrow I hope to start the stitching. It needs a bit of thinking time before I dive into it. I may even make the deadline of Friday to deliver the quilt for photography. Or I may not. I can deliver it to Margaret on Sunday - she says Monday is too late!

I have discovered yet another project I want to try - shabby chic roses as demonstrated in a video on Roben-Marie's blog.

Add these to the felted flowers I discovered in an issue of Yarn I borrowed from my friend Lois, plus the other projects in the lineup . .

Aim: Finish Stitched and Bound tomorrow - I don't have any other jobs to do. Then start the DW Back in Black challenge (must look at my Lutrador/Rainbow Spun collection to see if I still have some silver left) and at least one of the pieces I want to make for the Contemporary Quilt Group display at QuiltWest in May. I don't think they will be ready by Friday when they are supposed to be delivered, but I am sure I can finish them before the actual display date!

A little progress

The rebagging was successful and I have basted the quilt horizontally and pinned it vertically. Why? Because the first quilting will be freemotion stitched text and I plan to use the basting lines as guides. It will also be easy to remove the pins as the stitching progresses.

I bit the bullet and submitted a request for professional photography. I now have 10 days to finish the quilt.

I had my 7th dose of chemo today which didn't finish till 8 pm. I had good news from the CT scan last week - the liver tumours are shrinking and there are no new ones. Full details on the other blog.

Frog Stitching

or rippit! rippit! I bagged the quilt for Stitched and Bound instead of doing a conventional backing and binding. Binding would not suit the quilt at all. Turned out the bagging was too baggy - the wool front of the quilt is quite stretchy, while the backing fabric is cotton drill which is very stable. I hadn't pinned it well enough, plus the uneven edges of the blanket no longer had a country like feel - they just looked as if they hadn't been properly straightened.

So this afternoon I have been unpicking. I have trimmed the edges straight and pinned really closely. Just need to stitch around the edge, turn it and re-pin for the first lot of quilting. I hope to begin this tomorrow morning. I have chemo in the afternoon - cycle 7, provided today's blood test shows the white blood cells are OK.

Struggling

Why does the reality rarely match the vision? And why do other projects seem so much alluring when you know that THIS project needs to be completed?

I have been trying to finish my entry for Stitched and Bound and am having problems of many kinds. I took today off to step back from the project (I needed both the break from it plus a day to recover from a nasty bout of diarrhea). Tomorrow the family are coming for lunch to celebrate Martin's birthday, so the break will be two days. Hopefully I will resume work with renewed enthusiasm on Monday.