Monthly Archives: January 2014

Quilting!

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Keeping up with my New Year Resolution to do some quilting every week, here is this weeks!  These two cushions sit on a storage box in our entry way and I wanted to make new covers for them.  

I had these fabrics for a while and thought they would look great on the cushions.  I haven’t finished them yet but its getting late and as I make mistakes when I am tired, I am learning to stop, before having to get out my seam ripper out!!!!!

Today was a house jobs day and the weather has been worse than yesterday, very cold and it has been snowing, although it hasn’t settled!  Treacle was most disappointed!  We are due to get some more snow tomorrow, which is typical as Youngest is camping on Saturday night!!!!

Have a thrilling rest of Thursday.

Susie x

The Wednesday Wag

It was hard to get up this morning, the weather is still cold and grey and I really liked Mom & Dad’s bed this morning.

But Mom said it was definitely time to get up!

Are you sure Mom, I really could stay here for a few more hours?

So I went out on patrol around the grounds and got rid of the two horrible pigeons which sit in one of the trees and had a bit of a bark just to warn everyone off.

Then I popped into the bathroom to make sure the Boys had left it clean and tidy before Mom did.

I then took up my lookout position on the stairs to see if there were any dreaded cats around and I could definitely hear something!

Its the bin men and they are making a lot of noise today, just want to make sure that they leave our bin on our drive and move on – they did!

Well that’s it so far for today I have been really busy and after a quick biscuit I have retired to bed again!  I will do a tour of the perimeter later today just to make sure everything is how it should be!

Mom is going out for lunch today with Girlfriend’s Mom, as it is her birthday tomorrow, so I will be able to sneak onto Mom’s bed when she is out, especially as she has just changed the sheets!!!!! Better make sure my paws are clean and dry!

Have a Woofy Wednesday.

Treacle

Acting In The Family!

Last year Eldest had some pictures done for a modelling company and then he got asked to be an extra on a film which was being made not far from our Village which he did and he had great fun.  Especially as they were filming from 6.00pm at night until 6.00am the next morning for four days!  I can’t tell you much more about it yet but it is due for release later this year and it is a war film!

Anyhoo he has now been asked to be an extra on a day time soap which is filmed in Birmingham (UK).  His character is a thief and he has to drive as well in the scene.  DH, as his manager (!) was sorting out the timings etc so he could take Eldest there, as Birmingham is a minefield to negotiate if you don’t know where you are going.

This has all been arranged for Friday of this week and the casting agent said that as DH is going to be there she has found him a spot as well!!!!!!  Oh my!  Youngest, who is very keen at the moment to go to drama school when he finishes his A’Levels is most miffed as you can imagine.   I have also said that if she asks me to go, I am not available.  As they say the camera adds ten pounds, it would be ten pounds more than I can stand!!!!!!!!

I will let you know how it goes after Friday!  Makeup, Hair – Now!!!!!!

Susie x

They look a pair of criminals here!!!!!!  (I just want to point out that DH’s beard is not this long ever, he hadn’t had it trimmed for a few days when this pictures was taken!)

Baby Mia’s Quilt

Not the best picture in the world! But I have finally finished Baby Mia’s quilt!!!! Yeah.  The picture makes the sewing look all wonky but it isn’t!!!!!!

I decided to just quilt the green pieces of the quilt instead of the pictures and then just put some clasping stitches on the pictures to hold them in place.  This is the first time I have done proper free motion quilting on my new machine and I am so pleased how it came out.  I know I made a few mistakes but  I don’t think anyone will notice!!!

A closer look at the quilting.

The pictures on the quilt are from the fabric that when I got it home and started to cut it realised that the print was not straight, hence having to re-think the whole project.  I sat down yesterday to finish the quilting at 8.00am and finished sewing the border on at 8.00pm last night!

This is the back of the quilt

The quilting on the back

I am pleased with this bit of free motion quilting

Of course today is Monday and I have a load of day work to get finished and this is what my desk looks like

So I will have to do some clearing up first!!!!!  There is also lots and lots of little bits of pink thread all over the floor, which is what I used to do the quilting.   I think I will need to clear that up as well, as Treacle is walking it around the house!!!!!

I do so love it when you get a finish and it works out well!!!!

Also hello to my new Followers I will get around to sending an email out, but as you can see I was a little busy yesterday, but know that you are very welcome and thanks for stopping by.  Have a Marvelous Monday.

Susie x

Madame in her basket by my desk – how much pink thread is there on you?!

Grow Your Blog 2014

My Quilting Blog

Grow Your Blog is the brainchild of Vicki at 2 Bags Full Blog (http://vicki-2bagsfull.blogspot.co.uk).  She produces a list of Blogs and you can go visit them and find some new friends or followers along the way.  Vicki suggests that with this post we should introduce ourselves to you so……

This is me, Susie, I have been married to DH (Darling Husband) for twenty five years and we have two wonderful Boys, Eldest who is 18 and Youngest who is 14.  We live in Derbyshire, England and have done so for twenty seven years.  We are cook/housekeeper/walker to an Airedale Terrier called Treacle, who often appears on the Blog!  DH and I run our own business in the Engineering sector, but I would rather be quilting!  We also have an extra member of the family now with Eldest’s Girlfriend, who we see most weekends and holidays.  They have been going out for two and a half years, having met in the last few years of Senior School.

Eldest, Youngest & DH

Treacle

Youngest, Girlfriend & Eldest in Scotland on the family holiday in August last

My Blog is supposed to be about quilting, especially my quilting, but as we know, life often gets in the way and then my blog is about the family and our activities!  I started blogging in June 2009 on Blogger and moved to WordPress in 2012.  I love to Blog and my Blog List is mostly quilting blogs.  I love meeting new people, even if it is through a computer, and getting to see parts of the World I might not travel to.  There is a separate page of all the quilty things I have made so far, but here are a few of my favourites.

This is my latest finish – a baby quilt for our Granddaughter, Evalyn.

This was a small quilt I made for The Quilters Day Swap

Treacle’s Quilt with her underneath it!

I began quilting in 2010, my Grandma taught me to sew when I used to spend the summer holidays with them when I was young and I have always made my own soft furnishings.  I have always loved the quilts made in the US and my DH’s cousin, Jackie, makes wonderful English Paper Piecing quilts, but I don’t have the patience for them! Whilst we were on vacation in Florida in 2010 I bought the above quilt as a kit and so far it is the largest quilt I have made and it is a great reminder of a wonderful family holiday.  When I got back from our holiday I took some classes and never looked back, I love Quilting!

My new machine, isn’t it pretty?

I sent my “American” quilt out to be done on a long arm quilting machine as I only had my sewing machine and I was not confident of doing the quilting on it. Then last year my wonderful DH bought me a new quilting sewing machine with a table which is big enough for me to do my own quilting. So I can complete the whole project which is a great feeling. 

The bookshelves in our sitting room which look really tidy!

I am also an avid reader and will read almost any type of book but prefer mysteries, horror and fantasy books!  I have a page of books I read during 2013 and have begun a new page for this year.  I can read a book again and again but DH can’t as he remembers the story (says a lot for my brain!!!!) I also have lots and lots of quilting books!

We are also very involved with our Boys activities.  They both swim and compete for the local swimming club and Eldest is currently Captain for this year.  They were both in Beavers/Cubs and Scouts; Eldest has now left and Youngest is in his last year.  They both have piano lessons so it is a bit noisy at times in the house and we all get involved with the Village Carnival, which takes place at the beginning of July every year.  DH and I are in 41 Club and Tangent, which is what you move onto from Round Table and Ladies Circle!

This is my latest quilting project a baby quilt for Girlfriend’s Uncle’s new baby, Mia, who was born on December 27th.  I then have a bed quilt to finish for Eldest, a bed quilt to make for Youngest and some Christmas presents for this year to be made and finally a bed quilt for DH and I!!!!!  I just need more hours in the day and more days in a week!!!!!

I hope you have enjoyed your visit to Susie’s World, Quilt Creations and if you would like to Follow, there is a button at the bottom of the screen or you can Follow on BlogLovin or by Email.

I would like to thank Vicki at 2 Bags Full for the idea and compiling the list of blogs and hope you have a lovely time looking round Blog Land.  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely weekend.

Susie x

All of us on a visit to “The Making of Harry Potter” Studio Tour

Thursday Thoughts!

 

I popped out this morning to run some errands and got back before lunch to find loads of work which had arrived by email this morning!!!!  So I have spent today working and clearing the paperwork, so tomorrow will be house job day!!!  Youngest has just got back from school and we have to get dinner sorted before we are off to swimming tonight.

I wanted to show this as it is an amazing feat for me to have a poinsettia this long after Christmas.  Usually by Christmas Day they are giving up the ghost and I have spindly twigs with just some red left on top.  However this one seems to be flourishing.  I think it must be super hardy because I am doing nothing different to years past, perhaps it is a new super breed of poinsettias, like triffids!!!!!!!! Perhaps I will come down one morning and it will have taken over the kitchen!!!!!!

I am going to try and get the baby quilt finished this week.  I decided to have another go at doing some free motion quilting on it, with my new machine!  I love the way it looks and at least the baby won’t be able to be critical until she is a lot older about the pattern!!!!!!  I will show you it when it is finished!

Treacle is busy snoozing in her basket by my desk at the moment and boy can that dog snore!!!!!! 

I hope you have a thrilling Thursday

Susie x

Wednesday Wag!

Here I am working on the Wednesday Wag!  It has been a cold grey day here today and I have not wanted to go out at all!  Mom sent me outside earlier into the garden and I had a quick patrol round the garden but came straight back in!

I have been inspecting Mom’s quilting and at the moment she has not been doing much, naughty Mom!

I think Mom needs to get on and get it finished!

I have been busy with my toys, although Mom has been busy working today so didn’t have too much time to play!

Mom, it’s almost finish time, can I have my dinner yet? (soon Treacle, soon!)

Have a Waggy Wednesday.

Treacle

Weekend Roundup!

This is what we woke up to this morning, a really hard frost.  Which is great, hopefully the cold weather will kill off all the coughs and colds which seem to be going round at the moment.  Treacle loves it of course, but she would like snow even more!

The bird bath which is completly frozen at the moment.  I will sort it out later for the birds.

This is Treacle watching the birds fly overhead!

We had a busy end of last week with work and jobs to do.  I had to go over to Nottingham on Friday and on Saturday from 6.30am until 6.30pm we were all here :

We ran this event last year as it was our 40th Anniversary.  We had a great turn out despite the snow and what we hadn’t realised was a lot of people came as they need qualifying times for other events and this was the first Open of the year!  It was to be a one off but as this happens every year with qualifying times we had several requests to run the event again.  So we did!!!  On Saturday we had even more entries than the previous year and were almost full, we certainly ran out of seats for the spectators.

We had one or two issues on the day with the timing equipment, swimmers not turning up for their races (!), two swimmers swimming in the wrong heat (!) and the announcer, DH, having a problem with some of the names of the swimmers!!!!!  However we were only running fifteen minutes late by the end and there was no snow this year!

This was Youngest’s results of the day two thirds and two medals and he was pleased, plus knocking time off his PB’s which is more important!!!  Eldest did well but not as well as he would have liked.  But he has not been training as much as he is doing exams again and concentrating on those.

Sunday was a lazy day having been so busy the day before, just getting everything sorted for the week ahead.  I did get some done on the baby quilt, but not as much as I would have liked, but tiredness set in and I have now learnt not to do too much quilting when I am tired as this is when I make mistakes!

This was about an hour ago as the sun just starting to rise and over the valley to the hill where there is a slight mist.  It is supposed to be sunny all day but with fog developing, which is not surprising after all the rain we have had!

I am going to get some more done on the quilt tonight.  I have also made a list of things I need to get done as well.  I like lists they work for me, making a list seems to clear my mind of all the confusion so I can then concentrate on what I need to.  Well its a theory.

Have a Marvelous Monday

Susie x

The Wednesday Wag!

When the boys come home from swimming they put their drinks bottles into the recycling basket and if Mom is not looking I can sneak one out!  I don’t do anything with them, except carry them round in my mouth looking very pleased with myself!

Please Mom can I keep this one?

I eventually put it down and then someone sends it back to the recycling basket!  I was in trouble the other day though as I had emptied quite a bit of the basket to dig a bottle out!  Mom was not pleased!!!!

Action shot!

Today is cold and rainy here and I went out this morning into the garden and came back in as quickly and got straight in my basket.  Mom says I look tired and I am feeling very sleepy, it must be the weather.  

When Dad goes out early to work he feeds me before he goes and if Mom is not awake and doesn’t realise I can get two breakfasts.  It didn’t work this morning although I did try my best hang-dog expression.

I think I will spend the day it bed, it is Wednesday after all!

Have a Woofy Wednesday and stay warm, I am !

Treacle