Fragile State.

No sewing yesterday or today either yet as I'm feeling a bit fragile still. I had a dental check-up yesterday at 8.45am as I'd had an occasional dull ache in my jaw. My dentist found that he needed to do a filling then instead of just a check-up, and he wasn't sure how long the tooth would last as it was in a tricky spot between two teeth. It was painful afterwards but OK and then the local anaesthetic wore off. For the next 6 hours the pain was increasing and my strongest analgesic wasn't helping with the pain spreading to my ear and eye on the affected side, as well as some fever. Finally I rang my dentist and he said to come back in later in the day. He saw me in between patients and said that the tooth would have to come out. Not an easy extraction and after two more local injections and the assistant holding my head to give him some traction, he finally managed to pull it out. He knew it wasn't sufficiently numbed but said he had to continue. Wow I'm pretty stoic when dealing with pain but this was the worst. On the other hand at least the tooth extraction relieved the pain I'd been feeling and now I just have the pain from having 3 injections in the same area of my jaw and the aching face.
Oh and I bled and the assistant had to clean the blood off my face before I left and scared any patients. Haha! My dentist is a lovely guy and must have been worried as he gave me his personal phone number and told me to call him if I needed him overnight. Ice cream helped a bit last night but I can't eat solids yet and still feel fragile.
 What a nuisance, as I had things I wanted to do. So I'm lying down or sitting quietly, tracing more pieces for my china plate blocks for my Mrs William's quilt. I need to make 12 and I have 2 completed and 4 more ready to stitch the halves together. Hopefully I'll feel more like sewing tomorrow when the antibiotics kick in.
 Sorry for the tale of woe and I hope you all have a great weekend as I plan to sew!
Hugs, Jan Mac

Working in Reverse

 I had a lovely afternoon today puddling along with a quilt I have been wanting to make for ages. It was designed by Corliss of Threadbear and is a replica of a mid 1800s quilt. Corliss ran it as a block of the month in 2006. I've been so busy with donation quilts that I just haven't made time to work on this quilt, and as they say "It takes ages to finish a quilt you're not working on!"
 I have been working in reverse as the time allows and made the outer half square triangles first and now have started on the second last round of Square in a Square blocks. The instructions are easy to follow so I made a list of all the different blocks I need to make and I'm crossing them off as they are done. I need to prep the hand applique now and make more Ohio Star blocks when I finish the Sq in a Sq blocks. Having sorted my civil war repro fabric has made it easier to make decisions about fabric choices and it won;t take me long to actually put this quilt together once I have all the blocks done. I'm really pleased with my progress and hope to get some more done tomorrow but it's a big day of dealing with family commitments so time will tell.
   Before I started work on my Mrs William's blocks I finished off two more donation quilts. The first one was a top made by Marijke of Holland and the second one is a simple top of squares of kid's prints. I had a lady (non-quilter) who was happy to help me by sewing up tops from 6" square blocks. Unfortunately she moved interstate about 5 years ago and this is one of the last tops left to be quilted. I'm determined to get the owing quilts finished by the end of next week so I can focus on packing for our trip. I also want to get more of my Mrs Williams quilt made before we leave so I'd better get off the computer.
Hugs, Jan Mac

Two More Down

 I have a final number of 9 more quilts to make for the kid's camp for abused kids so I've been working hard as I really want to have them finished before we take our trip. I put together 2 more QAYG quilts today. The last quilt used 12 " blocks which Lesley L brought over yesterday. So there's two done today and 7 more to go. It looks like tomorrow will be another day of donation quilting.
  I did take some time late this afternoon to pin one of the quilts I want to finish for me. It t will be quilted simply as it is from the 1930s to 1940s and I don't want to out too much stress on the fabric. I bought it as a cutter quilt and took it apart, then I trimmed the blocks down to a smaller size so I could remove the tattered pieces and also a large black ink mark on one of the sashing pieces. The embroidery is in good condition and I added a new border to make it a bit larger. I think it will be quilted using the hanging diamonds design and I have used new batting as the old batting was very thin. It was originally quilted with Baptist Fans but I think that will stress the fabric too much. I also found another top I had put away as well as a set of blocks which are an old UFO and they are all being washed now and will make some more nice quilts to donate as well as clearing my shelves.
    Back to the machine now to see if I can get another one finished.
Hugs, Jan Mac

Just in Time

I'm still recovering from working night shift but manded to stay awake long enough today to put together another QAYG quilt. Lesley Lowe from Rochester met with me today and is transporting more quilts to Needy Stitches for me. I sent off 8 today and I think I need to make another 7 or 8 before we head off on our travels again so I want to get them done by the end of next week.
    Lesley also handed over a huge number of QAYG blocks made by the KyValley and Rochie quilters so I'll be  making them up as quickly as possible.
Now it's off to bed for me as I need more sleep before I'm back to normal.
Hugs, Jan Mac

Clearing Out the Scraps

 Before night shift on Friday I spent  most of the day sewing up the scraps that have been accumulating in various containers. I have almost made enough blocks to make another String X quilt top using Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville pattern. It's a great way to use up those shorter scraps and I am using up the leftovers which are too short for the string pieced QAYG blocks. As you can see I filled a wastepaper bin with the leftovers from the leftover scraps. lol.  I have been saving scraps and cutting them and then sorting by size as Bonnie Hunter recommends but I find that once they are in the containers I rarely use them and just work with what are current leftovers from whichever quilt I am finishing. The system isn't the problem but it obviously doesn't suit the way I work.
 I've enjoyed clearing out all the scraps and emptying the containers without trying to hand on the "special" scraps, although I have been putting triangles aside and really need to think about whether they should be saved for a pattern which uses up lots of triangles, or whether it would be better to use them up now and get them into scrappy quilts. The triangles work well with either the string pieced blocks or the String X blocks so they won't go to waste.
  It's good to get some more quilts finished to donate as well as restore some order to my sewing room. I'll need to think about the triangles as I don't want to start another pile of scraps that will sit unused for a while.
  I also received these beautiful QAYG blocks as well as a generous donation of money, from Colette Truscott of Perth in WA and these will be made into a quilt and donated ASAP before we leave on our travels again. Thanks Colette for your generous donations.
Hugs, Jan Mac

 

Power Sewing

 I still haven't managed to pin the two quilts I need to quilt for me but I have been powering through the scrap bins and finishing off more blocks. This was a mis-mash of donated large blocks so I made enough extras QAYG so I had enough to make another donation quilt. It may not be pretty but it will be warm and hopefully appreciated. As you can see I also used up some block pieces for the back as well.
 Not as much sewing today as it was time to take my Dad out for the afternoon with shopping and a coffee as a nice way to finish the day. I plan to stitch some more scraps tonight and tomorrow before I head off to work some more night shifts. It's just the right weather for a good rummage in the scrap bins as we have finally had some nice showers of rain. I'm still not working on my projects but it's good to see some progress with decreasing the scrap bins and a clearing of the piles of blocks too.
Hugs, Jan Mac

Scrap Therapy

 In the process of cleaning out my scrap bins I found these blocks with pale blue triangles. There were 24 and I thought they would make a quick quilt if I added a border to make it larger. Then I found these blocks which were similar but different. I decided to make more blocks to make the quilt larger and took these blocks apart and then re-made them to suit the first set of blocks. I like the effect of the different coloured blue blocks on the outside as it makes it more like a border. The pattern is one of Bonnie Hunter's from Quiltville and I think it's known as String X. It's a great way to use up lots of shorter scraps. The second set of scrap strips for the blocks were half an inch narrower so I just cut the triangles larger. I like to make them larger and trim them to size and the blocks end up 7.5" before they are joined together.
 I also quilted one of the tops I've made smaller and it's a really pretty donation quilt for a little girl with lots of lovely machine embroidered hearts. Then as I was enjoying cleaning out more scraps I worked on making more QAYG blocks as well as a new set of the String X blocks.
 They are quick to make and I should have another quilt to show very soon.
It was lovely having such a productive day of playing with scraps while we seem to be heading towards winter very quickly here.
Hugs, Jan Mac