Work in Progress Wednesday

These blocks below will soon be winging their way to So Sarah Sews who asked for pink and purple blocks using the garden fence pattern so that she could put them together and make quilts for two 12 and 13 year old sisters to whom her mother has been foster mum for a few years.  The other quilt will be made using a star design. You can see the other blocks here.  The whole subject of fostering and adoption is dear to my heart and I was more than happy to do my small bit.  I hope the girls love their quilts.  I think the next quilt should be for Sarah`s mum.

After completing the quilt top for the Across the Sea QAL I was feeling like I had finished my last exam.  It had been such a struggle with my machine that to say I felt elated is a bit of an understatement.

However, there was still work to be done.  Two mug rugs and two `goodies` for the Goodie Swap 2011 that Canadian Susan had twisted my arm to join.  Woefully behind and with a posting date just over a week away I set to it.  Using the same block pattern, I have completed the top for the first mug rug. It`s hand pieced using Kumari Garden.

Butterfly on the garden fence mug rug top

For reasons I won`t go into, I am less than convinced that my partner is going to like it. I have to think overnight as to whether to abandon it and go back to the drawing board or take my chances.

I have started the second mug rug top, which I hope will look like a book shelf with the last book falling over. I  am not happy with it yet but need to sew the `books` together before I decide.  I `ll see what it looks like once the `books` are joined together.

Hopefully my machine is back from the repairers today and my new machine is in the silver bird and landing soon.

If you are doing some stitching I hope the sewing gods are smiling on you.  Linking up with WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Playing Catch Up

Across the Sea Quilt Top in Parisville

If a bad workman blames his tools then I`m a bad workman.

Against the odds I managed today to finish piecing the top of my Across the Sea quilt top.

My late 1980s machine wasn`t in the mood. 

She had tension problems...

...which made me have tension problems.

The house was...tense.

She`s being retired.

She`s going to Sunnyside Retirement Home for Sewing Machines.

I`ve ordered a new machine.

She`s leaving England today.

Bon Voyage new machine...come quickly.

* thank you to those of you who recommended machines.  I`m going with a model recommended by lovely Flying Blind who clearly isn`t a bad workwoman and doesn`t blame her tools.  In fact, she loves her machine.  I`m sure I will too.  Thanks Hadley.

Linking up with Sew Modern Monday.

Chicken Kaleidoscope

As a girl, we lived in the beautiful Warwickshire countryside. From time to time we kept chickens. They had a pretty good life although there was of course the constant threat of the fox and more human poachers. We lost our chickens to both. While they were with us, they roamed free-range in our garden by day.  They were completely lovely.  I remember how exciting it was as a girl to lift the side of the chicken house and find warm eggs or a chicken `in the midst of things`.

My in-laws live in the countryside and have a biggish garden where 3 chickens scratch around.  Zaki loves to chase after them but they can easily outrun him and he never gets even close.

It`s Saturday and while over at www.picnik.com I had a little fun with them too.

Linking up for the first time in weeks with Camera Critters here.

The Lunch Line

I spotted this formidable woman a year or so ago up in the beautifully verdant Ourika Valley, the foothills of the Atlas Mountains.  She was waiting in the sun for her lunch - a delicious tagine of chicken or meat (probably goat) and vegetables.

I love this photo and have been waiting for the right time to post it.  I am linking up with The Walk in the Street challenge after seeing it on Tatjana`s incredible blog - full of stunning black and white photography. Hop over and take a look at both blogs and see some fabulous images.

*Edited to add  that she is wearing a djelleba, which is the traditional outerwear for men and women.  I find it interesting that I didn`t mention it when I wrote the post.  I guess it`s because it now seems completely normal for me to see it.  While not every woman wears a djelleba, it is a daily sight and my mother in law would never be seen outside without one. It`s a great cover up - if you need to run out to the shops, you just throw it over whatever you are wearing in the house!

First Day

3 year old Zaki striding out the gate this morning to pre-school

It`s Wednesday and that means linking up with other wordless posts here.

Reports of Sewing in Marrakech

I know.  It`s incredible.  I sewed today...and sewed some more and have made some progress in my Across the Sea QAL quilt top.

My blocks so far...looking very rough and ready...threads need to be cut and they also need to be squared up.  I am not looking forward to that part. I don`t have a square ruler yet so I`ll be getting the masking tape out again.  It`s already on the sewing machine so that I can do a scant quarter inch seam.  Yes, I know.  I need a new machine and when I`m next in England I`m going to buy one! Any recommendations for a mid-range machine gratefully received.

Had I been doing the baby quilt I would almost have caught up...but I`m not.  I`m doing the lap quilt so that`s another eight blocks then. As I`m a bit of a slow coach, that`s about another 3 hours.  Then I have to square up the blocks, arrange them in a lovely way, sew them together and then make the scrappy border, the white outer border, sew them to the quilt top and I`ll have caught up.  Phew. It`s been like a day at the office but a good day.  Of course, thinking aloud, I could just do the baby quilt...no...piecing is probably my favourite step in the whole process. I like piecing.

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday.

A Belated Welcome to September

Part of the lens at Portland Bill lighthouse

A big late hello to September!  I love September.  It always feels like a time to learn something new. I guess it goes back to living in London when details of all those amazing night classes would be published.  I was always enticed by languages and did try my hand at Italian one year but now all I can remember is how to say `You have brown eyes`...not so useful in Morocco as nearly everyone has brown eyes and they probably wouldn`t appreciate being told the news.

Anyway, September is officially sewing month and it`s only Day 4 and I am already behind. We went away for a few days last week and stayed in a hotel by the sea with 180 degree views along the coast.  But I was ill.  I lay in bed and looked at the view.  Upsides? Zaki spent time with his dad at the beach.  By the pool.  They had lunch together. And dinner. I languished.  Not even a decent internet connection to distract me.  In fact  it was lousy and that was mildly distracting.  Now I`m back.  I have lots to do.  And I will come by and say hello.