The Sewing Dilettante

I've spent the last couple of weekends scouring the local charity shops in search of more vintage sheets for round 2 of the UK and Ireland Vintage Sheet Fat Quarter Swap, and I'm delighted with my finds! Every shop I've popped into has yielded at least a pillow case or two, so I've got quite a selection for my stash and a few for the swap as well. ;) I've decided to send in fifteen fat quarters, which means that I'll get a different set of fifteen back, at which point I think I'll have enough to embark on a large scale patchwork project like Judith's great charm squares quilt . Yay! The night-time photo doesn't do justice to these sheets, especially that pink 70s retro floral number in the top row, but I think these will find good homes with other vintage-sheet lovers. Speaking of photos - does anyone have tips on taking photos for blogs? My photos always seem a bit dark, wonky, and out of focus! Part of that, I know, is because I usually take...

About a century ago, I promised Sarah that I'd make two Churn Dash blocks for her Siblings Together Quilt . With six months to make them, I figured there'd be no problem whipping them up at some point. In hindsight, I now see that I should've made them as soon as I'd made my promise, but life intervened, and I kept thinking about just how much time I had to make the blocks. Of course, when I finally sat down at the end of August to make them, my machine promptly broke, and it was still in the shop when the big move took place. Long story short, it was only last week that I got to return to the pieces I'd cut back in August and put these two blocks together. There was a third block involving a striped fabric that defied all attempts at uniformity. There were stripes going every which way, and my brain just couldn't wrap itself around how to get them all to line up with each other! So, that block's gone into the scrap box. Otherwise, though, I really e...

Last week felt about a million years long, and not in a good or fun way. With a couple of big work deadlines looming, I plied myself with way too much coffee, set out an ambitious but totally achievable list of goals, and watched in silent horror as I simultaneously went a bit mad with caffeine and failed to meet any of my targets! Progress felt infinitessimally slow. At least I had some fun sewing to take my mind off it. Or so I thought. I was about half way through making two Churn Dash blocks for Sarah's Siblings Together quilt when my trusty Pfaff went haywire. I did everything I could think of to get things working again, but I quickly came to the conclusion that the problem was beyond my (very limited) capabilities. So, off it went to the shop. Which, in itself, wouldn't have been such a bad thing. I had been meaning to get it serviced for a while, just for general maintenance purposes, but I had also already signed up for Judith's Slouch Bag workshop today. *Sigh...

I couldn't believe it when I looked at the list of my blog posts and realised that the last time I posted was back on 24 June! There's been a lot going on since then, not least the end of my maternity leave (*sob*), my return to work, and baby G's introduction to creche. Fortunately, she loves it (maybe a little too much!), and, though I miss her, I'm enjoying being back and work and doing 'adult' things during the day! With that and the unusually sunny summer weather we've been having for the past couple of weeks across Ireland, I've accomplished next to nothing at my sewing machine. In fact, I don't really have any projects on the go at the moment, except a couple of blocks I've promised to Sarah for the Siblings Together quilt she's putting together. They're not due until the end of October, so they're exactly the kind of commitment I can handle at the moment! I've pulled out a few swathes of fabric to start and am looking fo...