Gratitude

I'm happy to report that I'm almost mended from the burns I received in that scary fire. I can't tell you how grateful I am for the messages, private emails and prayers you all sent me for my quick recovery. I read every single one and was very moved by your kind words. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Well it's been an uncomfortable ride but I've healed fast. The little parts of my face weren't affected too badly and have healed completely. I just have a section on my arm that's giving me a bit of gripe and I still have to wear a tube bandage on it but every day it looks better and better and there'll be no scars thankfully.

I wanted to tell you about a couple of things. You might recognise Kim McLean's Pandemonium quilt as seen over at Glorious Applique. I love it, it's outrageously glorious in every way. There's just the perfect mix of piecing and applique. Click on the photos for a closer view.

Ready for some close ups? The horse yard.

The folly

The kitchen garden.

All photos courtesy of Kim McLean.

Kim has generously offered to do some online classes over at Glorious applique specifically for this quilt. It would be great to get some idea of who would like to be involved. Some may not want the whole quilt and it suits being broken down into sections or changed in terms of setting which Kim encourages with her patterns.

The pattern is available at Glorious Color

Blogger interface

I bet we all got a shake up at the change in the blogger interface, I was so comfortable with the old one. The good news is that despite blogger saying the old interface wouldn't be available, they must have heard the frustration out there because there is a way to get it back.

See the cog on the right hand side of your dashboard?  Click on it and it will bring a drop down menu.

click on the list and it will give the option of returning to the old interface. Hooray!

Til next time, Janet

Quilter down!

On Tuesday I had a nasty accident and got to take a chauffeur driven ride in one of these. I even had my own personal paramedic to administer some doses of morphine.

Let me start at the beginning. I had been cleaning the inserts from my range hood which are now a bit singed. I was pouring boiling water over them and the fat was coming out quite nicely.

DH bought in a can of highly flammable de-greasing spray. See where this is going? It was working so brilliantly and the fat was literally running out. Then I made a huge mistake.

I picked one of these to have a little scrub.

There was an explosive flash fire caused by the friction of the brush. I was thrown about three meters across the kitchen floor from the force and landed flat on my back. When I looked up I saw a fire like this about a meter and a half wide by a meter high. I'm sure glad I had aluminium venetian blinds and not fabric curtains.

I checked my clothes weren't on fire and raced into the bathroom to submerge my arm in a sink full of cold water. I had a soaked towel on my face as well. Dh managed to smother the fire and an ambulance was called. Luckily he wasn't injured.
It took about twenty minutes to arrive which was a good thing since the water submersion was the best thing for me.
My arm which copped the worst was dressed and the next day I had an appointment here.

I go back tomorrow for fresh dressings and then again early next week. So what's the damage?

My arm hurts, a LOT, is swollen and I can't sew but the painkillers are good stuff.
First and second degree burns which should heal quite fast with silver dressings. One patch near my elbow with a patch of skin missing.
My eyelashes are a third of the length they were, my eyebrows have short hairs and I have no hair on my upper lip.
My hair burnt off all around the edges of my face.
The tip of my nose is feeling sun burnt.
I'm thanking God for the fact that it could have been so much worse. I'm one very, very lucky person!
I did get a bonus, I got to visit the Ikea store near the burns unit and found some bargains. I thought this would make a great table cloth.

This one excited me, I first saw it on a quilt here so I bought eleven meters, enough for a backing. It was such a good price at $3.99 meter.

Pardon me if I don't blog for a little bit or answer emails. It's taken me a long time to write this post.

DH is on holidays so I'm being well looked after. I'll hopefully be able to catch up soon.

Buns and boo boos

I baked my hot cross buns last Thursday all ready for good Friday's breakfast. I made them less spicy this year to suit DH's  but next year I'm going back to more spice.
I don't bother glazing mine, the sticky topping annoys me but we do enjoy them served warm with butter dripping off them or split in half and toasted on the soft side. There's still a few in the freezer, the rest got devoured by family.



As for the sewing, it's amazing how much I can get done with a bit of focus. I'm half way through doing the trapunto on the borders, it's getting exciting.

It's not easy to see the details but if you click on the photo, you'll be able to see the design much better. Ignore the yellow pen marks which will wash out and imagine it looking like white work.

I had a bit of an accident when using the scissors from the back. I snipped right through to the front of the quilt. See that hole? Gasp!

I may have used a swear word, ok, I did. I sat and stared at it for a good while and wracked the brain for a solution.

Step one

I decided to shift the sprig of berries so that the offending hole would be in the middle of one berry

Step 2

Applique a circle of background fabric to that berry. Once it's quilted, who would pick it? It's a good feeling to know how to fix the boo boos. I do know that basted stem is crooked, that will get sorted during quilting.

I hope you're all enjoying your Easter break.

Less blogging equals more sewing

It seems like ages since I fed the blog, I do have excuses but I'll spare you and give you a little update of the quilty kind instead.
I decided to pay a little more attention to just a couple of projects instead of my usual rotation that doesn't get me any closer to a finish. Don't ask me how long it will last because I don't set rules for myself.
I was pretty conflicted about whether to do the one inch squares for the sashings as in the pattern or use just one fabric.

I  happened to find a large enough piece of this vintage Kaffe Fassett in the cupboard which no doubt I had other plans for but it seemed like a good fit for this quilt and I was more than happy to use it.

I'm currently working on the bottom border and started with this tree which took a long time to applique with all it's innies and outies.

This one was a walk in the park, the hardest part was deciding which fabric to use.

 I love this one, it reminds me of a big palm tree.

The bird bath was quick and easy. I'll finish putting all the large elements on this border and then add in the colours that I think it needs with the birds and the gazillion circles.

I may not blog as often as I have in the past but I'll try to be better about catching up with my blog reading. I seem to love making quilts ( plural) that take a really long time to make and have a lot of hand work to do. This means that I have less to write about or show, age might be catching up with me, sigh.

There's a little write up about my quilting over on one of my favourite blogs, Quilting The Town Red. Annemart does some wonderful posts called in the limelight where she features different quilters and it makes for great reading which I love.