Only UFOs

I was reading an article in a magazine this morning, where the writer said, 'Yesterday, after I had washed the breakfast pots, I sat down at my machine for a day's sewing.' Suddenly, I realised why I seem have done lots of sewing, but have little to show for it. When I have put the breakfast pots in the dishwasher, I clean, go out and pay bills, garden, do my school work ... well, you get the picture. It's only after all the things I need to do are over, that I sit down at my machine for half an hour or so. I need to set aside specific time to quilt. So I've decided I will do just that, after I have wrapped DH's birthday present, written my niece's card, iced the cake for my parents' diamond wedding party tomorrow, prepared the veg for tea, collected DD's car from the garage - oh, well, perhaps another day I'll do it!

One thing I have been doing is preparing for the meeting of a small quilt group I belong to called The Flutterwheels. Half a dozen friends decided they would like to meet up to do projects which would extend their skills and challenge them. We meet just 6 times a year and all try out the same new block or technique, then when the blocks are completed, we raffle them off between ourselves, so everyone gets a chance to try something, but they're not stuck with odd blocks which just go into your UFO box. This year we have been looking at illusions. We have made Crazy Log Cabin Roses (a la Jan Mullen), Double Nine Patches, Fans, and this time's challenge is Kaleidoscope. We decided on Mediterranean colours and here are my blocks. If everyone makes four, that will make 24 altogether, which is either a lap quilt, or a good start for a bed quilt.


Our last illusion is Storm at Sea, which we have chosen to do in red, for a change. This block looks so complex, but it's actually very easy. It's just two squares within squares and then two diamonds in rectangles. The blocks are 12" finished so they should knit up big. You can already see the circles apearing, even though I've only done two blocks.

Aaprt from this, I've been quilting a Linus quilt, making more Chaos Crumb blocks for DD's sofa quilt (82 down, 18 to go) and making a greeting card quilt for a colleague who's retiring. I'll post a photo of that when it's done.

Something on my to-do list is to make a quilt to give to the lady who gave me the antique quilt in poor repair. I think it would be fair to replace old for new. My friend Sylvia has kindly given me this lovely medallion which will be perfect as a centre for the quilt. The colours and design are so old fashioned and ideal for framing in 19th century colours of browns, beiges, reds and blues. I think I'll get on with it as soon as I've washed the kitchen floor!