Goings On ...

Feels like lately I'm either playing catch up with my sewing because there's little time available to indulge in needle and thread, or I'm playing catch up with blogging the things I actually do manage to sew!

Anyway, just so you know that this blog isn't all about showing you the beautiful blocks that other people make and send my way, here are some of the goings on around these here parts ...

Hoping the sun shines for the recipients of my gifts.

When the time came to start thinking about End of Term pressies (which I dread), I thought I'd make some more of the sunglasses pouches I made for my colleague who was heading off on her Australian adventure back in March.  So that's my wee stack of cases ready for Friday morning and a few left over for some July gifting too ;-)

I also managed to piece together the sampler blocks for my MIL's birthday quilt.  I wasn't entirely sure about using such a busy wee print for the sashing but, on the basis that I was trying to make best use of the fabric I had to hand, rather than having to order even more, I went ahead and gave it a go.  My honest opinion is that I would still want to choose carefully any sashing that's so patterned, but with these other fabrics from the same line, I think it worked out not too badly.  I adore the deeper pink of the dogwood border fabric and think it finishes the quilt top off nicely.  I'm going to have to push myself in July to get it basted, quilted and bound before the end of the month, but I am so glad I had the forethought to make the blocks well in advance!

It may be slow, but at least there's a little progress.

Weekend Tidbits

Firstly, let me say a massive thank you for sharing your experiences and thoughts on the questions about alternatives to Google Reader and on tablets.  I really appreciate that you took time to let me know what you know and I will certainly be looking into them in due course.  There's no way I want to lose touch with all the blogs I follow regularly and I know that just having some of you listed in my sidebar will not mean I see everything you're up to, so this definitely something I want to sort out sooner rather than later.  If anyone else is interested in what people have had to suggest as alternatives to the loss of Google reader or their experiences on blogging from a tablet take a look at the comments on the last post.

In stitchy news, I have been finishing off the quilting and binding on this cute little panel that was donated to Bee Blessed.

I quilted it in a diagonal grid reminiscent of garden trellis and added red polka dot binding.  I still absolutely love the butterflies on the backing and hope they will make some little girl very happy!

I also stitched up a wee going away pressie for my lovely young colleague at work who has decided to take herself on an Australian adventure for a year.  With packing being kept to an absolute minimum, I didn't want to encumber her with something she won't have space for and just opted to make her a wee flex frame pouch for her sunnies.  I hope she will like it and be able to fling it in her bag when she's off to the beach in the glorious sunshine! Not that I'm jealous, much...

Just so you can see that with a 3.5" flex frame this pouch is nice and roomy even for sunglasses deeper than mine.

I did have plans to sketch the words "sunnies" on it, but let's just say my efforts were less than acceptable and I reverted back to just the applique of the sunglasses.  I love this so much that I now have a list of another 7 that will be made as gifts over the course of the next few months, including end of term teacher pressies for June.  Yay for having a plan!

Moving on from the pretty to the practical, I thought I'd share a stitchy housekeeping tip with you for defluffing your cutting mat.  When my mat starts to look like this -

I reach for my handy dandy lint roller (less than £2 from IKEA with great value refills too).   Don't just swipe the roller from left to right to defluff it.  That action is great for picking up rogue threads and trimmings, but for really shifting the wadding and fabric fluff that's gripping in there, you need to position your roller at the bottom of the fluff line (just like in the pic above) and push it up the line to the top of the mat.  Does that make sense?  No rolling involved, just a good old push and friction.

Your roller strip will look grungy after that but, hey presto, one defluffed mat in a matter of seconds.

See?  No fluff.

Give it a go, I promise it's worth a try!