Blaming English breakfast

Past few weeks I had been very busy, stressed and tired, so I have done nothing. At least nothing good – I messed up the design colours on my February quilt. And decided not to bother about it. Instead I decided that the faulty bits will be a lifetime reminder of THAT English breakfast. 

It all started two weeks ago when DH rushed the breakfast. The full Monty. Bacon and eggs, hash browns and black pudding, sausages and mushrooms... (See - he is still very nice, not yet out of the honeymoon mode). 

The killer was the black pudding – it slipped and disappeared in the depths of the fridge. DH bent down to find the bugger, caught the lead of the deep fat fryer and spilled the smoking hot oil all over himself. 

Good job that DH is rather hairy and wears glasses thus face got only few freshly fried patches, not even worth mentioning. The right shoulder, hand and knee weren’t so lucky. I burned my hand just by pulling his clothes off (and it was at least 10 seconds later!). 

So he ended up with 6% body burns, some 2^nd, some 3^rd degree which means hospital and surgery, skin grafts and all other fun. He was bad enough not to be admitted at our local hospital but was sent to Burns unit at Queen Elizabeth II hospital in Birmingham. 

DH being a rather typical man decided that lying in hospital is not exactly his kind of sport, so he insisted on being released... Do you see where I’m heading?

Yes, he has been home since!!! Without functioning right arm...  On Sunday I even needed to change the advanced burns dressings (believe me, it’s not a light experience, for both of us, especially after our nosey cat decided to join the fun in the middle of the procedure!)

Codeine is my blessing as it throws a bit of a nice, fuzzy cloud over his extremely bored brains but anyway – as a result of all this fun I messed up with my design colours. Trust me, it’s so not me. My stitches aren’t perfect but keeping track of patterns in my head never had been a problem. So I blame English Breakfast (you can’t blame your own husband, right?)

What your husbands do when they are extremely bored and restless? Mine picked some shopping therapy (believe me, he is a man!). So... 

Last week he bought:

1)      a new car (Volvo),

2)      a caravan (with aircon and all that),

3)      a new laptop,

4)      a satnav for the new car,

5)      a new TV,

6)      10 tickets for Eurotunnel,

7)      2 Crufts tickets for me.

Actually I’m very happy about the Crufts tickets. Well, as a dog person, going to Crufts is some kind of a lifetime event itself. But the best for me is – it ends on the 8^th of March. So DH is planning to drive us to France (for nice holidays!) only on the 9^th of March, not this coming weekend as he was planning before ticket purchase. It doesn’t matter that he can’t walk, sit down or stand up properly right now, and his right hand (according to doctors) is at least a monthaway from any driving... He is planning to start light driving this week already (like a light trip to York and another one to Wales). No, he is not suicidal, and he is trying to convince me that codeine is not guilty either, so I can only blame that English breakfast again). It’s such a shame that we married just last year – otherwise I would consider taking really drastic steps to calm him down :D  

February quilt

This month quilt is just starting to take shape. I had been thinking about this pattern for a while and curious to see the final design. It's still a lot to do but you can see where I'm trying to go.



So far so good, but one thing I learned. The colours. With complicated pattern like this my main two fabrics are too similar in colur.

If I would choose something more bold, the pattern would stand out better. But, oh, well, you make mistakes. maybe this is the time of the year when I look for subtle colours, not so bright and bold as usual. Winter is pale, right? 

Lone star top

The last day of the last year I managed to finish my Lone Star top.

Weather wasn't nice and my cloth line too low for this one (it's again on the big side) so sorry for poor picture but I must admit that this is the first top which I actually are happy with. It's rather precise, no major mistakes, the true colours are very rich, and it looks great.

Oh, and there are a matching pillow cases for it as well. This is also the first one when I can name the fabric - most of it is Paisley Park by Moda, which I won from Kansas Troubles Quilters, one fabric is vintage SOULEIADO, BY SOCIETE CHARLES DEMERY "TISSU", and the red background is a rich cotton sateen.


On the first day of this year I happily started on rather small by size but my most important project for this year - the first quilt for my first grandchild! I 'll be talking about it a lot (a quilt, I mean!), but a bit later.

Another piece of HISTORY

 Right now I’m battling with a rather annoying flu. As I was lying in bed for past several days, doing absolutely nothing, I decided to work on the project I started a long time ago – putting on some of the traditional patterns online. 

Traditional crafts always fascinate me, from Scottish kilts to our mitten designs. If you look at the bar above, you will see few new pages there to look at - this, this and this. 

Many of the patterns come from the three thick volumes on our traditional costume, printed late 20; s –early 30's so quality of printing is a bit outdated but the wealth of information is still there. 

I believe that many of these patterns are still brilliant for modern quilt or fashion ideas. 

Just look at this linen shirt! I can imagine wearing it with my black jeans and looking fab. 

Or these knitted socks – while they are part of one of our region’s traditional costume, they can be a fantastic fashion statement. 

Whatever, I enjoyed putting at least some up and will continue when the next flu will hit me again. Hope you will find them as inspiring as I do.

Oga quilt done

So finally the horse quilt is ready. Weather is bad so for now there will be no better pictures.

It is very special quilt for me as this horse was born right in my arms, I was the one who opened the sack and since then I watched the baby growing. Now it belongs to my good friend and I can assure you that Oga is one very well pampered horse.

The quilt has an official name as well - after our folk song "Tumša nakte, zaļa zāle" (Dark night, green grass)

I'm quite happy with what I achieved with the quilt. I wanted to concentrate mostly on quilting, and I think it has starting to improve. Still a lot of learning to do, but at least I see some light at the end of tunnel.

LUCKY ME

These are not only two nice bolettes, these are also the symbol of Jumis and are supposed to bring me luck. 
We have had plenty of rain for past few weeks and now forests are bursting with mushrooms, especially boletes.
We are rather paganic nation, with loads of gods and deities roaming around our culture. One of such deities is Jumis who personify the harvest.


This deity was believed to live in the fields thus the symbol of Jumis is two stylized, crossed corn stalks, and we believe this symbol is one of prosperity and good fortune.
Any Jumis signs, found in nature (like two nuts grown together, or like in this case – two boletes) were kept at home for prosperity and fertility – simply the good luck sign, similar like four-leaf clover. 

Anyway, autumn is in the air and first jars of mushrooms and Rowan Berry jelly are stored away already. 

I also started to tidy up slowly my this year's scrap bag. It’s not even a project yet and maybe never will, but at least instead of unruly bags with rubbish I can stack some neat blocks.  

Oh, and I already have started a new project. After pheasants comes the horse. 

It’s not just a horse, it’s THE horse – one rather feisty red mare, who will gallop all over this  quilt. Her name is Oga. So, Oga quilt is on the table now.

Tutorial for my H2H quilt top

This is actually a very easy pattern.

First of all, I buy fabric by metres, usually one metre or so. The standard width approx 160 cm.  My favourite tool for measuring/cutting is 1m metal ruler, 4 cm width. 

For this pattern I used 5 colours, cut in stripes 2:1:2 (the red stripe is 4 cm, the rest – 8 cm in width, the length is approx 160 cm for this fabric) . 

So I sew 3 strips together, leaving the red in middle.

Then I measure the width of the sewn together strip – approx 18 cm in this case.

Next step – I make a paper square, 18 cmX18 cm. Using the paper square, I draw lines and cut the stripe in squares (8 squares out of one stripe in my case, about an inch leftover). 

For my quilt I made 4 stripes of gray/beige and 4 stripes of grey/green, keeping the middle stripe the same red. 

So now you must have 32 squares of one colour scheme, and 32 with another. (If you are a precise cutter, that’s it, if you are like me, then I recommend to go over the cut squares by another paper square 16X16 cm for more precise job, and cut the uneven bits off. Oh, and ironing, of course!). 

Divide squares of each colour scheme in two, then cut 16 squares diagonally one way and other 16 – the other way.   

Don’t cut all the squares one way – remember, half one way, half – the opposite! 

Now just decide which combination you like and sew the diagonal cut together. 

You must end with a square something like this. 

The rest is easy – join the blocks by 4, using the same narrow red stripe, then new, large blocks again by 4, still using the red stripe for joint, and voila – top is ready.

When you are at final 4 large blocks, you can also decide to change orientation and end up with a centre orientated pattern, if you like.