BLOG 322

BLOG 322

I have been incapacitated this week with a bout of vertigo. It practically welded me to the settee and curtailed my activities for some days! I am not used to being inactive and I found the experience extremely frustrating. I am considerably better now than I was at the beginning of the attack though I keep veering off to the left occasionally! So I have continued to sew what I know, namely the Corner Log Cabin quilt.

             Floor space

          Joining blocks

I have covered this joining system thoroughly before on my blog so picture sequence is all you will get this time. The top black strip is cut at 1” and the coloured back strip is cut at 1 ½” and these are both  sewn onto the edge of one row at the same time. The next row is sewn onto the black top strip only, with the coloured back strip being turned and sewn down by hand. All seam allowances are sewn at a very accurate ¼”.

             Sewing both joining strips (moved to show the strips)

            Rows RS together for pinning

          Sewing top strip only

             Securely pinned seams

           Accurate joins

            Butted raw edges on back

               First fold of backing strips

             Second fold for hand sewing

I mentioned a while ago that I fancied sewing small pieces in the shape of a luggage label. Here are some of the more interesting ones.

Why bother doing something when you don’t enjoy it? My mother left a lot of hand embroidery behind when she died. My sister had the bulk of it because I don’t do cross stitch but I did fancy having a go at a bit of long stitch embroidery so I chose a small kit with a flower arrangement in a cup. I hated every minute of it! Every time I brought it out at the various sewing groups I attend, I would sigh and puff and moan and the people close by would ask: why bother? And so I not going to anymore and I feel better already! And this label just reminds me that life is too short to do things if you don’t have to.

           Why bother?

The next is my family coat of arms. Osmotherley (my maiden name) is an unusual name and can be traced back to the 12^th century. Somewhere along the line we were awarded a coat of arms as one of our forebears was the sheriff of the county. Needless to say we are impoverished now and how could we forget the motto ‘Remember thou art mortal’!

           Coat of arms

And finally, my favourite bird, a blue tit.

            Blue tit