Islay finds, makes and bakes...

Item 16: check

Yay, we have a finished item from the 2011: a year of hand making list! These are Christmas socks for my father. And yup, I'm able to model them because our feet are more or less identically sized. I'm trying to convince myself it's because his feet are freakishly small rather than mine being freakishly large, but really (if my shoe shopping experiences over the years are to be believed), it's the latter.

The socks are from this pattern, and my Ravelry project page is here. And can I just say how incredibly useful it was to have the notes from the last time I knitted Daddy a pair of socks (on Ravelry here) to refer back to, to make sure I did the right size. Yet another reason to adore Ravelry. Now if only someone would come up with a quilting version...

Of course, most important about this project is that it marks the first finished item from the 2011 list. It feels like I'm a long way from even achieving the items on the January list, but a surprising number of them are a good way through, and I'm optimistic that although I might not get every last item finished, I will achieve pretty much everything I want to. Again, I have to say what a brilliant focus this list is giving me so far, and how I'm really enjoying having my hand making time just a little bit more structured (although I do have to remind myself every now and then that there's no pressure to finish everything on the list if I don't have time).

This week I (probably) will:

My actual diary with my actual To Do list (from a week ago. Every day looks much like this though). I love seeing a new diary fill with events and lists (mainly lists, if we're being honest).

1. Bake an un-birthday cake for Adam, who didn't get an actual birthday cake last week on account of me being unable to move off the sofa due to back/pelvic pain
2. Finish Daddy's Christmas (ahem) socks
3. Doubtless make a bit more progress on the baby blanket
4. Panic slightly that I've set myself an insanely impossible hand making list for January
5. Continue making stuff nonetheless
6. Do watercolours with Teddy some more (lots of result for not too much mess)
7. Finish Teddy's quilt top
8. Start going through baby clothes and decide what we need to wash/chuck/rehome (teeny weeny cute little baby clothes! So much more pleasing stacked up in neat bundles than pouring out of the laundry basket, as they will be in a few months' time)
9. Remane my blog (yup, we're headed for a makeover!)
10. Look after my poorly back in the hope of not ending up on bed rest for the remainder of this pregnancy
11. Be grateful that I'm lucky enough to be pregnant and (mostly) healthy, and that the baby appears to be healthy too, and completely unconcerned by my back pain
12. Start on quilting Teddy's quilt

2011: A year of hand making (part two)

Umm, it's possible that this is another random and gratuitous family photo from Christmas. Baking with the toddler is mainly a battle to stop him using the spatula to shovel cake mix into his mouth as fast as possible.

I mentioned on Saturday that 2011 is the year in which I shall attempt to keep my hand making (and other family activities) just a teensy bit more organised and on track than I have in the past. I'm not planning on sucking all the fun out of it by scheduling every last minute of crafting and family time, but I am hoping that I'll achieve more of the things I want to by having a rough schedule in mind, instead of being taken by surprise by every single season change, festive event or family party.

I decided that some things were more ongoing projects than tasks that could be slotted into a monthly schedule, so there's a little section of aims for the year, but beyond that I've roughly thought about the months. You'll notice that beyond about March things get progressively more vague. That's partly because of the new baby arriving around the beginning of April (I've learned my lesson the hard way about over-estimating how much I can achieve with a small baby), partly due to the wedding in July (again, not sure how much time/energy I'm going to have around then) and partly due to the fact that I don't want to stress myself out with a year's worth of plans that could be thrown off by any number of changes (like, oh, I don't know, the arrival of a new baby?). My vague aim is to always be planning at least a handful of months ahead in order to retain the benefits of planning without panicking myself about how much I'm trying to achieve.

And so, without further ado, here you go.

Aims for the year (I hate the word resolution)

1. Blog more regularly and more thoughtfully – I’m aiming for somewhere in the region of 4-5 times a week, and actually spending some time over those posts so they say all of what I want to say
2. Carry the camera everywhere – I have missed so many shots this year simply through getting out of the habit of carrying it with me. Also we have a shiny new camera (this one) so I ought to make the most of it
3. Try to make even more of our food from scratch – I currently make most of our bread and treats, but I’d like to increase what I'm doing. I used to make granola and breakfast foods, maybe that's a good place to start.
4. Waste less time – I have an almost limitless ability to idle away hours on the internet or just pottering in my workroom. I’m sure I could increase my hand-making time by about 20% simply by being more efficient
5. Master colourwork – I’m not sure why, but I am suddenly determined to be able to knit colourwork. I think it’s all the cute baby fair isle projects I keep seeing on Ravelry
6. Think about seasonal making more than a week in advance, so I can actually make some of the lovely projects that always inspire me on other blogs come Easter, Halloween or Christmas
7. Spend more time outside, whether it’s in the garden or at the park. Just generally appreciate the natural world a bit more and hopefully instill a bit of that appreciation in Teddy
8. Spend more time crafting, baking and hand making with Teddy – we got quite into this in the run up to Christmas and it was a huge success. Definitely need more where that came from, especially in order to keep Teddy happy and occupied when the new arrival shows up.

January

1. Finish Teddy’s big bed quilt (hoped to finish it in the run up to Christmas, but it never happened)
2. Organise the crafting/art supplies cupboard – it all got a little out of hand towards Christmas. Also I think there's quite a lot more we could be doing in the way of arts and crafts, and I have nowhere to put more supplies
3. Knit Teddy another pair of socks
4. Make quilt tops/blankets for the wedding (the aim is to have a handful of quilts to drape over hay bales and as picnic blankets to sit on, as there won't be any formal seating for the meal)
5. Design and print the wedding invitations (loving the save-the-dates we made, blog post coming soon on them)
6. Quilt half of the sunshine quilt
7. Start a tea leaves cardigan for myself (just as soon as the yarn arrives from the States. Fingers crossed it makes it over the pond soon)
8. Make Teddy an outfit from Ottobre magazine (I've had a handful in mind for months now)
9. Make maternity dress from Handmade Beginnings (Anna Maria Horner’s lovely sewing-for-baby book)
10. Knit a baby cardigan (once I've narrowed it down from the not-very-shortlist of about 30 patterns)
11. Knit a baby hat (I am always sad that Teddy didn't have any hand knitted baby hats. Not sure why)
12. Knit Teddy a new winter hat (the last one had a minor run in with a hot wash, courtesy of Adam being in a bit of a rush to get a laundry on, and is now more fit for use as an egg cosy)
13. Make curtains for the sitting room (we really need to stop being open to stares from everyone walking down the street)
14. Organise my workroom and plan any sewing, making or shopping that needs to happen to keep it under control
15. Knit some practice colourwork swatches
16. Finish my father’s Christmas (ahem) socks
17. Plan what’s going in the garden this year (mainly very simple things that can be planted and forgotten for a few months, thanks to the rather busy summer we have planned)
18. Make marmalade (January tradition in this family)
19. Plan what other wedding hand making needs doing before the baby arrives
20. Sew zippered bags for crayons, pencils etc

 February

1. Finish tea leaves cardigan, if it’s not already done
2. Baste and quilt wedding quilts (yup, any and all of them. That'll happen)
3. Finish quilting sunshine quilt (along with those wedding quilts)
4. Knit baby bootees
5. Knit a cotton baby vest or sweater for summer
6. Make curtains for our bedroom
7. Plan Easter/spring related hand making
8. Organise the bedroom for the new arrival and plan any hand making that needs to be done
9. Plan and knit a colourwork sweater for baby (maybe the cardigan from Vintage Baby Knits )
10. Make a change bag (mine is nowhere near appropriate for two children, as well as being deeply unstylish)
11. Sew a needle wrap for circular needles

March

1. Make baby toys (I’m thinking possibly some felted balls, or some stacking blocks. We got rid of loads of Teddy’s toys because they were too plastic/noisy/broken, so we’re a bit short on that front now)
2. Go through the baby clothes bags and plan what needs making/buying
3. Finish quilting wedding quilts if not done yet
4. Start knitting wedding shawl/wrap (even if I'm not going to manage the dress, it would be nice to wear something handmade)
5. Find a space to make a nature/seasons table for the house
6. Make curtains for workroom
7. Finish any Easter/spring related making
8. Knit another baby blanket (I have ambitions to make this brightly coloured one and back it with jolly fabric like this one, first seen on Soulemama's blog but who knows)

April

1. Mainly we’ll settle for having a very new baby this month. Anything else achieved is a bonus, including getting dressed

May

1. A bit of more baby knitting maybe
2. Change seasons table at the end of the month
3. Finish piecing charm quilt (remember that one?)

June

1. Make some summer clothes for Teddy (maybe some more Huck Finn style pants and a couple of t-shirts, or maybe a wedding outfit, depending on how much sleep I'm getting)
2. Finish knitting wedding shawl/wrap

July

1. Get married! There will probably be enough hustle and bustle this month not to add more

August

1. Make a winter coat for Teddy
2. Plan and knit a colourwork sweater for Teddy
3. Knit winter jumper for baby

September

1. Change seasons table at beginning of the month
2. Make a round of baby clothes for winter
3. Make a round of Teddy clothes for winter
4. Plan any Halloween making
5. Plan the Christmas/winter solstice time making season, including

• Wrapping paper
• Tree decorations
• Winter table cloth

October

1. Knit two pairs socks for baby
2. Knit two pairs socks for Teddy
3. Make a start on Christmas making
4. Finish Halloween making

November

1. More Christmas making

December

1. Finish Christmas making

See, told you it got vague after the spring! I'm really enjoying reading on other blogs about new projects starting and crafty aims being set (gosh, the temptation to join things like the 365 project, but I know how stressed I'd get when I inevitably missed a day or two), so if you've made some resolutions, I'd love to hear about them.

Incidentally, this list is going to take the place of the list that normally loiters in the menu bar above for the forseeable future. I'm keeping that original list (which is more of a general list of things I want to achieve) updated and all links to it live, but all the things from it that I'm hoping to achieve this year are on the new list. As with the old list, I'll update with links to appropriate posts as projects are tackled and finished (I'll only update the list in the top menu bar - this post will remain as it is today, for the sake of posterity!).

Apologies for the mammoth post, I have some less epic ones coming up to show you all the things I managed to get made over the holiday period (it's actually a bit embarrassing how much more I got made when I was away from home and the lure of the internet. Whoops).

2011: A year of hand making (part 1)

 

Random and gratuitous shot of a family walk yesterday. Left to right: Daddy, Wellington (black labrador), Teddy, Ruth (step mother), me, Nelson (yellow labrador), Charlotte (sister)

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas/festive period/solstice celebration/handful of days off work. I did intend to touch base here once or twice over the holiday period, but somehow we booked ourselves up rather more thoroughly than I had realised and therefore had virtually no free time.

Anyway, back to the matter in hand. As you may have noticed (ahem), I am a bit of a fan of the list.

And as you also may have noticed, 2011 is going to be just a teeny bit busy for us (baby and a wedding 16 weeks apart, anyone?)

And, as you probably haven't noticed (because I'm only just telling you), there's been an awful lot of sewing/knitting/general making/toddler activities/baking/general stuff that has failed to happen round these parts because I've been too disorganised to get them done in time, or have simply forgotten about them. That something that's been irritating me, even though crafting and hand making is very definitely something I do for fun

I have, naturally, decided that the solution is the mother of all lists. 2011: A year of hand-making. Somewhere between a calendar and a list, it's a rough schedule and list of aims for 2011. This isn't some high pressure thing where I'm going to beat myself up about if I don't achieve every last thing, but I do want to have a little more structure to my hand-making activities this year.

I did actually intend to have my list ready to show you on this post today, but Christmas/New Year has been rather more busy than anticipated and I haven't had a chance to sit down and look at what I want to achieve yet. I'll be sure to let you know as soon as the list is ready to go. Hopefully this will happen when we get home from my father and step mother's tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath.

So that's the crafting bit taking care of. Now how many lists will I need to make before I'm capable of keeping one toddler entertained while feeding a newborn and surviving on zero sleep come April? (I've heard rumours about newborns that actually sleep occasionally, but I'm not believing it till I see it. My last one definitely didn't. Oh gee).

Please refer back to last Monday....

Today's notepaper from The Zesty Desk

There's not an awful lot of point in writing a new list for this week. The combination of the almost-never-ending bug (touch wood, I'm finally feeling a bit better, after a really rough week last week and missing my sister's fab birthday cocktail party on the weekend) means that I only made it through points 1-3 on last Monday's list. There were a few other points that made it to completion (my fabric arrived from the States after an eye watering customs charge), but basically I'm in the same position as I was last Monday, task-wise.

Incidentally, I'm becoming rather a fan of my Monday lists. As anyone who visits here with any regularity will know, I love the list. I have a master list of things to find, make and bake, and write so many blog posts in the form of lists that they have their own tag. Having a Monday list of craft projects (and other things) gives me a bit of a reminder when I'm in danger of veering off on (yet another) track during the week. Expect to continue seeing those Monday lists (and fab notepaper from Etsy sellers) for a little while to come.

This week I (probably) will:

To Do list from papersquid on etsy

1. Admire Teddy in his new hat and scarf (almost certainly inside - I guarantee he will not deign to wear them out of the door)
2. Not admire Teddy in his new mittens, on account of how I don't have the right size circulars to knit them. And the hat and scarf were really only to match the mittens
3. Start swatching a baby blanket. Yup, baby knitting is starting
4. Finish quilting the sunshine quilt. Anything can happen, right?
5. Continue to eagerly await the arrival of some fabric from the States
6. Sew more stock (once the aforementioned fabric arrives)
7. Finish Teddy's pyjamas, now I've finally found buttons
8. Bake bread that doesn't end up semi-raw (it's taking me a little while to get used to being domestic again, ok?)
9. Bake some more faux-cinnabon buns
10. Continue to search for someone to print fabric labels for me, since mine refuse to be colour-fast, despite the promises on the packaging
11. Try to give up the sweetie addiction just a little bit
12. Have a practice run of the confectionary I'm planning for Christmas gifts this year. Obviously this will really help the above sweetie limitation
13. Contemplate ordering a new camera (it's not beyond the realms of possibility. The old one has now also developed a somewhat temperamental battery life)
14. Plan some Christmas-related crafting. And possibly even start it

***

I'm quite liking this Monday list thing. You may (or may not) be interested to hear that I actually achieved quite a lot of the things on last week's list, probably mainly due to them being on the list.

This week I (probably) will:

Notepad from the fabulous looking Boygirlparty on Etsy

1. Miss Adam horribly now that he's back at work after almost two months at home
2. Miss having time horribly, now that Adam's not on Teddy-duty
3. (But love love love having more time with my boy)
4. Quilt some more on the sunshine quilt
5. Sew Teddy's pyjamas
6. Eagerly await the arrival of some more organic fabric for the new handmade venture
7. Cook. I've hardly cooked for two months either
8. Bake. See above
9. Sew more burp cloths, baby blankets and bibs to stock up for my new handmade venture
10. Lay out my new handmade store (expect another Etsy venture. I like it there)
11. Debate buying up a domain name
12. Enjoy being just a little bit more at home than I have been for the past two months (even though my workroom is in the house)
13. Get just a little bit rounder (I nearly kissed someone yesterday who said I looked small, and not at all like I was 20 weeks pregnant)

In honour of The List

 When in doubt, make a list.

We are facing lots of uncertainty about how long Adam might be unemployed for (could be another day or two, could be almost indefinitely), so I'm trying to really work out what I want to achieve while he's here and on Teddy-duty.

Also, I updated The List (the proper one, not the amateur effort you see here) last night, so you can see how much progress I'm making. Do try not to laugh.

In honour of those two unrelated things, I give you...

Things I need (or want. The two are interchangeable when I'm pregnant and hormonal) to do in the next few weeks. Possibly. Unless I change my mind:

1. Finish quilting the sunshine quilt
2. Photograph approximately one million things to go in my etsy store
3. Finish the draught excluder started... a while ago. It is about four seams away from being done.
4. Finish piecing hexagon flowers for the charm quilt
5. Make Teddy some pyjamas
6. Sew a lot of things for new handmade organic baby product business
7. Work out how the printable fabric stuff that I bought actually works, preferably without wasting the whole lot
8. Make labels for handmade baby goodness
9. Look through newly ordered copy of Ottobre magazine and plan some new clothes for Teddy
10. Make curtains for my workroom. I'm a bit bored of being cold every morning until the sun shines in
11. Destash some of my yarn stash in my etsy store. I am facing a slight yarn stash/yarn storage space mismatch
12. Ask my mother to look for the curtains that we mean to look for every time I visit. in fact, if you're reading this, dear sweet mother of mine... Have you tried the loft ion the garage?
13. Buy some winter boots. For real this time.

The mother list

 Ummm, I'm sure we can make the picture relevant if we try. Maybe.

As I may have mentioned before, I have a list of links, ideas and things I want on a monstrous Word document on my Mac. And now, inspired by a couple of bloggers posting more of their ideas and processes, I'm sharing it. You lucky things.

I'm hoping that sharing this list will help me carve away at it a little bit, as well as hopefully inspiring you to do the same to your mental and/or real list, whatever form it might take.

In the true spirit of the blog, it's a list of things to find, make and bake, divided into sub-sections (go on, tell me that didn't get the organisation freaks among you just a little bit more interested). For the sake of posterity, and ease of use as I complete projects, it's going to live up in the navigation bar. And a link  here, to save you moving your mouse too far.

So go admire/laugh at/be inspired by (please, can at least one person be inspired?) the 98 (yes, 98. And that includes 28 quilts) things on the list.

A little box of WIP

This is what my WIP box looks like at the moment, sitting next to my badly-in-need-of-replacing chair (Adam's mother has a rocking chair reserved at her thrift store headquarters, which I have utterly failed to pick up thus far). Glossing over the fact that I badly need to make a prettier WIP container, there's an awful lot to do there. That box (and the tupperware next to it) contain:

1. A knitted pea coat for Teddy, started during Kids' Clothes Week (the pattern is from Essential Kids by Debbie Bliss)
2. The sunshine quilt (well, parts of it. The quilt top is too big to store in that basket now, so it's upstairs in my workroom)
3. My charm quilt hexagons
4. The River Cottage Family Cookbook by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and Fizz Carr (I like to have a good look through all new books before consigning them to the bookshelf - if I don't have at least a vague idea what kinds of things are in there I never take them down again)
5. Weekend Sewing , by Heather Ross (see point 4, above)
6. Somewhere out of sight there's two thirds of a pair of socks (both socks are minus their toes at the moment) that I started for my mother about three months ago. If she's lucky they'll be done just in time for a nice warm summer...

I think it's safe to say I've got too many WIPs at the moment. Particularly considering there's half a (machine) pieced quilt top and Teddy's pyjama top in my workroom as well. I generally like to have one hand sewing/knitting and one machine sewing project on the go at a time, but one thing and another has meant that I've totally exceeded this in recent weeks. I'm finding this hugely unrelaxing because it means I'm spending a lot of time making without ever getting the excitement of finishing something and seeing it in use.

I've got a couple of new projects waiting in the wings, including a couple of big week long challenges for myself (which I'm really looking forward too - all will be revealed soon), and also this calling to me from my workroom

Supplies from Kimonomomo and book from the library (but you can buy it here if you want)

Anyway, my point is that before I'm allowed to pick up that sashiko stuff or begin my monster projects, I've got to completely clear my WIP basket. I'll allow myself a bit of leeway on the charm quilt, since we all knew that wasn't going to be a quick project, but I want all the others cleared in the not-too-distant future, and definitely before anything else joins them

With that in mind, I'm off to make my sunshine quilt even bigger!

The shape of bedtime

You know that when the pre-bedtime wind down starts like this

 There's only one way it's going to end...

Sometimes I think my boys are a teeny bit strange.

Some other stuff:

1. I've been doing lots of sewing, but mainly on the sunshine quilt, and frankly I know that is I blog about that too often you're all going to stop  visiting me. Progress on Teddy's pyjamas and other clothes has been halted abruptly by the disappearance of the buttonhole foot for my sewing machine, so that's still not all finished.
2. However, I have just received a little parcel of fabric scraps from the lovely Cate, who included loads of beautiful vintage prints, for the charm quilt, so if you're really lucky I'll soon show you, ummm, a box of slightly more hexagons than the last time I showed you.
3. Combined with the charm pack I bought a little while ago (Boutique by Chez Moi for Moda, since you ask), I've got a fair few hexagons to baste
4. I have a ton of spare fabric scraps. I'm contemplating a giveaway, but I'm a bit scared!
5. Me, my mother, my sister, Teddy and my aunt are all visiting Kew Gardens in London tomorrow. Should be fun.
6. We're also (minus my aunt) going to the Wholly Herbs event at a local gardens on Sunday. Hope the weather stays nice.
7. I had to post a TV remote to my cousin today. I somehow managed to accidentally bring it home after staying there last weekend. I'm imagining that they've had a fairly dull week, TV-wise.
8. I also posted her birthday present to her, having failed to actually take it last weekend. I'll post pictures of it once she's received it.
9. That's all. Wouldn't it have been nice to get this list up to 10 things?

Kids' Clothes Week, day 4, or A big day out and no work

 

I should probably confess right away that the knitting you can see there is the closest you're getting to an update for Kids' Clothes Week today - all I did last night was knitting, and all I've done today is (about 30 seconds of) knitting on the train to London on an adventure with my boy. I'm hoping to get somewhere with the pyjama top to match the trousers tonight though.

Anyway, back to the main event. Before we even got to the V&A for the quilt exhibition that I've been wanting to go to for months, we had a little picnic in Hyde Park. Mainly Teddy did this:

 

Then we headed over the V&A - fortunately London Victoria station, Hyde Park and the V&A are all within walking distance of one another, so I didn't have to work out the tube with a pram.

Unfortunately the V&A doesn't allow photography in its special exhibitions (you can snap away in the main halls as long as, for some reason, you don't use a tripod) so I couldn't take any pictures in the exhibition, which was a shame.

The exhibition was beautifully laid out, and thoroughly inspirational. A few points really struck me about the whole thing

1. Even among the modern quilts, the hand quilted ones were by far the nicest. I think machine quilting certainly has its own (very important) place in modern quilt making, but I'm increasingly coming to the opinion that you can't beat hand quilting for heirloom status. I say this having never hand quilted anything, but I'm absolutely determined to try it now. Some of the plain coloured quilts (like, one piece of white or pink fabric as the quilt top) with amazing hand quilting were every bit as striking as the intricately pieced ones. One quilt label said that marking out the quilting pattern on one of these could take a day and a half. Eeek.
2. The oldest quilts were extraordinary. They used a whole rainbow of colours and amazing piecing that would be accepted by any modern quilt guild. I'm with the Naptime Quilter on this, and she says it a lot more eloquently than me.
3. I really love Liberty fabrics. It was a love of vintage Liberty prints gifted by my mother that first sparked my interest in quilting, and their fabrics are just unique - once you get to know it, you can spot the gorgeously fine cotton lawn and unique Liberty designs a mile off. This quilt by Janey Forgan, which featured at the exhibition really shows off the versatility of Liberty prints: 
4. I want to make a clamshell quilt. There were a couple of them at the exhibition and it really is a very striking design that you don't often see any more. I like the idea of a really modern set of prints in a clamshell layout, a bit like this perhaps, although I also love this one. Hmmmm.
5. I like the look of hand piecing a lot. It's somehow a bit more organic looking than machine piecing, even when it's incredibly precise. I realise that if I combine my new interest in hand piecing with my new interest in hand quilting you'll probably never get to see a finished quilt of mine again, but there we go.
6. I have no willpower:

Liberty limited edition cottons inspired by the vintage quilts at the exhibition. 

I don't know if they'll all go into one quilt, but I'm loving every single one - there were a few that I didn't buy - mostly those printed on brown or black, because I just couldn't think when I'd use them.

We had a lovely day generally - Teddy was perfect and napped all the way round the exhibition, and I've got a whole load of inspiration to keep me going almost indefinitely. The only thing I would have liked to see was some more international quilts - there was no mention of Japanese or other Eastern countries' quilting, for instance - but we had a wander round the Japanese gallery at the V&A (the V&A, by the way, has examples of literally everything you could ever want to see, seriously - I've spent hours and hours and hours there in my lifetime and probably haven't seen more than 0.1% of it) before going into the quilt show,  which kept me happy.

Mostly links

Somebody (and by somebody I mean the two-foot tall member of our family) elected not to sleep at all last night, for reasons best known to himself. He wasn't exactly unhappy, just whingy, but required my undivided attention from about 11pm until 4am when he finally deigned to drop off for a few hours (he and I are visiting my mother, leaving Adam at home to earn a crust). As a result, I'm not up to much more than a list of things I'm loving right now:

1. Our yoghurt maker disappeared under mysterious circumstances during our recent house move, but this has inspired my to attempt yoghurt sans maker.
2. After this I'm even more excited about Kids' Clothes Week, coming soon to a blog near you!
3. I want to make a summer quilt, inspired by this fabulous string quilt but (a) in hexagons (of course) and (b) with more yellow and less black and white. my sister convinced me that I wanted to make a yellow and blue quilt, so I now have several half yards of various blue fabrics kicking around. Unless I do actually want blue. Oh, decisions!
4. I'm so enjoying seeing the ever growing Flickr pool for the hexagon charm quilt piece-along. It's not too late to join in if you're feeling the hexagon love!

While we wait...

 For Teddy to wake from a never ending nap (merrily playing with his books at midnight with no visible signs of tiredness takes its toll on a boy, apparently. I blame the tooth growing), here's a few bits and bobs I thought I'd share...

1. I rather love this blog I've found - she has lovely use of colour on her quilts
2. I really really want my Anna Maria Horner voile to arrive. I only ordered it on Monday, and it's coming from the States (so I can safely assume I've got a week or two to wait), but I want it now!
3. I wonder whether I should make a practice version of the giant hexagon quilt I want to make with the voile, since I don't want to ruin it with a bad job.
4. In the light of point number one, I am desperate to get cracking on a 'proper' charm quilt (i.e. one in which no two pieces are made from the same fabric, rather than one made with 5" charm squares. Read more history here).
5. Teething sucks. I'd hate to be a baby
6. All this sitting around waiting for Teddy to wake has resulted in the discovery of not one, but two, half decent UK based suppliers of eco-friendly art and craft supplies for kids. Nothing to quite match up to this US supplier, but here and here are options for us poor deprived UKers who don't want to pay huge shipping and huge carbon footprints (thus slightly defeating the point of ordering eco supplies...) Incidentally, the second of those links is where I'm hoping to buy a play kitchen for Teddy from for his second birthday.
7. I know that picture at the top of the post isn't new, but, frankly, I think you might worry about me if you knew I took a picture of my child almost every single time he naps, and I'm hoping that you won't think that I do so if I show you an old picture.
8. I think I may have missed the boat on planting some of my seeds, but I'm giving it a shot anyway - we're going to spend an awful lot of our moving day in two weeks trundling seed trays across town to the new house!
9. I haven't baked any bread/bagels/muffins/biscuits since just after I recovered from my horrible flu thing. I really need to get back into it
10. A list looks much nicer if it's ten things, even if you don't actually have ten things to say

ps: a sneak peak at the first of the bits and bobs for the April handmade stuff shop update coming tomorrow.

pps: If you're observant, you may have noticed that this post is published in the evening. Just because I wrote it while Teddy was napping this morning, doesn't mean that he didn't wake just in time to stop me hitting the 'post' button...

Achieving and not achieving

:: Achieving ::

 
- Getting 24 hour marmalade on the go, with a little help from Teddy and my sister (whisk not essential, but fun). Recipe to follow tomorrow (in 24 hours, see?), assuming it's nice.

 - Crossing at least some of the stuff of the never-ending To Do list

- Finding an old poaching pan in the charity shop to add to Teddy's treasure basket (an ever rotating basket of goods to keep him entertained when Mummy urgently needs to cross off a few more things from the To Do list)

 

- Piling up a load of stuff to sell on Ebay in advance of the anticipated house move in April (I really hope we find somewhere - our crappy rental agents want to put our rent up and charge us a whacking great fee for doing so) 

- Finally producing a loaf of sourdough after what feels like weeks of nurturing the weird smelling starter. (I am so sorry for that appalling photo. Never leave photographing for the blog till 9:45pm)

:: Not achieving ::

- Actually edible sourdough bread (so nice to know that I've spent 10 minutes of every day for the past two weeks in the production of something no one wants to eat. Back to good old fashioned normal bread for a while I think)

 - Getting a refund on the massive box of broken jars that arrived last week in preparation for the beginning of the 2010 preserving season (as always, the year is kicked off by the marmalade. I buy the fruit from Riverford Organic, who I get an organic box delivery from every week)

- Tackling any of the mounting pile of paperwork that accumulates when you're working for yourself. If you look closely you'll notice that 'do paperwork' hasn't even made it onto the To Do list yet. That's how much in denial I am

- Photographing or listing any of the Ebay stuff. Which mostly means that what I've done is create a junk-we-don't-want mountain in the middle of our (really quite small) dining room. Hmmmm.

Tomorrow is another day though. Possibly with another list...

Pros and cons

Things I hate about having external childcare: 

1. Days when Teddy's a bit under the weather (like last week) when I spend all day wondering whether he's getting enough cuddles (I know full well that he is - my childminder is fabulous).
2. Having to rush ourselves out of the door at 8am when we want to have a lazy morning. More of a winter problem than a summer one...
3. No one saying "neenawneenaw" (new word) with a look of glee on their face when I walk past the fire station on the way home from dropping him off, or saying "mamamamamamamama" when asked to say anything other than neenaw. I think he may have worked out that an attempt at saying Mummy will brighten up almost any situation. 

Things I love about having external childcare for Teddy:

1. Turning this 
    into a quilt top in two days flat.
2. Walking just that little bit faster on the way to pick him up. It's exciting seeing your baby after seven hours off!
3. Having a cup of tea and a slice of cake in s i l e n c e (except possibly for the faint strains of Radio Four, my other constant companion).
4. Seeing him so desperate to get cracking on his day with his childminder that he waves me off with both hands as soon as he lands in her house.

All things considered, it's pretty good. Maybe I'll start making my own neenaw noises.

Sitting and waiting...

 1. For Teddy to wake up so we can go and have a reunion with old university housemates.

 
 2. For the wonderful crafting shop to open on tuesday so I can get hold of the extra 20cm of fabric that I need to finish this quilt top (curse my crappy measuring skills!)

 3. For the sourdough starter to get a bit older so I can have my first attempt at sourdough bread

4. For this cold/cough/sore throat/bunged up nose thing to go away so I can breathe again.

Ten thoughts from my foraging walk this morning

1. The smell of a fir tree apparently has a direct line to the festive cheer portion of the brain
2. An acorn is suprisingly painful when it jumps out of a tree and hits you on the head
3. Wow, it really is autumn - not only are the acorns throwing themselves from oaks, but there are leaves on the floor. And they'reorange
4. I wonder what a walnut tastes like fresh from the tree?
5. An unripe walnut fresh from the tree is absolutely vile
6. Where have all the sloes gone this year? There are almost none on my usual footpath
7. I wonder if Teddy will sleep when we get home and let me start knitting the second sock of the pair I started about two weeks ago
8. Isn't my life nice? For how many people can, ''will l get time to knit' be the biggest question of their day?
9. Ooh, the rosehips are almost there. Not quite deep red enough, but definitely through the 'are we or aren't we blushing?' stage. Can't wait to start trying rosehip cordial, among a million other rosehip recipes
10. I really should take a camera out when I go foraging, it's all very pretty

Things I have learned this evening

1) Cooking 3 loaves of bread, 2 jars of spiced plum jelly, 6 jars of apple and loganberry curd, 2 jars of spiced whole plums and 2 dozen ginger biscuits is actually quite hard to achieve between the hours of 6:30pm and 10:30pm
2) When the dough is too wet, it is wise not to assume that it will turn out OK. It won't
3) Assuming that your jelly will set because 'it's been boiling for bloody ages' will result in having to decant it, resterilise the jars and reboil it for 10 minutes
4) A thick plastic bowl does not a good bain marie make
5) It is actually possible to use every single bowl, mixer and tupperware in the kitchen in one cooking session
6) The new loaf tin is rather wonderful, despite the alarming dough
7) There is a reason that chefs wear aprons.