Urgh,  been so long since I posted. About eleven days or so I’m guessing. I’ve just been so unbelievably tired. Some of you will know I’m a teacher, and that I got my first teaching job several months ago. I love this job, I really do, but boy, am I tired. 

I feel like I do nothing but work. I get to school early, and once I’ve got a cup of tea, I don’t get up from the computer until the bell rings. I work through break, lunch and for about an hour  or more after school. Then I come home and get some more work done. I know that I only work over three days, but wow, it’s exhausting. I’m finding it difficult to get a work:life balance. All the time I’m not working I keep thinking that I’ve got more stuff I could be doing. I have to go over everything several times to make sure I’ve not forgotten anything. And then again. And then again. I panic that I’ve forgotten something. That maybe that won’t work. That I won’t have time to do that. That they won’t get the work finished in time, and I have to take time out of another lesson to get it finished, therefore not leaving time to get their next weeks work done. My head feels like there is a riot going on most of the time. I’m working tomorrow and have not long finished printing off everything that they need for tomorrow. A lot. My filing still needs done. I need to buy some more folders, and some more poly pockets, and then some more stuff for art – pasta, split pins and numerous other little things. 

I’ve got to also get some bicarbonate of soda, some vinegar and red food colouring. To make a volcano. That MIGHT be a fun project to do on a Saturday afternoon when A is here, but we shall see. 

I’ve been going home knackered every evening, sitting in bed doing some more work, and then just not being in the mood for anything else. I have done practically nothing I enjoy for the past few weeks. For example, the following photo is EVERYthing I have knitted in the past two and a half weeks. (Bar a very, very simple wash cloth I gave to a friend). 

  

Pitiful really 😦 I’ve done no spinning, no crochet, no sewing or anything. I’d love to do some more sewing, but lack of material and time. Oh, I made a dog blanket just before I started back at school. 

Freddy loves it. 

 

Some old fleece I had in the cupboard, along with some orange blanket type material. He adores it, and even pulls it out of his toy box for when he wants to lie down on the floor in the evenings. 🙂 

Anyway, I don’t know what I’m going to do now. My eyes are aching and I’m feeling like I want nothing more than a cup of tea, a hot water bottle and something good to watch on the telly. (It’s only 7pm 😦 ) I might watch Benidorm again. It was the new series and absolutely hilarious. Anyone else watch that? New episode on tonight, yay! 

Hope everyone has a good evening. 

xXx Love Kais xXx 

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Hello everyone, how are you all today?

I’ve been super busy these past few days. I finished my first ever quilt, and I went straight onto the next one! I was looking at pictures of simple quilts online and I came across this one –

http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/easy-peasy-chevron-quilt-tutorial.html

I was infatuated immediately and knew that that was the one I had to make next. I searched my room for all the scraps of material I had, and I found loads more than I thought. Some old fat quarters I had bought a good while ago, some scraps of material my brother had given me, and just bits and pieces hoarded over the years.

I started off with tracing squares onto each piece of material, four squares in each piece. Each square was roughly 7″ around. I cut out sooooooooo many! I started off with only four pieces of material to see how it turned out, and was pleased with what I started.

As it was a chevron pattern I needed to do something a bit different with the fabric rather than cutting out billions of mini pieces to sew together. Instead I got two different fabrics and placed them FACE to FACE with each other and sewed round the edges.

Sounds odd, but it works. I did this for all the squares. Lots and lots and lots of them!

Each piece needs to be cut into four pieces, corner to corner. I haven’t got a rotary cutter, so I used scissors. I found it difficult to cut them straight across, so I folded them in half, and ironed them to get a really good crease. I then cut them in half, then each piece in half again.

Lots of lovely quarters!

I then opened each triangle out and ironed them flat. These will connect together to make the chevrons.

I then placed them out on the floor exactly where I wanted them.

I pinned the squares together in their row order and then trimmed off all the mini edges. That took a while – look at all these squares!

I then had the unenviable task of sewing each row together. It didn’t take as long as I thought, but my wrist/lower arm is aching from the angle I had my arm at. I had to sew 16/17 rows with eight squares in each.

These were then put back into order, and then slowly sewn together row by row. Pin, stitch, pin, stitch.

And here is the finish quilt top! Well, not quite finished, I ran out of material. But this is the main part of the quilt, the focus point. I plan on doing stripes round the sides of this piece. Not too sure what colours, but I’ll find something. I’m so pleased with it. I thought this would be super hard, but it wasn’t, just a little tedious and fiddly at times. I plan on making this the size of a double bed so I can snuggle under it. Maybe I’ll sew a little label saying hand made on the back of it 😀

Here are the obligatory close ups.

I love the cream one with the roses on it.

We were all very crafty in the household last night. I was quilting, Dad was painting his wargaming figures and Mum was doing her cross stitching. Mums cross stitching is stunning.

Whilst I was quilting this afternoon Freddy came and lay on the floor next to me, playing with his football. I looked down at him and saw this …

Don’t think he could decide which one he wanted! Either that or he didn’t want anyone else to play with his rugby ball, haha.

Anyway, I’ve got work tomorrow! These holidays don’t seem to last long. Oh, got a Dr’s appointment tomorrow too, as my ear is STILL playing up. Gone a bit deaf in my right ear and its been like that for two weeks now. Not sure why, but maybe it’s an infection or something. At least it isn’t sore *fingers crossed!!!*

Have a great night everyone.

xXx Love Kais xXx

 

Happy New Year everyone!

I finished my quilt! That’s a great way to start off a new year. I’m not too sure how long and wide it is as I haven’t measured it, but it’s a good size for putting over your lap. I’m also thinking it would make a great baby changing mat, or play mat. It’s pretty thick and heavy. I had a bit of a problem with the binding due to the fact that the bias binding I wanted was not wide enough. One inch binding was not thick enough due to the thickness of the wadding. I found some in HobbyCraft a little bit later, but at £2.50 for a couple of metres I wasn’t going to get it. (There is a shop in Glasgow that was selling the SAME product for 20p a pack! I think I’m going to buy soooo much when I’m next there!)In the end I decided that I had JUST enough material around the edges for me to simply fold the edges over the blanket to make a nice edging. And it would suit it perfectly.

Want to see some photos?

I pinned it all around the edges. This was a little bit difficult in places where there was not a lot of material to work with. I even tried sewing it roughly to hold the edges in place, but pins worked just as well. Lots and LOTS of pins. (Talking of pins, I was supposed to get some delivered yesterday, but of course they didn’t arrive).

Here is the back of the quilt. I’m pleased with the squares on the back, they look like a proper quilt should!

And of course, the finished quilt.

(Please excuse the shocking mess in the back of the photo – we are clearing out lots and lots!) The little flowers on the edge of the binding on the back of the blanket is the pattern that was on the white material. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get it off. I didn’t think I’d like it, but it’s a lot better than I thought. I think it would have been quite nice if all the borders had been like that!  (The darkish patch on the middle blue square is where my naughty Freddy jumped up on it after he had been outside in the wet!)

I love the look of it folded up! So thick and warm and comfy!

And the last picture for now. Overall, I’m very, very pleased. For a first quilting project this went amazingly well, and I’m already searching places where I can get nice material from. I just have one major problem though. What happens when I make so many quilts?? And teddies?? Where do I put them all….??

I’m hoping to get a nice new set of box shelves when I’ve sorted my room out.

http://www.diy.com/nav/rooms/storage-shelving/shelving/shelf_sets/Mixxit-Cube-Shelves-Oak-Effect-Set-of-9-13198769?icamp=recs

They are in B and Q, and have a lovely set of coloured material drawers to put in each block. Pink and red and blue and green and yellow and orange and lots of lovely colour. A little expensive, but I’m sure it will be more than worth it. I just think of all the lovely things I can put it them. Sewing material in one, needles and notions in another, WIP’s in another…. so many possibilities!

I have so many things that I have to do in my room. It needs cleared out and I fancy changing my room around completely. I think it could do with a repainting too. I would love to have a wonderful craft room. All of my craft things, and all of my Mums craft items too. She does papercraft and I work with wool. We both like the sewing side of crafts such as cross stitch. (Mums cross stitching is out of this world. I will have to find her Egyptian cross stitch picture).

Anyway, I’m going to go get a cup of tea and watch a few more episodes of ‘Tales of the Unexpected.’ Ever seen it? Wowww…

Have a great night everyone!

xXx Love Kais xXx

PS (Only 25 weeks and 1 day until Woolfest!)