Twelve years old but who's counting

Yes, this week I 'topped' my Lone Star Quilt, purchased at the Chicago quilt festival in 2003. So it's only taken 12 years.  And it's still not quilted.  But it looks good, I'm pleased with it. It's 80 inches square so it covers a double bed quite well. And I like the reproduction Civil War fabrics.

You may recall I was trying to get the directional border fabric to a) all face upwards and b) line up horizontally at the seams.  It just shows the flexibility of fabric that despite cutting the side borders in one length, starting from the same pattern place, they didn't end up at the same pattern place despite both measuring 80". As there is an obvious horizontal pattern, I had to cheat a little on the bottom border. I was able to line up the top border quite well horizontally. On the bottom border I had to cut the third segment crookedly by about three-quarters of an inch so that the horizontal pattern lined up on both ends.  It's a subtle flaw but would probably get marks off if I ever  try entering it in a quilt show.

As a reward for finishing a UFO, I went off piste from the UFO list and whipped off a few fun projects.  I finished the second Sleep Eye Visor which turned out well, and I used a remnant of good quality cotton velvet to make a cushion cover for an IKEA inner pad to go on our window seat. I also tried out this fun Vintage Caravan Pincushion tutorial, although I didn't so much as follow the tutorial as look at the picture and make up my own smaller version.  I'm going to use it as a pincushion for my bobbin lace pins.

The tutorial recommends glueing cardboard underneath to prop the wheels apart - I used a length of balsa wood instead for a neater result. I had a plastic key in my box of findings (I don't know where from) so I sewed it onto the bottom to be the trailer hitch.  So cute!  Although I know I could do a neater job if I made it again, but I probably never will :)

On the knitting front, I finished the miniature Aran jumper for the next square of the GAA Afghan, it's cute as well.

I've started the next square, which is the Fenick square showing the Tree of Life.

I'm still working on the BotFA MKAL Shawl, a.k.a the shawl that will never die.  The number of stitches on each row is just ridiculous now and I'm waking up every morning with quite stiff fingers from overuse.

Commuter knitting this week was a free kit from Let's Knit magazine for a striped baby hat.  Rather squeaky acrylic yarn, but quite pretty colours. I'll probably give this to my young pregnant colleague at work.

Gardening

The lawn edging arrived late on Tuesday and most of the evenings since then were wet, so today was the first day I could tackle putting it in.  Tackle being the right word, or even wrestling wouldn't be far wrong.  This stuff is six inches wide and comes in 5m (over 15 feet) rolls. It's metal and wants to stay rolled up. And although it's not as flimsy as I feared, it is flimsy enough that it only has to hit a small rock and it won't go any further into the ground.  So it's rather like wrestling a recalcitrant, awkward snake - you push down one loop and another loop pops up and the end starts rolling up again, and then the wind catches the loose end which starts waving... I've done four hours work on it today and feel quite stiff, but really don't have that much to show for it.  I've done round the central round patio, and around about half the snowman lawn. Not worth a picture because it won't show up.  However, DH did take a picture of me out in the garden in my fetching old clothes, transplanting some Black Eyed Susans to temporarily fill up the border where our privacy trellis will go one day.

Tomorrow I'm going to the Makit Lacemaking, Quilting and Needlecraft Fair in Peterborough, my first craft fair for ages since I've been trying to avoid temptation.  I'm mainly going to get some more lacemaking threads, which are hard to find on the high street.  Willpower on maximum...