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Jen’s ‘Moomin’ quilt!
After completing and handing in her PhD last week, our Daughter Jennifer, came to stay for a little visit around lunchtime on Monday this week (and, has just left after lunch today, Friday, so keep in mind its been roughly four full days!), As only just out of the world of being a full time Student at 25 years old, she has yet to readjust obviously…so, thoughtfully she still brought me a large case of washing!!! ;-/
We excitedly discussed all her recent deadlines and caught up on other things, whilst I turned on the washing machine….She then put forth her ‘little plan’ for the short stay home, which meant we could have much Mother and Daughter time, sounds lovely I thought 🙂 simultaneously Jen produced three ‘Moomin’ cotton T-Towels – so cute! Her plan was to make a lap quilt using the cotton panels, hand quilt it and take it back as a surprise for her partner!!! …..WHAT in four days..???? Aaaarghghgghgh. I know I can work quickly….but really?
You might be thinking two people/four days simple….! But from those four full 48 hours we now have to minus time for visits with Grandparents, A pre-planned outing by my daughter to Manchester to see Stephen Fry at the Bridgewater Hall, which of course means leaving at three o’clock on the Wednesday and not returning until nearly midnight, a dental appointment which I had booked the same day, so a round trip of loosing another couple of hours including treatment and a numb face for the next five hours, and of course Jennifer managing to squeeze in another lunch out for us all with grandparents on Thursday…there’s another couple hours gone….maybe allow for two hours sleep each night as well ?!? Suddenly those four days, hardly even seem to have 48 hours left of working time to make this little masterpiece!!!! AAAAArrrrrrghghghhghg again! As we talked through all this, my lovely daughter said, ‘… it would be fine – plenty of time!!!!!’ 😉 How did her generation get to be so laid back???
By 5.0 pm on the Monday of her arrival, we had just about decided on a plan of how it would look, taking into account the different shapes of the towels, now all we had to do was find the colour combination she wanted…??? OMG! … was I ever under prepared for this……My whole fabric stash was about to be brought out…ALL at once – OMG!!! :-0 :-0 :-0
After opening a zillion boxes and sifting through 99 tons of cotton fabrics, moving them from one ledge to another until my whole conservatory workspace was in danger of bursting, I managed to create a short list of colours for Jen’s final decision…! By 10.30 pm the chopping of fabric was well under way…at last – PHEW!
What can I say?!? It was actually finished by 2.0 am this morning – she was right…”Plenty of time!” Though I must confess to missing the last bit of hand quilting – my midnight oil had obviously run out…as I had fallen asleep in a little heap on the sofa beside her ^-^ !!!
Overall it has been a wonderful week and a lot of fun making this little quilt with her too – I hope it’s a nice surprise for her someone special!!!?
I shall at last get back to my WIP (sneak preview below) which has been sitting patiently in a bag for way longer than it should……
Will I ever get to finish it??? My flying Geese lap-quilt guaranteed to have me all Goosed out with all the hand quilting I have planned….!
Caren's Creative Canvas & Craft 
The quilt you and Jennifer made is adorable! I can’t imagine her partner not liking it. Your WIP looks wonderful! I love the colors. I’ll bet you will finish it just as soon as you recover from the mother/daughter crafting. 😉
🙂 Thank you so much Jackie! I know it is simple, but it’s still also very cute too! But time was of the essence, shall we say?!
Only minutes ago I received a text to say Jen was home and Alex loves his little quilt….In fact he said it was the nicest and best thing that could have happened to the little T-Towels (they were his pride and joy – so Jen was actually quite worried about what we were doing to them all the way through) as they were too nice to be used for their purpose,but also, too nice to be stored away and not seen – I wished them happy snuggling for later! 😉
I feel a lot of tidying on my horizon!!! As I said before, ‘Thank goodness for the Ryder Cup!’ At least there is one little monkey distracted from the mess in my workspace for a couple more days – by which time I hope I will be back on track with my own quilting project! Meanwhile, I am listening to a very sad doggy, Peppy gets so fretful when either Jen or George leave ;-( I think a few extra treats are in order tomorrow to take his mind off things!
I’m so glad the quilt was well received! Indeed – thank goodness for golf! You lucked out! Poor Peppy – I think you’re right about the treats. Give him a snuggle from me. 😉
You’re not wrong about lucking out….My goodness I can just imagine the looks on trips through to the garden… if Golf wasn’t keeping Andy’s attention….I know there wouldn’t be any comments ….but still…! I think I might just employ every bucket and cleaning device into the bargain starting first think tomorrow! Might as well make it a complete job well done 😉
I think Peppy has whimpered himself to sleep for the night right now, but, I will for sure give him your snuggle in the morning as well as a few treats! 😉
I hope you have a lovely weekend! 🙂
I hope you are feeling better by the day and wish you a lovely weekend too! 🙂
🙂
P.S. Did you not get the email I sent you on Thursday morning?
I did Jackie, so sorry for the delay, what with Jen being up, though I have replied just now 🙂
No rush – was more worried that my mail was not working properly. Again, have a lovely weekend. 🙂
I’m ready to have a nice weekend starting right now….! 😉 As much cleaning/tidying as necessary had been done and we have squeaky clean windows into the bargain YAY!!! Such a neat space now needs a little creative mess to make it feel like home again 😉 I hope you have a lovely weekend too Jackie and keep taking care of yourself…! ((((HUGS))))) 🙂
Will do!! 😀 *big hugs*
Nice relaxing 4 days then !!!! Honestly 2 hrs sleep per night….sounds like a breeze for a workaholic like you LOL Sorry about the numb face….you didn’t drool on the quilt did you ?? I did a sharp intake of breath you ONLY have 99 tons of cotton fabric – poor you. The finished quilt is nothing short of a quilting masterpiece well done you 2 and your WIP oooooh beautiful
I kept my calm perfectly…..though, I might have to wean myself off the tranquillisers slowly just to make sure I don’t suffer from shakes, you understand?!!!?
I know…a whole extra hours sleep each night!- bliss and gloriously wonderful 🙂 Who would have thunk???? This new generation simply has it all working for them – don’t they?! My upbringing just couldn’t have fit all this in, whatever I did for them as children is certainly paying dividends for me and them too now! I still think it has something to do with the milk (not the milkman of course…;-/) or the water in the late eighties and early nineties! Perhaps some additives which weren’t around, either before or since!!! — Shame!
OMG! Drooling…? don’t even go there….I was gasping for a brew! I waited the mandatory two hours after treatment and Dearest kindly made one for me – as he has been off work to have time with Jen whilst on her visit home – not that the Ryder Cup had anything to do with his holiday timings of course!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ?Anyways, back to the brew, I simply couldn’t wait to relish liquid passing my lips after the torturous treatments, I was sensible, I did allow it to cool for five minutes… then attempted a little slurp – my right side was playing ball and tried its best to catch some intake….but to no avail…my left mouth side decided a joke best played would be to let the entire slurp dribble to the floor obviously drenching my chin on the way down ;-( Inspecting my soggy slippers, I decided to wait another hour….I might mention this happened another three times before I had enough nerve sense on the left of my mouth to actually have a drink! But, luckily I was miles away from the little quilt at all times.
I know, I know, I am so lacking in the fabric department, it is almost shameful, for a surprise request, such as my Jen had, I really think I should invest some of Dearest’s earnings into more patchwork cottons – maybe the bills will understand?!?
I do love my flying geese quilt, though, I am quite sad about the lack of fabric I had for the triangular borders, It was such a hit and miss affair to try and cut pieces from the scraps I had that they are – shall we say on the P…! Cockeyed or not I will quilt them to be a little masterpiece – all will be good in the end – if it does try and see me off first!
My Dearest Mrs T
Your enchanting tale of the post dentist drool is sooo reminiscent of most of the poor unfortunate souls lurching from the tavern next door of a Saturday night…pre my bathing antics of course which soon sobers the mites up sending them back to the pub for fluid refreshment.
Just what are we going to do to rectify your patchwork cotton deficiency ? the lack of which must have been bordering on embarrassment at your Jen’s impromptu demands, I could gather up the ladies dirndl skirts during the weekly bathing at the duck pond, cut a few squares out before returning them to their unsuspecting owners unfortunately the colour pallet may be a little mundane browns & greys are the order of the day, unless I venture into the major city of Lincoln where I might be able to gather the odd scrap of navy blue…and of course should I get caught on my gathering mission I’ve heard I will be issued a one way ticket to the Antipodes just think of the knitting I’ll be able to accomplish on the journey without Beloved mithering me plus when I get there I’ve heard tales of vast quantities of sheep…just think how I can cultivate my yarn stash
I have no doubts what so ever of your flying geese quilt will be a triumph what with your talent !! I do believe you could make a silk purse from a sows ear.
I look forward to our next correspondence….when the stupefying haze of your tranquillizers wears off 🙂
Best Wishes
Mrs P
Mr Dearest Mrs P,
Still not completely out of my wondrous haze, however, whilst sprawling on my chaise with my statutory Saturday night stout – I did think this might help the haze somewhat?!? – I’m contemplating the for’s and against of you seeking out additional fabrics for my stash! Of course I was very embarrassed at my lack of choices for Jen, luckily being family the matter passed over quite smoothly, but, I’m always in favour of the neutral palette and therefore have absolutely no problems with browns and greys – a little added bonus would be a few swatches of navy – how wonderful! Though, then we of course come to the ”penalty” should you be caught in the act?!? My dear, I must ask…’would this be the first time…?’Not to be nosey you understand, its just that we have to consider whether you would get off lightly with a warning…or…indeed have the good fortune to be shipped across the world???! 😉 Also, do you think Your Beloved would be happy to mither ‘Awesome Rag Doll Rabbit’ in lieu of your not being there???? We wouldn’t want him to have too many things out of place on your joyous excursion….;-/
I shall leave this serious decision up to your good self in all matters, of course I would benefit from extra squares of fabric, should you not get caught, but, overall I think you should at least try your best to shout about your progress at each hacking, you wouldn’t want to miss out on a trip of a lifetime – just think of those 60,000 sheep awaiting your arrival!!!!!
Goodness, I do hope the revelry next door at the hostelry doesn’t distract you from decision making..?.. perhaps a quick pretence of the Saturday bathing ritual about to start, might quiet them down – also I find having something to do manually helps me concentrate on serious matters, maybe you should wet stone your shears…you know, just in case you get lucky 😉
I eagerly await your decision….
Mrs. T
Mrs T
I have to confess that I’m free of any suspicion of any wrong doing, where as I fear Beloved does seem to embroil himself in scandal yet never seems to actually come to the constabulary’s notice, only last year he was in London in August at the time of the riots, he assured me he was NOT in the area under siege,which you can imagine came as a great relief, he then transferred to a hotel in another part of the capital which saw fresh riots, he then moved to Wolverhampton the very next evening only for that city to be consumed by riots …..even I was struck by the coincidence, yet not once was he brought in for questioning, needless to say I do not allow him a bottle and burning rag at one and the same time. What does concern me is he appears very eager to partake in a cotton gathering escapade…. which I now feel may be unwise, after all the trip to the other side of the world was meant to be a solo knitting adventure, whereas Beloved may be viewing the trip as some sort of emigration !!!
My Dear Mrs P
You surely must have had your concerns about all the riots being too coincidental with the exact spots of Your Beloved’s whereabouts – are you sure he wasn’t in fact the original owner of the Mafia suit??? It did seem to fit him too perfectly !!!
On the important point of cloth gathering…thank goodness you cottoned on to your Beloved’s intentions sooner rather than later…just imagine trying to finish your Autumn Shawl in even closer confines below decks for weeks on end whilst shackled to you Beloved….
I shall look at other options of obtaining a neutral palette of fabrics, worry not! I certainly think you made the right choice to cancel
Until next time..
Mrs T
Kids, eh? She’s lucky to have such an accommodating mum (not sure I would have stepped up to the mark with such a tight deadline!) Lovely work indeed:)
I know, right….You just think they have grown up and left leaving us in peace….then requests like this!!! LOL It was fun though… and lovingly received on her return 🙂