Making Me Happy!

There's one thing that always makes me happy - sunshine!! I love hot sunny summers. In England we don't always get those so when we do get some warm sunny days, we've got to make the most of it. After a bit of a mixed week - great day out in St Ives on Wednesday, tooth ache, bad news from the dentist (I need 3 or 4 root canals & crowns, which I think takes care of my remaining molars) & lack of sleep due to tooth ache - I was determined to enjoy the sunshine yesterday.

For most of the afternoon, this was my view. I did manage to knit a bit but I did sleep too.

Simon drove to Bristol yesterday to bring Vanessa & all her stuff back home after her first year at uni. There wasn't space for me in the car. So I decided to make the most of the day by finishing Em's quilt top too. After I joined all the blocks we decided it was a tiny bit too narrow, so I added a 5 inch border on all four sides. This made the top about an inch longer than the batting (which is leftover from Vanessa's quilt). So I need to trip end borders a bit.

Last night, with Em's help, I sandwiched & basted the layers together. I used spray basting for the first time. I'm not sure if it was enough to hold the layers together so I added curved safety pins too. But the spray basting did make this whole process easier.

I rolled the quilt up. I still need to trim the excess width of the batting a little bit before I start quilting. My walking foot is quite noisy and I need to quilt on the dining room table as my desk is too small, which means quilting in the evenings while Simon watched TV is out. Too noisy!

I was keen to do some more sewing last night but as I couldn't quilt, I decided to start piecing my next quilt while trying out my new 1/4 inch foot. Love the foot! I'm using Batik strips and piecing them lengthwise. 

And finally there's a lot of blocking lace going on around here. 3 out of 7 designs are blocked. Will block another shawl before we leave for church this morning. All this pretty lace makes me very happy!!

What's made you happy this week? Share in the comments.