Oops ... I did it again!

DH has officially banned me from eBay! I recently posted about by inability to gauge dimensions and how I am 'fooled' by photographs. To be fair, the dimensions for this chest were accurately depicted by the vendor but somehow in their picture:

... it looked bigger than in my picture:

I have got away with it though :) DH was worried it would be too big for our new snug room so is very pleased with my miscalculation on this occasion! And Nell has given it her approval:

So, from now on, I'll stick to what I know. Before Christmas, I took part in a low volume charm swap, receiving 56 x 5" squares. Having taken some advice previously, I decided to go with the green and cut up 32 squares:

I 'designed' a pattern - adding 2 more low volume squares from my stash ('design' sounds rather grand for my amateurish drawings on graph paper!):

And started sewing the 90 squares together:

Think it needs some borders and sashing though or it's going to be a very small quilt ... that's going to take some time - my (broken) arm is just about coping with an hour here and there, so this will be a slow WIP :(

Linking up:

Lorna:

And Lee:

3-2-1 ... and she's back in the room!!

What broken arm?!

I woke up Saturday and had an overwhelming urge to climb up the ladder to my sewing room and make something. It's been 5 weeks since my accident and, although I am in pain and have a lot of healing still to do, I felt better (and restless!) so thought I'd try my arm out.

Ironing? Not too bad because I could use my left arm. Rotary cutting? Bit more tricky - okay close up but hurt as I stretched to the end of the mat. Sewing? Easy - think how little you move your right arm.

So only one thing for it - make a Pants Bag! Because of the difficulty in rotary cutting, I decided to keep it simple by not cutting up lots of fabric. This is for my friend Maja in Sweden (Majas Paradis) who I said I'd make a Pants Bag for before my accident. She said her favourite colours are: teal turquoise, pink violet and orange - plenty to choose from then! I would have liked to have cut up fabrics from all those colours but, as that wasn't possible, I looked in my stash for a fabric that had most of those colours represented.

It took a big longer than usual but here is Maja's Pants Bag:

And, as I couldn't cut them up I have sent her a tin of scraps of all her favourite colours:

Oh, it's good to be back!

I just can't be trusted ...

It's okay, I haven't had any more accidents - one broken arm at a time is enough for anyone! Apparently (according to DH), I can't be trusted to shop - online - unsupervised!

In his defence, I have previous form ... a few years ago, I bought an Ikea table for my sewing room (which is in the loft) and it was too big to go through the ceiling hatch ... DH had to saw some inches off it AND unscrew the loft ladder before we finally got it up there! In MY defence, when I saw the picture of the table in the Ikea catalogue, to me it looked like it would fit!

So, when I saw this display cabinet on eBay:

I thought it looked like it was the same size as this one I already have and would be a perfect fit in my sewing room (you can never have enough fabric storage, hey?):

In fact, it's a little bit smaller:

But it will be excellent for displaying my threads:

Might need DH to give me some lessons in reading dimensions! Oh, and can we please agree not to tell him about the 'large scraps bin' that was delivered this morning:

Linking up with Lorna:

I am a lucky lady :)

Today's my birthday - am now closer to 50 than 40 ... not sure how I feel about that! I've had a lovely day - Mutter (my Mum) is staying with us for a week, looking after me. Am still in a lot of pain and not sleeping too well but it'll get better soon, I'm sure.

And in the meantime, I get to enjoy all my lovely presents!

Two of my team came for a visit and we had Afternoon Tea and they brought me a gorgeous 'get well and come back to work soon' pink hand bag and flowers:

My niece bought me some fat quarters last week as a thank you for a quilt / playmat I had made for her fiance's neice:

And I had a couple of surprise gifts too. From the lovely Shauna - all the way from Canada, a quilting magazine and get well card:

And from Maja - all the way from Sweden, the prettiest little triangle bag, full of sewing gifts:

I am a lucky lady - thank you everyone xx

Linking up with the lovely Lorna: 

If you can't sew ... shopping helps :)

So my dislocated shoulder / broken arm is healing well and I'm recuperating away from home to give DH a break! Last week, I spent a few days in Wales with my dear Aunty G and this week, my fabby Mum (in law) is looking after me in Chester. Next week, Mutter (my Mum) comes back with us to London for a week ... hey, you're never too old to be looked after :)

Today I went for a walk. The LQS is Liberty Bell - a cute little shop in the city centre - is only about a 3/4 mile walk but I was sooooooooo nervous! I carefully placed every step, looking down to make sure there were no trip hazards, quite scared I may take another tumble ... yikes, I hope I get over this quickly :(

Still, it was worth it! I spent ages in there oohing and ahing, touching and dreaming about when I may get to sew again. Soon, I hope :)

Here are my purchases (mostly by Moda, I think):

I am short of purples in my stash - these are so pretty: 

I shall pop by and see what gorgeousness you've all been up to. Linking up:

They made me cry!!

You will recall I am out of action having had a nasty fall in the street nearly two weeks ago. I dislocated my right shoulder and smashed the humerus in 3 places ... ouch!

The operation went well and, although I'm still in a bit of pain, I'm recovering on track - I saw the Consultant on Monday: x-ray showed everything was back in its place, he was pleased with my (limited) range of movement and the surgery wound is healing nicely. It was a serious injury and it'll take months and a lot of physio to get full movement back but I'll get there :)

On the day of the accident, I had been grocery shopping for the weekend quilting retreat I was hosting ... I still feel really bad that the weekend didn't go ahead - all the 'Strip Bee' ladies were wonderfully understanding for the last minute cancellation and sent me some beautiful messages - I do hope we can rearrange :)

And as if I needed any more convincing what a fabby bunch of ladies they are - they sent me the most delightful box of goodies. DH had to open it for me and when I saw what was inside, I burst into tears (yes, am on a lot of morphine!!) There was a a gorgeously pink and purple wall hanging, where they've each made a block and signed it and there were lots of great individual gifts as well. You ladies are just too wonderful :)

Here's me modelling the wall hanging in this morning's glorious sunshine:

The back and cute label:

And with the gifts:

Thank you sooooooooooooo very much, my friends, what a wonderful tonic you are (shame I can't have the gin with it!) I'm a lucky girl.

Linking up with the lovely Lorna:

And Heather and Megan:

Smashed-up shoulder = no quilting retreat :'(

Instead of enjoying a leisurely brunch with the fabulous 5 (Fran, Amy, Julie, Maria and Sarah), after what should have been one of my most favourite weekends ever, am sat in hospital waiting for surgery on my shoulder!!

What happened? Thursday afternoon, after picking up some essential supplies for my weekend retreat with the Strip Bee ladies, I tripped on a bit of pavement, catapulted forward, took the full impact of the fall on my shoulder and dislocated it! Ouch! Oh well, methinks, they'll 'pop' it back in, it'll be a bit sore but I'll be ok. No. Not even close. Yes they popped it back in ... eventually ... but I've damaged the humerus very badly. Have broken it in 3 places and the ball and socket are damaged too. Double ouch :(

It's a bit tricky taking a one-handed selfie but you have to have some pictures! And I have a great view from my bed out over the River Thames:

It's even trickier typing this up left-handed on my iPad! Yes, I broke the good side!! Hopefully, the operation will take place tomorrow and I'll recover well.

I am soooooooooooo very sorry that our weekend did not take place, ladies. I'm sorry not to have met you, I'm sorry not to have quilted with you, I'm sorry we didn't get to exchange our quilts, I'm sorry all your plans were halted ... I hope to be able to make it up to you one day. 

Promise to keep you updated :)