Today is Sächseleuten, the official start of spring in Zürich. There will be a big parade of all the guilds, in traditional costumes, many on horseback with big decorated floats through Zürich. Local politicians and  dignitaries walk too…a couple of years ago the president was within a yard of where I was standing. No special security though…this is peace-loving Switzerland!

The culmination of the parade is the burning of the Böögg – a model of a snowman, the huge pyre being lit by horsemen racing around at it’s base. There are explosives in the head of the snowman, and the length of time it takes till the head explodes is supposed to predict what sort of a summer we are going to have. As it’s raining the chances of a quick explosion – and therefore a warm summer – don’t look that good.

Normally there are huge crowds – it’s a bank holiday, but today I’m not so sure as it’s very cold and grey and rainy – all of three degrees right now. Brrr. I’m afraid I’m staying home. There’s always next year and today feels more like a day to hunker down and light a log fire. One social butterfly daughter will be out joining the fray though. Why miss a chance to hang out with your friends just because it’s cold any wet?

Maybe I’m just getting old!

Helen

Here it is….I worked like a trooper yesterday and Hopscotch is done! It’s a very dreary, grey, drizzly day here and getting any semblance of a good photo was hopeless, even with a flash – so here you see my son, under protest, on the balcony in the rain, nobly assisting his mother. When the sun shines again I’ll get the top out on the washing line and hopefully be able to show you it in all its true glory. And I really do mean glory – I love this quilt to bits. The Terrain fabrics work really well – but I have to say that IMHO it’s the purple diamonds that really work the magic.

Not a quilt for the faint-hearted – the points on the stars are really critical, especially with the level of contrast I have in mine and there is a lot of fabric meeting there…which meant I did a lot of pinning, sewing, looking, unpicking, repinning, resewing……you get the idea! By late last night with two long seams still to go I was positively cross-eyed and had to give up!

The quilt is quite small – Camille Roskelley says 70 x 60 inches, but mine comes in a bit under that – bigger seam allowances I guess and there are so many seams that that soon adds up! I’m contemplating maybe getting it basted this afternoon if we have all quiet on the western front!

Have a great Sunday!

Helen

Do you ever get that feeling that it’s just time to finish something? Time to knuckle down and get on with it and get the thing done?

That’s me, now, with Hopscotch.

Don’t get me wrong. I still absolutely love it. Love the fabric, love the pattern, but I feel like I’ve been making triangles for a very long time and I want to stop. I want to see how the purple and white stars look when they’re all sewn together. I want to hang it over a balcony on a sunny day and just go ‘wow’.

So today is the day. My husband is working, the kids are either out or studying….and the alternative would appear to be cleaning bathrooms.

I think they can wait, don’t you?

So I’m going for it.

Hopscotch here I come!

Helen

First on the list for this afternoon was the name tag for the FQ retreat secret name tag swap. My swap partner isn’t giving a lot away on Flickr, other than that she’s a great sock knitter in addition to being a quilter – which left me to my own whims and desires.

I’m assuming she likes colour – which quilter doesn’t, so I got out some lovely Terrain leftovers and got down to business. I seriously LOVE this fabric!!

I wanted a little bit of a Log Cabin feel, but with a modern touch.

Once I’d machine appliqued my partner’s thankfully short name, I decided to go for a bit of sparkle and so added pink and purple sequins just to make sure that it catches the eye!

Sorry I can’t show you more….because it’s a surprise, although I have no idea whether my partner reads the blog!

I finished it off with a safety pin and one of my lovely new name tags.

I had such a lovely, fun afternoon – and it isn’t over yet! Isn’t making little things fun – what a sense of satisfaction for a couple of hour’s work!!

So…on that happy note, on with the next project!

See ya later alligator!

Helen

As you can see, (or not!), I have nothing creative to show you. I’ve been working like a trooper the whole week, which is sometimes the lot of us freelancers. This morning I took stock and decided that I’m actually ahead of schedule.

SO I’M TAKING THE AFTERNOON OFF!!!

In addition to a ton of work, this week saw the last days of a measurement period to decide where daughter number two will be going to school next year. It has been a long, hard, stressful slog for the whole family. Puberty and huge amounts of schoolwork do not happily go hand in hand and six months has been a long time to keep it all going. We’ll find out where things stand next week, but right now all we know is that she’s very borderline and it could go either way, so any finger crossing out there would be most welcome.

I’m wiped out, so this afternoon has been designated a have fun sewing afternoon.

On my list are my partner’s name tag for FQ, Di’s block for Stitch Tease, gifts for my FQ swap partners and more of those darned Hopscotch triangles.

Why not stop by later and see how it’s going? I’ll keep you posted!

Helen