Sew not ill

Pooch actually does seem to have flu. It seems impossible to tell whether it is swine flu without an autopsy (and he's not that ill) but he definitely has some form of something. I have a very very sore throat but that's about it. I feel like it is about to get worse but then that feeling goes away and it's just a sore throat again. Meh. It does bring into question whether I go back to work on monday or not. Policy is to stay off for a week if your spouse/child etc gets it even if you don;t. But the reality of having me sitting on my beautiful arse when I'm ok may not go down so well with my manager. Especially since remote access has been turned off since we got hacked.

Pooch has established himself in the spair room in what he is calling his 'den'. A la.

He has the cricket on the radio, his laptop and me bringing him tea and "beena" (ribena, to the uninitiated) in rotation. This of course leaves the front free clear for what he refers to as "one of your craft explosions". In essence I get a load of stuff out and spread it around without having to worry about him trampling it. In fact, I've kept it relatively neat. I took my vast collection of fat quarters...

....cut large parts of them into the stipulated rectangles (I am now at one with my rotary cutter)...

...and got to it:

I'm following a pattern from the book I have blogged about before and so have photocopied the templates onto 'vellum' (in reality tracing paper that they call a posh name to get scrapbookers to pay more for it) and am now sewing the fabric onto the paper. The patchwork and applique I've done in the past had always used paper pieces - like hexagons - or just strips sewn together and cut into squares, so this sophisticated paper piecing is a new thing for me. I'm also not very good at sewing curved pieces together. But despite the newness and lack of expertise I have managed to produce a quarter circle.

I'm not entirely in love with it but will do a whole block (the whole circle with 4 corners to make it inot a square) before I make a judgement. The whole quilt in the book is 9 squares with an elaborate applique border but mine is going to be 12 squares (3x4) with a simple border.

Always assuming I get that far!

Anyway, only another 47 quarters to go.

My Secret Pal experience is now complete - as a hostess I have got my group started and they all seem to be getting on ok. I have looked at all their blogs this morning and left little comments for them all. As a spoiler I have been in touch with my spoilee several times and have a parcel gaining shape for her. And I have heard from my pal and can not wait to be thoroughly surprised and spoiled!

I leave you with this which was outside the tropical fish shop a few doors up from my office on Thursday. The shop has your more usual fish on the ground floor when you walk in and then the unusual and more sensitive downstairs in the basement. Some acquisitions though, deserve to be advertised.

Don't shout or everyone will want them.

It's important not to mock others....

...but then someone sends you this link for a really random reason and you start reading the headlines.

An article about bikini lines?

"Her crop is hot stuff!"

Cattle love.

"How compact calves keep her moving!"

I don't know - it just tickled me!

Pooch might have swine flu (but probably not - I think he's just tired)

I went to a knitting course at IKnit on saturday called 'Weird Techniques' to learn all sorts of crazy things like knitting backwards, cabling without a cable needle, sewn cast off, purling with the yarn in the back, continental knitting and an added extra of kitchener. I think I might actually have got it this time. I didn't add to the stash except to get a tiny thing for my Secret Pal, but I was tempted by the malabrigo ....

and the nearly solid cherry tree hill.

I haven't had much of a chance to try my new techniques but the cabling without a needles is worth the class fee by itself. I can feel my Chuck Cabled socks calling me.

My knitting recently has been on the Buttercup Top which I got to about 6cm below the armholes for and then tried on to find it was much too big. There can't be many more times in my life when I'm going to find myself knitting the extra-small size.

It's a lovely colour and I like the pattern too.

I have been thinking a lot about colour recently as I have been gathering fabric for a quilt. It's not often I embark on a big sewing project (and even more rarely do I finish one) but it was love at first sight for me when I saw this quilt on Thimble's blog. So here is what I had at the weekend.

I identified a few gaps in the colour and light/dark tone scale and so a trip to Liberty after work today brought these home with me.

Fabric arranging, knitting and learning weren't the only things I did this weekend. Oh no. Now this really has to be tasted to be believed.

This is the recipe - which comes really near the top when you google for chocolate cake recipes. It is amazingly calorific (500+ per slice apparently) but OMG. Tastes so good. And you've got to love ganache overhang.

It was going to be my birthday cake for work last week but I didn't have time to make it so I took it in with me today. The first slice was gone by 9.10am and most of the rest by midday. Mmmmm.

So I think that's it, other than a quick Pooch update to explain the title of the post. He spent a very leisurely weekend listening to the cricket on the radio and taking up all of MY sofa. I had to knit in the armchair.

"Bring me another tea, Byrne?"

Sadly such things don't last. He's feeling tired and so has convinced himself he has swine flu. I've taken his temperature and it is 36.6 instead of 37 so goddammit it's serious. Really I shouldn't joke because we're all bound to get it soon, especially in London with the tube to spread the germs around. Hopefully when we do get it it won't be too serious. But for today, I think we're safe.