Quiet day

Had the house to myself today and apart from terrifying the dust bunnies I've not done a lot. Caught up with a couple of swaps and posted them. Unfortunately I forgot to scan or photograph them but luckily this one escaped. It's my flower foot swap for the Surface Design group (link's in the side panel). My flower foot is getting a bit old now and obstinately refuses to work properly with the zigzag stitch. I used the gathering stitch to create the flowers. I like the stitch it makes a two layer flower. Only the central panel has 'flowers' the background is handdyed cotton with angelina fibres and hand painted bondaweb bonded onto it and as you can see when I tried to use the zigzag stitch it 'wandered'

My January Contemporary Quilt issue arrived this morning and saw they are doing a Journal Quilt Challenge for 2008. You must commit to one quilt a month and send details every four months of your work. I'd love to and do this challenge but I'm not convinced my work would be good enough. So do I commit or do I continue to lurk? I really need the incentive of a swap or a challenge to push me into doing things. This year I really want to do an art quilt so maybe this challenge is where "I put my needle where my mouth is " - I just can't make up my mind.

Keith's not feeling too good today, his back is really painful again. He looked a bit grey when he arrived home from work. The MRI scan showed the problem was different from what it was thought to be. We'd been told it was disc deterioration trapping his sciatic nerve but it appears that's not the case. The problem is narrowing of the space within his spinal cord. The scan showed that although the space was restricted there was still enough space to allow the nerves to pass through. However his neurosurgeon was unsure about operating as it was a big job and he could end up with his spine collapsing. He believed that inflammation within the spinal cord is the main problem and an epidural may be the answer. Monday he goes to see the anaesthetist for advice on pain contro. Up until today though Keith thought the pain was getting better - spoke too soon. We'll have to wait and see what happens on Monday.

Mil is over her sickness and diarrhoea bug; the home closed their doors to visitors and it seems to have contained virus. She was quite happy when I saw her earlier in the week but was too busy with a piece of toast and marmalade to talk to me much. I've finished knitting her cardigan and will probably take it up at the weekend along with another pair of slippers and more knickers. They must have a knicker nabber in the home she never seems to have any in her drawers (no pun intended).

Tomorrow I want to try printing using Bondaweb, as explained on Maggie Grey's blog. I also want to finish off my 'Fairy' fabric postcards for the private swap. I'm not a lover of fairies so I'm doing fairycats using a couple of designs from Amazing Design's "Happy Fairies". Just straight forward machine embroidery I'm afraid, I'm being lazy but I think the swappers will like them.