Pineapples and DIY!!

If you are a regular follower of this blog you will know that I am a member of a 'Mini Mania' group and the challenge for February was Pineapple Log Cabin and we could use the template from here.  I decided to try making a bigger block which I hoped would finish at 4" (10cms) but as usual things did not go quite my way!!!

 The paper pattern at the top is for 3" squares (7.5cms) so you can imagine how large my squares were going to be, but I pressed on using up scraps.  I decided to piece over paper using the 3" squares and my sample packs that I was given by Oakshotts when I visited them and started this quilt a couple of years ago.

Quite pleased with this little 'Mini'

 The finished large blocks beside the baby!!

 Here is the finished February Mini -

I am not especially proud of this as I think it is quite messy but I have had some really nice comments from the group so thank you to them.

Well that was February and I had volunteered to set the challenge for March so check here to see what devilish idea I had had!!

I hope that this photo (which was difficult) gives them some ideas.  It is a cushion made many years ago as part of a course I was doing, made for a man, using the number 8, Markal pen and quilted with metallic thread.

I have been doing a few little DIY (Do-it-Yourself) jobs in my Studio over the weekend and I really needed to sort out my pinboard.  I was lucky enough to acquire a sheet of thick polystyrene about a metre square but it needed to be mounted on the wall. 

How to do this??  In the end I went here and for £1 bought an offcut of MDF which I glued on the back, using special polystyrene glue.  So far so good but this was now quite a heavy board so onto the internet to see how to hang it.  I bought some J-hooks and have just finished mounting the board -



 and pinning up my 'Minis' made so far -

I will not tell you how many holes I tried to drill to put up the hooks; suffice to say that I was just about to drill through the plaster for one hole when I glanced down and realised that I was about to make a hole above an electric wall plug!!!!!!!!!!  Aarrgh - stop woman before you electrocute yourself.  I have only just finished shaking!

As you can appreciate I am not much of a handyman but the worst mistake I ever made was just before I had carpet laid on the landing.  I decided the floorboards needed tightening up so I screwed them down and 18 months later the ceiling in the kitchen came down because I had made a small hole in a water pipe that gradually dripped, dripped etc.....  I leave the rest to your imagination.