Help needed please

Does anyone know of a good butterfly quilt pattern? The friends we went away with this weekend help to run a charity set up by their family to raise funds for sensory play equipment for brain damaged children. Their logo is a butterfly, and I offered to make a quilt for their next auction. So now all I need is a pattern. Any ideas?

A new toy and planning for an adventure

Christopher came back from Wells with a new toy for me, a manual Singer sewing machine in good working order. He found it in a charity shop for a laughably small amount of money. I haven't yet done the research to find out how old it is, but it must have some sewing tales to tell. It's in very good condition and has a lovely old wooden case. I'm certainly going to try my hand at sewing with it sometime.

Tomorrow, we're off on our first adventure in the new motorhome - christened Ronnie (it's a Swift Escape, get it?). We're going to Tewkesbury, which is about two hour's drive from here, for the weekend. Some neighbours of

ours who also have a motorhome have offered to come with us and show us the ropes. I've spent the last ten days stocking it up, sorting out bedding and sewing a few bits and bobs.

So, in honour of the occasion, I made myself a new bag, using a U-Handbag pattern, the Expandable Pack it in Tote. It will hold masses of holiday stuff. I've also made a new case for my camera, something I've been planning to do for ages.

Check in to my other blog and I'll try to take you on a mini-tour of Tewkesbury camp site and town.

Socks

It's another ferociously hot day here in the UK and very humid again, so it's a day for enjoying the sunshine from the coolness of the inside of our house. The older part of the house has walls that are about two foot thick, and made of stone, so it really does keep the heat out, and in during the winter. At the moment I'm sitting in my bedroom which has windows on both sides of the room, so there's a cross draft as well, so it's reasonably bearable. I've just been outside to hang out the washing; the heat should dry it quickly, but the humidity will probably mean that it will take all day.

So, as you can imagine, I wore the socks purely for the photograph and then whipped them off again quickly. It's the first time I've knitted with four needles, so as I'm feeling pretty chuffed with myself. I'm slightly mystified why the pattern looks so different on each sock, but there you go. They've even turned out much the same size! I need to learn a different way of casting on as the tops are a little snug, but I shall certainly have another go soon.

PIF

Since I've listed my PIF gifts as finished in my side bar I thought I'd tease you with a glimpse of them. They'll be winging their way to Candace (Wraggedypatches) Lynn (Diary of a Mad Quilter) and Kate (Stitched withLove). I wonder which one will be going where? All will be revealed once they arrive.

Another little gift finished in plenty of time is a wall hanging for my niece who will be 9 at the end of July. I used the free pattern that Lynette Anderson designed, originally for punchneedle but I stitched it as I haven't yet discovered how to do punchneedle.

I've not achieved a great deal today, mostly resting as the 'lurgy' has decided to make itself felt today. I have made a very quick fly screen for the kitchen door and finished off the sewing basket I'm making to keep in the motorhome.

Ups and Downs.

Well, to be fair, there have been far more ups than downs. On Tuesday, when I was driving Christopher to the station at Bath one of our shock absorbers broke. So when I got back I had to find a garage to take it to, which turned out to be about half an hour's walk from the centre of Wells. Then, by the time I'd walked there I was shaking with hunger and had to find something to eat before I caught the bus home. Of course, with all my food intolerances I couldn't find anything and ended up eating something that I knew would upset me - and of course it did, so that was Tuesday evening wiped out.

Wednesday was a very pleasant day though. Gina, from Quilting in the Valleys, came to visit and stayed for lunch. It was lovely to actually put a face to someone I've got to know a bit through her blog and the odd email. She brought me a beautiful rose bush for the garden and a pot of lavender.

Yesterday I woke up with what I think is probably a cold. If that sounds a bit odd and indecisive, that's exactly how my colds are. I get a bit of a sore throat and get a bit bunged up and sore eyes, and that's how it stays for days, until eventually it either goes away or turns into a proper cold. So I'm now in the in-between stage of feeling a bit under the weather and waiting to see what happens.

I've been busy sorting out bedding for the new motorhome, cutting down some old king size duvet covers to fit the smaller duvets we need, but I did find time to make a hot water bottle cover. I use a hot pad heated in the microwave most nights when I go to bed, unless it's really warm; I find them soothing and comforting, especially if my tummy's feeling a bit delicate as it so often does. We don't have a microwave in the motorhome, hence the need for the hot water bottle.

Give-away

Helen, from Hugs from Helen, has released a new BOM pattern and is having a giving away a copy of the pattern to celebrate. I'm not keen to send you over there as this is something I'd love to win, but if you really feel you must then go on, go and have a look.

Chair covers

I've finally made the covers for our two kitchen chairs. The chairs are really old, solid mahogany that I remember were old when I was a child. I've painted them buttermilk and then just 'winged' the pattern for the covers. I'm pretty pleased with them though. We picked the table up a few weeks ago in the Wells Emporium, an antique shop in the city. We do have three more of these chairs in the garage, but I don't know if I'll ever get round to painting and covering them since we don't have any need for them at the moment; and we do have another set of chairs out there which need sorting out and which will then go into the bedrooms.

From June 2009