Amanda's Musings

A couple of finishes

2012-01-25T13:35:00.000Z

I don't seem to have made a great deal so far this year, I somehow can't seem to get motivated properly. I have made a couple of small things, a cover for my new laptop. This is a pattern from Bustle and Sew.

This morning I felt the need to get and sew and finish something, so I made a small pouch to keep my various cables and things in when we go away. This is a pattern I bought over a year ago from uHandbag.

And last , but certainly not least, a couple of recent photographs of Ruby. I swear her father must have been a Great Dane, the amount she's grown!

Scrappy Saturday

2012-01-21T08:49:00.000Z

I've made a few things this month for the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge; this month's colour is red. Having used most of my smaller scraps last year I haven't too much left, so am cutting into my larger scraps, i.e. biggar than four inches but smaller than a fat quarter.

One of my blocks still needs to be finished to bring it up to size.

I'll make others as we go through the year to make a modern looking quilt.

I tried making this block last year and didn't get it right, so I thought I'd have another go this year. Again, I'm going to make similar blocks of each colour.

These fabrics are more of a burgundy, pinkish red than scarlet. What I'm planning is a medallion quilt, with this as the centre. I'll make the outer rows with the colours as they come along and see where I end up.

Walking with Ruby

2012-01-18T15:44:00.000Z

We're really lucky to live in the countryside, although the main road isn't too far away, which was lucky when we had all the snow in 2010. The lanes around our house are very narrow and very quiet, which is great; the downside is that they get very muddy, not so great when you have a rather low slung dog.

Each morning Ruby and I set off up Orchard Lane. Orchard Cottage is the first house we come to.

On the right is a shed in the ponies' field and on the left at the end of the road is the garage belonging to the next cottage along.

As you can see, it was a pretty dull day when we took this walk. At the end of the lane we have a choice of routes. Ruby's wondering where we'll go today, will we turn left to go down into the village, turn right to go up to the cricket field, or go straight ahead into the field or the path that runs alongside the field?

Oh good, into the muddy field today.

Not too muddy yet, but you wait!

Part way around the field we can choose to carry on or head towards the wind turbine and into the next field.

At the end of the field there's a gate leading out onto the road. More mud. Here's where we stop to put Ruby on the lead. Her road sense is still hopeless and she'd just rush straight out if I wasn't careful. There aren't that many cars around, but we need to be careful.

See the puddle just outside the field gate? Luckily Ruby isn't too keen on water yet, so avoids the puddle, but loves all the mud around it. Turn right here and we'd head back to the village, turn left and we'd go towards the next village. But we're going straight over to have a look at the lambs in the field.

Well, the sheep and their lambs were close to the gate when we arrived, but by the time I'd disentangled my camera from the lead the word had gone round - 'Dog!!!" and they'd taken themselves off, with a huge amount of fuss and noise, to the other side of the field.

Back down the aptly named Puppy Lane, heading homewards.

Ruby always investigates all the little tracks and trails in the hopes that one day I'll bend down and follow her.

Final stop on our way home, the cricket field. There's a tumble down pavilion on the far side and during the summer several local teams play here, but at the moment it's a grand place to play. During the late afternoon several of the local dogs and their owners meet there and Ruby loves to play with all the big dogs, who tolerate her.

And then it's home, to make yet another towel filthy and then have breakfast.

Resolved to Sew 2012

2012-01-17T11:54:00.000Z

Ali at VeryBerryHandmade has a fabulous competition going on right now. Blog about your 2012 resolutions linking back to her "Resolutions to Sew 2012" post which you can find here, leave a comment on her post to say you have done so and stand a chance of winning one of many fabulous fabric prizes.

I don't really make many resolutions, but I have been thinking quite a lot about what I want to do this year.

Firstly, I really need to finish some of the things I started last year in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I hate having unfinished projects, they stop me thinking creatively about what I want to do next. So, they have to go.

This is one of the tops I finished that needs quilting and binding.

Secondly, I want to do more with designing my own quilts, rather than using published patterns. I've got lots of ideas swimming about in my head, but the UFOs are slowing me down as is a lack of confidence. Because I'm not certain about my ability to work out a design for myself I keep falling back on some of the wonderful patterns designed by other people.

This was a little quilt that I designed earlier this year, and I was rather pleased with it.

I may not have mentioned that I've started a City and Guilds course in Patchwork and Quilting, which I'm very much enjoying. So I need to keep on top of the work I'm doing there, and get on with the assignments.

And finally, though it's nothing to do with sewing, I want to do more writing. Last year I did a short course with the Open University on Creative Writing, something I haven't done since I was at school, and discovered that I really enjoy writing short stories. I've joined a local writing group now and had one story accepted for a local free magazine, so I hope to do more.

The other thing you have to do for Ali's giveaway is to pick which of the fabulous fabric prizes you would like to win the most. I'm probably going to pick this wonderful bundle of Erin McMorris fabrics from Backstitch, though there's several others I like just as much.

2012-01-07T07:56:00.000Z

After a really hectic Christmas - visitors for twelve days plus all the preparations beforehand - I was really looking forward to some peace and quiet after the last visitor left. I planned to get all the Christmas decorations down and put away, the house cleaned and then do some sewing. Instead I've been laid low with a stomach ache. It could be a bug, or it could be something I ate, but it's been going on for three days now and I'm exhausted and fed up. Christopher had to go away for a few days so it's been just me and the dog. And I still haven't done any sewing.

So, if you know any funny jokes, do tell me, I need cheering up.

Gift certificate winner

2012-01-05T18:26:00.002Z

I put the numbers of people who replied to my last post into a random number generator and the first number that came up was 4

Now this number belongs to my good friend Kay, who doesn't do quilting or much sewing, so I drew it again. This time it came up with number 1

And this number belongs to another good friend Lynn, so Lynn I will send you an email with the details of the gift certificate. I do hope it works out as I hope and that you enjoy The Quilt Show.

The Quilt Show gift certificate

2011-12-31T19:32:00.000Z

I have a gift certificate for The Quilt Show, which I think is for one year. If anyone would like this to try the show, if you don't already watch it, it's well worth it. Just leave me a comment and I'll pick a random comment. I'll pick a winner sometime on Wednesday 4th January so comments by 3rd January please.

PIF

2011-12-30T14:24:00.000Z

Somehow, in the changeover to my new laptop, I've lost the list of people who signed up to do a PIF with me. I know that Peg was one, Vivien a second, and Pia a third, but I can't remember who else wanted to join in.

If you read this and know that you've already joined me in the fun, could you please let me know.

If you read this and fancy joining in but haven't yet done so, again, please let me know as I may not have filled the six places - six because I joined with two other people.

If you would like to play along but aren't sure of the way it works let me know.

A Happy New Year

2011-12-30T14:17:00.000Z

First of all I'd like to wish you all a very happy and productive 2012. I'm looking forward to seeing what you all get up to and getting lots of inspiration for my own projects.

I'm not going to make any new year's resolutions, it's pointless as I rarely manage to achieve any of them, but I do have some ideas in my head which I'll try to achieve.

I'm enjoying a rare few hour
s to myself, well Ruby's here and is a little demanding, but apart from that the house is empty. We've had wall-to-wall visitors since the 23rd and Christopher has taken our current guests, friends from Panama, to Bristol for the day and I'm staying at home dog-sitting. It's raining and it's dull, but it's very quiet and there's no-one around that I feel I need to entertain (Ruby's just fallen asleep)

I did intend to do some sewing, and may still get round to it, but I'm playing with my new laptop, a MacBook Pro which I bought yesterday. My old one was fine, but my elder son needed a new laptop and so I sold the old one to him and now have a new toy to play with. I always forget the time it takes to set up a new computer and to come to grips with the differences.

So, until 2012,

Best wishes,

Happy Christmas

2011-12-20T11:44:00.000Z

Well, we're nearly at the end of 2011 and I haven't been too good about blogging recently, which is a shame really as I enjoy writing when I get started and always like to read your comments. I ought to make a New Year's Resolution for 2012 to write more, but I fear that could be the kiss of death!

I have got one thing to show for December so far. I made this for the girlfriend of my elder son's girlfriend's sister - if you can follow that. It wasn't easy as we'd never met, and had to look at fabric and design choices via email. And I didn't greatly care for the colours whilst I was working with them. But it's done, dispatched and arrived and I hope that the recipient will really like it.

BUT can you believe it - I posted it off without taking a photograph of the finished quilt! What a prune.

Well, unless I get around the taking any photographs of the little Christmas sampler that I've made, this will probably be my last visit to my blog before Christmas.

So, HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

What's going on??? (181)

2011-12-11T07:51:00.000Z

This daffodil appeared in the garden last week! In a sheltered corner of the garden we spotted a whole clump of daffodils coming up. In December! And yesterday I found a few primula braving the weather. They must have been fooled by the exceptionally mild autumn we've had. I do hope that they're not all trying to flower else we'll have nothing for the spring.

And who's stolen my cute little puppy and left a dog instead? Ruby has grown so much, and of course she's still cute. She has mad moments every now and then and hates to be told 'no' but mostly she's doing so well. House training is virtually there, she lets us know when she wants to go out and as long as we're there to notice every thing's fine. She can 'sit' and 'wait' and is generally willing to 'leave it' though she's far too fond of biting my socks and clothes and I've got to do some darning, something which I never expected to have to do again. She will 'come' when she's called, unless there's another dog near by when she goes spectacularly deaf. We're working on teaching her to 'shh' as she barks too much.

We had no idea how much having a dog would change our lives, and how we'd have to adapt the way we organise things. But she's worth it.

Fruit

2011-12-06T11:59:00.000Z

Last weekend my local quilt shop, Midsomer Quilting, had an exhibition. It had been inspired by the Twelve by Twelve exhibition held earlier this year and the title was to be Fruit. There were so many wonderful creations, covering a wide range of media and ideas. The slideshow has photographs of - I hope - all of them. I'm afraid my camera really is on its last legs so some of the pictures are not good. I have to get exactly the right distance to get a sharpish photograph and I seem to have missed on some of them. Mine was very poor, but luckily I was able to replace it with one I took at home, hence the different background.

Free digital slideshow customized with Smilebox

Starting to get organised

2011-11-14T13:23:00.000Z

I don't know about you, but as soon as November gets under way I feel the need to start getting organised for Christmas. Although, at the same time, I hate to be forced to think about Christmas until late in December. I feel as if I want to go around the shops with my eyes cast down for several weeks, trying to avoid the over commercialism of it all, whilst at the same time I'm busy starting to make presents and decorations at home.

Well, I'm truly organised this year. I've made several small Christmas presents for family and friends, the yearly addition to my sons' Christmas decorations and am now ready to get started on making the Christmas cards. The embroidery machine has come into its own this year and I've made these candle mats and coasters.

The last few weeks have been quite difficult as Christopher's father died suddenly, so there was that to deal with and the funeral. I've been quite unwell with a bad cold that turned into a throat and chest infection, and I've had to deal with Ruby on my own for a lot of the time whilst Christopher travelled backwards and forwards to help sort out the funeral and everything that needs to be organised when you lose your last parent. Luckily he has a brother and sister to help share the load.

But things are settling down now, as is Ruby, and we're beginning to really enjoy her. House training is well under way; she's beginning to learn to bite less and more gently and is starting to respond to simple commands. And she's such fun to watch too. I'm convinced her father wasn't a cocker spaniel at all, but an elephant, as she's grown so much and has such enormous feet!

There's not a lot of sewing going on ...

2011-10-29T06:59:00.000+01:00

because Ruby is taking up a lot of my time at the moment, and any time I do have is spent on houseworky things. Boring but necessary things. But I have been managing to grab the odd few minutes here and there over the last few days and find that she's beginning to occupy herself for longer now and not grizzle at me through the stair gate every time I go into my sewing room.

So nothing in the fabric line to show today, but here's a few pictures of Ruby to be going on with - so much prettier than anything I can make anyway!

Aah, the joys of a tummy rub.

Where's the shoe laces?

Butter wouldn't melt!

Well, If I can't see you I'm pretty sure you won't be able to see me

A few small finishes

2011-10-19T17:04:00.000+01:00

I have managed to finish a few small projects this month so far, but nothing very much is going on here at the moment, apart from puppy sitting. These have all been made with some of my orange scraps for this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Our LQS is having a challenge to make a 12" x 12" quilt with the theme of fruit, so this is my attempt.

Just because!

And finally,

one very happy and rather grubby puppy. She's grown a lot and has really found her feet now and can be quite a monkey out in the garden as she investigates everything. Thankfully she's already responding to 'Come Ruby', which is an essential command as our garden isn't totally puppy proofed. We're getting into a routine now, after the shock of the first few days, and the weather has been really helpful as we've been able to take her outside every hour or so to prevent too many accidents in the house. I think she's beginning to get the idea. I shall be really pleased once she's properly housetrained and we can take our eyes off her sometimes.

Ruby, week 1

2011-10-16T20:10:00.000+01:00

Well, we've now had the monster for a week, and what a week it's been. We knew it would be hard work, but knowing something is quite different from experiencing it and it was quite a shock to begin with. You can read all the books, but they're all written by experts who have completely forgotten what it's like to be first time puppy owners.

Day 1, just after we'd arrived home with Ruby, seen here with Number Two Son who was visiting at the time.

Day 1 - Ruby soon discovered her new bed and retreated away from all of the excitement. Her bed doesn't look as clean and new as that now!

Day 3 - off to the vet for her first vaccination

Christopher soon worked out that running up and down the grass was a good way to tire her out!

Hmm, Ruby soon discovered Christopher's carefully trimmed small euonymous and has since managed to flatten it. It's a favourite place to stash sticks and toys.

We're getting into a bit of a routine now, and it's leaving me the odd half hour here and there for the housework and washing (the kitchen floor has never been washed so much!) and hopefully I'll be able to get back to some sewing soon.

Apologies

2011-10-16T20:07:00.000+01:00

I'm sorry that I haven't replied to people who have so kindly left comments on my blog over the last little while. Life got in the way big time for a few weeks, then Ruby turned up and then, just as I was beginning to feel that I could left my head above the water again, my email setup has gone wrong. I can receive emails, thank goodness, but I can't reply to them, or write emails at all.

So, this week, I'll have to try and get that sorted out.

PIF

2011-10-16T16:45:00.000+01:00

I received this lovely gift, but due to new time waster in the family (more about that in the next post) I've only just been able to grab some time to write about it and thank Jane, of Sew Create It, so much for her kindness.

There was a pack of assorted teas and some scrummy chocolate which sadly I had to give to Christopher as it had gluten in it, but he's bought me some gluten free chocolate in exchange. Jane made an oh so useful tissue cover, which is something I've been meaning to make but never got around to and a lovely mug rug, which has room for a spoon and a teabag and is beautifully made. So, many thanks Jane.

And now I need to start thinking of what I'm going to make, though I think those of you who signed up with me for the PIF may have to wait until next year now.

Whoops, there goes your titfer!

2011-10-07T09:58:00.000+01:00

I've entered my little autumn quilt that I designed and made last year into this week's Quilting Gallery competition and I'd be so pleased if you were to pop over there and vote for me.

Ruby

2011-10-03T15:44:00.000+01:00

We've finally decided to call our new puppy Ruby. She's seven weeks now and we collect her on Sunday; so exciting and a bit nerve wracking too.

Isn't she gorgeous? She's starting to look like a proper puppy now, someone we can envisage bringing home with us. Looking at all the photographs I've taken reminds me that I must give Christopher the camera some time so that he can take some of me holding Ruby!

Halloween hangings

2011-09-30T16:29:00.001+01:00

Not really as bloodthirsty as the title sounds! I've just finished these two little Halloween hangings, one each for my two sons.

Unfortunately, I can't find the pattern nor remember who designed this pattern, so I'm unable to thank them for this fun little project.

PS Thank you Lynn for letting me know that this pattern came from Feeling Stitchy.

Log cabin top finished

2011-09-25T16:09:00.000+01:00

Just a quick update, so that I can add this to the Scrap Happy Rainbow Challenge round-up. I've finished up all of my black scraps now, and this is the result. It's the first log cabin quilt top I've made and I'm really pleased with the result. It will make a very masculine donation lap quilt.

Group Quilt

2011-09-21T14:48:00.001+01:00

As part of the 2012 Olympics there are several 'cultural' offshoots. One of these is A Gift of Quilts, the plan being for a quilt to be donated to each of the countries taking part in the Olympics and the Paralympics. I first heard of this last year and suggested that our local WI (Women's Institute) group might like to take part. The idea was taken up with enthusiasm and in January we got together for the first time to plan our quilt.

Few of the keen bunch who met in my house that first time had any experience of quilting, and some had no experience of sewing at all. But they were all very enthusiastic. Having decided on a theme everyone went away to design and then make a block. As the meetings went on we eventually ended up with 25 blocks. My job was then to complete the quilt top and try to tie all the different blocks together.

Once the quilt top was finished, layered and basted it went the rounds of the participants for quilting, coming back to me a couple of weeks ago for some extra quilting, binding and labelling. I'm still waiting for the signature blocks so that I can complete it and send it off and then we'll have to wait until early next year to find out which country our quilt will be donated to.

It's been a fun exercise and when I took the quilt to our meeting last week the ladies were over the moon with the way it had turned out.

It's not perfect, but I hope that it will be appreciated by the Olympic Committee and athletes of whichever country receives it.

A change of look

2011-09-18T17:13:00.000+01:00

We've recently had the outside of the house painted, along with a load of work on the roof. We've kept the cream colour on the new part of the house and the inner courtyard, and kept with the stone on the garages and the back of the house. But we've changed from the dark brown woodwork to something more bright and cheerful. The neighbours are definitely divided about whether they like this or not. What do you think?

This view is taken looking over the inner courtyard

This is another view of the inner courtyard, with the lounge and main bedroom windows on the right and the kitchen and one of the smaller bedroom windows on the left.

This is the front of the house. The new part of the house is weird in having very small windows at the front. We're not too sure why they decided to do that, but it does make it very annoying sometimes as you can't see if a car is arriving.

Black

2011-09-18T17:04:00.000+01:00

September's colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is black, and as I have a lot of strips rather than larger pieces I've been cutting them all down to one and a half inches to make log cabin blocks. I'll make it lap quilt size to add to the donation pile.

I hope you're not going to get sick of these!

2011-09-16T14:29:00.000+01:00

We visited the puppies again this morning, so here's a couple more photographs.

An addition to the family

2011-09-15T09:02:00.000+01:00

Well, we've taken the plunge! We've been talking about it for the two and a half years since we moved to Somerset and have finally decided that the time is right to get a dog. We decided to get a puppy from a breeder rather than a rescue dog since this will be our first time and we want the fun of a puppy, and no baggage from previous unhappy experiences.

Of course, once we'd decided, there wasn't a puppy to be found, but suddenly a friend of a friend had a litter of puppies and we went to look at them on Monday.

It's a litter of cocker spaniels, one dog and four bitches. They weren't asleep the whole time we were there, but when they were awake we were holding one or another of them, so these are the only chances I had to take photographs.

And this is the one we've chosen. They were only four weeks old, so we'll have to be patient for another four weeks. We haven't decided on a name for her yet. We'll be visiting again several times in the next few weeks, so will get a chance to take some more photographs and for her to start to get to know us.

It's beginning to sink in now!

Fabric chosen

2011-09-13T08:18:00.000+01:00

I've now dug out a pile of fabrics to use for the Dead Simple Quiltalong. But I might end up doing my own thing if the quilt design turns out to be too simple. I have a quilt pattern in mind that I really like, so I'll wait and see how the fancy takes me.

These are the fabrics that I've chosen to go with the colour palette that I showed yesterday.

This is the quilt pattern. I love the use of colour and plan to make it one day, even if I don't use it this time.

Dead Simple Quiltalong

2011-09-11T08:00:00.000+01:00

Lynne, at Lily's Quilts is having a Dead Simple Quiltalong, where the emphasis is to be on colour choice rather than complicated patchwork and quilting. I really didn't intent to get involved in this one, since I've got quite enough to be going on with. But then I got the joining requirements for a Machine Embroidery course I'm taking, and found that I need to choose a colour palette so that I can die my fabrics in advance.

Then I got to thinking; a small quilt in the same colours as my machine embroidery piece could look quite good together. And I want to decorate the dining room next year. And I know the sort of colours I want. So it all comes together.

This is the colour palette I've chosen, which happened to be on Lily's Quilts blog this morning, though it's very similar to ones I've been looking at on Design Seeds.

Design Seeds is a brilliant site; I might have put three of these colours together, but this adds so much more and gives me options for dark, medium and lights. Now all I've got to do is to hope that I can mix the dyes to give me these colours.

Edinburgh

2011-08-30T19:01:00.000+01:00

We've just got back from a week at the Edinburgh Festival, exhausted but exhilerated. I saw 25 shows, and Christopher saw a few more as he went out to some late night shows after I'd gone to bed.

We went with friends, travelling first class on the train and had a flat right in the centre of the city. It was extremely noisy, but we were all so tired that we had no trouble sleeping.

Some of the shows we saw were stunning, some very good and some good. Only one or two were just okay, and nothing was downright dreadful. We saw straight plays, musicals, ballet, cuban dancing, comedy shows, Shakespeare, improvisation shows and stand-up comedy. We also saw the Military Tattoo in the castle. The buzz around the city is wonderful during these few weeks, and we saw so much busking and street theatre, as well as the costumed players handing out flyers for their shows and doing excerpts from them to entice audiences into coming to see them.

We were lucky with the weather too, mostly dry and not too cold.

Here are just a few photographs showing the city itself.

I don't think the skies were ever really this colour, but it certainly makes for a pretty picture doesn't it?

Yes, you really do have to climb up and down these hills to get around in the city.

Edinburgh had multi storey buildings and tenements from way, way back. This is at the top of the Royal Mile, part of which is closed off to traffic during the Festival for street theatre and performers to hand out leaflets.

The castle at night, taken from our seat in the stands at the Military Tattoo.

I'll try and post a few more photographs over the next few days, as I try to catch up with the washing and the gardening.

Two finishes

2011-08-17T14:27:00.002+01:00

This is another lap quilt made from scraps to go in my donation pile.

This was a BOM from last year, and I can't for the life of me remember who it was designed by, so if you recognise it please let me know so that I can acknowledge it here. This has been quite densely quilted so that the applique hearts really pop out. It's going to a friend of mine as a raffle prize for the charity that she helps to run.

I've got two more scrappy lap quilts ready to sandwich and quilt and two more under way. I can really see the scrap pile diminishing now, which is really encouraging, though I'll no doubt be building it up again soon.

Update - thank you Pia, the BOM was called Flowers of Love, designed by Fiona Ransley of Designs by Fee

Happy Christmas to me

2011-08-14T15:31:00.002+01:00

And probably happy birthday to me as well! Some of you may have guessed that this was the present that Christopher bought for me at the quilt show.

I really didn't have any plans to buy one of these, lovely though they are, as they seemed rather expensive. But then we saw it being demonstrated and I wavered a bit; then Christopher offered to buy it and suddenly I could see how useful it would be!

As well as the die that came with it - two and a half inch half square triangles, two and a half inch square and four and a half inch square - I bought a flower die. And today I've made a pile of pinwheel blocks which went together beautifully, far more accurately than my usual blocks.

So, the question is, what other dies should I start saving up for? Have you got a Go cutter? What would you recommend?

Festival of Quilts 2011

2011-08-13T09:20:00.000+01:00

Yesterday Christopher and I went to the Festival of Quilts, held at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, about a three hour drive away. We both thoroughly enjoyed looking at the display of quilts, some of which were stunning, some of which should never have been displayed (in our opinion, that is). I wandered around all of the booths, while Christopher was having a coffee, but as usual was confused by the amount of choice and bought very little. And the queues put me off buying some cheap fabric and wadding that I would have liked.

But then Christopher came around with me, and ended up buying me my Christmas present, which I'll show you next time I post.

Here's a slideshow of the photographs I took; some worked well, others were a bit blurry, but I've included them anyway.

Slideshow made with Smilebox

Rainbow challenge

2011-08-08T13:19:00.000+01:00

I've managed to kill two birds with one stone with this quilt. The challenge this month is to use white with other colours, so I've combined it with the yellow blocks I made for a previous month's challenge, though I had to add in a few orange squares to make it large enough. It's come out at a lap quilt size, which will add to the pile of lap quilts I'm making from scraps for donation to a local old people's home.

I've made this little star - it finishes at about four inches - to send to the child that I sponsor through World Vision out in Ethiopia.

Birthday get together

2011-08-08T13:11:00.000+01:00

Last week was my birthday, and we were lucky enough to be able to get together for lunch with both our sons and their partners. The weather was perfect and after a very tasty lunch in a gastro pub we went to Polesden Lacey, a house owned by the National Trust, for a few hours in the afternoon. I managed to grab a few photographs.

The back of Polesden Lacey, which is the house where the late Queen Mother spent her honeymoon, and incidentally where Christopher and I spent our honeymoon. Though she was in the house and we were in a tent in a campsite set in the grounds!

This is the view you'd get if you were standing at the top of the steps in the previous photograph looking out. Stunning, isn't it?

Christopher took this photograph of us in the grounds. I'm the little munchkin on the right, with Alexander (number two son) next to me, then his partner John, then Oliver (number one son) and his partner Laura.

Please vote for me

2011-08-05T08:24:00.001+01:00

I've entered my Log Cabin Christmas quilt into this week's competition at Quilting Gallery and I'd be so pleased if you'd go there and vote for me.

Finishes for July

2011-07-29T21:58:00.001+01:00

I've got lots of bits and pieces done this month - a quilt top ready for sandwiching and quilting, a pile of blocks ready to be stitched together, a couple of finished embroideries ready for mounting or framing, a whole load of hexagons stitched together - but these are the two finished projects for this month.

A couple of weeks ago we went to a party to celebrate the 40th and 50th birthdays of some friends. I made this table runner for them out of silk. It looks terrific, but it was a difficult fabric to work with as it frayed such a lot. And now Christopher has asked me to make another one for some other friends who are getting married.

This is a knitting needle bag I made for my sister in law who has a birthday in a couple of week's time.

Have you spotted the dried brown leaves on the table? We're not yet into August and already some of the leaves are turning and starting to fall. I imagine that's because of the really dry spring that we had. I hope that still some weather to come before the autumn really sets in.

Pay It Forward

2011-07-29T10:26:00.000+01:00

I've now signed up for two PIF projects. The idea is that the two people I've signed up with will make me a 'something' sometime in the next year. I will then make three 'somethings' to send on to three of you, and you will then do the same.

If you're interested in being one of my six (two threes), please let me know in the comments and I'll put you on my list. Once that's done, you need to blog about it and start recruiting your three people.

So, who's game for a bit of fun?

A few more photographs from our Devon trip

2011-07-27T08:09:00.000+01:00

Goodrington Sands on our one really sunny day

The Amusement Arcade at Goodrington Sands,

Another view of Totnes High Street

A view of the River Dart

Kingswear - the steam train stopped there and we had to take a ferry across to Dartmouth

Some wonderful windy trees in Agatha Christie's garden

Some cottages in Dittisham, which is opposite Greenway, across the River Dart

The road up from Dittisham harbour - and it carries on just a steeply as that for ages

Dittisham harbour, though you can't actually see the river in this shot

Devon

2011-07-26T09:29:00.000+01:00

We recently spent a few days in Devon, and had a lovely relaxed time. The weather was mixed, of course, with one very stormy day, several damp and dreary days and one or two sunshiny days. But what else would we expect in a British summer. We read lots of books, had lots of coffees and lunches out, just watching the world go by. We went to Agatha Christie's holiday home on one day, travelling by steam train and two ferries and we saw an Agatha Christie play at the local theatre. Very relaxing.

Totnes High Street

A gluten free homity pie that I was delighted to find in one of the cafes that we went to

Beach huts at Goodrington Sands

The steam train that took us on the first part of our journey to Agatha Christie's holiday home

The Christie Belle, the ferry that took us from Dartmouth to Greenway, where Agatha Christie had her holiday home

Storm clouds gathering

Agatha Christie's holiday home, now owned by the National Trust.

Dartmouth Station. Although the station was built in 1864, there was never a train line built to serve it. The nearest the line came was on the other side of the river at Kingswear, where the steam train took us. Sadly the money ran out and they were never able to complete their plans to build a railway bridge over the River Dart.

Dartmouth Naval College in the hills above Dartmouth harbour.

Give-away

2011-07-05T09:45:00.000+01:00

Lynne, at Lily's Quilts, is having a give away. Now, I'd rather not be telling you this of course, so if you want to see what the fabric that she's giving away, you'll have to follow the link!

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June finishes

2011-07-02T11:54:00.000+01:00

I've managed to get several things finished this month.

Two versions of the quilt that I designed for the Brit Quilt Swap

Our downstairs doors have glass panels in them which we don't much like, so these are the first of the quilts Christopher has suggested I make to cover up the panels. The only problem is that the doors have two sides to them!

From Amish Inspired Quilts by Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins

Yellow blocks for this month's Rainbow Challenge

A useful bag

Hello again

2011-07-02T11:42:00.000+01:00

One of the things I've been up to recently, whilst taking time off from blogging, is taking part in the Brit Quilt Swap; a swap set up just for British quilters who have joined the Brit Quilt group on Flickr. I've received my quilt this morning, along with some After Eights, which Christopher seems to have purloined already, some thread and ready wound bobbins, and some lovely jelly roll strips of Amy Butler's Love fabric.

The quilt is so sweet and I love the fabrics and colours that Wendy has chosen. I've put it straight into our motorhome, having recently realised that there are plenty of wall spaces in there that are just crying out for a quilt!

Don't you think it's just beautiful?

I don't know if it's me or if my camera isn't behaving as well as it should as I haven't been able to get a well focussed photogaph recently, so this one of Wendy's, with her gorgeous cat, is much better.

I'll be back

2011-06-16T07:57:00.000+01:00

I've just realised how long it is since my last post. There's nothing wrong, and I've been doing plenty of things, I just haven't felt like blogging about them. So, I'm not going to feel guilty about it, just take things as they come and enjoy reading everyone else's blogs. I'm sure I'll be back soon, if only to show some photographs of things I've been making.

In the bag

2011-05-30T08:49:00.000+01:00

I've just managed to squeeze a couple of pink projects in for this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Luckily I don't have too many pink scraps, so there's not much left over. Life has been just too hectic this month.

Up the Garden Path

2011-05-27T21:52:00.000+01:00

We recently took the decision to have proper paths built in our vegetable patch. When we moved here the vegetable plot was one large piece of land, and at the end of the first year the soil had been well trampled and proved extremely difficult for Christopher to dig. At the beginning of last year I divided the patch into four and subdivided the three largest of these pieces. This meant that I could rotate crops, and rarely needed to stand on the soil. This worked brilliantly and the earth needed hardly any digging over this year. So, having proved that I'd got it right, we got a local builder to make proper paths.

I'm absolutely delighted with the results, they make the vegetable garden look brilliant. I don't care for straight lines in flower gardening but there's something so satisfying about a vegetable patch full of straight lines of vegetables.

Festival

2011-05-21T12:14:00.000+01:00

Life has been a bit hectic this week. It's the Chewton Mendip Festival of Art, Flowers and Music this weekend and I've been organising the art exhibitition. The run up to this week has been fairly straightforward, getting artists on board, making sure they know what's expected, chasing them for details, etc. But this week it's all got under way with a vengeance; tidying the church, doing flower arrangements, collecting display boards, receiving the art from 24 artists and setting it up has been exhausting. On Thursday evening we had a concert with local musicians, including the choir I belong to, Village Voices. On Friday evening we had an Art Preview, which was very successful and over the weekend, as well as the art exhibition in the church, there are ten gardens in the village being opened for visitors. Roll on Monday, and total collapse of stout party (I think that's a quote from Pickwick Papers).

So here are a few photographs for you to see of the exhibition and flowers. It's not easy taking photographs inside the church because of poor lighting, but they'll give you an idea of what's going on.

This free picture slideshow generated with Smilebox

Brit Quilt Swap

2011-05-18T13:31:00.000+01:00

I recently joined a Brit Quilt flickr group, for British quilters. There are 126 members now, from all over the British Isles. And they're all completely nuts! Some of the discussions are bizarre, and that's being kind. It was decided that we should have a swap, and it sounded fun, so I joined in. I've got my partner now and have started stalking her, and I guess that whoever has me for a partner may be reading this, so hello and welcome, whoever you are. The next part of the challenge is to design a small quilt for her, and that's going to be fun, I know the sort of fabric she likes and the sort of designs, so all I've got to do is get my thinking cap on and come up with something. Huh! Easier said than done I fear, but I'll be getting down to it next week.

This week I'm up to my ears getting things ready for our village Art, Music and Flowers Festival. I'm organising the art exhibition and hoping that I've remembered everything I need to do.

Apart from exhibiting several quilts I've also made a few mug rugs for sale, here are the last few.

I've also made a weekend bag for Number One Son's girlfriend, using a pattern by Lisa Lam of U-Handbag, she wrote the Bag Making Bible. The ties at each end can be untied which makes the bag much more capacious.

Down in the Garden

2011-05-16T14:40:00.000+01:00

Down in the Garden is at last finished and hanging on the wall. I think I may need to do something about a slight bagginess in the centre block, but apart from that I'm really pleased with it. It will be going to display itself at our village exhibition this week. So here are a few photographs of it, with some close ups of the individual blocks.

Finished at last!

2011-05-14T21:54:00.000+01:00

At last, we've got our kitchen back. The decorators finally left yesterday lunchtime, and we were able to stand in the middle of the kitchen and enjoy it. Here are a few photographs of the finished kitchen before we put all our things back in. I'll try and get some more photographs when I finish titivating.

New button

2011-05-11T09:07:00.000+01:00

I've just added a new feature to my blog.

If you've read and enjoyed my blog post, but don't really feel the need to leave a comment, then just click in the little box at the bottom of the post that says 'Read and enjoyed but no comment'.

I don't know about you, but I often read posts that I don't feel the need to comment on, but would like to let the writer know that I've enjoyed it (my younger son tells me that there's something like this on Facebook). And I really won't be offended if you don't leave a comment on all my posts.

I'd love to know what you think about this idea though.

The last leg?

2011-05-05T22:26:00.000+01:00

We're hoping that we're on to the last leg of our kitchen renovation; it's been rather a long haul and I can't wait to see the back of workmen and reclaim my kitchen and dining room. The granite worktops have now been installed and the new flooring laid. And today they started work on the tiling and decorating, and then with any luck by this time next week they'll all be gone and I can start sorting things out.

Today they've taken off all the old tiles, plastered walls and filled all the little holes.

This is the new worktop granite, a lovely silvery grey.

And this is the new flooring, a grey stone effect laminate.

We still can't use the dining room as everything from the worktops and shelves is stored in there. Our younger son is coming to visit for the weekend and I think we're all going to be eating off our knees - unless the weather is kind enough so that we can eat outside in the garden. But I think the forecast is for rain, and I'm not going to complain, we desperately need some. We've had less than 50% of our usual April rainfall.

Cute?

2011-05-02T14:34:00.000+01:00

Our WI (Women's Institute) group are having a special meeting on Wednesday, where other local groups are invited to join us. We're having a theme of Weddings (I wonder why) and we're all invited to wear hats and make buttonholes - I think these are called corsages in America.

Now I don't do hats; I'm too short, my head's too small and I wear glasses, all reasons not to wear a hat. But I wanted to join in so decided on a fascinator. I didn't want to splash out on buying something I'm never likely to wear again, so made one from a plastic headband, a few feathers, some felt and some suffolk puffs and buttons.

I made my buttonhole in much the same way. Thank heavens for glue guns.

Don't you like my model? I fear that I won't look anywhere near as cute.

Purple round up

2011-05-01T07:49:00.000+01:00

There's nothing new to show, but I thought I'd put it all together in one post to share for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge linky. (And, friends, please don't feel that you need or ought to comment, as you probably have done already!!!)

The last of the purple, together with the last of the blue, red and green, went into making this bag with pockets.

And a collection of mug rugs.

I didn't have much in the way of purple scraps, so there wasn't much I could make. Just as well really as I've been bogged down with so many other things this month. I wonder what May will bring.

dresden plate

2011-04-30T15:47:00.000+01:00

I've just finished this dresden plate from a QAL hosted by Lynne at Lily's Quilts. It's pretty big as you can see, and took a bit of finagling to get it flat, but I'm really pleased with the final result. I've got loads more of the Kaffe Fassett fabric to play with.

Shabby Union Flag cushion

2011-04-28T14:39:00.000+01:00

I've been wanting to make a Union flag cushion for ages and this seemed the right time to do so. I used a foundation paper piecing pattern from Just Hands On TV, designed by Anne Baxter. It's nice and faded looking.

Georgian Bath

2011-04-27T07:50:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks ago Number One Son and his girlfriend came to visit for a few days and we took them to visit Bath, focussing this time on the Georgian, Jane Austen end of the city. I took a few photographs, but it was such a dull, damp day they all came out rather dark. But since I've nothing else to write about at the moment (aah, how sad) I thought I'd show a few of them to you anyway.

This is The Crescent, built between 1767 and 1774 and still one of the most exclusive addresses in the City.

There are many streets of Georgian houses like this.

The Circus, a completely round street, with four exit roads, built between 1754 and 1768.

After a wet and dull walk around Bath we went to the costume museum, and here are just a few of the costumes they have - the reflection of the glass shows on them I'm afraid.

This is the earliest dress they have, from the early 1600s.

Can you imagine trying to manoeuvre around in this!

A private sedan chair.

A public sedan chair.

An original Bath chair, originally design for invalids to use around the narrow streets of Bath as they went to 'take the waters'. They were still used, being pushed by an attendant, right up into the twentieth century.

Using up fabric

2011-04-25T18:32:00.001+01:00

I don't know about anyone else who is doing the Rainbow Challenge, but I've found that I've ended up each month with a few bits left over that I just haven't been able to summon up the enthusiasm to use. Well, I've used most of them now. I spent yesterday stitching bits together to make 'new' fabric, and today I turned it into a new bag with pockets to take to workshops. The pattern is from Monkey Buttons and is one of the very first things that I made when I started quilting. It's been so useful at home and then I have to empty it out every time I want to take it to a workshop; so I've made another one.

And just one more little thing, a mug rug made out of an orphan block. I've got several more of these, so I can see some more mug rugs being made. We've got our local village Festival of Art, Music and Flowers in a few week's time, so hopefully I'll have a pile of mug rugs for sale.

Christening quilt

2011-04-23T08:29:00.000+01:00

A friend asked me if I would make a christening quilt for her great niece, and I found this pattern by Amanda Paul in the latest edition of Popular Patchwork which has worked really well.

Brit Quilt

2011-04-16T20:31:00.000+01:00

Lynne at Lily's Quilts is starting a new group for British quilters, if you're interested go on over to her blog to find out about it and then why not join in the fun?

Please vote for my quilt

2011-04-15T07:42:00.000+01:00

I've entered my In the Red quilt into the Quilters' Gallery scrappy quilts competition this week. Please go and look at all of the lovely quilts and perhaps even vote for mine!

Scrappy Saturday

2011-04-09T21:39:00.000+01:00

This month's colour for the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge is purple. Thankfully I don't have too much in the way of purple scraps to use up, to it's going to be easy enough I hope. Though it's surprising how far a few scraps can go.

Today I've made a pile of mug rugs.

Culture Vultures

2011-04-05T09:39:00.000+01:00

Firstly I'd like to thank everyone who has commented on blogs over the last little while and apologise for not replying. I've been having terrible problems with my email; can't receive, can't send. Plus we've been away for a week on holiday.

We took our camper van to a site near where we used to live, south of London, and took taxis to the station nearly every day and then got a train to London. We tramped about quite a lot, just doing some sightseeing, although we both know London pretty well. We visited three exhibitions and saw three plays. We went to the Watteau drawings exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art; exquisite chalk drawings. I felt that I'd have known any of the people he drew immediately, he was able to put such life and expression into them. We also visited the Afghanistan: Crossroads of the East exhibition at the British Museum, very interesting and some stunning artefacts on show. And finally we went to the Design Museum, where we saw the future coming towards us. They had a display of designs that had won awards in the Brit Design competition and some of them will doubtless become everyday designs in the near future.

We saw three plays; 'Clybourne Park', an American play about race relationships in the 1950s and the present time, a satirical comedy which was very entertaining. 'The Wizard of Oz' at the London Palladium was good fun. 'Flarepath' by Terence Rattigan was excellent, beautifully written and excellently acted.

We only ate in the van once, as we had lunch and supper out most days. We saw various friends and finished up with a lunch organised by our two sons in a restaurant for Mothering Sunday. I've come home exhausted but having had a very enjoyable week.

The slideshow shows a random selection of photographs that I took. One of the things I love about London is that you can stand almost anywhere and see architecture that dates from way back alongside the very modern. I stood outside Tower Green tube station and could see parts of the Roman wall that used to surround London; the Tower of London (started in 1080); a monument to people executed there in Tudor times; monuments to the dead sailors of two world wars; buildings built after the Great Fire of London in 1666; Victorian buildings; 20th century buildings; and The Shard, which is in the process of being built now. Brilliant.

Newts and workshops

2011-03-27T11:49:00.000+01:00

This morning Christopher spotted a tiny newt on the paving slabs in the courtyard garden, presumably making its way to the pond as it's the breeding season. So tiny, and so perfect.

I've not been able to do any sewing this week, since my sewing machine was being serviced. I was getting such withdrawal symptoms that I was tempted to dig out my old Singer Featherweight, but I've been pretty busy so never got around to that. I collected the machine on Friday and hope to do a little sewing this afternoon. But then, we're off in our camper van for a week, so more hand sewing only, if I have time. We're going to a campsite where we can get a train easily enough into London, and have three shows booked, and plan to visit a couple of museums or art galleries as well. And I have definite plans for a visit to Liberty.

I've been to two workshops this week. The first was to make a Surprise Box; I made a box with trays last year so this wasn't too difficult to get made.

I think I'm going to keep it in the van to use when we go away.

Yesterday I was at the last of a series of 6 workshops, one a month, where we've been designing and making our own machine embroidered masterpiece. Yesterday we made the frame for it; fiddly and time consuming, but worth it as it makes the finished picture look quite professional.

I really wasn't too sure whether I'd like it as I was working through the process, but now that it's finished and framed I'm quite pleased with it.

The clocks went forward an hour this morning, for BST, and I find it quite disorientating to have lost an hour. I don't seem to have been up for long and it's already nearly 12 o'clock.

See you in a week or so,

Frogsporn!

2011-03-23T22:04:00.000Z

I've been hearing it all day, the gentle purring sound of frogs in our pond. And now I've come to bed I can still hear them outside the window, which I keep a little bit open. They are, to put it reasonably politely, 'at it like knives'.

Going crazy ....

2011-03-22T08:30:00.001Z

from lack of sewing.

Last week I couldn't get into my sewing room - so hand sewing only.

Over the weekend I was busy cleaning the kitchen and getting it into some sort of order - no sewing at all.

Yesterday I had to take my sewing machine to be serviced. It will be away for up to a week.

This week I have my first assignment to write for my Open University course. It's due in on Friday and I'm way behind. I have a workshop on Thursday which loses one day, and I'm pretty tied up with things today, which leaves me two days to write it - so no sewing at all.

Next week we're going away for a week's holiday - hand sewing only.

I'm suffering withdrawal symptoms and beginning to forget what I had on my mental list.

I just hope that the week after that is a little quieter so I can just sit and sew on my sewing machine.

Stage One Complete

2011-03-19T08:18:00.000Z

The kitchen fitter finished his part of the job yesterday at lunch time - he worked like a steam engine as he was keen to drive back to his home in Scotland yesterday with as much daylight as possible. Why they sent a fitter from Scotland, way up in the north of the UK, down to us in the south west is a mystery.

We're really pleased with the way the cupboards look. I've got loads of cleaning to do though, before I can start putting everything away as all the surfaces and all the cupboards and all the doors are covered in a layer of very fine brick dust. Then the whole house needs to be cleaned as that's got brick dust everywhere too.

We have temporary worktops for the time being, until the granite worktops are made. They're coming next week to measure up and then it will be a couple of weeks before they can be fitted.

We also need new flooring, new tiles and then get everything decorated, so it's going to be another month or so before it's properly finished. I can't wait.

On the left there's an alcove for Rosie's bowls to go and next to it is a cupboard for our wellie boots.

Next to the sink, on the left is a dishwasher. We've never had one before so it's going to be fun learning how to work it.

A wonderful new cooker.

I'll try and remember to take some photographs of the nifty cupboards some time soon.

A Day off

2011-03-16T12:13:00.000Z

Yesterday we took a day off from kitchen watching and went out. We first visited a large village/small town called Bruton. A very pretty place, which has kept much of its mediaeval architecture. We had coffee - well in my case a smoothie - at a cafe which is in a converted chapel; it looks very modern inside, though they have kept much of the chapel in tact, the balcony area being used as an art gallery.

After strolling around Bruton we went to Stourhead, a house and garden owned by the National Trust. We didn't have time to look at the gardens, but will do that another time. The house was built in about 1740 for a wealthy banking family, as their holiday home (some holiday home) in the Palladian style which was popular then.

I wasn't able to take many photographs inside the house because they have to keep the rooms so dark and although I could use my camera I wasn't allowed to use flash.

When we got home we found that David the fitter had done a great deal of carpentry work and plumbing, but it didn't look greatly different to bother taking a photograph. I'll take one this evening though.

Give away winner

2011-03-15T09:49:00.000Z

Thank you to everyone who has been commenting on my posts lately, and I've now drawn a winner for my double anniversary give away. I wish I could send something to all of you, and one of these days, if I ever have a big win on the Lottery, perhaps I will. But for this time it's number 5,

And number 5 is Karen, of Log Cabin Quilter. I've no idea what I'm going to put in the package Karen, and it's certainly going to have to wait until the kitchen is finished and I can get back into my sewing room, but if you let me have your address I'll get a little something off to you as soon as I can.

5.00pm

2011-03-14T18:41:00.000Z

The kitchen fitter is amazing. He started at 8.30 this morning and by 5.00pm he'd ripped out all the cupboards and fitted this run of new cupboards. It's looking good. Don't you love the little bit of lower worktop, especially for me for when I'm baking? Being just 5 foot I find it really difficult mixing in a bowl on the normal height worktop, so requested this.

11.00am

2011-03-14T11:20:00.000Z

The fitter arrived at 8.30 this morning and this is the kitchen at 11.00am. The fridge freezer has been moved to its new position and the cupboards on one side ripped out.

The cupboard was bare

2011-03-13T22:23:00.000Z

The kitchen is now bare and empty, a bit like when we moved in two years ago but not quite as clean! The kitchen fitters are due to start tomorrow and hopefully finish on Saturday. We shall see. Here's a few snaps of the kitchen this evening.

The view as you walk into the kitchen from the hallway. You can just see the door to my sewing room at the back.

That's the sewing room door again, this time looking towards the window on to the garden.

Standing with my back to the fridge freezer, looking towards the sink and the garden window again.

Standing with my back to the sewing room door looking down the length of the kitchen. Christopher just had to get in on the act of course.

Standing in the same place and looking towards the left. The open door is the door to the dining room. That window and the other one on the same wall look out on to the lane.

I wonder what it will look like this time next week.

Green quilt

2011-03-13T10:01:00.000Z

I know, I'm British and we always complain about the weather. And here I go again. I need to get a photograph of the green quilt early this morning as I'm going to a workshop all day and I must get it into the post tomorrow morning. I woke up to rain, so that was no good. Then it stopped raining and the sun came out. Hooray! So outside I go with the quilt. But there's a breeze so I can't get it into focus. And the sun is very low and bright, so no contrast. And indoors it's too dark still. But hey, ho, there we go. Photograph taken.

That's actually a disappearing nine patch block, so the pattern that shows up is purely coincidental.

Scrappy Saturday

2011-03-12T16:36:00.000Z

I've finished my green quilt, but it's too late in the day to get a decent photograph, so I'll try to get one tomorrow. I've used a few more of the scraps, together with some blue and red scraps I had left to make another ring binder cover. These are a great way of using up scraps without having to think too much about plans and designs. I've still got some green scraps left, so I'll have to get my thinking cap on for ideas - I'm hoping to get some inspiration from some of the other people taking part in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

It's been a bit of a frustrating week. The kitchen fitters were due last Monday to start on the new kitchen, so we busied ourselves clearing the kitchen before we went away for a few days last Thursday. Then on Thursday morning, just before we left, we had a telephone call telling us that the fitters couldn't start until next Monday, the 14th. We were not happy bunnies. So, of course, this week things have slowly crept back into the kitchen, and we've spent time hunting for things we weren't expecting to need. So it will have to be completely cleared out again tomorrow. Luckily we've got our camper van to do the cooking in whilst the kitchen is out of action.

Christopher is going to be largely in charge of the clear up though, as I have a day's workshop booked at Midsomer Quilting, entitled Threadplay with Dawn Cameron-Dick; I'm looking forward to it very much as well as the excuse to get out of clearing up the kitchen!

Amanda

Quilt Along

2011-03-12T10:56:00.000Z

I've only ever done one quilt along, Bonnie Hunter's Orange Crush, very early on in my quilting career. I wasn't too happy with that at the time, although I've learnt to love the quilt since then, apart from the quilting. So I've decided that the time has come to join in another. Lily's Quilts is just starting a dresden plate quilt along quilt that looks like fun so I've signed up for that one.

This bit is especially for Lynne, who says she's lost her blogging mojo; why not join in on this quilt along too, then you'll be able to blog about your progress.

I recently bought some Kaffe Fassett fabric 'just because it was cheap' - well it was cheaper than I'd seen it in other shops, so what was I to do? Some of it is his multi-designs-one-fabric, so that gives me 12 different designs, just perfect. All I needed was some white background fabric.

Every now and then I go through a 'Puritan' phase and feel that I shouldn't spend much money - more often than not if truth be told - so decided to go for a plain white, which would be cheaper than a tone-on-tone. I found some good quality, 100% cotton; true, it was as stiff as a board, but that was bound to come out if I washed it. So, I did, I washed it and it's still as stiff as a board. Now I'm telling myself that it will soften up once I start to handle it.

Watch this space!

Rosie clearly doesn't agree with us that spring is definitely on the way!

Double anniversary

2011-03-10T08:53:00.000Z

I've delayed writing this post until today for a very good reason. This is my 400th post and also three years today since I started writing my blog.

I wrote on that first post that it seemed like a fun way to share my quilting projects and, boy, was I right. I've met so many people from around the world and shared in their projects too. There has been so much inspiration from other people that I whenever I've entered give-aways asking me to list my favourite quilting tools I've had no hesitation in putting my computer at the top of the list.

This is the photograph I showed on my first blog, the very first quilt I made. It was a small lap quilt for my mother-in-law who had recently had an operation. Sadly, my mother-in-law has since died, but the quilt is still regularly used by my father-in-law. And in a strange coincidence, the quilt I'm working on at the moment is another lap quilt, this time for my mother-in-law's sister, who is also having an operation this week.

This is a scrap quilt, made for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and was pretty quick to make. But what is taking me so much more time than that first quilt is the quilting. That was quilted in the ditch and pretty sparsely, but this time I'm quilting an all over design which is taking much longer.

I now have 53 followers, for which I'm very grateful, though I'm still not too sure what it means! But I'm delighted to have 'met' so many people over the past three years.

I can't have a double anniversary without a give away though can I? Though I've no idea what it's going to be at the moment. So, if you'd like to go into the hat please comment on this post and I'll draw a name on Monday 14th.

Pagoda Pots

2011-02-25T12:35:00.000Z

Yesterday I went to a workshop to make these Pagoda Pots.

They were reasonably easy to make, at least once I'd worked out which metallic thread my machine was prepared to work with and look very elegant.

I may well make some more of these.

Well, this is post number 399, so keep an eye open for 400, as I'll be having a give away of some sort to celebrate.

Those dancing feet ...

2011-02-23T21:22:00.000Z

Christopher and I have just got back from our first dancing class for over thirty years. We went to a few classes when we were first married, but that's been it. These classes have been going for four or five weeks so we had some catching up to do. We did a slow foxtrot, quickstep, waltz, cha cha and jive. How much we'll remember for next week I don't know, not much I'd imagine. I've got achy legs and achy ankles but it was great fun, and lovely to have something to do together.

Strictly Come Dancing, watch out, we're on our way!

In the Red

2011-02-22T16:36:00.000Z

Finished! My red scraps are now down to a very few, and I think I'm going to hang on to those for the time being. It ended up with asymmetric borders and a strip of light green down one side just to bring it to life. Now all I need to do is decide where to hang it, not an easy decision as it is very 'in your face'.

Now what will next month bring? I bet it's green, though I hope it's not as I have loads of green scraps to use up. Well, I'll just have to wait and see.

Happy Village

2011-02-21T12:18:00.000Z

A couple of days ago I was having a bit of a tidying up in my sewing room when I came across the bag of fabric pieces that I'd cut for a Happy Village quilt I made a couple of years ago. The instructions in the book were wrong, and told you to cut ten squares of fabric instead of one, so you can imagine how much fabric bits I have left over.

The urge kicked in and I made another which I finished yesterday morning. I enjoy making them, and love the finished effect, but can't see me making another eight!

Tote that bag ...

2011-02-16T22:06:00.000Z

I've made this tote bag for my niece for her birthday, which comes up next week. It's just a simple bag, no pockets or closure, but with longish straps. The stitchery comes from Lynette Anderson's book 'Its Quilting Cats and Dogs'.

Nothing much more to say about it really. I'm saving all the words up for my 400th post which comes up soon.

Scrappy reds

2011-02-13T08:30:00.000Z

I'm making some more words with my red scraps, as I enjoyed making them before. I'm making them pretty much according to the book, rather than adapting them as I think they'll look better like that if I use them all in the one quilt, which is what I'm planning to do.

Ignore the blocks to the right of RUBY, they're just some scrappy log cabins I've made to fill in the lines. Today I'm going to stitch the rows together, with some navy blue sashing between, and make a narrow navy border. After that I'm planning some flying geese for the second border to use up the last of my red scraps.

I did start on something else last week, using red scraps, but it didn't work out, so I used it to practice my free motion couching and played with my new couching foot. Parts of it will probably end up on the back of the words quilt.

Turn your back for just a few days ....

2011-02-11T13:33:00.000Z

and spring starts to appear. We've had lots of rain and wind, and really dreary weather over the last few days, and today when I ventured out this is what I found.

So, whatever the weather might throw at us in the next few weeks, spring is definitely on the way. Hurrah!

Valentine

2011-02-09T11:45:00.000Z

I've made this small Valentine gift for Christopher. We don't usually bother with Valentine's really, but I made this little heart sampler when I first started practising machine embroidery and thought it was worth using. It' will make a good mug rug, or to put 'something' on.

Observations on Life

2011-02-08T12:21:00.000Z

This was sent to me in an email, but I thought you might enjoy it too.

Sometimes, when I look at my children, I say to myself, 'Lillian, you should have remained a virgin.'
-   Lillian Carter (mother of Jimmy Carter)

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I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: - 'No good in a bed, but fine against a wall.'
- Eleanor Roosevelt
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Last week, I stated this woman was the ugliest woman I had ever seen. I have since been visited by her sister, and now wish to withdraw that statement.
- Mark Twain
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The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible
- George Burns
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Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people only once a year.
- Victor Borge
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Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
- Mark Twain
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By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
- Socrates
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I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.
- Groucho Marx
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My wife has a slight impediment in her speech. Every now and then she stops to breathe.
- Jimmy Durante
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I have never hated a man enough to give his diamonds back.
- Zsa Zsa Gabor
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Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
- Alex Levine
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My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying.
- Rodney Dangerfield
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Money can't buy you happiness ... But it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery.
- Spike Milligan
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Until I was thirteen, I thought my name was SHUT UP.
- Joe Namath
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I don't feel old. I don't feel anything until noon. Then it's time for my nap.
- Bob Hope
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I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it.
- W. C. Fields
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We could certainly slow the aging process down if it had to work its way through Congress.
- Will Rogers
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Don't worry about avoiding temptation.   As you grow older, it will avoid you.
- Winston Churchill
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Maybe it's true that life begins at fifty. But everything else starts to wear out, fall out, or spread out.
- Phyllis Diller
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By the time a man is wise enough to watch his step, he's too old to go anywhere.
- Billy Crystal
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And the cardiologist's diet: -  If it tastes good spit it out.

Blue Stars finished

2011-02-07T12:53:00.000Z

This has been waiting for a day or two to try and get a half way decent photograph. The sun came out for about half an hour this morning, though it's gone again now, so I grabbed the camera and took some photographs. I machine quilted it with various random patterns, though my BSR foot decided not to play properly so I gave up with that, and then discovered that my machine quilting is so much improved now that I don't really need it.

And then, whilst the light was still reasonable I took the opportunity to take some 'before' photographs of the kitchen. Not only before renovation but before I'd tidied up at all! Come on, you didn't really think I was going to do a special tidying up just for you did you? Though I did move the washing from in front of the fire; I always do that when visitors come.

Oh dear, now that I see the photographs I think that perhaps I should have tidied up a bit, though it's not really as messy as it looks in the photographs, I'm sure they exaggerate.

See all that orangey pine? I can't wait to get rid of that. We're keeping the alcove as it is, though we might put some new shelves in. And we're keeping much the same layout for the kitchen as it seems to work reasonably well.

Studying

2011-02-05T08:10:00.001Z

My Open University course, Understanding Shakespeare, officially starts today, though I have been doing some reading over the last week or so. It's a level one course, equivalent to a first year university course, and runs over twelve weeks. Nothing too onerous I hope. It will be good to get back to using my brain for different things again.

I'm used to distance learning as I did my degree with the Open University some 38 years ago, and have done several other courses since then. When I retired I had a plan to read for an MA, but my time and enthusiasm somehow got subsumed in patchwork and quilting!

The studying will of necessity cut down on my sewing time (it can hardly cut down on my housework time as I already do the bare minimum!) but not too much I hope. I plan to do 8 to 10 hours per week studying.

Hopefully I won't end up like this!

Red

2011-02-02T17:02:00.000Z

Yesterday, whilst the kitchen designer was measuring up and checking where the drainage pipes and electricity points were, and putting it all onto his computer, I couldn't do much as he kept asking questions. So I sorted out all my scraps into different coloured piles, ready for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over the coming months. It was a fascinating exercise, to see which piles were the largest and smallest. I've loads of orange and yellow, a fair bit of brown and quite a lot of black. There's quite a big pile of green, but virtually no pink or purple. There's a small pile of turquoise as well. So some months I'm going to be busy, some less so.

Thankfully, there's not too much red. Here it is ironed and in the same basket as I used for the blue scraps last month.

I have a few ideas what I'd like to do with the red, so will start to play once I've finished quilting the second blue quilt that I made. Then I'll just have two quilt tops to finish, both to be hand quilted using cotton a broder, so they shouldn't take too long I hope.

A new kitchen

2011-02-02T09:11:00.000Z

We've finally taken the plunge and ordered a new kitchen. We knew when we moved here that we wanted to change the kitchen. The one we have now was handmade by the previous owners and shows it. The doors are all a very orangey pine and nothing fits terribly well. But at last we've made the move, signed on the dotted line yesterday and now await an installation date.

It's not going to look anything like this very modern looking kitchen that I found on the internet, but you can't have a post without a picture of some sort can you? We're going for more of a country look, but modern country.

I'll take some photographs soon of the 'before' kitchen before it all gets removed and show you what it looks like at the moment. How very exciting, and frustrating, the next few weeks are going to be.

Fat cat

2011-02-01T08:02:00.000Z

Oh dear, poor Rosie is now officially obese! I had to take her to the vet yesterday for her annual vaccinations and they weighed her. 6.2 kg!! We're always really careful about what she eats, I even weigh out her cat biscuits each day, and the poor thing never gets any treats. But she's just so very lazy. I've now been given some special biscuits for her, called Obesity Management, so we'll have to wait and see. And I've got to take her to a weight management clinic, a sort of Weight Watchers for cats.

I'm seriously considering getting a cat harness and taking her our for a walk around the garden each day, but I fear that I'd end up dragging her along as I'm sure she wouldn't take to a harness.

She'll play for a minute or two, but then gets bored and wanders off. So, we're a bit stumped as to how to help. Perhaps I'll have to start putting her food up high so that she has to jump up to get it and then jump off. You can see that I'm getting a bit desperate for ideas!

Taking photographs

2011-02-01T07:42:00.000Z

Following a question on a previous blog, several people very kindly sent me some links and ideas to help with improving my photography skills. As there were several other people who bemoaned their own skills I thought that these links and hints might be helpful.

Etsy Sellers' Handbook http://www.etsy.com/storque/seller-handbook/etsys-guide-to-photography-10979/

http://www.hollyknott.com/stq/index.htm

Lynda.com

http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/

(From Oh Sew Busy)With photographing quilts, when I have flash trouble (not that my photographs would be able to even enter a photo contest!) I stand further back and zoom in with the flash, this way the light fromteh flash is dispersed more before it hits the quilt. Experiment. I like to lay my quilts out and then be half or a full level above them for a photograph, much easier than pegging on the clothes line!

I haven't yet had a chance to look at any of the links, as I'm starting my Open University course this week (A177 Shakespeare: an introduction) and have been busy getting things ready. So I can't vouch for the usefulness of any of these sites. I'm just passing them on as I have received them.

I hope that some of you might find this helpful.

Scraps and Stash

2011-01-30T21:11:00.000Z

(these aren't my pictures, they came from the internet)

Celia, of Quilting by Celia, asked me a very interesting question recently. What do I consider to be scraps and what do I consider to be stash?

Well, for me, stash is anything that can be sensibly folded and put on the shelf, probably nothing smaller than a fat eighth or a four inch WOF strip. Anything else is scraps, and gets cut into sizes to go into my scrap boxes. I have one and a half inch; two inch; two and a half inch; three inch; three and a half inch; and four inch boxes. Anything smaller than one and a half inches goes into the waste paper basket.

How about you?

Comments

2011-01-30T08:44:00.000Z

Today I'm going to make a real effort to reply to comments and other emails. I usually try to reply within a day or so, but recently I've just not been motivated and let them pile up; which is not very courteous to those of you who've been kind enough to comment on my blog posts. So apologies to everyone who has commented and not received a reply.

I'm always just a little envious of those people who are natural writers, witty and interesting, and who write such perfect replies to my comments. And, whilst I feel that I ought to reply to people who take the time to write comments on my blog, I never feel aggrieved with those people who don't reply to my comments; I just assume that they're far too busy doing interesting things to write about.

How do you deal with comments? And do you feel annoyed if someone doesn't reply to you?

Feet

2011-01-29T06:13:00.000Z

Yesterday I went for the second of my free lessons that came with my new Bernina. I asked for some help on using the different feet and embellishing fabric. The tutor gave me some great ideas which I'm looking forward to trying. One of the things we explored was different ways of using pintucks to embellish fabric.

All I need is time, energy and enthusiasm. I've been feeling very weary lately, which has done for both time and energy as I've been resting a lot; and as a result I've been feeling a bit down, which has not done a lot for enthusiasm, so not much sewing going on here over the last couple of weeks. What we need is a bit of warmth and sunshine, and a bit less biting cold and grey and gloomy days.

Wheeeee!

2011-01-25T19:42:00.000Z

We went to visit Number Two Son over the weekend, staying in our camper van in a campsite near Brighton Marina for two nights, and spending Friday evening with him and most of Saturday too. We had a great time; he cooked for us on Friday evening and then on Saturday we went out for lunch. But on both days we played on his Wii. It was the first time we'd had the chance to have a go and I must say it was great fun. He had Wii Sports and Wii Fit, and we went on several of the games. Truth be told I was pretty hopeless at most of them, but did manage to win one of the golf games. I was hopeless using the board and doing some balancing game, absolutely hopeless, and then of course we were laughing so much I didn't stand a chance of improving.

How was I? Well, sadly, not quite this ...

But then again, not quite this either ....

Now we're trying to find a reason to justify buying one for ourselves.

Some finishes (82)

2011-01-20T13:48:00.000Z

I'm not going to complain, really I'm not, because it's a glorious day. Temperature just above freezing, but clear blue skies and sunshine. After the gloom of the last ten days or so it's wonderful to look at some sunshine and to be able to walk in the crisp fresh air. BUT, I think I need some lessons in photography. Ive been waiting for a brighter day to take these finishes outside to photograph them, and the sun was so bright that it's washed parts of them out completely. I shall have to have another go with a little drawstring bag I made to go in our camper van to hold one of the games, Rummikub. But here they are anyway.

This was the pattern from Hugs from Helen; it was designed as a round robin to be shared with friends, but I left it too late to get organised so made it for myself and just changed the verse to read The flowers that bloom in the spring, Tra La!

This was BOM from Quiltecke and I shall certainly try to get a better photograph of this as the little embroideries are rather sweet.

I made this using the last of my blue scraps for So Scrappy's Rainbow challenge. Having just bought Tonya Ricucci's new book Word Play Quilts, I decided to have a go at some letters for the outer border. I learnt a lot! For one thing, take more notice of contrast in the fabrics; some of the letters aren't too clear.

I quilted it with a wave and boat pattern from Mindful Meanderings, a book that I won in So Scrappy's give-away last year.

Does anyone know of a good, free, site that gives tips on taking good photographs?

Finished with the blue scraps

2011-01-14T14:36:00.000Z

I've just about used up all of my blue scraps; just a few 4"+ strips left in case I need them. I used every last bit of the smaller strips up to make a file cover.

The only problem is that I now have two new tops to add to the finishing off pile, and I know I'll want to get them completely finished off before I start on next month's challenge. The pile of unfinished quilts is growing, and I really don't like it. I like to get things finished before I move on to something new.

I rushed to get these photographs done because the sun came out! I hate wishing my life away, but I do look forward to the summer when I can take some half way decent photographs again.

Singing the blues

2011-01-13T15:19:00.000Z

I've just finished my second top using up blue scraps for this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Having just enough left to make a rather small centre I decided to have a go at making some letters to go around the border, using Tonya Ricucci's new book. I enjoyed making the letters, they were more straightforward than I'd expected, but I'm not overly happy with some of my fabric choices. Some of the contrasts are too low so you can't see the letters all that well. And I've just noticed that I've put one of the borders on the wrong way round. Bother and Drat!

Australian Floods

2011-01-11T08:15:00.000Z

The girls at Among the Gum Trees are trying to put together sewing kits for the women who will have lost so much in the floods. If you would like to help out please follow this link.

It had to happen some time!

2011-01-10T15:33:00.000Z

I was happily cutting and stitching, cutting and stitching this morning, making more blue letters for my blue quilt, when OUCH!! Yes, that's right, I'd sliced across my finger with the rotary cutter. Mighty BIG ouch. Well, I held on to it for ages to stop it bleeding and then Christopher helped me bandage it up. It's given me a very good excuse to sit and do nothing much for a while (which makes Rosie very happy) and to read blogs - sorry for the very few comments, but typing this has been tricky enough.

That's my new diary behind, from the Quilt exhibition at the V & A, a lovely Christmas present from my SIL.

Hopefully I'll have some letters to show you very soon.