Too early! (92)

Well, it's about 4.45 am here in the UK and I can't sleep, so I've been catching up with all the blogs, adding the Wylde Woman award and adding Linda's Bag and Bucket Swap to my sidebar. It's taken me ages to get these two on because I couldn't work out how to 'grab' the pictures. My Mac doesn't have a right click, but No 1 son reminded me how to do it.

It's pouring with rain - again - here. It's so strange reading about the searing heat some of you are having to contend with and knowing that we shall be lucky if the temperature rises above 23 degrees this week (that's 74 fahrenheit). I'm not complaining, though, as I always remind myself that this is the reason that England is so wonderfully lush and green.

I've been doing all the usual things this week - keeping the house tidy for potential viewers (2), hospital visits (2), shopping (too much, too boring) and sewing. No sewing finished enough to show pictures though. I'm sure I'll be getting loads of hand sewing done during the Olympic games, so I'll post some pictures soon.

Can I ask for your help for a new blog friend, Tracy. She has just started a new blog, Flower Pebble, and is gamely adding entries even though she has somehow lost the Add a Comment button. Does anyone have any ideas as to how she can get it back? 

I do hate to post without any pictures, so here's another one of my two wonderful boys at our picnic last week.

Well, since I'm still not sleepy, I'm going to switch on the television and see if I can find any Olympics.

Candace is 100!! (90)

Candace, at WraggedyPatches has reached 100 posts and is having a give-away. The prize is still a mystery, so have a look at her blog and sign up quickly. She puts me to shame - she started her blog after mine and has reached 100 before me. I just haven't been blogging much lately, but need to pull my socks up and get down to it.

Joy and Jubilation !! (44)

Please imagine me throwing my hat into the air and shouting hurrah! Yes, the black and white quilt - from now on to be known as The Scarlet and The Black - is finally finished. I stitched on the bindings and handstitched them down this afternoon, and THAT'S IT!! This was only the second proper quilt that I ever started - and the third that I've finished, and I am chuffed to bits with it. 

So now, what next? There's a huge quilt shaped hole in my life now that needs to be filled. One of DH's nieces has a birthday coming up at the beginning of June, she's at university so I think a quillow would be a really useful gift for her. And not too arduous for me to make in a short time, especially if I tie it or do big-stitch quilting. 

It's been an odd couple of days. Yesterday I visited a homeopathic doctor. The GP can't seem to get to the bottom of my health problems (not that he wouldn't like to try, but he has no time and no money to do many tests) so we thought we'd start looking at alternative medicine. It's going to cost an arm and a leg I fear, but I want to know that I've tried everything. I spent an hour and a half with him, going through every aspect of my present and past health - and nearly 60 year's worth of health is an awful lot. I came away with a forest of paper to read and questionnaires to fill in, a load of blood tests to get done and some other tests to be arranged. Let's hope something comes of it.

Then today, I went to the dentist to get 'measured up' for a couple of new crowns and a bridge. I'm going to run out of arms and legs at this rate! After that, we went to visit my mother-in-law in hospital. She seemed reasonably bright, all things considered. They've removed a whole load of fluid from around her heart, and need to drain off more fluid from her lungs, so she is likely to be stuck in hospital for several more days yet. Poor thing, she can't get about without help and gets very frustrated and bored and unhappy being away from home. We'll probably visit again in a couple of days.

Thank you to everyone who gave me some suggestions on where to go to get some help with Blogger. If anyone needs help here are the addresses:

www.splitdecisionz.com

www.bloggingbasics101.com

http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com

And finally, here's a picture of my new kitchen curtains. Please try only to look at the curtains and not the rest of the clutter.

Signature (43)

Well, this seems to work. Rather a showy colour I fear, but one of my favourites. Thank you Tanya for the help on doing this.

(40)

I can't believe I've reached 40 posts already. It's been such fun to write - much more fun that writing a diary ever was - and I've met so many kind and friendly people through blogging. It takes quite a bit of time, but since I wake at about 5.15 every morning I spend a happy hour or two reading through all the blogs and writing my own then.

Yesterday DH had to spend most of the day visiting hospital. His mother was taken in unexpectedly with heart problems. She has been unwell with various cancers over the last few years so we just have to wait for test results to see if it's rearing its ugly head again. She has had several operations and now is unable to walk, but has never been anything other than cheerful and gritty, so I just hope that she improves soon. DH ended up driving his father to the hospital since his car was out of action, and he stayed with him whilst all the tests were done. There wasn't much point me going with him today, but will go with him to visit next week.

I ended up watching a film in the afternoon!! Most unusual for me to watch television during the day, but I was fidgety and couldn't settle. I did do some embroidery while watching though. The film was 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' which I have never seen. So dated, but Marilyn Monroe was electric. Poor Jane Russell, she didn't stand a chance when she was on screen with Marilyn. 

I finished my little primitive embroidery and got it 'framed'; I'm really pleased with it and think it will look good with the other two when I get them done. I didn't touch my black and white quilt, but will make an effort today. I was going to cut the corners out, so that it hangs on the bed better, but think that will be a bridge too far, so will just finish the quilting, get it bound and washed on ON THE BED!! Then I can think about my next big project.

Google Reader (30)

Thanks to Candace, I spent some time yesterday working out how to use Google Reader. I was a bit disappointed at first, because I couldn't seem to see the original blogs, but I've worked that out now and I'm really happy with the way it works. It's going to give me much more time to really look at some of the features on the blogs. People work so hard to add content and make them attractive, that it has seemed a shame to rush through them. 

Unfortunately, we didn't get down to Brighton to visit number two son on Monday, as I wasn't feeling too well. 

So, I'm making sure to get lots of rest this week so that we can get down to see him on Friday. It's not difficult to rest when the weather is like this - there's nothing better than to sit in the shade in the garden and read or hand sew. I did manage a bit of quilting. I've been using a small scrap quilt to practice my free motion machine quilting. I must say, it isn't as easy as it looks in the few videos I've seen! I started to get a bit smoother and more accurate towards the end but I have a couple of problems - which may be down to me or to my machine.

Firstly, the machine kept 'jumping' when it came to the seams. Secondly, I found it really difficult to co-ordinate my hands and feet, so the stitches were often either too long or too short. Any help would be welcome.

Isn't this azalea beautiful? DH has a real knack with keeping them and always manages to bring them indoors at just the right time. This one's about ten years old now and never fails.

Thank You (23)

There are so many kind and generous people out there. I would like to thank those of you who have read my blogs and responded to my queries with help and advice. It is much appreciated and it's lovely to know that you are out there somewhere. I am beginning to make sense of Bloglines, but am not there yet I fear - I always thought I was pretty computer-savvy, but I'm not so sure at the moment.

I'm keen to pick your brains again. I have a terrific GP (doctor) who has been very helpful over the years I have known him, and I would like to make him a small wallhanging for his office to thank him. I bought some super blocks on eBay and now need to decide what to do with them. The patches are 4" square and I have 10 of each. Any ideas?

Blogging (21)

I've been wondering how other people go about reading blogs. I belong to just the one webring - Mystery Quilters - and that takes me the best part of an hour to get through, so how people belong to more than one ring  mystifies me. I tend to wake at about 5am, so that is a good time to go through the ring, reading the new posts and making comments on some. It's almost a relief when someone hasn't posted anything new! No, of course I don't mean that, as I have so enjoyed reading other people's blogs and learning a little about their lives - especially America, where so many things are still very different from the UK.

I've decided to be a party-pooper and not join in on the 'tagging' and 'round-robin' type of fun that seems to go on between bloggers. I don't really understand how they work, or what the point is, though I can see that many bloggers get a lot of fun out of them. Also I don't want to risk passing them on to other people who are reluctant to join in. Sorry folks, I don't want to spoil the fun, but there it is.

On Wednesday

 I felt really well in the morning, so got out in the garden to set up my mini-greenhouse and planted some seeds - tomato, radish, cut-and-come-again lettuce and some cottage garden flowers. Luckily, I decided it was still a bit chilly outside and bought most indoors, leaving just the radish seed tray outside. As you can see, the wind got up yesterday and blew the darn thing over! 

Ah well, that's life. I've also made a good start on OC Step 2 - I've made the pieced triangles, so just have to stitch them to the solid triangles. I had run out of light scraps so all the triangles are made from the same material, and there's not a lot of variation in the dark squares and triangles either. Then, while 

I was resting yesterday afternoon, I managed to get Number 2 finished on the Mr Men sampler. So, on target there. Drat! Having uploaded the image I've spotted a mistake - can you see where I've gone wrong with the lettering. Do you think I can get away with it, or do I need to unpick it and do it again?