5.00pm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.