Celebrations (70)

Hooray, we have a Wimbledon Champion! Laura Robson, aged 14, won the Wimbledon Junior Girls Championship this afternoon - hopefully a (very rare) star in the making for British tennis.

And if you follow this link, you can see a picture of Lynne Edwards, who many of you might know from her quilting books, receiving an MBE from Prince Charles.

Getting ready for our few days away (69)

I'm writing this while waiting to have my hair cut. I absolutely hate going to the hairdressers and have been really lucky to find someone who will come to the house - at the moment she's cutting DH's hair and will then get down to mine. For years I've had it really short, spiky short and towards the end of last year thought that I'd grow it, just for a change. However,  I'm reaching the point of total frustration with it, and am ready to give in and get it cut short again. I'll let you know later what my hairdresser decides!

We had another viewing this morning, so the house is super tidy - I do hope someone decides to buy it soon and we can go back to being normal. But at least, I don't have much to do before we leave tomorrow. As we're only going for a few days I don't need to pack much. I'm a very light traveller, unlike DH, who tends to take his entire wardrobe.

Bath is a wonderful city and I'm really looking forward to visiting it again. If you're interested in a sneak preview, here's a virtual tour of the city for you to look at.

Bath virtual tour

PS - We settled on a compromise - it's much shorter at the front and on top than it was, but not as short as it used to be. And it feels so much better.

A Sewing Day (68)

I've had one of those rare days where I was able to settle down in front of my sewing machine and just keep going, no interruptions, no phone calls, no domestic jobs. I stitched the top for my niece's quillow this morning. We have booked a few days in Bath (in Somerset) next week and I realised I'd better get a bit of a wiggle on or I'll never get it finished for her birthday on the 27th. It's a pretty basic pattern, 9 inch pinwheels alternated with plain blocks, so it went together pretty quickly. It's a good opportunity to use some fun focus fabric in the plain blocks too.

This afternoon I completed the cushion/pocket, though not without its own little drama. Having read Amy's enthusiastic account of her machine quilting I thought I'd use some of the stitches available on my new machine and do the same. However, in my usual way, I went off half-cocked and didn't bother to baste it first - it was stitched together round the sides for pete's sake, and it's only little, so what was the need! Well, of course, I didn't check as I was going and then, when I'd finished, I realised that it had gone wrong, not laying flat, all bunched up in places. I cursed a bit (only a little bit, honest) and then set to unpicking the whole lot. Two hours later and it was done. It's difficult to see here, but I've used several different cat fabrics for the pocket.

I spent an hour or so this evening hand quilting it with big stitch embroidery and tying. Then Rosie gave it her seal of approval, so that's okay.

I mentioned earlier in this posting that we are going to Bath next week. We haven't been there for over three years now, and it's a beautiful city. We're going to look round the area a bit more, with a view to moving in that direction (we hope) and also have a break. We've not planned a holiday this year, because of our potential move, so will settle for a few days here and there. We've booked into Pratt's Hotel, right in the city centre, and I will of course take my camera and laptop and try to keep blogging and posting pictures of Bath.

Naughty purchases (67)

Having had yet another visit to the dentist yesterday, to have a broken tooth rebuilt, I think I've seen enough of my dentist - sympathetic and kind though he is - to last me for some months now.

Today I went to Hobbycraft to get some wadding, and ended up buying some fabric too, and some cute cat buttons (they're the quite unrecognisable thing in the middle of the picture) for my niece's quillow that I'm about to make. Well, they were having a half price sale for their fat quarters, which worked out at about £4 per metre. Now, I imagine that sounds like a lot to all you Americans, but take it from me, for the UK that's pretty cheap.  Don't you just love those colours. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, so it was rather a naughty purchase, but I'm sure I'll think of something in due course.

I also managed to get up to date with Bea at Capricorn's BOM. They're very cute stitcheries, and will make a lovely quilt for my sewing/craft room/study when we move. 

We haven't had any firm nibbles from Saturday's open day, but are still hopeful and have three more people coming to view tomorrow. We had a couple of very silly offers, people just trying it on because of the difficulties in the housing market. The weather forecast isn't too good, which is a shame because houses and gardens always look so much better in good weather (and it's better for Wimbledon too), but we shall just keep our fingers crossed.

Enlarged Stone the Crows (66)

Thanks to Amy for pointing out that it wasn't possible to enlarge the picture of my Stone the Crows quilt. I've changed it for a larger picture, so the words should be legible now. It seems to take you into Picasa if you click on it, but that will have to do for now! I'm off to watch last night's episode of Dr Who again. It was an absolute corker, well worth a second viewing.

Wedding Anniversary (66)

The Coach and Horses

The Bell

The White Hart

Yesterday was our 29th Wedding Anniversary. We don't usually make a big fuss, but since we had the Open Morning for about six prospective purchasers we decided to leave the estate agents to it and go out for the day. DH wanted to run with his old running club in the morning, as they had some special event, so I went for a stroll round East Grinstead, the town nearest to the village where we used to live. It was fascinating to see what had stayed the same and what had changed. Luckily, our favourite cafe, in the book shop, was still there, so after buying a book from a charity shop I was able to stop in there for a cup of peppermint tea.

After I collected DH we went to look at some campervans, but only saw one that we liked. We were visiting a place that converted VW vans and most of them were too small. We don't want anything too large, but I would like to have our own toilet and shower. 

Then, it was on to Godstone for lunch. Godstone is a village close to where I used to teach and although it is on the main London to Brighton road is still very 'villagey'. We had lunch in the Coach and Horses, a pub that dates back to the 15th century. There are two other pubs in the village - The Bell which dates from around 1393 and The White Horse which dates from the reign of Richard II, who died in 1400. I imagine the reason that such a small village has three pubs is because it was always on the 'main' road from the South coast to London. 

After lunch we watched some cricket on the village green (how English is that?) - but I still don't understand the rules so had no idea what was going on really, apart from one chap throwing the ball at another chap who tried to hit it and loads of other chaps standing around trying to catch it.

I did a little sewing when we got home, and managed to put the borders on to my Stone the Crows quilt. I'm planning to give this to my old school. In the original all four lettered borders face in, so that the bottom one would be upside down. I decided to put it the correct way up so that the children could read it. Now of course, it's not clear which direction you should read. So, I've got to decide whether to leave it or whether to change it. You might be able to see what I mean if you enlarge the picture.

Today - well, first of all many congratulations to Candace on her 44th wedding anniversary today. And then, I think I'll take the plunge and pin my Strawberry Crush and start quilting that. I'll keep it simple I think (a) because it will be my first piece of quilting with the new machine (b) because it will be my first 'real' bit of free motion quilting and (c) because it's a pretty busy quilt already. 

TLC (65)

First job today - a little TLC for my sewing machine. After sewing so much wadding together yesterday it needs to be thoroughly cleaned and oiled and needs a new needle. I also need to change the blade on my rotary cutter. It was getting blunt and cutting all the wadding just about finished it off, so I need to change it and send the old one off to be sharpened. My cutting board was in such a state afterwards that I took it in to the shower with me to wash it! Nowhere else big enough. I fear that I'm going to have to buy a new one soon though - how long is one supposed to last do you think? I've only had mine for about nine months.