Lucky, Lucky!!!

Firstly, I am lucky to have been able to go off on a 'jolly'

as my husband calls it, to go and stay with great friends

and meet wonderful quilters/bloggers in London at the V&A,

(and to sit in the open air quaffing coffee and chatting about blogs and quilt stuff
- as well as posing in front of beautiful bottoms!!)

Now, however, I am firmly back in Yorkshire and reality

and have the furniture polish and rain to prove it!

Secondly, I am very lucky to have been given some wonderful gifts

from those bloggy/quilty friends...

(not to mention all the 'Mummy' treats found on the guest bed 

from my wonderful hosts! Thanks E & P!)

**********

Kate, very kindly made 'baby-kalico' a little quilt.

I love it! The colours are not baby like at all,

and it's just such a fun quilt. The design, border fabric,

backing fabric etc are just super-cool.

 (Look at those fingers ;oD )

 (And the evil eyes LOL)

(DH loves sushi so the backing fabric is an excellent choice!)

Thanks Kate!

Vicki, also very kindly brought me some of her gorgeous handmade soaps (Ok, I asked directly for those!, but how could I not, they are wonderful!) and some of her amazing dyed fabrics.

 Vicki has an Etsy shop with many more delectables for sale.

But these ones are MINE!! Thanks Vicki!
Hope to see you girls again soon!!!

A Good Day at the V&A

Wednesday I met two lovely bloggy friends at the V&A Museum in London.

We had arranged to meet in the main foyer, but the main entrance was closed as they were putting up an amazing entrance display. Silly me, I sat and waited in the wrong foyer, but soon sorted it out (once I'd caught my breath LOL)

While we waited for the '3rd Musketeer' who needed to arrive later. Vicki and I wandered around the Arts & Crafts display and stumbled upon these poor squashed, yet exquisite brass instuments...

This William Morris Textile design was a highlight for me in the Arts & Crafts section:

Once we were 3, and had explored the very interesting 'Art of Making' exhibition, we spent a long time in the courtyard drinking coffee and chatting.

Then we wandered around the bookshop:

What a great selection,... some people couldn't resist tempation ;o)

Another pitstop needed to be made at the gift shop!

For a hat girl like me, I loved this display....

All in all a great day out. Thanks Vicki and Kate!

Not a single shop!

We have just returned from a wonderful, yet exhausting, trip to London, surely one of the greatest shopping capitals of the world :-) and I wasn't 'allowed' in a single shop! Considering this restriction, I have returned with quite a haul! I was incredibly touched at friends remembering how 'patchworky' I am.

First up, we stayed with amazing friends who really were the most welcoming, generous and incredible hosts to DH, myself and two noisy, messy, very excited little boys. They directed us to the sights (i.e. how to get to the Aquarium, local parks and coffee shops etc...), they put on meals, provided stunning accommodation and just basically made us feel so at home. This is really something when you are travelling with two very small boys who mess their food, put sticky handprints everywhere and wake up very noisily at sparrow's fart.



Our hosts had a BBQ on the Sunday and one of DH's friends came bearing a plastic carrier bag. He said that he had remembered me admiring his shirt once (for chopping up and patchworking LOL) and so here it was!



I was gobsmacked, how cool is that? Thanks Mark, I am really touched.

When I delivered the wedding quilt (pictured on the fence in the last post) Helen gave me some fabrics she'd bought for me on a trip to India (some time ago).



Aren't they gorgeous..? Thank you Helen (hope you and Kieran enjoy your quilt).



Then I finally met Kate!



We have been trying to meet for ages, but something always seems to come up (for me!). Anyway we had a grand day out first at the Natural History Museum viewing dinosaurs and mammals and then at the most amazing park with a pirate ship (and great ice creams!)

DS1 enjoyed the mammals with Sarah,




But sadly, DS2 slept through it! (all that running around and the scary dinosaurs LOL)

Kate and her lovely family were such fun and spoilt the boys with a shark for DS1 and a dinosaur for DS2. Both toys have been very popular! Kate gave me this absolutely lovely 'Africat' mini



and a tie-dye t-shirt which came in most handy on the last day as I'd not packed enough clothing for myself LOL.



Thanks Kate.

Sadly, my camera stopped working while we were away so I have had to find an old camera to take some photos of the contents of my suitcase which included another wonderful cotton shirt from our host and some fabric from our hostess some of which will be made into a bag for her, some cool beads and a wheat-free recipe book.


Thanks Paul & Emma, we had a great time!!

And look what else was on the camera! 2 pictures from 2006!!



He was 8 days old! And here he is with his BlockBuddy's quilt.



Doesn't the time just fly!!!

"Where are the friends?"

Today I had the great pleasure of meeting Anne (a fellow blogger and friend) and her lovely family. They stopped in on their way home and it was just so wonderful to put a 'face to a name' and to get on as well as we do 'online'.

We had a lovely visit, but becasue DS1 had missed their arrival because he'd been at nursery and had been a bit confused at their departure he came up the stairs later and said "where are the friends?" So although he hadn't been that social, I think he had enjoyed the visitors as much as I did!

DS2 was a lot more social...



Here we are braving a few raindrops for a photo op with my very generous gift from Anne


I was so delighted with this beautiful quilt.


I had seen Anne making it on her blog and just loved it. I joked that I hoped it was for me, and it was!!! I have been stroking it and you know when people say it looks better in real life, well it does. Much, much better! The colours work so well together and I love all the different fabrics and the beautful applique. I pinned it to our curtains for the photo and liked it hanging up so much that it's still up in the lounge at the moment and I'm enjoying it immensely. Thank you so much Anne!


I made Anne this very little sewing caddy gift seen in a past issue of Popular Patchwork magazine.
The front...

And inside

(the reflection is off a tiny chocolate bar)


Although today (and most of the weekend) has been rainy, Friday was glorious so we went to Underley farm in Kirkby Lonsdale to "pick your own" strawberries...


DH does the picking...


DS1 does the quality control (with friend)


And the children enjoy the swings and play area...


I had hoped to bake Anne a pie, but settled for chocolate brownies and fruit cake as the strawberries and most of the gooseberries managed to mysteriously disappear :-)

The swap exchange

Firstly thank you to Cathi who sent me these yummy scrummy and delicious rose prints for my hexagon project that I do when I'm home in South Africa. They are delectable and shall all be put to good use. Thanks Cathi!



Here's me trying to find time to photograph them in the birthday aftermath of boxes...



I've managed to make a few swap blocks for the BlockBuddySwaps Focus fabric swap. The focus fabric being the 'Forest Fire' batik... Here is 'The Dandy' (all blocks in this swap are from Quilterscache)



And here is my adapted version of 'Patience corners'...