Bullions and Bamburgh (part1)

My first bullion stitch bee!

I decided to decorate some stuffed hearts

with embroidered roses

I tried a few different techniques

and then I remembered that I had a book on Bullion stitch,

so I tried some bullion stitch roses.... these were my first ones....

And then I changed needles, thread strand quantity etc. 

until I found a way to get them to work for me.

These were before I added the green leaves.

*****

And now on to some of our holiday snaps

We rented our friend's gorgeous holiday home 

in Bamburgh, Northumberland.

This entailed lovely day trips

with lots of walking.

Rockpooling and walking

on this day...

to Dunstanburgh Castle.

Of course I had forgotten our National Trust passes in the car

which was seriously too far to walk back for! so we

didn't explore the ruins, but just had a quick look around.

The walk back takes you to the little harbour village of Craster

where smoked kippers are a local speciality.

The smoked kipper restaurant was closed, but the pub opposite,

The Jolly Fisherman was still serving lunch and what a lunch!

Highly recommended!!!

We sampled the fish cakes and some of us shared the Fish Board

all very yummy.

***

Another day trip took us to Alnwick Castle

where some of Downton Abbey was filmed.

Besides a nosey around the castle including a display of 

some of the Downton costumes etc (no photos allowed!!)

There was loads for the children to do.

One little person found the dressing up worthy of another trip!

Pure ecstasy!

So I have come home 

with grand plans to make Miss-Kalico a 

Princess outfit.

Plans! No action as yet!

Did I say there was loads for the kids to do?

Well there was including Harry potter Broomstick training

and Master (Middle) Kalico

also enjoyed the dressing up

and games and activities...

A great day out (and holiday week) was had by all!

Wordless... What Day Is It?

I have  missed a few Wordless Wednesdays...

Actually I have missed so many blogging days...

Work...

3 kids...

Grief...

I am not on top of it all...

BUT I am OK!

I have several completed quilts to photograph,

 but the weather is not up to much at the moment....

A shame as it's the school holidays...

*****

I have been doing the odd customer quilt.

This one is VERY Vintage.

A few holes, 

quite a bit of repair,

what a story it could tell....

It's going to be fabulous when it's finished as it has a white backing 

and is being quilted with 'Wildflowers' in white thread...

It has been quite a job though

as it has very thick seams on the edges requiring quite a few needle changes

*****

Outside my studio window,

I get glimpses while I quilt

of the lovely roses planted by the previous owner of our home... 

What do they say?

"Plant a garden if you believe in the future".

A wonderful legacy to leave behind...

And I love seeing the roses through the window at night.

My Mother's garden was always wonderful.... 

She would have loved these roses. I do miss her so much.

*****

As I work, I can only quilt in the evenings these days...

On my trusty Longarm...

But I do enjoy it and it gives me a chance to think...

The studio cat comes and shouts to get in.

She is not permitted a cat flap

as she is an amazing mouser and she is still

 trying to teach us her wicked ways

by bringing in live mice to kill. 

We are not ready for that yet!

*****

I still enjoy baking although I have almost given up baking gluten-free.

Once I started losing a bit of weight by cutting out sugar,

I decided to no longer lead myself into temptation.

Although I did buy a cute button mould 

and I love to make chocolate buttons to decorate my cakes.

This one was for one of the designers at work.

I can see clearly now...

...the glasses are gone!

On the 16th of April, I decided to undergo LAZIK laser eye surgery. Wow!

The worst part was walking from the waiting room into the surgery, but 25 years of glasses and contact lenses are now a thing of the past so it was worth managing those few steps.

It was an 'interesting' operation and one that took a while to get my head around, but my surgeon made me feel very comfortable and had it not been for his soothing voice and quiet confidence I may still be wearing those dratted spectacles! So thank you Dr M!

(ps these South African succulents are called Desert Roses and they look better without glasses LOL)

You know I love roses...

So if you're ever in the Karoo in South Africa, stop in for a cuppa out of the rosiest teacups I've ever seen...

Take two!

Roses on hexagons.... (for a rose hexagon quilt)



I decided that I actually quite liked the idea of roses embroidered on hexagons that weren't rosy enough so I tried a few more...



They're not quite as perfect as I'd like them to be, but they are such fun to stitch that I might have a new addiction...

Pincushion perfection!

Thank you Caryn for my wonderful pincushion parcel received yesterday (in the hugest box ever LOL).



Caryn was my secret swap partner and she excelled herself in the pincushion stakes!!
Look at this beautiful pear!



Now how am I supposed to stick pins in this??!!!



But that wasn't all, Caryn also made me this yummy pincushion...


Good enough to eat! I love the little seed beads all over it. Gorgeous!

Still that wasn't all, Caryn had been lurking on my blog (as I had done on my partner's blog) and sent me these wonderful rose fabrics for my hexagon rose project.


They are super.

Thanks also to Linda who hosted this well-organised swap. I enjoyed both sending and receiving as well as meeting fun new to me bloggers!

Busy, busy, busy

On Friday I made another New York Beauty.
here is E4:


I started another A2, only this time I printed it out the right size! But on Saturday I thought I'd better make my step 2 of Bonnie's Orange Crush mystery quilt. I finished these split 4 patches on Sunday
they still need trimming etc. I had to do them the old fashioned way as I still haven't had a chance (or robbed a bank LOL) to buy the Easy Angle and now the Companion Angle rulers needed for this project.
The Quilting Pirate bought her ruler for $2.50 and then another for 97 cents!!!. I can't seem to find one in the UK for cheaper than around $18 including postage.

I also made DS1 a new schoolbag with a zip pouch in the front to carry his 'to and fro' book.
I used some shark fabric that Kate had sent me a while back.

The 'to and fro' book is a really sweet book that the teacher writes in to let us know what he gets up to at Nursery.

The back is also shark fabric that I bought from my friend Angela who has an Ebay shop.

DS1 loves sharks (hope he doesn't mind the rick-rack LOL)

And here's a lovely parcel from Nicolette.

We did a private fabric swap. Nicolette sent me rose fabric and I sent her some African fabrics. We were both pleased with this swap. I got sweets too mmm! And inspiration for another project.
Thanks Nicolette, these fabrics will go beautifully in my rose hexagon quilt...




On the side I have also been handquilting DS1's baby quilt. A lot overdue, but here it is.
Only two blocks and the borders still to go....