Sunshine and sewing

The weather has brightened here and we finally have some sun! and blue skies!!


It means that driving kids to school etc is a real treat...

And little little children can come along for walks in the sunshine past fields of cows...

And beautiful brambles...



To Becks where they can play with watering cans and water the plants :-)



And crazy Grandma's can spoil them with very early birthday presents of garden trampolines (reminiscent of animal cages LOL)

On the very neglected sewing front, I have finished my first Stitcher's Angel project.


My partner likes pink. I am not really a pink girl (unless it's pink roses of course!) so I have struggled a bit, but I hope my secret partner will like it.

I have quickly whizzed up a sock sack using an old sheet and some machine appliqued sock shapes. I was so tired of odd socks lying around!


It now lives in the laundry room and according to my DMIL contains 15 odd socks! Oh dear!!


And I finally got to the PO and mailed 2 very belated birthday cards and one of these blocks to Kate for our African Blockswap.


It's a simple Ula Lenz star block, but because I haven't paper-pieced for a while it took a bit to get back into a rhythm. Hope you'll forgive me Kate for such a simple block after your lovely one ;-)

The start of something new

My biggest little boy started Reception today. I am not accustomed to the UK schooling system. I went to school in South Africa. There the term starts in January. You start off in Sub A (now I'm telling my age because apparently it's now called Class or Grade 1!! Boy, am I old LOL)

Some other little boys wish they also went to school with their brother...

Anyway, it means he's at school all day (until 3.30pm) *sniff*. I guess I'll have no excuse keeping the house clean now :-)

Lookie here...

Come on in and see what's inside...



Dad has almost finished the new kitchen...



He just needs to paint the walls, put in the splashbacks, do the flooring, put in the plinth thingy-majiggies, and some other stuff Mum is clueless about.... then he can rest :-) (for a bit LOL)

Harrogate 2009

Today I visited the Great North Quilt Show in Harrogate.

Some photos from the show... in no particular order...

Well, let's get this out the way LOL. My purchases...

Mostly much needed thread, needles, much desired Tilda ribbon and fabric and a cute Melly & Me pattern... oh! And another rose FQ just because and from the same stand some cute braid..

Here's one of the corridors at the end of the day...

Some of the quilts:
Love the shirtings used in this one and the quilting was very cute...

For fans of Spiderman...

Loved the scrappy QST's in this one...

I would love to try one of these bags (especially the first one...)

These were very cute...

Scrappy heaven :-)

Such a fun quilt (buttons for mouths...)

I took this feather drawing workshop with Lilian Hedley - it was very cool...

This crazy quilter pieced these squares over one inch papers - It was gorgeous!

So pretty...

Classics! One day... *sigh*

And that concludes my brief tour of the show :-)

I had a great day out. Met a lovely friend for some of it, came home with some nice loot and all in all made up for not being able to go last year...

Let it rain...

.. I don't care anymore. I mean the relentless almost daily rain or scattered showers, or 'white cloud' or whatever they call it to describe our pitiful weather... gets you down after a while, especially when it's supposed to be summer, but then the sun breaks through for a moment when you are driving over the moors and you see nature's colours...

Then you know why you live in this rainy place. And you know if you can still see the beauty in most anything, you're going to be ok.

Secrets, swaps and 'summer' holidays

It's still school holidays here so there is not much sewing going on....

This is the only quilty pic!! My eldest (almost 5) loves taking photos and my youngest (almost 3) loves monkeying around in them...

It's my scrapbuster on our bed...

As we are not going away for any of the holidays, we are doing 'stuff' locally. So off we went to Tropical World in Leeds. We started off in jumpers, but by the time we were halfway through we were sweating!

The place is HOT! I guess there's a clue in Tropical? LOL

More butterflies...

I am definitely bringing my Mom here, she is always complaining it's cold in England (and there were Meerkats here too in a South African desert recreation...

Then we had a trip to the Butterfly House (are you sensing a theme here LOL) in Williamson Park in Lancaster

It also has a mini-beast section with various revolting little critters like hissing cockroaches etc... And a gorgeous flower section and aviary...

An added bonus is the playground with stunning views to Morecambe Bay on one side and the memorial on the other...

On the drive home we saw a hot air balloon. We stayed to watch it get itself out of the trees...

The boys had been watching Peppa Pig and the littlest guy remembered the song when they were in a balloon. Something like "big balloon, big balloon, bigger than the sun and moon..." (Remember to hold the note on 'moo' so it sounds like 'moo oo oon' LOL)

Then the only vaguely warm day we had saw us head off to Morecambe Bay again for some sandcastle building...

DH said that he didn't recall ever going to the beach when it was that overcast as a kid. As a South African, I can safely say, I never went to the beach when it was that overcast as a kid, because, hey, the sun shines in Africa in summer!!!! We are still waiting for summer to arrive here! The poor kids wanted water for their moats, but there was only mud LOL

All sewing related stuff is now top secret as I have joined, not one, not two, but 3 swaps...
I've started work on this one (top secret)


I also signed up for Chookyblue's Sectet Santa Swap. Last year Sharon from Red Geranium Cottage was my partner and I adore the bag that she made for me.

Then, I'm not sure what came over me, but I also signed up for the 2009 Advent swap and this sounds fun. I have Ailsa as my partner and we will be sending each other 24 little gifties and one big gift for Christmas. I had better get sewing!!!

I'll stick to sewing

Bouyed by the finish of my Berry Crush, I decided to resume the hand quilting on my BQL Ostrich Quilt from 2006.




I just do a few stitches here and there, but it's very relaxing so hopefully it will get finished sometime (this year if all goes well...)

The bees and butterflies are still enjoying the last of the Buddleia's flowers...

Even our humble weeds are an attraction to this butterfly :-)

And here is a photo of my gardening mastery, cough cough, sigh. Clearly not the green fingered sort, I have managed, no thanks to all the endless rain we've had, to produce about 5 red strawberries. Luckily they are tasty, but not enough to make any jam.

I'll spare you a tomato photo! I had so hoped, I'd be swamped with tomatoes and be able to make chutney, but alas I haven't got any that are edible yet ;-(

Guess, I'll have to stick to sewing LOL

Phew! One down...

... A phew! more to go LOL

I have finished my Red Berry Crush a.k.a. Bonnie's Orange Crush Mystery Quilt.


Designed By Bonnie Hunter @ Quiltville


Pieced By Moi

Quilted By Chris @ Father's Heart



Bound By Moi

Helped and kept company whilst hand stitching the binding by DS2...
(or as my mother calls him 'Dennis...' I'm sure you can guess the rest LOL)

(He wasn't fussed the binding wasn't on, he just wanted to be under it, or stroking it - too cute!)

And hopefully loved by all our guests (as it will live on the guest bed when we have a guest bedroom, where we currently have the old kitchen...)

Here's a photo of machining the binding on...



She's a big girl LOL. (She's approx. 82.5" x 94" )

Girl's day out

LOVE my kids, but almost a whole day without them! Bliss!


The day started with my friend Vicky coming over so that we could all go in my car. We loaded my kids and Vicky's quilt tops and drove to Grandma's house. We piled kids, bags, lunchboxes etc out and headed off to Chris, the lovely longarmer. (Grandma a.k.a. Crazy Grandma and Grumps, meanwhile took the kids on a day out to see the birds at Harewood House). I collected my Orange Crush (now ready for binding...)




I chose a swirl and feather design and am very pleased with the quilting. I also chose a Moda backing which I think is very cute. Now I just need to bind it...

Then we wandered around Salts Mill looking at the David Hockney's, the lovely book shop, stunning cook shop... This was thirsty work and we ended up lunching in a nearby cafe/winebar called 'Don't tell Titus'. I later heard that Titus Salt, the founder of Salts Mill did not approve of alcohol licensing in the area, hence 'don't tell Titus'. However, you can tell as we only had Lattes!

Sorry no photos - I forgot my camera, but we hope to do it again!!!!

Over the summer Chris is very busy so she is unable to do DS1's quilt until after his birthday. So I have pieced some wadding and am thinking to attempt it by myself. Life is a bit too short for getting on my hands and knees, killing my cranky joints and basting this quilt on the floor so we'll see how I get on.

And I have had a brainwave on DS2's quilt. I bought this row of Mickey Mouse panels in South Africa to make him a school bag and some place mats for the new kitchen, but think if I do a scrappy border around them it could look quite cute... Love the colours for a little boy - all those yukky greens LOL

My Mom came to the rescue and after a few texts to and fro, went out and bought me a few more rows which she will mail to me so I may just manage the quilt, the bag and the place mats (and hopefully before he grows out of Mickey Mouse LOL)


The Raeburn was moved this week...

There she goes....

Now what?

Actually, she's in. She just needs to be plumbed/connected or whatever they do... but she's in!! One step closer to that kitchen :-)

This week, I also received a block from Kate for our African block swap. We have decided to do 6" blocks from now on so that we can in theory be working on our borders.

This is a cute block and love the idea of a star border...

Thanks Kate. Now it's my turn.