Here goes, hold on to your hat!

Well I have found some photos on my computer so I will attempt to put them up here, so you  can see where I live and the sort of things I do.! I have already confessed to my computer status so I don't hold out a lot of hope that it will work!!
This is the view from my front door. When we said we were moving here, 350 miles from family and friends 'down south' everyone thought we were mad. My mum really feared for my sanity when I told her I was moving to the main Trans Penine A road, A roads down south are very busy. When she came to visit she stood in the middle of the road to take a photo of the house and I said," Mum, your standing in the middle of the main road!" She just laughed and said," But it's not a real one" It does mean that even in bad weather it's always ploughed and gritted and we can always get the car out!

This was taken in early May from the house looking down the garden, behind the fence on the side is the chicken run and what will eventually be the veg patch. Spring comes late and Winter comes early here, the growing season is very short and because we are 1400ft above sea level there is nearly always a breeze and the air feels fresh. However we are plagued by midges from June to September, they come out about 6pm and make barbecues and evening gardening impossible. One of my neighbours wears full bee keeping gear to garden when they're here!! On a hot or windy day it's ok but otherwise it can be torture.

Here is 'Shrimpy's Mat' at the design stage! Shrimpy is the nickname my daughter gave her bump while she was pregnant but when the baby arrived she called her Daisy. Both my daughter and partner are beach lovers and keen surfers, so a sea theme for the nursery was always on the cards. They took the motifs from the bedding and frieze around the room and we cut them out and juggled on the background until they found an arrangement they liked. They have such touching faith in my sewing ability! I had never done any thing like this before so it was a very steep learning curve indeed.
Here is the finished mat, before it was backed and quilted. I fusable web appliqued most of the motifs, some like the cloud had added wadding to make them puffy, I put squeakers in the sandcastles and added taggies around the sun. My daughter researched online and found a round mirror shape with bevelled edges which we velcro-ed onto the sun background so we could take it off easily if it wasn't safe. I backed it with 4oz poly wadding as she has laminate floors and we didn't want bumped heads. I used table protector for the backing as it has a rubberised side which we thought would be good on damp grass to keep the baby dry and could be wiped clean easily if it got muddy. This one was called Beside the Seaside. I made a sister one with the same background fabrics but with an underwater theme called Under the Sea for Poppy, granddaughter number 2. I hope you like them and now I know how to  put pictures on I will show you my current projects another day.

Tired but successful

    my girls in better days

 It snowed most of the morning but didn't really add a great deal more to the overnight accumulation thank goodness. I was a good girl and cut some more strips and squares for the D9P blocks, last night was the first for ages that I had to finish off something before I went to bed! I had some blocks partly completed in the morning and had to get them sewn before I could sleep.
My poor hens look so fed up! The garden is covered in snow again and there is no grass for them, the wildlife is suffering I am even beginning to feel sorry for the rabbits! Although when the snow finally goes and I discover how much of my garden they have eaten I will probably not feel so philanthropic!
The 'girls' are so disenchanted with the snow they refused to come out of the house this morning and I had to throw their bread inside! Yesterday I had 4 eggs but today there were only 2; now either they are on strike or they are hiding them again!! I wandered round the garden looking in all their favourite hiding places from last year but all I found was snow! I wonder if they will appear when the snow melts.
Our quilt shop visit was most successful, Christine found just what she needed for the borders and for the red tractor and I managed to get some brilliant fabric for my 2 redwork projects. Thoroughly pleased with ourselves we set off for home. Only to remember when it was too late to turn back, as the shop was closed, that we should have got some heat'nbond!!!!!! This wouldn't be so frustrating if it wasn't for the fact that we don't live near fabric shops, this quilt shop is our nearest and its 45 miles away and closed on mondays! Fortunately I have known the owner since I moved here 9 years ago and she is very kind, if I phone on tuesday I know she will put some in the post  for me, although she doesn't really do mail order. So with luck we should have it by the end of the week, in the meantime Christine is going to make her animal patterns to trace onto the fusable web when we get it. Despite confusing ourselves over how to piece the curved sky I did remember to tell Christine to reverse her drawings for the fusable web or everything will be looking the wrong way!!
As I write this the cat Oscar has ousted our springer Barney from his place in front of the log burner! They made us laugh yesterday as they were lying side by side like bookends, the cat was even lying like a dog with his head on his paws!

quilt shop

This is a stolen quickie!! I am supposed to be relaying the fire in our log burner! I can understand why the Inuit have more than 50 words for snow! Last night's dump is very wet and looks like candyfloss on the trees and bushes, very pretty! Hopefully as it is very wet it will melt quickly. This afternoon I am off to the quilt shop about 45 miles away with my friend to choose fabric for her Farm playmat, and sashing and borders for my redwork! Last night I finished 8 more d9p blocks ( thanks for that Pat) I have laid them out on the cutting table and they are beginning to look like a very pretty scrap lap quilt!!More later if I can work out how to put more pictures on here.

the lull before the storm or my sewing room is tidy so now I need to sew!

I found a really easy and clever way to make vanishing 9 patch blocks on one of the blogs I have been reading! It just sew happens I have a number of scrap 5" squares from various other quilts already on the sewing table. I have been wondering what to do with them ! So later today I plan to play and see if I can follow the tutorial and make some blocks, if it works then I will cut some on puppose and make a watch me grow quilt!!! That is an unplanned serendipity quilt that just sort of happens. With luck I will use up quite a lot of my scrap pile!! then the draws might actually close but dont hold your breath! It means I have to find the blog and the tutorial because I am not clevr at bookmarking things! I just hope I can get back so that I can thank the kind lady who posted the tutorial!!
The lull is that we are waiting for the next 'dump' of snow!! We are due more winter over the next 3 days and today has that 'it's coming' feeling although at the moment its quite bright. I am off to walk the poor dog so he can have his breakfast, before the weather closes down>>

long time no speak!!

It feels a while since I last chatted and so much has happened! We managed to get down to Surrey to visit Samantha and the children despite Paul being quite poorly the weekend before we were to travel. Fortunately we think it was just a 24hr job and he managed to drive all the way. We had a really lovely week, many hugs and cuddles and bonus was Paul's eating and energy levels seemed to go up a gear!
I took some redwork but didnt actually get to do any as I was too busy playing and cuddling small people.
We had a brilliant visit to my baby sister Nicola, she put on a splendid spread and the whole family was there, Gary came home from work for lunch so he didnt miss out and Barry also managed to be there. Its so unusual for us all to be in the same place at the same time, only Ben was missing sadly but it would have been impossible for him to got there as well!
Now we are back home and its snowing again, just by way of a change!! Hopefully I will get some serious sewing done this week, I have some redwork to finish and some scrap blocks to zip together, I must start to dip into to the stash. Having read some very inspirational blogs I realise |I am being very lazy and un creative at the moment. I think if I can get my creative juices flowing again I will start to feel less miserable!! February is a little late for New Year's Resolutions but hey better late than never! I have so much fabric I should be able to make at least one scrap quilt!!