Where did this week go?

What a week! I seem to have been rushing like one of my headless chickens and gettin nowhere fast! It's offficial, the dishwasher is no more! We have had to bite the bullet and buy a new one, it should be with us about the 18th, so until then we are washing up after each meal. No violins though, there are only the two of us and it doesn't take forever!  I became a quilt teacher twice this week! Wednesday at Busy Fingers, I took all my stuff again and they squared and layered their block and SID with invisible thread to disguise any mistakes! Everyone seemed really pleased with what they had done so I was glad. Then Thursday morning Christine called by on her way back home after the school run to find out the mysteries of fusable web applique! I knew when I had tried to explain it to her that she thought it would be really difficult. Of course when she came and saw how easy it was, the possibilities started fizzing in her brain, by the time I had got down to her house to put the embroidery foot on my Janome, which she has on a long term let, she had revised some of her designs!!

I managed to sneak a photo of her work in progress to show what it will be like

I think it will be fabulous, I have seen the fabrics she intends to use for the animals and tractor. They have a red tractor at their farm so she is going to use bright red fabric to make it on the mat! The sun's rays are to be cut smaller, but left loose as 'taggies' and she is planning to put some padding, beads and squeakers in different animals to increase the texture, in between the 'fields' she has sewn a grey flap to resemble the stone walls we have here. It also adds some texture. She is going to blanket stitch around each applique to add even more texture, its going to be great.

10 weeks and counting

I was going to call this 'the sad demise of a loved family member' but thought perhaps a bit too strong to describe the dishwasher going on strike! As Paul said, it's 20 yrs old it doesn't owe us anything! Still hopefully the nice dishwasher mender man will cheer it up and make it work again. I just love the company name they are called Domestic Rescue! Isn't that appropriate? Although our area is spectacularly beautiful and is officially described as An Area of Outstanding Beauty, the downside is it's remote and getting specialist supplies, eg quilting stuff, and repair men is not always easy. Hopefully, weather permitting he will come tuesday afternoon and we wont have to wash up any more!

This  is the view over the garden gate! Today! Snow again, it's now 10 weeks we have had lying snow and I must admit the novelty is wearing thin. These are for you Pat as I know you like our scenery.

A view from the back door, the hilltop at the back is the highest point in County Durham, England. The snow is slowly going but each time we have a melt and the field at the front reappears, we have more snow and it goes again. The shetland ponies who live there are really fed up, the other day they even resorted to eating my currant hedge!

Now to more momentous things! I managed to photograph my D9P blocks!! I hope they come out ok. I have one leaf of my cutting table up and have laid them out on that and they nearly cover it. I think I have nearly enough for a lap quilt once I add borders!!!. I have got the bug though, so yesterday spent some time cutting more squares. It might even end up big enough for a bed!! Which when you consider they are all scraps from other quilts and elderly FQ's from my stash with no new bought fabric is really 'green'. Confession is good for the soul, so I will admit I did buy some fabric at the quilt shop. I needed some sashing and borders for my Christmas Rework, and some for the Four Seasons Sew Along from Paula Stoddard's blog.

Although in my defence I will add that I have found some red toile I bought in 2004 which will do nicely for the current  Love Is redwork she is posting.

Christmas Redwork

fabric for seasons redwork quilt

Toile from my stash for Love Is redwork. 

Now I have worked out the photos thing I will show you what I am handquilting but another day!!! Off to wade through snow  and look for rabbits with my mad springer Barney!!

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!!