Busy Bees

Things have been happening in our house over the weekend!

I showed 007 a 'family home' for house sparrows in the garden center during the week, with a veiw to buying one - 'not paying that for a few bits of wood' say's he! I can make one if you want one!

So make it he did, in the shade, in the garden, yesterday! It still needs finishing with a bit of roofing felt and some varnish, then it will be a 'des res' for three house sparrow families. ( Apparently they like to live next door to each other but in separate compartments. ) Clever lad - now where do we put it? under the tree on the fence ? (cats?) on the shed wall? not enough room between that and the greenhouse for them to fly out! on the house wall? that means climbing a high ladder? .........

While he was doing all this I sat in the cool of my sewing room and produced these.......yes! I have started Jackies quilt and using Eleanor Burns methods of 'assembly line' sewing these 32 blocks went together so quickly. This afternoon I will sew the next blocks, then I will be ready for sewing them altogether tomorrow. Jackie will be suprised at how much I have done - she has been away all weekend and borrowed my car to go to see her husband in Alton.......she will bring it back later today then needs to collect hers from her daughter Aimee.

Must go and do the h****w**k before it gets too hot.........22c already and its only 9:30 am.

Here we go again

We had a lovely week away with the caravan and have been home now over a week, such a busy week that I haven't had time to post on here!! Sorry!
We couldn't have chosen better for our week on the South Coast, the weather was lovely, my sister was in good fettle and so was I. Here is a photo of her with her daughter, granddaughter and 007 in her daughter Jayne's garden. Ella is one of the babies born in the summer of 2005 when I had three babies to make quilts for. Jayne and her partner Adam have been in this house for about six months and this is the first visit I had there - I was impressed with it for a bungalow (most properties in Peacehave are bungalows) it was very spacious.

We had a visitor during the day on most days while staying in Peacehaven - she had got away from the other 30 odd chickens in their run and was not going to be caught and put back there - no sir! She would come in through the door or under the van into the awning , she seemed to like company and would stay for quite a while efore wandering off. It almost seems that she came to say good bye to us and was sad to see us go, I thought she was going to come up the steps into the van at one time but she didn't.

We had a good trip home and managed to park OK, this is the one bugbear to our outings - parking on the drive! we have a guy who parks his lorry opposite, so we try to time our home comings to coincide with his coming and goings - this time we were unlucky! but he did oblige us and moved his lorry.......apparently the credit crunch has hit his job and he had no work last week! so he has been 'in the way' all day every day!

We had a problem with the van while we were away - no water coming through the kitchen tap! Ok in the bathroom.......so we managed. When having a look at the tap, once we were home, we found that it was broken and the micro switch was not working. We trailed over to the caravan supplies people at Three Mile Cross and bought a new tap - what a performance that was! the sink had to come out so that the pipes were accessible - putting it back was difficult - it has a seal that goes round the underside of the sink edge and would it stay in place while I fitted it all around - no it wouldn 't! - it took me nearly an hour to replace the sink. I would get it on one side and it would fall off on the other side etc. etc. etc.


Fathers day saw most of the family come here - such a lovely sunny day that we spent it in the garden - I managed to catch these three together in the kitchen - they wanted drinks and Charlotte was going to make them for Joshua and Emily.
We went over to Kevin and Sarah's after all the others had left us - she makes the most delicious scones and we had tea over there.

As I said at the begining, I have had one very busy week - on Friday 19th I took three other ladies in the car to the quilt show at Sandown - it was a good show this year, but not as many suppliers as usual, lots of lovely quilts (I didn't get to see them all) some showcasing particular quilters like Pam Bono and Joyce Dawe and Pam and Nicky Lintott. we then all went out for an 'Early bird' meal at the Harvester with our husbands and I think I finally got home about 10 pm.

Saturday I took my lace pillow and was driven by a friend to Wantage where we made lace all day with about 100 other like minded ladies. Relaxing in a way but I was very tired by the end of the day.

I meet up with 6 other ladies on a Wednesday afternoon and we sit and sew together - we take turns in the entertaining - and the ladies house we went to this week had a birthday so we had arranged to go out for the day on Thursday. We drove to Hugendon Manor in Buckinghamshire (about 45 mins away). This is NT propert and was the home of Benjamin Disraeli so we didn't have to pay to go in as we are all members. We were very lucky to have arrived when we did as a guided tour of the house was just about to start and there was room for us on it. The Guide was very knowledgable and enthusiatic about his subject and could answer any question thrown at him.

The quilts that I was making have been finished and given to Joshua and Emily, they were very well received and apparently Joshua insisted on having his as his only covering that night, but the night was a little cooler than it has been and so he ended up with his duvet on top as well.....when I gave Emily her quilt she sat on the sofa with it and stroked the bears faces and then lay down on it and went to sleep..... I think they like them.

Yes I have started another quilt - for my eldest daughter Jackie - she has asked for a purple with purple and lavender Double Irish Chain. So far I have made 32 twentyfive patch blocks for the chains and today I will cut fabric for the other squares which are mostly background fabric.
Pictures will follow when it gets more interesting.

Quilt finished - well almost

This afternoon I finished the quilting on the teddy Bear quilt - the binding is on and I now have to sew that down and make a label. Can't show you a 'finished' picture yet - the camera battery is on charge.......and I will wait till the binding is on.

I must get this one finished because I have some material to make a quilt for my elderst daughter Jackie....all in purple fosil ferns and in the Elenor Burns manner of 'Double Irish Chain ' (but not quilt in a day - that's imposible!). Jackie chose these colours because they are favourites and the design becuase it's not 'fussy'! This will be a Queen size as she has a big bed and wants it to 'drape' Jackies words - not mine!

Then there is the challenge to 'do something with this fabric' that my friend who moved to Selsey has sent me. That will have to be on hold for a while I think.

We are taking the caravan down to Peacehaven for a week so that I can see my sister. We haven't told her we are coming or she will indulge in a frenzy of cleaning and I don't want her to do that and tire herself out. We are off on Thursday, but first I have a group of ladies here tomorrow afternoon - we meet in each others houses and many quilt, but others knit or do embroidery. They are a great group but the chatter does make me tired by the end of the afternoon.
I have packed my clothes into the van already (and 007 did his own this afternoon) so there is just the perishable food to store away and we will be off on Thirsday as soon as we are ready.
I must remeber to ask Jackie to come in and water the tomatoes in the green house !

What all the trouble were for!

This little hedge is what all the trouble with our phones was about - 007 cut through the cable with the spade. The cable was just under the surface of the grass/weeds and not in a protective covering!

As 007 was mowing ours and next doors grass most of the time he thought a little hedge would mean that he only had to mow our little bit - as he is getting older mowing becomes harder! The shrubs are box and we will allow it to grow to about 2 foot - may be three - we will see.

I also thought you would like to see the philadelphous (sp?) I though it looked like a star - most of the year it is a shaggy mess of a bush then suddenly in June it is beautiful and smells superb. Really worth putting up with the untidyness the reat of the year.

yesterday in the garden

This little lad is growing up so quickly and I don't get to see him very much - only when his Granny, my eldest daughter Jackie brings him to see me. He was so proud of the fact that he was wearing his brother Rio's (not my GGS) Chelsea kit - he kept telling me, and he knew it was 'Chelsea' too.

I have managed to plant out some of my seedlings - wasn't sure how far apart to plant them so they are about 6" apart. Hope they grow and don't get eaten by the slugs! I have resported to slug pellets.........

The heatwave

I took advantage of all the lovely weather and stripped all the bedding from the bed yesterday morning and had two blankets and one quilt on the line by 10am........the blankets have dried so soft and fluffy - we had a fair amount of wind as well as the heat so that helped. Sheets and pillow cases are laundered on a weekly basis but these other items are only done when I deem it neccessary.
Being dried out in the air they smell so nice, I do have a tumble drier but it is very old (20 years old?) and is rarely used.

We had some visitors during the morning - my eldest daughter came with her grandson Louie to see Grandad and Gran-Gran. He is getting so tall, even at 2 and a bit he can reach onto counters in the kitchen to get his juice cup down - but then I suppose that is inevitable as Daddy (grandson Terry) is over 6 foot. We had all the garden toys out of the shed as Jackie had brought her little charge Sophie as well and, of course, they both wanted to play with the same thing at the same time.......fortunately Gran-Gran has toys that are very similar - two bikes, two trucks, two bounce on balls etc (these have been gathered over the years from car boots and charity shops and free give aways). The 'toy' they played with most? the garden lounger swing - Louie got very possesive with 'my seat' and made sure that if you got up, you sat in the same place again when you sat down! I sat his end of the swing and was told off for doing so and made to move. We all managed to sit on the swing and then played See Saw Marjorie Daw.........an old favourite!

I haven't see Terry since he had his foot plastered and am wondering how he is coping with it in this heat.

I am going to try and plant the cosmos and asters that I grew from Saga's free seeds, they are big enough now to plant out. I have already been and prepared the bed they are going into this morning - got out htere early - already too hot but I am determined to plant them. Tell you late if I acheived my goal.