The top is finished

Jackie and I spent a great time together on Saturday - we went to Wallingford to go to Village Fabrics to choose something for the back of her quilt (this picture is a bit pink! must be the lights in my workroom today) this is a Northcott Textures fabric, it looks like cracked paint on woodwork.
The stencil is one I am thinking of using for the two purple borders, I am not sure yet what I will do with the lilac border round the chain - it is 2" wide so needs something on it - perhaps my lovely feathers here? Jackie wont like it though..... :-(

I have started to mark up the top. Just simple quilting will be all it gets.....I am going to fight this quilt under my sewing machine with out having complicated designs to do as well! So I am doing cross hatching on the diagonal crossings and a daisy design (from a stencil) in the large patches, the borders will have that simple chain. I have would liked to do feathers but Jackie turned her nose up at that.

As you can see I have had to lift the dining room table up a bit so that my back doesn't ache too much while doing the marking. I know I am only five foot tall but I was still bending over too much. I did all the center yesterday and have just the borders to do today......need to clear the table for the evening - I have three ladies who join me on a Monday night to sew and we find it easier to sit round the table.

I shall have all afternoon to play as 007 is out playing snooker with a mate, I can have the TV on and watch the quilting programs I have recorded from Rural TV - haven't you found it? it is on Sky (don't know if it is on cable) and is on Sunday mornings at 10am. Eleanor Burns giving hints on making different blocks from a wartime quilt.

I must go and start the day......breakfast first I think then ablutions and dressing! yes I'm in my Jammies! (not a pretty sight!)

Sad news

I have just had a phone call from a friend (one of the ladies I quilt with on a Wednesday afternoon) to say that the husband of one of our friends has been taken in to hospital with suspected Lukemia! his wife has just been diagnosed with a cancer on her kidney and is waiting to be called for an operation..........they are such a lovely couple and we have known them for nearly 50 years ......I have been in floods of tears.......this is the problem with getting old!

Quilt progress

Two of the Seminole strips for the ends of this quilt have been done, the side strips are in the process of being pinned prior to sewing.

Not long now and I will be marking up for the quilting......I have an idea what I want to do but it does depend on whether Jackie likes it - this is her quilt and she has to live with it and so far she has made all the desicions about it !....I have the cotton batting dip drying in the bath (I like to wash it before use) but before we make up the sandwich I have to buy some fabric for the backing as we didn't do that when we bought the main fabric for the top. 007 will have to find the fixings for making up the' big table' top for me - I will need it to sandwich this one! I have been managing to do the single bed quilts I have made lately, on just half the 'big table'.

(The 'big table' is the one he made to seat the whole family around for special dinner parties - it is made of two sheets of MDF with the corners rounded off and held together by brackets he made. It is supported by the diningroom table at one end and the garden table at the other. We can seat 20 round it if we need to!)

I think I am going to have to move the sewing machine down to the diningroom table to do the quilting - I just do not have the room around my machine in its present position. I will need all the support I can get too - so the ironing board will also have to go down stairs and brought into use as a table.

This may cause a few disruptions for a few days (or more) (grin!)

where do the years go?

We have just had another birthday in the family - this little lad was four on Sunday. This is James our first great grandson. Just where do all the years go?

Aimee (his Mummy) asked her Aunty Sarah if the party could be held in Sarah's garden, as she wanted to ask quite a few children and they wouldn't all fit into her little flat. The children had a whale of a time, as in this garden there is a trampoline , a climbing frame with swings, slide, climbing wall, commando net, and at the top of a ladder there is a little hut! plus Sarah put out the sand tray and loads of other toys for them to play on, in and with!

The afternoon stayed fine, warm and dry so hte party table was laid out doors and the children were able to sit on the grass on mats to eat their tea, which also ment no one had any clearing up to do - the plates were paper the cups plastic and food dropped would be cleared by the birds/ squirrels when the children had gone home.
I love the way Joshua (behind James) is also trying to blow out the candles.
This little one is Louey our second great grand child and he stayed most of the afternoon in the bubble car......he had his tea in there too! Funny how two year olds don't mix and play with the older children but play by them selves.

Emily tring hard to get Granddad to play with her - she won of course! 'playing' ment picking her up by her hands and lifting her off the ground - she then lifted her feet up and put them in her hands - My how he ached next day - she is not the light dainty thing she looks, she is quite solid! (I did get a picture of Granddad lifting her like this but thought better of putting the picture her in public as it shows too much underwear and bare body!)

James was very tired and overawed by all the attention he was getting and Aimee says that he went home and was in bed and asleep by 6pm - most unusual.

I shouldn't make plans.......

I thought I would be able to get on with the Irish chain quilt this week, but after a good start I have come to a standstill! I have all the pieces cut to make the seminole borders and was going to do them on Thursday - but I was not feeling 100%, very tired and very giddy, so I did nothing all day - I slept a lot though and yesterday I felt a lot better.

Brian though that a day away from home might help so we went to Pangbourne to the National Trust property there.......Baslidon Park. It is a place we go to a lot as it's only half an hour away down the M4 motorway. We had our lunch then went had had a look at the exhibition about the house being used for the last film of Pride and Predudice, what a lot of things they had to do to make this house look like Netherfield! and what a lot of precious NT stuff they had to move out incase the film crews damaged it......The day stayed dry and sunny and we had a walk round the gardens after looking through the house. I must say that I felt better for having a day out and feel more like my old self again today.

July already?

I have got on quite well with the Quilt for Jackie, and am very pleased with it so far. The colours don't show up very well here - the center patches are very lilac fossil fern fabric.

I have the border fabrics cut waiting for me to sew - there will be three more borders - two plain and one seminole. This is a big quilt for a big bed, bigger than this one here.

Now the weather has cooled down a bit I should be able to finish the top this week in comfort, I found my workroom just too hot last week.

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The garden seems to have liked the sun though and plants are growing fast - these tomotoes are in the greenhouse and have needed watering every evening. there are lots of little green toms but nothing ready to eat yet! I have a feeling that I will be having to find homes for them when they all ripen together! or putting a lot of them in the deepfreeze to use for soups during the winter.















Just thought you would like to see these little beauties! DH loves these and wants to know why I have never grown them before.......they are making a grand show of colour all round the garden.
I have popped them into any bare bit of ground and they are truely earing their keep.

I have just had a look at a blown up version of the Cosmos and have discovered that the Forget-me-nots that were removed to make way for them have dropped their seeds and they are germinating - plus a great big Danelion I didn't spot before taking the picture! Ah well!



The rain has come at last to this little bit of Berkshire - not as much as I would have liked - I might still have to water the garden with the hosepipe again this evening but at least the temperature is down from the 32c degrees we had to a much more comfortable 19c.

So many plants came into flower last week just to be cooked to a frazzle in the heat - the poor Clemetis just didn't stand a chance! poppies have gone like baked brown paper and if you touch them they just crumble.........I am losing plants with the heat now, but during the winter I lost things to the cold - the two big pots of Agapantha I have had for nearly 20 years, have both succumed to the freezing temperatures, as have the Madonna Lily and the dahlias, for years they have been fine left out over winter.
One beneift from the freeze is that there don't seem to be quite so many slugs around - I read somewhere that their eggs die in very cold winters. Hooray! perhaps the hosta will be happier!