Stash!

OK - so QuiltSue has given us a challenge to show our stash as others have done.  I have several boxes and a couple of shelves in wall cupboards full of fabric! quite neatly I think.  I do know where everything is if I need something in a hurry.  I am not opening those cupboards - although they are tidy they are full and stuff may well fall out if I open them!

DH made the shelves the boxes sit on and hung the cupboards that house so many lovely goodies.  You can also see some of my collection of quilting and other craft books.  In the blue icecream tubs my threads are stored according to colour or type - i.e. white or cream, light coloured, dark coloured sewing threads, then the quilting threads then the fancy ones and embroidery rayon .  In the plastic boxes the fabrics are stored by colour - nothing bigger than half a meter! the large peices of fabrics are in the cupboards.  Then the baskets contain UFO's (well some of them)

Lace days and gardening

On Saturday I spent the day with my lace making friends - I am still working on the table cloth edging that I started over 3 years ago! I am nearly at the third corner - so it should only be another year or so before I finish :-))

Yesterday I spent in the garden cutting back over grown bushes and the dead heads from the Hollyhocks and red hot pokers.  I have potted up some of my white/blush pink geraniums but still have more to do - these will over winter in my spare bedroom.

I thought I would do some more sewing on the double Irish chain quilt but everything has gone wrong - I got threads caught up and the stitching went funny - so I unpicked! then the bobbin ran out and I hadn't any wound, so had stop to wind bobbins, then I didn't get the bobbin case back in properly and the machine jammed! I don't know whether to try again this afternoon or leave it till tomorrow and start afreash then. I have a lot still to do on this large quilt but I  hopr that it will be finished by the end of October.  Keep your fingers crossed for me that everything goes right tomorrow.

This and that

Since the last posting I have been away on holiday to Cornwall - we went to Bude - why haven't we found this place before? - when the children were small?.  The beach is marvellous - sandy, with a surrounding of rocks, the children would have loved fishing in the rock pools, making sandcastles and playing in the sea there.  Lots of other things to do in the town  too, some lovely individual shops lots of cafes (well you would expect that) a museum, a library and a couple of supermarkets. There is also a canal (the only canal with a sea lock - now unused) but the tow path is lovely for  walks.

This is the place we stayed in.  A place called Burn Park, and a Seasons timeshare property.  I ment to take photos of inside but never got around to it...we will certainly go there again - they staff were so friendly and the place so smart and comfortable.  The little houses were set around courtyards and arranged so that no one was overlooked.  There were several of these little courtyard complexes and they were all were a bit different.  We found lots of lovely things to do in the area but I think that one will remain in my memory for a long time.  We were making our way to Hartland Abbey to see the gardens and house there, we like to take the most awkward routes - the ones through all the back lanes, with only the room for one car at a time, when I spotted a garden sign, one of those red rose signs that indicates something of interest in the area.  We were a long way from our orignial destination but thought we would have a look at this before going on.  What a gem we found - it was an old mill, with all the right sort of water channels and river and acres and acres of densly planted gardens.....wild wood land, orchard, veggie garden, propogating area and the best borders I have seen for a long while, and then little secret places with a bench by some water so you could rest and admire the flowers and views. - |Marvelous!  Unfortunatly the mill itself is not working and looks as though a lot of money needs spending on it but you could see it all from outside and inside.  Oh - yes! and there was a an area outside the house, attached to the mill, to sit under a pergola with clemetis, passion flowers and other sweetly scented flowers climbing over it, and have something to eat and drink - we had our one and only cream tea of the holiday there - homemade scones clotted cream and home made strawberry jam.  Yummy!                                                                                                      

We were up early enough to catch the sunrise on Tuesday morning - what a sight! I just had to share it with you!

Since we come home we have been very busy tryng to get the garden tidy and things done before this lovely spell of weather breaks and we are in to autumn proper. Brian has repaired the grouting between the paving on the patio, I have cleaned the greenhouse out and disposed of the detrius that collects  in there. Washed flower pots and stacked away those I wasn't going to use this year now.  I potted up into bigger pots the seedling echinacea that will be over wintered in pots and planted out in the spring once the bulbs have flowered and gone over.  These were the seeds that came free from the SAGA magazine this spring, the other seeds have given me a wonderful display of Cosmos and Asters all summer.  hopefully we will have some seeds for next year from these plants.   This was what they looked like in July, but they have grown twice as tall and the flowers have kept coming and coming.

a bit of catching up

I have at last finished the quilt I have been making for the last ......years! It is a pattern from Paula Doyle and started in a workshop with her to try Dawn Cameron Dick's method of Invisible machine applique.  I was not very successful with it and finished the applique in my own fashion.

These are the tomatoes we have picked so far this week! lots were eaten by the hungry hoards at the weekend family  barbeque at my youngest daughter Sarah's house on Bank holiday Monday.  Those in the right hand bowl are those picked this morning.  We have had such a glut that I have frozen loads for to use for making soup during the winter. 

Bottom draw of the freezer is nearly full of tomatoes!

These are the things that I either bought or had given to me during my visit to the FoQ last month. I bought 4 yards of cream on cream for the back ground fabric for some material given me by a friend - she told me to make something with this! Not sure what to do yet but I have 'Jacobs Ladder' in my mind, but some of the fabrics are so strong in design that I am not sure yet!

 I found a great pattern by Lesley Brankin to use Japanese patchwork to make a Kimono quilt.  I needed some more of those clever pens by Clover that give you a white line on dark fabric and I needed to know how to care for an old quilt for a swimming friend of DH.  Then I was sent, via a friend, some patterns from Amy Butler, with a lovely message from her.  I attended her lecture last year at FoQ and recommended her to a friend, who did a workshop with her this year!   Then I re-newed two magazine subscriptions and recieved jelly rolls as a thankyou gift, I reckon that my subscription to those magazines was more than halved by the jelly rolls, and some threads from aurofill.

While we were staying in our caravan in Coleshill.  DH and I thought we would go and look at Coventry Cathederal again.  We had last seen it when it had just been opened to the public and was very new!  We were disappointed that the 'New Cathederal' was looking very shabby!  the stones were and windows and metal work were very dingy!  Some of the displays we had seen years ago of holograms were not to be seen anywhere! The beautiful Graham Sutherland tapestry is fading due to the sunlight coming through some of the windows.  All in all a very big disappointment.  On the other hand the Old Cathederal was very moving......there were lots of plaques of commemoration and there are services held in the sancutary every month.  

We had a great day on Bank Holiday Monday - daughter Sarah did a barbeque for the whole of the family and these three monkeys had a great time - here they are at the top of the climbing frame eating home made ice pops!

I have brought my sewing machine down to the dining room table - and with the ironing table as well, to help support it, I am attemtpting to quilt Jackies quilt!  The chairs are there to help stop the quilt from falling to far off the table!!

   

As you can see from this picture, I have done cross hatching down the 'chains' but there are now a lot of ends to sew in!  I tried  one of the designs I have drawn in the plain patches but I think I will take them out again - not sure if I like the thread I used on them. I think that the sewing machine might be on the table for some weeks - given my progress this week!

I have not been feeling well - had a dreadful cough, nothing else! and have been feeling very tired because of it!  We go away for a weeks holiday to Bude in Cornwall in a week or so amd I am not taking this quilt with me! I thought I would be far enough along with the quilting to be able to put the binding on, but I don't now  think I will be! 

quick update

Margaret is over her Op for Kidney cancer - they didn't do the 'key hole 'surgery they had thought they would do as they kidney was worse than they thought! So the poor girl has a scar all round her side and back. things didn't go as planned either - she got a chest infection nad had fluid on the lung so was put back into intensive care after being on the ward for a couple of days.
She therefor spent more time in hospital than expected. She has been home now about 5 days and is doing well - she is very upbeat about things and is coping well while her sister is with her.

Jim's funeral is planned for Friday and after that she will be on her own.......we will see how she copes - but her friends are all around and she only has to call and one of us will be with her....

I came home from Birmingham Ok but have since gone down with a cough - nothing else just a debilitating cough! and therefore am very tired (think I must be allergic to Bracknell or perhaps all the Birch trees round here!). Don't feel like doing anything much but I did manage to sandwich Jackies quilt yesterday - took me all day doing it in short bursts.........good job I bought another 100 pins as I have used them and the 200 I already have!

I bought one or two things at the show but have not taken photos - yet....perhaps I will tomorrow........then you can see whats new in my cupboard.

Sad News

Jim, my friend Margaret's husband has lost his battle with Lukemia - he was only ill for a short time and died yesterday afternoon. Margaret had her son and her sister with her at the hospital. They are such a small family, just the one son, one sister and no grandchildren. Margaret has decided that she will go ahead with the planned operation to remove her cancerous kidney tomorrow, while her son makes all the funeral arrangements. She should be in hospital about four days and should be Ok in about a week. I just feel so sad.........we have known them about 50 years and they were such a close couple, she is going to feel very lost for some time to come..........

gifts - or flower sitting!

A little while ago a friend of my eldest daughter asked me to 'baby sit' some orchids for her.

She has a house in France that she only lives in part of the year, other wise she lives with her sister or my Jackie or her boy friend.

She works for a florist (when she is not being an animal aunt and living with them) in Windsor. She 'rescued' 5 orchids from being put in the skip after they had been collected from a display in a 'prestigeous' place. There were no flowers on these plants and the florist didn't want them any more. So into the bin they were going! Sue asked me if I would mind looking after them for her - I had 3 while her sister had 2 - when she came with Jackie the other day to see the quilt top I am making, I showed her the orchids - she couldn't believe how beautiful they were and how many blooms.... she said she may bring me more as they are always throwing them out when they have finished flowering and that she doesn't want the plants back because she is sure she would kill them.