I forgot ...

I forgot ... that it was me who needed to write the blog! No-one has commented on my lack of an entry, but apologies for the delay!

Trying to think back to last Tuesday is a struggle for the brain cells at the moment, Tuesday is a distant memory. I was hoping the photos would work as prompts. but I seem to have misplaced them between Tuesday and today. Amanda & Janet were able to join me for a simple lunch of baked potato, fillings and salad. Janet is making lovely progress with her Farmer's Wife blocks, all sewn on her featherweight. Amanda was preparing for a workshop - a very busy lady!

Above is a recent photo of the puppy (now 13 weeks old), who is preventing me from doing any sewing at all at the moment! She is adorable - but time consuming. Molly (seen with her in the photo) has been very patient and puts up with being pounced on and chewed upon at regular intervals.

I am unable to get to the next couple of Tuesdays but hopefully the hostesses will do better with the blog than I!

Birthdays

Today was a special day in our house, it was the Honorary Tuesday Girl's birthday, so as she was at Uni for just the morning we were having a special lunch, also on the previous Saturday it had been Chris' birthday too.

Alison was the first to arrive having driven up from Hampshire, bring with her Apple Spiced Muffins to have with our morning tea, followed by Amanda.  Unfortunately, Chris had to work in the morning, but would arrive in time for lunch, bring with her, by special request of the Birthday Girl, her Border Collie puppy Berry.  Caroline was not with us, as she is looking after her parents-in-law.

This was the first time for a few weeks that the four of us have managed to be together, so there was quite a bit of catching up to do.

Alison was hand quilting her Washed and Worn Quilt, Amanda was calculating the fabric she need for some blinds for her new home and I was finishing some cross stitch.

For lunch we had Lasagne (requested by the Birthday Girl) with Ciabatta bread and salad, followed by a chocolate cake from a recipe from Lorraine Pascal book Baking Made Easy, it was very nice. We had two rounds of 'Happy Birthday and blowing out of candles, more tea and chatting, and it was time for everyone to make their way home.

I apologise for the lack of photos, I had forgotten to take them by lunch time.  

     

Just a note

Just a quick note to let you know what we have been up to this week. I'm afraid there are no photos as there were only a few of us - this maybe the case over the next couple of weeks.

Caroline was unable to come and may not be able to make the next few weeks as she is looking after her parents-in-law.

Alison had other plans.

Chris popped in for an hour with her puppy Berry. Our cats, Pippa and Fizz were curious over the little bundle of black and white fur.

After Chris left, Amanda arrived in time for lunch, jacket potato with tuna and salad, with apple crumble and ice cream for dessert.

After lunch, Amanda was cutting our templates for a mini workshop at Guildford Quilters.

I was making more Farmer's Wife blocks or rather I was unpicking and re-sewing a block which seemed to take all afternoon!

Postcard from Normandy

Hi All,

We are having a lovely time. A very nice cottage.  The weather is beyond belief.

We went to the medieval town of Dinan on Thursday to see the market and stopped at the gardens of Chateau La Ballue, which we had to ourselves.

Friday we went up the west coast towards Granville. Andrew took photos of  Mont-Saint-Michel, and then onwards to Coutances to a quilting shop!! We stopped at Chateau de Gratot on our way back.

Today we went up the other side of the coast towards Barfleur, and then followed the coast road down to Utah Beach and Sainte-Mere-Eglise.

Tomorrow we are going to Mont-Saint-Michel.

So far I have finished one book and complete the cross stitch I have working for ages.

See you all soon.

Janet

Quilts, A New Home and A Holiday

Well, today was certainly a challenge as I had a myriad of things to achieve.. and one of them was to get my sense of direction oriented.  Amanda was hosting today's get-together, but as she is literally still moving in to her new house, I said I would complete the blog as she is without internet etc.. due to a hiccup with BT.  Janet has gone on holiday to France (such beautiful weather to have too) and Chris was arriving later due to work commitments.

My first task was to find where she had moved to.... I thought I had the correct address (having left it on my cutting table!!!), so I phoned her, being unable to find the house and no, I was one road to soon!  LOL  Having found where I should be, I then unpacked my bits and pieces and discovered I was the first to arrive.  Two cuppas and a wonderful piece of chocolate cake later, Alison arrived...

with a huge potted plant for Amanda (house warming gift),  amidst a flurry of activity outside (dustmen, Sky engineer etc...) but soon, we were settled to some quilting activities.   More tea and some lovely little meringue confections from, I think, Brittany, were also served.

Show and Tell was rewarding as Alison had her Christmas 'block of the month' quilt top almost completed... we all had differing opinions on the colours we liked on the quilt, but it is still a really jolly example of Christmas - looking at it also brought home the fact that the season of cheer is not too far off now. HELP! 

 I had almost completed a black and white (disappearing 9 patch) quilt for an acquaintance.  This has involved  the purchasing of 27 different fat quarters over about 14months and finally cutting out the 6" squares whilst we were on holiday; I had so little work last week, I was able to machine them into the 9 patch blocks, re-cut and then stitch them together in a matter of days ( a miracle in itself).  So, with machine at the ready, I was able to complete some of the quilting at Amanda's. 

In the mean time Amanda was working on her own project... no photos as I was so engrossed in mine, I forgot to photograph hers!  Apologies to you Amanda.

 Alison began to sew some more of her Farmer's wife blocks and by this time, Chris had arrived, showing us a rather nice blue and yellow charm square top which her mum had begun and given to her.  We then looked at a lovely selection of 'leaders and enders' blocks which we played around with for positoning, as she had cut both triangles and rectangles.  We came up with some reasonable ideas which Chris is now considering.  (At this point my camera ran out of power!!!! So the rest of the photos are on my phone which needs an adapter card to put in my computer... so watch this space for them, please!)  All now updated!

 

Lunch was served... a really tasty spicy pumpkin soup with Tiger bread (no recipe as it was from our local Co-op due to Amanda's hectic moving in schedule!).  Desert was a choice of yogurts.. very yummy and of course more tea!  We chattered about many different topics during the day, ranging from my diet, children with sight 'problems' to moving home, (very topical) and plumbers.. which I was about to dash home for as I received a text to say he was coming earlier than 'anticipated'.  SO.... once lunch was over, I had to leave... after another little meringue and of course, a mug of Tea!  I think we all achieved at least a few elements of our current projects, whilst putting the world to 'rights' and getting small issues 'off our chests'! LOL...

Until next time dear reader...!!!!!

Christmas in September

Today would be slightly different as Alison, Amanda, Caroline and Chris were coming to do a mini workshop. I had made a Christmas quilt sample for Needle and Thread using the Basic Grey range of fabric called Jovial, (which  can be seen in a post in July), and they thought they would like to make quilts using the same pattern.  Caroline and Amanda were using the Jovial range,  Chris was using a range by Kate Spain called the 12 Days of Christmas and Alison would be making a scrappy version.

Amanda arrived first followed shortly by Alison and Chris, Caroline would be a little late as she had an earlier appointment.

As usual we started with tea and  banana and chocolate muffins from Alison and then were quickly down to cutting fabric. 

By lunchtime, most of the cutting was done and the sewing had begun.

For lunch we had chicken and bacon lasagne from Amanda with salad from Caroline. For dessert we had cider crumble slice with creme fraiche from Janet - this was a recipe from the Caked Crusader's blog. 

Chris left soon after lunch, Alison, Amanda and Caroline continued on not even stopping for tea and cakes, they just ate, drank and sewed!!  With our tea we had cupcakes from Stephanie (honorary Tuesday girl for the day) and caramel crisp and flapjack mini bites from Chris.

By 4 30pm Alison Amanda and Caroline were finished for the day having made lots of trees. Alison and Amanda had made over 20 each and Caroline a few less.  In a e-mail, Chris told us she had continued at home and had made 20 trees.

A very productive day, watch this space for the finished quilts!

And as usual a great day with great company.

No more salad

It would be lovely to write of the blue skies of Summer but they seem to be hiding behind the clouds. Watching the weather forecast on Sunday evening it was obvious that Tuesday would not be a day for salads; time to think about soups and casseroles instead.

Poor Alison had a slow drive through rain to reach us and Caroline texted from The Lake District that they were "surveying the Langdale Pikes in gale force winds" before deciding to visit Lakeland Plastics instead! I hope the weather improves for the remainder of her holiday!

We had no specific plans for the day's sewing so all did our own thing as we caught up on our lives. Amanda is preparing to move house and soon she'll be living just around the corner, handy for coffee and the shop! Janet is thinking about her forthcoming holiday. Alison is collecting jam jars as she will be doing more preserving from the garden in the coming weeks. I was sharing photos of our forthcoming puppy.

Alison is hand quilting - beautiful blues and greens in this quilt - not much more to stitch

Janet continued preparing the next few blocks from The Farmer's Wife quilt

Amanda cut and prepared hexagons

I managed a few rows of knitting

Next week, we have plans ... you'll have to come back to see!