Wednesday, February 28

Morning surprise!



WOO -HOO! DH found this in the hen house this morning. Our first egg!


It was the tiniest egg I've ever seen, but the best. We shared it for lunch, scrambled on wholemeal toast with some salad fresh from the greenhouse ( back in october we planted rocket, endive, assorted lettuces, beetroot and turnip for a winter supply of baby leaves).

Spring is coming!

Tuesday, February 27

WIP Wednesday 28th February

Work continues on my 9patch (and it is a patch now - the striped blocks I showed last week have all been unpicked and transformed).



This particular block is very special - my first 9patch. I ditched my stainless steel 12inch ruler and bought a shiny new 6 by 24 inch omnigrip one and read a book about rotary cutting - and the difference is remarkable. These all fitted together like clockwork.




I'm less happy with the third fabric and am calling it the 'ugly one'.

February sunshine



The warmth of late February sunshine always surprises. Yesterday I lingered all day in the herb garden - raking away the old leaves, cutting back and dividing. And preparing the ground for this year's sowings.




I found this sleepy fellow hiding amongst old leaves.




And this new vista.



Some people have asked what I do with driftwood. I have grand plans of a driftwood-framed mirror, and lately of a driftwood summerhouse (a girl can dream, after all!). But mostly, as you can see, it just lies around in the garden 'drying out' or 'bleaching'.

Branching pieces are good for supporting floppy herbaceous plants in the summer, and lately I have been collecting pieces to make into tripods to support climbers.
.
Mostly I just collect it because I love it's sculptural qualities.

Thursday, February 22

High Tide



The tides have been very high the last couple of days, and driftwood pickings have been good. This is Tuesday's haul, drying in the sun yesterday.




Lunchtime yesterday the tide was so high there was no beach at all to walk on. We sat on top of the dunes, watching the waves. No wind, just big waves. You could feel the vibration of each wave crashing against the dune.

Last night I gave in and had a bath. The cold water is not yet plumbed and the hot is absolutely scalding, so we had to carry through basins of cold water, and put down a couple of planks to stand on in front of the bath. It was out of this world nontheless!

Wednesday, February 21

WIP Wednesday 21 Feb


This is my new raggy quilt which I started last week. The colours are a bit stronger than the last couple I have made.



I love this dark brown fabric. There is a lovely flow to the pattern and it seems quite English to me, but not in a stuffy way. It reminds me quite a lot of William Morris's willow pattern. I decided to make blocks with 3 stripes, and alternate them with plain white blocks, but now that I've made a pile of them I'm having second thoughts and may well change the plan completely.

Tuesday, February 20

A day on the West Coast

Little Sis was here at the weekend, and yesterday we went over to Lochinver. A spot of shopping and a walk on the beach left us both refreshed.

We found one of these...


here...


and Harvey seemed to have a good time, too.

Friday, February 16

TAST Week7- Feather Stitch

i liked the effects you get when the stitches are uniform in size and the rows placed close together - and the hearts are topical, are they not?

Surprise



Look at what my lovely friend Gay sent me today! A video showing how to make Attic Windows (I'm hoping this has Jinny Beyer on it) and chenille and a Boston sampler and more. And some fabric, one with the tiniest hearts, and a lollipop! Thank you Gay! I can't wait to watch the video. Quilting isn't a mainstream hhobby here and I can't find any quilting on TV, so I'm really looking forward to watching this.

Thursday, February 15

Valentine


DH found the perfect card for me!


Wednesday, February 14

Tulips from Amsterdam

These really did come from Amsterdam. We bought them in Schiphol airport on our way back home and they are lasting well. I make it 19 days since purchase now.

Well, I've weathered the food poisoning and URTI that was the aftermath of our holiday. Somewhere during my fever, my parents flew over from Ireland and spent a couple of days with us, but I'm not very clear about that. I'm sure I made them some food to eat so they can't complain *s*

Now for a disaster story (trying hard to persuade myself it is not actually a disaster of any significance). I was so excited about going on holiday that I almost forgot to take my camera. DH reminded me as I was heading out the door, and I ran back in and grabbed it. Just the camera, mind you. No charger cable or even a spare battery. And when I turned it on in Italy it had 20mins of juice in it. Never mind, I thought I would be able to buy a charger cable.......no, not unless I wanted to buy a new camera with it. Well, I am too mean for that, especially as we have at least two cameras (one staying at home), and two adequate cameras on our phones and a nice fat memory card on my phone. So when the camera battery went flat I would just use my phone.

The phone took lovely photos the days we were on Tenerife and Madeira, but then suddenly it was gone. Dropped it I think. *big sigh*. All my photos of Loro Parque's penguinarium and performing sealions vanished. Just my memories left...

Here is the single best thing we saw on our travels - Gaudi's church La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Full of light and air and...the noise stonemasons make these days with heavy machinery. It's many years since I saw English cathedrals but this seemed on a scale much larger than I remember them.













I love these lizards!


We also saw a *lot* of Picassos. That man just didn't stop drawing! We gave up long before we were half way round the gallery, but I think I gained a little interest in his work.

Casablanca was full of smog. We could see little from the ship. It is a large city, with a population of about 3 million people, and nearly all the buildings we saw were painted white or off-white in colour. It was a dirty place, with seemingly little control on engine emissions. Here is the vast Hassan II mosque with its even more vast expanse of courtyard. We didn't go in.


Our taxi driver thought that, since we didn't seem impressed with the mosque, we might like the Roman Catholic church. I did quite like their stained glass, even though I don't generally much admire modern churches.





Sunday, February 11

This and That

Not done a great deal of quilting, and Blogger has swallowed my last post on the subject. So here we go again. So far I have put these little stars in two of the corners of my log cabin quilt borders. It's difficult to get a good photo of the quilting. I'm thinking I'll do the same in the opposite corners, in gold thread. Need a trip to the Quilt Shop for that.

I started knitting this scarf just before we went on holiday, and have done a bit more the other evening. Someone gave my mother a 'knit your own scarf' kit at Christmas and somehow it found its way into my possession... It consisted of a pattern (for a scarf??), a pair of needles and three balls of hideously brightly coloured blue/green eyelash yarn. Much too bright for me! But I found some white eyelash in the local Wool Shop and I think this is rather fun. Needs a bit of tidying up, obviously. And I know a little girl who would just love one in red and black (ladybird colours).
Also, we have been doing some serious DIY in the house. The old en suite has GONE (and I did not take a photo of it so I could remember its hideousness for ever) and we are in the process of connecting up the new one. DH is plumber-extrodinaire as all the local tradesmen in this part of the world turned up their noses (you want to move the shower? and the bath? and the toilet? What for?) so progress is slow. But we are getting there.

TAST - Algerian Eyelet


Thought I would join in the fun with this one, and spent a cosy afternoon stitching away happily. I liked the stitch more and more as I went along. In my mind it works best to fill in areas with colour or as a border; I found it less easy to think of more organic applications.


Friday, February 2

Home Again!

We're just back from holiday. No photos yet - we're having some camera problems. I love being back home after holidays. The old routine seems fresh and all those chores I've been putting off seem new again, all urgent and exciting.

The sky was bright and clear yesterday and so I worked in the sunshine in the garden. The garden is very sleepy and peaceful, with only snowdrops flowering and masses of daffodil shoots about 3-4inches tall. I started clearing away the wind-blown leaves at the front of the house, and then when the sun moved round I spent a cosy afternoon in the greenhouse, tidying and planting tomato seed.

One of the many lessons my first real quilt has taught me is that I ought to try quilting in a frame. And while we were cruising and my fingers industriously (it seems) softening up, I came to the conclusion that I should get one of those little lap frames that swivels and pivots, so I can be comfy in my armchair by the fire while I work. So I'm off now to go shopping!