Forgetmenot's Corner

the changing year

2007-12-21T16:29:00.001Z

Although the solstice is not until tomorrow, the evenings are imperceptibly longer. Sunset was 3.31pm today - on the 19th it was 3.30pm.

These are views from the back of our garden, showing the lower slopes of the hill behind our house, and looking south-west towards the distant Black Isle (below).

Quilting

2007-12-21T15:43:00.001Z

We have had a heavy frost all this week. This is currently in my hoop, and keeping me cosy by the fireside. It is a baby quilt with 35 4-patches made from a single charm pack - the 4-patches measure 3.5"square as I have to cut off the edges before I start. I wanted the sashing to be heavily quilted, but what I have done is too busy for my liking, and I have some changes in mind for the next 'round'.

'Under the Stars' came out from its resting-place a couple of weeks ago, and I quilted a diamond pattern in the borders. I had put the stars in two of the corners last year, not with a great deal of success. It's difficult with a hoop to keep the 3 layers evenly stretched in the corners. Next time I will use many more pins! Now I need to remember where I put the binding fabric...

Anticipation...

2007-12-07T12:56:00.000Z

This very large parcel arrived for me today. A Christmas present from R!

I had to open it, to make sure the contents were OK.

Inside I found a large quantity of this:

one of these:

some books and odds and ends, and...

One of these!

It's a Christmas present, I can't use it just yet. But I can read the instructions.

...maybe I could just practice treadling though? When no-one is around??

New Cooker

2007-12-06T11:52:00.001Z

This is our new cooker. I've been meaning to post a photo for a while now. It is a refurbished pre-1970s model which we had brought up from somewhere near Birmingham, I think. We have had a few teething problems, but are getting on top of them now, I think. It burns (guzzles) oil, which is generally a bad thing - but we will only run her for 6 months of the year, and will change to a different fuel when it becomes available locally. Having this thing running makes a huge difference to our house. It was rather miserable here last winter. This year, for a few reasons, things are much better.

Oh and she makes great tasting food!

MeMe

2007-12-06T11:14:00.001Z

Veronica tagged me.

And I'd hoped to slip under the radar!

Let me see:

4 Jobs I Had

1. Played in a string quartet when I was at school - Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Scott Joplin and that sort of thing. We weren't terribly good, but made some pocket money (it seemed a lot to me at the time) playing at weddings and other events. My first job!

2. Strawberry picker. This was the summer I left school, in the Scottish Highlands, far from home. It was a lot of fun. Later that summer I went to Kent to help with the hop harvest and pick apples. That was fun too.

3. As a student I had a summer job for a couple of years in a hotel in the highlands. It was on the far side of a loch from the local village, and you could only really access it by motor launch. It was a small hotel; 8 rooms, and at one point I counted 12 staff! Not including the proprietors! I had various jobs - dishwashing, doing the rooms, cleaning the kitchen, serving the pre-dinner drinks. I was even entrusted with some kitchen tasks! (chopping parsley, whipping cream, stirring porridge, making toast, baking cookies and cheese biscuits if I recall). This is where I learned about what would, this year, eventually become my cooker (post to follow).

4. Hospital doctor. Less said...

Right, I've had enough of the meme! And I'm sure I'd get even more boring as I go on...

Frosty sunshiny day

2007-11-23T17:01:00.000Z

Sharp frost last night. Minus 6 had been forecast.

Not so nice for poultry. The orchard doesn't get a great deal of sun at this time of year, and the grass stayed frozen all today. An excuse to give them mash and corn - that made them happy.

Ben Wyvis from the end of our road.

We decided to go see the beach in the sun!

There were mushrooms still growing on the dunes - don't know what kind they are, despite hours spent poring over my mushroom book this autumn. (lots of rabbits here make it fun for dogs!)

Beach at last!

North Sutor

South Sutor

Lifeboat going past

Not complete without doggy pics ...

There was daylight enough to do some tidying in the garden when we got home.

Full moon is tomorrow.

I wonder should I sow some peas?

Woolly visitor!

2007-11-23T16:47:00.000Z

Tuesday afternoon I got to sew.

Well not sew exactly. I was cutting, all afternoon.

So there I was, cutting away happily and I looked out of the window to see this creature:

Don't you just love his horns?

He must have come up the drive and had just come to a halt in the yard. I don't know how long he had been there. So he looked about himself for about a minute, and then turned round and went off again. (hope he ate some of our long grass on the way out!)

I don't know where he came from -its mostly arable farming around here and the fields are unsuitable for livestock - they generally don't have much in the way of gates and some of them don't seem to have fences! It's pretty much all arable, apart from some cattle on the hill above our house.

Hope he got home safely, wherever his home is.

Windy beach walk

2007-11-23T16:37:00.000Z

On Monday we went to the beach in the village. It's our closest beach, but we don't go there often as it tends to be busy. It was windy and the sea was wild. Lots of foam to walk through and send blowing off up the beach.

Shopping

2007-11-15T18:35:00.000Z

Two trips to Inverness in two days; another trip to collect R this evening will make it three...ugh...

I had time for a little impromptu shopping in one of my favourite shops, and look what I found! A Warren Kimble 'fat cat' spoonrest...now it just so happens that I quite like Warren Kimble, and a spoonrest is exactly what's been lacking in my kitchen. It will go nicely with my other new kitchen toy...(post to follow at some point)

I also bought a grey cashmere sweater (75% off, 'designed in Scotland') and a very soft, very fluffy, snow- white bath robe. Bath time for me tonight!

Lavender Hearts

2007-11-14T17:52:00.001Z

I've been experimenting a little. The aim was to make a lavender sachet; something pretty and feminine.

There were many prototypes; it was fun! I may need to do a little more work on getting all those little hearts to line up straight though.

The lavender comes from our herb garden; a very old lavender bush there is almost as tall as I am. The crop is fantastic, but it has grown unsightly and is due to be removed soon.

November Poppies

2007-11-12T18:13:00.000Z

I found these beside the composters. These will be our last poppies for this year.

We had our first ground frost last night.

Something quilt-related (for a change)

2007-05-15T21:04:00.000+01:00

Now I need something to restore my good spirits. Maybe a somewhat quilty post? There's nothing in this stack of 32 blocks to raise my spirits...my glass is half empty here...I need 36, and this week I am struggling for time to sew.

Nope, no. Not careless raggy applique.

Aha! A fistful of new fabric! That's more like it!

I don't even need to think about preparing them. Sometimes it's nice just to spread tham out and look at them, all full of possibilities.

I might do that a little more, they're so pretty.

"I'm going to peck you if you don't put down the camera and give me some crumbs" I'm working on some pet portraits. This is Billy, our only cockerel and poor Charlie's brother (BTW we candled Charlie's eggs, and so far it's all looking good). He's a bit cross 'cos he's just been bullied by Dugald (our drake). Our poultry are free range, and there's plenty of space so the bullying is more comic than serious.

Here are some seal pups we saw at the weekend on sandbanks on Loch Fleet - you might see them better by clicking on the photo.

7 things about Me

2007-05-12T12:04:00.000+01:00

Jane Ann tagged me to write about 7 random facts or habits.

1. I love "fairytales". I learned to read early, and was always allowed independence in the books I chose. Nobody seemed to understand why I was still reading these stories when I was obviously "far too old for that nonsense". I think partly it was comforting, but mostly because I was looking for meaning in these simple tales. And found quite a bit!

2. When I was little we spent much time at my grandmother's house, the rear wing of a grand Georgian mansion just outside troubled '70s Belfast. The garden was wild and beautiful, and at the bottom of it snowdrops grew in the lawn in rings. These, grannie explained, were faerie rings. (no explanation as to whether the faeries made the rings, or just used them, or what the faeries looked like, etc). I believed her. And a tiny, tiny part of me still does.

3. Just beyond said garden was a small wood. One of my sisters told me there were wolves in the wood. Despite knowing there were no wild wolves, for a long time I believed her and was terrified, especially at night. (I don't belive this any more!)

4. Last time I went to IKEA I bought everything I wanted and the bill came to £23.22.

5. I dislike telephones very much, and avoid speaking on them and especially answering them. I see from reading other people's blogs that I am not alone in this, and this makes me feel a little better.

6.'Love is Enough' (below my blog title) is the title of a poem by William Morris.

7. I have two pianos in my house.

Thank you Jane Ann, that was fun!

Visiting Afar

2007-05-10T12:22:00.000+01:00

Still piecing, slowly; don't have much to show. This cross stitch bookmark for my older sister's birthday did however get finished. The kit comes from the almost-local Textile Heritage.

Yesterday I had some errands to do in Edinburgh and Glasgow. That meant an early start and a four hour drive. I had planned an intermediate stop at the quilt shop in Linlithgow, but it was closed and I ended up with some time to fill in before meeting LittleSis. The Botanical Gardens in Glasgow is a good place to while away a couple of hours...especially with all those second hand bookshops nearby...

I lived in the West End of Glasgow for many years, as a student and afterwards, and it was so nice to spend some time there again, just wandering around. It was warm and sunny, perfect "exam weather".

I tried not to think too much about little Maddy.

There was a lot to see in the gardens,

but I was focused - I have been wanting to visit the new Kibble Palace since it reopened in November. The message on the door is not easy to make out in my photo
It reads "KIBBLE PALACE erected on this site 1873 restored 2006"
Inside was all bright and clean, as it must have looked when new (until recently Glasgow was a city of heavy industry and covered in black grime).

The koi pond is still there. If you lean over the fish will come to see what's going on.
Dip a finger in, and they will 'nibble'!
The beds were freshly planted
and these curious mirrored discs hung from the ceiling. I'm not sure, maybe they are also floodlights.
Exiled in the foyer is Cain/ "...greater than I can bear" by Mullins.

while in the garden sits Eve.

At six o'clock an employee goes round the glass house and closes all the windows.

I only got half way through the first chapter of 'Cranston' before it was time to go.

Maybe I will get back again soon. I hope so.

Happy Birthday Harv!

2007-05-08T12:47:00.000+01:00

Harvey is two years old! Worthy of celebration as we were told he was seriously ill last summer.

Bella came to us as a puppy, but Harv was 9months old when we got him. He was a quiet, sensitive dog, too shy to ask to go out. It was hard to learn he was so ill.

Nearly a year on he is big and bouncy, full of long-winded and very smelly dog-stories. Still sensitive and very cuddly, but happier and more independent. Bernese are recommended for all cases of low spirits!

Bones all round!

A Rather Gruesome Business (Charlie R.I.P.)

2007-05-08T11:32:00.000+01:00

Those of a sensitive dispostion, better look away! (I am serious about this. Seriously. You have been warned!!!).

Following our move to the country, we became poultry farmers. In a small way - we buy the corn etc, but never seem to make a profit. Maybe because we keep giving the eggs away to nice people.

Charlie was my best hen. She was a Light Sussex. I bought her as an egg off ebay last summer, dutifully turning her 3 times a day and pulling her out of her shell when she pipped it. She was always the first to come running when she spotted me, and if i had no crumbs for her she would stop 4feet away, completely nonplussed (that's my mum! what do i do now?). She laid an egg every day; supermarket-egg-type in size, shape and colour, but we did not hold that against her. On wednesday she started to limp, and then she stopped laying and started spending most of the day in her nesting box. Still eating crumbs though when she was up and about first thing in the morning. Sunday her sore leg was yellow. Yellow? Was it a bruise? A mega-septic leg? We dusted off our poultry books and scoured the internet. LittleSis phoned her vet friend o'er the pond. We went and looked again, DH and I. That wasn't feathers stuck down on her back, that was an ulcer. And that yellow was yolk. Poor, poor Charlie, she had an impacted egg. Isn't that gruesome?

She had to be dispatched. She would have been all scarred up inside even if we could have got the broken egg out, and that's no good for a hen. DH did it.

I have to say, I believe this problem is very uncommon, and poor Charlie was very unfortunate to suffer from it.

We're shaking it off. Helped by the new folk who came back with us from the rare breeds market on Saturday:

Here is Jemima, she will lay chocolate-coloured eggs (no Freudian slips on this blog!) and Blondie, Brunnie and Darkie who are only 14weeks old and already laying the tiniest tinted eggs.

We put Charlie's last three eggs in the incubator, keeping our fingers crossed; I have resolved to take more photos of the hens - if they have names, they ought to have their portraits taken.

Today I shall be mostly...

2007-04-30T16:41:00.000+01:00

plastering. That is, if I get the hang of it. So far it is not too messy and quite a lot of fun. Not sure we have the right kind of plaster though. The label on the pack says 'one coat' but it seems to be quite gritty and is very grey. I was expecting something altogether finer and orange in colour - more like plaster of paris (nothing to be scared of) and less cement-like (yuk). Discussion with DH to follow...

I tidied my desk. This is a major step forward in self-organisation. I framed some photos and cards, and painted up a couple of old picture frames to make them look a little smarter. It's not finished, but it is so nice to have a little space of my own again for thinking and dreaming, and I thought I would share it. I suppose, now I am no longer working I don't really need a desk. But it is nice. (Oh, and you might be able to spot that copy of Quilt Design Wizard - to be listed on ebay. I didn't really find it that useful...perhaps I should invest in the real thing?)

Encouraged by this, I set to work in the dining room. I've had a notion, ever since we came to live here, that this would not be a room for dining in; we're not in to formal dining at all, and there's plenty of other eating space with a dining kitchen, a breakfast room and a dining table in the garden room - and when it's the two of us we usually just eat in front of the TV anyway. The dining room had, in fact become a wasteland filled with all kinds of furniture and homeless junk. Not any more. I moved, I tidied, I reorganised, I binned, ...and now I have a corner to sew in! Well quite a lot of space actually! And the sun shines in from mid afternoon onwards.

I can't describe how great it is to have a place to sew permanently (much more work to be done before it is the perfect space, though). But just to sit and ponder the creative options. And how nice it is, if I have a spare ten minutes, to have everything at hand, in its own place so I can sit down and do something useful immediately (the moment is everything here!)

There are ominous clouds on the horizon, though. The sun is strong and we really need blackout blinds, for this room and the sitting room which faces the same way. This translates in my mind to the horror/joy of a trip to Ikea. Also, that little sewing machine is making a strange noise that I think does not bode well... However, I spent a couple of happy hours running up these 4 patches for the grandson of some neighbours, who has not been very well. Some coordinating sashing and binding, and backing is en route.

More recently I made a start on a new log cabin. Brown and cream is cosy, and not too adventurous, and some of these prints remind me a lot of the dresses I wore to church as a child.
Anyone fancy a quick look round my garden?

In the greenhouse, 'Tomgirl' has come into flower. You can't see it very well in the photo, but this geranium is a very beautiful deep and velvety red.

These red tulips are joyful, and catch my eye as I go in and out of the house. They just spill out through the edging stones of the bed they are planted in.

One of the last narcissi, in a shady spot.
I love the colours of cultivated anemones, the combination of blue and red and green is so refreshing - I saw some today on YankeeQuilter's blog. Unfortunately we have only blue ones just now. This is one of the colour combinations I think of at night before drifting off to sleep!

It wouldn't be spring without drumstick primulas - we bought these ones in Morrison's, and my mother has promised to give LittleSis some of my grandmother's white ones, to bring back from Ireland with her when she comes this week.
Wallflowers. Someone told me that they bloom 12months after sowing, so I'm making staggered sowings to check this out. Next time I buy seed, it will be just orange/red - the yellows looked washed out beside our daffodils.

'Marguerites' I think - at least that's what my mother-in-law calls them. One of the first early summer flowers.

Waiting...somewhat impatiently... (clematis)

Hawthorn, almost in flower.

I'm not sure what this plant is, but it grows in masses, appears to be perennial and self seeds everywhere - hopefully not the defining charcteristics of a weed!

In the vegetable garden, the peas I sowed right at the beginning of March are looking for something to grab onto now. DH constructed this with some left over chicken-wire. Lucky peas! No old pea sticks for you! I am sowing more peas every 10days now.

We are getting lots of broccoli these days, I think it was Pam who was asking about it. I'm a little confused about the broccoli/calbrese terminology, but I think that what we generally call 'broccoli' in this country is more correctly called 'calabrese'.

Purple-sprouting broccoli is much more of a delicacy. It is a cut-and-come-again crop - clever cutting can greatly increase the yield - and tastes much superior to calabrese - sweet and I think it is described as 'nutty'. Very yummy, raw in salads or very lightly cooked.

Well, it's been a long post. I must remember to blog more frequently, and maybe at less length!

I'm thinking I may well relinquish my Q4P ring membership; I'm not quite sure I like feeling under pressure to blog at regular intervals...although I understand why the request has been made. I think. Anyway, I am mulling it over.>

Catching Up with myself

2007-04-16T01:49:00.000+01:00

Piecing is coming along slowly. The pattern is 'Shimmer Stars' by Joy Hoffman, and the kit came from Seams So Sweet in Viburnum. I like the colour choices very much (photo taken with flash so not as bright as it looks here), and enjoy playing with the combinations as the top grows.

We had more snow shortly after my last post, and we took the dogs up into the hills to play.

We had another trip out west, just after the equinox....with fish and chips from the gourmet Seefresh in Ullapool ...and ending with a sunset at Achiltibuie.

On Easter Sunday the dogs took us for a walk in the woods...

...lichen fascinates...

and we ended up at this local landmark.

We applied for a firewood permit from the Forestry Comission, so we're off-roading some places we wouldn't normally go.

Thank you to Chris for her Thinking Blog nomination. There are so many inspirational and thought-provoking pages, especially amongst the crafting community that it seems impossible to pick just a few. I also would feel a bit uncomfortable assessing which bloggers think more than others! I would like to mention a couple of blogs that I especially look forward to reading, and find regularly provide food for thought... Jen Clair, who leads me to peculiar arty pages that I would never otherwise visit, and Judith who is showing how she is creating a quilt that I think is magical.

Cathi, another favourite blogger, asked what kind of gardening I like. It's difficult to answer briefly...I like simple pleasures; just being in the garden. Feeling sun and air on my skin and hearing birdsong. Being in tune with a greater rhythm.

Our garden was neglected by the previous occupants (they proudly showed us the vine in the greenhouse. A vine can get pretty brown and cumbly if you don't water it for two years!). It is not, nor ever will be 'perfect' in that I generally like plants to grow in a natural manner, but it is becoming a place of beauty, at least to me.

One of the things I love most is to watch seedlings emerge and to nurture them into grown plants, whether flower or vegetable. It is reffirming and joyous also to see the herbaceous plants erupt from slumber, less so when shrubs and trees come into leaf and flower...but then again some of my favourite signs of spring are hawthorn, birch and larch coming into leaf. I also like to prune, and although pretty fearless with my loppers, have a great deal to learn, especially with neglected plants. It satisfies deeply to see the effect of my labours in patterns of living shape, colour and texture.

Rhubarb, one of the easiest plants of the kitchen garden, and one which the previous occupants of our house did not manage to get rid of, has been supplying us for a couple of weeks now. Is it really a 'superfood'? You can find a wealth of recipes at the Rhubarb Compendium, but we just eat it stewed with yoghurt or in a crumble.

We also have been eating purple sprouting broccoli, a favourite in our house. Next year's seedlings are starting to harden off, apart from the broccoli as we had germination failure and needed to get more seed.

I've had plenty of 'help' in the garden, too. Here the hens are helping me plant Cox and Charles Ross apple trees in the orchard.

and here they are helping me reclaim flower beds from lawn . Maybe they're just eating the worms, though!

To my surprise, in our second spring living here, I found in an unexpected corner some Snake's Head fritillaries, which I have longed to have in my garden for a long time

Bella has been keeping me company on beach excursions,

where we have been collecting uglier pieces of diftwood

to help feed our new Squirrel log burner on chillier evenings.

Scrappy Squares

2007-03-20T12:22:00.000Z

I'm piecing by hand these days. It's more relaxing, after a day spent gardening.

It's easier, too, as the whole house is now in chaos - a new central heating system is being installed and carpets are up everywhere and floors being ripped up. All quite stressful and messy so I'm trying to keep out of the house if I can. There is snow again today (yesterday was our first proper snow this year!) and I'm told everything in the snug has been connected, so I returned the books to their shelves and so am holed up in there now, with some good films and an electric heater!

These squares are 6 1/2". A few more to go!

Morning surprise!

2007-02-28T20:24:00.000Z

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!

WIP Wednesday 28th February

2007-02-27T21:26:00.000Z

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

2007-02-27T11:04:00.000Z

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.

High Tide

2007-02-22T11:19:00.000Z

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!

WIP Wednesday 21 Feb

2007-02-21T21:34:00.000Z

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.

A day on the West Coast

2007-02-20T22:14:00.000Z

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.

TAST Week7- Feather Stitch

2007-02-16T14:22:00.000Z

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

2007-02-16T11:20:00.000Z

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.

Valentine

2007-02-15T10:55:00.000Z

DH found the perfect card for me!

Tulips from Amsterdam

2007-02-14T15:25:00.000Z

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.

This and That

2007-02-11T15:20:00.000Z

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

2007-02-11T14:49:00.000Z

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.

Home Again!

2007-02-02T18:29:00.001Z

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!

Rainy day

2007-01-11T12:03:00.000Z

I've had some ideas for how to quilt the border of my red & green starry quilt. I'm almost there - just need to finish off doing around the outside of the inner border. I'm thinking the border is going to be fairly heavily quilted, in a mostly plain style as the pattern has some embroidered text - in gold to match the stars and inner border - and I haven't quite decided whether I really want to include this embroidery or not. My initial idea was to leave out the text - especially as the pattern describes the text as a 'prayer' and I do not think it is a 'prayer'. But that aside I am warming a little to the idea now I am closer to completion.

This is the effect I envisaged when I started quilting the blocks, but I found it quite dissatisfying to sew.

Here are some other effects I tried, I think I have shown these before:

And here is what Libby suggested - it won hands down!

It is easy and satisfying to sew, and I love the way it separates the contour of the quilt from the structure of the patches.

It rained heavily last night and we heard dripping while we were watching King Kong. Couldn't find any water though. Eventually DH went into the roofspace, and sure enough the gable wall was wet. It's dripping down inside the wall. And going ...... who knows where? That makes a grand total of six (6) places the roof is leaking, and the roofer won't start until the weather improves. Ugh. Who wanted to live in an old house? (me). I'm glad we're going on holiday.

I'm off now to search out a Daily Telegraph - they are giving away free Beatrix Potter books this week to celebrate the opening of the film. I have in mind an afternoon in front of the telly (read 'Gone With the Wind') and my needle. And hoping it will stop raining.

Sixes and Sevens

2007-01-09T12:05:00.000Z

Not a great deal quilty going on around here...

There were various people staying with us for almost two weeks over the holidays, and somehow it is difficult to step back (or forward) into routine. Especially as we go away ourselves next week.

As for sewing projects - I had to make some curtains. Not my favourite kind of project. The people we purchased our house from ran off at the last minute with the curtains (rough count 20 pairs) which we had paid for. I've been putting off making these particular ones for ......11 and a half months now......I figure if you live in the country, so what if you don't have curtained windows in your study. But the house sitters will need to use this room (that is a long story in itself), so I kind of had to. So I just sat down yesterday and did it. We now have curtains at the front, and curtains at the back (where I sew these days as it is warm and I can see the wild garden birds up close and hear the TV in the next room) and a curtain for the door to the garden. Just like a respectable house!!

DH has noticed that I have not been using my light box (the last time was actually the weekend before Christmas). This is not a good sign, that he has noticed some change in me that I haven't seen in myself. Anyway he made me promise to use it, so here I am dutifully bathing in light in front of the computer.

I should mention some of the goodies I was so lucky to be given at Christmas. 'The River Cottage Cookbook' by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall has persuaded me to venture into the garden on sunny days (I've dug half of the vegetable beds so far). The 4 disc special edition of 'Gone With the Wind' is much prized (and only half -watched - what have I been doing?), and in amongst some quilty books, 'The Secrets of Fine Hand Quilting' by Roxanne McElroy is outstanding. Instead of spending my time creatively, I read this book cover to cover. It's beautifully illustrated. In fact the quilt she made for her daughter's wedding is so awesome, front and back, that it moves me to tears. (that is, tears of envy, mostly).

Christmas rush

2006-12-22T11:22:00.000Z

Aaarrgh...no time for blogging, no time for sewing. Far too much yet to do. Made a couple of blocks yesterday when I should have been doing other things Christmas-related, but couldn't help myself..fabric is just too lovely.

Little sis decided on stars for the block, and this is what we came up with.

I like the scrappier block best, but can't decide whether to go really scrappy and vary the colour placement between the blocks or not.

almost midwinter...

2006-12-18T15:20:00.000Z

Not many days left now until the solstice. Here today the sky is blue, the sun is shining and it is freezing. The last sunny day was quite some time ago, and now that we do have sunshine again the angle of the light seems really low. (Honestly, we moved 2 degrees further north and I make such a big deal about it!) The chooks have just found their way into the back garden today. This part of the garden has a 6foot high fence around it and I suppose was once ornamental, but since Harvey was new to us and wandered when we first came here, we designated it our 'dog garden'...and as I was gazing through the window admiring the hens this afternoon and wondering when we will get our first eggs, and whether it might be worth putting a light in the henhouse in order to get some sooner, I noticed some of these:

We didn't live here last winter and I don't know what they are. They're too big for snowdrops, but it seems early for daffodils. I'm going to have to keep an eye on them.

And I had a bit of a scout around and found these. They're a different kind.

It's reassuring to know the garden is preparing for spring!

Meanwhile, in the house, there are some preparations for Christmas Feasting. Chiefly in the form of my special 'laughing' mince pies.
These are usually a big hit and - look, one had disappeared while I searched for the camera (wasn't me, honest!). I use my own recipe for mincemeat which includes loads of cherries and pineapple and papaya and coconut (well basically anything remotely suitable that I can find in the baking cupboard) and with spices they taste really christmassy.

Not much sewing going on. I had just about decided on the pattern for the brown quilt, and then Little Sis announced she is coming up early this week, so I will see what she thinks about the options. And I'm hoping to persuade her to sit infront of the sewing machine.

2006-12-13T11:12:00.000Z

Between hand quilting the green and red quilt, grouting the tiles on the hall floor and decorating for Christmas, there hasn't been much time for new projects in this house. I found some buggy barn scraps to practice paper peicing with. This is The Eyes of March block from Quilters' Cache.

My Chocolat fabric for Little Sis's quilt arrived. I think there's more here than I will need.

Decorating for Christmas was a lot of fun. Since we have been living in limbo for the last two Christmases, and most of our stuff was in storage during that time, I have not seen most of our decorations for a long time. It was so good to take them out of their boxes again, and to go round the new house finding suitable spots for them to spend the holidays. Our lights seem to have been multiplying, too.

We booked a holiday for next month. A while ago DH and I made the decision that January is *the* time of the year for us to holiday. It's all a bit miserable in this country at this time of year - even more so now we are living so far north. Last January we went to Cyprus, and next month we will Cruise The Med. Cruising is a new thing for us, and I will need to plan my projects so I have some hand sewing to take with me.

Someone asked about haggis that I mentioned in a previous post. Haggis, eaten with neeps and tatties, is a traditional scottish delicacy. Tatties are potatoes, and neeps are turnips. In our house we usually have bashed neeps, that means they are mashed and we have them with lashings of butter and black pepper - yum! Haggis, in the olden days, was sheep offal mixed with oats and heavily spiced, enclosed in a sheep's stomach. To cook it you had to boil the whole thing a pan of water for several hours. These days I believe there are restrictions on the cuts of meat that can be included, and it usually comes wrapped in plastic which you can peel off and then microwave the haggis in less than 10 minutes. You can also get vegetarian haggis, full of lentils and beans and very tasty. These days I usually prefer the vegetarian one - here's a photo of one from a famous Edinburgh haggis maker.

2006-12-08T16:28:00.000Z

When I went up to shut in the hens, I could only find the three chicks (whew, my babies survived one day in the big world!) and the ducks. Esmeralda and her brood were NOWHERE. I looked all over the garden, in the wild bit out the back, in the trees, out on the road...I thought they had flown. And by then it was almost completely dark.

And then I remembered there is no door on the garage we just use for junk. They were in there, roosting on the rafters!!!

That's enough drama for one day!

2006-12-08T12:37:00.000Z

Well this morning I let the chooks out. Not into their enclosure, but out into the garden. This was always the plan, but I worried over how safe they would be, especially the youngest ones which we bought off ebay as eggs and hatched ourselves, and who have no mother(other than me!). These chicks are three months old now, and Esmeralda's brood are about a month older than that (2 or 3 of them are crowing now), and the ducks about 6 weeks older than them, so I reckoned it is time now that they all faced the world - and the 4 cats. Well three cats really 'cos Toby just sleeps. I have to keep going out to check on them. They're in the orchard just now, looking happy. They can fly. I shouldn't be worried.

Thank you to everyone who had suggestions about my quilting. I think this is going to be a quilting sampler! It's very interesting, as a beginner who hasn't given a quilt more then a passing glance before, to see the effect of placing the quilting different places. In addition to my last post I have now done a block with quilting 1/4inch on one side of each seam, and one with quilting through the middle of each 'log'. This latter is my favourite so far -thank you Libby, I would never have thought of this myself. I know I should, but I don't use a frame or hoop. It takes about half an evening for me to do one block and my fingers are now more numb than sore. But I love stitching the layers together, and I cannot say I think it is a waste of time.

Been spending a lot of time at the Quilter's Cache aswell, thinking about the next quilt. I ordered some more brown fabric. Brown and cream and ?beige - from Moda's Chocolat - and I'm looking for a suitable pattern. I have it narrowed down to one of about twenty five at the moment!

Yesterday DH had a day off work and we went over to the west coast, christmas shopping. We went to Lochinver, and had pies from the famous pieshop for lunch (I had haggis, neeps and tatties and DH had steak & ale, and then apple & blackcurrant. They were very good. And I'm not generally a fan of pies). I love art pottery, and this is what we bought:
I can show the plate 'cos the person getting it doesn't read my blog.

The others are for the house.
I just love the cockerel's tail.
And these have got to be the happiest sheep I've seen (for those who don't know, the hillsides of the scottish highlands are grazed by black faced sheep and the twisting roads are generally unfenced, making for interesting driving especially for tourists!)

2006-12-05T10:45:00.000Z

My overwhelming memory of yesterday is of a long train journey through darkness.

This is what I brought with me to read. I spent most of the day in Glasgow. I got up at 5.30 - the middle of the night for me - and drove down, then got the train back in the late afternoon to Inverness where DH collected me. Then for a treat we went to Harry Ramsden's for Fish and Chips! It was nice to see little sis - she doesn't work Mondays at the moment. She is just back from a friend's wedding in India, and has been increasing her stash with some beautiful floaty dress fabric that she bought over there. It was generally an excuse to get her stash out and ooh and aah over it. And stroke it a little. There is tweed from Harris (a piece in pink and one in turquoise) and Thai silk (courtesy of the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok a couple of years ago) and now pashmina and some other stuff from India. And fancy buttons and offcuts of sheepskin and more. It's a real eclectic mix, with not so much in the way of cotton. This is an old photo of the silk she brought me back from Thailand. It's very lovely but I don't know what to do with it!

We had time before the train left to pop in to Mandors. We fought our way past the curtain fabric (and a lot of it was really gorgeous) to the craft corner. More oohing and ahhing and "look at this!" "look at this one!" and quite a lot of bolts got pulled. It was a bit frantic 'cos of the train departure, and felt a little like it was getting out of hand, but I think we got there. I don't think she has looked at craft fabrics before! We bought a couple of metres of brown from Moda's A Day in the Country which she really liked - she is very fond of brown at the moment. And a few other half metres of browns and reds. I think I will start to plan a quilt for her.

I decided what to do with the wools I showed earlier, and they are in the washer (for better/ for worse) as I write. Something simple with strips, I am thinking.

Quilting has been in progress on the red and green quilt over the weekend. Still a long way to go though! And sore fingers! I am trying out different styles.

Firstly, I need to say that my quilting stitch itself is a work in progress. And also that I am surprised by how much excess fabric there is, even though I smoothed and pinned the layers carefully. I wonder if I can get rid of this without using a frame.The outline quilting around the star itself I like, but the lines of stitching seemed to get a bit lost as I stitched successive 'echoes' of the star. I was hoping for something more - crisp, but my magic marking pen was SO magic that the line it left was visible for only about 5 minutes before disappearing. The quilting lines ended up being pretty much freehand. So I did the next block with an outline of the star and then something approximating to 'in the ditch'. What do people think?

2006-11-30T10:13:00.000Z

The calico I ordered from ebay for the backing of the log cabin quilt turned out to be unsuitable when it arrived. Much too thick for hand quilting. I am just itching to start quilting this, and couldn't wait to order some more fabric or go to the shop, so I had a bit of a rummage and found a few bits of fabric that I thought would do the job. I cut them into 51/2 inch squares and am piecing them. It's a mistake, I know. I will regret it. But I reckon that if I'm going to spend all that time quilting it, I might as well quilt something that I really like, front AND back. And I do like a challenge! I've been thinking some echo quilting might be nice around the stars. And then quilt in the ditch around the gold border. My quilting friend Gay suggests some stars in the green border too, and I think that might be nice. When I get to that stage!!

Oh, and I put binding on my Chook wall hanging from Rachel's of Greenfield. Here it is, very badly quilted, and here is my hen Esmeralda. Isn't the resemblance between her and the large chook in the wallhanging just uncanny?

2006-11-27T10:49:00.000Z

Many years ago, while staying in a house that belonged to a Norwegian lady, I noticed some very beautiful quilts she had, made of wool. At the time, I thought of them as 'blankets' rather than quilts - the only quilts I had seen up until that time were made in cotton with gaily coloured traditional blocks , or ones with tiny hexagons. These unusual woollen 'blankets' stuck in my mind; I even tried to make one when I was a student, on a borrowed machine and with remnants I found in the dress fabric shop. But it did not satisfy. ( It is, in fact my first UFO.)However on Friday I was in the local wool shop ( the quilt shop is too far to go just for thread) and there were some bolts on the bottom shelf that just caught my eye. Locally made (Peterhead Woollen Mill) and £1 a metre! Only 20 inches wide, but still I this was too great a bargain to miss! So I bought a half dozen metres. And I think I might have a go again at making one of those cosy woollen quilts... Or maybe a bag or two.

The red and green blocks of the log cabin quilt are all complete and assembled, and I appliqued the last star last night - the last time I appliqued anything was in primary school, 25years ago! This is my first machine-pieced top, and the first that I will definitely quilt, and the learning curve has been really quite steep.

And the pink quilt is nearly assembled. A couple of people commented on it (thank you!). The original idea was to make one for a little girl; hence the hearts and the pink and the texture. (candlewick that has been worn and loved has such a lovely texture - it can't be compared with new candlewick even after the new stuff has been washed a couple of times). I made a few of these quilts in the summer, but didn't like any of them enough to keep - or even to give to the little girl I had in mind, and so I listed them on ebay - and they sold. But someone emailed a couple of weeks ago and asked for some more to give as Christmas presents - I was so pleased she liked them enough to ask this, so I said I would make a couple for her. And I'm almost finished!

2006-11-23T10:37:00.000Z

OK, OK, so I missed WIP Wednesday. Sorry. Not a good show for a newbie, is it? But it's mostly all been blogged anyway, so I don't feel quite as bad. Here's a pic of a couple of appliqed squares I made on Tuesday for the pink quilt.

I don't even like pink, so I think this will be the last quilt like this I make.

Yesterday just went west at an alarming rate - and we don't even keep thanksgiving here, so I don't have that excuse.... (Athough I have to say I am thinking of instigating it at our house. We could really use some celebrations at this time of year. It's getting darker and darker in the mornings and Christmas sometimes feels like a long way away). Anyway yesterday we went to Inverness to upgrade my mobile (I can't do it over the internet as I need to press the buttons to make sure it's tactile enough to be fun to use - nothing worse than pressing 'buttons' and then having to check that it's registered with the phone what you're trying to do). That makes two days I've gone to Inverness this week, and that is two too many for me! Anyway we came home with not a phone but a laptop, so the evening was spent setting that up and trying to remember passwords etc.

2006-11-21T13:45:00.000Z

Important principle when making hearts for raggy applique - no two should ever be the same!

Oh, and thankyou to all the people who commented on Bella...I will give her a big hug... Here she is with Harvey. (I bet he'll get a big hug too...) They are Bernese Mountain Dogs (a bit like St Bernards, but black in colour and a lot less slobbery)

2006-11-20T10:10:00.000Z

I thought I'd show one of my favouite photos. This is Bella, and she is my faithful and constant companion. And a big cuddlebunch. And a Dog of Independent Spirit. It's not a perfect photo, but it seems to show her character well, and it's just about my favouite photo of her (and believe me, there are a lot of them!). When this one was taken, she was sitting on the back seat of DH's car, just waiting for people to come along and give her a cuddle...she generally attracts such a lot of attention and really revels in this role. And she especially loves children - we have often found her getting hugs from children we don't know.

As for the sewing, there has not been a lot going on over the weekend. We have been making a start on tiling the hall floor ("on point" - as it happens) and there is a lot of tile cutting being done. And Little Sis has been up from Glasgow, returning the runaround which she borrowed after she wrote her own car off last month. It will be nice to take the dogs out to the beach again!

2006-11-17T11:35:00.000Z

I made four of these blocks for the new quilt yesterday. It's going to be scrappy! The pattern says to place all the reds and greens at random, so that's pretty much what I'm doing. And hoping the overall effect will be nice to look at. I don't have much of an eye for colour, preferring colours that occur in the natural world around me. I suppose this makes me quite conservative in what I choose but now my eyes are opening a little, due to looking at quilting resources and blogs on the internet. (A big thank you to all who have quilting blogs!). I'm starting to think about the next project after this one.

Won't these be lovely colours for hand quilting in December?

To get to the computer I usually have to deal with this kind of very comfortable problem, sitting on my chair.

Oh. And the floor. It's still bare. Even barer, if it's possible, as I spent most of yesterday afternoon crawling around on it taking out staples!

2006-11-16T10:24:00.000Z

Renovations!

Well, now I never have to vacuum that old carpet again! We found these beautiful old floorboards yesterday. They would look so nice sanded and varnished, but I don't know if I can cope with the mess that would make...and we've already picked out the tiles... although we could use them somewhere else in the house. The corridor has been refloored at some point with plywood so I guess that is definitely going to be tiled. My treadle usually sits in the little nook at the bottom of the stairs. She just fits there perfectly.

After ripping up the carpet we decided that was enough hard work and went out for lunch. To Harrods. The Harrods of the North, that is - the Falls of Shin visitors centre, an oasis of civilisation in the middle of nowhere, where you get good lattes and wholesome food. It was very Christmassy, with lights and music. And they were selling Christmas trees outside! The first ones I have seen for sale this year.

After that we headed even further into the wilderness and found Sutherland Game where we bought some venison to go in the freezer for Christmas. If we can restrain ourselves. . .Maybe we should try it out first?

2006-11-15T11:36:00.000Z

Worked hard all day yesterday, and this is what I have to show! I hope the recipient likes the colours. I still have quite a lot of work to do on it, hand finishing and all important ragging. I will maybe get some of the work done today, although Dh is at home - he doesn't work on Wednesdays - and we usually find something to do together.

What with all the sewing yesterday, I didn't get a chance to even start cutting the log cabin strips. But that will keep!

2006-11-14T11:16:00.000Z

Most of yesterday was spent playing with my tiny stash, working out what fabric to put in the raggy quilts for my customer (such a thrill, still, that someone likes my quilts enough to comission some). I settled on some lovely, almost duck-egg blue for one, and will use up some shabby pink floral stuff for the other. Unlike before, it was all washed and neatly ironed before I cut it. I am learning a little. And I have cut about half of the chenille I need, so preparation-wise I'm nearly there. I do hope the new featherweight will sew chenille.

After all that I didn't get around to cutting the fabric for the 'real' quilt - so I have that to look forward to today - if I am brave enough.

Here's Sookie 'helping' me organise the new fabric after it was ironed yesterday afternoon.

Cathi shared her "new" treadle and I immediately had to rush off and take a photo of mine to share. I love my treadle machine! It was a present to my grandmother from my grandfather who I never met, after they were married (the story goes that she was not pleased with this old machine, and wished she had the new one she had had to leave behind in Scotland). I have always loved it, ever since the time I was so small that all I could do was play with the pedal, and had no idea that that was what she made my clothes on (because, of course, she always put it away when we came to stay). I have made on it my wedding dress, all the curtains for the first house we lived in after we were married, and about half the curtains for this house - until I learned how to make raggy quilts, and lost interest in curtain-making!!!

And, while I'm thinking about old sewing machines, here is a little Kimball & Morton machine I picked up when I lived in Glasgow - they were made there about 1900. It is more temperamental, and sometimes I can't get it to work at all.

2006-11-13T10:49:00.000Z

Here's most of the fabric for my new project. It's going to be a log cabin quilt. I am so excited, and will be using the featherweight to piece it so I have something to quilt as soon as possible! Been practicing hand quilting over the week end, so don't have much to show, but here are some other photos that might be of interest:

This is my small haul from the quilt shop. Dh took me on Saturday- how nice to be driven- it must be nearly 70 miles there and back and was a grey autumn trip.

To recompense, I went with him yesterday to Dunkeld ( a 3 hour drive from here) where he spent the morning making someone else's Discovery very muddy. I had reservations about going, and almost stayed home, but it turned out to be such a lot of fun, courtesy of Land Rover. Perthshire was so beautiful in the autumn sunshine. My only regret is forgetting to take my camera!

And here is the weekend progress on my latest Noah piece. Debbie Mumm's Noah fabric was, in a roundabout kind of way, the catalyst for me starting to quilt (that is a story for another day). I love the colours, and the boldness of the design. Of course the whole "two by two" part of the message has got lost, but I still love the line.

2006-11-11T10:20:00.000Z

Great news! When I checked my email at bedtime I had a surprise email from someone I had sold a couple of quilts to in the summer. She loves them and wants to give some more as Christmas presents!

Photo is not good, but here is one of the raggy quilts she has:

I am so happy that someone likes my stuff! Now all I have to do is think up some more ideas...

2006-11-10T10:50:00.000Z

She's here! She came yesterday. By 2pm I had given up on getting any mail yesterday, and went into town on some errands. I wandered in the library and went to the shop, and it was sunset by the time I got home. Checked the mailbox on the way into the house - there was the card! So I weighed it up (briefly), and made another 13mile round trip back into town and - here she is! !

She sews beautifully. Before dinner I made some little muslin bags for sprouting seeds in, out of left-over curtain stuff. Then I found an old pattern and made one of these:

Then it was 11.30pm and I have no idea what happened to the evening. Total endorphin haze!!

I decided to take part in an online 'swap' of sorts, that is doing the rounds amongst crafting bloggers at the moment. I had been resisting, mostly due to not being confident and being new to blogging. Then I noticed that one of my favourite bloggers, Cathi, was offering to make stuff and all of a sudden I wanted to take part. (I guess that's the world of blog....and I think I have been officially sucked in now!!!) As part of the deal, and to spread the love, as it were, I am offering five small handcrafted gifts to five people who email me..the first five who get in touch. Oh, and to qualify you need to offer to do the same on your own blog. Easy! So - any takers?

2006-11-09T09:42:00.000Z

Time for some sewing...what a lovely thing it is to be able to sew quietly in front of the telly these long dark evenings!
This is one of my first quilt blocks, and of the nine made so far, the colours in this one make it my favouite. I started making these back in september, having recently re-read some of Laura Ingalls-Wilder's books. I found the Dove in the Window pattern on the Quilter's Cache, and then thought about all those 5inch squares that I had bought off ebay for no particular good reason...For a beginner, I think the block is OK. But it won't lie flat. Mil says why does it need to if you're going to put batting in it. But I'm not sure. I will give it a bit of a break, and then review my templates. Maybe they're not quite right.

Still waiting for my parcel to arrive!!!

2006-11-06T12:45:00.000Z

They came, they played with the kittens, chased the hens, picked the last of the apples and raked up our fallen leaves, oogled at our bonfire and strained to stay awake for the fireworks, built sandcastles in the wind on the beach, and then they went. And the house was very quiet all the rest of yesterday.

This is not my doll, but one we found in the loft a few months ago, when we moved here. She was simply the best present a little girl could get, when I was small. Obviously loved very much, someone had put her away in the loft in a box of children's old things - because she might be useful one day...and forgot about her when they moved away. I rather suspect they have missed her by now - I don't know who they are or where they have gone - but Tiny Tears made a little girl very happy yesterday.

2006-11-03T11:57:00.000Z

Here they are, the very last of the sunflowers which I picked in the sunshine this morning.

Yesterday I was seduced by ebay to purchase a secondhand featherweight. It's pretty much brand new, and wasn't expensive even though I couldn't wait and "bought it now". It's my first electric sewing machine. I'm so excited and I just can't wait for my parcel to arrive.

My sister and her family are coming for the weekend so I must prepare the house for a four and a two year-old -- remove the dog hair and dust and LOCK THE UPSTAIRS WINDOWS. And make a huge pot of hearty soup. Weather permitting, we will celebrate the 5th tomorrow.