Still no quilting done here, so this picture is of another braided one I made. This one was for my sister, and caused me all sorts of problems while I was quilting it. So much so in fact that Husband reckoned I'd actually quilted it twice before it was finished. Still, Sister loved it. It was my first time of using a jelly roll too, and I love them now, they make life so much easier when you're making this type of quilt.

Remember my "plans" for Friday? That long afternoon I was going to have all to myself? Uh-huh, you guessed it. It didn't happen like that. Son-in-Law phoned in the morning to offer to come and help Husband paint our back fence. Husband had a hospital appointment, so wasn't going to be around but Son-in-Law said he could do it on his own. Well, this fence has needed doing for a while now. Remember when blue was THE colour to have your fence? Back in 2000? That's when we moved up here, and yep, I painted the whole fence blue. BIG mistake. I must have done it really well, cos it's lasted. Unfortunately, it doesn't cover up easily though when you want to make your wooden fence look like a wooden fence again. Poor Son-in-Law spent most of the day trying. Some panels got 3 coats, and still the blue shows through. Not sure what we're going to do now. I think Husband's plan is to but some cheap paint-stuff and slap a thick coat on it all with a brush rather than spraying, and then try again with the spray thing next year.

Then Archie brought the rest of the Nomads round to see what was going on, Husband got home, and that, as they say, was that.

oh I'm soooo busy

Prevaricating? No, not me!

I have added another blog to my list, that I am sure some of you will really enjoy. Mary is a fantastic longarm quilter, and also makes fantastic scrap quilts that even I love! Sewali, DO NOT GO HERE, there's scrappy and there's feathers!

and a picture:

Since my ramblings over the past couple of days haven't really warranted photos I thought I'd post one of a quilt that Bilbo referred to the other day. After all, this blog is meant to be about quilting and other things, not other things and quilting. It's a combination of several patterns from the French Braid Quilts book. I can't quite remember who wrote it, but I can find out if anyone wants to know.

The best laid plans........

You know what they say about those? Remember my New Year's resolution (made yesterday?). I tried, I really did, but....To be fair to myself, I did do one thing on the list. I took Dad to the garden centre and we found him some pots. That's just reminded me, they're still in the boot of the car, and they're heavy. I think his gardener is due today, so perhaps he can get them out. Anyway, back to my resolutions. Then I remembered something I had to do that wasn't on the list, so I did that. Then I (almost) finished the reference. It's one of these where they ask really deep questions about a person's motivation etc and then give you 2 lines to answer in. And there's 2 1/2 pages of it. I've regressed to my schooldays for this, and I'm doing it "in rough" first. Today I must transfer it to the form. The phone rang. It was Son, who is currently on holiday with his family and they were about to go on a train ride on a steam train so he wanted to tell his father all about that, then had a chat with me. Then I started back on the pattern, but was saved by the bell. The doorbell. Husband opened the door and there were the Nomads again. They took Archie for a walk and seemed to end up on our doorstep. That was the rest of the afternoon gone. It was great to see them, specially as it stopped me doing things I really didn't feel like doing anyway. I did a bit more to the pattern in the evening and that's nearly finished now too. So, can I cross "nearly finished" s off the list, or is that cheating?

What about today? Well, it's a beautiful morning so I think when I've showered and generally got ready to meet my public I might go sit in the garden and finish the "unquilting" I was doing the other day. Did someone mention ovens? No surely not. I'll just plan meals that don't need me to open the oven door for now.

Husband has a hospital appointment this afternoon, so although it means an early lunch and therefore a short morning, it also gives me a nice long afternoon.

I'm seriously thinking of making another resolution. Not to make "to-do" lists. They put me on a guilt trip, and who needs that? On the other hand, with my memory, I just might forget things and then they'll never get done........

A (late) New Year's Resolution

I must stop prevaricating!

I have a list of things to do, and I keep not doing them, but finding other things instead. At the moment I have to:

• finish writing up a pattern for Leaves Around the Cabins
• finish writing a reference for someone
• sort out backings for about 4 quilt tops I want to put on the frame for quilting
• check how much wadding I need to get for the above quilts
• take Dad to buy some pots for a couple of trees he has just had delivered
• clean the oven (yukkk)
  

I'm sure there's other things too, but I can't remember them at the moment.

I'm hoping that by listing them here I might shame myself into doing some of them SOON.

Yesterday I had to go down to my sister's to meet the conservatory builder for a snagging and final payment meeting. I also arranged for someone to come and quote/measure up for blinds for her. That's all sorted now, so I shouldn't need to go again for a while. I'm a bit tired today as it's over 300 miles round trip, and these days I'm not used to driving those sorts of distances.

Perhaps I should have a lazy day and start my new year resolutions tomorrow? (gg)

What on earth.................

.................am I doing?

Bank Holiday weekend

We don't go out over bank holidays cos everyone else does. The weather has been gorgeous, but now it's raining again. This afternoon the Nomads arrived on our doorstep again. The nomads are daughter, son-in-law, kids and dog. Husband nicknamed them that when they got their dog, Archie, as they take him out for a walk and usually seem to end up here, so he reckoned they were wandering nomads with no home! Anyway, today was no exception, and here is a photo of them and grandson having a rest after a long walk.




And here is a photo of Archie. He loves coming here cos we usually have a bone or some such treat for him. He's only 6 months old, and already BIG. He doesn't like staying still, which is why son-in-law is holding him. Archie thought it would be much more fun to try get to the camera and eat it!













Tomorrow I'll try and show you what I have been working on today and meantime I hope everyone has had a good holiday weekend.

At last.....................

............it's finished, and here's the photo to prove it. This quilt is going to be called BarJelly, cos it was meant to be made from a jelly roll. It is not quilted yet, but is so busy, that an allover-meander type pattern is what I'll do on it.

I will never make another bargello quilt, and if anyone ever hears me thinking of doing so, please remind me of this one. Thank you.



Meanwhile, I have at least learned to use the new camera, so I think I deserve this cappuccino. Even if I haven't quite mastered putting photos where I want them on here!

Widgets

I obviously have far too much time on my hands and far too little to do! I keep finding these really cool widgets to play with, and I can't resist adding some of them to my blog, so on Thursday I added a counter which shows how many visitors come to look at my blog, and today I found one which shows the country my visitors have come from but I don't know who they are though. I also have got 2 followers now!

We have bought a new camera, so now all I have to do is use it. It has got a lot of features which I will probably never use, but I think I can also set it to bimbo-mode and just point at things and press the button. I'll try it later and hopefully you'll then see photos again.

I am feeling much better today, so now I'm off to try and finish putting the bargello top together before the Grand Prix qualifier starts.

Early start

Today I had a very early start - ugh!! This is not something I am used to any more. I thought I had given up early mornings when I gave up work. Not so today. I was up at 6.30. Husband's car had to be taken for its service, and I thought it had to be at the garage for 8 am, but it was actually 8.30 so I could have had another half an hour in bed. Anyway, as he didn't arrange for them to collect it and then bring it back, it meant I had to go with him, bring him home again, wait till they phoned (a couple of hours later) then take him back to pick it up. Anyway, it's all done now.

I did think I might do some sewing, but I am exhausted again today, after having another of my "funny turns" yesterday. When I had the first one, it was just after eating soup with spinach in, and yesterday I also had spinach, so I am wondering if I have suddenly developed an allergy to it? I hope not, I love the stuff. I shall try some more in a couple of days time and see if there is any effect.

I think we are going to give in and buy a new camera. We could send ours off to be repaired, but we have found another one (Canon again) with a better spec, for about what it would cost to have ours repaired, so that would seem to be a bit of a no-brainer to me.

I thought the weather forecast told me that it was going to be better today, but it isn't. It has tipped it down (again) this morning, and there are some very big "puddles" around to make driving unpleasant.

The other day Colin booked us another "Grand Day Out". This time it is a steam-hauled trip over the Settle to Carlisle route, which is supposed to be beautiful. We will have about 2 hours in Carlisle I think. Like last time, we will be going 1st class with silver service breakfast, lunch and dinner. I hope the catering is as good as the last trip we did. Anyway, we are going sometime in August and I am looking forward to it. We'll have to have a new camera before that day!

The Best Laid Plans

Well, off I went yesterday to Mrs PennyPot for a day of chatting, sewing, eating......well, you know the sort of thing. I even remembered to dig out the old camera so I was all prepared and I took along the bargello quilt to finish.

You know what they say about the best laid plans? It's true. We did some sewing and chatting, and another friend who was there did some painting. We had a super lunch. Mrs PP had made my favourite soup (Pond soup) with a lovely salad to follow. After lunch I had a really "funny turn" and felt so bad I decided I had to come home. When I got home I went to lie down and then dozed my way through the rest of the day. This morning I felt fine. In fact, it was a strange day, Mr PennyPot had toothache/sinus trouble, Mrs PennyPot was also unwell and Friend 3 was definitely under the weather too. Needless to say, there are no photos of the day.

On a brighter note, we went out for lunch today with my father. We went to a pub in a village about 5 miles away which has a good reputation, and I now know why. We had carvery main course and a dessert for £6 per head. Their main menu is humungous. To give you an idea, I got as far as page 8 and was still reading. It was a fabulous meal, and we will definitely go there again. The place is called the Swan, and if you want to see their menu, here is a link to it: www.swanaberford.co.uk.

We also heard yesterday that Daughter-in-Law got a new job . Many congratulations DDIL.

Note: hmm, why didn't the link I put in work? I'll have to go and think about that, but meanwhile, sorry to anyone who tried it - I'm a failure, but I'll try and do better next time.

Where have I been?

You may well ask. I have been here all the time, but I have had a chest infection which has meant I really haven't felt like doing anything at all for the past week. Today I am feeling better. I have just discovered a really cool little gadget to add to my blog called Weather Pixie. Isn't she great? Her clothes change with the weather reports, which I think is really clever.

In my last post I said that I had started my bargello quilt. I got about three quarters of the top done before I got this chest thing, and I hope to finish it next Monday when I am going to Mrs PennyPot's for a sewing day. I don't think I will ever make another bargello quilt. There are LOTS of seams. The smallest piece is about 1" by 1" and the biggest is 3 1/2" by 3". That's a lot of pieces and a lot of seams to press. Still, it is a pattern I had wanted to try for a long time.

There are no photos on this posting because our camera has decided to play up. I hope it's nothing too serious, but when it's turned on, the viewing screen shows very wavey images and when you take the picture, it doesn't come out. Oh dear, time to look for a new camera I think.

The Husband was exhibiting a model at the model engineering exhibition in Harrogate last week. I was also going to put a photo here of the model, but the camera problems have put the kybosh on that too.

Due to all the computer problems we have had recently, we have now decided to take out some "insurance" against losing all our data and software again, so we have just bought an external hard disc which has enough memory to divide into 3 so we can keep backing up all 3 computers on to it. Hopefully, that way if we ever have to do factory resets on any of them again, it will be straightforward to then restore the software and the data.

I have recently been asked to write the pattern for my Leaves Around the Cabins quilt, and I have started it, but feeling like I have done has meant that anything I have written is suspect as I just couldn't seem to concentrate or think straight - no comments thank you - so I guess I'd better have another coffee and get back to doing that now.

This and That

It's 7.30 on Saturday morning, the sun's shining and all's well in my world, well, sort of. The Son, Daughter-in-Law and Grandson 3 were supposed to have been coming up this morning for the weekend, but have had to cancel as The Son has something wrong with one eye and couldn't safely drive 180 miles. That was a disappointment as we were looking forward to seeing them.

I think I have now decided how I want to quilt Raspberries and Cream. I had an idea in my head of what I wanted to do,but it involved feathers in a sort of square with concave sides. I spent a long time yesterday on the internet searching for the right pattern and couldn't find it. I was even having ideas like "I wonder if my friend Bilbo could give me an on-line lesson on how to draw beautiful feathers?". Then, suddenly, I found it. The perfect pattern. Where? I had it all the time. Duhh!!

I am now thinking about how to quilt my True Scrappy, but haven't come up with anything yet. I'll have to make a decision in the next day or so, as I am planning to set Big Bertha up again next week to quilt several tops, including this one.

Meanwhile I am making a bargello quilt from a jelly roll. I have never made one before, so I am following a pattern very carefully. At the moment I can't see where the instructions are taking me, but I am sure it will all fall into place soon.