Cars'n Quilts

OK, you asked for photos of my new car, so here they are. Isn't she beautiful?

Now for the quilty things. This picture shows everything I bought. I was really quite restrained, wasn't I?

Now, I'm sure you'd like to see it all in more detail? Oh OK then, since you insist:

First I bought this wonderful bundle of fabrics which are from a range called Spice Trail.

Then I found a bargain:




Just look at the price of that. £4/metre that worked out at. It was too good to miss, and I was even more lucky cos I found two bundles, so now I've got the backing for a quilt and loads of light cream tone-on-tone to use in quilts.






Then, with Christmas in mind, I bought these.



I have been wanting to make a Christmas quilt for years and I have decided that 2009 is the year to do it. Mind you, I'm not saying that 2009 is the year to finish it!

Still thinking of Christmas, I bought these next:

Sorry, you can't see any more of what's in there cos it's a surprise for Mrs Teacher for Christmas.





I thought these were so cute, they had to come home with me too.

Now I thought I didn't like batiks, but.....



These were such lovely butterscotchy-toffee colours I couldn't resist them





My final buy for the day was this jelly roll.



I just loved the soft, slightly dusty colours in this roll, so it had to come home with me too.





That, much to the relief of my bank manager and my credit card company, was the end of my shopping for the day.

I even know what I'm going to do with some of the things I brought home with me!

The Great Northern Quilt Show

is where I've been today.

Mrs PennyPot and I had a lovely day there. We saw some amazing quilts, some "interesting" quilts and some that you look at and ask "why". No doubt you want to see all my photos? OK, here they are............




...........Did you enjoy that? I'm really sorry folks, but I forgot my camera. We did have to wonder at the judges reasons sometimes for awarding the ribbons as they did. It seemed to me that you could throw together a top, add some gold lame of a couple of sequins and win, but some of the most amazingly executed quilts which were completely traditional did not win anything. I wish we could see the judges' comments, perhaps I'd understand better then.

I did see the quilt Ms QuiltingProlifically entered. It's called Basket Case and you can see it on her blog here.

Sadly, I noticed there were less traders again this year, with a number of my favourites missing, but on the plus side there were also a couple of traders there who have not been in the past. I obviously did do a little shopping while I was there and I'll show you what I bought tomorrow.

I'm off now to put my poor, aching feet up.

I've got it........

.......I picked up my new car this morning. I drove it home, and was very happy with it's handling and comfort. I got back at lunch time, and since then it has been persisting down, and it's been thundering too, so I haven't been able to go out and play this afternoon. Mind you, the manual is a very thick book, so I'll spend some time reading that instead. (It's a big, thick book, but I don't think much of the plot!)

I've done it again!

The Quilting Bloggers site competition also has a small quilts category, so I've entered this quilt in that category. Don't forget, you can go and look, you can go and vote, but you can't go and enter cos I don't want any more competition than there is already!

I've entered a competition.........

..........on-line at the Quilting Bloggers' site. They are having a competition on the theme of nature's best, so I entered Leaves around the Cabins - well now, there's a surprise isn't it? If you want to go see the entries, or enter it yourself, just use the link on my sidebar. If you all enter, by the way, I shall sulk cos it'll reduce my chances of winning!

P.S.

I heard this afternoon that I can collect my new car on Monday morning. So it's really been a good couple of days for me.

Who's a lucky girl then?

Me!!!

Postie came today with this parcel for me.

I was expecting some special popcorn from a friend in the USA,
but when I opened it look what I saw:

Rather more than a packet of popcorn.

In fact there were 4 boxes of popcorn and other things.

There were 3 boxes of CrackerJacks, all in really nostalgic type packaging,







There was also this box of a different type of popcorn.

Of course, I opened one box of the CrackerJacks straight away. (Well, it would have been rude not to, wouldn't it?) It was delicious. Mr Fence tried it too, and between us we demolished half a box in seconds. I took one box into my father, he opened his, tried it, and did exactly the same as us. It's VERY more-ish.

As well as the popcorn, were these gorgeous gifts:

This lovely little notebook will be going in my bag with me wherever I go. It will be so much better than scrabbling round for a piece of paper whenever I am out and want to write something.










The other thing is a brilliant gadget for hanging your bag from the edge of a table when you're out. I don't know about you, but I hate putting my bag on the floor, not just cos of dirt and germs but cos I don't like it being out of sight, so normally I end up cuddling it when trying to drink my coffee or whatever, but no longer.

So now you see why I say I'm a lucky girl. Thank you very, very much Ms Red Geranium.

Alls well.........

........ that ends well.

You will all be very pleased to hear that this morning the postlady appeared on my doorstep with an envelope from the publisher with two copies of the magazine in it. So now I'm happy again!

So, just how stupid can I get?

The answer seems to be:

very stupid indeed.

This morning I made a special trip out in the wild, wet, windy, wintry weather we are "enjoying" here in the UK this August, to buy a copy of the magazine where my pattern has been published. I came home clutching said magazine, made myself a cup of coffee, sat down with the magazine and the coffee, and realised.....

I had bought the wrong one.

Not bad really, since there are only 2 P&Q magazines published here!

A well-deserved rest.........

.....after all the excitements and exertions of the past week, I think we all deserve a rest, so, ever mindful of the fact that this blog is called "Quilt" Times, I thought I'd give you a chance to see some more of my quilts.

This was made in 2004 for my sister, who loves my quilts. Blue and yellow were her favourite colours at the time. Because she uses them all the time, she actually reckons that she wears them out (!) and therefore needs a constant supply of new ones. She's not daft is she?









This was made in 2004 (I think) for Mr and Mrs Teacher. It is cotton fabrics on top, backed by a gorgeous soft brushed fabric. Very snuggly. The design was my own, and it is hand quilted.







I think I made this for myself in 2002. It is another of my own designs and it is made entirely with brushed cotton. I think it was also my first attempt at machine quilting. Nothing adventurous, just straight lines, but it did tell me that I do not like machine quilting!








I adapted this from a commercial pattern because I wanted to try using fusible bias tape. It is a centrepiece for a table which I called Going Round in Circles. It was made in 2004.







I liked the pattern, so then I made this one in Christmas fabrics. Showing great originality, I called this Going Round in Christmas Circles!







I was in Christmas mode by now, so then I made these placemats. The design was my own, and they are all the same, and all made from a collection of 6 or 8 christmas fabrics. All I did was to make one with 3 fabrics, and then make another with the same 3 fabrics in different places. The "reversed" mat can be seen underneath the original. The 2 mats at the left were made for The Professor and Chatterbox with children's fabrics. This year I'll need to make another one so that Little Person has one too.




Luckily I finished all of these by mid-December, because by the 18th I was in hospital having my gall-bladder out! I vowed then never to leave my Christmas quilting till the last minute, but guess what? I still do.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing these quilts, because I've got loads more for you to look at in the future.

Well, guess who won?

.....and it wasn't the dealer!

When I didn't hear from them by lunch time, I rang to tell them to forget it, but the salesman was with a customer, so I left a message to call me. Then I sat and waited. (sounding familiar?) 2 hours later, he hadn't called, so I left another message. I was pretty cross by then. Oh, OK, that's an understatement, I was VERY cross by then. I rang another branch of the same company and was told they had exactly what I wanted (you remember, a certain spec, that dealer 1 told me the company hadn't got, and if I ordered it, delivery would be December, at the earliest?) So guess where I went this morning? An hour after arriving, I had bought the car I wanted (oh yes, and I even had a choice of colours), for the price I wanted, paid the deposit and was on my way home again. I felt that I had been treated like an adult this time, there was no posturing. The salesman came up with figures, I said no and told him what I wanted, he checked with his manager, and said OK. Simple! So by this time next week, I should have a new car. Whooppee. Guess which garage I'll go to in the future?

See? Told you I would not be beaten!

PS Tomorrow I'll post photos of more quilts, just in case you're thinking I might have forgotten what this blog is supposed to be about.

How to Waste Time......

........ as I promised yesterday, here is a lesson about how to waste half a day!

Go to a garage and try to buy a new car.

I don't need a new car. Mine is less than 2 years old, with a mileage of 5500. BUT I wanted a new car. Actually I wanted this particular new car;

I already have a Honda Civic hybrid, and this is the Insight hybrid. I had A figure in my mind, as the maximum I would pay so, yesterday morning, off I went to the Honda dealer. Luckily, I had put dinner in the Slow Cooker before I went.

When I got there, they had 2 available. One was a very top of the range demonstrator, and the other was a brand new almost bottom of the range one. I wanted the model that was one step down from the top. So now begins the pantomime.

Salesman pops up and finds out what I was looking for. He knew my current car - well he should, he sold it to me 18 months ago! But, we still have to go through it. I tell him what I'm looking for. He shows me what he has. I don't listen - I know what I'm looking for. In the end, I know that really either of the cars he had might be OK, so I ask him for a PX valuation. That's when it really starts. Up till now we've just been playing. He goes off to look at my car. I sit in showroom and wait. He comes back and returns keys and goes off to work out figures. I sit and wait. He comes back with figures, having added in all sorts of things I didn't want, like extended warranty, internal and external "scotchguarding", etc. I don't like the figures. He goes off to talk to his manager. I sit and wait. He comes back with his manager and slightly revised figures. I don't like them. Manager and salesman go off to try and do better. You know what I'm doing. They come back. I still don't like their numbers. I tell Manager in words of one syllable exactly what I am prepared to pay, and that if we can't get to that I'm walking. Manager goes off to phone his area manager. I.. well I'm still sitting. He comes back, having got close to my figure, but still not there, so I walked. That all took three and a half hours.

Why, I ask, can't we cut out almost all of the silliness, they tell me their "well-it's-worth-a-try-someone-might-go-for-it" price, I say no, they tell me their real price and that's it. It makes me so mad.

I think the garage were surprised when I left without buying! Ha, don't mess with me! This afternoon I had a phone call from the salesman to see if I'd changed my mind. I told him I hadn't, especially as neither of their cars were actually the model I really wanted. He's going to talk to his manager tomorrow and see if they can find anything else within their group. I told him which of their group did have what I wanted and suggested they follow that up.

I WILL NOT BE BEATEN BY A CAR SALESMAN!

Choo, choo...........

.....well, I left you reading the menu for breakfast, so here I am to tell you lots more about the day.
Here's Mr Fence sitting at the station, waiting for the train and probably dreaming about breakfast.

Here comes the train, hurrah.

Only kidding. This was at Carlisle station, isn't it cute?

This is a look at our carriage as we walked in, and a picture of breakfast (well some of it anyway)

Off we went and were happily eating our way through some great scenery in Yorkshire on our way to Carlisle. Unfortunately, there was a problem. They must have been giving us all too much tea and coffee, because we stopped as the engine had run out of water. We were only about 5 miles from our scheduled stop to take on water, but there was no way we would get there. There were lots of groans when we were told we might have to be pulled the rest of the way by diesel. But, no, the fire brigade came to our rescue. They came out with sirens and blue lights, and. most importantly a hose and a pump.

Our driver had very cleverly stopped on a bridge over the river, so the firemen ran their hose from the water to our engine and got enough water in to get us to the proper water stop. We were delayed for about an hour and a half, but why would we mind? We were comfortable, and we had plenty of food and coffee or tea on board, and some beautiful scenery to look at.

Then we were on our way again, and it must be lunch time by now? Lunch was a Ploughmans which was tasty and not too heavy.

The scenery was beautiful, but it's impossible to get decent photos through the window of a train, so you'll just have to take my word for it I'm afraid.

When we arrived in Carlisle, we didn't have much time, and so went for a short walk. I must say I was less than impressed with what I saw of Carlisle!

After an hour it was time to get back on the train. I managed to get a photo of the chef in the tiny area where he worked to produce this superb food for us.
Now we're off on the homeward journey with more stunning views out of the windows and a fabulous dinner to look forward to. We saw loads of sheep and cows on both journeys, and on the way home we had a good view of a herd of deer and loads of flocks of geese.

This was the main course for dinner:
as well as the chicken, the starter was crabcake with a chilli sauce, pudding was sticky toffee pudding with caramel sauce and this was followed (if you had room) by cheese, biscuits, grapes, coffee and chocolate!

Now I'm on a diet - well I'm not actually, but I jolly well should be!

And this is the engine that took us on this great journey:
Tomorrow I'll tell you how I wasted half a day at a Honda dealership!

To everyone who is waiting to hear about my trip....

..... I apologise for the delay in posting. Life has just got in the way for the last couple of days, but I hope to post tomorrow.

Just to whet your appetite: breakfast was Bucks Fizz, choice of porridge, cereal, melon or muesli. Followed by either kippers or a plate of cholestrol (!), toast, tea or coffee.

We still had lunch and dinner to eat.............

All Aboard!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow is our steam powered train trip to Carlisle. Does anyone know of any quilt shops there? (One track mind? Me? No.) I think we will have about 3 hours there so I am wondering what else there is to do that won't involve Mr Fence in too much walking. Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

It's F R E E!

Who wants a free digital subscription for 6 months to Down Under Quilts?

I can't see any catch in it, and I've just signed up for it. The link, for anyone who is interested is http://www.creativelivingmedia.com.au/info/digital. I'm off now to read my first copy.

Yippee, and a question for you all..............

I've just heard from the Editor of Popular Patchwork that Leaves Around the Cabins has made it into the September issue, which will be available at Festival of Quilts from next Thursday.

Being a bit of a big-head, I LOVE seeing my work in a magazine like this!


Now for a question: next month my daughter, Mrs Nomad, is having a significant birthday, and no, I'm not telling you how old, cos it makes me feel ancient. She has decided to have a 1980's themed party (leg-warmers rule OK?) and wants 80's food with it. She doesn't want anything with chicken or prawns in case we poison the guests and so far we've come up with vol-au-vents (but don't know what to put in them, cubed cheese and pineapple on sticks stuck into foil-covered grapefruit halves, cocktail sausages, also on sticks, garlic bread and Black Forest gateau. Can anyone else think of anything else that's appropriate?

Cinnamon Snickerdoodles.

It seems there is some sort of a problem with the last 2 posts, so I have deleted them both and will re-post the recipe again here.

Ingredients:
300 gm or 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
450 gm or 2 cups brown sugar, packed
225 gm or 1 cup softened butter
2 eggs at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla

For the topping:
2 tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon (not sugar, as I originally wrote, sorry all, and thanks Ms QuiltingProlifically for spotting it) mixed together

Optional:
500 gm or 2 1/3 cups cinnamon chips. (Note: I did not add these as I don't think we can get them in the UK. The recipe did not seem to suffer from the lack of them.)

Method:
Preheat oven to 180C or 350F and lightly grease a 9 x 13 inch pan. (Note: don't use a very shallow pan as the mixture will rise during cooking.)
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar then beat in the eggs (one at a time) and vanilla until smooth.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon, add it slowly mixing until well blended.
Stir in the cinnamon chips if using.
Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan and evenly sprinkle over the sugar and cinnamon topping over the batter.
Bake for 25 mins or until the surface springs back when gently pressed. The mixture will rise during cooking. Stay around to enjoy the wonderful smell!
Cool slightly. While still warm, cut into squares and remember to reserve one for me.

These are delicious served warm or cold, with or without cream!

Did you miss me?

Well, I'm back now. I haven't actually been away, just busy with visiting family. Mr and Mrs Teacher and Little Person arrived on Monday afternoon, so we didn't really do much. We made up for it the rest of the week though.

On Tuesday we made some cakes. I had found a recipe online for Cinammon Snickerdoodles (love the name) so we tried them.

Little Person enjoyed the mixing,


but oh dear, look what happened when Mummy and Grandma both turned their backs at the same time. You'd think we'd know better, wouldn't you?





When he saw the finished result he was convinced it was chocolate cake, and couldn't get enough of it. Mind you, we all loved it. They were sort of like a cinammon brownie, and were wonderful.

On Tuesday we went to a place nearby called York Maze. which is a great place to take 3 energetic boys. There is a large maze planted from, would you believe, maize, and I think they do a different design every year. It had been raining (yes, again) overnight, so it was very muddy. We took the other 2 grandsons with us, and all enjoyed ourselves. We were all rather muddy when we got home though!






This is a picture of the boys at lunch time.








Blogger is obviously getting bored with me and my pictures now though, so I will leave the next part until tomorrow, when you can see us at Diggerland.

Here's a question for you..........

............can anyone explain to me why the state of Kansas in the US is pronounced can-sass, but Arkansas is pronounced R-can-saw?

Amazing the things that float through my mind when I'm not busy isn't it?

Visitors

Woohoo!!

Today, Little Person is bringing his Mummy and Daddy, Mr and Mrs Teacher up to see us. I think they are staying until Friday so we'll have to find lots of things to do. I hope the weather is OK as I've already thought of several things, but they all involve being outside, so please, would everybody STOP doing their raindances until next weekend? Thank you very much.

OK, so who's an idiot then?

The answer has to be ME!!

Why?

I have done something so stupid it is almost beyond belief.

"What have you done?" I hear you all cry.

Well, I'll tell you.

It all started earlier today when I was downloading a zip file which contain ed several different files (some text files and some diagrams). Somehow I have changed a setting so whereas before I would automatically save anything as it downloaded, then go back, double click and the zip file opened so I could extract everything, now when I try and open the folder the computer (which obviously thinks it knows better than me) is trying to open in Adobe and says it can't do it which is fair enough. So then I try to change the default program it uses to open my files and it's all gone horribly wrong. I have wasted almost all day trying to sort it, so nothing constructive has been done and I am not happy.

Look what happens.........

..... when I start playing on QuiltPro.

my friend Quilthaze and I were talking about using the Fibonnacci Sequence to design a quilt. The above pictures show what happened when I took a normal Jacob's Ladder block and redrew it using the Fibonnacci Sequence. Both of the above "quilts" are made of 4 blocks by 4 blocks. You can see what Quilthaze took a different approach, and you can see what she came up with on her website.

Archie is growing up

Remember Archie?

Well, he came to stay on Saturday night, and he really made me laugh when I took him out for his late night and early morning constitutionals because he has now worked out that boy dogs are supposed to cock a leg when they need to answer the call of nature. Only trouble is, he now tries to cock his leg and squat at the same time! He looks so funny when he keeps on almost falling over. I hope he gets this worked out soon.

You know me........

......I don't like to complain. (Yes, OK, stop laughing those of you who know me really well!) but I don't think this is good enough.

A while ago I bought a complete roll of wadding. It was one I had used before, and I really liked it. Unfortunately, when I used it on my Leaves Around the Cabins quilt, it bearded. Badly. Very badly. I did not realise just how badly until I took the quilt off the frame when I had finished it. I had used a cracked-ice sort of fabric on the back in a gorgeous rust colour, so it showed. Really, really badly, but I was not about to undo all that quilting.

I have used this wadding a lot in the past, but only ever with light coloured backings, so I don't know if this had been happening all the time with this roll or not.

Anyway, I decided to email the manufacturer about it. I got no reply within about a week, so I emailed again. Still no reply. I emailed for a third time, and then a fourth, with the same response each time.

Guess who won't be using any waddings from this company again? Am I being unreasonable in expecting a reply? Specially in the current economic climate.

So tell me, is it me?

Slideshow

As promised, I have now worked out how to put a slide show on here, so this shows a few Linus quilts I made in 2001 - 2002. There was a Linus day near me, so I went along and started a couple of tops, using donated (mainly orange) fabrics, plus some from my own stash. These are the results. I hope you enjoy them, but be warned.... now I know how to do this, there will be more quilt shows in the future.

More introductions

You've met Little Person (remember my insomnia cure?) who is GS3 (son of my DS and DDIL, Mr and Mrs Teacher) so now I thought it was time for you to meet The Professor, GS1 and Chatterbox, GS2, the sons of Mr and Mrs Nomad.

It's still quiet on the quilting front as this week has been so busy with family things. Tomorrow I am going to lunch with the Ladies Who Lunch. We are all ex-committee members of our quilt group, Tuesday Quilters, and we used to have so much fun as a committee, that we decided we would continue to get together from time-to-time after we resigned from committee duties. This time we are all going to one person's house, taking either a starter, main or pud with us instead of going out.
Next week I am hoping will be a bit quieter, and who knows, I might even have time to get a sewing machine out.
As I haven't really been posting about quilting, and that's meant to be what this blog is about, I am going to try and post a slide show of some of my earlier quilts later today.

New Blogs

Ever wondered what happens round here when I don't want to go quilting, it's raining and I've got some spare time, which I am certainly not going to use to do h****work!

Some of you may have noticed that I have been extending my list of blogs I like to visit. They are almost all quilting sites written by some great people who are fun to "visit". There is some variety in my choices, but they are mainly people who make traditional quilts, and some of them are even people who concentrate on scrappy quilts. (Eeekk, what's happening to me?) It will probably not surprise you to see that one or two of them are mainly about longarm quilting too.

Meanwhile Mr Fencepost (alias Husband) has been painting in the garden again. This time he decided to do the decking, which I must admit did need it. Now I would have popped out, bought a tin of preservative, slapped it on and job done. Mr P is a perfectionist. He has jetwashed and cleaned it all, rubbed all the wood down with sandpaper, and is applying a proper decking paint, - twice!! Talk about making work for yourself. I must admit it's looking good though, even though it's raining now so the 2nd coat isn't going to get done today.

Good news time.....

I forgot to tell you that Husband heard back from the DVLA last week, and they said that as long as his condition doesn't get any worse, he does not have to give up driving. Yayyy.

Quiet Times.

Perhaps I should rename my blog as Quiet Times!

I haven't been doing any quilting recently, I've been far too tired, but I have been reading about it! I got the latest issue of Quilters Newsletter last week. Am I the only one who thinks it has gone right downhill in both quality and quantity? On the other hand, I also bought a new book, called Legacy which I have just started. It is the story of a quilter from Alabama who made between 200 - 300 quilts during her lifetime. The book has been written by her granddaughter, and has lots of factual stuff about her grandmother's life and about her quilts. Just the sort of book I enjoy. I was amazed too at the speed with which I received the book. Amazon did not have it in stock, but several of their partner stores did. I ordered from one of them on Thursday evening, it was posted to me on Friday, and I got it Saturday. Amazon aren't that quick! Anyway, I'm off now to read some of it.

Hope you're all having a good weekend?

Introducing................

..........drum roll please .....................


My son, Mr Teacher. He went for an interview yesterday, and got the job. Hurrah.

Oh botheration.........

I am an idiot - and that's official.

I intended to show two quilts in the Great Northern Quilt Show in Harrogate this September, but, even though someone reminded me, I forgot to send in my application forms in time. How stupid can I get?

The quilts I was going to show, would have been Leaves Around the Cabins (if I got it back from the publisher in time) or Sunny Days and either True Scrappy or My Flannel quilt.

For those who have not seen them before, here are photos of Sunny Days, before it was quilted with an allover 4-leaf clover pattern,








and My Flannel quilt

oops...

Remember this quilt?

It's the mystery quilt I had published last year in Popular Patchwork.

It lives on a chair in the lounge, and a few days ago I was just sort-of looking at it while talking to a friend on the phone, when I suddenly realised that one of the blocks is the wrong way round!

Oh well, no-one's perfect!

Sisters

This afternoon we went to visit my sister, and, most unusually, she agreed to have her photo taken, so here we are, my sister and I.

This evening we went to a barbecue. The weather was very kind to us, and the food was great (especially a trifle someone had made). The garden was big, so Toddler Teacher was able to run around a lot and get rid of some of his energy. He is in bed now, fast asleep, and we are all sitting here feeling very full up.

Celebration!

My son heard today that he has passed his teacher training course. Yeehaa. To celebrate, we went out for a meal this evening. This is a picture of them taken at the restaurant.

Insomnia cure!

I've discovered a cure for insomnia: looking after a very lively 3 (on Saturday) year old grandson!

Here is a picture of my "cure".

I have a feeling his mummy might not be too happy with me when she gets home. We've been playing with water at the kitchen sink, and there is a very wet t-shirt in the laundry and a wet chair in the kitchen now.

Cumbrian Scenery.....

I just can't understand why anyone would want to live in the middle of this, can you? (gg)

I've been travelling again.............

......... and now I'm down south, in St E, to look after Grandson 3 while his mummy and daddy work this week. Posting may be intermittent this week, but I'll try and let you know what I'm up to.

I have brought 3 quilts with me, all of which need the ends sewn in and the bindings sewn down, so I might get something done in the evenings, but I doubt I'll get the chance during the day somehow.

Big Bertha has a sister, Ten Ton Tessie

Until very recently, Big Bertha was the only one of her kind in the UK. (If you want to call her a machine, you must whisper, very quietly, or she'll get upset.) Well, a couple of months ago, her sister, Ten Ton Tessie arrived here. In case you're wondering, Tessie is the spitting image of Bertha. Quite amazing really how alike they look! Congratulations to her parents Lis and Drew. Yesterday, they spent the day bonding together (as I stood by and watched) with the result that after lunch they stopped playing with calico and put a REAL quilt top on their frame. When I left them, they had almost finished the 2nd pass on this top and it was looking great.

What the $%&*.........................

Cos it's so hot, I thought I'd just remind myself of the view out of my front window one day in February.

Honey I'm home!

I have spent a fantastic couple of days in the Lake District with my friend Bilbo. It was only a short visit, but we seemed to pack a lot into the time. On the Monday afternoon she took me on a tour of part of the area. The scenery was amazing, and I have got some photos to share with you, but they are on my camera, and guess where the camera is? Husband has sneaked off with it to his club. How dare he? Anyone would think it was his camera! So I'll have to put the photos on tomorrow.

In the evening she tried to teach me how to draw feathers - she is brilliant, and I am not, but she was very patient with me. Lots of practice needed before I can draw decent feathers I think.

The next day I had a private quilt show. Bilbo has been quilting for about 15 years, and she is a great longarm quilter. She showed me lots of her quilts, probably about 50, and there are still loads more. Some of the quilts were absolutely amazing, but I have to admit that I found her scrappy food themed log cabin was too much for me! A couple of the others however have really inspired me and given me some good ideas. Oh heavens, more time needed in a day. Actually someone once told me how to get more time, and that is that I just have to learn to sleep faster!

The most important thing was that I got to meet her wonderful dog Mr Hairy Four Paws. He definitely does not like this weather.

Now I'm home for a few days, then on Saturday I'm off to a friend for the day to try and help her get Big Bertha's new sister Tessie set up properly. Tessie's suffering from tension problems like I did the other week when I was about to start quilting BarJelly. Let's hope I can help her.

Sunday I am going down to my son's to look after their son for a week while they are at work and their childminder is on her honeymoon, so all in all, I'm quite busy not quilting at the moment.