Dear Diary

My husband just read some of my blog.

"It's good you doing this isn't it."

"Yes" I said, "Not that many people will read it, it's a bit like a diary, but without the self indulgent bits like "Dear Diary, My life is c***!"

Progress

Here is my Winter Mini-Quilt , almost finished.

I need to stitch the birds feet, and I'm going to do a bit of "feathering" on their bodies.

I love the lettering, the font is Viner Hand ITC, though I did not enjoy doing the blanket stitch around them.

I also need to do a label for the back, and hope to attach a hanging sleeve.

I am taking it to a meeting on Wednesday evening for "Show and Tell" so will send to my swap partner via DHL on Thursday.

I have decided to join in with Heidis Postage stamp Quilt along. I have dug out all those fabrics that I like but haven't a project lined up for them, some of which I have had for ages. I have started cutting the strips. I've cut about 180 so far as per her instructions. I also have quite a few fabrics that are not 21" wide, and have cut some strips of those as well. May as well use them up. I need to decide if I am going to use white or cream, or another colour for inbetween the prints. We have 2 cats who spend lots of time snoozing on the beds with dirty feet, so I don't think I want to use white, even though that would be my first choice.

Wookey Hole and Scones.

What a funny name - Wookey!.
Before we went away I said that I had looked at the Wookey Hole website and I thought it was a bit commercial for us. Well I take it all back. We went on Thursday, it was £54 for a family of 4 to get in, which is quite a bit. But it was good. There was a guided tour of the caves, and then quite a lot of other stuff to look at.
I must tell you about the Circus.

There are weekly classes where young people can learn circus skills, and they perform a Circus show at weekends and during the holidays, and they were so good. Really good, supple young people. Megan was on the trapeze swing, and there were 3 girls who performed on the ribbons, amongst other acts. I felt a bit choked during the performanace - it was so good seeing young people performing at a high standard.
Joseph my 11 year old used to say that he wanted to work in a circus when he grew up, which I thought was quite funny as he would never ever have his face painted. Somewhat a pre-requisite for a clown don't you think. I think he is over it now.

This is the mirror maze.
The Glastonbury trip was good - quite a way to go and the B&B was a bit basic. We stayed 3 nights. I can honestly say that it's the only B&B we've ever stayed in where the bed wasn't made whilst we were out. Don't you think that that's lazy? Not recommended.

This is the Abbey ruins.

The day before we came back a friend in our village texted us to say that the snow had descended and even her 4 by 4 had got stuck. Thankfully the roads had cleared by the time we got back on Friday, but more snow is forecasted. My new rear wheel drive car is rubbish in the snow so I'm not looking forward to it. But I have made the most of it by doing some snow dyeing. As blogged by Joan on moosestashquilting.blogspot.com.
The dyed snow ( and fabric) is in the kitchen now - I need to go and check on it. Not enough melted yet.
The boys are back at school tomorrow - last week was half term so it's now back to normality - what ever that is.
My mum and step dad came round for tea toninght, just a bread and butter tea, with Cheese and Courgette scones, and pancakes for pudding. We missed out on pancakes on shrove Tuesday.

I've done a little more to my Mini Quilt - here I am stitching the feeder. I've quilted it all over. I'm not overly impressed with my stippling on the sky, but I am happy with stiching on the snow. I need to bind it and applique the words on. I can start that on Tuesday evening.
One boy in bed, the other is in the shower. I need to check on socks and clean shoes for the little one, then I need to log on to work to do a few things tonight. Hopefully that can coincide with an hour of trashy telly viewing ( Being Human) before bed. I need to go in early tomorrow. I get in early every Monday but tomorrow ideally I need to get in 7.30 ish as I have reports to produce for a meeting that has been bought forward from 2pm to 10.30 am. I am a little concerned that I won't be able to spring out of bed at 6 - 6.15 as my back has been troublesome for a few months and much worse last week. I will have to see a physiotherapist asap. In fact I ought to dig out my health care paperwork tonight.

Winter Mini Quilt received.

I am the proud owner of this lovely Winter mini-Quilt from Berit in Norway.
It's a lovely comical deign, Berit has used variegated thread which adds to it's charm.
She has also sent me a Calendar and some tea. Thankyou very much Berit, I love it.
I haven't really ventured into applique quilts - I hope to do so if I can think freely enough .

My work is more controlled, and I would like to do more free spontaneous work. I don't give myself time to play. My quilting time is limited so I feel it all has to count. I get very disapointed if I feel it has been wasted. The last Friday night sew in is a case in point. I steamed ahead, yet it has come to a halt as the initial design wasn't working. So I need to spend more time re-thinking.

Just been to the door...

Neighbour has handed me a parcel from Norway that he had taken in whilst I was away ...... just making a cup of tea then I will open it - soooo exciting !!!! it'll be my swap winter mini Quilt. ...will report back with photos soon..

Friday night sew - in

Just got back from the trip away. I may manage to sew tonight - my husband is busy getting stuff together for a workshop that he is teaching tomorrow, so may have some time to myself.

Winter Mini Quilt

Yesterday we went to the Think Tank in Birmingham. It had lots of hands on experiments to do. Here is a picture of the boys concentrating. Quietly. Oh Bliss. Mini- Quilt - I spent two evenings handsewing the Great Tit whilst watching TV. Here he is.

I drew up a plan on paper so I could carefully cut up my remaining blue fabric.

and here is the Blue Tit pinned in it's place.

Some of the seams done, Great tit on it's branch.

Company. This is the sleek handsome boy cat - Itchy.

Pieced.

Now I need to sandwich it, quilt it and add a few details by hand - feet for instance.

But we are going away tomorrow so now I need to sort out the car and do a few other jobs. I am unlikely to be able to participate in Friday night Sew-in as we come back Friday night. But at the weekend I'll be able to carry on.

I have enjoyed piecing these birds - I'll do one to keep.

Beautiful little birds.

Here is the state of play -

Blue tit is nearly done - I need to put a bit more sky round him then join the head to the body.

I have chosen the fabric for the feeder.

I have draw the Great tit from this photo. I photocopied my drawing making a mirror image, then I copied it onto the foundation piecing paper I have. This time I put 2 birds on a sheet to be a bit more economical. I will need to do the bird in 4 parts - head, back neck, body and tail. I've started the body. I need to decide how fat I want him, so I'll probable do the head and tail sections next then come back to it's tummy.

2 steps forward, 1 step back- unpicker needed!

I thought I would fulfill an obligation to make a "Christmas block". Here are a few photos, I thought it was going rather well....until I put it all together and noticed some squares aren't at the same angle as the others. So unpicking is required...... I'll do that tomorrow night and hopefully will be able to post it to it's new owner soon.

We had a really good Saturday. We had visitors - Maria from Marias' Patch and her husband and daughter ( 8 months old) came over for a walk and for tea. It must be hard work conversing in a foreign language for nearly 5 hours - well done you 2! We enjoyed your company and Jana is absolutely delightful. We hope to see you again before you go back to Spain. Lovely Maria even bought me some FQs - more than generous seeing as she is having difficulty finding fabric shops in Leicester. In fact I really out let Maria loose on my Novelty fabrics box to see if she could use any in a Quilt for Jana.

Tonight Joseph wanted me to download some MP3 tracks. So I purchased 10 tracks and clicked "Download All". It got so far then just hung. So I hit cancel. I am now trying to download just 1 track on it's own, and that is stuck too. Bloody computers, I hate them sometimes. Note that it's MY evening that will be spent trying to download the s*dd*** things, just what I want after a day at work .I want my own time!!!!!!!!

Moan moan moan - and theres a huge wasp flying round the kitchen ceiling. Had one in here yesterday so I have to wonder where they are coming from. We had a moth invasion a while ago, they were Wax Moths living in some of our bee keeping frames that had been left in the utility room. Husband has just got up for a second attempt to catch the wasp. "Grrrr, come on - I'll swat you!" Ah - stunned wasp has been deposited out the front door, as was last nights, so if it is the same one I guess it already knows the way back in!

Boys having fun on Sunday. They've both had a haircut today.
Oh, the single track download has just timed out!!

Harley Davidson

I have ordered some Harley Davidson logo fabric from the States ( from ebay) with the intention of making a few Morsbags for some Harley riding friends. Even Harley riders have to do supermarket shopping sometimes. My husband, being a man, doesn't want one and would rather use plastic bags, as he says we need a few to line the waste bin.

My bird no 1 is progressing. I've started the Blue Tit, foundation piecing. Done the head and the tummy so far. I may do a Great Tit as well, I need to draw out the pattern and see what will fit - here is the first sketch - I need to tweak it.
Having let the last Mini-Quilt absorb so many hours of sewing time I need to keep this one under a bit more control.

Winter Mini-Quilt

I now have decided upon my design for my mini-quilt. We have even less time to do this one than the Fall mini-quilt!

I will try to get it to a stage that I can post a photograph - at the moment it's just in the design stage. I am planning on doing a picture of a Blue Tit or a Great Tit at a feeder. We are fortunate to have lots visit our feeders so can see them everyday. I have found a picture that I can use, and I need to spend a bit of time drawing it out. I am going to do a foundation pieced picture. I will have to use whatever fabrics I have - the bird won't be a problem but I might need to rummage deep down for a suitable "peanut feeder" fabric!.

And I am feeling much much better - no sneezing at all since Tuesday so I am fully operational in body and brain!

We have planned a trip to Glastonbury in the half term. Glastonbury is probably well know now due to the Festival that takes place each year - the biggest green field music and arts festival in the world. However that is in June (it is often muddy) , we are not going for that, we are going for the beautiful countryside and to explore the town and surrounding area.

The towns website - http://www.glastonbury.co.uk/ gives a bit of the history. I quote "There are legends of The Isle of Avalon as the place of the dead. A sacred burial ground and later a druidical college. Legends tell us of the arrival of Joseph of Arimathea after the crucifixion of Jesus and as we move into historical times we see the great Benedictine Abbey of Glaston dominating the town.
Through archaeology we can see something of the early history of Glastonbury. The Tor and some of the surrounding land was an island joined to the mainland by a narrow peninsular. The island was surrounded by tidal marshes which gave good natural protection.
In Neolithic times there were people living in Lake Villages near the island but there seem to have been few if any resident inhabitants. The island appears to have been treated as sacred place from the earliest days.
In the middle ages we see Glastonbury emerging as great centre of pilgrimage. The reason for the importance of this small town in a remote part of Somerset was partially the ancient tradition of the Isle of Avalon as a sacred site and partially the Christian history and tradition personified by the great Benedictine Abbey. The heart of the Abbey was the Abbey Church where the choir monks lived a life of prayer complemented by writing, teaching, illuminating manuscripts, caring for the sick and poor and looking after the pilgrims visiting the monastery. These activities were supported by the secular work of the monks, the managing of their land and farms. All this was in turn supported by the town - by the shopkeepers, farmers, craftsmen and professionals of every kind. "

It has so much history - I love the idea of living in a Lake Village. I did a degree in Anthropology many years ago and am interested in Material Culture.

We will be near to Bristol, Bath and Wookey Hole Caves. I'm sure the boys would like to visit the caves. Hmm, just looked at the website - looks a bit "commercial" for my liking. http://www.wookey.co.uk/.
Whatever we do it will probably be a good 4 days - it'll take about 3 - 4 hours to drive down there so I hope for a fairly early start on the Tuesday.

I will have to get my mini-quilt to a stage that I can take it away with me for hand sewing.

Bag Fest.

Oh I have a cold. I have a thick head, and have struggled on at work. It had better only last a few days else I will have to cancel this weekends arrangements.

I took in a Pomegranite to eat at work, what was I thinking of?. I cut it open and the arrangement of the seeds was quite beautiful, but I was at work and didn't feel I could get out my camera to photograph it. As it was I hacked at it with my sharp knife and squirted the juice all over the desk, the keyboard, my eye.....Never before has my anti-bacterial "Foam Hand Sanitiser" had so much use. It has cleaned up my work area a treat. I am thick-headed tired so I guess I will not be going to sewing tomorrow night.

Last Tuesday I did some more on my Yellow, Black and White bag. I have finished the outer. I need to do the lining - I want pockets in it so need to plan it. And I made a second Cockerel Morsbags bag for someone at work.
I had a few hours on Thursday afternoon and I have made a larger version of the Friendship bag ( Rachels' Friendship bag at psIQuilt.com). I am going to give both the small and larger one to my ex sister in law. And last night I made a 3rd Cockerel Morsbags bag for another friend. Making and giving is good.

Tonight I will drag myself home and try to get an early night. I fancy lying in bed listening to the radio. I have a Pure Evoke 3 Digital Radio that records programmes whilst I am out, and I can listen to them whilst I'm doing the cooking, housework, sewing, or drifting off to sleep. It's great, but I am annoyed that Radio 7 is constantly repeating programmes. What do I pay my Licence Fee for!!!.
But between Radio 4 and Radio 7 there is usually enough to listen to.
Recently I bought and downloaded 100 episodes of Hancocks Half Hour for a small prices of £7.95. Most people say "Oh Yes - the Blood Donor, that's the funniest ", but there are lots of really good episodes. One about the Last Bus home is my favourite so far. My eldest boy is 11, he listens to them - I've been transferring them to his MP3. He likes lots of the (harmless ) "Adult" comedies that are on - Hut 33, Cabin Pressure and the like. We caught some Vinyl Cafe a while back - he has some of those on his MP3 .

I say I want an early night, but you and I both know that won't happen. I have Kids!