Into the Unknown!

Right, here we go then - when i was at the quilt festival i saw this lovely pattern and in a mad moment thought, i can do that!

I've never made a skirt before! Anyway i popped down to the local fabric shop - why is it that when i get in there i'm so mesmerized by all the lovely fabric it takes me ages to choose, when before i get in the door i know exactly what i'm looking for! I eventually chose this

the pic does not do the colours justice. So i cut the fabric out yesterday - i forgot to say that its also a lined skirt, with zip, which i have also never done before! Today, somewhen, i'm hoping to make a start on the sewing. So if you should suddenly hear loud screams of frustration, that will be me!

I have an alternative plan though. I bought this at the show also

and this

sorry about c..p pic! So if the skirt is not going well, i can plan another quilt!

Or, plan c, i can practice sewing freehand - when seeing Janet Clare at the festival do this

in a matter of seconds, i thought i'd give it a go - needless to say its nowhere near as easy as it looks, for me anyway!

However, for the moment it looks like this outside

- blue skies, not a cloud to be seen!so am off to do the horses before it rains!

Hope you all have a lovely long weekend.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hyperventilating!!!!

Was soooo excited yesterday - went to the festival of quilts at the nec - wahooo!!! Went with trashy - 2 1/2 hour journey but sooo worth it - the closer we got the more hyper we became!

BUT, not only were we going to be looking and,( possibly (haha) buying fabric, seeing amazing quilts, but we were going to meet these two lovely ladies - Katy and Brioni! (also known as imagingermonkey and flossybossy!)

It was so nice to meet them and they were sooo very lovely and great fun to be with - what was also great is that they are both doing the around the world quilt block swap, so it was fun to compare notes.

When we arrived we didn't dive straight for the fabrics - very restrained for me - we looked at some mini quilts

I did take quite a few pics but i won't bore you with them all!!! Some of the quilts are absolutely mind blowing, and some not so! But even the ones i personally did not like, i had to admire the skill and the huge amount of work put into each one. These are some of the larger quilts. i just loved the simplicity of this red quilt, but the amount of quilting was amazing!

This next one i loved because of its quirkiness - made from recycled paper bags and labels, it was just beautiful

what made it more interesting was this label on the quilt (pointed out to me by Katy!)
my namesake!

I also met the lovely Janet Clare - if you have not heard of her check out her blog and website - she is very talented and a very very nice lady to talk to (and so's her mum!)this is her stand, i just love her quilts and appliqued blankets she made mine and trashy's day when she machined freehand on some woollen blanket, some chickens for trashy and some sheep and chickens for me. I will post pics of these later.

The day went by so fast and i couldn't believe when it was nearly five! So we said goodbye to Katy and Brioni, and how lovely it had been to meet them. Thanks girls for a brilliant day!

2 1/2 hr drive home, exhausted but very, very happy!

Variety is the spice of life!

or so they say! I know we Brits always talk (and moan) about the weather - but at the moment you just never know what to expect. We have had soo much rain that one of my paddocks is like a churned up mudbath and when i went to get the two coloured horses in, they were just plastered in mud!!! The other day it started raining at lunch time and didn't stop for four solid hours, it was just hammering down

there was thunder and lightening too!

But there's always an upside - i took advantage of the enforced stay indoors and finished off some commissions

sorry about the rubbish pic, camera playing up!

and then i did some more crochet squares

these will eventually (i hope) make a blanket - but the speed i go at, and the way i seem to get distracted (never!) with other projects, it may take me a while!

Anyway, the next morning i woke up to brilliant sunshine, so i took my cuppa outside and saw this

they were quite low so i could hear them laughing and then they started waving. Lilly, who has seen balloons before just barked at them, Molly just rushed around wondering what she was barking at until the gas burners went on, on my god she nearly had a heart attack, she had no idea where it was coming from and was looking everywhere to see where the 'monster' was!

Today seems to be turning into a lovely day with this changeable weather the thing that seems to be flourishing , is the garden - everything is growing like made - which is a good thing, as long as i can keep up with it!

so, no more blogging, am off now to pick some veg. Hope you all have a lovely day.

xxxx

Short break

Seems ages since i last did a post - but the days have just sped by! Went away for a few days to a beautiful place - I know this pic is only small, but can you guess where it is - its Lyme Regis. I don't know if any of you have seen the movie'The French Lieutenant's Woman' - it starred Meryl Streep and was set in Lyme Regis with lots of atmospheric scenes shot on the Cobb - which is the bit jutting out into the sea top left of this pic. Needless to say hubby took my photo on this very spot, just a shame i did not have the swirling black cape!

We were sooo lucky with the weather - when we left home it was raining, then just as we got to Lyme the sun came out and it was beautiful.

the top pic is of the town's main high street - there are some lovely little shops to explore, but i was very restrained.

the lower pic is part of the view we had from our hotel garden. it was stunning - our hotel bedroom had the most amazing view of the whole harbour and the cobb and you could just lie in bed and look out at the sea. I was in heaven - i don't know why but i feel the need to be by the sea sometimes - i think it must be good for my soul!

I have to apologise for these pics, they are just ones from a site relating to Lyme ,as i stupidly can't download ones i took- i have some on my phone, but as my daughter is not up yet, i cannot for the life of me see how to download them!!! God, i'm such a technophob!

On the way back from Lyme we called in Weymouth, a very popular family seaside town - i love sitting by the harbour and watching the fishermen and the boats sailing in and out.

As well as going to Lyme, on Wednesday we went to the New Forest Show - again the weather was forecast as horrendous, but we donned wellies and off we went.

we had a lovely day, although it was overcast the rain kept off until we were leaving! We came back with four more ladies than we went with - my lovely friend Ness had been looking for some chickens for ages, a home was waiting for them, with a little picket fence , and within ten minutes of being at the show, she saw just what she had been looking for - so she promptly bought them, and we picked them up on the way out of the show!


So all in all i feel very lucky to have had such a lovely week!

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend.

xx