Poppies

Hello.

I hope you're enjoying the improved weather at the mo.  It's great to see some sunshine.

I thought you might like to see some of the poppies that have overtaken our garden.  We had a bit of a ruthless clear out last night and if it was horizontal it went in the green bin.  Don't worry there are lots left and I'm sure the birds enjoyed all the slugs and snails we exposed.

I ordered some plants and I'm hoping they'll arrive soon so they can fill these gaps.

Anyway. Take care and hope to hear from you soon.

Lionheart Project

Hello all.

I do hope you're enjoying this spectacular weather.  It really seems to have put a smile on everyone's face and a spring in their step.

I thought I'd share this project with you all - I'm sure lots of you have already seen it.

The Lionheart Project.

It's an amazing peice of work.  And the best thing is it's on tour around the courtry.  I'm certianly going to make the effort to have a look.  Let me know if you see it.

Enjoy the sunshine.

Oh and we had some more

Hope you're all well and have had a good Christmas. 

I thought you might like to see what greeted me when I left for work last Wednesday morning.

Mmmmm - it was snowing. Lots.

Some of you may have seen our village on the BBC 24 hour news or the BBC One O'Clock news. I did shout at the TV a bit as they kept saying it was the first snow we'd seen. But why let facts get in the way of a good story.

I did get to work - despite a bit of slipping - but then we all got sent home due to the continued heavy snow and worsening road conditions.

I'm very happy to say at long last the snow has now melted and we can all get out and about.

I hope you've all had a good Christmas. I had some great pressies - very nice books that I'll share with you soon.

I've also almost managed to get rid of my sticking cold - was a little rough but am feeling better as each day goes by.

Anyway - I'll leave you there now and hope to hear from you all soon.

It's back

 Well if you have a look at my last posting with the beautiful sunrise - you can see it looks a bit different today.  Yep - the snows back - and boy is it back.

I'm very bored of it now and would much prefer to be able to get out and about as normal. The trouble in the UK is because it's not cold enough we get rain that turns to ice and then we get snow - whereas in the Scandinavian countries it's so cold it just gets snow - with no rain to turn to ice.

The picture below is what my budlia looked like after the freezing fog lingered for a few days.

I've been lucky that all the items I ordered on line have arrived - and I've only got fresh stuff to get in for Christmas dinner now.

I do realise that we've been much more fortunate than many.

How are things with you all? 

Keep warm and hope to hear from you soon.

Brrrrrr.......

 Hello all,

Apologies for my tardiness at posting. No excuses - I'm rubbish.

 I thought I'd start by sharing a scene from my bedroom window this morning. Spotted by DH.

 And here's a cake I've baked this afternoon for Christmas. It's getting packed onto the freezer very quickly otherwise we'll end up eating it now. It's a pear and ginger one from the BC Good Food magazine.

And here are the 'yellow squares' that members from the Leamington Embroiderers' Guild have made. Mine is is second in from the right on the second row from the bottom. very simple - but I like it.

The variety and skill were great to see.

Anyway I left the weather until last. I'm sooooo bored of it now. It's become very slippery underfoot and I'm such a coward as I'm terrified of falling over. I have managed to get to work every day last week and do appreciate there are lots and lots of people much worse off than me - but I'm ready for it being cold and dry now.

Take care everyone and keep warm.

Lots of sewing...

I've been a busy girl - honest.
So here is a cushion I've made for the Market Bosworth festival where we have the quilt exhibition. This cushion for the cushion raffle.

I've also made a present for someone special - but I can't show you it all until I've handed it over...

And I've got something else on the go too....

So....

There you go - I've been busy honest.

Tomorrow I'm off to run the Race for Life - there's a link to my sponsorship page on the top right-hand side of my blog page if you'd like to make a contribution.

And I'm on holiday this week and I've got a class at Bramble Patch with Sheena Norquay.

And I was really pleased to see my quilt for the Margaret Every challenge on the Bramble Patch site. When I collect it later in the week I'll post a photo so you can see which on it is.

I hope you're all enjoying this lovely weather we having - after all the rain.

Have a good weekend and I'll post lots of photos of my class very soon.

Lots more snow...

Thought you might like to see a few photos from our morning stroll around the village in the snow this morning. How are things where you are?

More snow...

Well - I can't believe it but we've had more snow. I'm not impressed. Thursday night we had lots and lots and these photos are from Friday morning. This morning there is still all the snow and we've had a really good frost too. I really hoped we'd seen the last of this - but never mind.

Hope you all have a good weekend. I'm hoping to get lots of sewing done - how about you?

Not so sunny weather

Well - it's not sunny any more. To say it's raining would be a real understatement - it's thrown it down. I haven't taken a photo - it's too sad.

I've found a really good blog called Hope in every day. Krista has some great ideas about how to yourself motivated. She suggest setting your own classes - so you decide on what you're going to study, your own book list, field trips and objectives. It's such a great idea.

With the weather having taken a turn I'm now so looking forward to Sewing Camp. Not long to go now.

I went to Bramble Patch yesterday and delivered my quilt for a cause for their Strawberry's and Cream exhibition. I also did a bit of shopping - not all for me I hasten to add.

Anyway - must get on.

Sunny weather

Yep - another sunny weekend. It's been beautiful again this weekend. The garden is really blooming now.
The poppies are enormous and always looks so dramatic.

Flo is really enjoying the warm weather - she's found a few cool spots in the garden. But she is getting hassled by a couple of new garden residents. We have 2 beautiful robins who keep sitting on the fence and sine their little hearts out. She just sits looking at them all confused.

If you look hard enough you can see the robin on the fence. I'll try to take a better photo with more robin and less garden.

And I have been sewing. We had a great day yesterday in the village hall. Barbara Chainey delivered a hand quilting class. She is a great teacher and I would recommend attending a class of hers if you get the chance. I think our festival sales stall will have a number of hand quilted cushions on it this year.

Anyway - must get back to washing the sofa covers. Boring I know but you have to take advantage of the weather when you can.

Have a great weekend.

Sewing and snow....

Yes - I've managed to do more sewing today - what a great way to spend your time. This 10" square is a combination of blocks from the book 200 quilt blocks to mix & match by Davina Thomas.

Top left: Flying Geese variation

Top right: Geese around the corner

Bottom left: Birds in the air

Bottom right: Sashed geese.

I've used some of the calico I dyed a while ago. Calculating the sizes was a bit of a challenge - but with the aid of the trusty Scrap Quilt Sensation by Katherine Guerrier I didn't have too many problems.

This one is part of a series that I'll be exhibiting at the Bramble Patch from 4 - 18 April and the artists (yes I'm afraid that includes me) will be there, talking about our work (yes it does sound very grand) on Saturday 4th April. I really hope some of you may be able to come along. I'll let you know nearer the time what time we'll be there.

The series will make much more sense in context. Honest.

Some of you may of heard it snowed a bit here this week. Here are some photos I took on Monday this week - and the snow is still here and the weather forecasts suggests it may get down to -10 tonight and there may be more snow on the way.

Flo wasn't too impressed when it started to snow. She tried to catch it, chase it and then when it landed on her she ran around in circles and then ran inside. She's calmed down a bit now. Well as much as she ever will.

My secret to cracking on with my sewing is that I focused and made a list of the projects I have and the dates when they need to be completed by. The pieces for The Bramble Patch exhibition has the earliest deadline - so that's what I've cracked on with.

I was also re-reading part of How to Simplify your life by Tiki Kustenmacher (one of my many self help books LOL). One of the ideas he (I think Tiki is a man) comes up with for unleashing your enthusiasm is to get in the 'flow'. This is when you are totally absorbed in what you're doing - just like most of us when we're sewing. The idea of flow was originally discussed by Csikszentmihalyi and when you read about it - it makes perfect sense. So Kustenmacher discusses this and suggests to experience happiness you should:

• Be totally engaged
• concentrate on the moment
• concentrate on one activity
• learn to enjoy your work
• avoid working with unhappy colleagues
• look for a job where you have some control
• structure your free time.

Obviously not all of these points can relate to being creative - but you can see some of them do. So now we have a psychologist who supports quilting - indirectly - as it get us in 'flow'. Now we have a scientific excuse. LOL

Have a good week.

February already

Thank you all for the lovely comments you left on my last posting. It's great to hear from you all.

I had a lovely day yesterday with the girls in the village hall. The aim was to test one of the members instructions for a scrappy Double Irish Chain. The idea is that you do all the hard work putting the scarves together and don't have to spend time moving the blocks around to get a good scrappy finish. It was very good - but my head did hurt by the end of the day LOL. As you can see I did make good progress but there's still some left to so. Unfortunately won't have time this week and we've been told -;) we have to have them ready for our festival in June. So as usual no pressure..... It was really interesting to see how we all had the same instructions and how the different colour choices looked so very different.

I've also been a very good girl and got my entry off for Trentham (3 - 5 April 2009). I'm very annoying as I've got the quilt ready now.

February is already with us and as I type this it's snowing. Flo has found the weather very confusing - she's chased the snow and run a round after it but in the end it landed on her she ran around in circles and wanted to come in. I should think by now she's assumed her standard position of sleeping.

I wanted to let you know about a video podcast I watch that I think is great; it's Bonnie McCaffrey. She does great interviews with artists and they often share their ideas and techniques - please do try to find time to have a look and listen.

I'll leave it there for now - hope you all have a good week.

Autumn signals its arrival

We all have misconceptions about the people of certain countries. The Brits are very polite and queue ( we are and do - but not always). The French are good lovers (I have no idea so can't comment). Well, another views of we Brits is that we're obsessed with the weather - this I'm afraid to say is very true. And with that in mind I thought I'd share some photos I took that I think show that autumn is on its way - although I have to say the weather at the mo is better than it's been for most of the summer.

Fallen conkers

Acorns

Leaves changing colour

Fallen leaves