Village Life

 Thought you might like to see what happens in the village at the weekend!

Hello all

 So, I've been doing a bit of cooking. A Blackberry and Yogurt cake. I was really pleased I found a recipe I can use my frozen blackberries in. The fruit looked really pretty in the cake - and tasted good too.

 And then a bit of batch cooking. It's amazing how far a kilo of minced beef can go. So from the top:

Chilli

Cottage pie

Spag bol

All for the freezer.

 I had a very nice trip out to the Garden Barn. It has some great things for the garden - all very reasonably priced. And they have a great coffee shop with fantastic cake. Well worth a trip out.

 And finally this is the view from our church spire. DH and I walked up the narrow, steep, spiral staircase and got a great view. It was a shame it wasn't a little clearer - but we still had a great view.

I have been sewing - but can't show you the results until next week as it's a pressie for someone...

Take care and have a great week.

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.

Ooopsss!!!

Where has the time gone? I can't believe my last post was on 13th April! Anyway - no excuses.

Here's a nice photo from a couple of weeks ago when the Farmers Market was on in the village. As you can see it was a lovely sunny day. This was the view we had whilst we sat having a cuppa.

Here's the quilt as you go blocks our group made. I've now joined them up and Angela is putting on the binding. This will be our raffle quilt for the Market Bosworth Festival. We'll be in the Village Hall again this year and will be serving drinks and cakes on the 27th and 28th June.

It would be great if you could come along.

Finally - I'm on the mailing list for Cynthia Morris's site, this week she sent an e-mail with ideas about how to boost you're creativity this summer. Certainly something I'll be taking a look at.

I'm off now - but I hope all of you in the UK have had a good Bank Holiday - the weather has been fantastic (yes I got burnt again).

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.

It's February already

I can't believe it's February already - it only seems that it was Christmas and the New Year last week. Must be a sign of old age.

I had a lovely day yesterday - another day quilting in the village hall with other members of the Market Bosworth Quilters. Not many of us - more qulaity than quantity LOL.

I think I've just about finished my piece for Brenda's class - all the quilting is done - just the binding now and perhaps a bit or surface embellishement. Oh and I mustn't forget the hanging sleeve.

As you can see from the photo above I'll be starting another quilt soon - rather pink I think you'll notice. I promise to keep you posted on the progress of this one.

And just a few photos of Flo looking cute and sleepy. I get on with her fine but her and DH do seem to have a few issues - she bites him...

Hope you've all had a good weekend.

I'm off to have my dinner and then spend a lazy night quilting.

What have I been up to...

Lots. I've been rather busy - but it's been great. And I can't believe it's December already.

Here are some photos from the Christmas Fayre in the village Hall. A number of the Bosworth Quilters were involved with this and it's thanks to one in particular that the event has been reinstated. It looked great. It had a good variety of stalls, jewelry, soaps, plants, cakes and of course some very high quality quilted items (very reasonable priced). Unfortunately I was too excited to take a photo when Santa arrived - I was overwhelmed...

And here are my efforts from my drawing and painting class. I think if I post the photos of how I got here you'll see why I'm pleased with it. The journey there was good. And it's not brown.

I'm not going to be attending the class next year - partly because I can';t guarantee getting there every week and partly because my aim was to get over the fear of the blank page and drawing. As I've managed to conquer my demons I don't want to spread myself too thin with already being committed to Brenda's class next year. What I should do is set some time aside to draw. As we all know it's easier said than done.

Part way done...

Finished.

Threads and sketchbook

I treated myself to some new threads from Jennifer Gail Threads. They're really nice and i think a great price.

Do have a look at her site - she has the colour variations in different thread types and fabrics too.
Here's my sketchbook plan of how I'm going to quilt the Market Bosworth Water Tower piece I'm making.
And below is the sample in my sketchbook.


It's gping to have both hand and machine quilting. I even did a little thread card - an idea I saw in one of the girl's City & Guild books she made. I'm rather pleased wit the sample. I need to make sure I take my time. I've a fair way to go still and still to be done are the screen printing, dyeing the backing fabric and screen printing that, plus all the quilting and then binding and the sleeve. And the little jobs you have to do on every project (like the binding) always seem to take much longer than you expect.

Pass it forward

Well I've added my name to Karol-Ann's page and I've agreed to join in the PIF movement. You can see what happens below:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don't know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

I hope you'll join in this - there's nothing like getting pressies in the post.

I thought some of you might like to see a quaint village photo - the Market Bosworth bowling club - I hope this will prove that not all of England is flooded and that we have had some sunshine (I even managed to go a bit pink in the sun yesterday).

I'll post some more photos tomorrow of the quilts shown in the Show and Tell at sewing camp. Thanks for all the comments on it - I know I'm realy lucky to be able to go there and I had a great time.