Pincushion and needlecase

Made this set as a thankyou gift for a friend. I always like a gift to be
useful and appropriate for the moment if it's a textile gift. I love the
fabric, very colourful. I like the idea of a pincushion in a pot, don't know
why.


A crashed out dog, the day after his long walk. He could hardly keep
his eyes open.
Bye......

Malvern, Quilts, Pincushions, Home

My other half wanted a few days away. To get me to go he found a quilt
show at Malvern. I don't need an excuse to go away. I'd never been to this
one but people say it's a really good one - they were right.
Aren't the hills beautiful? He did lots of walking and met another chap walking
whose other half was at the quilt show and staying at the same place as us.
I suspect there were alot of men doing the same.
There were some show gardens left from the previous weekend.
A bonus!
And now for some textiles. I like this one as it's Spinaker Tower in
Portsmouth. It's a wonderful construction, one of my all time favourites.
If you ever get chance to go up, the views are magnificent. It's also
situated in Gunwharf Quays, a retail outlet - lots of 'factory shops'!I absolutely love this quilt. One of the reasons is that I would never
complete a quilt like this.

There is always a quilt to make you smile. This was it - The Hope

Quilters or the Pole Dancing Club. This miniature quilt was a piece

of work in its own right. It was difficult to get near to get to see it

properly never mind take pictures.

The variety of style was great and the standard was high.

I couldn't pick out one favourite so I chose to show you pics of

quilts that made me smile and gush inwardly.
I had an idea in my head for a while, so while I was away I

had a play. I like to take some hand stitching with me. I wanted to

play with suffolk puffs or yoyos as pincushions and jewellery.

Nothing new, I know, but new for me.

We had a lovely few days, even managed to see a textile
exhibition at WorcesterCathedral. A huge exhibition of
childrens art work was being put up in the cathedral
which I would have loved to see when it was finished.
Back down to earth with a bump, loads of washing,
then the ironing. A good jobthe weather stayed fine.
I managed to get loads done and dry, even alot of ironing.

Had to have the engineer out to fix my oven. the bearings in

the fan had gone. It sounded like it was going to take off.

At least there were only dust bunnies under the oven and

not any other form of wild life or muck. Came home to find everything in the garden had gone wild.

One little beauty was this rose.

Got to try to get in the garden and tidy up!

Back to the ironing!

Bank holiday weekend

This is what the M1 looks like between junction 26 and 27 at the
moment. I'm seeing it every day at the moment. It does change,
there is progress.
Decided to go to Calke Abbey today to see the bluebells.
I'm glad I went instead of doing some ironing. The perfume
was heady and the views quite breathtaking.

This blurry pic is my mate resting his weary head on my leg after his
walk to Calke Abbey from his home.

The un-named black cat again making himself at home on my

back lawn.

Decided to have fresh air today instead of staying at home, glad

I did, but no chores or textiles done. Oh well.

Catch up, part two

Some more photos. This one I took from my work room window. The sun just
caught the blossom tree a few gardens away.

It's abit blurry but this is one of those dandelions after it had been battered by
rain and hail.

Later on that evening, a rainbow appreared over the back garden. If you look

carefully you can just see a second rainbow about an inch to the left of the

main one.

A neighbourhood cat making use of a warm engine!
Don't know what tree this is but the bark is wonderfull. The markings look like

resting moths.

Catch up over. Not back to normal yet though. Bye.

Catch up, since mid April

Haven't had chance to post and even less chance to do any stitching.

I did abit of baking just before I was scuppered. Found a great soda bread

recipe ......

then a really easy cookie recipe using peanut butter. Rather moorish!!
Visited Winston and he entertained us by digging in his box!!
Gorgeous daffodils in my garden. A gift from years ago and the only bulbs

that like my garden.

The dandelions are lovely, such vivid colour on a grey day.

Part two later. Bye.

Lavender bags

Found a huge bag of French lavender that I bought to use for cooking.

I do like to have nice smellies in with my clothes. The fabric started

life as a dress in the 80's then became pyjama shorts and finally its

true role in life is lavender bags. The gold ribbon came off

Chritmas crackers and the blue is florists ribbon.

Things always have a use in the end.

Bye...

Snow, Trentham Quilt Show

This is what we woke up to this morning, snow!!!

Wonder what it will be like on the roads.

Well, here we are at last. Its finished. It got delivered and its hanging

hanging in its own little spot with its number. Wonder if we get feedback,

would be useful to know if you're on the right lines.

There was a great variety of styles, something to suit every one.
I wish I could show you more pics but I can't show other peoples

work without their permission. Congratulations to Jacquie,

winner of the Wallhanging category. I hope you enjoy your prize.

We did get feed back and it was much appreciated. I was amazed

I did so well, there were things that I thought would have been

penalised more. You always know what you could have done better.

For a first time, it went better than expected.

Collecting the quilts was interesting. I thought we were going to

be alot longer but we were away by about 5.15.

A big thank you to Margaret and her team for all their hardwork.

Home by about 6.15, stew and dumplings for tea.

Bye....