Helping Out!!

Friday evening found me at Poppy Patch as I was going to assist in setting up a Quilting and Patchwork Show in the Methodist Hall, Great Doddington.  Having loaded all the quilts, table runners, bags, cushions and assorted other items in to Lesley's car we went down to the hall where Mr T was waiting with all the display stands loaned from Higham Piecemakers.  It took us about 2 hours to set up the display, having to take account of the space and the ubiquitous 'Health and Safety' ensuring no-one tripped over the stands or anything else hazardous.

By the time I got home I definitely needed the darkened room and a glass of something alcoholic.  It was hard work.  I had been asked to provide two quilts:-

'Quilt as you go' front or is it the back?

The same quilt  .....  

'Quilt as you go' back or is it the front?

What I like about this is that the pattern is the same front and back but by using different fabrics and colours you get a different effect.  I only bought one fabric for this (the light coloured one) the rest came from my stash, which is still pretty excessive!!  A Jan Shepherd workshop.

My second offering  ...

I love my 'seminole' quilt which I made at another of Jan's workshops at Poppy Patch.  I added an extra row because I got row 4 wrong and had to do it again (row 2 is correct) but I couldn't waste it, so added it in.

I also took along my star quilt ...

I have shown this before

and this rucksack that is so useful. 

 I have adapted this pattern from Susan Briscoe's 21 Sensational Patchwork Bags.  I put the zip on the inside so it was more secure when I carried my money and added a small pocket inside the bag, so "Granny has her lipstick" with her at all times.  If you like making bags this is a 'must have' purchase.

This blog has more information about the exhibition.  Yesterday I went back to the hall to help take the exhibition down and it only took 45 minutes before everything was back to normal!!  Still needed something alcoholic when I got home!!

Next week we will be setting up a display as part of Finedon church's Flower Festival whose theme will be "Till the Boys Come Home".  So thought provoking in these troubled times.

Sewing frenzy!

I had a weekend of sewing and worked really hard all day Sunday to try and finish the main part of my son's King size bed quilt.

As I mentioned in earlier posts it is too big for me to quilt as a whole quilt and I do need to keep the costs down, so I was not prepared to have it quilted professionally.  The solution was to make it in four quarters, quilt each quarter separately and then join it together and that is what I did.  I quilted each quarter 'in the ditch' but started and stopped each time ¼" from the edge.  Then I joined two quarters using a technique based on 'quilt as you go', but this is my variation so please don't blame me if it is wrong!!

Backing peeled back to show trimmed wadding/batting

I trimmed the top and the backing to size and then cut away the wadding about ¼". At this stage I pinned the two 'quarters' together and added a strip which you can see behind in the picture above. 

Pins at right angles are holding the seams together accurately (see previous post).  I machined these five layers together to give a perfect finish on the front!  No photo, just take my word for it.

On the wrong side I brought the strip over the seam and hemmed it in place and covered any small mistakes that I might have made!!  I would not admit this to my readers of course, but It has neatened the back up.

So the two halves were sewn together in this way and the quilt, though extremely heavy is almost finished.  

Meanwhile I went to smocking class and the lovely J showed us how to 'block' the smocking ready for use. I had to remove all the gathering threads from the middle leaving just the two outside lines (yellow thread).  It was pulled out to about 11 inches by 6 inches and pinned round the edges.  I then sprayed it with CLEAN water and left it to dry.  This will set it in place.

I am hoping to go onto the next stage over this coming weekend and will add further pictures.  Incidentally the smocking is pinned to a thick cardboard cake board covered in some old sheet.  If you want to use it as a small ironing board to take out to workshops etc, you can add some heat resistant wadding, but I am told this is not necessary, though I cannot confirm it.  I also use this as my beading board to stop them rolling everywhere.  This is such a useful piece of kit.

Finally, my little elephant, Nellie, that I made and I am very proud of, says she is being left out of all my photos and she wants to be on my blog:-

She sits on my bookcase and watches everything that goes on!  The pattern came from Tilda's Studio book and my granddaughters all wanted to keep her but I made her and she is mine for a change!!

What is that??!!

I went Nordic Walking this morning and got a little damp as it started to rain while we were out. We walked through Stanwick Lakes and on the way saw this family -

Mum and Dad and six almost grown cygnets

whom we have seen before but with eight small babies.  They have done well to raise six, and the parents were still very attentive especially when two of them went off to the reeds.  Notice one of the parents going to round them up.  When we came back they had all gone.

I noticed this peculiar piece of sculpture and though it had a name I can't remember what it is called.

From different angles

Anyway we progressed on our walk and this was the next 'art' installation:

Notice the parallel lines in the distance

This is it from the other side of the installation. 

The path we were walking on used to be the old railway so this is very evocative of the old lines.  Very funny and someone had actually tried to walk on the 'sleepers' laid on the lake; well I suppose there is always one who has to try!!

It was now raining quite hard so we only walked about 4.25 miles today, but as this is done at quite a fast pace it is good for us.

Seeing these art installations has reminded me that this caught my eye and makes me laugh every time I see it.  Very clever and well executed.

Brilliant piece of topiary and very jolly!

Suddenly I have a very busy month ahead, though I have been working very hard on the my son's King size bed quilt. 

Spent the whole of the weekend quilting it, 'in the ditch', which was hard work.  I have said in previous posts it is so big I cannot work on it as a whole, so I am sewing it in quarters and will join them using 'quilt as you go' methods, which I will explain in my next post when I have worked it out myself!!

Readers, I succumbed ....

Quite a busy week but before I explain why I succumbed let me update you on my week.

On Tuesday it was Cambridge day but this time I had both grandchildren with me so it was very full-on.  We went out for the normal cup of coffee and a shared bun and then followed this with a visit to the local garden centre, as I needed more bird food.  This place is wonderful because it has a group of very large bird cages with various parrots in.  They screamed with laughter when they said to one 'hello' and it said 'hello' back and this particular bird loved having it's neck tickled.  Not recommended to put your fingers in the other cages in case they bite, but this one didn't!!  The fish section followed and I indulged them by buying a bag of fish food and they loved watching the swirling mass of either goldfish or koi carp as they were fed in the various tanks.  Some of the bigger ones are glass fronted so ideal for the littlies to see.Then of course we had to find 'Nemo', which was quite difficult as there are so many variations of the clown fish, in all their fish tanks.

After an early lunch we caught the bus into town, as we were going to the University Museum of Zoology currently housed in the Whipple Museum.  My grandson (aged 8) wants to be a zoologist "because I like animals", so this visit was a must and they were having a children's day, looking at various insects, colouring paper butterflies and cutting out pictures of leaf insects.  Grandson found a model of a human body with removable parts and we had great fun trying to get everything packed back in properly.  I couldn't get the liver back in, whichever way I turned it, but eventually grandson had to take over to complete it correctly - "just below the heart Granny and beside the stomach"!!  How silly of me not to know.

This afternoon I have been on a trip to Doc Martens factory to see how their shoes and boots are made and to hear about the history of the company.  I have never been in a shoe factory before and yet my own town and the towns all around were built on the shoe trade, including some well known names - Grensons, Church, Barkers.  This was a fascinating visit especially when we were told where their factory shop was.  I nearly bought a pair of pink shoes but they were too big - what a shame, but I know where the shop is now and might go another time.

But I have succumbed, not to some dread disease, though it could be - compulsive woolaholic. I went onto the blog of Attic24 and there was her Coast Ripple Blanket and I bought the packet of wool that she made it with.  Why do I want more wool?  Only because I am going to make a blanket, using different techniques which Lovely J at our crochet club will assist me with.  Strictly speaking it is not wool, but acrylic, so I am using the term generically, before all the proper 'wool' people start chasing me.

Lovely colours

I love Stylecraft

What was even better was I ordered online one day and it was delivered the next day - what service from Wool Warehouse!!  So watch this space in about a month as I must finish crotcheting the cardigan that I started last winter; shouldn't take long as I am on the last sleeve and it is beginning to get a cooler,so I shall need it.

Trying to make perfect seams!

Do you remember last month I bought some fabric for a King size bed quilt, well I am on the way to making the top. I have decided to quilt it myself as I do not have a longarm quilter and it would be too expensive to have it quilted professionally.  In order to be able to cope with the size I will make it in quarters and then 'quilt as you go'. I am still thinking how to do this as I don't want it to show on the top, but I have ideas!!

The rectangles have been sewn in strips and each strip has been labelled so that I know what I am sewing in order to keep the pattern of blocks, but importantly I must ensure that the seams are as near perfect as I can get.  This was brought home to me when I made this wall hanging -

- and all the diamonds had to match exactly, but of course I found the answer on the internet.  Isn't this the most wonderful invention; at the click of a button there is the answer to everything.  It is just up to you how you use it!!

Forgive me if I am preaching to the converted but this is the method that I am using on this new quilt.

You find the sewing line on both pieces being sewn and pin.  Then pin either side.  Note the way the pins lie because they can be left in place when you sew and the fabric does not move and they can be removed easily as the sewing machine goes over the top.

Even though the seams are not being sewn flat the pins still stay in place and this is the finished neat seam.  The technique is time consuming but is worth it to get a neat finish.




Pleased with the seams

Sorry this is all you are going to see of the quilt at this stage and the colours do look a bit washed out;  they are much brighter than this.  I still cannot master my camera after all this time.


Well, the rain is pouring down and the family are away having a Bank Holiday get together with all their cousins in a very large house somewhere near Aldeburgh in Suffolk, so no excuses to get sewing.  Well, perhaps I ought to vacuum first as there is a layer of dust on the furniture and threads from the quilt fabric on the carpet and I really cannot ignore it any longer!!  Oh and my embroidery is still not finished and we start classes in two weeks; get going woman!!

Produce

I have to admit that I am not the world's best gardener.  I cut the lawn when I think it needs it, usually when it is getting a bit long, I cut the front hedge when I become ashamed of it and at this time of the year I begin to lose interest as the days gets cooler.  My hanging baskets could definitely do with some TLC and the tomatoes in the greenhouse struggle on BUT I must be doing something right when I get produce like this.

The cucumbers were a mistake!!  They are the sort that you pickle so I have to find a recipe. The tomatoes are all different varieties this year, hence the mixed bowl.

I have a small and very unruly fig tree but it is a very heavy cropper and this is a small selection. I pick them slightly under ripe because if they are too ripe the slugs get to them first.  The three at the front were picked yesterday.  When I first bought the tree I heard on a gardening programme that you should contain their roots and that is what I did. We had an old washing machine so I cut out the stainless steel drum, buried it in the garden and put the fig tree in and I have been repaid with good crops from a reasonably small but untidy tree.

On Tuesday (my Cambridge day) Ellie and I had our last outing to the city centre before she starts school.  We catch the bus from the end of the road because I can use my free bus pass but it does gall me that I have to pay £1.50 for Ellie even though she is under 5.  I hadn't been paying for her, but one day a driver called me over when we arrived at our terminus and said that she only went free "with a fare paying passenger" and I wasn't a fare paying passenger. When I queried why I hadn't been asked to pay he said that they got too much verbal abuse and hassle enforcing it.   So now she costs me £3 for a return fare!!

Anyway, my son, M, had asked me to make a very large casserole with all the vegetables from the garden and meat he provided.  It would save him having to cook for the children the next day as there would be some left over and this is what I picked:-

Two types of carrots - orange and purple - courgettes, slightly large, and a whole heap of runner and French beans.  Not all the beans went in!!  I also used potatoes from the garden and onions which were drying in the greenhouse.

I did not add these, I couldn't do it as they look so delicious!!

The result!!  Yum, yum

The children ate this 'pot au feu' up pretty quickly and loved it.

There are two pumpkins this size getting ready for Halloween, though they still have room to grow.

I love growing vegetables, because there is something very satisfying in being able to eat what you grow.  Oh and by the way I am lucky that my next door neighbours have an apple tree that overhangs my garden and I get a constant supply of windfalls in my pond!!!  Not good apples as they are usually full of bugs of some sort or another ....

but there are some lovely large ones still on the tree, ripening.  At least when they fall in the pond they don't bruise.

Out of the blue

Trawling through Facebook on Friday, I had a personal message from my cousin 'C' , who lives in Belgium.  He was going to be in the UK the following day with his Rugby 7's teams and could we meet up.  Well the last time I saw him was at a family funeral so I  was delighted that this meeting was going to be something completely different as I have never been to a rugby 7's tournament before.

When we met I discovered that his brother, J, was coming and I also met his lovely daughter, Z, who I had last met when she was about 12 years old in America and who now lives in the UK. What a great reunion it turned out to be;  we never stopped talking and reminiscing and I got to watch two very good 7's teams from Belgium who had just returned from competing in the Universities 's tournament in Brazil where they were vice champions.

Watching one of the rounds which they won

The team B coach, Z, C and J watching a team B match

The very professional Belgium 'training camp' with ice bath in the foreground!

What so impressed me was that all these lads looked fit, unlike some of their opponents, and that they were always training.

Team A training

Well, both teams won their groups and then into the semi-finals.

Team talk for the A's before their semi-final

Meanwhile the B's were playing their semi-final which they won and after a very exciting match the A's won, so this was now an all Belgium final.  I had expected to leave early afternoon but watching all these matches was so exciting that I was still there for the final at 6.00pm!!

Team talk before the final.  Note their supporters high up in the background who had the Belgium flag

The final in progress

Well, the B's beat the A's and the presentations were made, but everyone at the host club were so friendly and I had a great time catching up with family.  The Belgium teams will be making for Manchester in September to take part in the 7's tournament there, which unfortunately I cannot attend as I am taking part in another activity.  Rugby 7's will be a new sport in the 2016 Olympics in Brazil that I shall enjoy watching.