Malvern Quilt Show

These are just a few pictures of quilts that Kathleen and I saw at Malvern yesterday, they are by a lady called Dilys Fronks and I think they are beautiful, the work that goes into producing these wonderful images is mind boggling, a very clever lady.

This lovely tree was the first thing we saw when we parked up at the foot of the Malvern Hills what a glorious site and as you can see from the sky we had a beautiful day. On the journey down we drove through countryside that simply took your breath away, there was a low lying mist when we first started out and it made everything look magical. As usual we bought nice things, but we did notice that the price of everything is a lot more than it was at the beginning of the year.

We were able to sit outside to eat our lunch, lots of people were picnicking, a day to treasure through the long winter months.

Hello everyone, I have been busy sewing and I have enjoyed making some notebook covers, these are two of them, the lace one is'nt quite finished yet I want to embellish a little more but I love it so far, I followed a tutorial for the lace one on a blog called Just Lilla she has lots of tutorials, she makes beautiful things. The other photo is of my sewing room, it is very typical of a sewing room I would think, lots of fabric all over the place, I do tidy it now and again but it does'nt take long to get into disarray, Tony my husbad is about to put up some shelves for books and magazines so that will help, are you all starting to think about christmas?

A Lovely surprise

This heart was sent to me from Elizabeth D at French Village life, I helped her with something she could'nt find in France and to say thank you she sent me this lovely Lavender heart filled with lavender from her garden it smells delicious and I have hung it near my bed because I know Lavender helps you sleep, thank you Elizabeth!
Kathleen and I went shopping yesterday Kathleen managed to get a couple of christmas presents, the shops are already full of christmas goodies and we found some lovely things to give us inspiration. We had two coffees and lots of chat.
I am going to try to make a cq bag with a kiss clasp, I have never done this and I have read from Pat Winters magazine over and over again and feel I should give it a go, I will show you the results good or bad soon.

Moan, Moan,Moan!

This is my dear friend Kathleen (cottonreel), yesterday I offered to help her set up her quilting machine so that she could practice on one of her quilts. We got home from the Fabric Guild, had a ham sandwich and a cup of coffee and then out to the garage we went. We started and then we stopped because we could'nt remember how to start pinning to the rollers, there is a back, middle and front, we trooped back to the lounge and put the instruction DVD in the machine but because Kathleens machine does not have a fast forward button we have to sit and wait and wait for our bit to come up. We watched and went back to the garage ready to start which we did, we got so far and then promptly forgot what to do so.... back to the DVD which was still running on a loop so we had to wait again for our bit, all the time Kathleen is moaning about ever buying the machine, it's too complicated to set up, she could do it twice as fast on her ordinary machine, we watched our bit again and this time wrote it all down step by step, back to the garage, we started fine and then we got a bit muddled but finally everything was ready except the sewing machine, we did seven bobbins to start us off and then attached the machine, we still hav'nt worked out how to use the automatic threader but by luck I managed to do it, then another friend turned up and Kathleen is still moaning, "have I done the right thing, it takes too long and so on and so on.

Then she started to quilt on this amazing machine and produced lovely quilting, the smiles came back and she loves it. it's the best machine in the world, by this time I am shattered and I leave her to it, Bum stuck out, tongue hanging out and doing a grand job. I phoned her an hour after and she was bright and happy and raring to go, she asked me if she had given me a stressful afternoon but, I will refrain from repeating my answer.It's a good thing we are very close friends.

Finished another quilt

Here is another finished quilt, I used lots of my scraps, I love scrap quilts. The quilt is for a friend. I machine quilted it on my ordinary machine. I have another quilt pieced and ready to quilt, this one is for my niece for christmas, once that one is done I want to make a quilt for Kate's baby boy who is due January 3rd, that will be a real pleasure, our first grandchild.

Kathleen and I have been out all day, Kathleen had a hospital appointment first, she was discharged as fit so that made her happy. We then needed coffee and a good dose of shopping which we did, Kathleen spent more than she thought she would but enjoyed every minute. Hope you are all well and happy.

Received my Swap Puzzle Piece.

This is the swap I received from Stephanie, it is so lovely, my puzzle was crazy quilting and this one is felted wool I love the flowers in the field. I am reall enjoying this swap, I have made another piece to swap it is again crazy patchwork, it is fun messing about with all the little bits, I always seem to tip my beads up and they end up going down the sofa cushion and all over the carpet I think my hoover keeps finding the one's I miss.

The crazy patchwork puzzle piece is my next swap piece.

Wedding Anniversary

What a beautiful week it has been here in England so warm with lovely sunshine everyone seems to have a smile on their face.

Yesterday we went to my Mom and Dad-in-laws to celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary, what an achievement! they are so proud of their three children and their four grandchildren and looking forward to their first great grandchild when Kate my daughter has her baby in January.

We had a lovely day with lots of lovely food,conversation and laughter, we toasted the bride and groom with champagne and there was a very special moment when Dad who is 89 and sadly suffers with dementia sang his favourite song "I Left my Heart in San Francisco" there were a few quiet tears as this once vibrant man looking so frail sang so sweetly, he got lots of applause which he loved. So a special day indeed.