I'm Back!!

We went down to stay with my daughter, last week, and I was not organised enough to have posts ready to be published when I was away. My husband had just come back from a magic convention in Blackpool, so everything had to be washed etc., and then we were off. We wanted to give the grandchildren their Christmas presents, as we could not get off the island together, earlier. The person who looks after our animals, when we are off island, was involved with the murder trial, so we had to wait until that was over. I also wanted to go to the above exhibition in the Scottish Exhibition Conference Centre (SECC) in Glasgow. It started at 9.30am. My friend, whom I haven't seen for nearly three years, was coming down by bus from Kirriemuir. We met up at 11.45, but by that time I had bought few (cough, cough!) things. We had a great day!! It was so nice to see her again - she is such a nice person!! (I am on the left of the picture.)

I bought lots of material, and odd bits for doing various crafts.

During our stay near Edinburgh, we went to Ikea and various other shops. When we do go off the island, we find that we romp round loads of shops, trying to get things, which are not generally available where we live. This does not make for a relaxing holiday. We also went to see my husband's Dad, who has dementia. He was having a really good day, and he recognised us both. We took him out for a meal and then afternoon tea, and he thoroughly enjoyed himself.It was so nice to see him smiling and laughing.

Thankful Thoughts

It was a nice change to get off the island, have a couple of meals out and shop till we dropped, but there is no place like home. I looked at the tide going out of the bay, this morning, with the waders (birds) looking for food, and the sun glinting on the water and felt myself relax. Our washing is done, the baking is cooling down, so I am away to wash my material and play with the rest of my goodies.

Happy Mother's Day on Sunday!

Rosemary

I haven't been blogging lately, as my husband is off island, and I have been 'in charge'. Sounds very pretentious, but I have not had a lot of time to go online. The hens, ducks and ponies have to be fed and watered twice a day, and of course, as soon as my husband left we got snow, so I have been breaking ice on all the water barrels and trying to get the stand pipe outside to work. The last two days it has been so cold that I have had to haul the water from the house, as everything outside is iced up. This is most unusual, as we are so close to the sea, but the weather forecast does not look good for this coming week, when my husband is coming back up. He is going to get a rough journey, I think. On top of that, I have had a sick dog. Penny had to get an emergency hysterectomy last week. We were really disappointed, as we were going to breed her in May, but we were told, if we did not get the operation done, she might die, so there was no choice. She is fine now. The stitches came out today, and she is running about in the snow, without a care in the world.

The top picture shows the colours I chose for the pinwheel quilt. I was going great guns, but I got sidetracked, and I am now working on a new project (naughty, naughty!) I am not going to show the blocks until it is finished, but it is an easy block to do, so that should not take too long. Here is a sneak peek of some of the blocks.

Thankful Thoughts

My sister is now back home and waiting to start chemotherapy and radiotherapy. We have been talking on Skype. It is great to have her back talking and laughing with me. She has a great sense of humour. Thank You!

Till next time.

tich

Flower Clasps

I have been having fun making these clasps for my granddaughters. They love pretty things for their hair, so when I saw a tutorial on this site here, I got going. Arlette's blog has a lot of great tutorials, and I am definitely going to have a go at some of the pincushions. I love pincushions, but find that my pins go rusty in them, as we are so close to the sea. Back to the clasps. They are really easy to make. I was not concentrating, when I made the first blue gingham pins, and kept on folding. As you can see below, they are more like daisies than flowers, but they will still be appreciated.

These are more what the clasps should look like. Arlette sent me a nice email, giving permission for me to link to her blog.

I bought this quarter inch foot, or should I say my husband bought this for me, along with another hoop, for Loopy Locket, my 630E Bernina. I have been having a bit of trouble getting my points to meet, and I thought this might help. I now have perfect quarter inch seams, but some of my points are still not perfect. Anybody got any tips? I am a perfectionist, when it comes to patchwork, and try to keep things just so (or sew?)

I realise I have not been indicating when I have updated my 100+ Reading Book Challenge, so I will put a link in the blog, when I have completed more books. (here)

Thankful Thoughts

My sister has come through her operation. They could not get all the tumor, but she starts radiotherapy soon. Thank You! Thank you to all the nice wishes that have also been sent from blogland!

Doesn't the sun make all the difference to how you feel? We have had a period of really lousy weather. Long, dark, murky days, with lots of rain. Then we had a few unexpected days, when the snow fell and actually stayed. But suddenly we woke up one day and the sun was shining. There was no wind, and the bay was absolutely calm, just like a mirror. Glorious!

Till next time.

tich

Jelly Roll Update

You will remember, perhaps, the story of the jelly roll and how I did not like what I made, here. I made a quilt top from the other half of the jelly roll (here), and it is still to be sandwiched and quilted.

I still had a load of the original jelly roll squares, which were going to be made into a rail fence quilt. I did not like it at all, so I cut out some squares, using two different colours of pink, and this is the result. (Sorry about the picture. We have snow storms today, and the light is awful!)

I only did this with half the squares, and last night I had a play with the blocks, to get a pleasing layout. That was when I realised the triangular blocks are, of course, now a different size! DUH! This quilt does not want to be made. I can't resize the strip blocks, as that will make one of the end strips too skinny. I am going to unpick two strips, and replace the centre one with a skinnier, pink strip. If this quilt doesn't start behaving, it will go on the UFO pile!!

It is my own fault. I just didn't think!! I have had a cold since Christmas, and that is my excuse for muddled thinking.

Thankful Thoughts

I did the last walk with Penny , our dog, last night, as Mr D was tired. It was beautiful. I managed to time the walk between the snow/hail showers, and the wind was making the clouds scuttle across the sky. The moon was supposed to be shining really brightly the night before, but as it was, I did not need a torch to see Penny, and when the clouds parted, I could see Mars really close to the moon. Beautiful to be out, but even nicer to get into a nice warm bed!!

EQ6

When I am worried or uptight, I don't seem to be able to enjoy sewing. I do try, but I prefer reading, or doing something else. My sister is ill and will have brain surgery, to remove a tumor within the next two weeks. I have been reading, puttering about and looking at the Electric Quilt 6 software. I bought this last year, but have not opened it since. I thought it was going to be difficult and would need a lot of time to learn it. I have only done the first chapter, but, so far, it is really easy to use. I have done a few patterns and had a nosy where I shouldn't, but it looks great! I should have done it long before!

I also got onto a local patchwork shop to get some fat quarters. When I say local, it is 120 miles away on the Scottish Mainland. I had to give the general idea of what I wanted, as the shop did not have samples. She sent me a lovely variety, but the cost!! I paid the equivalent of $4.36 for a fat quarter! I could get a yard of Kona cotton for less than that in the States! I do like to use local shops if I can, but I think in future I will be trawling the Net more, and buying internationally. I did get some really pretty cottons, but I still have to do something with the squares I made initially from the Moda jelly roll (here), so that comes first. Trouble is I like to flit from one project to another. Butterfly-brain definitely comes to mind.

Thankful Thoughts

I was listening to the radio this morning, and the Equality Commission is going to lobby government, to allow people to work as long as they want. If it goes through, people could work into their eighties, nineties, as long as they were competent at the work they do. I felt tired just listening to the programme. I retired two years early, and I am so glad I did so. It was a big decission, as we were going to change location, lifestyle, everything. But it worked, and it is peaceful. I think that is what I like the most. Peace.

Another UFO

I put a block of the Jewel Box quilt together today. I have already said that I had painstakingly cut out each part, years ago, so it is really slow, pinning and sewing these bits together. I am only going to do a block now and again, as there are forty eight pieces in each block. I want to get another UFO finished, before I do more of this one.

Thankful thoughts.

I have some really nice friends. Thanks for all your support.

tich

This is our little dog called Penny. She is a border terrier and just over a year old. She loves everyone, even the cat.

I have only been doing a little sewing these last few days. My sister in Canada is seriously ill, and I have been finding it hard to concentrate.

Thankful Thoughts

I am really thankful I have such a nice family. It is not large, but it is loving. Say a prayer for my sister.

tich