Beach nuts!

My son arrived home last night for the weekend and it's lovely to see him! I am sure he has grown another inch or maybe it's me who is shrinking! As it is a holiday weekend here and also his birthday on Monday we started celebrating early with a huge bag of Lindt truffles, which are his favourites! Needless to say there are not many left as he was very good at sharing.


The weather forecast for the weekend is not brilliant but we decided that as the sun was trying to peek out that we would drive up to the coast and take in the bracing sea air!

Our east coast can be breezy but by the time we had parked it was blowing a gale! The beach was almost deserted but we did have a quick dash along it and I did manage to take a picture of him without too much camera shake! I also collected a few shells and then made a hasty retreat for the pier to join them. A hot coffee and fish and chips later and I had just about defrosted! It certainly blew the cobwebs away and was a fun day out.

Tonight I have traced the patterns for the next Polka Dot Lady block and hope to start stitching it if I can keep my eyes open after all the sea air.



Busylizzie

Where has May gone?

I don't know where the time goes but it seems that the weeks fly by in the blink of an eye! I must admit that I am a fair weather gardener and suddenly the sun came out and I took the blinkers off to find the garden merrily doing it's own thing and in desperate need of a tidy up and some new planting ready for Summer. So I have been torn between wanting to sew and wanting to attack the weeds before they took over. I love going to quilt shops to buy fabrics but running a close second is the garden centre, so many beautiful plants and interesting gizmo's saying "Please take me home with you" Our garden is well stocked but a lot of areas need renovating or in need of a makeover, a bit like me really but I find it easier to deal with the garden than me.

I spent 2 days digging out a huge amount of Japanese anemone that had spread from its allotted space and a huge patch of orange crocosmia. I'm not a great fan of orange and although I still have some around, the large bed was cleared. This has given me a clear canvas to do some new planting and this year I thought I would have a go at growing some penstemons. I bought 3 different ones and then delphiniums and a coneflower. I put in some gladioli corms and a whole load of busylizzies at the front and it looks much better! I love this time of year, the lilac is in full bloom and I took the next picture of the ceanothus and weigela as it looks soo pretty now.



Over the last few weeks I've been sewing a pattern called "Raise the Roof" by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. It's a mix of log cabin and star blocks and has been a lot of fun to do. I chose to use taupes for the lights and a mixture of dark greens and plums for the darks. The star blocks needed a bit of concentration to get the orientation right and consequently a few had to be frog stitched and rearranged. I've just about got the blocks together and now need to add the border so progress is being made! I really like how it is turning out so far!

Also I have been doing a stitchery block from a series called Polka Dot Girls by Bronwyn Hayes, she is an australian designer and I have fallen in love with all of her designs, they are such fun to do. I bought a layer cake from Moda Simplicity line and I will probably use that for the piecing around the blocks. They are all soft pastels and I can't wait to use them for this.


Well, thats all for this post, I have a busy day tomorrow as my son is coming home for the weekend and it's his birthday on Monday so I need to bake a cake!

Apple Blossom

Hello to you all and welcome to my new blog. This is my first attempt at blogging so please forgive me if I make a muddle of it! I guess the first post is the hardest but I thought I would write about my passion for quilting and my life in the slow lane now that my husband has retired and we are settled finally in one place.

I have two grown children who finally flew the nest last year and headed for the city lights of London to work but they appear at intervals! I also have 3 cats and plenty to keep me occupied here in Lincolnshire. I try and sew most days but life does have a habit of getting in the way sometimes. I really love to applique with needleturn being my favourite way although I am slow! I have been blessed with a great husband who although cutting up fabric to sew it back together is beyond his comprehension, has learnt to utter "the right noises" when I do finish something. I am also kept busy in the garden and today I took a picture of the apple blossom, it is so pretty and springlike and I hope it means we get a bumper crop this year as apple crumble with custard is a favourite pudding here.

At the moment I am hand quilting an applique quilt called Birds of a Feather by Blackbird Designs, which I finished a couple of months ago. I think it's going to take me quite a while but nice hand sewing if and when we get a summer here. I have various other projects on the go as I can't resist starting lots of new things when they catch my eye.



Well lets see if I can get this to post.