A Village Quilter

Hello all. Hope you're all well.  Sorry I haven't posted (again). Here are the excuses: I had a really busy week at work after my last post and then was booked on a 5 day residential course last week. So the weekend (when I should have gone to Rocheberie Schoolhouse Quilters ) was spent sorting out lots of 'stuff' rather than having more fun. But in spite of this I did manage to scan in a picture I'd found in a magazine and then print it onto Lutrador and craft vilene (as you can see below). The printer (HP Photosmart C7280 All-In-One) was an absolute dream and just took the different media and printed. I know this is how it's meant to work - but I'm sure many of you will agree how it often doesn't. Not too sure what I'm going to do with them - but I'm sure my next class will give me lots of ideas. Thought you might like to see Flo - in her favourite position - on our bed asleep. Can you see the tail is starting to swish - she really doen't l...

Hello All, I'm so glad the snow has at long last gone. We have a really big snowfall on Wednesday and I get sent home form work as they were starting to cancel the trains. Bit annoyed as I'd struggled to get in and really had to drag myself out of bed. Well, as you can see from the photos I've been cooking again. I'm trying to reduce what we throw away and so I had to find a couple of recipes to use up some left over cranberries and some bananas that were a little over ripe. So the result is a fruity tea bread and a banana and walnut loaf. The fruit looks very moist. I've been very good, cut them in half and put them in the freezer - so at the next quilting meeting I host I can offer some very nice home baked cakes. And the next exciting thing I've been up to is to re-join one of Bren's classes at the Bramble Patch . It was great to be back there doing this class. She is so good at setting challenges and getting you to use your brain. I hope you like the d...

Hello again. I thought you might like to see some views - you may notice a little snow. It just hasn't shifted at all in the last week and it's snowing again. And here are the poor duck and geese on the frozen lake. Luckily they seem to have a little bit of water to have a swim in. And, of course, we had to feed them - here is DH trying to make sure they all had a bit (didn't really work - but we did try). Hope you're all able to get out and about. I think I'll curl up now with some hand quilting.

Hello all. Hope you're all well and not struggling too much with the snow, cold and ice. It's a great excuse to sit by the fire and hand quilt - not that many of us need an excuse. Apologies for disappearing - like many of you I was rather busy with the festive season. I must say I had a great Christmas an New Year and booked some extra leave so I only went back to work today. How nice a short week. Well I've been thinking about what to write - so here we go: I must tell you about the forthcoming exhibition at the V & A - Quilts 1700 - 2010 It looks like it's going to be a great exhibition. I've also found the curators blog - well worth a look at. Also, as it's new year, I have been thinking about 2009 and how It went and also looking froward to 2010 and what opportunities there are. Alyson B Stanfield makes the great suggestion - 'decide what your year will look like'. Decide that each day will be a good day and that you'll be in a good mood....

I've had a lovely day today sewing with the Rocheberie Schoolhouse Quilters. It's always nice to catch up with such lovely quilters and bloggers: Sew create it The Contented Quilter Quilting in Chaos Master of Patience There was a great speaker as well - Gail Lawther . She described the influence her visits to New Zealand had had on her and also showed us the great work she'd produced. As you can see I just had to buy the book. We were also very lucky as we got a Christmas pressie too - a charm pack of lovely fabrics. I'm afraid the cake we had didn't last long enough for me to take a photo of - but I can assure you it was very very nice (and a very generous slice it was too). So all in all a great day. As you can see from the photos below there were lots of us there.

Thought I'd let you know about a great book that Radio 4 will be having as their book for Bookclub . The programme format is the audience will have the book and the author, John Irving, is there to answer them. I can't begin to tell you what a great book it is. I've always found that John Irving books always make me laugh, when I know I shouldn't and always have surprises in them. This one is so funny in places but so moving in others. If you do get time to read it - please do. I can promise it will stay with you. I have finally got round to making some things for Christmas - but I'm sure you'll appreciate that I won't be able to share these with you until Christmas. Luckily I've got a sewing day tomorrow in a neighbouring village hall - so I've got a list of things I want to crack on with. If you're in the UK take care this weekend as it sounds like we're going to have some rather bad weather. Take care.

I had a great day yesterday playing. I had a great class with Mikki - who I originally met at Bren's class at Bramble Patch. It was a really good day and I'll show you in more detail how I'm going to use the techniques I've learnt. I've certainly got a much better idea about how to use some of the stuff I've acquired over the years. Watch this space... And now to Flo - the strangest cat we've ever had in our life - and she's number 6. Well we took her to the vets to make sure there was nothing wrong - but after a very thorough examination she said she was physically fine - but it was more likely to be stress. Yes stress. So now she's a very spoilt cat who gets her own way all the time and gets to sleep on our bed every night. And she's a delight - enjoys fuss, comes when you call her and she hasn't gone for either of us once. So there you go. Here she is sitting in the bath waiting for the tap to be run. Anyway - must go now for the ceremo...