Saturday update

So here's how far I got on Saturday - apologies for the poor staging of the pictures - but it's absolutely freezing outside (literally), and I've just got in from work - I thought I'd get these uploaded and worry about picture composition later.....

Like when it warms up.

If it ever does.

As you can see, I've done 5 of the 6 triangles - just one to go.

and they can be arranged in a number of different ways, depending on how you feel:

I had hoped to get in tonight and start to quilt these up, so that they would be done for Christmas - but seriously - it's so cold right now that I think the next place for me is bed, tucked up with a cup of tea and a good book.

I'm out late twice a week at my Spanish class, and Mr Z&Z comes to meet me afterwards, to cadge a lift home, so by the time we open the front door, the house has been sitting cold and neglected for over 14 hours. And that's when you notice the cold.

We had a plumber around yesterday to talk through putting in radiators / upgrading what we have. He gave us a reasonable price, said it would be a straightforward job - and then said that it would be February at the earliest!!

Mr Z&Z and I really do need to start planning ahead.

We have Lift-Off!!!

When I got in last night from a quilting thing (more later), it was to find that the new PC had been delivered, and that Mr Z&Z had got it up and running (rather than cleaning the kitchen, but hey, I think that's understandable!).

So here I am - absolutely gobsmacked at how much quicker and simpler everything is. Now I sound like my own mother, but I was a little taken aback to turn on the new PC, glance out of the window, and then look back at the screen to see that it was already ready to go!!

Loading photos has gone from a marathon endurance effort to something that is quick and efficient!!

So now that I've downloaded over 1500 photos in the same space of time it used to take me to do 5 - here's what we did yesterday:

These were the class samples that Connie, the tutor, had made up. The idea is that you can either have 6 triangles which you can put together to form a large hexagon, and you can rotate depending how the mood takes you - or you can sew it together as a large hexagon. It's based on 8 colours, and you only need a tiny bit of each.

These are my colours :

Sewing was minimal - Janet had assembled all these without using needle or thread:


I can't remembe rthe name of the lady who had done these ones:

but as you can see, she's started to add the'lead' for the stained glass effect. Some were happy to make their own bias binding - others (like me) resorted to using the iron-on version.

In case you're wondering - yes, I did get some done - but at this stage the memory card on my camera was full - so hopefully some photos tomorrow....

Show and tell was quite brief (there were only 8 of us at this point) - but I really do like to see what everyone has been up to.

Janet had made a quilt for her daughter for Christmas, and Avis had quilted it on her long arm machine:


Sally had bought the kit for this at the Festival of quilts, from Critter patterns, and had made it up:

...although she still had a small amount of binding to sew down....

Connie brought these along - it's about a year's work (I think), and I know the picture is the wrong way up - but I think you can get the general idea. They were beautifully done.

I need to develop some more patience of I'm ever going to be able to make anything like this.

Into the Twenty-First Century

Just spent about a gazillion hours on this PC trying to order a NEW PC. How ironic.

Mind you, the process was held up by painstakingly entering the individual codes from a pile of vouchers - the result of three years of birthdays, Christmases and anniversaries.

Delivery date is Saturday.

I can't wait (I'm out at a quilting thing all day) - hopefully Mr Z&Z will have it all set up by the time I get back. It wil be so nice not having to switch on the PC, wander off for 10 minutes, and then come back to see if there's any flicker of life yet, not to mention being able to use the internet without having to set aside at least 90 minutes for something as simple as emailing....

Third Delivery!!

I was away for the weekend, at Mrs F's house in Yorkshire.

We like to pretend that I've gone to visit her - she is my mother, after all.

But really, this is who I like to go and spend time with:




I think we were watching 'Strictly ' at the time, and so he's curled up on the sofa (forbidden!!) but a blind eye has been turned .....

But just before I left, I had a third delivery, aptly, of three packages:

This one, from Shelly:

and I really liked the bag as well:

(Mr Z&Z wanted this....)

This one, from Denise:

and this one, from Carolyn:

who had also include some extra little things, which was really sweet of her!
Last Wednesday we had a 'Well-being Day' (more to follow later), and I was able to get a lot of my red strips sewn together, as well as about 100 of the half square triangles - only another 360 or so to make..... I've decided that I'm going to use the swap fabrics for the main strips and squares, so that I can really appreciate the variety that have arrived.

Second Delivery!

I had a pleasant day in Birmingham today to learn about this and that in lovely Bournville. I'd never been there before, and wished we'd had longer to look around the area. Bournville was originally built as a model village for the employées of the Cadbury chocolate factory, with 313 houses being built.

Because the founder, George Cadbury, was a Quaker, there is no pub. If you're not British, you may not understand the importance of this - traditionally, a lot of British social life rotates around the pub.....not necessarily involving alcohol, but they tend to serve as the hub of the local community.

In 2003 it was voted as one of the best places to live in the UK

And Bournville chocolate remains one of my favourites EVER - dark and yummy... I know there are those who claim that it is too sweet. Well, that just leaves all the more for me.....

I had this delivery at the end of last week, from Livinia in Florida:

Some more strips for my snowball challenge. I look at other blogs of those participating, and see that they've already got their strips - I think mine have probably got held up in the postal strike and are somewhere in the system.

Hopefully they'll be here soon - in the meantime, I DO need to get on with my red blocks....

Sleigh bells ring, but I'm not listening (yet...)

Yesterday the Christmas decorations went up at work.

So now, if I want to use the photocopier, or get a cup of tea, or get my post, I have to walk into a room with three Christmas trees, enough tinsel to reach to Lapland and back, and a small and bedraggled crib scene.

There are more than 6 weeks to go.

I find it all quite depressing.

The whole sense of occasion and build-up has vanished - I keep thinking 'oh gosh - is that late in year already?', before reminding myself that it isn't, actually.

Don't get me wrong - I LOVE Christmas / decorating / baking / wrapping things up / Midnight Communion / the whole shebang - but December is time enough to get started.....

First delivery

When I got in from work today, it was to find a package from Marianne, along with a really cute card, which looks to be home crafted and has some seeds as well - don't know what they are, I'll probably plant them anyway and see what comes up......

Three lovely fabrics - off white, cream and light tan.

Yum!!!

My book also arrived, which was fab. I've never heard of Evelyn Sloppy, and was a little dubious about what it would be like - the last quilt book I bought was a massive disappointemnt, especially as it had only 16 pages - but I have to say that I really like what I've seen of this one so far - and am tempted to make a couple of other things from it as well.

Hopefully some photos tomorrow, all being well.

My packages will go off tomorrow - I've bribed Mr Z&Z to take them to the Post Office in between lectures.

Remembrance Sunday

I took a photo of this quilt at the Festival of Quilts in 2008 - but omitted to record who made it, so if anyone knows, I'll be more than happy to add the details here.

Each of the white poppies is made by photocopying some letters sent back from the front.

I'd planned to put a picture of the war memorial in Kirkby-cum-Osgodby, where I travelled to last week, putting together pieces of the family history. Harry, my great-grandfather, is recorded on here, having been killed on July 1st 1916 in the Somme, aged 26.

But alas - no picture, as my camera is still with my mother.

Today at 11am Mr Z&Z and I were in the supermarket, where the minute silence was solemnly observed by everyone except a family close to where we were.

To be fair, I don't think they heard the tannoy announcement - but you'd think they would have realised that the entire shop had stopped - tills/shopping/conversations - the lot.

This year's commemorations were really brought home to me when I saw my home town (near York) on the news, where local residents were remembering a local boy killed just last week on a tour of duty.

On a more cheerful (but still related) note, I really like this idea - knitting a poppy to wear, instead of (or maybe as well as???) the plastic ones. The pattern can be found here, but is only available until the end of Thursday.

My knitting skills are poor, but I'm still pondering on whether to download the instructions and bribe a friend to knit one up for me???

I have reds (and am reading textbooks...)

thedomesticdiva.files.com

When I looked through my stash this morning, what colours predominated?

Purple/mauve/violet -lots and lots.

Blues and greens - a reasonable amount.

Yellow and orange - a satisfying amount.

Black - ditto.

Red - none.

Nada.

Rien.

Nichts.

Red is so far out of my comfort zone. I asked Mr Z&Z's advice, on the way to the quilt shop (I gave him a lift to the shop, where I think he was planning to get the Guardian and a sticky bun to take back home, and enjoy the peace and quiet while I was out).

'Mr Z&Z', I asked (very formal at home, we are. Almost Austenesque). 'Mr Z&Z, I have no red in my somewhat out of control stash, but I have lots and lots of yummy, delicious, delightful purples. Shall I amend red and white challenge to be purple and white? What do you think? I LOVE purple'

'Hmm', he replied. "If the criteria are red and white, then that's what you should do. And besides which, I think it would do you good to get out of your comfort zone'.

Mr Z&Z has obviously been going to some interesting tutorials at college since he started in September! Comfort Zone? I didn't even think he knew that phrase!! But I was very impressed, and quite touched, that he had shown an interest in my quilting, and that he was making some positive and helpful suggestions.

So off I went, with permission to spend money on fabric. How strange. Almost unsettling, in fact.

I ended up at the larger (but more expensive) LQS about 30 minutes away. It took a LONG time to get to grips with red - I kept pulling out bolts of purple instead, or red with a purplish tinge. I just was not comfortable with the red bolts. I found myself walking past the many red bolts and spending time lookng at completely different fabrics instead.

In the end, I ended up with about 10 different reds, and I can see now how they may just work.
I think I was getting too hung up on getting the 'right' red.

quiltersbuzz.com

These aren't they (I still have no camera), but give you an idea of what I've picked up.

Actually, what was even harder was the directive to get cream/off-white/ light tan for the swap strips. No-one in the whole shop seemed to know what colour light tan is. Including the shop owner.

Is it light brown?
Tan to me is a sort of yellowish orange colour.

Ive had a look on google images, and I think it's the colour I'd probably call taupe.

So I ended up with three fabrics that are all very similar, and all pretty much off white - or they were when they went into the washing machine - knowing my luck, a random sock was in there as well, and has coloured them all pink :-( . I hope they're not too light. I picked up a coupled of other ones for myself as well, but I'm holding off getting any more lights until I see what I get from the other swapees in the group.

So I've come home, laden with fabric, washed it and now it's draped all over the radiators - by 4pm the sun has disappeared and it's getting colder.

(I've always been against having a tumble dryer for financial and environmental reasons - but I don't think I can face another winter of clothes horses up in rooms, and the inevitable condensation on windows and surfaces. Hmm. I need to ponder on this. I think there may be space in the garage to fit one in).

And I'm now up to 2,400 words on my essay. This is NOT a good sign. It means that I've rambled on and on with little coherence. I've chosen to write about José Carlos Mariategui, because I seemed to have a lot of lecture notes on him - but all I've done so far is write up my lecture notes, without thinking about what I'm typing.

Time to prune them back, I think.

And get on with finishing it instead of surfing the Web - I ned to get down to about 1500 words by the time Strictly Come Dancing starts!!.......

sunshine at last

Hurrah!

At long last we've woken up to some sun instead of the constant rain that we've had for the last week. The washing machine is churning away so that hopefully we can get at least some items dry on the line before the heavens open again.

I've spend some time so far this morning looking for fabric from my stash for the red and white challenge - but no luck. So it looks like a trip to the LQS.....

And this is where I have a dilemma - do I go to the small (and friendly) shop which is about 15 minutes away, in the city, but which has a very small range of fabric - or do I hop in the car, leave Mr Z&Z at home to mind the washing, and drive for 30 minutes to the much larger shop which has a stunning array of stock - and which means that I drive through Chatsworth park as well??


gouk.about

The last couple of times I've driven past the house I've been lucky enough to see a herd of deer wandering about.

The other reason for going a long way, apart from the chance to meander through the beautiful Peak District, is because I have an essay due in on Thursday evening, as part of my Spanish course that i've taking at the local university. I have to produce 800 words on the life, work and importance of a Peruvian.

My mind is blank.

The only Peruvian I could think of is this one:

I have been tempted to write about Paddington Bear, just to see what the tutor would say - but have realised that this would probably be a foolish option, and rather than risk failing this module, I'd better get my textbook open (having had it out from the university library for 3 weeks, it's still unopened....) and get on with it.

800 words isn't that much after all, and at least I'm writing it in English - so I think it's a question of gettng my fabric (MUCH more important!!!), coming home, chucking it in the machine and then setting off with my essay, pausing only to scuttle into the garden to hang out acres of cotton...

Time to go and shop, I feel.....

Red and White Snowball challenge

I don't know what on earth possessed me - but I've just signed up for an on-line challenge....

Maybe it was prompted by the picture above, from Nicole's blog, and on Alyson's.....

I now have to get myself to my LQS and purchase some fabric, wash and iron it, cut it into 5" strips and then send three of each to various people around the world.

In theory, I should then receive back 18 strips, with which to make my own scrappy red and white quilt....

In practice, I fear that I will receive the strips, admire them, but then not get on with what I'm supposed to be doing at all.....

Even though it's just been halfterm, I have no photos to post - because I visited my mother yesterday, and have left the camera hanging from her newel post.....

I tried to persuade Mr Z&Z that we needed another camera in the house, in case of such emergencies - but no luck so far....

Going back to the beginning

I've always been curious about family history, but foolishly, I'd always thought that it was something to be done 'later'. The sort of thing that old people did - people who were settled and mature (conveniently ignoring the fact that I'm never, ever, ever going to be under 30 again......).

It was only when my paternal grandmother died, followed less than a year later by my father, that I realised that I'd now lost all links to my paternal family. And it made me wonder what the history was. Where did the family come from? What was the background? Where were my roots? How come my siblings and I are musical, but my mother (bless her) struggles to hold a tune of more than three notes? How come we all three wear glasses or contact lenses (like my father) but all my mother's family are proud of their ability be able to read very small font at 1500 meters (well, maybe not - but close...).

So at Easter this year, I gathered up everything I knew about my father's family, sat down in front of the computer, took a deep breath - and set off.

At the time, my paternal family tree looked like the picture above -pretty sparse - actually, there were 7 names in TOTAL.

Now, don't ask me why - but for some reason, we all thought that my grandfather, Thomas, was Lincolnshire born and bred. We knew that he never really knew his father - he was born in 1913 and his father was killed in the battle of the Somme, (1st July 1916). We knew that he'd been brought up by his mother in a very rural village in Lincolnshire, and had had a very impoverished childhood. And that was about it. He never spoke about it - and neither did my father ever refer to it. We knew the name of his father - Harry - and that was about it. My sisblings and I had assumed that the family must have been farm labourers, on the rare occasions that we idly speculated about our family history. My father was proud of his Lincolnshire roots, and would often refer to them.

I looked at the 1911 census - there was Harry - a farm labourer. So no shock there.

But I was somewhat surprised, after getting a marriage certificate for Harry - to find that while he was listed as being a carter, his father was listed as being, not a farm worker, or carter, or groom,

but

a theatre conductor and musician

in Newport, Wales

which is about as far as you can get from Lincolnshire, East to West across the UK.

So how did the youngest son of the family end up right the other side of the country, married at 23 to an 18 year old girl in a registry office with no family present, with a child born 6 months after the wedding, and killed 3 years later?

I posted some of the family details on genesreunited - and was contacted by 2 distant cousins - both of whom had been researching the family tree, but who had always been told that Harry had never married or had children. His name is on the War Memorial of the small village that he came from - but there is no info about family or background. His name is recorded on the Commonwealth Monument at Thiepval, in France - and again, there is no information about parents.

There is a mystery here - and I don't think it will ever get solved. Was there an estrangement? A falling out?

Since starting this, I've gone on to track down over 500 names of ancestors for the family tree - but it's this puzzle that I keep coming back to.

And it does make you try to be thankful for the family that you have - however irritating or annoying they may be at times - and to actually talk to them about what you're doing.I always find that falling out with family is more distressing than anything else.

The gasman cometh..

Life chez Z&Z has been somewhat fraught this week. I came home from work last Tuesday to find this adorning my cooker:



Mr ZZ had noticed a funny smell in the kitchen, and had called out the emergency gasman, only for him to condemn our hob and cut off the gas supply to it. We thought we could manage for a while with just the oven, but by the weekend had succumbed and bought a little table top oven with 2 tiny electric rings. This will have to do us until funds permit the fitting of a new kitchen.

Jubilation at the new addition, and the possibility of having rice and pasta again, was somewhat tempered by the discovery that the boiler had also seized up: 'it's the PCB' I was informed somewhat loftily by Mr ZZ.
All I can say is thank goodness that we have plenty of half finished quilts to snuggle under, until the next gas man comes in a fortnight, hopefuly to get the boiler running again, so that we can have heating.

In the meantime this is what I've been doing:



This is half a top for a lap quilt: here's what it should look like, albeit in different colours, when completed:


I really regret choosing white for my background - cream would have been much better - the white just seems to 'kill' the colour.

And here's my bargain purchase from the Quilter's Guild Bring and Buy stall at the recent Regional Day:


It's a Thimbleberries BOM from c2003 - all 12 months, as well as borders and bindings. At present, the Thimbleberries BOM retail at about 15 pounds a month - I paid 50 for the whole lot (and had a free cloth bag thrown in!!), so I think that represents a bargain.

I put the first 2 blocks together on Saturday:





and by Sunday had completed another 2:


Apologies for the yellowish tinge - that's what happens when you take photos under artifical light in a room with no windows.....

Ferreting around

Where did last week go?? One minute it was Monday, all stretched out before me - and now it's Sunday morning, getting ready for Monday again??

I spent yesterday at a quilting workshop, but no pictures to show yet (hopefully, if I can get the chores out of the way this morning, I can get on with it this afternoon). Unusually, you have to pretty much make all the blocks before you can evern start to piece together (yes, I know that's probably what you're supposed to do anyway, but I like to get some of it together as soon as I can, as I find that it then encourages me to keep going with it).

So instead, let me show you what I did a couple of weeks ago. It's not quite finished - the plan had been to do it on Wednesday night this week, but the time just seems to flutter away. On the Sunday it was the Quilters Guild Regional Day - I love these days - I love talking to all sorts of people to whom you'd probably not usually speak, and seeing just what others are making. (I also picked up some real bargains at the bring and buy table - more on that later as well).

Ferret gave a talk in the afternoon. I've been a massive fan of Ferret for a couple of years now - I like the way in which she challenges what we'd expected to see in quilting, and I enjoy reading her blog.

And I was lucky enough to get a place on her workshop on the Sunday - and by the end of the day, this is what I'd created:

I found this incredibly hard at first - the idea of throwing neat piecing out of the window was very hard to get my head around, but once I got going, I really enjoyed it, which is one of the reasons that I want to get this finished and up on display in my house. It still needs to be quilted, and a border put on it.

This is what others ended up with:


Pretty impressive rose, huh??

I also have plans for a number of other projects along the same lines...

We have pictures at last!!!

I took my camera and associated wires and bits and bobs into work today, to see whether the problem with downloading was with the camera or the PC.

I managed to find one that was operating just fine.

Mind you, the temptation was then to download all zillions and zillions of holiday photos - but I managed to be firm with myself, and just download a few to show here, as well as uploading to a couple of other places.

First up is a mini quilt that I made for the monthly challenge on the yahoo BQL (and if only I could remember how to put in hyperlinks....).

The idea is that every month you make a small quiltlet and post a photo for everyon else to admire. The catch is that the password for the following month is only released to those who manage to get a photo up by the end of the month. Miss the password - and you have to figure out the challenge for yourself, based on the photos that others have put up......

What with one thing and another, I've missed a number of deadlines, so I figured that I may as well have a go - I looked at the photo, and it was log cabin - one of my personal favorites. It's made with 1" strips, and has ended up about 10.5" wide. I love the way it's worked out - but I'm not happy with my quilting - I was being too slapdash again.....

Secondly, here are the blocks that I got back as part of a bock swap with quilter in Montana. The theme was 'Autumn' and all blocks had to be made with batiks. I absolutely love every block I've received - and can't wait to start getting them together (yes, hmm, that 'll be sometime next summer then...).

I was supposed to make 20 blocks, but ended up making 23 (it's a long story...) - so I think I'll probably make another 1, which gives me 24 - a nice round number - to make a quilt from.

And lastly for today - look at this lucious creation!!



Alas, not one of mine - I paid 25p for it (woefully underpriced) at a sale at my local quilting group. The lady who made this just likes to make them for fun.

She can come and live at my house any time she likes!!!

Needless to say, within about 5 minutes of buying it, something strange had happened:

Wonder how many Weight Watcher points are in one home made cupcake.......

Hello (again again)

Okay - no posts for six months or so, and then 2 in one day????

I've spend the last hour or so trying to get my photos off the camera and onto the PC so that I could (start) to get up to date with everything, but although I have flashing lights, I have no movement of pictures.

Where have they gone? Why is the light flashing if nothing's actually happening?

I'm going to try again tomorrow, but for now, you'll have to make do with words.

I've been to a workshop with Ferret, and almost completed a wall hanging (pictures to follow)
I've been to Newfoundland for three weeks and had the most amazing time (approz 3 zillion photos to follow)
I've started a quilt for my sister in law, from the Eleanor Burns book 'Victory Quilts'.
I had a BIG birthday (which was a disaster from start to finish), so no pictures of that, but I'm planning a re-run next year.....

Hello (again)

It's been a long time since I posted.

A lot has happened here.

This is quite a negative post, and there are no pictures (you've been warned!!!!).

I arrived back from Stuttgart to find that Mr ZZ was poorly. Not physically poorly, but the sort of poorly you get when you've been out of work for 2 years, and the prospects of getting anything else seem to be fading by the day, in a city where the 'Situations Vacant' in the local paper has gone from a large supplement to a page and a half. The poorly that you get when you have no disposable income of your own at all, and you wonder whether it's worth carrying on at all becaue you perceive yourself to be a burden; you don't even want to go to the supermarket to get the groceries, or to the newsagents to get a paper, because you think that everyone is wondering why a fit young(ish) man is around in the daytime.

It all became quite horrendous (you know things are bad at home when you positively look forward to going to work and dread the weekends and evenings!!!), and I didn't feel that I could talk to my family, long-term friends or colleagues about this - I didn't want them to judge Mr ZZ, whom they know and love. But I'd like to say a big THANK YOU to my quilting friends, none of whom have ever met Mr ZZ, but who were supportive and non-judgemental, and who were always there for a shoulder to cry on (which makes me think that probably my family would have been great as well and that it was me who was making a wrong judgement).

On a much happier note, Nr ZZ graduated in May - he's spent the last 7 years studying part-time with the Open University for a degree in history (we met through the OU, at a summer school in Stirling, but that's a whole other story....). Friends and family (who knew nothing, remember, of how he'd been struggling with just getting up and getting on with things) came and celebrated with him - cards and gifts came a-flying through the post - and I think he suddenly realised that actually he would be missed.

Armed with his 2:1, he applied for an MA at our local university, but was very pessimistic - 'they won't look twice at me - I'm too old and I've done nothing with my life....' and much to his surprise, they offered him a place in June, and he started last week. The difference has been incredible over the last three months - it's as though he's re-emerged from a deep sleep.

To be honest, although I should perhaps have shared this with family and close friends, he knows that they are unaware of his illness, and it's made it easier for him to start to recover. It does make me very angry indeed that there's such a stigma attached to mental illness - a broken leg, and sympathy would have been poured over him - have a breakdown, and people cross the road to get away from you.

There's a long way to go yet, and I'm sure there will be relapses, but for now things are looking happier.

Normal viewing has been restored...

So where to start?

I've now spent far too many hours working out how to load the photos up. Part of the problem was the fact that the manual was electronic.

Call me old-fashioned - but I like to be able to read a manual - and by that I mean carry it about with me, read in bed, flick backwards and forward through it when I feel like it - not after I've turned on the PC, booted it up, and then looked at a flickering screen.

Would it more economical to have a print version? Possibly not to make - but certainly to use....

Now, if I update you with everything that I've been doing - this post will last for several days - so best to pick out a few highlights, I think...

Firstly - today. I went to a workshop on stack and whack. The tutor provided us with some fabulous fabrics - okay, they may not have been to everyone's taste, but the idea was that you went from this:

to this...

These aren't the same fabrics, BTW - but you get the idea of what is supposed to be going on here.

I'm so unhappy with my final blocks that there is, at present, no picture to show you.

All was going really well, and I was getting quite carried away - until we came to sew it together, and the pieces just wouldn't fit smoothly. No way. Even with pinning, resewing, and pressing. So time to re-think, I feel...

I'm determined to get this one cracked - I KNOW I can do this - I just need to work out where it was all going wrong. I sneaked a peak at the book that the tutor was referring to - and the book seemed to indicate that some triangles should be cut 1/4" larger than the diamonds in the pattern. I'm going to scout about a bit more in my own books here at home (because I seem to have rather a lot - so hopefully there will be something in one of them) and then try again with a slightly larger piece.

Last weekend was Grannie's 94th birthday party, which she held in the Cotswolds. Well, my aunt and cousins orgainsed it, and those of use from the frozen North drove down for the day.

To be fair, I do often argue with people that Yorkshire isn't the north - to me, the North of England starts at Newcastle - but I think it's really a matter of perspective. I grew up in North Yorkshire, in a small market town between York and Scarborough, but had to move away for university and then for work. I was very pleased to be able to move to Sheffield, as at last I felt that I was getting closer to home - it's Yorkshire, albeit it South.

But I digress.

Grannie had a fabulous time - lots of grandchildren and great-grandchildren there.

I'm hoping that grannie won't mind me posting a picture of her blowing the candles out on her cake, ably assisted by small children:

And finally - here's my contribution to the BQL perpertual calendar challenge for March:



I read about this in P and Q magazine, and thought it looked interesting - so signed up.

I have to say - it really has been a challenge for me - but hey, I got something finished for once - it's 12" square - but at least it's a project completed!!!

No posts now for about 10 days - I leave for Stuttgart tomorrow - 20 hours by coach, for a school trip - and although internet access is possible, it's not always easy.

I'm taking some hand appliqué with me - I should have plenty of time at various points to get on with that - and also some needlepoint (nice big holes to poke a needle thorough - no worries about stitch size there).

Last year I overdid it on the shopping front - this year, the strength of the Euro means that I shall be reduced to windowshopping only.

Still no photos :-(

I spoke to the technicians at work today.

Apparently I just have too much stuff on the PC - I thought it was bit like a filing cabinet, and you could keep stuffing more and more things inside it, into a glorious higgledy-piggeldy pile, but it appears not. I've stuffed so much into it that the poor thing can't even work out what to do anymore.

They say that I need to buy a hard-drive thingy to plug into the UBS port, and that then everything will be lovely and calm again.

I also brought my camera into work, to see if I could upload pictures here - but left the manual at home.... Of course, if I'd only thought, I could have asked one of the students to sort it out for me.

I'm working late tonight (yes, I'm still at my desk, having got here at 7 am!), becaue for some unknown reason I offered to be the keyholder for the next visit to Boulogne.

Which departs tonight.

At midnight.

Yes. That's right. MIDNIGHT!!!!

So I'm staying here, getting everything ready for tomorrow, when I shall walk the corridors like some middleaged zombie after a late night tonight. All being well, the coaches will arrive and depart on time, and I'll be able to get to bed at about 12.45........

...... and I have to do the same thing tomorrow evening - what a way to spend Friday evening!!

Hopefully I will either have found the manual for my new camera, or will have been able to persuade a cheerful student that they really, really want to spend thier lunch hour looking at pictures of patchwork...

Still here - but still busy

No posts for while now - the PC at home has been playing up a lot - it now takes over 20 minutes just to turn it on, and accessing the internet is alomost impossible.

Any plans for shopping / blogging / working have to be carefully planned - picnic lunches have to be made and taken upstairs, and I often plan to do things like phone my mum while I'm fighting with technology.

I'd planned to get a better base unit (is that what it's called???), but then the fuel bill arrived yesterday. According to the fancy schmancy graphs that they've included with their demand for money, we're using far less gas and electricity than last year - so why oh why did I nearly collapse with shock when I opened the envelope??? The 'updating the kitchen' budget has already been diverted to the 'summer holiday' fund, and the decorating fund is periously low - so nothing else for it - no new PC this month..... (and, more worryingly, no updating of stash...)

No photos either - I left my camera at home this morning - but there should be some up soon (I have a new camera, and I can't wait to see what the photos look like... - I know you can see on the little screen at the back, but it's not the same as on the PC monitor.

So what have I been up to?

• I've been to a workshop with Sandie Lush - incredible - can't recommend it enough. More detail later.
• I also went to a workshop on folded patchwork - hmmm - think I need to work on this a bit more.
• Took 90 11 and 12 year olds to Boulogne in France for the day (yes, from Derbyshire - we left at 11.30 at night, arrived at 8.30 - spent the day in france, and got back at about 10.30 in the evening...).
• Made a 'quiltlet' with a photo in it - pictures as soon as possible!!!
• Spent Mothering Sunday with my grannie and about 30 of her descendants (ie mum / aunts / cousins / siblings / nieces / nephews) - a beautiful sunny day in the Cotswolds!!!

And I leave for Stuttgart on Sunday, for a week - not much time to get projects completed by then (but plenty started!!!).

Progress

Here's the top of the gymkhana quilt:

No borders added yet - not too sure what to do - perhaps two borders, a red and then a brown?

And here's the batik top, with borders nearly on:

I've also been practising my machine appliqué - this was a freebie from the retreat I went on - 2 squares of fabric, and 8 'sticky hearts' - they were adhesive, so all I had to do was to peel off the backing, stick them on the right place and then press with the iron to make sure they stayed where I wanted them.

I then went round each one with the blanket stitch on the machine - and it was SO much easier than I had thought it would be (LOL).

Rather than lay these bits out on my bed, or one the floor, as I usually do, I decided that, now the bedroom has been decorated, to hang them from the picture rail and step back.

What a different perspective!!

In fact, I've left the batik one hanging up as it looks so much better than it does draped on a table in my sewing room. It just about fits across the chimney breast, and is a real splash of colour in an otherwise monochrome room in shades of neutral.

The only downer is that my camera, after being ill for some time, appears to be on its last legs. When it's turned off, the lens cover think no longer shuts, and so it won't be long before the lens gets badly scratched.

And today, when I was trying to use the zoom, it just wouldn't move, but then creaked noisily into action.

All in all, I think it's probably had it.

And I don't know how economical it would be to get it fixed.

Even supposing I could find somewhere to get it mended.

So what now?

Another 'point and press'??? No effort involved in using it - but perhaps not enough options for taking diferent types of picture.

Or do I invest in something more expensive? - but then again, I don't think that the pictures I take would necessarily justify the expense.