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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.

weekend activities

Spent today at Clumber Park with a friend and her small children - recovering from the workshop I went to yesterday by feeding the ducks in the lake.

The block we made on Saturday was called Spinning star, and involved piecing and then folding back material. I got the block completed, but as I didn't take any wadding, couldn't get the folding started.

These are all the completed blocks from the group:

(Mine is the one on a yellow background, top left).

I had intended to make a throw, but I think that I'll put a border on this one block, layer it up and quilt it - and then pass it on to my mum for mother's day (22nd March!!).

And I also bought a layer cake last week, to make a quilt for another friend. I haven't got very far yet.....

Yes, that's right - it's still wrapped up (sorry Sally!!). I need to speak to her as the pattern I'm using involves some decision making - if I were making this for myself, there'd be no problem, but as it's for someone else, I'm worried about making a design error....

And in addition, I've started a quilt for (yet) another friend, for her 40th. It's not a serious one - I'm using the gymkhana fabric from Makower that came out last year, I think.

We met in our first year at secondary school, when we were 11, and at the time she was pony mad (and quite possibly still is). As soon as I saw this fabric, I thought of her, so I'm making a throw to remind her of all the hours spent readng the Pullein-Thompson novels, and going to see the local ponies....

I'm making 2 different blocks, and it's going together really fast.

I know she'll like it - she'll appreciate the gesture and the thought behind it!!!