YES!!!

Hooray!!!

No school tomorrow!!!

Hurrah!!

Yes? No? Yes? No?

The weather forecast said that today would bring the worst snow seen in the UK for 5 / 10 / 18 years - depending on what you were listening to / reading /watching.

But I - cynically - thought that this was probably some scaremongering, and that there may well be some flurries - so no need to take any extra precautions.

Well - it's been snowing all day - and those of us ho didn't go dressed suitably ...

.. were very cold. And narrowly avoided falling over at work. Several times. I KNEW I should have put boots on today...

My journey home took 90 minutes, as opposed to 10 - which isn't bad when I hear what other people were up to. I did okay until I came to descend the final hill - where the kids were toboganning in the middle of the road - you can't really blame them, I suppose - and at the bottom I turned into our road. I edged along it very cautiously - I should have known that this was a tricky area in snow when we bought the house - there's a gritting box at the end of the road - I tried to turn into the drive and EEEEKK spun round and about, coming to a halt right across the road.

Nothing else for it - hazard lights on, and a quick dash (in MOST unsuitable shoes - serves me right) to get Jim to push me out of the road and into the drive - there was just TOO MUCH SNOW to get the car into my own drive.

I counld't really have a go at Jim for not clearing a path - it simply hadn't occured to him - and besides which, he'd gone on a shopping expedition this morning at about 8 am, thinking, as I did, that this was just another fus about a miniscule amount of snow. The nearest supermarket is about 30 minutes walk away - and so you can imagine that when he came out, laden with the groceries, to find that it was snowing heavily - it was a bit of a shock (You wouldn't think that he had grown up in Glasgow and so should be used to the cold and the snow).

So now it's a question of waiting to see whether school is open or not tomorrow - I should know by 10pm tonight...

And if you're reading this in a location where snow is normal in winter - well, in the UK, we pretty well shut down when it snows. The whole country does. It just happens. Every year. I lived in Germany from 1989-1990, and I remember being quite surprised when it snowed heavily - and everyday life just kept on as usual....

Back from Devon

Oh my.

I've just had the most incredible weekend break - in the most amzing location.

It was in the UK....

... and even with the subzero temperatures that we're getting, it was still unforgettable...

Are you ready??

Well, here's where I spent the last few nights:

Yes - a real castle - albeit a small one - but still a castle, built in the fifteenth century.

It's at Dartmouth (opposite Dartmouth castle..)

And this is where we slept...

and the view from the roof:

Sun set...

Jim took rather a shine to it and seemed to think that he had become master of all he surveyed...

It was for a friends 40th birthday party - he and his girlfiend had the 'luxury' room, and Jim and I shared the twin room - where you could open the windows at night and hear the waves crashing against the rocks (for a very short time, before it became too darn cold and the windows had to be shut...).

So no progress on WIPS to report (Dartmouth is a LONG way from Sheffield - the journey home took about 5 hours) - and as the only driver, I'm going to go and lie on the sofa for a while now...

I'm sure there will be more photos posted very soon..

twice in one week

Yes indeedy.

Two posts in one week.

That's because the football is on downstairs, and so I've been banished to the end of the house. I had thought about sewing, but decided that I'm too tired after a day at work to get anything meaningful done.....

I bought a magazine yesterday - Sew Hip, and this was in it. I'm wondering whether I'll have time to make her over the next few weeks....
It suggests using fusible wadding - but that seems to be very hard to come by in my local quilt shop- so I think I'll use fusible interfacing instead and see what happens...
I'm thinking the brighter the better.

I did think about making her over the weekend - but we're going awayto Devon - about 280 miles away - and I think taking the sewing machine isn't really an option. Oh well - at least the hand sewing can come along....

A day late..

I've been making an effort this year to post at least once a week, on the same day (Sunday) - but already this year, I have missed my own targets...

My only excuse is that I've not been feeling too well.

And so all I have to show for this weekend is this half quilted throw, which is a WIP, and which is progressing VERY slowly.

Hmmm.

The reason for the slow progress is the small error in the symmetrical layout....

..which I didn't notice until I had started quilting.

Oh well.

(For those of you who haven't yet noticed, the bottom right red triangle is in the wrong way...).

Of course, I am very little further with the 20 blocks needed for my swap - and tomorrow will be a long day - I have a meeting which starts at 8.00am, and will probably last all day - meaning that precious sewing time will be lost (as I'll be too tired in the evening). Grrr.

Autumn in January.

In a moment of madness I signed up to a block swap with Threads and Patches in Milton Keynes.

It was in the middle of last year, with a deadline some 10 months away.

And of course, I kept meaning to get round to it - and somehow didn't.......

So, as I have to produce 20 blocks (each 12 1/2 square) by the beginning of April, I thought I'd better make a start.

The only criteria are that the fabrics used be batiks, and that the colours used be autumnal.

I looked through my (way tooooo big) stash - but couldn't find anything that seemed to fit the brief (but did find lots of other lovely things.....).

So I decided to get in touch with Hannah's Room, which is a shop about an hour's drive away - I figured that it would be more economical to do mail order rather than drive up to the shop, overspend, and then drive home again - not to mention the fact that I would only be able to go on a Saturday - and they were absolutely FAB. I emailed on Tuesday afternoon - and my parcel was delivered on Thursday.

That really is service - and I would recommend them to anyone and everyone.

So yesterday, when I was at my monthly quilt class at my local shop, I got on with making my first 6 blocks. They are Balkan Puzzle, inspired by one that I saw on Anne-Ida's blog.


Okay, so it's not completed yet, but I'm set to finish them by the end of today - and then I'll be 30% of the way there.

But now I'm having a massive crise de confiance - are they autumnal? Are they too orange? (To me, autumn is a more gentle shade, and I would include purple as well as a autumn colour - but I haven't included it here, as I thought that maybe that would be too personal a choice).

And should I be making something more complex?? I really don't know if I have time, although to be fair, I do have a week off work in February for halfterm.....

I should have completed them this afternoon - but instead, I went for a bit of light Bondawebbing. This is a block for the Nancy Halvorsen quilt 'Love is...', which I'm hoping that my sister will like for her house... I need to blanket stitch and embroider - which I'll do at quilt group tomorrow evening.

Oh, and some Tana Lawn fell into my shopping basket yesterday....

First pieced top of 2009

Wooooooo.
What a great start to the year!!!!

I have already pieced a quilt top.

ButI haven't even thought about quilting it - because , as we all know, it will take me several months to get around to even basting, never mind quilting it.

Actually, I'm not sure about this top the way it is. I think it needs

a) another black border top and bottom, just to 'frame' it.

and

b) perhaps another border of some sort. The original Clothworks pattern, that I'm adapting it from, had a 6 1/2 inch wide border all round, in the animal print design, with the animal faces looking out. It's quite busy, and I wonder if it will detract from the pieced centre.

I was wondering about some pieced blocks, using up the scraps that I have left over. Or maybe even something like flying geese??

We also carried out part of our joint New Year's resolution - to get fitter - and so went for a 3 1/2 mile walk . Now, I appreciate that that doesn't sound like a lot - but it was raining - and we really are unfit. It took us about 90 minutes, which is reasonable going, over typical White Peak landscape:




We set off from Eyam which is a renowed tourist spot in summer. In 1665 - 1666 (I think that's right!), when the plague was spreading across the UK, it arrived in Eyam in a parcel of cloth sent up from London. Several people died very quickly, and so the villagers decided that the best thing to do was to put themselves into quarantine until all danger had passed. They had no contact at all with anyone from outside the village for about 9 months - and during this time whole families were dying - but no-one was allowed to leave.

As you walk around the village there are little plaques telling you about the history of each cottage and the residents from that time, and there is more information in the church (but as it was Sunday morning, we didn't go in to take photos).

I suppose that if you were cynical, you could argue that the action of the villagers had very impact on the spread of the plague in Derbyshire - but I think that misses the point - they were prepared to foresake seeing friends and family in the hope of helping the wider community.

Anyway, we had a great walk - if a little wet....