Still Here !

Blimey - I didn't realise it was ten days since I last posted. Sorry! Lots of vide greniers (car boot sales) and brocantes to go to with lots of material. Went to a huge one last Sunday at Champagnac de Belair and found a piece of flowery material about half a metre for 1.50 Euros - not bad! Going to another one at Bourdeilles on Sunday and Villars on Monday. Must remember to remind Alexandra to take portable CD player and books. She gets so bored poor love. Then just had to visit fabric warehouse on Wednesday to get more material for Blue Jean Windows (new name) and stocked up on lots of fabric which I am playing around with. Japanese idea now dead - couldn't get to grips with the colours and so will keep what I've already got for future use ;-) Joined the About.com Quilters forum yesterday and have found a quilter the other side of Limoges (hi Pippa) about 2 hours drive away, which in French terms isn't too far. There is also a Quilting Bee at Thiviers once a month, but the sort of stuff they do there is far too fussy and exacting for me. Oh, fantastic news last evening. Alexandra came home from school with report for last Trimestre - 95% A's and lovely comment from Le Maitre "Excellent travail. Bravo". Since she asked to be moved to a different desk, her school work has got a lot better. She has finally managed to get her head round long division and fractions. Summer is nearly here - opened up our pool this week :-) Will post more later.

All in a Quandry

Had a lovely day yesterday at the brocante at Vaunac though the prices were astronomical - 65 Euros for a piece of lace! Forgot to take the digi camera so haven't got any photographs of some of the most amazing lace and stuff that I've seen for a long time. Some of the garden ornaments were stunning too. However, bought a couple of children's dresses for material for 2 Euros and a new thimble for 2 Euros (not bad eh). I am now deciding what to do. Do I do the last block for Blue Jean quilt that I can do with what material I have left, or do I start on new design? I keep on saying to myself that if I don't finish Blue Jeans it will never get finished and yet fingers are itching to get out the fabric boxes and have a play. I also downloaded yesterday a demo version of PC Quilt for Windows v.2. Has anyone got any ideas about computer programmes for quilts. For or against? More later - houseful of girlie girls!

Mental Block Blockage!

Happy Easter everyone. Yesterday was just one of those days! I just couldn't make seams match, the sewing machine wouldn't behave itself, the material went into sulk mode and wouldn't do as it was told and I sewed, unpicked, sewed, unpicked for most of the day. Finally at about 6.30 pm I sewed for the last time. It still isn't perfect and will probably unravel itself at some point, but I'd had enough by then. But in the middle of the night I woke with a start and the beginnings of a new quilt design in my head. Funny how your subconscious keeps on going even though you are fast asleep. Graph paper and crayon time. Oh and Puter had a severe talking to and, as you can see, is working perfectly. No need for medical examination :) One bit of good news yesterday. My lovely Mum rang and she is hoping to get out on Eurostar over the next month or two. Haven't seen her since big family wedding last June and am really looking forward to having her to myself.

April is not my month!

Well, now that Tiscali has decided to behave itself, computer has thrown a wobbly so I may be off line for a while while it goes for its annual medical. Alex has been picking Spring flowers like there's no tomorrow and the house is full of Daffodils and Cowslips - lovely smells! We are letting the grass grow this year for local farmer to cut for hay for his cows so we should be seeing Orchids galore over the next few weeks. Big thunderstorm the other day too - unusual for this time of year, but I love the colours in this pic! The greens and greys have given me an idea for a quilt if I can find the right colours and material. This is part of our garden (the orchard I call it!). The building's aren't ours. When we were at Javerlhac fabric warehouse last week Alex spotted some Japanese material scraps that she liked and wondered if I could make them up into a cushion for her, or perhaps a thin Summer quilt. I didn't buy any as I already have some scraps that I bought sometime ago. Too many projects running through my mind at the moment and not enough time to do it all! Current project is still on hold and must get my head round it so that I can start on something else for exhibition. Really into wall hangings at the moment as they can be any size you want them to be - not too big and bulky. DH must be persuaded to put up that curtain pole in our bedroom for the Blue Jean hanging. We spent a rather wet and miserable weekend catching up on various DVD's. Rex, as usual, fell asleep halfway through Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire so we had to watch it again yesterday evening. Alex and I felt that the first 45 minutes or so was too fast. They tried to pack too much of the original story into a short space of time. How on earth are they going to do The Order of the Phoenix which is even longer! Book 3 in both book and film is still my favourite, with the Half Blood Prince running a close second. The other DVD's on the list are the latest Wallace and Gromit, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Capote which I am looking forward to immensely. Alex breaks up tomorrow for the Vacances de Printemps which this year happens to clash with Easter Just under 2 weeks of an 11 year old saying how bored she is! Hey ho. Anyway, sun is out and garden is beckoning, even though it is still rather chilly.

Spring is here!

My ISP is playing up. Tiscali is on a go slow and the telephone lines have transformed themselves into "wet pieces of string". The up shot of all this is that I can't connect for very long and it takes an age for web pages to load. Apart from that and the fact that the computer decided to throw a wobbly this morning, the sun is shining, I heard the first Nightingale the day before yesterday, and the first Cuckoo too. Hoopoe's are yet to make an appearance. Spring has definitely sprung and the quilt has been put on the back burner. Will add more later.

Poisson d'Avril

Busy with quilt stuff, trying to keep up with numerous messages on Yahoo and generally just lazing about as ankle is playing up. I drove the car for the first time last Thursday and jolted my foot when trying to pull out of a side turning on to a main road. Last night the pain was back so it is back on to the pain killers. Alex's school was on strike last Tuesday in sympathy with the students and the CPE and is again next Tuesday. Good for me in one way as I, for my sins, teach English to seven 8/9 year olds on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I love doing it, but the prep work is very time consuming. I'm off into Perigueux for a shop and will try to write more later.