M = mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I'm seeing M's in my sleep.

When I shut my eyes M's flicker across my eye lids.

I' m being driven mad by M's!

So I gave in.

The letters were getting bigger and bigger as I got more and more confident in my cutting (I really must concentrate on Making Quilts 4 Me).

Yesterday afternoon ToM's m was discarded and replaced by what was supposed to be a W but was cut the wrong way wound (oh my goodness - now it's W's!).

ToM's m looked so small and sorry for itself. Now he has got a nice big strong M.

Thanks all of you for your comments and advice, but as you can see, it did really have to be replaced. Poor little orphan M - oh stop it - you're going to make me cry (sniff).

You will be pleased to know that I'm not going to show this quilt again until it's f inished. Boring, boring boring seeing photos of the same quilt on, every post *vbg*.

And on that note - it's Périgueux time - perhaps a trip to the thread shop.

The season of mist and mellow fruitfulness

is  drawing to a close.   The Walnuts are beginning to drop, there are loads of squished figs round the base of the fig trees.  What's worse - treading on slugs or figs - either way yuk!  The temperature has dropped drastically, it takes 2 days for the washing to dry on the line, it was dark, yes dark, at 7.00 this morning and the wood burner has been lit 2 evenings running.

Thoughts are turning to soups, casseroles and roast veggies.  Pumpkins, squashes, root vegetables, baked potatoes, onions and lots of Toulouse Lautrec garlic (the violet one).

Time to get the cook books out again. These are 6 of my favourites.  I gave The Cookery Year to DH all of 30 years ago.  I couldn't cook then, but he could so he got the first prize!  Now I refer to it at least once a week.  The others are presents given to me over the years, apart from French Provincial Cooking which was my "We"re moving to France" present to myself.   I suppose the Delia one should be her Winter Collection which I also have. Nigel Slater's Real Food is a real winter cook book - yummy scrummy soups!
What are your favourite cook books?  Are you like me and have a cupboard full, or just a few favourites?

WiP Wednesday - 26-09-2007

3 down to 2 - Kezia's quilt has just got to be labelled and sent on its way. At the moment it is drying off after its quick cold wash. Bit of a colour run from someone's red, but I don't think it shows that much.

So down to basics.

The start of My Quilting Adventure.

The start of Tamzin's quilt.

I'm in a quandry about this. Can someone advise please. The letters on the top line get smaller as you go from left to right. I'm not at all sure about the 2 lowercase M's, but as the one in TaMzin is the 3rd attempt to get it right, that one is staying. It's the one in ToM that I'm worried about. Do I leave it or chuck it and start again?

Sunday's bargains.

And last, but not least, beautiful Brantôme. I love this photo. I was sitting in the car last Sunday waiting for DH and Alex, got out the camera and clicked - voila!

Monday Mumblings - Lots of Photos

Oh boy have I been busy busy busy.

I'm still binding Kezia's quilt, but in between times am having fun. These are going to be sent to the Stashbuster List Mom, Sandra, for her Stashbuster 6 x 6 challenge. Hope she likes them.

Then the black ink cartouche ran out on the printer which meant a trip into Périgueux. Are you ready for some stunning photos (even if I say so myself)?

This is what we call The Fat Lady. She sits in the Place St Louis in the centre of Périgueux. During the winter months this square is turned into the Marché du Gras - selling duck in every conceivable form. In the summer it is lovely. There are restaurants on all sides and they overflow on to the square which is a sea of parasols in different colours. Please excuse the lamp post coming out of her head!

Fountain in one of the Square's near the Cathedral.

 

Detail of said fountain. Those poor ladies holding that weight up! Bet they've got a headache!

I think this must be one of the last remaining shops in Périgueux that still looks like it did 100 years ago. The shop is, of course, closed but I love these doors and shutters. Can't you imagine every shop looking the same.

A little further along the same street I found this.

Hope you can read the words - French on the left, English on the right. The building is in the process of restoration. Must be one of the last buildings to be restored. All the others have been.

An arch

And then a bit further on - found outside the Clinique Franchville.

Which looks like this - outside ashtray!

And saving the best one until last.

This is the Place Franchville. Used to be a huge concrete square with not a lot going on. Now its the home of the multiplex cinema and this is the main square. You can just see the cathedral spire to the left. I love the lamp shade style lighting and the huge metal pots containing Magnolia Grandiflora.

 

I'm going to leave it there for the moment. Really must get stuff done. Back tomorrow or more likely Wednesday with the WiP photos.

 

Yet another vide grenier yesterday - latest haul x 2 (blacks) 50 centimes each!!!! At least a metre big - lucky me - photos next time.

Design Walls

I'm in the process of designing a permanent design wall.

The white sheet held up by will power over the cookery book cupboard is ok temporarily, but it keeps on falling down and when I need to get to the books I can't!

We've got lots of old cork tiles lying about the place and I thought of sticking them to a wall and then pinning the sheet on.

I can't have anything too difficult to make up. With walls somewhere between 1 and 2m thick it is impossible to hammer in nails or drill holes.

So answers on a postcard please and a link to a photo might be helpful too.

TIA

Busy Busy Busy

Oh what a lot going on and not enough hours in the day to do it!

I've been gazing at the Abstract Fabric and deciding how to quilt it. I thought about quilting every section in its own colour. I've got black, red, dark blue, yellow and white quilting thread and have now added grey to the collection.

Then I read Tonya's blog about her Blooming Horrors quilt she is making and how she is quilting it in a combination of embroidery and hand quilting with different threads. I've got loads of embroidery floss in various colours so I think I'm going to follow suit. Just have to see what occurs.

You Have Just Got To See This!

I subscribe to a blog called le24 which is basically about the Perigord and what is going on - vide greniers, brocantes, exhibitions, etc, etc.

Going through the various entries I found one about Paris. Funny that - I thought Paris was in the Ile de France, not the Perigord *vbs*.

You have just got to look at this site. Some fantastic photos and if you are a Paris addict (who isn't) you will be knocked sideways by the photos. Type in Les Halles and 1900 and see what comes up. Stunning!

Abstract is being basted, Kezia's quilt is being tied and Tamzin's quilt is being cut - who's a busy bee then.

A lundi and many thanks for the lovely and funny comments about That Cross Cat, fabric diets and centimetres :-)

Naughty Me !

What did I say? 1st September was going to see me being a good girl and Not Buying A Single Centimetre of Fabric.

How long did it last? 13 days!

Seriously, I needed purple fabric for Tamzin's quilt and black for The Latest Idea, some black bias binding for the wallhanging/abstract fabric project and a delve in the remnants box for white cotton for dying practice.

So this is where we went yesterday afternoon.

I wanted to take a photo of the brilliant mural on the wall outside, but chickened out.

And to round this post off - I think I've taken the best photo of Alex of all time (except for one cross cat!).

Must get out of here, but before I go

I hate Bloglines - sorry but I  do.

Then I discovered that my Fizzle RSS feed add on for Firefox wasn't working.

Rummaged about in the Google Treasure Chest and found Google Reader.  Now I can read all of you in one  hit and comment in a separate tab.  And best of all it is so easy!

Not alot about nothing in particular & WiP Wednesday

In between this 'n' that I've had my head in the stash boxes pulling out material, putting it back and pulling it out again.  I've got to get together 6 different fabrics for the Stashbuster 6 x 6 challenge and not too sure yet what I'm going to use.

I've got far too much bright, jump out and hit you in the eye red and decided to experiment with a spot of tie dying.  Instead of dye I used bleach and this is the result.

Alex has claimed it and has got the dying bug.

Now instead of quilting I shall be up to my elbows in dye!  Can get lots of white cotton from the warehouse at Javerlhac and then we can experiment.  Anyone got any tips/ideas?

WiP this week is Kezia's quilt.  The top is finished so now it's sandwich time!

And then just as you thought it was safe to go back into the bathroom!

The Name Game

Just found this on Jane's blog and thought it brilliant.

Feel free to copy and paste, but leave me a comment so I can read your list.

The Name Game

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car),
Squidge Peugeot

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie),
Raspberry Ginger Nut

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name),
C-Wor

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal),
Cherry Red Cat

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born),
Margaret London

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first),
Wor-Cl

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink),
The Midnight Blue Wine

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers),
Julian Michael

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy),
par Amour Crunchie (oh dear - not very sexy!)

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ),
Carolyn Everest

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter),
Kingsley Kingston

12. SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: (your favorite season/holiday, flower).
Autumn Poppy

13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)
Raspberry Shortsie

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree),
Toast Beech (oh dear!!!!)

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”),
The Quilting Sun Tour (most of us will be the same I should think VBS)

Just to say ........

a quick thank you for all the lovely comments everyone has left over the last few weeks about Little Acorns, the doors and Quilts 4 Leukaemia.

I have tried to reply individually to each comment, but I was getting so far behind I thought a huge big thank you would be easier so at least you know I am reading!

@ +

Not Wonky Houses, but Wonky Doors

Tonya has been showing some doors in Paris and I mentioned that our house, which was built in a certain year

that you Americans will know very well, has what we think is the original front door.

And these markings are on the door.

We think they may be the mark of the person who made it.

And this huge hole is the keyhole.

We still haven't found a key big enough to fit it so DH has had to block it up and put a "Yale" lock on the inside which, actually, doesn't show. Well you can't see it on that top photo can you?

And this is when the house was finished.

It's above the door leading from the lane into the courtyard. History in the making, quoi?

Started during the American War of Independence and finished before the French Revolution!

If only it could speak what stories it could tell.

 

Something odd is happening on Wordpress so I had better sign out and get on with life before this post goes pffffffffff.

WiP Wednesday 05-09-2007

Yawn - someone pass the matchsticks please - my eyes need propping open.

06.30 am alarm clocks going off in different parts of the house. Alex out of bed and in the shower before I had even opened my eyes!

Anyway, back to the subject matter. Look what I did yesterday!

This is the fourth quilt. It is being made for a little boy in the US. His name is Dylan, he's 7 years old and he is going through a bit of a rough time at the moment. He has an infection in his ports and was operated on yesterday.

I am sending the top, flimsy or whatever you want to call it, with some of the backing that Jenni and Margaret sent and its label to Dylan's aunt - Judy in Pierce City.

To find out whose block is whose, you will have to wait a bit. I'll post the contributors on the Quilts 4 Leukaemia blog later, after I've put the other 3 borders on.

A couple of hours respite and then pages and pages of forms to fill in and books to cover. I don't know why they do this. Every year they give everyone exactly the same forms to fill in as they did the year before. Why can't they get computerised? I'll have writer's cramp by the end of the day!

C'est La Rentrée

Today is the day when all the schools go back, the workers go back to work and France returns to normal.

I don't know about other regions of France, but the ecole's maternelle and primaire in this part of the Dordogne went back on 28th August, this year's 6eme intake started today and the rest of the collége start tomorrow.

This time last year it was Alex's first day at collége and looking back I was dying to find out how she got on. Tomorrow she will be much more confident and will be able to find her way round the school with no problem!

Her bags are packed, the new classeurs are ready to be filled to overflowing with copious notes, the plastic book wrapping is ready for the massive text book covering session tomorrow and all 3 pencil cases (why 3 ????????????) are full to overflowing. We have paid our contribution to the paper mountain which always saddens me when I think of all those trees, and all we have to do now is wait for the Attestation d'Assurance Scolaire which should have been here last week at the latest and still hasn't arrived.

Bending My Rules Slightly

I have come to a decision.

Little Acorns took me so long to do and I was getting so fed up with it towards the end.

So, I have decided that I am going to break my golden rule of only working on one project at a time and am upping it to three! Yes 3!

The next Quilts 4 Leukaemia quilt has been assembled. A few minor hiccups, but we are now ready for the off. You can read about it here.

The fabric for Tamzin's quilt has been washed and ironed and is yelling at me to start cutting it. AND I'm going to start quilting that lovely fabric I bought at Riberac the other week.

Sorry - no quilting photos but instead a piccy of St Front Cathedral in Perigueux which I took yesterday from the car. The spire is being restored or cleaned or something so is wrapped in plastic and scaffolding - not a pretty sight - so this is just of the main cathedral and the gorgeous Byzantine domes.

You would hardly believe that the building in the bottom right hand corner is modern. The planners don't let anyone muck about with their beautiful city!

Hope you are having a good weekend.