What on earth is she doing now!

 

Do you really want to know?  Really?  Well I'm not telling.  Except to say it is 15 inches wide  and about 6 ft long and has got to be finished in 2 weeks.  Don't know what the reaction is going to be as it isn't exactly what has been requested.

 

Do you know what this is?

 

 

It weighs an ton - I can hardly lift it - but DH says he can fix it to the wall so it won't fall off and then with either a white sheet or some batting pinned to it we have A DESIGN WALL!

 

Ok - plug time.  You know we have Flickr, Photobucket, Webshots, Picasa, etc, etc, etc.  Well now we have ( big round of applause and open the champagne) Picfolio, created by Nick Cliffe of the Quilts 4 Leukaemia badge fame.  It is still being tweaked and, as far as I can see, I can't upload photos to the blogs, but it is early days.  Go over a take a look when you have a minute or two.  There are some lovely photos of Nick's little bit of Shropshire.

 

The weather has decided it is winter - yesterday was cooollllddddd ( brrrrrrrrr ) and foggy.  Today is wet, grey and miz, but not so cold.

 

I'm off to reclaim my sewing corner and see if I can persuade DH to get out the power drills!  Have a good weekend - don't do anything I wouldn't do :-)

 

More photos from the expo

 

Patch Périgord à Chateau L'Evêque

WOW!!!

My first ever patchwork show. No! I don't mean as an exhibitor - I mean as a spectator. By the time I get to hear about expo's they are normally finished, or miles way, but a friend of ours belongs to this group of ladies and told me about it. It wasn't so much quilting as patchwork.

DH voted this the best in show. It's made by our friend who is a quilter/patchworker extraordinaire.

She also made this one which I voted for. Labyrinth. The background is the vertical view of a labyrinth somewhere in Ireland. The labyrinth you can see over the top is the view from above sewn on to gauze and then flipped over the hanging. It's so so gorgeous.

I fell in love with these cats.

 

Another of Sheila's - look at the needlework that went into this one!

Monday Mutterings

Quite a lot to say, but not all quilting related.

First of all Tamzin's quilt.  I hand quilted "alway"s in the ditch, then stem stitched "love" to the left of it.  (You can see where I had started in the photo link).  The whole quilt puckered up and could not be smoothed out.  Desperate attempts to try and sort it out without unpicking everything, but it was not to be.  So spent most of Saturday unpicking it all - hurrrumph! 

I know the "official line" for quilting is "start from the centre and work outwards", but a word of warning.  If you hand quilt Tonya's Fantabulous Fans (which I do on most of my quilts), then start from one of the corners (I prefer bottom right) and work upwards (or downwards) and outwards. 

 

If you start from the middle, even stitching the ditch, it won't work.  Well that's the conclusion I've come to anyway.

November is the time for pruning trees and shrubs.  The weather has been so bad - either pouring with rain or freezing brrrrrrrrrrr cold - that I haven't been able to get outside to do it.  Sooooooo I've been pruning my blog roll instead.  There was over 200 quilting blogs alone - OM Goodness!  I got out the pruning shears and pruned and pruned.  I decided that if I hadn't commented on a blog for weeks or months, or if the person hadn't posted for a long time (certain people excepted), then that blog was going to be snipped.  That's why I haven't been commenting a lot.

There was something else I was going to say, but I'm having a senior moment.

WiP Wednesday 21-11-2007

Drum roll please :-)

Can you spot 2 pairs of legs behind the quilt? DH was holding the top up and Alex decided to join him.

 

Now the quilting starts. I've got 3 quilts to hand quilt so the sewing machine is going back in its box for a while. Perhaps if I get fidgety and the fingers start itching I'll make up some Quilts 4 Leukaemia quilts

 

 

Hiver arrive et mise à jour DH

Winter is here.  3 nights of really heavy frost.  The Banana tree has collapsed, but, surprisingly, the geraniums are still in one piece.  Must take them in before they get blasted tonight!

The wood for the wood burners was delivered on Thursday.  Deux brasse of oak stacked up against the wall ready for DH to saw into 50 cm  lengths.  I think we shall be warm this winter.

DH is doing fine - he can't believe all the get well wishes flooding in from all over the world and is very very touched.  The nurse has been coming in every day to change the dressing.  Today she said the wound is healing very well and he can make a rendez vous with the medecin next Wednesday to decide when the stitches have to come out.

The top of HH is nearly there.  There has been a slight hiccup (quoi de neuf LOL).  I was going to put piano keys along the bottom but it didn't look right so "halloween" is going in instead.  "Haunted houses" and "ghoulies" have been stitched to the inner border so I guess I am 75% there.

It has taken me years to get a photo like this.  I love the way the branches reach up to the sky like fingers.

Have a great weekend.

A+

Not WiP Wednesday

because I haven't really done anything, except some hand quilting on Ab Fab.

Tonya has shown on her blog some photos of a brilliant building somewhere in Paris so I thought I would change the subject today and show you some photos I've taken over the past year or so.

This photo was taken about this time last year. It's a squashed Citroen 2CV on the front of the old chateau at Nontron, which is one of the principle knife making areas in France. The trademark of the knife factory is this arch.

One of my all time favourite buildings is a privately owned chateau not far from us in a tiny village called St Pardoux de Mareuil. The chateau is at the end of what we call the secret walk, hidden away from the tourists, with peacocks strutting their stuff around the gardens, peace and quiet and not a person in sight!

Hard to believe this was taken this summer. Sitting outside a cafe/bar/resto in Thiviers on a gorgeous sunny day, I couldn't resist the yellow parasols with the granite brick.

And back to quilting/sewing.

I'm trying out various different sized needles on Ab Fab. This quilt is beginning to turn into a teach myself hand quilting lesson.

 

The needle on the right is a hand quilting needle size 10.  The middle needle is the one I use when I'm quilting with embroidery floss strands. 3 strand or 6 - it doesn't matter as it threads through the eye and doesn't knot as I pull it through as the needle is the same size as the floss! The needle on the left is embroidery size 10 which I am using on Tamzin"s quilt. This needle is dangerous! It slipped into the batting and I couldn't find it. I turn the quilt over then folded it and ouch! Huge ghash on the inside of my thumb.

And last, but least, my quilting threads stored in a tin that used to contain prunes.

The Lost Weekend

As you know, DH had his operation on Friday.  I spent Friday unable to concentrate, hence the odd E is the last post.

Alex and I then spent most of the weekend driving backwards and forwards between here and Perigueux.  I am totally knackered, physically and emotionally.

DH is now home and well, despite huge bruising to the right hand side of his face and a nose the size of an ostrich egg!!!

Late Sunday evening I managed to get some quilting on Ab Fab done, but, unfortunately Haunted Houses remains in limbo.  I keep on looking at it and haven't got the ummppphhhh to get going again.   I'm going to leave it alone for a bit and concentrate on getting caught up with the hand quilting.  I've got 2 quilts to do;  Tamzin's quilt has got to be ready for Christmas as they are off to LA permanently at the end of the year.

No photos - sorry - but some links for you instead.

Force Majeure has written a Bent Needle special on web tools for quilters. 

Have you discovered Kieny's blog?  She a Dutch Lady living in Taiwan and, like me, is new to this quilting business.  Interesting stories about Taiwan life.  Go over to say hi and tell her I sent you.

Another interesting blog is fellow Viveur, Marie.  An American living in Luxor, but with a passion for France.

Not so Lazy Gal Tonya has opened her online tutorial to everyone.  Go over and take a look and see if the Free Piecing bug gets you.  It's great fun and you'll get so much joy out of doing it.  Go on - I dare you!

 A+

What happens

if you aren't concentrating and thinking about other things whilst you are sewing?

This is what

 

a lower case e turns into a bit of an odd upper case E.

Problem solved (I think)

As you all know, I've been having problems trying to leave comments around Blogland.  I think I've solved the problem.  I switched back to Internet Explorer from Firefox and so far all the comments are working.  I think it has something to do with the Active X controls.

So I'm leaving comments everywhere and having a massive catch up, but really must drag myself away from the computer and get sewing.

For those of you on the Stashbusters stay at home retreat - have fun.

Missing in Blogland

Has anyone heard anything from Nancy and Dianne?

WiP Wednesday - 07-11-07

Wooooo hoooooo - I'm having fun!

I found the original Ghosties and Ghoulies quote in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. It actually reads:

"From ghoulies and ghosties and long leggety beasties and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us."

I'm going to put "ghosties" down the right hand side and "Ahoouououou" across the bottom. I can't get the whole quote in - there isn't enough room.

I've just done a search for ghoulies and ghosties and found this pattern by McCall's.

I finally managed to find a 1/4 inch foot for my sewing machine. It's actually for a Featherweight 221 but fits my "oddball" machine perfectly. Now that I know it's Featherweight 221 feet that fit my machine I can broaden my horizons a bit more and perhaps find a quilting foot too.

We had our first heavy frost this morning. They say that the first frost comes to this part of the Périgord on or about 5th November. Well, it's arrived! If you look close enough you may be able to see the leaves falling from the walnut tree - it was raining walnut leaves at 8.30 am.

DH and I went for a walk round Brantome the other day. I've been up to the top of this hill before, but have never had the camera with me.

Stunning, even if I say so myself *vbg*

 

Right - that's your lot for today. I've got buttons to sew on DH's PJ's for tomorrow and other bits and pieces. As from tomorrow evening I'm going on a 48 hour sew-a-thon - wooo hooo! His op is on Friday a.m and the clinique said he could be discharged on Saturday - we shall see - I think it is more likely to be Monday.

It's taken me 3 hours to write this post - the connection has been absolute rubbish these last few days. I've been commenting on some blogs, but by the time I manage to get to the comments page and write something, the connection slows right down and pfffffff - page gone and it won't reload!

Nearly Back to Normal

Alex goes back to school tomorrow and I'll have my computer back.

Be prepared for lots of photos and progress on Haunted Houses.

I meant to say that Kathy spotted the Doh!  in the last post.  Top right hand corner!  In fact, it's not a Doh!, but a Boob (as in mistake LOL).

It's past midnight

..................... but I thought you might like to see this.

Centre all pieced together.

It wasn't until I took the photo that I spotted another Clare's doh! If you can spot it and think it should be altered there is a way round it, but I'm going to bed. Will tackle it tomorrow if you think it sticks out like a sore thumb. I do, but then again I can see it only too clearly.

I've got a long week ahead of me next week. DH is going into hospital on Thursday to have a benign Melanoma removed from his nose which involves a skin graft from his cheek. Nothing to worry about - the consultant is not concerned - but we've got blood tests to collect and various other things to get sorted.

Alex, bless her, has taken over the computer as it's the Toussaints break from school and I can't get a look in at my RSS feeds (daren't even look), so please forgive me if I haven't commented on your blog. I will do at some point.

In the meantime a huge cheer to Swooze for taking over the Quilting 4 Pleasure web ring.

Bonne nuit et A +

Is it a robot ?

 

No - it's Alex modelling her new ski suit and mask.

 

She's off to the Haute Savoie in February on a ski-ing trip with the school.