Time to Clear the Decks

I reached an impasse.

I can't do any more Brick Blocks as I've run out of design wall space and I can't get an overall impression of how its going when the blocks are piled on top of one another.

So it's time to clear the bigger design wall. That means back to Music is Magic.

I started planning the layout and putting the first row together yesterday.

I originally wanted the letters to jump about a bit, but it didn't seem to work with this quilt. So this is how I feel it should look.

I'm starting with 1" strips between each letter, but I may need to rethink that as I progress.

I need to drop "beyond" down a bit so it doesn't clash with the A above it and make it more centred.

The second row needs moving down a bit too so the two A's are separated out.

I want to leave the "y" in "beyond" as it is, dropping down between "all" and "we", and the last line will need to be spread out a bit as the exclamation mark has still to be done.

Once the top is finished it can be pinned on The Young One's wall as is until I'm ready to quilt it.

In the meantime, I still adding to the pile of strings when I get an opportunity to play Leaders and Enders.

Changing the subject.

The  second series of  Downton Abbey started the Sunday before last. For me it's not hitting the same spot as the first series did. I'm finding the actors a bit wooden and I get the feeling they are reading their lines off an auto cue. All except the brilliant Maggie Smith.

We'll see what happens this coming Sunday which appears to be a bit more exciting. Lady Edith needs a good hard slap, but I won't spoil it for you!

And woohoo! The last in the current series of  Dr Who tomorrow night. I wonder if all will be revealed.

More soon.

And Then There Were Five

I can't stop. This is fun.

All the other projects have been put on the back burner.

More soon.

The First Block is the Hardest

and I'm still happily stringing along!

More soon.

Wordless Wednesday - Guess

Aubeterre sur Dronne

Aubeterre sur Dronne

Addicted!

I'm having so much fun, now that I've stopped cutting and am sewing.

Hmm. A bit too much white in there. Will have to correct that.

More soon.

Building Bricks

I've been making inroads into the waiting list for Leukaemia snuggle quilts. We've hit #42 - woohoo!

After days of non-stop sewing blocks and borders together, I was getting bored, bored, bored, and then Emma 1's light bulb went ping which meant changing to Emma 2 (note to self - find photos of the Emma's to put in side bar).

After a lot of swearing as I couldn't remember how to wind the bobbin, I stomped off in a sulk and decided to vent my frustration on the strings and fabric I've been hoarding.

Out came the bins. Out came the plastic boxes full to bursting of strings and scraps. The sewing table was cleared of anything resembling red and white quilts and the nice and tidy sewing room was no more.

I've been finding some forgotten about treasures

(the daisy fabric is from Heidi in Germany. She sent me some lovely strings)

and some really ugly stuff. Isn't this just so yuk!

I didn't realise I had such a stash of uglies.

Though some of them are quite fun.

Have you heard about the latest craze to hit the liberated quilting world?

Tonya has been sewing up a storm and has created a masterpiece. You can read about it here, and you can see other bricks being built by Siobhan (there are other posts below this one so make sure you read all of them) and Julie (again read her previous posts about the construction).

I'm not at all sure how big mine is going to be. I might end up with a king size (shudder - the thought of hand quilting that!), or a lap quilt for me.  

I have a lot of browns for some reason, so I'm putting them in a separate box and might make another fool quilt with them, chucking in a few oranges to brighten it up. Brown and orange? Clare, you cannot be serious!

No post is complete without a kitty pîc.

Pippi Longstocking is gaining in confidence and has fallen in love with The Old One. Wherever he goes, she's not far behind. He says it's like being stalked!

More soon.

Wordless Wednesday

Aubeterre sur Dronne

Want to leave a comment ......

........ but you hate that box thing which opens up at the bottom of the post?

I've gone back to the Pop Up Window.

It took a bit of fiddling about with Blogger. Going back to the old dashboard format and then trying to remember where the settings were, but I did it!

More soon.

Wordless Wednesday

Aubeterre sur Dronne

C'est la Rentrée

Photo Source

Yesterday saw the end of the holidays and the start of another school year.

The Young One is now in Premiére at Lycée and will be sitting her Baccalaureate Française next June. Yikes! Doesn't time fly!

Funnily enough, I was pondering about life, the universe and everything this morning whilst hanging out the washing and realised that the weather has turned autumnal overnight! How does the weather know it was rentrée yesterday?

The figs started ripening last week and we were getting excited. Fig Chutney. Yum!

Only thing is we can't get near them because of the Hornets.

Then I noticed the walnuts have started falling.

I don't think we're going to get a very good crop this year.  There are a lot still in their shells which are green, or black and is a bad sign.

More and more are falling like that every year. If you manage to get the shells off, the nuts aren't good so it's not worth the hassle of walnut juice stained hands.

The grapes are ripening fast too

and the lovely Maria has returned from her holidays, bringing us fresh bread on Tuesday's and Saturday's.

Today's bread was a gorgeous wholegrain loaf. Sorry - no photo - there isn't any left!

My beautiful black girl has come out of her summer sleeping place and returned to the courtyard for her afternoon nap.

Even she knows it's September. She's started coming in at night and sleeping on the sofa.  This morning she was snuggled up in the scrap bin on the sewing table.

That's it for now - got to sort out the sewing room and then think about shutting the pool up.

More soon.

Music is Magic

The Young One went back to lycée today and I'm feeling a bit miz.

The only thing to chase those blues away is sew, sew, sew.

Et voila!

Music is Magic

I tried Tonya's way of doing a W, but it looked lumpy. So I used Lynne's method. It's not for the faint hearted! A lot of fabric ended up in the bin, but I got there in the end.

Now to have a rummage to find suitable fabric for the exclamation mark at the end.

More soon.

Oh Heavy Sigh

That's what I did when clicked "New Post".

Google Chrome is getting slower and slower and reading blogs is getting harder.

I'm just reading the Liberated Quilters Web Ring at the moment, and even getting behind on that. It's like walking through treacle.

Firefox is fine, but I miss Chrome.

However, in between dodging the dreaded Hornets who are eating all the figs (The Old One is in despair), making sure The Young One is ready for Rentrée on Monday evening and generally trying to keep out of the heat, I have been sewing.

Et voila!

I wasn't at all sure the dark green would work, but the TheYoung One assures me it does, providing I don't use any more.

Looking at this photo, I think the "d" needs to be redone, but I'm liking the layout so far and I do like that y.

I'm limbering up for "all we do here!". The colours are the big thing now. A bit more purple I think and perhaps the exclamation mark at the end should be the same fabric as the first A to round it off. On the other hand I've got some black and white star fabric which would be great.

I'm now going to see if this will publish via Chrome so will wish you a happy day/evening/night wherever you are.

More soon.

New Blog on the Block

and it's fascinating.

Click here.