Wordy Wednesday

Phew! A lot has been happening at Chez Nous over the last week which is why I haven't been posting a lot.

Lots of packages arriving from various corners of the world pour moi. Lots of goodies for the stash and lots of fabric fondling going on.

A few weeks ago I received a huge box of "stuff" (as The Old One calls it) from lovely Bridget. She lives in New Mexico and has the most amazing greenhouse for growing all her veggies. Hop over and take a look.

I can't show you the goodies she sent as they've been rehoused amongst my stash, but suffice it to say an Our Lady of Guadalupe quilt has joined the list of Things I Have to Make Very Soon.

Then last week an envelope arrived from the States containing some fabric I'd ordered. This was a "I need this fabric" buy. I don't usually splash out on fabric unless it is really really necessary. This WAS really really necessary.

Brandon Mably for Rowan bought from Material Girl Chic. The middle one is from the Casbah range, the other two are from the Ripple range, and there is one helluva a lot of fabric there. A lot more than I was expecting.

I hadn't heard of Brandon Mably before these fabrics arrived. Looking at his web site he's based in London and works with Kaffe Fassett. No wonder these fabrics are 2000% gorgeous. The colours just zing. I have an idea brewing which involves liberated stars and letters, but we'll see how it grows before I start cutting these gorgeous babies up. I'll just sit and fondle them for a while.

We've been having serious serious swimming pool problems. I've nurtured the filter along for the last 2 seasons, treating it with kid gloves. When I opened the pool up this season I decided that enough was enough and it wasn't going to get through this summer without some TLC.

Along came Mr Wonderful Pool Man who knew at once what the problem was. No. Not another filter, just a part. He returned yesterday with said part and we now have a working pool again. Phew! That was a close one. Thought we'd have to fork out hundreds of Euros.

To keep my mind off having to fork out hundreds of Euros, I decided a bit of quilting therapy was needed.

My lovely friend Pippa keeps sending me envelopes of "stuff" and in return I've been sending "stuff" back. I made her a name quiltlet for her to hang in her sewing room (forgot to take photo when it was finished, but you can see it here (she's not as good at taking photos as "someone"!)).

Pippa has a gorgeous little girl called Amelia. What do little girls like most? Well, pink of course, especially with hearts.

Photo is clickable so you can see the fabric

I originally did a lower case l, but it didn't work with the i. It looked silly. Like two strips.

That is now waiting to be posted, but Pippa is flying to London to attend the Fat Quarterly retreat on Friday and she's so excited I can't get a sensible word out of her. Not only that, the postal service is so awful at the moment, I'd prefer to send it when she gets back from London. (We won't talk about the postal service thank you very much. I've been waiting for a parcel to arrive from the UK for nearly 2 weeks. I hope it hasn't got lost. It's a very special parcel, but you'll have to wait on that one).

Oh and a big woot for me!

Look what I did yesterday!

My very first appliqué heart. A bit messy round the edges and the zig zag went out of control, but I'm really chuffed I plucked up the courage and did it. It's amazing what you can do with freezer paper and spray starch.

And on that note (if you are still reading and haven't fallen asleep), I'll leave you with a photo taken the other evening.

I have no idea what I pressed to get this shot and will probably never find the setting again!

More soon.