Must-Stash

I keep seeing more suppliers added to the Quilt Market list at the FQ Retreat.  I'm getting a little bit excited about the prospect of seeing fabric and thread in the flesh to buy. I don't have a local quilt store. If I want thread or fabric I have to buy online. Those of you in the same position probably get a tad excited at the prospect of seeing goodies in the flesh too.  There is even talk of an excursion or two to fabric stores.

I'm less excited about the prospect of needing to carry cash for the retreat especially as I rarely do and have a lot of expense this month what with the dentists, car needing an MOT and service, plus the car insurance being due before the retreat too. But still that will probably not stop me getting tempted.

 

If I am to be tempted I may need to whip out a shopping bag to carry my swag back to the hotel. Where I may lay it all out every where and play pretendy quilt stores before bed time. Did I just say that out loud? (If I did and Katy is reading this: Please don't think you're sharing the room with a (total) mad woman. I fully intended to let you play pretendy quilt shops too!)

I used some Klona, Lakehouse Dry Goods and moustache fabric (I can't remember who that's by) and made myself a fold up portable shopping bag.  I even did a funny - or so I thought. See that Moustache fabric? It's really shouting out Must-stash.  I told Chief my funny by text and he just texted back. 'Groan'.  So maybe it's not that funny!

I didn't follow a pattern to make this bag. I just cut into the fat quarter of moustache fabric to make a central panel and then pinned it onto some klona  and then cut that in half to make side panels. Once that was assembled I pinned the front panel to the Lakehouse Dry Goods fabric and cut a back panel.  I did the handles by guess work to and the ties - which also double as ties to secure the top of the bag should it be really bulging with shopping! For the same reason I boxed the corners. It gives it just a little bit more structure when in use.

I hope whatever you're doing this weekend you're having a good one!

Voile-a!

As I'm waiting for interfacing to come I thought I'd get on with a bit of stash busting making and so set about carving up some Anna Maria Horner flannel scraps I'd left over from making flannel and voile circle scarves. I soon had a nice pile of 2.5" squares and started sewing them together with the intention of making a bed pillow cover. I've taken to using one of these whilst out on the garden bench and when I'm not out there it's found it's way to my side of the sofa. The trouble is it had a peach pillow case on it (one of Mum's!) and tends to make the place look more sick room rather than cosy home.  The plan has stalled when I discovered that my flannel scraps go no where near to covering one side of the pillow. Not sure what to do now as there isn't enough to cover a normal sized cushion even if I did have one. I've got a nice bold piece of flannel for the back just not enough to do the front...

So having stalled on that front I turned to some pieces of left over voile from making the scarves. Within 10 minutes I'd sewn four pieces together and now have a light weight summer scarf.  I've got the feeling this summer will require lots of layers including scarves!

Back to sewing

I survived the dentists. I don't really mind going. Apart from the cost (£110 for one filling! You don't want to be poor with tooth ache these days.)  I am just keeping everything crossed that I don't get complications as when I've had big fillings replaced before the nerves have died causing much pain and needing even more expensive treatment.

Today though I have actually had more than five minutes to myself and have started my next sewing project.

A supertote from the pattern by Anna aka Noodlehead.  I'd been pondering for sometime how I'd need a bag to sling everything in I want to take to the FQ Retreat for classes and I'm hoping that this bag will fit the bill a treat. I'm also thinking it might be a great bag for my summer holiday.  I don't have enough interfacing to make any kind of bag, so this afternoon I've concentrated on choosing and cutting out the pattern and fabric.

 

I can't believe how much time I've wasted spent deciding on what fabric to use.  I've decided in the end to use this Echo fabric I've had in my stash for a while.  I thought the blue and white fabric would be the perfect  for summer, especially if I end up with it at the beach. It's also neutral enough to go with most things I might be wearing at the time. 

So now I best go order that interfacing.  I think the elastic, zip and interfacing is all I need to complete this project.  Something I didn't tell you about last weekend is just before Chief left to came down I fell off the fabric waggon quite substantially and so I need a good excuse to use up plenty of fabric before it arrives. It could have been a lot worse a fall as some fabric I really wanted for ages I completely forgot to order until about three days later when it was too late.

If it turns out the supertote is not big enough for all my clobber I'll just have to make another bag too! 

The Weekend: Part 2

Boy is a busy weekend catching up with me now. My body is protesting at the lack of sleep ratio comparative to the amount of energy expended and so this post may have a higher level of gibberish built in. It may also be rather photo heavy.

The bits of the weekend I skipped over were the trip to Harcourt Arboretum and lunch at The Swan. I thought I'd blogged about going to the arboretum last year and how we said we'd never return, only I can't find the post now. We went later on in June. We'd been told this would be a good time to see all the Rhododendrons and Azaleas. Only last year everything was early and we were disappointed and thought people must be easily impressed by the one bush in flower we saw. We also got eaten to death by horseflies. Chief started getting attacked first. So much so we had to watch where we walked as great clouds of them were following. It meant having paid to go in we spent less than an hour there and Chief got in the car covered with bloody slices from horsefly bites. Both of us said we'd not go back. So I was a bit surprised when Chief suggested we took a trip back there and maybe if the weather was different (less humid) the horseflies wouldn't be so prevalent.

Having not had high hopes of the acid loving shrubs I was pretty impressed by the sight when we first drove in and it was this area I made a bee line for with my camera.

 

The arboretum is also home to a few peacocks. They are quite friendly and inquisitive so it didn't take long for one to find us and decide to do a bit of showing off.

I must have taken a million pictures of the peacocks. In fact more of the trip to the Arboretum can be viewed in this set on flickr.

Chief liked the peacocks, but was disappointed not to have more opportunities to try out his new camera. These days he's not interested in pictures that don't have birds in them. (In fact any pics of me were deleted because I do not have feathers because he didn't think they were that good.)

We had often had good opportunities to watch red kites from the car park of a restaurant/antiques centre in Tetsworth, which is a village along the old A40 towards London.  

We decided to have lunch here.

They go to a lot of effort making the table look classy even when you sit in the garden and all the staff were really friendly - not the cheapest place to eat, however the last few times Chief has been down we've ended up getting a MacDonald's on our way to Otmoor so we deserved a bit of a treat. I can't show you what I had for lunch because I wolfed it down before I thought to take any pics. It was a salad with asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and Chief had sausage and mash which he let me sample and it was lovely!  

We didn't look around the inside which apart from being a restaurant is an antiques centre.  I feel the need for a return trip!

By the time you read this tomorrow will have come and I may well be spending 45 minutes having a lie down at the dentist. Yep, big filling from my early teenage years is starting to fail and needs to be replaced. 

The Weekend: Part 1

Blimey life has really got busy around here. I'm completely behind with blog reading and think I had a couple of days when I didn't make it online at all!!!

Chief got down on Friday night. Early enough that we had time to go and do stuff. He has a new camera and wanted to head to Otmoor - my local nature reserve - to 1)try out new camera 2) see Otmoor and at a different time of day.  The light was not great for photography, but it was lovely and peaceful wandering about and we had the place to ourselves. Well human wise. There were still plenty of birds and other wildlife to see like deer.

The next day I had a bit of a lie in while Chief sat in the garden in his portable hide. Which it turns out is really good for scaring the postman if you sit in said hide in front of the front door and when the postman comes up the path you stick your hand out to take the post and say a seemingly disembodied 'hello'.  

After bacon sarnies it was off to Harcourt Arboretum - but more about that another time as I've not sorted the photos. From there we headed out to somewhere we'd previously had really good red kite sightings. It just so happened it was in the car park of an antiques centre and restaurant and we stopped there for lunch in the garden. But again more on that when I've sorted the photos. Then we headed off for a bit of a country drive before going back to Otmoor. I think Chief would go to Otmoor every visit.  

Although I did see my first ever (I think) turtle dove:

And take some of my favourite ever Red Kite pics:

This isn't cropped it was this close above my head!

We were pretty exhausted after our trip to Otmoor and grabbed a take away on the way home and spent the rest of the evening chilling out - well actually Chief was doing stuff on my laptop and I was asleep under a quilt on the sofa.

Sunday we didn't have time to do much as I was out for lunch with friends and Chief had to go home. It was literally Chief out one door and me out a little while later! Off to The Bell at Aston Clinton and a get together with some fellow bookcrossing friends.

After lunch when we were getting ready to play the book swap game.

The Bell before we headed home

Monday was a full on day too as straight after work I went to a service to bury the ashes of the friend that died recently. Then it was back for a mini wake before eventually going home to prepare for a Parish Council Meeting in the evening. 

For Miss (Bee a Brit Stingy) June

Here we are only 6 days into June and I've made all my Bee blocks for the month! This sunny weather has seen me slip into a familiar pattern of coming home from work and spending time in the garden, often with a good book. Eating my dinner out in the garden and then as it starts to cool I come in and sew. I'd set myself the task of getting Miss June in the Bee a Brit Stingy Bee blocks done today.  

It took me about an hour to do these. Largely because I had the strips already cut. Earlier in the year when everyone seemed to jump on the scrappy trip bandwagon I thought I might too. My sewing mojo was on it's holidays and the prospect of a pattern that was meant to be super quick and a great scrap buster was very appealing. However, I got as far as cutting some strips of fabric and printing out the instructions. 

Collette asked for her scrappy trips to be bright and cheery with no black, brown or batiks.  I thought if I came unstuck anywhere with this block it would be the unpicking bit.  So I was pleasantly surprised when I managed to do the first block with no issue. I must have got to cock sure thought because when I was unpicking block 2 I didn't lay it out, but laid the strips in piles and then got completely discombobulated and had to sew the last two strips back into a tube and unpick again in the right place! 

I did have fun making these blocks and I think they'd be super speedy if you have a cutting machine to do 2.5" strips or maybe a lot of left over part jelly rolls. There may be a scrappy trip in my future. 

In the mean time  I hope you like them Collette, I'm off to do your siggy block. I doubt I'll get any sewing in for the next few days as I have a full on weekend and start to next week. But more on that another time. 

For Miss (HipBee) June

Once I got in from work I spent most of the afternoon in the garden finishing off the book for the next book group meeting. Then I started a book passed to me by my neighbour. It's such a luxury to see the sunshine and I don't feel so inclined to spend any more time than I have to indoors. I mean supposing it starts raining tomorrow and continues until 2014? I'll regret not being out in the sunshine whilst it lasted!  It's difficult though as since I finished the quilt at the weekend my sewing mojo has been revving up to get on with the next project. So when the breeze made it a bit too cool to continue sitting in the garden, I made the block for Lynz who is Miss June in the HipBee's.

Lynz asked us for a 'Drunk Love in a Log Cabin Style'. Helpfully she provided us with some inspiration pictures. The solids were provided by Lynz and she asked us to include a little bit of fabric from our stash that matched the colour palette. I came up with birds because well would you expect anything else from me? I also added in some Denyse Schmidt because in this bee I sent out a range of DS fabrics when it was my month. I also added in a bit of Lakehouse Dry Goods fabric as that worked with the colour palette.

The light means the picture is not quite true to real life. The dark strips are 

actually a deep burgundy colour

So I just have to do my siggy and hear Lynz's feedback as I'm not sure whether this blocks is meant to be more drunk and I'd hate Lynz to have the embarrassment of having to put my block to one side the bin, if it's not right.  

Lucky

Chief and I have both had some good luck this weekend. His was *huge* only it's not my news to blog about it. So I'll tell you about my little bit of luck too.

Sunday I tuned in to read What's New British Pussy Cat, a regular feature over on Katy's blog and saw I'd won a give away that Katy held during the previous weeks WNBPC. Even more amazing was I was the first person to comment. I will completely fess up I read this post at just after midnight the week before and over come with all the fabric loveliness and getting a bit distracted by geekly glasses I commented then completely forgot that a comment got me entry into the give away.

So it was a BIG surprise when I read that I was the winner and even more of a surprise to find my winnings arrived super speedily and were here today! I don't think I've ever won anything as substantial as this in any other give away.  As I've been really careful with my fabric purchasing it's be a very long while since I had a big bundle of fabric turn up in my mail.   There are 18 FQ's of Stitched here! The pictures don't do the fabric justice. They'd be the perfect blender, but equally, I reckon this lot would be great all in a quilt together. I just have to work out what pattern to use.  I'm open to suggestions.

They were supplied by Fabric HQ a new to me online fabric shop run by Jacqui and Rae a mother and daughter team. I don't think it'll be long before I'm placing an order because there is so much tempting stuff in  their shop and I suspect I'll be using up quite a bit of my fabric now as finishing my bee quilt has really sent my sewing mojo into over drive. I'd definitely recommend you have a nosey around Fabric HQ, just don't buy up everything before I get to go shopping ok?!

 Today if it hadn't been so windy I was going to lay out my vintage sheet quilt top WIP and take some pictures. I've decided this is the next quilt I want to finish so I'm hoping to organise what I need to finish it this week.

Thanks to Rae, Jacqui and Katy for such a great give away.

Flower Festival

I'm just back from spending the afternoon at the village garden's open day. What a lovely day it was. Great weather and beautiful gardens to peruse. (There was tea and cake too, always a bonus I find.) I took a camera but felt uncomfortable taking pics in peoples gardens. Not to mention all the time I spent getting distracted by chatting. In fact we didn't get round all the gardens because every few paces we bumped into someone from the village we needed to catch up with.

The village church was open and advertised a flower festival. Given the dwindling congregation and the small size of the church I expected maybe a large pedestal and a few vases. So it was a great surprise to see a well thought out series of themed displays picturing various aspects of traditional village life: Cricket matches, afternoon teas, preserve making, patriotism, gardening remembrance etc.

So I'll leave you with a few pics. Before you ask I do not open my garden to the public. However, as soon as some more flowers come out I'll be out with my camera and will be doing a virtual garden's open.

Ps. Get me starting June with two posts per day. Oh and finishing that quilt has really kick started my mojo too! 

Saying Goodbye to Flickr?

There will be no photo (on principle! Linked from Flickr as per usual) today and when you've read this post you'll understand why.

Ever since I discovered Flickr I absolutely loved it. There were a tonne of photo sharing websites I could have chosen and some are defunct now making me grateful I'd chosen a good one. Through Flickr I've been able to share pictures with friends around the world. Get inspired and generally connect...

It was also through flickr alone I discovered this wonderful quilty community. First tagging along to groups set up by American quilters and then watching the whole Brit Quilt Movement start up. I've joined swaps for fabric and made goods. I've joined Bee's that function through flickr. I do the photo a day project on flickr and link pictures uploaded there to my blog here.  I'd not be able to join in with the FQ retreat shenanigans if it wasn't for flickr.

Middle of last month you may have noticed flickr changed completely. Most of the features I do not like but accepted that things do change. Facebook regularly changes and we have our little moan and then get used to it until the next change when the cycle starts again.

However, I have discovered another potentially major and costly problem with the new flickr site.  Despite being a regular internet user I rarely download or upload much so have been happy to have a fixed internet allowance of 10GB a month - measly I know but it suits me...or it did.

On May 30th I was sent an advisory email by my ISP to say I'd used over 7GB of my 10GB allowance. I didn't know why it had gone up from the average under 6GB I use. The only thing I could think that could have happened was that one of the windows updates had been huge that month or it had something to do with the new flickr.

Yesterday I did a little experiment. I did two blogs posts, spent a bit of time on facebook, answered some emails, read a few blogs but spent most of my online time perusing flickr. This am I checked yesterday's Internet usage (easiest on the first day of the month when it's reset to zero.) I discovered in one day I'd used nearly 1GB! Yes one 1GB of my monthly 10GB download allowance and it's only the first day of the month.

I had uploaded precisely 0.07GB of data. The rest was download...seemingly from flickr.

I have message flickr support to ask them to highlight the problem although I do not hold my breath.

Now there will be some of you out there thinking why does she not just upgrade to an unlimited broadband package. And you're right I could. But I feel frustrated that I'm being forced to potentially spend more money just to continue using something I've used for years and used and enjoyed far more than I am at present.

I am writing this post because I know in this day and age many of you interact with the t'internet via your phones. Many people have fixed downloading deals and it's costly to go over.  But the chances are the new flickr will make you.  So please people go check!

In the mean time I am thinking long and hard about whether I switch to another photo sharing site and the implications of doing this. I love the social side of flickr and would miss it very much. But the time maybe coming when I say something I thought I never would: Goodbye to Flickr...