Back at the Laptop

I have been away from my laptop for a while. We had a good time away last week, a few days in Stratford upon Avon at a conference then to Devon to visit family. Some of which came back up with us to stay for the weekend. I was hoping to get lots of lovely photos of Stratford, being the home of Shakespeare but the camera that I took stopped working and the camera on my new phone isn't so good. I did find a great fabric shop selling Liberty at less than half price. I have quite a lots of Liberty collected over the years and plan on making myself a quilt at some point. I also picked up an advent calendar panel which I have planned for making up for some friends. The top two photos are of my disastrous attempt at free motion quilting...thought Hadley from Flying Blind would like a chuckle :)

Absent from the Lap Top

I have had a really busy week and not found time to blog for a few days, now this coming week I am off to a conference with hubby then down to Devon for a couple of days to visit my Mum and grandchildren. I came across this old photo which is taken at our eldest daughters wedding in 2003...take a close look. My son,while at university (when I am sure he should have been working hard) did a bit of swapping around of faces. It always makes us chuckle.

When the going gets tough.....

My daughter below, has always been an outdoor, camp fire kinda girl so when her cooker stopped working a couple of weeks ago she turned to the garden. They live on a very tight budget and have chickens and grow mushrooms. They are hoping to grow more vegetables in the future. My daughter loves to cook and bake..hopefully she will have her oven repaired soon.

with one of he orphans that they help support in Kwa Zulu Natal

 Mushroom Stroganoff was on the menu this week

Sleeping Bags

Firstly, Gilby's op went well, he can now poke his tongue out and enjoying his dinner...thanks for your prayers. 

The twins turn 4 next month, while they were in the US they went to the Charlie Brown museum, they have always liked Snoopy probably because they have a lovely vintage Snoopy poster on their bedroom wall. So for their birthday they are hoping to receive a Snoopy each and Charlie Brown for Maggie and Lucy  for Primrose. I was asked by Mummy if I would make them each a sleeping bag. I used fabric which I had bought in the Millie Moon shop while on holiday....I knew I had a reason for buying it :)

at the hospital...probably before as he looks pretty alert!

 A

Some Photo's

I am in the middle of a few sewing projects so nothing finished to blog about. I did do a free motion quilting course this last week, I have always hand quilted but thought I would try it out....I was pretty rubbish at it so we will see if I ever get around to doing it again. I thought I would post some photo's of  Grandchildren that I have taken from my daughters FB page. Gilby goes into hospital on Monday to have his tongue tie sorted, please pray for him.

busy boy

rascals

one very tired daddy and one oblivious baby!

too cool for school

this one made me laugh...looks like the girls have banished Gilby away for some reason

Hexagons and Grandsons

Years ago I inherited a dustbin bag and hat box FULL of hexagons already cut, sewn to templates and bagged in individual fabric designs. Over time I have used many of these hexies for quilting projects. I also taught an African lady who was visiting our church for a year, how to make a quilt from them, she returned to Africa with bags of them to carry on at home.

When my daughter and her husband were staying with us before moving out to South Africa I taught her how to join the hexies and she put together a number of blocks but they left before I got around to teaching her how to put them into a quilt.

So I have just got around to appliquéing them onto a sheet to then put into a quilt for her.

 Lets see how long this takes me !!

 I have just received the photo's below of my Grandsons so thought I would add those too

Patchwork Cushion

Back in the Summer I posted this http://finelinenandpurple.blogspot.com/2011/08/what-treat.html about the bags of sewing bits that were passed onto me by a friend. The bits included some pieces of  unfinished patchwork that had been started by my friends mother Mary who died a few years back when she was in her 90's. Well yesterday was Mary's Great Granddaughters 4th birthday so I completed some of the patchwork and made it into a cushion for her birthday.

Cornwall

On our visit to Cornwall when my mother in law died we took  time out on our own and drove around some of the areas near where we used to live when we were young and later when our children were young and where we have visited many times over the years since.

We love the sea and when ever possible make sure we spend time walking along beaches, sea fronts etc. So below are some of the photo's I took on that recent visit, the first five are taken in Mevagissey, a small fishing village. When I was young I would go with my father on a Sunday afternoon and buy fresh mackerel from the boats and then go home and cook them for tea...yum! The rest of the photo's are taken further along the coast towards the West at St Mawes

South Africa

I have posted before about the work that my daughter and her husband do in South Africa and also about Sean and Rachel Macnamara, friends who are out helping them for a while. Well here is a video clip of them working in Mcetshwa Primary School

Friday

So our weather here in the UK has been glorious this week, the days beginning misty, the sun slowly appearing and then just as I walk home from school at one-ish the heat is on!

Friday is our day off so we lunched  at Ashridge (they have a great little outdoor cafe) we then took a drive through the surrounding countryside, to the windmill at Pitsone, back through the estate and home. Really nice day :)