May Photo Challenge

It's the end of another month and that can only mean that it is time to share this month's pictures for the Photo Scavenger Hunt.  I have to admit that most of the pictures were taken over 2 different days...one which took me to Birmingham and the other to Stratford upon Avon.  Enjoy!

1. May a butterfly, 2. May something blue, 3. May think vintage, 4. May an interesting local building


1. May a cartoon character, 2. May a bicycle, 3. May a red door, 4. May an emergency vehicle


1. May a portrait in black and white, 2. May texture, 3. May a street light, 4. May a sign of the zodiac

Until next time...

Wild Animal Wednesday

Last weekend when I was at Aston University in Birmingham waiting for my DD1 to come out of a conference, I happened to spy these adorable baby Canadian geese.  Both Mom and Dad were keeping a watchful eye, but I managed to get close enough to snap a picture.  This was taken with my point and shoot which lives in my handbag for moments like this.

I couldn't help think of the Abbey Road Album as they crossed my path...
Seems Katie thought so too when she snapped her picture of her local geese...
Great minds and all that :o)

Until next time...

Quilting Update..

It's been a while since I've updated you on my progress on the Lynne Edwards Sampler Quilt.  These are the blocks from last time.  The blocks construction was much like a Drunkards path, but the curve ends at the seam creating extra bulk.  It was a challenging block, but I'm really pleased with the results. 

This is the same technique just a slightly different layout.  Working with these homespuns was a challenge...thank goodness for starch!



This is the Celtic work from February...the other Celtic work done in plaids can be seen on this post... 



And I've also been quite productive for the first part of the month getting my Sew Happy Blocks completed for May.





And lastly, but not least.  I really wanted to share this drawing my DD2 did.  She's 8 years old and she loves to draw.
I've asked her to design an appliqué quilt for me...I think that would be a fun challenge!..but at the moment she doesn't seem too keen on the idea LOL

Until next time...

Quilts to a Good Cause...

A long long time ago back in 2007 I made a series of quilt tops.  Some of you may even remember me posting about this one! 

Or even about these Fraternal Twins...

But since then they have sat in a box waiting to be finished...they have been in and out of the box a few times, but I always had something else I wanted to do more.  Well, I'm really pleased to tell you they are done! And will be soon shipping their way to Japan towards the relief.  Between my friend Liz (from Quilting in Chaos) and Muriel (no blog) we have pooled our resources to get these quilts finished.  Liz was kind enough to quilt them and she has posted them on her blog.  Please pop by and have a look...I'm so impressed with Liz's creativity..she's out done anything I could have done!  She even managed to fit this enormous set of words into the back...

Until next time...

Pay It Forward Gifts...and Giving!

I think blogger has settled down, though I seem to have lost all my comments on my post about Rochebeire...strange, but at least the post is there.
 
The last time I wrote I promised to tell you about my meet-up last Wednesday with Susan from Canadian Abroad.  We met down at my LQS and had a wonderful time.  Susan is a fellow Canadian who has been in the U.K. for 10 years...like me, has 2 daughters...like me and questions why British houses don't have basements...like me :o)  We "met" only a few weeks before when I joined the Brit Quilt group on Flickr and saw Susan's post about how she was a quilter in my area and would like to meet up with other quilters.  Imagine our surprise that we were both Canadian! I often think I'm never too far from a fellow Canadian or a fellow quilter at any given time, but not often are they the same person LOL.  Part of the reason Susan and I met, was that I opted in to her Pay It Forward and she worked very quickly and made me some lovely gifts. 

First was a lovely crochet scarf.  Although Susan made it for me...my youngest has already claimed it for herself.  I can see this getting a lot of use when things cool off in the Autumn.



Next was a little box bag, which everyone (apart from my DH) wanted to claim...but I beat them off with a stick and told them it was to take pride and place in my sewing area.  It is perfect bag to hold those leaders and enders being made as I sew along.



Next is a pen holder cover..perfect for holding quilting essentials.



And last was Herman!  A sourdough starter for Friendship Cake.  Susan has made hers and it looks yummy...but before I can make mine I need to keep it going for 10 days!  No pressure or anything!!
Many thanks Susan for the lovely things...It was such fun having pressies to open when it wasn't even my birthday :o)



I really enjoyed my afternoon with Susan and I think she did too.  She wrote lovely posts about it here and here. 

Now to fulfill my end of the bargain!


How does it work?

1. I will make a little something for the first 3 people who opt in to participate in Pay It Forward. 
2. It will be a surprise and it will arrive when you least expect it....well almost..I'm bound to need to contact you for your address :o).
   
3.  I will have 365 days to do it in.
4. To get a handmade present from me, you have to play too! This means YOU pledge to send a little handmade something to 3 readers of your blog.
5. It doesn't have to be quilty - just handmade.
6. You must have a blog.
7. Once you receive your "little something", you must post about your Pay it Forward on your blog to keep the fun going - be sure to use the Pay It Forward badge...and please only opt in of you can commit to keeping it going :o)
   

Update: I have 3 people to play along!
  SuperMom, Terry and Amanda

Until next time...

Bad Bad Blogger...and how to back up your blog

If you are anything like me the recent Blogger outage gave you a chance to catch up on your blog reading!  For once there weren't as many posts being added as I was reading and I actually came to the end of the list! LOL  I must admit I'm not complete convinced the problems are all solved and I know many of you are missing posts and comments. (Even me :o) ) This is what Blogger say on their blog:

Update (5/13 7:46PM PST): Nearly all posts since Wednesday are restored, now bringing back comments from last couple days. We expect the comments to be back this weekend or sooner.

What a frustrating day. We’re very sorry that you’ve been unable to publish to Blogger for the past 20.5 hours. We’re nearly back to normal — you can publish again, and in the coming hours posts and comments that were temporarily removed should be restored. Thank you for your patience while we fix this situation. We use Blogger for our own blogs, so we’ve also felt your pain.

You can read the rest of the post HERE

In the meantime you might be wondering how you backup your blog if it is hosted by Blogger...So here's my top tip for the day:

From the Blogger Dashboard select SETTINGS

Right at the top of the page the first setting is Blog Tools 
You will see Import Blog, Export Blog. Delete Blog.  Select EXPORT BLOG
You should see a big ORANGE button that says Download Blog. 
Click that and a dialogue box will come up asking you where you want to save your blog on your computer.  Save it somewhere safe. 
What this downloads is a XML file  This is all the machine code that Blogger used to encode your blog...(I think I've phrased that right)  and is the same file you would use to export to Wordpress or the like.
Now you have a back up file that would be recognizable to Blogger if ever there was ever a catastrophic failure of their system. :o)

When things clam down I'll be back and tell you all about my visit with fellow quilter Susan from Canadian Abroad...

Until next time...

A day out at Rocheberie...

This past Saturday I went to Rochebeire Schoolhouse Quilters and what a fun meeting we had.  As the quilty content of this blog has been a bit skinny as of late I thought I'd share a little of the Show and Tell from the meeting.  Our speaker was Claire Tinsley from Hannah's Room.  She brought many of her award winning quilts and told us about her journey into the quilting world, both as a quilter and a shop owner.  There are more picture from our meeting HERE...have a look as some of the work on display was amazing.

This quilt was made by a lady from our group.  I just love the colour combination ...navy and pink...you just can't go wrong.



This must have been one of my favourites quilts of the day...mainly because it was the quilt I designed a few years ago for our group Mystery Quilt Day.  You can see some more examples here.  I get a kick at seeing the different variations people make from the same pattern.



As Union Jacks are so popular at the moment...I just had to share this lovely pillow one of the ladies made.



Just loved this quilt top!  Pretty!!!

And here is Liz with her signature block quilt that Connie coordinated back in 2009.  Hey Thimbleanna...can you spy your block?

Until next time...

May Flowers

My grandmother's favourite flower was Lily of the Valley.  It's in full bloom in the garden and I brought a little in to remember her...without her I don't think I would have the same passion for sewing and baking as I do.  I have very fond memories of being in her kitchen making pastry (a real privileged..she never let anyone in the kitchen!!) and wearing clothes she made for me.

Until next time...

British Wordless Wednesday

Taken on the day of the Royal Wedding, this bunting ran along the fence of Rugby School. It was quite a sight to see!

Until next time...

Sew Happy April Blocks

I've been diligently working away on my blocks for Sew Happy's Quilt Along for April.  All the pieced ones are done, but the appliqué ones are still in progress. 

I opted to appliqué the stems rather than embroider them and the hearts
and leaves are all hand done.  There are 15 of these heart blocks to sew
and so far I've completed all the hearts and have 2 blocks done with
the leaves...only 13 more to go :o)

Until next time...