Category: Blog

My experience at TESAA

The block I started and finished from Elly’s class – she signed it and worked on part of a leaf!  The class group are shown in the second photo with some unfinished work.

The block in the middle at the bottom is my attempt at “Welcome Spring” the theme for the TESAA competition this year.  No one won because no one wanted to give their blocks away including me!!

The quilt top I started in Judy Severson’s Broderie Perse class – love the technique!

Duct tape and New Year’s Day

It was a funny old New Year’s Day – Steve locked his Hotmail account for a month; I poured a full glass of diet Coke over the coffee table which held Steve’s new iPad and Kindle; Claire had my car over at Nathan’s where the passenger mirror got broken off and the cauli cheese sauce wouldn’t thicken for dinner! Premonitions of what 2014 is going to be like?
 
Luckily not!  Steve managed to get his computer fixed; the carpet was the only thing that got wet in the Coke debacle and, if I do say so myself, it was the best cauliflower cheese and gammon meal I have ever made! I guess it’s one’s attitude that makes a situation into a problem although I am still not happy driving to work tomorrow with a duct taped mirror!
 
 

New Zealand Christmas quilt

Changed my sewing room around yesterday and had a good clear out in the process – doesn’t that always renew the creative juices? I’ve attached a picture of my New Zealand Christmas quilt that I started at a symposium in Christchurch in 2003. Finally got it handquilted and hung this year. Quilting at times is not a fast hobby!

 

Valkenburg Markets

Steve and I went on a bus tour to the Christmas markets before the holidays. We ate a lot of pie with whipped cream and enjoyed a bit of shopping with gluhwein and potato pancakes. We went to see a Nativity scene that was carved out of sand – isn’t the camel gorgeous exhausted after his long trip from the East! The bus driver also dressed up as Santa and amused passersby as we waited for the bus to fill up.

I took the plunge!

This past week I finished two more quilt tops, both of which required extensive button-hole applique.  I have attached a photo of the Alex Anderson quilt.  I got the pattern in Chicago when I went to the quilt show there with my sister Diana many moons ago.  The trees were hand-pieced as it was easier to work with the bias edges and some of them went with me on the Queen Mary 2 and were made up during the voyage to New York in October 2012.

The second quilt will have to remain a mystery to you as I have taken the plunge and submitted the design for possible inclusion in a quilting magazine.  The basic design is a log cabin, with a half-square triangle border, but it’s what I have done in the wide inner border that makes the design truly my own.  If I get a negative response then I won’t be too upset, but I just thought that since this quilt is really mine from beginning to end (as I didn’t copy it from anywhere) that I should grab this one chance fornotoriety.  Wish me luck!

Two posts from my new job – priorities?

16th October 2013

My new job is going well. I love having access to an onsite canteen and I negotiated a nine-day-fortnight so every second Friday off. The science is way above me at the moment but I am already excited about learning new things.

8th October 2013

The first day was overwhelming to say the least, but I must remember that I don’t have to have everything done by this afternoon! Most of my time was spent getting acquainted with my computer and the office systems; as well as trying to find the ‘ladies’ in a building with modular units for which you need a pass to travel through without the doors locking behind you. I didn’t get my pass until 3 ish so you can imagine my dilemma.

Age Group World Triathlon Championships

Claire, Laura, Adam and I went to Hyde Park in London last Sunday to watch daughter #1 compete in the Age Group World Triathlon championships.  We saw Jillian’s group jump in and swim around the Serpentine, then we walked over and cheered heartily for her on the bike ride.  Next we caught her twice on the run and heaved a great sigh of relief, for her sake, as she crossed the finish line.  I don’t think she got the result she wanted, but she finished the distance and that, in itself, is amazing!

Recently finished quilt tops

I had a sewing marathon and finished the following four quilt tops this week.  Some of these have been sitting around for two years – which is probably how long it will take for me to get them quilted.   At least I now have a sense of closure!

Provencal Therapy reborn (based on a Kim Diehl pattern)

Diane’s Garden with button-hole applique (Details by Diane pattern)

 

Japanese Elegance with Sashiko (Seattle Quilt Company class)

Glacier (Lisa Moore pattern) – started on the day when we should have been in Rome for Christmas but, fittingly, there was too much snow at Heathrow so our flight was cancelled.

 

Rainy day Sunday

Yesterday afternoon, we took Peps for a walk to Henley. We decided to walk from Mill Meadow’s car park to Shiplake College, about an hour return trip, says Steve. Two hours later (Pepper valiantly trucked along for the entire duration!!) we returned to our car having only walked three quarters of the entire distance and back again. The rain descended heavily for the last mile or so. In the car we had a flask of sweet tea and two pieces of homemade carrot cake each – it didn’t seem like it would get any better than that. Then suddenly the band, who were giving a Sunday concert at the Henley bandstand (about 100 yards from our car), burst into a repetoire of James Bond music. We ended our long damp walk having cake and tea surrounded by lovely melodies and, unfortunately, the smell of wet dog.