MS and Glamour Don't

I have got to admit one of the things I really love about England is tea. Not just drinking it (though I dashed into the Cheltenham Museum to get out of the rain and had a nice hot cuppa that was close to heaven....) I love the teacups, the teapots, and of course the teacozies that go on top!
I made this one as a sample for class. I love Mary Engelbreit's fabrics. In fact I made two - the other is black, yellow and red and made with squares on point. (OK, almost maid. I don't want to put it together until the class!) The apron photo on the top came out of a recent auction box of textile. I really love it!

I have been cutting up stash like crazy! There are three plastic bins with strips, a couple of cardboard shoe boxes with squares, and two plastic bags with crumbs. I'm waiting for DH to meltdown since I am using the kitchen island as a cutting table! So far he has been very patient (mainly because I told him I was following Bonnie's method and he still remembers when she came to visit and organized my reproduction fabric in the middle of the night!!! It was like the elves that came and finished the shoes for the cobbler!) Cutting the stash gets easier the more you do. At first I only cut up the odd pieces (less than say 1/8 or a yard or the ones that look like a huge moth got at them - fussy cut leftovers!) Now I have moved up to 1/4 yard pieces and only putting aside pieces that I would likely use for appliqué.

Now in honor of National MS Awareness week here is Funny MS story #3. (any questions see my Sunday Post....) Brownie is keeping me company while I write...

The spring after I was diagnosed I attended the North Carolina Annual State Show and weekend conference up in Raleigh. Now at the time I wasn't moving very well - sort of like an Edgar walk (reference to the first Men in Black and Vincent D'Onofrio's movements as the bug...you either get it or you don't!) The medical term is spasticity - for the nonmedical and non movie buffs imagine someone had tied a string to your ankle and and then tied it to your waist only the string is about 1-inch too short. This means each time you stand you have to adjust or maybe tip over and "wall crawl." Now there are meds for this but they tend to make me a bit spacey - like I need to be more spacey!

Now I was going with a group of other quilters from my guild several of whom are nurses and swore that I could get through this. I really wanted to go. I had gotten my first choice in classes - an appliqué class with Pat Campbell. (a super class!) There were also two other classes...

Now remember, we are in Raleigh. It is very warm. We are at a quilt show so there was lots of walking around. And finally, we were staying in a college dorm. No A/C and beds similar to prison cots (not that I've slept on a prison cot...but I can imagine!) So by the second day I was hurting. This is when I had a embellishing your clothing class - and before you email, I do not remember the name of the instructor (selective memory perhaps.)

It was a little outside my comfort zone. But I love beads and embroidery. I am addicted to the Project Catwalk show here in the UK. I also had just made a batik jacket for my Mom. Also, one of my quilting friends wanted to take the class so I figured I would give it a try. What a disaster.

First, the materials on the supply list filled a medium size suitcase. (it did give us an excuse to go to Mary Jo's the week before though!) And then you also needed a your sewing machine! We wheeled the bags over to the building only to find the class was on the third floor and the elevator wasn't working! No problem. I slowly walked up the stairs while my friend shuttled the bags up. I was glad I had worn a loose linen dress and sensible shoes since we were all sweating...woops I mean glowing (southern women don't sweat!) Our first exercise was to embellish a bit of fabric with paint. Here is where is gets bad. The instructor told us to put the fabric outside so it would dry quicker. My friend grabbed my fabric and took it with hers downstairs. Another friend dropped by with some ice coffee after which the instructor laid her perfectly manicured hand on my sewing machine and said in a loud whisper, "a little exercise wouldn't hurt you you know." It was like the air was sucked out of the room. I chose to ignore what she said.

I'm not sure how she learned about what happened but during the next break my friend packed up her stuff and said she would be back for mine in a few minutes. The instructor took this badly. She came over to my table and pawed through my fabrics and trims asking me,"how could you buy such nice things and dress like that?" For once in my life I was speechless. "You really need to increase my glamour quotiant." Suddenly it became very funny.

Glamour...me. I don't think so! Even when I wore a size 6/8 I wasn't glamorous - I was wearing combat boots and camouflaged! When I wore an 8/10 I was a business consultant and bought most of my clothes from Talbots. Nice yes. Glamorous no.

At that moment I was just happy to have matching socks and all my buttons buttoned! I couldn't use mascara for fear of putting my eye out and IV steroid treatments had made my skin blotchy and reddish. My post below tells you the sad story of the shoe cull....Anyway, my friend showed up for my sewing machine and we spent the time shopping at the quilt show.

When I got home I told my DH about what happened. Like most men he wanted to "fix" it so he brought me home a certificate for a full day at the spa. Hey, I may not aspire to glamour but I'll never turn down a facial and manicure!!!

So what happened to that suitcase full of fabric and other fun stuff. Well some got absorbed by the sewing room however most of the fabric went into this bargello quilttop. It would have made a nice jacket no?! But would it have been glam?!

Flowers and other things

The past two days have been more seasonal here...cool with bits of rain. We needed it. I also needed to stay in and ge the hosue ready for my niece and nephew's visit later this week. It is so hard to do laundry and dust when the sun is out! Note how british I am becoming - I automaticly start talking about the weather! Anyway, the showeres hasve also given me time to work on the little needlepoint bag I bought at the gardensale the other day (1 pound for two unfinished bags.) There are some very tiny beads on this that started to fall around me like bits of hail the moment I took it out of the bag. I think I got most of them back on...enough for me anyways! I'm going to try my hand at putting one of them together this week. I am going to run over to the Beckford silk and get some black for the inside.....Before you ask -I have no idea what I will do with it when I am finished. It will remain impractical and pretty - there is space in the world for that no?!

I noticed a lot of flower photos as I cruised the blogs this weekend so I decided to post a few from my village. On the left are the lilacs I see from my front door. The cottage across the street has a beautiful front garden with a half a dozen different types/color lilac bushes. I feel a bit spoiled since I get to enjoy the view of a great garden without any of the work.

At the top is some queen Anne's lace. The sides of the road are just covered in this right now. It reminds me of my family's cottage by the beach...we made small bowls from clay and pressed the Queen Anne's lace flower into them for decoration. Then we buried the pot in the hot sand and let them bake. The things moms come up with to keep kids occupied during summer vacation!

We walked up to bluebell woods on Breedon Hill last week and glimpsed the end of their blooms. Next year I will plan better and see them at their peak. It was still worth the climb. It has a very Tolkien/elfen feel to it...old trees, quiet, small running brook, lots of low dark green undergrowth. Can you tell I really like it there!

Unfortunatly to get to the Blue bell woods I have to go through this...the dreaded rapeseed blooms. It feels like they are everywhere. A few weeks ago I was going on and on about how pretty and bright they made the hills look....now I can barely open my eyes wide enough to see!

Finally a photo of a huge (ok about 3 inches long) snail that has taken up residence in our garden. I know they eat the plants but he is so cute! I just keep meoving him over to the blackberry canes that we want to get rid of anyway....

Silk to play with

Today was supposed to be a quiet day but instead I had a bit of an adventure.

One of my neighbors had planned to go on a hill walk with some friends. Unfortunately her car had to go into the shop this morning so she called me to see if I could drive her and come on the walk. She has helped me out so many times how could I say no? Besides I love learning new paths and walks in our area.

We went over to Leckhampton Hill which is about 45 minutes away. The view of the area from the top of the hill was beautiful. There is also a rock formation (?) pile called the Devil's Chimney that was very interesting. The photo of the chimney is on the top. I think we were able to see the towers of the Tewksbury Abby...I may need to make the climb again when the weather is better!

Since I was already out...I decided to drop by the Beckford Silk factory. This is only a few miles from my house but I keep putting off going there...today was the day. It was great! The picture above is of the man screenprinting the silk. They mainly do pieces for museums...ties, scarves, and some clothing. The best part is the seconds area...they sell the scraps in small bags - a few of course had to come home with me!

Then again Brownie immediately claimed them as her own...gbv (wopps...Brownie typo...)

Cash in the Attic

Yesterday I went up to the auction house to check out some quilts and a sampler they had listed in their website. Two of the quilters from the Fairford group were also there for their first UK auction. I was also surprised to see the the film crew from one of the BBC shows Cash In the Attic set up in he corner of the showroom! It was fun to watch them filming...brought back some memories of working with a TV station back in the states. (for those in the U.S. the show a commentator and an expert go to a person's house and helps them select items to go to the auction to raise money for a specific cause like a new garden shed, a charity, a holiday, a new violin, a quilting room -just kidding on the last one!)

Back to the auction....the quilts ended up being really in bad shape. The design on one was very Kaffe Fasset like - soft colors with blended blocks around a centeral plain blue woven square. It was in terriable shape though and still went for 80 pounds! There were some beutiful kimonoes that went for 100's of pounds and several lots of lace that were stunning - a collector was on hand and she bought most of it.

There had been a lot of folks looking at the needlework sampler during the viewing. Since the earlier textiles were going for what I though was a lot of money I was counting myself out of the race. I have wanted an antique sampler for a long time. Prices in the U.S. can get crazy for them so I've been hoping to find one here. The last few I've seen at auction were either in really poor shape or had very depressing sayings on it (don't want anything about the "wrath of God" - or pretty much anything from the old testament - hanging in my sewing room.) I've tried to sew one mayself but my eyes just aren't up to that type of work. Well the good news is I got the sampler for 10 pounds under my limit! I'm ont going to tell you how much I paid since after the bidding the camera crew did a quick interview on why I bought the sampler....I may be on TV!

I would like to reframe the sampler but am unsure if I should do that here or wait until I get back to the states. On the practical side I'm worried the matting isn't acid free. On the less practical - I hate the metal frame on this. Just anothere project to add to the pile! Anyone with suggestions?

Weather-wise it continues to be beautiful. (sorry to those of you one east coast...I don't mean to rub it in!) Last night I was able to get a bit closer to the field of lambs on the edge of our village and get some more photos. These are the sheep that belong to Mr. Gardener who is a professional gardener, lives in Rose Cottage, and has a black and white collie named Lady. What a children's book they would make! His sheep are more like pets than livestock. His daughter raised the first couple as a school project years ago and now they have about 20!

DH is off to play gold this afternoon so I am hoping to get some blocks done for the Fairford group and post the directions for them sometime today...