Bonnie's House block

I made a house block for Bonnie using the pattern on here web site. I didn't square it up just in case... This was a really fun block to make. This may be a possibility for the box of 2 inch strips!

I also cut some Ugly fabric for her. Believe it or not this fabric looks better in the photo than it does in real life! "What were you thinking?" you ask. It was on the internet and was really inexpensive and as I said it looked OK on the internet and is a good name. I thought I would use it for a backing but now I am of the mind to cut it into really small pieces and see if I like it better. (very small chance of that!!!)

I am starting to feel a bit better. Seems my MS medicine and my cold medicine wasn't very compatible. Hopefully the pharmacist has me on the right track now.

At the Hunt

This morning went to Fairford to do something very British - we saw Hunters on horseback. They were not actually hunting - it was a scented course. (Hunting fox is now outlawed in England.) I was really impressed by the horses and the hounds I saw - Beautiful! The photo above shows the horses and hounds coming into the park next to the Fairford Church (the tower in the background.)

The hunters stop here and are given a drink and some snacks by a local club. It also gives the hounds a chance to rest...though most of them seemed more interested in checking out the crowd and playing with the other dogs! I was really impressed with how nice the riders were about explaining what the hunt was about, talking about their mounts and the hounds. The hunt goes on all morning and covers about 20 miles. There were lots of young girls on ponies that seemed to be keeping up with the group well!
It was very cold out but it felt nice to be outside and in the sun for a bit. I am still struggling with the flu but I was feeling so housebound that we went to the hunt anyways! Afterwards we went over to the church. It has the only complete set of medieval stained glass windows in England. During the war the windows were removed and put into storage.
I had visited once before but you really need to have some sun to appreciate the windows and the beautiful carvings around the ceiling. Today was perfect for it.
So much for sightseeing. I went into a sneezing fit and fainted. Looks like it is back to bed for a few days!

almost a top!

I haven't been able to do too much sewing the past week. The cold I had the end of January came back with a vengeance...I've been popping antibiotics and sucking down cough medicine with codeine in hopes of someday breathing through my nose and sleeping through the night again someday...

I did however get my bargello strips together for my Vale of Evesham Quilt. (Picture this - sew one strip then sleep for 20 minutes on the couch...press the strip then sleep for 10 minutes on the couch...do I lead an exciting life or what!!!) As you can see in the top photo, Goldie has laid claim to this quilt...it does match her nicely. Cats always seem to know what they look good on!
The top is pretty large already but I think I may add a border. (This quilt reminds me of the chains we made at camp by folding gum wrappers!) I have a black-ish batik but I am concerned that may make it too dark. The quilt is already so busy that I don't think I could piece a border. I am determined not to buy fabric for this so I may have to get creative. Not exactly how I feel right now....

Some of my time on the couch has been spent flipping through magazines, ripping, filing and tossing. Knowing I am moving again in the autumn gives me a lot of incentive to be ruthless. There are a few magazine that have made several moves though and remain untouched. These include: every Christmas issue of Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion; the past 6 years of Country Living's Halloween Issue; the Bon Appetite Ireland and Italy edition; several months of Country Living (some of which are -5 years old) that I go back to over and over again(one has a kitchen that I dream about!); and then a binder full of the McCall's Vintage quilt magazine. After the last move I just accepted that I would have some magazines "forever" and bought a couple of the magazine holder/binders so they can sit in the bookcase (save from DH's cleaning efforts!)

I promised a group of Americans that I would take them to an auction and just my luck it is today. Here's hoping the auctioneer doesn't take my sneezing for bids!

Signs of spring...maybe

Today it was so nice out that I took some time out from sewing to go hill-walking with some friends. The fields are starting to turn green. There were lots of snowdrops still and some daffodils were starting to come up in areas protected from the wind. It gives you hope that spring isn't too far away. I particularly liked all the sheep we strolled past. Not too long before the hills are covered with lambs! The walk was about 5 miles and took us through the village of Dumbleton where this impressive manor is located. Afterwards we all had a pub lunch. Afterwards I came home took a shower and slept for 3 hours! I am so out of shape!


So now I am set to finish the last strip on my Bargello! I'm hoping to have the top done in the morning. Photos soon!!

Superbowl challenge

I hate to admit it but my super bowl challenge quilt became more of a super tuesday project...

When Bonnie said she was going to work on a scrappy bargello as her super bowl project and challenged others to do the same I jumped right in! Without thinking of course...first, the super bowl is on in the middle of the night here and second, New England was playing so most of Monday morning would taken up with my husband watching a tape of an already finished game....

I may have done Ok if I stuck with my original plan. (I hear internet chuckles at this point...) I had cut a basket of 2-1/2 inch strips when I cut the pieces for the Carolina Crossroads. When I raised my hand (digitally speaking) for the challenge I thought I was halfway there. Way too easy...by this point I was getting tired of pastels, 1930', and anything too cute.

So in the early hours of Sunday morning/Saturday evening I ransacked the batik cabinet. Some of these I have had longer than my husband! A lot longer! Anyway, I started cutting. It takes a long time to cut enough batik strips for the quilt. At this point I have worn out a rotary cutting blade, a sewing machine needle and my right arm.
So as of this morning I had three of the six long pieces done and the strips for the other three pieces sewn together but not cut and re-sewn (a process that fascinates my husband..."you're cutting stuff you've already sewn" he said with a really worried look on his face. Like I was so engrossed in the early returns from the voting that I wouldn't notice the yards of fabric I am struggling to keep on the cutting table! I may be spacey but please!)

Anyway, it will be done soon. I am amazed at how much fabric it has used...almost an entire shelf. I think this is destined for one of the nephews...though it is starting to grow on me. I am naming it Vale of Evesham because the colors remind me of driving around the orchards in that area last fall. The bits of black and white batik are for the black and white Tudor cottages there.

Hearts

I took a break from working on my Carolina Crossroads to make a few heart blocks for the leukemia quilt project. It was a lot of fun to play with something different if even only for an afternoon. I tried a new technique on the paper-piecing (I think I read it in the magazine that Bonnie's article was in but I'm not sure...but I am sure it was in print and not something I came up with!) Anyway, instead of including the outer 1/4 inch seam on the paper you just use a ruler to cut the seam allowance. This is one of those time the photo makes so much more sense....
It just makes less paper to tear away...and that double piece of paper was always a pain. Anyways, it took a couple of trys but at the end of the day I really like this technique.

I am also trying to clear out my quilting room a bit. The thought of packing all this fabric and shipping it yet again is a bit daunting. I gave away some fabric today to one of women in the village and it felt good!
I also went through some of my boxes of vintage fabrics and found these blocks that had been missing since the last move! The one on the right is a favorite of mine...it is about 8 inches square and shid a tiny monkey wrench in the middle and is surrounded by tiny pieces of fabric circa 1870's. Looks just like one of crumb blocks we make now!!!

Back from Malta

I've been away from the computer for a few days because we went to Malta to get some sun and relax a bit. It was a nice time. We got a three day bus pass and covered most of the island. I really liked the old buses there...made me think of Disney cartoons.
I was amazed at the number of churches and shrines on the island. After the second day my DH opted out of the tours...he did go to the blue grotto with me which is really stunning spot. We went out on a tiny boat and went in and out of the "caves."

All and all it was a nice trip but it is even nicer to be home. Now back to the Carolina Crossroads.....

Cleaning up photos

While I was housebound this past month I took some time to go through my ever-growing photo files on both my computer and my laptop. What a mess!

I have photos from three cameras ago in various files on the laptop. Some are of such poor quality compared to my new camera I am just putting them on a disk and deleting the original. Then there are the photos I only took to put on the blog...a new fabric, a block, and almost block...you know the ones. Those are gone too. Then I copies the remaining photos on to disks so if something were to happpen to the computer I would have a backup. I know - I am supposed to do this on a routine basis. Oh, well.

Some of my favorites were of the quilts that came in to the quilt shows for appraisals. At our first show a man brought in about 20 quilts that had belonged to his grandmother. He told great stories about how he remembered sitting under the quilting frame and helping poke the needle back up if it slipped out of her fingers while quilting. The blue quilt at the top was one of his.

The bulls-eye photo below is only one block of 12 that made up one of the heaviest "quilts" I have ever carried! The blocks are about 20 inches by 20 inches. It is an incredible piece! I loved the colors. I am slowly working on the Carolina Crossroads blocks. This may take me awhile. This week I also worked on a charity quilt at Fairford...we almost finished an entire quilt top in one day. Amazing what can happen when several folks get together to work on one project!

On to Step Six!

I've been pretty much house bound the past couple of weeks. My eyes haven't been very good but I have done a lot of cutting fabric and a bit of piecing. Now I am very happy with how my Carolina Crossroads is coming along but it does show how wonky my eyes got...I thought I had only used blue fabric! It wasn't until I took some photos of the 9-patches that I realized I had slipped into the green stacks...Oh well! Colorblind Crossroads may be a better name for it.

My eyes are getting better and I even ventured out to the grocery store today...I mean tried to venture out. The road at the end of the village was flooded so I turned around and went home. Not that I will starve. Besides being slightly chubby (slightly - hah!) I also keep a very well stocked "larder." I could eat for weeks out of my cabinets. It is the cat food that I am worried about...looks like they will get a can of tuna tonight!

Back to the Crossroad project. Had anyone else working on this found themselves with lots of extra 1-1/2 inch squares and other bits? It has nothing to do with the directions...just an overenthusiastic rotary blade. I don't want to toss them but...they are pretty small. Ideas?

Stir crazy

I only have enough energy for a quick post. The cold I complained about in my last post got worse and I ended up flat on my back for the past 4 days! I'm afraid I may be there for at least two more. The worst part is how it effects my eyes. The fever sparks my optic neuritis which is both very painful and aggravating. I can't read nor can I watch TV. When it gets bad I start to have problems with color-blindness...disaster for a quilter!

Before I crashed I started Bonnie's mystery quilt. I finished step one with the 100 rail fences with the red/pink centers and started step two with the white and red corners. I hope to get back to these soon.

Sorry for the whiney post...will be better and posting much more interesting stuff soon.

Buttons treasure!

It has been cold and rainy for the past two days. Not that I have seen much of it since I have been housebound with a cold! It seemed the perfect day to sort buttons.

In the past year I have bought several "sewing lots" at auction and still hadn't gone through all the boxes. The box in the photo above was one of my favorites. Lots of large sets of buttons or buttons close enough to be made into sets. At the bottom of the box was this little silver "purse."

When I opened it up there were these tiny tourist photos of Rome!

Anyway, with this cold that is about as much excitement as I can stand...more later.

Happy New Year

I am a big one for making lists - grocery lists, to do lists, lists of quilts I've made and of quilts I would like to make. So that I am working on a list of New Year's resolutions isn't a surprise to anyone who knows me!

I will not bore you with the lose weight, walk more, be better about taking my meds stuff and just focus on the Quilting and travel "fun" stuff.

First - organize my quilting and sewing room. OK, this has been on my list every years since I first started quilting. Lets just say it is a process! I am planning however clear out the fabrics I have no plan on using in the next two years and donate it. I also want to finally clear out some craft things that I don't want to pack up and move back to the U.S. again. When we go back to the U.S. my DH has consented to my having the largest of the spare bedrooms to use for my quilting room. This gives me a much larger closet which I can fit out with shelves for my fabric.

Second - Try new things. I feel like I have stagnated a bit in the past year. I am cruising the internet and my piles of books and magazines to make a list of some new techniques or projects for the new year. I'm going to start with improving my machine quilting....

Third - Make the best use of the last year I have here in England. That is right. It looks like we will be going back to the states at the end of this year. So all the trips I have been putting off and all the folks I want to to visit I have to do soon!

Fourth - Simplify. If I don't use it or love it I will pack it away. If I don't miss it by the time we leave for the states than I will get rid of it. This extends to the large piles of recipes, home decorating idea pages, and paint chips!

Notice what is not on the list this year - finishing projects. (That usually follows cleaning the sewing room.) I'm accepting this as a non-finish/play year. I don't want to use up time working on projects I am no longer excited about just because they are half done. I think I will be more careful with my time and focus it on things I really want to do.

I was asked for the Bourbon Apple Pecan Bread recipe so here goes....

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1-1/4 cups vegetable oil
3/4 cup bourbon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large or 6 small peeled, cored, and chopped apples scuh as Granny Smith or Golden Delicious
1-1/2 cups raisins
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 340 degrees. Butter and flour two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans and set aside.

Mix 3-3/4 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl.

In a large bowl cream together brown sugar, sugar, eggs, oil, bourbon, and vanilla.

Add flour mixture to egg mixture and stir until just mixed.

Crush apples with a masher or place in a food processor and pulse several times.

Mix raisins and pecans with remaining 1/4 cup of flour in a small bowl. Add apples, raisins, and pecans to batter and stir until blended. (Don't over-mix or the bread will be tough.) Divide into the two pans and bake in center or oven for 50-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let rest for 5 minutes before removing from pans.

Serve with cream cheese sprinkled with a bit of cinnamon.

(I apologize for not siting which magazine this came from...it was in the middle of the ripped pages that I mentioned earlier in my resolutions! It could be an old Country Living or Home Companion?! Who knows!)

Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays!

Well I am back from the states and slowly recovering from the holidays. Didn't realize how tired I was until I woke up in my own bed with a very angry cat staring me in the face and a persistent terrier throwing himself against the bed demanding his morning walk. It is good to be home.

I didn't get to travel as much around New England because of snow...lots of snow! I did get to Scituate which is where I took the photo above of the lighthouse. It is one of my favorite towns in Massachusetts. The photo below is the view towards the lighthouse from the town pier.
I didn't get any sewing done at all. At one point during a lull in the storms I did venture out to a yarn store and pick up a crochet hook and some yarn just to have something to do with my hands! You can only make so many batches of cookies before you need a fabric/craft fix!

I also stayed home to spend time with my Mom. She turns 88 this year! I think she liked having the Christmas Eve party at her house again this year. It is easier for her than traveling to one of my sisters's houses. The photo is of her and her great-grandson Kai sitting together on Christmas Eve.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a preparing for a wonderful New Year!

Christmas notes

I love the holidays but I do tend to over-do it. The past week I have been cooking, cleaning, traveling, and attending holiday events like a crazy person. I took yesterday and today off to try and rest up for my flight back to the states Wednesday.


My choral group sang on Sunday at the Pittville Pump Room in Cheltenham. It is a beautiful Regency style building. There were two new members so I ended up having to make more capes this year. As usual I put it off until the last minutes ...literally. I was hemming the last cape as I drank my Sunday morning coffee!

I have made dozens of cookies this past week. My mint chocolate chip, lemon sugar, spice, coconut biscotti, and toffee cookies were loaded into bags and given out to neighbors this week. Somehow I also gained 3 pounds! The photo on the top is a loaf (prior to slicing for second baking) of my favorite biscotti. My family calls it California holiday biscotti. Here's the recipe.

1/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
2-1/4 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons aniseed
1 teaspoon fennel seed
1 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup whole shelled pistachios
1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
egg wash

Beat butter in a mixing bowl for 30 seconds. add sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir together eggs, vanilla, and almond extract. Beat into butter mixture. Beat in the flour until stiff. Stir in the anise, fennel seeds, cranberries, pistachios and apricots. Turn mixture out onto a lightly floured board and lightly knead in the remaining flour. Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours or until easy to handle.

Divide mixture into thirds. Shape each into a log 1-1/2 by 12 inches long. Place the logs 3-inches apart on greased cookie sheets. Pat each log to 3/4-inch thick. Brush with egg wash (one egg beaten with a tablespoon of water.) Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until light brown. Remove from oven and cool for at least one hour. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.

Place cookie logs on a cutting board. Cut diagonally into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Place vertically on a cookie sheet; bake for 5-8 minutes.

I did finish a couple of table runners as Christmas gifts. I was so tired I forgot to take photos before I wrapped them!


I just started reading A Thousand Splendid Suns. I really enjoyed his first book The Kite Runner.

Lights are back on!

Well after several days of intermittent power outages it seems as if we are all fixed now...I'll know better after a good rain! I've been able to plug in the computer and the sewing machine. Life is almost back to normal...

I finished a Christmas tote bag. The photo is at the top. It worked up quickly and I used it already when we visited the local Christmas market this past weekend. I still want to add a hook to put my keys on but that can be done later.

I've started making my Christmas cookies...today coconut biscotti and peanut butter shortbread. I'm still a bit tired from Thanksgiving so it is a slow start. As you can see in the photo below Macbeth, my official floor cleaner, got a bit tired out by turkey three. I tried a new recipe yesterday - Bourbon Apple Pecan Bread! Really good. I brought it to Choral practice last night. The recipe either came from Country Living or Home Companion. It was in my 'try it someday' pile of recipe cuttings but didn't look very old (some are a bit yellow around the edges!) I love bread recipes that make two loaves. It makes it feel like less work somehow when you have so much to show for the effort!

What is it about me and water...

Sorry I have been off-line for a bit. We are having electrical/water problems at our house right now and my DH was adamant about not plugging in the computer until it was all settled. It was a very long process but I am happy to say we now have gone almost 20 hours without the switches flipping in the control box...keep your fingers crossed!

So this is my 200th post! It took a bit longer than I expected to get this one up there. The winner of the 200th post package is (drum roll) Dawn! Congrats. The librarian helped me out by pulling the name out of a paper-bag...not very classy but it worked.


I have not been quilting too much this past week. I cooked three turkeys - one for each of the Thanksgiving meals we were invited to. (Mac is one happy dog...he does a great job of cleaning the floor when I am carving turkey!) On top of it all I got my flu shot last week. It hasn't been too bad but all of the MS symptoms have sort of been tugging on the peripheral...problems with my eyes, cramps in my legs...yada, yada, yada. More frustrating than painful to be honest. It does make sewing tough though. Hopefully next post I will my quilted bag finished.

Post 199!

I was looking through my quilt room last night trying to figure out what to put together for my 200th posting "prize." (don't worry I am out of gurgling cods....) I think I finally have something that just about anyone would like - fabric! So if you comment on this post before Monday morning (England time!) I will put you into the drawing! What could be easier than that!

Now this will be primarily a post about cats...Italian cats, Greek cats and Turkish cats. Though to be honest they all pretty much meow'd alike! The cats in Turkey seemed to be so accustomed to Tourists they posed on the ruins! The ones on the islands were friendly but harder to catch with the camera. Wasn't it nice of this one to point out the mosaics for me!!


The white cat above followed us all around the monastery at Patmos. I feel a med-cat quilt coming on.....

Home again....

It is a statement on a vacation when you are as happy as I am this morning to be home again! My DH and I took a cruise around the med this past week. Between the rough seas, canceled excursions, not so great food (on an Italian ship!!!), and a missed flight home it wasn't the vacation we though it would be!

We did have some good days though! We visited Patmos and toured the cave where St John was exiled. The photo of me at the top of this post was taken outside the cave. That evening we had a great meal in Mykonos.

I really liked the tour of Ephesus in Turkey. The ruins were amazing and the tourguides very organized and able to handle the crowds well. The cats or course were very well photographed. They may require a post all their own! My DH was getting a bit aggravated with me since I stopped every time I glimpsed a feline...which in the ruins is often!

OK, I added just one of the many cat photos. This kitten looked so much like my Brownie that I couldn't help but slip her a few treats. (After Patmos I thought to wrap up some fish from breakfast in a plastic bag so I had something to give the cats...DH claims that is why they followed me all around the site...could be right!)

After Izmir the weather turned nasty. Really nasty! Fortunately I travel with a small pharmacy in my bag so I was able to stay ahead of the sea sickness! The dining room was half empty the next two evenings so I think I was one of the lucky ones!


We arrived at our final port in Rome about an hour late. It was the worst disembarkation I have ever experienced on a cruise! No information and it took forever. We ended up missing out flight home by about 20 minutes! We couldn't get on another flight until the next day so we got a hotel and took the metro into the city. We did a bit of sight-seeing and got a really good Italian meal (finally!) We were both tired though and by the next day we were happy to be home!

While on vacation I finished The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld. It was a very interesting read. The first 50 pages or so are rough but once you get into the story it holds up well. It is a murder mystery set in New York circa 1909 and uses Sigmund Freud as a central character. If you like any of E.L. Doctorow's novels or Devil in the White City (can't remember the author) then you would like this book.

Today I get back to quilting. It will feel good!

The continuation of the Gurgling Cod....

This morning it was cold and foggy...tonight it is cold and foggy but I digress. My DH and I got up early to hit the weekly boot sale in hopes of finally finding a gurgling cod for his co-worker. By the time we had walked down one aisle we were both frozen. It was getting colder instead of warmer as the sun came up (if it ever came up today?) So we split up with a plan to meet back at the donut van in 45 minutes. He went to the back of the parking lot to work backwards and I continued on my route. Within 5 minutes of his leaving - bamm - a medium green medium size cod! With that in my bag I then had 40 minutes to buy important things like buttons and an old singer gadget. When I got to the donut van there was my DH triumphantly waving a bag...he had a dark green medium size cod!!! We must have hit a school of them! Anyway, these end the search and hopefully meet all our "cod obligations." (if this totally confuses you see my post from about 2 weeks ago!)

I was trying to post photos but my blog connection isn't cooperating. More later!

Halloween

As expected I still have a lot of Halloween candy left over. I am amazed how polite the children were last night. I told one group they could take more and the little vampire replied, "my Mum says we are not to be greedy." I tossed a few more candies in his bag.

The remainder of the candy went into work with my DH today. I started losing my diet resolve last night and don't need the temptation on the sideboard! I'm going to wait a few days before taking down the decorations. I don't really have Thanksgiving decorations and my Dh complains if I put up my Christmas decorations too early....(though I can't get him to define what too early really is!)

Today is a clean the house day...yikes. I also have to box up some Christmas gifts that have to be mailed half-way around the world. Ever feel like your to-do list is multiplying all on its own! If I dont' get some of it done however I can't go to the quilt show tomorrow up in Malvern tomorrow (incentive!)