Not being idle

Being snowed in was no excuse for not getting anything done and I wondered how I have the time to go to work!

I've recently rediscovered some T-shirt printing sheets that I've had for some time and have started to put them to good use in labelling quilts. Have taken part in the Calendar Quilt Challenge with BQL last year as I finished each month's quilt I added another label onto a Word document. I then printed off the page of labels and it's handy that the printer settings includes a Mirror image setting. Looks odd, doesn't it.
After printing, came the job of ironing onto fabric and sewing onto the backs of all twelve little quilts. That was done while watching television. Above is the back of October's quilt
Another thing that I've made recently are some selvedge postcards. I've saved and friends have given me selvedges and I dug the bag out and put them together on a calico backing sewing on with variegated thread. I then cut them into 3 postcard and an ATC size pieces. Just a bit of fun.

This year I joined a new Yahoo Group, called Liberated Quilters for those who like doing a liberated style, in the style of Gwen Marston, who will have a reissue of her book. Looks like that could be fun too. Look out for me getting more liberated this year!

Snow photos

Above is my little red car which didn't get to work on Tuesday. There was a heavy downpour of snow which slowed down traffic and after half an hour of doing only a third of my journey I decided to return home. I'm glad that I had as the snow was falling much heavier by then. My car didn't move until Friday, but even then it was dodgy getting out of my road onto the road out of the estate and then the main road (which was fairly clear).

Next door's children built a snowman - soon as this was taken the poor thing was decapitated!
The next day cars were still unable to get out of the road. But I was able to make the 10 minute walk to the local supermarket for some shopping and this is the view on the walk back home, looking towards St Helens church and the line of snow covered trees.

And this is the back garden taken on Saturday after another bout of snow on Friday night. The snow on the table is about 8". Some of the snow on the chairs and bench fell of the backs and onto the seats making a thicker "cushion on them.

And today has been getting a little warmer, not much, but just enough to start the thaw and the snow on the table above is half the depth and has slid across the top by 2".

Lets hope the worst is over for this winter, but I don't think we'll have seen the last of it.

Secret Santa

Each year BQL (the Yahoo group that I belong to) runs a Secret Santa and I decided to take part this year, sending my gift all the way to the Isle of Skye to Ann. I did show a sneaky peak on a previous post back in November (shown here). I'd made 4 Christmas coasters, a rotary cutter case and a Christmas decoration (which you might recognise from my October challenge piece).


For my present, which came from someone else I received a Japanese style bag, with a really lovely print on it.As its fairly deep it may be useful for keeping some knitting in.

Visit to Keighley & Worth Valley Railway

We'd got back from our Christmas away visiting family and friends in the South on Wednesday so on New Year's Eve (as we're still on holiday) decided to visit the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway to go on their Mince Pie Special train. We started our journey at Oxenhope, which is at the other end of the line. Going towards the Pennines to Oxenhope there was quite a bit of snow in the hills (we didn't have any at home at the time) and a bitterly cold day. We went into the exhibition hall which houses their engines to get out of the cold where we found a small Christmas scene with a model train running around it, really cute.


Then we warmed up in the refreshment carriage with a cup of coffee and biscuits. They had to be Grandma Wild's, very appropriate, I thought.Even the water tank at the station had festive decoration.
And here's the steam engine. The train service was quite busy so there were a number of carriages. David managed to get this photo in without too many people.
I found this advert with for Stephens Ink with a thermometer....
.....yep, it's freezing, alright.

It was a good day out and something different to enjoy during the holidays.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I would like to wish everyone a very HAPPY NEW YEAR.

I thought I would just do a quick post on here and replace the Christmassy background on my blog with a fresh new one and over the next few weeks I'll be making a few changes for the New Year.

Has anyone made any resolutions? Mine is the classic one - to lose weight! Seriously I've been putting weight on recently and had a fright when getting on the scales this morning. There will be a family wedding coming up in the summer which I hope will give me impetus to shift at least 2 stone of my excess. Not quite sure where to start though, to go to a slimming group or join an online group, have to think about that one.

I've just joined a Yahoo group called Liberated Quilters who also have a challenge blog here. So a different challenge on the quilting front.

In my next post I'll upload some photos that I've taken at a steam railway that David and I visited yesterday.

Enjoy the rest of the New Year weekend.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

This is my last post before Christmas. Getting everything ready for a trip down south first thing Christmas morning and an anxious eye on the weather to see if it'll be safe to go. There were snow showers last night and this morning, but the weather is gradually warming and is thawing slightly, so we'll wait and see.

Here are some photos of Christmas trees. Shopping trips recently to Wakefield after work and Leeds just this last Saturday and there are some lovely decorated trees out there.

This is the tree outside Wakefield Cathedral. It stands alongside what was the German Market. The market didn't last out until Christmas as it was closed down.
And this is the one in City Square, just opposite the railway station. In the background is the Old Post Office, which now houses restaurants and bars.


And here is our own Christmas tree. Had to buy a new one this year (we only have artificial trees, never real) and this one is said to fool Father Christmas that it's a real one. I say that after several sherries and mince pies he won't notice the difference!!

Last year I bought a snowmen decoration which has multicolour lights and has a lovely glow from our bay window and they are really cute. Here they are again.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE
HAVE A WONDERFUL TIME

Christmas Makes and Surprises

I saw this on another blog and I thought, why not, lets be part of a Show n Tell and so I'll share what I've made this month...
The December BQL Challenge quilt and above is the front, below is the back. I blogged this a short while ago but I never showed the back of this little quilt (it's only 12" square).
Those snowmen look rather jolly, don't they. This is the last BQL challenge and will miss what will come in the next month. I'm sure there are more things out there to challenge me.

Another item that I've made has been a Christmas card with my needlefelting machine and stitched onto card. This was for the Embellisher Group and was sent to Pam in Port Talbot. I hope that she likes this. The background is made from white velvet with cream scrim and some Angelina fibre trapped between the layers. The Christmas tree is green wool roving with Angelina fibre and green organza. Then the tree was punched onto the background fabric. I zigzagged around the edge with a glittery thread before sewing onto the card.

Now the surprises

As for the surprises, as part of the same swap I received this card from Janet. A lovely rich looking figgy pudding, with some flames on the top. It really looks lovely.
Another surprise was this wonderful little stocking with this gorgeous little deer button on the top from my friend Chris. In the stocking was a tea bag with a little verse to remember her on Christmas Day when I have the tea. Lovely!

Here's Freddie

After a quick dash down south as mentioned in my last post and lovely to have time to see my son Jamie and his family and have a cuddle of the new baby.


So here he is, Freddie. When we visted Carly and Freddie were still in hospital he could have had an infection so has been on antibiotics to be on the safe side, but they should be out of hospital soon, if not out already, by this time.

Somethings happened now

Today we've had big news - daughter-in-law Carly had her baby - a week late. He is quite a size, weighing in at 10lbs 4oz and his name is Freddie. No pics to show as yet, I think Jamie is too tired but he'll e-mail some tomorrow, so I hope to share then. Hopefully we'll have a quick dash down south to see the new arrival (and his family of course).

Meanwhile I have also managed to finish the last of the challenge quilts and this one below is my December one.


This is a quick mosaic with raw edged pieces of fabric (my choice was Christmas fabrics throughout, pinned and stitched on. For the edging I have some ricrac with gold metallic thread through it. I didn't have enough of either the red or the green to go all around so opted for 2 opposite sides in red and the others in green. I shouldn't have used a green fabric background to place this on as the ricrac edging doesn't show up to well. But I am pleased with my effort and it was very quick to do.

Not much happening...

I hoped to say that I've done sewing and I am in the process of doing the December Challenge quilt, but not finished, nothing to show yet. More importantly I was hoping to say that I have a new grandchild, due 1 December, but nothing yet, my poor daughter-in-law is still waiting.

I did say in my last post that I had photos from our visit to Manchester so here goes. 3 weeks ago we went to The Lowry which is an arts complex with theatre and galleries then over the bridge on the Manchester Ship Canal to the Imperial War Museum north. It was a wet day again - the last few weekends have been like that- but at least most of what we went to see was indoors and it was an enjoyable day out.
And here's another view of The Lowry..

This is the outside of The Lowry, the entrance has this peculiar shovel thing above it.

Going over the canal via a swing bridge across to the Imperial War Museum North. There is a connecting pathway with occasional mosaic pictures in it.
This is the outside of the Museum, looks very grey and gloomy, just like the weather. There is an observation platform the top of the tower.

I hope next time I have some news.

Been further North

Just come back from a weekend away near Bishop Auckland, to celebrate his birthday, my birthday and our anniversary - they are very close together and it saves buying each other presents. Disappointingly the weather was really awful returning home today, hoped to have taken a gentle jaunt home stopping at a few places on the way, but it was chucking it with rain. By the time we returned home it stopped raining - argghhh!

No piccies taken this weekend, but will post some of a couple of weeks ago when we crossed the border to go Manchester later.

Had a thought though. I love making postcards and haven't made any lately and wonder if anyone would want to swap with a postcard with me in January as a bit of New Year cheer. I don't want to be inundated as I'll swap with up to 10 people. If you've never made a postcard then I can give you instructions. Leave a comment on this post by 10 December and I'll get in contact by e-mail.

Knitting & Stitching Show Harrogate

On Sunday I went with the Barnsley Embroiderers to the Knitting and Stitching show in Harrogate. A good place to shop and lots of things to see, but not a lot of photos as the artists there do not want photos taken, but in one of the halls there was this delightful knitted boat with knitted sea life around it. The boat was made as a project between February and September this year by the Customs House Arts Centre, South Shields and is called "Casting Off...A Coat For a Boat". (I was trying to find a link for this on the Arts Centre website, but I can't find one).
Oops! I think this photo is on its side!! You can see various sea life and a life belt.

And this one above shows a couple of lovely little seal pups with a star fish and some sea weed - all knitted.
By the time I left late afternoon it was getting dark in Harrogate and the lights on the trees were switch on. This was the view just across the road from the Conference Centre where the show was held.
And from the green looking up the main street. The Turkish Baths are to the right.

I did buy a couple of books - arty ones about sketchbooks, some magazines and threads, but no fabric or yarn (not sure what's wrong with me). I have found when I bought a new (larger) storage container with drawers in it just how much fabric I have got and I think that may have been the deciding factor in not buying any more, well, for the time being.

It was an enjoyable day out and lovely to have a wander around the exhibits and not feel rushed.

Sewing Sunday

It's nice to have some time to sew and have time clear to get on with something. This week during the evenings when the television has been rubbish I've got on with November's BQL Calendar Challenge quilt and this morning I've got it finished. As you can see it's Drunkard's Path this month. I echo quilted it with some smoky coloured metallic thread and found some fuzzy yarn to edge it instead on binding. It now has pride of place on the wall in my sewing room.

The next thing to get on with is my Secret Santa offering which has to go well before the end of the month. This is just a sneaky peak and I won't show completed pics until after Christmas. One of the items that I'm making involves some sewing and flipping.And I've also make a few other things too which has used some of my Christmas fabric.

I've also been browsing some blogs this evening and when looking at Vintage Giraffe's site found a link to a blog about selvedges (or selvages in American) here . I made some selvedge postcards about a couple of years ago, but had no idea what a following there is with people using their selvedges creatively. Looks like I'll have to get my bag of edges out and see what I can make with them.

Well travelled camera

Back from a week in Dorset and back to work as normal, I have to tell you the story about my camera. I’d taken this with me to take photos of my youngest granddaughter Isobel’s christening. I’d left it behind at my son’s house while I went off to Dorset to my parents’ house. He’d phoned ahead of my arrival to say that I’d left it behind, but never mind, he would be up north the next day and would pass this onto David.

Alex took the train to Darlington and picked up a hire car, he’d got off the train, went back for the bag which contained my camera (amongst other things) but the train doors were shut and the train continued its journey ending in Glasgow. Alex eventually had to drive to Glasgow to collect the bag, which someone had handed in. Fortunately all the contents of the bag were still in it – very fortunate indeed. So after returning to his home, we then were able to meet up at my other son’s in Southampton and be reunited with my camera. It was also good to meet up with my sons and daughters-in-law and all 3 (at the moment) grandchildren again before we (David joined me at the weekend) drove back up North again.

Here is a photo of the little lady with her lovely cream dress aahhh.

And with her sister Sophie and parents.

Just in time I finished a quilt for her. I made a Paddington Bear quilt, the kit that I saw at Bramble Patch a few months before, which I hope she’ll like. Before I went away I took the photo above (being held up by David). The blocks were not printed square so took a bit of persuasion, starch and blocking to get square, but I was pleased with the outcome.

I had an enjoyable stay, the chance to have time with my parents and to see friends - working and quilting - and family. Whilst down there we celebrated my Mum's 80th birthday too. Wish I could have stayed longer.

A Break for a Week

I will be going down south for the week but before I leave I thought I would post a few photos. Last night David & I went to Brodsworth Hall near Doncaster for their Enchanted Gardens event, where the house and gardens were lit against the dark autumn sky. It was very busy, but well organised and it was a delight to walk around in the warmish (for this time of year) evening. Of course the bright lights are challenging for the camera so I took a lot of photos but they were more miss than hit, but a few decent-ish ones were taken.

Above is the Hall all lit up. There were different coloured lights shone on it, but when I took this it was white.And above and below, some spooky looking trees as blue light was shone from underneath some Monkey Puzzle trees and yellow for another group of trees, emphasising the autumn colours. The photos are a little fuzzy but the best I could get from the challenging conditions.

I've also put a couple of other photos, one is of the bell that I made at the Regional Day a couple of weeks ago.

And my white orchid, which is flowering like mad. To date it has 9 blooms with a 10th about to come out and another 10 buds at least on it. I put some mobile phone pics on my Facebook page too. How many more flowers will appear while I am away?


I will be going to my granddaughter's christening on Sunday in West Sussex, then after spending some time with my parents in Christchurch.

A year in Yorkshire

Just a short post to mention that it was a year ago today that David and I moved from Poole to Pontefract. It's been an eventful year of missing friends and relatives, but making new friends. Finding work was a challenge, but doing temporary work at the beginning of this year, confirmed to me that I have skills that I can use, even though the numerous interviews seemed harrowing at times. I've now got a temporary contract which'll keep me going until about halfway through next year, which I'm grateful for.

I've also got to know some lovely countryside, nice places to go and visit and made the most of what seems at present like a long holiday with a bit of work in between! I love the markets in Doncaster (a town I discovered I liked when I worked there for a few short weeks) and Barnsley that are nothing like what there is down south.

I've enjoyed the visits from people that have stayed with us and have been out and about with.

Still miss Poole, but it doesn't hurt quite so much as when I first moved up here. Just thought I'd share my thoughts.

Quilters Guild Regional Day

I hadn't been to a regional meeting since long before I left Dorset, so decided to go to this one for the Yorkshire and Humberside at Dewsbury, only 40 minutes drive away yesterday. The speaker in the morning was Dilys Fronks, who is shortly to retire from the speaking and workshop circuit. She told of her discovery of patchwork and quilting in the early 80's right up to the current work she is doing today and of her speciality of applique. She is best known for her wrought iron reverse applique.

There was a show and tell where I took my 10 little calendar quilts and there were a lot of others showing some fantastic work.

After lunch there were mini workshops which included a christmas bell, christmas cracker and Colonial Knot mini cushion. I went for the Christmas bell and sewn the little sections, however they aren't completed at present so I'm not showing it here just yet. Just got to be stuffed and joined together, which I hope shouldn't take too long.

However the most tempting thing were the traders, one from the Skep Mill shop (from Pudsey, Leeds) and another trader who it seems is selling off her stock. I managed to buy some fat quarters of Christmas fabrics with some country style ribbon and a metre of fabric with turtles on. Also I'd bought Dilys' book Enchanted Views, on the wrought iron reverse applique and an Australian caft magazine.
It was a great day out and lovely to be amongst quilters albeit that I didn't know anyone there, but it wasn't long before I got talking to people.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Our latest foray in Yorkshire this weekend was the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, just off the M1 between Barnsley and Wakefield. The weather started off grey and wet, however the sky broke then the sun shone and it was a glorious, if windy, autumnal day.

This part of Yorkshire is has two well known sculptors that are represented here - Barbara Hepworth (who was born in Wakefield) and Henry Moore (from Castleford). This year also had an exhibition by Peter Randall Page.

Unfortunately, I can't show you any of the exhibits as photography is for private use only so here I've just included the scenery, but the link above to the Park is quite comprehensive so do take a look. The gardens were wonderful with the autumnal colour. Below is a pic of the formal gardens with the underground gallery on the right hand side.

And this is something that I see on my way to work, on my way home and here from the park... the Emley Moor transmitter tower, over towards Huddersfield. It dominates a lot of the scenery around here.

Below is the colour of the trees in the park . This was part of the hillside area, where to the left there are sculptures by Barbara Hepworth. Husband (in the red coat) is unaware that I've got him in this pic.Below are some people taking the trek across the field to the gallery about 2 kilometres from the main gallery. The small white square just about the middle of the photo is where we were aiming for. This is looking towards Barnsley in the distance.