Scarborough

It’s been a while again I know but time just seems to disappear from my grasp these days. I’ve been up to all sorts since I last wrote but the big thing is that we had a lovely long weekend away in Scarborough. You may wonder why Scarborough. Well, call me sentimental but it was the first place that John & I went for a holiday some 28 years ago! We’d been up to stay with his parents in Northumberland and stopped off in Scarborough on the way home. Needless to say things have changed over the years and parts of the town were very run down and neglected, almost to the point of shabbiness which was rather sad. We stayed in a small, privately run hotel – The Wharncliffe which was very homely and welcoming. We had a beautiful view across the North Bay and it was lovely to watch the sun rise and set across the sea. I’m not a big breakfast eater but John loves a ‘full English’ if we’re away – you can see why they won awards for their cooked breakfast, each one fresh cooked to order and to perfection.

Using Scarborough as our base we travelled around for the three days we spent there – Whitby, Filey & Pickering (for the railway). Of course before we set off I researched casually looked for fabric supplies (you knew I would didn’t you!) and saw a tiny reference to a shop in Whitby – Judith’s. I can’t give you a link because she doesn’t have a web site. I have never seen so much fabric in such a small space in my life. It was stacked floor to ceiling. All colours. All patterns. All plains. I needed to buy some fabric to bind & back the quilt that I haven’t shown you yet and when I went to pay she didn’t take cards, only cash or cheque, so I trundled to the nearest cash point and drew out far too much to pay for what I’d already ordered so then proceeded to look for more when I got back to the shop! There was another couple in there at the same time, who believe it or not were from Felixstowe at some time and knew Quilters Haven at Wickham Market!! Small world, anyway I’m rambling, the husband commented that his wife buys fabric and never uses it!! She admitted that she is out too often to make things! I have to say that, although I buy far more than I use, that made me feel better!

So we wandered around Whitby taking photographs of the same things so that we could compare the results between the two cameras (which I have yet to do!).

On Sunday morning we woke to a beautiful sunny day, blue skies, no clouds. We decided to explore Scarborough and set of to walk round to the South Bay where John had identified a couple of caches (I like to play fair and let him have his chance to play as well ) but sadly the blue didn’t last. By midday the clouds blew in in and the temperature dropped, we bought rolls for lunch and sat out on a bench outside the hotel to eat them and nearly got blown away! As the weather had changed we set off to Filey in the car but by the time we got there it was absolutely pouring down and we parked up and sat in the car watching  the waves crash in. I crocheted and John snoozed – a real Darby and Joan moment! It stopped raining long enough for John to take some photos of brave souls paragliding (I think that’s what it’s called – they had parachute things on boards in the sea – or is it parasurfing?) We rounded the day off with delicious Fish & Chips in the sort of restaurant that your parents took you to when you were a child and that you vowed never to go to yourself.

Monday promised better weather and we headed off to Pickering to go for a ride on the North Yorks Moors Railway. We‘re not train people generally but took the opportunity for more photography along the way – John ended up with loads of tiny flecks of coal in in his hair from hanging out of the windows to take the photos! There wasn’t much to see and nowhere to buy fabric on this trip but as part of my research I had found this shop before I went. Well, Judith’s was amazing but this place was something else. On line the fabric is £6 per metre – in the shop it was £4.80!! £4.80. I know. Cheap. The only problem I had was that there was too much choice. I only spent £30 in there, they only sold full metres which is OK – after all it will get used, won’t it? I bought some lovely mauve-y fabrics for a bag – I reckon there’s enough for at least two plus some smaller bags, I won’t bore you with the other stuff just yet – there’s plenty of time for that!

So home on Tuesday via York – and the Cath Kidston shop and Betty’s tearoom (you should have seen the queue outside ‘big’ Betty’s but fortunately we’d spotted a smaller version around the corner and went there) where we had coffee and sandwiches. We were expecting something special but you should have seen John’s face when the sandwiches arrived – they were tiny little triangles with the crust cut off.

So we headed home, exhausted after our relaxing break and ready to re-join the fray of everyday life. John went back to work on Wednesday but I’ve had the rest of the week off, spent all day Wednesday baking and all day yesterday feeling bleurgh and tired  - it’s early today but I hope it’s better than yesterday!

Busy, busy, busy!!

What a busy few days, I hardly know where to begin!!

I’ll start with Friday, I think. I went off to Nicola’s for the day for more sewing practice – it seems that you can’t have too much practice!! I had prepared a couple of bits as I hinted at in my last post and I think I’m safe to reveal them now!

The pink one I made all by myself – it’s not quite the same as the purple one but I didn’t do too bad considering it was from memory and by almost deconstructing the one I made with her help a couple of months ago!

These have now been given as pressies to the friend that I call Julie and her lovely daughter, my goddaughter.

And then, after a quick trip to Quilters Haven (if it’s possible to have a quick trip, that is!) where we met up with a friend that Nicola had made through blogging (she can be found right here) and her friend (who can be found right here) and I bought just a little more fabric and a book – oh and we had a cup of tea – we returned to Nicola’s and I made this bag, which will probably go to my FDIL as she seemed quite attracted to it!

So after a long day sewing on Friday, I woke up on Saturday morning knowing that it would be another busy day. It was Julie’s birthday and a joint party was being held for her and her daughter in the evening. But I had nothing to wear , sure I’ve got dresses and shoes but absolutely nothing that I could wear on Saturday night. So, while I’m in the hairdressers, having had the magic worked on my head and during the next most important part the manicure, the idea was put in my head that I needed to buy a maxi dress and then I could wear flat shoes!

So suitably attired we all set off down to Colchester for a night out – the boys and FDIL came along as well! And what a party – great mix of music, the guests were of all ages and I have to say that I haven’t seen Julie looking so happy for ages!

Sadly no photos are suitable to publish exist of me from the evening but here are the birthday girls in full ‘row’ to ‘Ooops upside your head’ and no I didn’t join in as I would never have got up again!!

After a very late night for us we had a lazy morning yesterday, Son2 came for Sunday lunch and we settled into the garden for the afternoon – and then FDIL phoned and asked if we’d eaten. They had bought a turkey and when she went to put it in the oven it had gone off! Fortunately I had a lot of meat left over  so was able to feed them when Son1 finished work – they bought their own vegetables!!

And today, after a quick trip to Sainsbury’s I decided to have a lazy day, apart from making a cushion after Son2 asked yesterday if there were any cushions for the garden. I’ve been very lazy with this and just sewn some strips from a jelly roll together – my excuse is that I wanted to keep it simple!!

So that’s my weekend – just as well we only have to work three says this week – I’m exhausted!!

Confession

I don’t always tell you about all the fabric I buy. Phew – I’m so relieved to have been able to get that off of my chest. You see, I’ve developed a habit. I suppose as habits go it’s relatively safe, but nonetheless it is a habit. My wise neighbour told me this morning that I need to use before I buy anymore. Of course she is talking about starting to work through the fabric stash that I already have. And she’s probably right. The trouble is this habit of mine keeps taking me to places that I shouldn’t even dream of going to. Most of them are virtual places. And most of them are a long way from home. Most of them are way across the Atlantic. And it’s cheaper, even with post & packing, for me to order from there. Apart from excise duty. As a law abiding citizen I agree wholeheartedly with the principles of paying what’s due, however my objection lies with having to pay Royal Mail £8 for delivering me a card to tell me that I have to pay the duty.

Take the last package (only joking, please don’t take it – I waited three weeks for it to come). The lovely lady at Lola Pink indicated that the value of the packet was $43. The rule is you pay excise duty on anything over £18 (for VAT purposes) or over £40 if it is a gift. This last package cost £5.35 in duty – I don’t have any problem with paying that, however I really, really object to paying Royal Mail for the privilege of telling me. There, rant over. Onwards and upwards! I suppose the moral is to make sure that you don’t order anything worth more that £18!!

So all of this fabric – what am I going to do with it? Well, I might have a little break from quilts for a time and try my hand at bags, remember I made one a few weeks ago with Nicola? Well we’re going to have a day together again in a couple of weeks time, I’m going to be a guinea pig and test out patterns that she’s been working on herself plus I really want to make more of the boxy bags that I made last time.

Here’s a sneaky peek of some of the combinations I’ve been thinking of putting together – that’s the part I probably find the hardest, but it’s still early days so I must give myself some time.

I did plan to make a start in piecing the bags today but instead I did the housework and the ironing – time flies when you’re having fun!!

PS – this isn’t all that I bought, like I said at the beginning, I don’t tell you about all that I buy

Have a good week, enjoy the sun while it lasts!

Just another week gone by

Here we are again, Saturday morning time for a round up of my oh-so riveting week – not! To ring the changes this morning I am writing this post from the comfort of my bed! Outside I can hear the wind blowing around the house but I still have the curtains closed so can pretend it’s still night! Oh – and John has already been out for about an hour – something about a ‘first to find’ geo cache thingy! (Just heard him come back in ‘cos his batteries have gone – hehe)

I spent Sunday finishing the quilt that I’ve mentioned in the past couple of posts – I’m going to blow my own  trumpet here and say it’s very definitely my best effort yet! It’s the first time I’ve followed a pattern and I am so pleased with the results – even my mitred corners are good – not perfect just good! So here it is -

All of the coloured sections came from either a bag of scraps that I bought or from leftovers from previous efforts – the white has a tiny self patterned dotty print on it. The beautiful blue on the right hand side is lovely – it has a metallic sheen to it.

I found the pattern here as a freebie and have followed it (almost) faithfully, except for the binding – I used strips of most of the coloured fabrics instead – and the quilting – I ‘stitched in the ditch’ and kept it simple. My next goal is to practice free hand quilting on some scraps!

The rest of the week just sort of went really, Ipswich played Arsenal in the League Cup during the week. I didn’t feel brilliant when I got home from work and really couldn’t face a damp evening watching Ipswich lose again so I gave my ticket away. And of course the inevitable happened and we won 1-0 against the mighty Arsenal!! Having said that, we did lose 7-0 last Sunday to Chelsea! I wasn’t worried about the score against Arsenal because they were my first love anyway – a win-win there!

Today I’m expecting the friend that I call Julie and her friend that she calls Steph. Together they are JuSt Two here on Etsy and I’m going to help them create a blog – should be fun as it’s been an age since I did anything other than post on my own blog!

Ok – battery is almost gone so I’ll wish you farewell for another week – thanks for reading!

Well, that was Christmas, that was!

I finished the last post wondering what it was going to be like waking up childless on Christmas morning and I can tell you it was … OK! I still woke up early and sat around waiting for John to wake up but I have to confess the excitement levels weren’t quite the same. We’d already decided that we would wait until the boys & FDIL arrived before we’d even touch any presents and that was just fine!

Previously we’d have had breakfast about 10.30 after we’d prised Son2 from his bed (he doesn’t do mornings) but this year we had a lovely cooked breakfast at 9 o’clock and were all cleared away, veggies prepared by 10! I had a feeling that Son1 and FDIL would be early arrivals so thought it would be a good idea not to be wearing pyjamas when they arrived! They let me down and didn’t arrive until 12.30 – Son2 was actually the first to arrive which was very surprising!

We had a huge mountain of pressies under the tree – it must have looked like we favoured Son2 but a mental calculation of the financials meant they came out equal – thank heavens for a certain large store that has regular discounted days!

I had some lovely gifts, notably copies of Jane Brockurst & Kaffe Fassett inspirational quilt books, some lovely flannelette fat quarters which I think I will turn into a very simple square quilt with a thickish wadding in time for next winter. I also got a lovely cake stand, something I’ve wanted for a while and, as has become traditional, a years supply of Dove shower cream!!

As this is the first year we’ve had visitors for so long I can’t remember, I thought I’d make a real effort with the table and stuff. This is where I show you a picture – only it isn’t because in the excitement I forgot to take one! But trust me it was lovely – red & gold was the theme, with my table runner at the centre of attention. Flatteringly (I think) FDIL thought I’d bought it!! Dinner was consumed with delight – not a lot of anything left anyway so that’s a good sign.

Son2 had man-flu and was not at all well, FDIL had been out the night before(!) and Son1 had just finished nights so they all slept through the afternoon – not wanting to be left out John joined them, again this is where I show you a photo – not. I was wedged on the sofa and couldn’t get up without disturbing the sleeping beauties, I did try to capture something with the web cam but failed on that too!

Our visitors departed around 5.30 leaving John & I like Darby & Joan for the evening to watch Christmas TV and eat the remains of the food. I just loved The One Ronnie – especially this is sketch

Great update on an old favourite

Yesterday John was going to football with Son2 (I’d kindly given him my ticket – too blooming cold for me hehe) but it got cancelled about 90 minutes before kick-off, instead Son2 went home and John and I went looking for some cheap furniture for our (now) spare room so that all the people queuing up to come and stay will have somewhere to put stuff, we succeeded in getting a couple of bedside chests and a chest of drawers…mm, seems a shame to have them empty, perhaps I’ll decant some of my stuff…

So now it’s Monday. What’ll I do? There’s only so much sorting and tidying a girl can do – oh, go on then I’ll get the machine out if you insist!!

Deliveries!

I’ve had some lovely deliveries this week! Whilst I was blog hopping last Sunday evening I came across this site which has some lovely fabrics! Well, I looked at it for at least 15 minutes before I decided that I really did need some more fabric for my stash, I ummmed and aahed for a while before settling on my fabric bundle of choice, placed my order and quickly moved off before I found anything else I wanted!

True to their word on Tuesday the postman delivered an unassuming black package to my door

Which, when I opened it revealed a beautifully wrapped package

It got a bit dog eared because I kept unwrapping it before I took the photo!

Which contained this lovely stuff…

Which smells just beautiful – I love the smell of new cotton fabrics! It’s a bundle of ten ‘fat quarters’ which I will make into something – just not sure what at the moment!

And then, on Thursday, the same postman bought me this….

which I will be turning into a baby afghan blanket with some mint & white which I had already bought. Sadly the pattern that I wanted to use just won’t work for me, I’ve unpicked it twice now but still can’t make it work so I’ll give up and revert to a ripple instead!

I fear that I am turning into a real craft-aholic as all I seem to write about these days is what I’m making! When I look back over the years I can’t help but feel  I’ve wasted so much time just staring at the TV screen – I need to make amends now. One thing I have noticed about myself is that I’m more patient, which surprises even me, with sewing now. If the seam isn’t straight I will unpick whereas back in the day I would have said ‘that’s the best I can do’! Last week I mentioned the log cabin pattern quilt that I had made with Nicky and I can now reveal it in it’s almost completeness – almost because I haven’t quilted it yet. Last night I tried to had quilt it but the back was an absolute mess, this morning I started to machine quilt it but that too was a mess. I have decided that the machine I bought just isn’t up to much other than stitching the fabrics together – it doesn’t really cut it for the quilting.

So, without further ado here it is…

It’s only 15 inches square and was intended for a ‘Blanket of Love’ we even had some sunshine  this morning!

This was my first attempt at binding the seam – I didn’t do too bad!

 

Close up of one of the squares

I think I mentioned that I’d agreed to help Nicky with a blog when I wrote last week, well I don’t have to now because her sister designed her a website and a blog as a birthday present – isn’t that a lovely idea? Please have a look here at the amazing things she makes, not just quilts but bags as well. She’d love to have you visit – you can tell her I sent you!

Just in case anybody is worried that I haven’t had a holiday for a few months, we are going away to Tenerife next week with our good friends Linda & John. Just for a week, recharge the batteries before the winter really sets in – then when we get back it will be time to think about Christmas, how time flies!

Better go now, been sitting at the sewing machine most of the day working on the next project – using Christmas fabric no less, I will share when it’s finished!

Thanks for reading….