Order to Chaos

Whilst we were in Spain in the Spring, John stopped the car and we took a photo of these trees in their rigid formation.  He told me it would make a good quilt and he named it there and then.

So here it is, Order to Chaos made this week with machine free embroidery on hand dyed fabrics and a little beading all mounted onto stretched canvas. 8 x 20 inches.

Speaking of chaos, here is Chris at the start of his first ever half marathon.  He did an exceptionally fantastic time of 1 hour 49 minutes and 10 seconds and out of 2054 runners he came 478th which is well in the first quarter of the field! Very proud Mum!

                             
 A few gardeny bits now.

As Chris is with us he has been helping around the place which is wonderful.  While moving some slabs around he found this little stash of hazelnuts.  They go down quite a long way and I'm sure the mouse who put them there would not be happy if we moved them so the slab went back down to cover them again.  We have lots of hazelnut trees in the garden but no walnut tree and neither have the neighbours so it was a mystery why we also found a walnut not too far away.

This is a new one for us, a white headed Goldfinch.  He has faint markings of where the mask should be but no colour at all.  He is a little jumpy so hard to photograph and we assume one of this years brood though all the others have their full coloured plumage.

At the beginning of the month there was huge excitement at the sighting of a Hummingbird Hawk Moth in the front garden.  Too fast and brief for a photo though.  We also found this fabulous caterpillar of a Grey Dagger Moth on one of the hawthorns.  Isn't it spectacular?  Moth larvae are nearly always better than butterfly.

I have finished block 8 of My Tweets.  The end is really in sight now and I'm already thinking of how to quilt it.

And in my own room of chaos, there is always a place for a little bit of calm and a snooze.

Have a wonderful weekend.

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A Little Bit of Beading

I have been feeling much better this week, thank you for all the get well wishes.  Well enough, in fact, to help Chris with painting the sitting room.  He is between boats at the moment so has come to help us with quite a few jobs around the house which is much appreciated!  (If any of you are going to the Southampton Boat Show this weekend or have been over the past week you may have seen his boat without even realising it!! lol)

I have only pottered around doing nothing much at all but I did have this bracelet on the go to pop in and add a few beads when the urge came.

I'm not overly happy with the box clasp.  It sits well but is a fiddle to use so I may change it for a slide lock instead.  We'll see.

We have a nice quiet weekend ahead with a little Grand Prix and the rugby and Chris is also running his first half marathon in the New Forest tomorrow so we will be cheering him on along the way.

Have a great weekend.

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MIA Block 6

I've finished the found Block 6 of My Tweets.

Block 8 is under way.

I am still very under the weather.  The Doctor called me in to check my chest.  All is well but the virus will take it's time to work it's way out and, of course, antibiotics don't do anything to viruses so no point in them.  Lots of treating the side effects though of sore throat and nose, terrible muscle cramps from coughing and general lack of sleep.  I've snorted, rubbed and imbibed of most things available to help but my favourite is still a late night hot milk with a dribble of whiskey. At least the sweats seam to have stopped now so I must be on the good side of mending!

Have a great weekend.


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Far Travelled Birds

I did managed a few stitches while we were travelling about this summer, though not huge amounts.  I'm not too sure if these are the farthest travelled of Erin's little birds but I think I've had these blocks with me on every trip.

Apologies for the lighting in the pictures, it's quite grey outside and the 'lights on' effect does not work well!

Block 4

Block 5

Block 7

Block 6 managed to hide itself somewhere but I have now found it again and discovered that the bird is sitting on leaves with no flowers so I will be cutting those soon and Block 8 is still in the computer.

I've had horrid catarrh on my chest since Tuesday, I slept most of Wednesday and this morning it decided to hit me in the head.  Not feeling great but between the rugby world cup and the Formula 1 I'm happy on the sofa.  I did managed to send off another little batch of City & Guilds work before it hit so I don't feel as though I'm losing contact with that either.

I hope your weekends are going well, I'm going to hide under a quilt again.


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Vote for 'Unfolding the Quilts'

Voting for the Quilters Guild Lottery funding is now under way to win the final bid between 2nd - 26th September.  Please follow the link and vote.

http://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards/best-heritage-project/136/

Thank you.

Normal Service Will Resume

The last couple of weeks has been rather hectic but we arrived back home on Thursday all safe and sound and very, very tired. We managed to travel just over 1800 miles as we had a bit of a wander around on the way home instead of sticking to the concrete river of the motorway.  They may help you travel from A to B easily but they are not always the way to go especially in old cars with a top speed of 70 and the Germans doing twice that! Scary stuff.  Picking up the dogs from the kennels was the perfect end to a long trip.

Friday I think we just vegged out.  The cars needed a little attention, as did the washing pile and we even had a little potter around the garden.

Yesterday we went to the Dorset County Show in Dorchester with Chris and the dogs.  We took them in 2007 and Ruger came 3rd in the Terrier racing (don't ask how a pointer involves himself in terrier racing) and he also came 2nd in the pond retrieve.  This year Tully came second in her heat of the terrier racing (at least she is a terrier!) but didn't place in the final and Ruger came 5th in the pond retrieve but he is that bit older now and a little unfit having been in kennels and that's still not bad against 30 or so other dogs.  I was furious with myself for leaving the camera on the side at home, the pictures on my phone came out terrible, but we did have a great day with the dogs in ecstatic excitement for most of it.  

Today I have been in the Eyrie since 05.30 just trying to find out where I am supposed to be!  I have re arranged the piles and my orders of priority and I am ready to create.  I did manage to put the snowflakes on the sleighs of the table centre for the sewing group Christmas Challenge and also the crystal stars.  I am quite pleased with it and think it has enough done to it.  I have kept the centre clear as I see a pot of Christmas flowers or something there.

The potatoes need to go in now and the chicken needs basting and perhaps I will sit and read weeks 5 and 6 of the Sumptuous Surface Embroidery course I have managed to not do.

Have a lovely Sunday and week ahead.

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