Scavenger Hunt March

It's that time of the month again when I join in 

with Green Thumb at Made with Love and the rest of the gang for 

our photographic Scavenger Hunt.

If you want to have a look at the other entries then pop along

Here for the links.

I was set

an additional challenge with this months

hunt as my wonderful husband suggested I try to take all

the photos from in and around our house and gardens.

It means that some of the photos aren't as nice as I would

have hoped but I have managed it. 

So here is this months chosen selection

1. Berries

The mixed berries that are part of my breakfast most mornings.

2. Crisp

A cold and Crisp morning with a slight frost,

few and far between this winter.

3.M is for---

 Mack.  It took me ages to get him to stay still

as he decided it was time to play with his ball but I eventually

made it.

4.Brick

This the back of my house with the green man

5. Flowers

My spring flowers in a pot by the back door

6. Grate

The fire grate in my lounge.

7. Cutlery

Very boring but my cutlery drawer with my Grans 

bone handled knifes.

8. Coloured Door

My cooker door, I love the colour of my cooker.

9. Tickets

Our theatre tickets for next weekend.

I keep an envelope stuck to the inside of our diary

so keep any tickets in so they don't get lost.

10. Working

This was taken from our drive looking across

the road at our neighbours having a new roof .

The builder is sitting on the top.

11. Lit up

I always have candles on my mantlepiece 

over the winter it somehow make the room warmer.

12. 9am

Last but not least my watch actually taken

at 10 am this morning when I realised I

had forgotten to put it forward on Sunday morning

when the clocks changed to British Summer Time.

So that is it for this month time to go shopping

and start looking for next months.

Gillxx

A Giveaway Win

A couple of weeks ago I won the Giveaway hosted

by the Lovely Claire at Thriftwood (pop over and have a read)

and my prize was a hand embroidered picture

with a saying of my choice.

My prize arrived this week in a really nice wooden frame

displaying  the saying or mantra that I had chosen.

Isn't it wonderful.

  I picked this as I'm a real worrier and tend to dwell on what was said or done

in the past.  These are things I can't change so I needed something

to remind me of this and thought this sentiment was perfect.

It has pride of place on my sewing table right in front 

of my sewing machine.

So what have I been doing this week--

well I have used some of the beautiful lace I received

recently in my other giveaway win.

Posted about here.

In my stash I had a remnant of burgundy satin and 

the pink lace went nicely with it so I now have a 

fabulous pair of satin pyjama bottoms with lace edging

on the bottom of the legs.  

I didn't have quite enough fabric to make them long enough

so the lace was the perfect solution.

Then,

As you can see from this dreadfully out of focus photo

my desk is 2 tables put together,

and the one in the corner is used to store bits such as

machine cover and camera bag etc underneath.

The problem was it looked so untidy.

The solution is an age old, tried and tested answer--

make a curtain.

The fabrics are the scraps left over from recently made

curtains around the house.  The center panel is the curtain in this room

and the grey is the front door curtain which helps to keep

the hall warm.

Luckily the two worked well together

and it all blends in nicely.

I have  new pattern I'm going to make up next 

with some linen I bought back from Brunei 

4years ago now

so I'll show you when it's finished.

I have a busy weekend ahead of me with a engagement party

  on Saturday and my first Mothers day lunch at my daughters house

on Sunday. It wasn't that long ago when my lovely old Mum

used to come to me and now here I am going to my daughter.

Anyway, Happy Mothers day to those of you to whom

this applies and a great weekend to everyone else and

 I'll see you in a couple of days for this months 

Scavenger Hunt.

Gillxx

First Day of Spring

Today is the first day of Spring

so for those of you who are having

a bad time or just need a little bit of sunshine

in your life,take a trip down the 

Daffodil Road.

Gillxx

Early Morning Catch Up

It's the wee small hours of the morning and I'm wide awake,

So having had a read around blog land I've decided to do

a catch up on what I'm doing in this term Patchwork group.

Firstly, I have been doing a class in Baltimore quilt techniques.

I like doing this as it's something I can do 

while I sit and watch TV with Mr T in the evenings.

When he's not working that is.

It's obviously not expertly done but I'm pleased with the result

and I like the mixture of colours although I would use a different

background fabric next time as this one creases terribly.

These are the blocks I'm doing in my Patchwork group this term.

Jane, the tutor, gives us the blocks to do but how we finish them

and what we make is up to us.

We started with Grandmothers fan which I thought needed something 

to finish the edge so I did a couching stitch around with ordinary

embroidery silk and think it looks quite effective. 

One of the other ladies

had the same thought but she added some narrow lace which

looks very pretty.

I love doing this one which is foundation pieced on to Pattern ease.

It's a lot easier to work with than freezer paper  but not sure how it will 

be when it's all put together. I'm wondering weather it will give the quilt

and uneven feel as the bow tie and maple leaf blocks below 

aren't as thick and a lot more flimsy.

I have fussy cut the centres on this one and like the

finished framed picture effect, it is again foundation pieced. 

They will all be in rows of eight with sashing in between.

The last row of blocks

will be Dresden Plates but I have got a little behind with them

after my week away.

The colours have been picked to go in my spare room

and match up with this wall paper.

This is the biggest quilting project I have undertaking so far

so lets hope it continues to go as well as it is a the moment.

Well I suppose I might try and get some more sleep.

 See you again soon.

Gillxx

Hello From Glorious Devon

I'm having a few days in Devon with my daughter

Just the two of us which is wonderful.

 It's a long drive down here  so I don't see her as

 often as I would like but as her partner is away for a short while

we thought we would have some Mother and daughter time.

She lives and works in Exeter which was my Mothers

home town and  so I know reasonably well from time spent with my Gran.

My parents and I lived further along the coast in Torquay when 

I was a teenager until my Gran died and I went to London for work

but I still feel very much at home here.

Today has been such a sunny day that we went for a long walk

around the city as well as doing a bit of shopping.

(My feet are killing me now)

Exeter  is a really nice old city which

has a lovely old cathedral 

surrounded by the old Cathedral Close

and the Deanery where my Gran used to work at one time.

My parents had their wedding reception here.

 In places you can still see the old city walls.

as well as the old Guildhall in the main street 

which here is called Fore Street. Quite a few Devon

towns seem to have a Fore street and I can only assume

they were the foremost streets in the town but if any of you know 

differently then please let me know.

But it's not all history here, it has it's fun side

like this beautiful Pub sign for the Hour Glass Pub

And the bored statute just watching the traffic go past

although I doubt there was any traffic when he was

originally carved.

These two murals caught my eye as well.

We walked along the River Exe towards the old quay

making sure to 

avoid all the swans there were about.

Then, as we were near by, we walked past my Grans 

old house in the part of the city they call St,Leonards.

  My Gran lived in one house, 

one of her brothers (she had 7) lived next door

and her Mother lived opposite. 

All the other brothers were within walking distance.

On Thursday and Friday while my daughter was teaching

I did a bit of research in to my family history.

I have been researching my family tree for a couple

of years now but mostly online, then I discovered that

Devon has a wonderful heritage centre with a lot of 

old records.  I have had great fun adding to my knowledge

and finding a few skeletons in the cupboard as well.

For a start my Gt.Gt Grandparents both had younger brothers

who were firm friends and

became young tearaways, ended up being

transported to Tasmania in Australia for theft in 1842

 at 16 years old.

Seems a trifle harsh to me for one so young

 but then life was then I suppose.

I also went and had a look at one of the villages

were another lot of Gt.Gt Grandparents came from.

I think they would still recognise parts of it today.

 We are going out for a meal tonight before I head back

to Norfolk

at some stage tomorrow and I will have to wait for

for a few months before I see her again.

See you all again soon and thank you for all the lovely

comments I get , I really enjoy reading them.

Gillxx

Inspiration

I am the lucky recipient of a giveaway hosted 

by the wonderful Barbara-Lillian  in France.

I love France and I love Lace so this was 

totally made for me.

 Thank you so much

Barbara.

There were some postcards and pictures from the area

in France where they were sent from.

These are now on my pin board.

Along with my beautiful lace there was some

Heart shaped beads , vintage coasters,

french sheet music, a bag of her own lavender to

keep it all smelling sweet

and an original paris vogue label.

Which I was very tempted to put into the new top I have made.

I have been inspired by the Great British Sewing Bee

to use those fabrics I have been meaning to make

up for ages.

I started with this lovely batik which I bought 

in the knitting and stitching show last year

(which I wrote about here).

The colour doesn't show up that well in this picture

 but it has turned out great. It is

very plain pattern but will be perfect 

for when the warmer weather gets here.

I have also made myself an infinity scarf.

I saw the tutorial on another blog and I wish I

could remember which one so I could give them

credit for the result but alas it escapes me.

I found the scarf in a charity shop and fell in love with 

the pale muted colours. 

It is a piece of cake to make.

Once you have stitched the two ends together

and added a pompom edging.

Et Voila.

I have also made myself a new skirt, just a very plain pencil skirt

with some vintage tweed from my mother-in-laws stash.

I have some maroon shoes which go perfectly with it.

So now I'm looking at the other fabrics I inherited from

her to decide what to make next, 

but first I'm off to Devon to stay with my daughter for a few days.

See you soon.

Gillxx