Ooops!

Did you notice today's deliberate mistake?  Well, I managed to post with just this photo.....

 .....instead of saving it as a draft ! Sue spotted it and luckily was kind enough to leave a comment which made me realise what I had done - thank you Sue!  That'll teach me to pay more attention when I am 'clicking' :-)

As you will have guessed, my Pineapple quilt is finished.  I'd just put the last couple of stitches into finishing the binding before the wrist kicked in so at least I have one finish for March, but that's going to be it for the rest of the month.  Getting to the end of this one has been very slow and perhaps not helped by what was building up in my wrist and maybe all the pulling and pushing during the quilting didn't help matters either, who knows!  Whatever the problems though I think its been worth the struggle.

If you have a moment pop along and have a look at Sue's blog and read about the amazing new book she has written - I promise you won't be disappointed !

Bad Blogger!

Yes, I'm afraid I'm turning in to a very bad blogger indeed  -not only is my blog turning into a weekly event , but I also keep forgetting to tell you what's going on in Blogland.

I didn't mention this

                                                               


over at Quilting Gallery , not that I  think this was very serious as even without my help (!) there are 330 participants from 25 countries, now you can't get more international than that!

Slow News Week

There's not been a lot going on here this last week, unless you count a dash to the local hospital when my eyes flared up again!  Not very nice this time and quite frightening I can tell you - but a thorough exam didn't find anything other than the allergy which has calmed down again, so all is well !

More snow arrived in the early hours of Friday morning leaving the road out of the village impassable again, but then yesterday the rain turned up and today no more snow!  I guess we had about 8/9 inches all told, which is nothing compared to other parts of Europe, but more than enough for an area not accustomed to this kind of weather and with limited facilities for keeping the roads clear.  In fact most of the local roads were only open thanks to the number of tractors using them.

I'm not going to bore you with more snow photos, and because of my eyes there are no quiltie photos either, but - I have found a new blog to share with you !

In my web search for all and every reference available on free motion machine quilting I have found a plethora of information and some great blogs, but the one that stands out for me is Wendy over at Ivory Spring  .  This blog alone is worth a visit, but wait until you read her sister blog  Thread Talk!

Wendy's  FMQ  is awesome in my opinion and all done on her Bernina DMS so please go along and check this out - anyone interested in FMQ will not be disappointed !  I am going to show it to my Berni and let her see what can be achieved if she keeps practicing , do you think it'll do the trick  :-)

Thanksgiving Day

A little something  for all my American  blogging friends and visitors  - a day early I know, but I am sure that everyone will be very busy tomorrow enjoying the holiday and not have much time left to go blog hopping !

Christmas Quilt A Long

With all the excitement of the wedding, I managed to miss the  Amy's  Fall Bloggers Quilt Festival , which was a bit disappointing as I've taken part in all the other 'shows'.  Not too worry though, I am sure there'll be another one come Spring, and in the meantime I've discovered Sue's  Christmas Quilt A Long.

So - today I am going to spend as much time as possible joining in with everyone.  Not quite sure what I'll  work  on  yet  but,  dust bunnies or not, I'm having some 'me time'.  Don't know if I'm ready to put on the  Christmas CD to sing along too (bit early yet!), but I'm sure it'll be good fun in any case, so why not come along and join in!

On A Roll!

Managed to get the borders on this one too, not trimmed up yet as you can see, then another one ready for backing!

and a finish!!

My scrappy Irish Chain, which many of you will recognise this as a Quiltville  pattern and a great way to use up lots of tiny scraps!

That's the end of my sewing splurge for the next few days as it's off to the specialist for the next lot of knee treatment tomorrow and the start of another 3 days of boredom :-)

From Beauties to Basics.......

.... and it doesn't get much more basic than 9s & 4s does it?

This latest finish couldn't be more different to yesterday's quilt, but in its own way just as pleasing.  The pattern was one I found on the Web some time ago, but can't remember  exactly where, so  I'm not able to give credit to the original . I think it might have been one of the major fabric companies, possibly Windham , all I do know is that it is very pink in the download pattern but unfortunately no sign of a name anywhere!


Finishing at 58" x 68" it's a reasonable size lap quilt and used up quite a lot of my scrap bag pieces, which is always good :-)  Would you believe that I took it to Spain to finish the binding - maybe not such a brilliant idea to have a quilt draped all over you given that the daytime temperatures were in the mid 30s, but it certainly came in handy later in the evening when it cooled down !!

A Finish

The beautiful weather continues in this part of Brittany - cloudless blue skies and at last no more high winds, in fact there has been barely a breeze over the last few days, so it must be that Spring has arrived this time!

Most of  the last week has been spent trying to get some kind of order back into our very unruly garden after the weeks of neglect . The very cold frosty weather we had in March hasn't helped either as its ruined all the camellia and azalea blooms, so at the moment there's not a great deal of colour around, but  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the very new buds that are just peeping out on the clematis!

One thing that did bring a little colour to brighten the days was my Stacked Coins quilt.  You might remember this post when I talked about joining in the No Strings Attached challenge, well two things happened to make me decide  to drop out.  Firstly,  life got in the way and time became very precious, and secondly having chopped up all my fabric, I was mortified to learn that 'coins' didn't count as 'strings' - another lesson in quilting terms!!

Not  really wanting to start anything else and create yet another UFO(!) I carried on with the Coins quilt and I am so glad I did as it finished up so bright & cheerful!

It's being donated to the local Sainte Croix Animal Welfare Group to be raffled to help raise funds,  and I am sure the animals that benefit won't worry if it's technically not a 'string' quilt - but lets hope it the 'coins' multiple to great numbers!!

Cure for the Blues

Wandering around Blogland I keep coming across the saying ' when life throws you scraps, make a quilt' which is indeed very sound advice. However, one of my best cures when I feel down in the dumps is a good read, so here's a few of the books that kept me company and helped keep my spirits up over the last couple of months

 Now these books have some lovely quilts that are 'do-able' projects for me and  I've already started bookmarking pages ........

........most of these though fall into to 'maybe someday' category, but then a girl can dream of something beyond stippling can't she ??

At last - a 'quiltie' post!!  My Blog seems to have changed from being sewing related  to a travelogue lately, but although I am sure you'd rather be looking at scenes from Brittany (!!) today you have to suffer my latest (finished!) quilting project :-)

I actually got a quilt finished for October, but it hasn't stopped raining over the last few days,  so the photo had to wait for the next 'dry' day - today!!

The Nine Patch Sampler is from the book 'Strip Delight' by Suzanne McNeill,  and the fabric collection is Moda's 'Wild Rose'.  I've changed the pattern slightly to accommodate my fabric ,and  though I was a bit doubtful about it all whilst making the blocks, it' s turned out OK and  the lovely rich colours , which are much better in real life, have made it the kind of quilt you want to curl up under!  It's certainly a quick quilt to piece if you want something in a hurry.

I have to own up to having some help in backing it though !!

Two more 'small' finishes for October, both of which are going to the Cat Rescue fund raising Christmas Fayre

 

Original pattern for this tote is on the  Moda Bakeshop site, and the Black & White mini tote is a Penny Sturgess design

Now all I have to do is decide on a finish for November !!

Normal Service Resumed!

Well, the holiday is over and as usual the washing machine is now cowering in the corner after working non stop for what seems like forever!! That part of coming home is bad enough but - Oh My!! Who's going to iron it all :-)

Our leisurely wander up through France to Pays de Calais was somewhat shorter than planned thanks to our two little orphans (both doing well and I have visiting rights to them until they find new homes !) but very pleasant just the same. The weather was very kind to us and we were able to do lots of sightseeing and walking, especially on the lovely long beaches of Normandie , Picardie and in particular the Baie de Somme . It was quite surprising to see how lovely the Somme was, as like many others I am only aware of the area's history during WWI and it was hard to imagine the lovely countryside as the sea of mud associated with one of the most horrific battles of the Great War.

Cap Gris- Nez , famous for being the 'grounding' place for cross Channel swimmers, and it's sister Cap Blanc-Nez were worth the visit, albeit a very quick one, as we made our way to Calais to catch a ferry across to Dover, with it's white cliffs



and a short stay in Kent - but more about this in another post!

Just before we left, I was very relieved to hear that my Friendship Bag Swap had arrived safely at it's new home!!I can tell you that panic mode was beginning to set in as it took over 3 weeks for the package to arrive in Norway, but all ended well and I think Grethe was reasonably please with her parcel! I forgot to take photos before I sent it off so I 'borrowed' this one from Grethe's Blog, hope she doesn't mind !!




Unfortunately it seems as though the bar of chocolate didn't make it to the photo shot!!!!

The fog has lifted, and the sun is shinning again so I'm off to take a 'quiltie' photo to enter in Amy's Autumn Blogger's Quilt Festival - have you entered yours yet ??????

Broceliande

I mentioned Broceliande - land of legends and enchantment - a few posts ago, and whilst there is much debate as to whether Arthur & his Knights or Merlin actually existed, here in Brittany there is certainly a feeling that they may well have !

The forest of Paimpont covers many hundreds of hectares and a very large part of it is either privately owned or used as a training area by the French Army. In fact convoys of troops travelling along the dual carriageway from Ploermel to Rennes are quite a common sight and sometimes might you even catch glimpses of camouflaged figures scurrying through the the undergrowth !!

However, the publicly owned 10% has much to offer in support of the Round Table connection! We have claims to the Fountain of Eternal Youth, Merlin's Tomb as well as that of La Fee Morgane. Add to this the castle of La Fee Viviane (the Lady of the Lake) , oak trees 1,000 years old, manoirs & chateaux dotted all over the forest and some of the prettiest villages in the area and you have Broceliande!!

Now, whether you believe in these legends or not (!) there is no denying the absolute beauty of the area and taking advantage of the Indian summer we've been having, off we went to explore the Val sans Retour ! Local legend differs slightly from the official version as it is claimed that if you are a faithless lover, then you will not return from the valley but be turned into stone! Whichever version you choose to believe it is well worth the visit - if you dare!!

I have been trying for AGES to upload photos and am just about ready to scream!!I think there is a problem with my ISP at the moment as we seem to be on a 'go slow' as well as some other strange happenings (!!), so until things settled down and I can show you some of my own, just have a browse here

Have you seen this from Australia?


These very talented & generous ladies are making Blogland an offer it can't refuse :-)




and how about this from Canada, the first of Dorothy's 'Sweet Nostalgia' free block of the month - how cute is that !


Now that really is a North to South connection - see how much we'd miss without WWWdotCOM! !!

Something Quilty!

Just for a changed, a couple of quilty photos :-)

I first saw this sewing machine mat on Jane's blog and ordered the pattern from Tazzie
straight away! Then the pattern turned up again on Jenny's blog a couple of posts ago as part of her September challenge - make a sewing machine mat to match the cover from last month - and although I am very pleased with my mat I don't think I'll be joining the challenge, but do go along to have a look at the other colourways being shown !

My colours look very wishy washy in the photo because of the sunlight and are a lot brighter in real life BUT I am NOT going to complain about the sun as we are enjoying the most lovely Indian summer at the moment (albeit a little breezey !) with temperatures in the high 20s and long may it continue I say !



Next up is my Little Bouquet Quilt Along piece finally finished! I had a lot of fun(and frustration!!) making this but not sure if it's something I would try again. Once I thought I'd got the hang of the roses they didn't turn out too bad but what a lot of 'snipping' to even get them to look this good - I really don't know how Cherri managed to get hers so perfect, she must have infinite patience!!!



Finally, a finish from Susan Brittingham's Upside Down Appliqué class that I took with QU some time back




Had I realised how much free motion satin stitching would be used, I don't know if I'd have been so keen to join! It certainly gave me a LOT of practice and a lovely wall hanging at the end of it all!! The shading beneath the wings , tail and on the breast was done using tulle and/or organza and the difference it has made is quite pronounced ! Another fun course and one I would certainly recommend !

Busy!

Another busy weekend here with yet more visitors from the UK! It is so lovely to see old friends and catch up with all the gossip from home, but it is also nice to have our home back to ourselves!!

One good thing about lots visitors is that we get to go to all the lovely parts of Brittany over and over - and never get bored with doing so! There are some pictures to show (surprise!!) but I'm afraid they'll have to wait until the washing machine stops and the ironing board goes away which will mean that mound of laundry that always appears on these occasions is finished!!!

So, before I disappear to get stuck in, have a look at some of the great give-aways that are in blogland at the moment!

Elaine at Faithful Quilter is giving away a selection of Civil War fabrics and there are also the most scrumptious Reproduction fabrics on Lurline's blog. Don't know why I telling you about these two actually as I really, really want these for myself !!

Sarah at Don't Look Now has a quilt waiting for the lucky winner and last but not least Frummie is giving away 2 yards cuts of co-ordinating fabric!! Phew!!

Good Luck everyone !!

Give Away

I don't normally enter Give Aways, but this one is certainly different! Go on over to Elaine's blog and have a look for yourself!!

Special Day

Today is International Friendship Day, so a good day to say 'Hello' to everyone !

One of the greatest things about blogging is that I have got to know so many people that I would not have otherwise, and I am very happy to call you all my friends!

I'm off to join this
so why not come along too - what better way to share friendship!

A True Friend is Good to find

More Fun!

I found this during my wanderings in blogland(!!) and as I've really enjoyed making the mini landscapes, it seems like a good idea to join in and learn something new, so... I'm off to raid the 'scrap bag' and see what is lurking there ! Thank you Cherri !!

New Swap!

In case you've not heard about this one and want to join in , pop over to Fiona's blog and
get your name down straight away as sign-ups close on 31 July !

I know I said no more swaps this year, but what a fun way to build up to Christmas Day - and I can't believe I'm talking about Christmas in the middle of July !!

4th July

Happy 4th July to all my American friends - a little something from me to you!

Have a wonderful day !!!