Car Boot Sale.....

......Breton style !

 

 

 

.......... saucisse frites anyone ?                                                              

                                            

 

........one man's junk is another's treasure                                                                                                                                        

                                         

.....glad I didn't have to clean all this

....hard  to resist, but do I really need more than 4 sewing machines ?

Vide Greniers are good fun and there is always a bargain to be found !  I had to fight hard against buying the little electric Singer, from the mid 1950s and complete with the original instruction book, spare bobbins & feet, at 20 euros it was certainly a bargain - I just hope it found a good home .

Have I mentioned we're in the middle of a heat wave ?

 Average temperatures over the last 2-3 weeks have been 34C with highs of 39C!  Not that I am really complaining , but I can't help but wonder what happened to Spring  this year as we seem to have missed it somewhere along the line .

 

Jinxed July !

July has been a strange kind of month .The weather has been the most unseasonable  we've had since we arrived in Brittany, staying wet and cold for most of the time.  The heating has been going just about every evening as the house has been so cold, and when it hasn't been raining, we've been plagued by those heavy grey skies that seem to be trying to push you into the ground !

On top of this there have been a number of minor domestic hiccups, like the new laptop playing up again and again, DVD recorder/player giving up the ghost and having to be replaced, moles digging up our lawn and mice eating all the roots on the runner beans - the one veggie we love and can't buy in France. The final straw was the oven door falling off in the middle of my cake bake to raise funds for the local Animal Welfare Charity !!  Needless to say I 'm very glad to see August and hope its going to be a better month weatherwise and less expensive !

All is not doom and gloom however,as I have not one but two finishes for July, so I'm still on course for one finish a month during 2011.

Firstly a sofa size Triple 4 Patch quilt,  which I just had to make after seeing several around and about Blogland.

My 'use it up' backing

During my holiday in June I was fortunate enough to meet up with a very talented quilter, Angelika, who doesn't have a Blog but if you're a member of BQL you'll know Angie!  Not only did she have some amazing (prize winning!) quilts to show me but she very generously shared some of her own designs with me and my second finish is one of Angie's beautiful Art Deco mini quilts.

It only measures 8" x 23" but I am very pleased with it as its my first attempt at stained glass quilting- will I use it again, well,  I do have a  second pattern which is a bit more intricate, but maybe I'll wait a little while until the tips of my fingers have recovered from a few close encounters with the iron fixing all that black binding  :-)

Something Quilty.....

At last!

Its been a very long time since I wrote about something sewing related, in fact, it's been a long time since I did any sewing (!) so its good to be able to show a finish

Disappearing 9 Patch all done and dusted at last and just in time for its first birthday!  This brings my total of finishes for Myra's PhD Challenge to 4 out of 6.  Don't know if I'm going to get all 6 done, as I am so far behind after the last couple of weeks' layoff, but there's still another few weeks left so who knows !

I hope you're all having as glorious an Easter holiday as we are in Brittany - the wall to wall sunshine, high temperatures and cloudless blue skies have been around for almost 2 weeks now and its just so enjoyable!

This kind of weather has meant lots of chances to spend time with friends over the Easter weekend - a picnic by the river on Friday, morning coffee under a lilac tree yesterday, BBQ in the garden today and afternoon tea planned for tomorrow - another reason my quilting is lagging behind :-)

The sunshine is bringing the garden to life at full speed now, azaleas in full bloom and peonies bowing their heads from the sheer weight of the flowers !  The clematis are full of buds and a promise of things to come and any day now we'll have delphiniums! 

Don't you just love the changing of the seasons!

First Rose

Proof indeed of our most unusually hot weather - not that I'm complaining - but we've never had roses in the garden this early in the year !

Weather Check

We have had the most glorious weather over this last week  - lovely sunny days but keeping a bit cold thanks to the North wind that's been blowing around the place.  Today though the wind has dropped and this afternoon it feels almost like Summer with temperatures around 14 C, positively T-shirt weather don't you think :-)

All around us Spring is working hard - everywhere you look there are clumps of daffodils

On banks, under trees and along the verges, and nestling not too far away some shy primroses

All the hedgerows are starting to bloom

and then there's forsythia in our neighbour's garden

Isn't this such a lovely stand of trees ?

Don't know what these fellows were up to,but there were rather a lot of them -  looking for lunch maybe ?

Not the clearest photo by any means, but it was a bit of a challenge trying to snap a flock of whirling birds!

So better days are definitely on the way, but before getting all excited about it and loosing the thermal undies - this is what we woke up to first thing this morning

A little reminder that Winter is still lurking there in the background after all!!

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!!

What A Difference .....

... a few days make !  From sub-zero temperatures to 13 degrees C in 4 days - confirmation indeed that the weather is getting more and more erratic!  No complaints here though as we've not only managed to get some food in house at last, but also a  good walk along the canal today in glorious sunshine

 

Don't things seem so much better when the sun shines ??

Global Warming - Part 2

Our snow is still with us, and is really wearing out its welcome now.  All the Ooohs! & Aaahs! are giving way to the inconveniences like running out of bread,potatoes and other little 'luxuries' necessary to everyday life.

One of the downsides of living in the country is that, whilst all major roads are clear for traffic, our little country lanes remain blocked, so there was great excitement this morning when it started raining!

I never, ever  thought that I would be glad to see rain after the deluge we suffered in November and early December, but at least I thought it would clear our lane and we could escape for a couple of hours- no chance.  As well as the rain we have bitingly cold east winds and instead of thawing the snow, the rain is freezing on top of it and the whole surface is now like a big ice rink.

 This is the glass on the porch door, and you can see where the rain has frozen before it's had a chance to run down.

Ah Well -at least we've still got some rice left , and I guess I'll just have to keep busy with some more sewing :-)

Global Warming ??

Yes, the white stuff is back again!!  Not that much in comparison with a lot of places, but for an area that sees snow  every 10 years or so, twice in a month is a big event!!                                                                        

                                                                

Spring Flowers - Long Post!

I enjoy walking , as you will know by now, but its time to confess that not all our walks take place on canal banks or at the coast! We try to walk every day, weather permitting, and for the greater part these walks start at our own front door in the very rural countryside that surrounds us! Today , as we are still enjoying the most glorious weather, I thought I would take you on a typical 'ordinary' walk , but with the added bonus of seeing the countryside as it wakes up to Spring !


After leaving our hamlet, we have a walk of some 300 metres along quite a fast road before being able to access the absolute maze of small farm roads and 'chemins' (in this area the term normally refers to dirt tracks used by tractors to get from one field to another!) that criss cross the whole area! At the moment the main road is lined with Blackthorn & Hawthorn trees full of white and cream blossoms




A little later will see the wild plum trees burst into flower, and if we are lucky enough to have a mild April/May without too much wind to destroy the blossom, there will be kilos of fruit going begging later on which makes the most lovely jam!!

Through a small wood where the daffodils are huddled under trees

and along the edges of the field

into the next hamlet where the hedgerows are full of Forsythia

and Mimosa

A stop to chat to the nearly neighbours and admire (again) the little filly




'Look at me! Haven't I grown - and this is me and my Mum!'






Eventually we get away after promising to call on our way home and share a glass of Kir , white wine (or champagne!) mixed with blackcurrant liquer, a very popular before lunch 'apperitif' in Brittany, and very nice too !


We wind our way through a couple of hamlets, passing dwellings ancient (ish!)





and modern (ish!)

along narrow roads and lanes, with the banks and ditches filled with Spring flowers

Periwinkles ( I think!!)


Cushions of primroses

and I even spotted a few very early violets - see how dry the ground is though! Passed a small crab apple orchard

one of the many in the area that are the mainstay of the Breton cider industry.

A short stop to admire the views before attacking the 'chemin' back home - have we really got to walk all that way still ???

Thank you for keeping us company today, I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did !

February Finish!

Just in time - my 'green' quilt!

'Please Do Not Adjust Your Set' !! It's not actually green in colour but my attempt at recycling!

DD has just finished redecorating her guest bedroom ready for our visit in 3 weeks time and a little while ago asked if there was any chance of a blue and white quilt with a 'shabby chic' look to it, and could I take it over with me - well, what do you do say?? I am not the biggest fan in the the world of colour co-ordinated quilts, lovely as they are, they are just not me. Added to this was the difficulty of getting hold of the right fabrics in this area - plus - how do you make a quick quilt !!

Then I remembered seeing this quilt on Amanda's blog ! I'm afraid there were no vintage sheets lurking anywhere, but what I did unearth were a couple of barely used 'retired' duvet covers (who needs duvets now we have quilts?) which I thought might fit the bill - and this is the result !! Overall it measures 6ft x 4ft 6inches , and I am really pleased with the way it turned out, I even pieced the backing out of cut-offs . (forgot to take photo though!!)

I finish the quilting (large stipple) about a week ago, but for some reason it has taken ages to get the binding turned - but now it's done, washed and dried and packed in a large brown paper bag (courtesy of Ikea!) ready to catch the ferry !!

I e-mailed a photo to DD saying that if she didn't like it, or didn't want it, I wouldn't be offended as it would go very nicely in one of my own bedrooms (!) - the reply was 'it is lovely and don't you dare forget to bring it !!' - Ah Well! It was worth a try :-)

Do you remember this photo from last week ?

Same spot today !

I think you'll agree that was some extra volume of water !!!