Bad Week!

Feeling very sorry for myself at the moment, as I'm just back home after 5 days in hospital after being diagnosed with kidney stones  - Ooouch !!

3 days on drips followed by 2 days of hospital food  (!!) has left me 5lbs lighter than when I left home , I'm very shakey still and unable to face food after several days of virtual starvation - ah well!!  It could be worse, and at least I'm home and in my own bed again :-)

Episode 2......

........Jardins du Botrain.  I promised more photos of these delightful gardens, and these are just a few of those we took.

Not to keep stating the obvious, I'll let the photos speak for themselves, and then you can decided yourself if this is rather a special place or not !

As this post is, yet again,  getting photo heavy, I'll leave the lake until next time -  just one more and I'll see you soon -:)

Still A Bad Blogger!

Don't know if it's the previous long break from blogging, the extremely hot weather we're having or I'm just getting lazy (!) but it's been difficult to get going again with regular postings.

However - as it's been some time since I showed you some of this beautiful part of France, I thought you might enjoy looking at one of the lovely gardens we've been visiting in recent weeks, so come with me to the beautiful Jardins du Botrain.

Just 45 minutes from home, I'm ashamed to admit that this amazing 18th century manor house and its gardens have been hiding away from us all the years we've been in Brittany !

The brochure reads ' come and discover the manor house

 its 18thC apiary

Japanese garden

complete with fish !

 

and Bonsai

Time to take tea ?

I think one of these visitors has his eye on that big fish !

Lots more photos  of the rest of the gardens, described as 'rooms of greenery, majestic mixed borders, rosebushes, maples and pond.......' and I promise ithey won't disappoint, but as this post is getting a bit photo heavy, I'll leave those until later in the week.

First Finish....

... for a while, but just to prove I haven't been shirking all the time

Scrappy Jacob's Ladder using up some of my never ending scraps of Civil War fabric , and whilst this used up quite a lot, the bad/ good (?)  news is that there's still enough in the basket for yet another .

After a very wet, cold and miserable start , summer has at last arrived in Brittany, and we've been making the most of it by visiting some of the lovely chateaux and gardens that are dotted all over the Province - but more of that later, now I have to decide on what to do with all those left overs  :-)

Quatorze Juillet

Yes - I'm still here !!

Where have I been - just here and there
What have I been doing - just this and that

Its been one of those periods when life takes over totally, and stuff like blogging, and to a certain extent quilting, just goes out the window but.... I'm almost back to what passes for a normal life at 'chez nous', and what better day to start blogging again than today !

Bonne Fete !

Free Motion Quilting Challenge

 I have to admit that I fell behind with the FMQ Challenge  hosted by SewCalGal during March, which is a shame really as it was a great tutorial by one of my favourites,  Ann Fahl.  Luckily I managed to download it before it was removed from the website and am now able to add it to my folder.  

There were a number of examples of fmq shown in the turorial, and these are just a couple squeezed onto my sample piece.

Not too bad, but think my 'circles' need a bit of work :-)

April's challenge was set by Don Linn and is really interesting as he shows how to create your own quilting stencils using tulle. Some of you may already know this technique, but for those who don't and are interested, you can find the video here.

Using the tulle, embroidery hoop and some markers, this

and this

became these !

Not too bad for first efforts, and certainly something I will use again, so big thanks to Don for the tutorial.


Sorry about the poor quality of the photos, but grey, dark and wet is the order of the day in Brittany at the moment !

A Finish At Last

Here we are already into the last week of April and this is my first (big) finish for 2012 !  No reason for dragging my feet other than loosing the urge to sew for some weeks, and not really knowing why but hoping it was just the  'Winter Blues'. 

After giving myself a good talking to, I decided to tackle quilting my Carpenter's Star top made from a pattern by Mary Johnson, and finally it is finished !

Feeling that the quilt deserved more than stippling, I thought to try my hand at free form feathers a la Patsy Thompson as well as some feathered wreaths with the help of a stencil.

Hard work it was and long with it - I reckon I spent more hours quilting this than any other quilt ever!  Was it worth the effort - well I think so and I am absolutely delighted with the results given this is the first time I have tackled something other than stippling on a quilt this size.

Now to catch up with all the things that didn't get done :-)

Playtime

After my last moan about the grey weather, we had the most amazing hot spell that I personally have ever experienced at the end of March with temperatures around 30C !  Not ones to let an opportunity like this pass we  took off to the Finistere coast for totally unplanned break and had a wonderful time!

I will write more about this beautiful area in a future post, but what I wanted to ask you is - have you had a play with the new Picasa softwear yet ?  No, well let me show you .

We stayed in this lovely Chambres d'Hotes

or was it like this ?

maybe this ?

or one of these  ?

Go try it yourself and see how much fun it is :-)                                         

Spring Sunshine

Actually, last week's  weather was more like Summer than Spring - cloudless blue skies and glorious sunshine, which was a lovely change to the grey skies we've had to endure for most of February.  Not being quite warm enough to brave a trip to the coast, where else  would we go but back to one of our favourite walks along the Brest to Nantes canal !

Josselin is one of the most picturesque towns in our area, and is only a 15 minute drive away from home .  No matter how many times we walk the canal bank around the town, the  dramatic setting of the chateau towering above the town and canal never fails to impress.

Weirs and locks

Walkers, cyclists and avenues of trees

There's even a small jump course for those wanting to place the odd bet or two !

Not quite Aintree, but lots of  fun on race day.

An afternoon out wouldn't be complete without seeing some flowers would it?

Finally let me show you one very brave cat

I certainly hope she's a good swimmer :-)

Sadly, our weather took a turn for the worse over the weekend and we are back to the cold, grey stuff, but fingers crossed that it doesn't stay too long.

Job Done!

First the Triple Crown, and now today the Grand Slam  -  the boys done well!!!

Da iawn Cymru !!


* photograph courtey of Reuters

Ooops !!

What do you do when a very special little girl's 1st birthday creeps up on you and catches you unprepared ?  Why - cheat of course !

You buy some very cute fabric,  add a couple of borders,  and in no time at all, one birthday quilt :-)

                                  HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAISY XXX

Empty Nest Syndrome

 In our garden !

Sow A Long

I always find it amazing how much free information & tuition is available on the WWW

posted by so many lovely quilters prepared to give of their time and talent .  For people like me who do not have easy access to quilt shops, libraries etc  these are lifelines indeed !

Deciding which project to join in with is always a difficult choice, but one that did catch my eye during blog wandering was the Sow A Long on Barrister's Block blog. No - It's not a spelling mistake, 'sow ' is quite correct!

The story behind this project was to encourage quilters to get to grips with the Farmer's Wife sampler quilt, hence the play on the word 'sew'.  Unfortunately the author of the book has decided that she is not happy with a bunch of people sewing along together and you can see why on this post. 

Don't know who's right or who's wrong here, but I, like so many others, bought the book just to join in the fun. Now I wish I hadn't as most of the blocks are available in the public domain, and whilst the stories are interesting, I personally do not find the instructions as clear as in my other quilting  books.

Regardless, Randy has decided to carry on with her project as the Barrister Block Sow A Long, posting 3 public domain blocks every first & third Wednesday of the month. Today (or maybe tomorrow for me) blocks 7, 8 & 9 will be available if you feel

like joining in, and these are my blocks 1 - 6

Thanks, Randy for carrying on in spite of everything !

Dydd Gwyl Dewi

St David's Day

Wherever you are and however you choose to celebrate, be proud to be Welsh!

Cymru Am Byth !