Flowers

I just love this time of year. In the garden, there are so many lovely flowers. The colours are truly amazing.

The show from these plants is just stunning this year. I think they are called Crown Imperials, though I am not entirely sure. Any help with naming them?

A thousand colours for Abruzzo.

My quilt has arrived safely with Roberta in Italy! What a relief.






For more details of this wonderful project, just go to Roberta's Blog.

Knitting in public day.

Well, I knew I wouldn't be able to join in with any of the official Knitting in Public events this year. So, I did my own....................



I went to help with the Club Barbecue yesterday for the Model Flying Club where my husband is a member. Imagine this - a large field grass field. It is occasionally used by visiting light aircraft (full-size). At the side of one hedge are a series of buildings. One is the club shed. The other, a covered area. This covered area housed a home-made barbecue. This had been constructed in the shell of a large metal filing cabinet. Two barbecue firepits one above the other. Impressive.
At the front of this, a trio of gazebos (tented roof structures) to give shade. Under the gazebos the picnic tables covered by my collection of tablecloths. There was red/white tape showing the boundaries not to be crossed by anyone not directly involved with the model aircraft. In one of these was a static park for all the model aircraft due to fly that afternoon.

We arrived at around 11 am to help out with the setting up of the gazebos, chairs, tables, food preparation areas, etc. Lots to do at the start. The event was due to begin at 2pm with the "neighbours", the farmers, and other house-owners living around the area of the flying field had been invited too. It was to be a big social event. The weather was kind and the day dawned bright and cheerful.
I took a couple of project bags with me, since I could foresee quite a few hours where I would be on my own. Ian had brought four models with him and he was going to be flying those during the course of the afternoon as well as moving around meeting and greeting visitors and members. He is a member of the Club Committee.
The projects I took along were: the cardigan and two knitted tops I am currently making; a piece of applique I wanted to hand stitch around; a sketchbook and pencils; and my camera. There was also my Travellers Chuck which was also brought along in case I needed something to spread myself out on. I managed to complete the back on one of my tops - a lace piece that I am inventing as I knit.
During the afternoon I had a series of fascinating conversations with the wives of members. It was really so nice to be able to stitch along and chat. A couple of people said "ooh I wish I'd brought my knitting." Perhaps they will, next time.The nicest conversation was with an eight year old learning knitter who was fascinated by the lace. It was so nice to show her that lace is really not scary and to connect it to the stitch she had learnt. I hope she starts playing with lace for herself - I showed her the principle of knitting two stitches together and adding a yarn-over to make a deliberate hole.

I finished my Italy quilt during the week and it is now ready to be posted.

Piecing, quilting and Worcester.

Do you remember that I mentioned taking part in the quilts for the children affected by the earthquakes in Italy? Well, mine now just needs binding. Hopefully I shall be able to get that completed in the next few days.

Felix inspected it when I had finished piecing the front. I was incredibly fortunate that my friend Jude offered to quilt it for me. She has a long-arm quilting machine and is very talented, doing pantograph or custom quilting for others.

She has done a wonderful job, quilting it very simply, which was all it really needed.

Sorry the pictures have been taken on a richly patterned carpet, the cats were occupying the bed and were too comfy to want to move.

During the recent Bank Holiday, I was in Worcestor for a wonderful family gathering. We were celebrating my mother's 80th birthday in a location midway between the locations where everyone lives.



On the first morning, I was able to take these photos of reflections on the walls outside my room. They were caused by open windows a couple of floors above.

Whilst in Worcester we all (There were 17 of us! The ages ranged from 18 to 82 - mum's elder sister came too!!) went to explore the Cathedral. It is a really beautiful building. I really love this window.

The ceilings were spectacular too.

When we went there was an amazing exhibition of work which had be made as a result of an Art Project involving children from the age of 5 right up to 18.