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.

Back to the sewing machine.

Yes, I have started work again with my sewing machine. There is a large pile of fabric pieces on my workbench ready to be cut up. A vague plan has been drawn on squared paper, notes written on a small piece of notepaper and my rotary cutter lying on it's side ready to be put to use again. A pile of pinned fabric lies ready for sewing by the sewing machine. A new needle has been inserted, the bobbins are filled and I am ready to go as soon as I find where the cotton reel has disappeared to................

This afternoon I had an interesting trip into Lidl. They had some cotton yarn for a silly price. I just had to put it in my trolley.

The tiny flower belongs to a miniature rose which opened its petals last week. It is a really bright splash of colour on my kitchen windowsill. A second bud looks almost ready to open.............

Recently I have managed to collect these little zip tags. They are wonderful for those fiddly little pieces of metal used for opening and closing the zips I use for the inside pockets of the bags where I have added a lining. I'm sure I have a ladybird one somewhere, but I haven't spotted it recently. (Ooops, sorry for the pun.)

May I give my heartfelt thanks to those lovely people who have added their names as followers of this Blog. I really enjoy visiting your Blogs and encourage anyone reading this message to go and do the same.

Jenny is an inspirational embroiderer, Robin a maker of delightful quilts, Donna is an expert in knitting socks (now, now, don't be modest!), and Mrs J has a really interesting Blog and is a fellow member of Ravelry. Scatty has just joined too. Thank you all.

Day Trip

We had a lovely day out together yesterday, Ian and I. We went to the National Model Engineering Show in Harrogate. We go there most years, and it is well worth the trip. Harrogate is a couple of hours drive from here.

I took my trusty notebook along with me, since I knew I would be finding inspiration somewhere. My handwriting is truly appalling when I can't find anywhere flat to write against.

After enjoying the Show for a few hours, we went off into Harrogate itself to have a very late lunch. We found ourselves in a wonderful place called the Cattleman's Association. The waitress had a wonderful sense of humour and we spent a very happy hour there. I ate my first Burrito - delicious! It is one of those strangely decorated places. There were pictures of Wild Bill Hickok, various cowboys, a display board of different barbed wire samples and gun cartridge cases. Very strange. The food was good.

Later, we went off to one of my favourite Charity Shops. This is the Oxfam shop close to the famous Betty's Tea Shop. The upstairs of the Charity shop is one big second hand book shop laid out like a library, so everything is easy to find. I found these two books.

I'm looking forward to spending some time with my overlocker (serger) this summer. I really do need to find out exactly what I can do with it.

Oh yes, I wanted to share these flowers with you. They were sent to me as a thank you. A stunning display of really exotic blooms. They look as good this morning as when they arrived just a week ago. The scent of the lilies is just so rich. Gorgeous.

I added a copy of the top photo to my letter of thanks. Ian had a special thank you too. He is off to spend a really nice day at the Manchester United Football ground. A special lunch and he gets to watch a match too! A wonderful surprise for both of us!

Oooops!

I made the mistake of accompanying my younger daughter on a trip to Abakhan yesterday. I have been so good lately , not buying much fabric to add to my enormous stash. And then I go to help Rosemary get some fabric for her dress....................... I must remember not to take my purse next time.

Well, I suppose I have not been as naughty as all that, since much of the fabric will go towards making quilts for Italy. I intend to make more than one, but am not too sure whether I shall be able to achieve this. I shall do my best. There are very few pieces of bright child-like prints amidst my stash.

I couldn't resist the sock yarn. Its really soft.

My knitting has been coming along quite well. It feels slow, but then I've been busy with other projects too.

All the pieces of my summer top have been completed, now all that remains is to sew it all together and get the neckband done. I shall search amidst my collection of buttons for the placket fastening for the back. (Colours are more accurate in the photo on the right.)

I have now completed the left front for the cardigan.

The right front has been started. Hopefully I shall get the ribbing finished soon - not my favourite part. Which sounds almost silly since a lot of the rest of the cardigan will be ribbing. It will look good when it is finished.