My cat likes to shout in bathrooms.

A phrase I couldn't resist, but true. Felix loves to go into the bathroom and, when the fancy takes him, he will "talk" to himself. He enjoys the sound of his own voice. I don't enjoy it quite so much when he announces he is ready to come to bed at some unearthly hour in the morning, shouting from the foot of the stairs..........

Well, enough of cats, infuriating and loveable as they are. This last week has seen a lot of sewing. I completed a remake on a shopping bag which had seen much better days.

This picture shows my poor bag before I started, with the jute going into rather a lot of holes. In fact, the bag was being held together by the lining which I had completed three years ago.

This is what it looks like now.

The handles and lining have been reused, as have some pieces of the original fabric.

The following photos show all four sides of the bag as I was getting ready to assemble it. All ribbon and fabric came from my stash. I bought the buttons and iron-on embroideries to make the whole thing more fun.

I remade a previous bag in a similar some time ago. You can see it here and also here. I now have one more bag to renew in the same way. However, it will not look the same as the previous completed bags....

Well, I also got started with a skirt which I had cut out ready to sew some months ago.

It is now sewn together and awaiting a zip. I have decided to add a full lining since the fabric is a wool mix and will not hang well unless lined. The original pattern does not have a lining and has edges finished off with an overlocking stitch (serged stitch). Not a look I like, but the design is such a good shape. I shall give it a more "finished" finish, if you see what I mean. The lining is now cut out and ready to sew. I just need to get some gardening done before the weather breaks again.

Oh, we have been making a new raised flower bed out of some paving flagstones we were given some months ago. This will hold our fruit and vegetable garden once it is completed. The strawberry plants are ready to go in and I have asked if we can get a rhubarb crown.... I do like rhubarb, especially cooked with a little ginger.

And I have been feverishly knitting a pair of Vinnland socks , started some weeks ago and now destined to be my husband's. He is rather interested in the idea of handknitted socks, and hasn't had anything from me in years - not very fair, but then he only wears the jumpers I have knitted for him for "best". In the 33 years we have been married, he has only managed to wear out three jumpers. It must be said I was asked to make a replacement for his favourite of these. A simple polo-necked jumper in a mid blue double knit mohair with wool, having a triple cable down the front. The original had been made in a beautiful Pinguoin mohair mix a couple of years before we married.

Flying and a cake-eating cat.

Yes, you heard me right, this week has really been rather crazy.

I had better start with the cake first. This was a bit of a disaster, edible and quite nice, but not good. I tried a recipe from a new book I had been given some months ago. Queen cakes - an old fashioned style of cake I had made many times from a recipe in my old recipe book. (I think the Americans might call these cup cakes, they are basically a small sponge cake made with sultanas, rather than the type covered with sweet icing.) The resulting cakes were good to eat, but rather greasy for my taste. Next time I shall halve the amount of fat used. They really were far too oily.

Well, I left these on my wire rack to cool. There is not usually any danger to cakes left like this. However, when my husband returned he found the unmistakeable signs that the cakes had been lovingly licked by a cat. Felix!

The cakes that had been definitely touched were thrown out for the birds. Well, I should say here that the birds never got to touch these. Felix found them on the lawn and we were treated to the sight of our idiotic cat licking and nibbling the bits. Madness. Needless to say I threw out the remaining cakes since we could not be certain which had been touched and which hadn't............

This morning, by comparison was surreal.

We were out of the house by 5.15 am. Yes, you did read that correctly. We had been given a present months ago - a ride for both my husband and myself in a hot air balloon.

Take off was gentle. We slipped away and up into the air. The burners are switched on every so often to keep a certain height above the ground.

When these are not on, it is so quiet, you can even hear the sound of the ducks on the water.

Its astonishing to think that the basket is only held up by hot air. It is a basket too. Hefty and strong enough to carry the weight of twelve passengers. Can you see the sky through the sides?

I took around ninety photos. I know I shall use these as inspiration over the next few months. I loved the patterns of the hedges, the colours of the fields, those long shadows, the textures, colours...................

The landing was an interesting experience. A couple of bumps and we were down. The basket toppled onto it's side and we were dragged for a few yards.

It was a wonderful experience and one I would urge you to try if you ever get the chance. We had an hour long flight, starting at an interesting place called Dearnford Lake, near to Whitchurch. We travelled for 16 miles due east, landing in a field not far a place called Madeley.

As I started writing this, Felix came to join me. I quote

"ow-oweraw-ohaw-owaw-owow-mmhr-mehrow"

He likes to have the last word, my opinionated cat.

A completed bag, and flowers.

Our kitchen has been graced by these gorgeous flowers for the past week. The scent is really heady being almost overpowering.

They were brought into the house by my husband. Sadly, the plant they belonged to had been flattened by the recent rain and wind.

You will remember my finished quilt for Rosie from my last post. Since completing that I have been busily making a quilted bag to contain it. Here you can see the completed bag holding the folded quilt.

This is the quilting from one side of the bag, with the handles tucked out of the way.

Now the handles and the second side. The quilted bag makes quite a good pillow when filled with the quilt. It is surprisingly light, carrying a single-bed-sized quilt in a bag. I must admit, having found the quilt rather heavy to handle as I was finishing it off, I had expected it to be rather a weight when inside the bag. I was rather startled to find that it wasn't.......... It is certainly easier to carry a quilt inside a bag, not needing to keep it tightly folded.

Just recently, I have been having a go with beading. This is my first attempt - a necklace. The pattern is called Potawatomi weave. A friend lent me the pattern which came from Bead and Button - seed bead chains.

It was quite an enjoyable little project and I feel sure I shall do others, though I have a feeling that beading will just be an additional skill rather than a compulsion with me.

Well, tonight it is Quilt Group. Needing something to work on, I dragged this out of the pile of UFOs. I started this some time ago. It is about time I got on with completing it

Another project waiting to be started is a replacement for my much loved, much worn jacket. This was in a collection of clothes being thrown out some years ago by my elder daughter. I claimed it and have worn it ever since. Now it really is beginning to show its age and should be replaced.

Well, I had a couple of pieces of luck recently. Firstly, this piece which I found in a jumble pile for just 30p.

I am going to quilt this to give the fabric a little more strength and stability. I have bought some Thermore ready to start.

Its a fascinating piece of fabric, obvously intended as a fabric toy and book. It should make a really fun jacket.

My other piece of luck was this:

This fabric was being sold off at just £1.99 a metre! I couldn't resist. I bought four metres and will use this to trial a suitable jacket pattern for the fun fabric above.

Some months ago, you may remember I bought some more fabric from the same collection. This still waits in my stash until I can sort out the right pattern for it. This coffee cup fabric seen above will be so useful in trialling the pattern I intend to use for my fun fabric. I have decided to take a pattern from my favourite jacket rather than buy one. My own elderly jacket is great in that it only has a single seam down the back. It will be rather useful to have three jackets in the wardrobe rather than just one, especially for the autumn.

Travels, pages and a completed quilt.

I just loved the patterns forming on the thread reel as I quilted the last pieces of Rosie's quilt. Hence the first photos. This reel had the threads turning into little wiggly shapes. This is YLI Machine Quilting Thread, in the shade V80 Danube Blues. I do love using this for machine quilting.



Well, here is the completed quilt hanging on my washing line.



A closer look at the front.



And now, the back. The plaid fleece was a remnant from a winter coat I made myself a few years ago - really cosy! The pale blue had been left over from an autumn jacket, but I forget what I had used the off-white fleece to make. I found it deep in my stash. All three fleece are of the same weight.

Hopefully, Rosie will be happy with her new quilt. She has seen the pieces, but not the completed quilt. I have sent her some photos........... I plan to make a bag to hold the quilt.

And now a journey. I went to Shrewsbury on Saturday with a couple of friends from the Recorder Group. Elizabeth plays Treble recorder with me, and Kathryn leads the Vale Royal Recorder Consort. It is such fun playing music together. We went to Shrewsbury to spend time in each others company before setting off to a concert.



What a special building. It is a shop selling chocolate!

Another lovely building.

This is one of the bridges crossing the River Severn.

I had never been to Shrewsbury before, but had loved reading about it in the novels about Brother Cadfael written by Ellis Peters. Funnily enough, we didn't have time to visit the Abbey, but did go to see the Castle. Well, there is so much to see in Shrewsbury, that I can see myself coming back again.

On our wanders around Shrewsbury we happened upon an excellent Calligraphy exhibition by the Shropshire Scribes. The exhibition was called "Words in Action" and I see from their programme that this same exhibition will be movingto the Oswestry Heritage and Exhibition Centre from the 1st to the 15th September. We found the exhibition in the wonderful St Mary's Church.

Well, after a really happy day, getting wet in the rain, but really enjoying being able to explore somewhere new together, we went on to the concert. We went to see the wonderful Red Priest. Such a marvellous concert - great fun! It was the closing concert for the Church Stretton Arts Festival. I had never seen Red Priest in concert before, and I certainly was not disappointed. They are wonderful in concert, not taking themselves too seriously and playing superbly at the same time. A truly wonderful day.

I almost forgot! To continue the theme of traveling, my page for Elizabeth has arrived in the USA. You can see it here. I have also heard that my page for Carmen, which I had feared had been lost in the post has also arrived safely. I must post some photos of that too on the Traveling Pages site.

It has been a busy time.

Traveling Page has arrived.

Cobi has recently received her June page from me. I had been lamentably late in sending it.



Cobi's theme was Art Nouveau. This is one of my favourite books on the subject. I just love the wealth of detail and the beautiful lines of Art Nouveau. The ISBN for this particular book is 978-1-84451-265-2. I find it an excellent source book for images. Published by Flame Tree Publishing, it is one of a rather useful series of titles, all linked to artists or periods in Art History.



I used this particular photograph as my starting point.



This is the information given by the book.



Now, my own interpretation. It is simply applique using a brown fabric over a beautifully marked printed fabric from my stash. The bottom fabric looks almost like water. I overlaid this with a fine gauze, then added beads.

For the reverse of the piece, I used another image from the same book.



Isn't this a wonderful screen? The book gave the following information.



My own version of a small section, looked like this.



It is FME over gauze. I used water soluble fabric to stabilise the piece until I appliqued it to the pocket on the back of the page.

I have now just posted my July page, on the theme of Windows.

Message from a friend.

I received this message from Denise this morning:

Hi Mandy,
Thanks for the email. I've just been into the Blog, a new experience for me. I shall forward your Blog address to Wendy. I have to apologise for not contacting you earlier than this. Have been a bit sickly for a few days, but fine again now. The quilt is gorgeous. I have always admired your work and I feel very lucky to now own this wonderful quilt, so full of good wishes and positive thoughts from the Hartford Quilters, which will hopefully take me through my treatment to a good outcome.
When I began quilting three years ago, I soon became addicted to it; little did I know then that it would bring me such supportive, loving friends, and the quilting itself allows me to focus on things other than treatment. Once agin a great big thankyou Mandy to yourself and all members of the Hartford Quilters Group.
With love
Denise
p.s. You can add this to your Blog if you wish

Denise is a lovely person, who makes some delightful quilts herself. She is right when she speaks of the "supportive, loving friends" she has met through quilting. I can quite happily say this of each of the friends I have made through this amazing craft. They have taught me so much too.
If you have missed seeing the Hearts and Flowers Hug, you will find photographs on the previous post.

The new, the old, and some plans.

Well, this was the sky as I packed the car to go to Hartford Quilters on Wednesday evening. The heavens opened after I had arrived, thankfully. The Hearts and Flowers Hug did not get wet. Why the name "Hug"? Well, don't we all need a cuddle at times?



Here it is, the project which has kept me really busy over the past few weeks. The white hearts and flowers have messages of support in them for Denise, whose quilt this now is. Positive and brightly cheerful, she is undergoing Chemo at the moment and we all wish her well.



The back shows a little of the echo quilting used round each of the flowers and hearts.

There is a bag too, an over the shoulder quilted bag to contain the quilt. I used the pieces left over from the main quilt. Still holding the quilt, it can be used as a pillow if the weather is just too hot to take the quilt out to use. There is enough spare space to hold a good book, or even a few magazines.

Denise was pleased with her new quilt and happily took it home with her.

It has been a really interesting week. First, I heard this podcast from Sister Diane at Crafty Pod. At first it really annoyed me, but then I began to understand exactly why it was making me so cross. The topic was planning ahead for Blogs and Podcasts. It took me a while, and quite a bit of soul searching to realise that, yes, I could really learn something from the ideas shared in the programme.

I must explain, that for some time I have been a little unhappy with this Blog. It is not as good as I would like it to be, but I have not been able to move forward and do anything about it. I don't have the knowledge. Being on a budget, I really don't want to spend money on lessons to learn either......

However, perhaps you can help. Just send me a message with ideas on how to improve this site. Perhaps letting me know what you would like to know more about, and see more about here. I shall try to get myself organised and incorporate some of these in the near future.