Saturday 20 August 2011

Rested

Embo by day .......
and by night. 

These were the views from our caravan, unexpectedly we got a sea view!!  We had a very relaxing time; playing on the beach, eating lots, seal spotting, Loch Ness monster spotting (I'm pretty sure I saw her!) and even some celebrity spotting - Edwin Collins collecting his shopping from a wee farm shop. 

I even managed to squeeze in a little sewing, some hexagons are starting to take shape - slowly!!

For all I'm rested after my holiday I've had a marathon laudry day today.  A leaking boiler in a linen cupboard and being on holiday for 5 days does not make for a good combination so all contents of the cupboard needed to be washed, on top of our holiday washing.  Tomorrow the ironing looms - oh joy.  Thinking about it is giving me the post holiday blues, so for the rest of tonight I'm not thinking about it.  I'm thinking about the big bag of revels sitting in front of me instead :)

Oh yes I've got an apology to make to anyone who has ever left me a comment - I didn't realised until last week that I can/should respond to each comment individually and by doing that it sends an email to anyone who has been lovely enough to leave me a comment.  I feel really bad that I've only just realised this, sometimes I'm not very clued up on stuff!  I will rectify the situation and thank you all personally very soon. 

Sunday 14 August 2011

Wow! Wow! Wow!

If anyone is joining along with Lynne of Lily's Quilts Hexalong then this stunner will make your eyes water and make you go weak at the knees. 

This is a close up so you can get an idea of the size of the hexagons - possibly 1 inch width at widest
And this is the full size quilt .........
Unfortunately I don't have the name of person who made it, the details were not in the Festival of Quilts catalogue, but whoever they are they are a HUGE Green Day fan, this is their lead singer and it is an incredible likeness.

I feel like I spent the whole of Friday catching flies!!!  The standard of work was absolutely amazing.  At one point I overhead a conversation between two women about how they were starting to glaze over they had seen some many stunning quilts.  I had to agree, it did kind of become an assault on the senses, but in a very positive way.  So much to see/admire/drool over and most definitely not enough time.  One day is just not enough, we had hardly any time to view the stands but I did manage to squeeze in a little shopping :-)

More on that later and some more pictures of stunning quilts.  I've never driven 350 miles in 1 day before, never mind doing it again 2 days later, I'm feeling fairly exhausted today and I still have to organise the packing for going up north tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to a restful holiday, with a little hexagon sewing coming along to join the fun.

Sunday 7 August 2011

Not long now!

Look what my postman delivered to me the other day.  I've been reading them (almost) obsessively since they arrived - I know, they're only the guides, it's a shame really how excited I'm getting about going.  The competition guide is really interesting as it gives you a little blurb bit about all the quilts which are being exhibited - really interesting.

I had myself a very productive night last night and I've more or less caught up with the Mystery Quilt-along - hurrah!!!  How fantastic are these plaits?  I loved doing them and I'm really pleased by how effective they are.  Trying to think of ways to make an entire quilt out of plaits.  My first thought was that they could be used in a similar way to a chinese coin style, like this one I made, but now I'm thinking of different blocks and things.  My mind is running away with it's self on the possibilities!
 All I need to do now it sew together these 4 blocks and I'll be up to date!  I should even be able to get that done before the end of (dare I say it!) nap time if I get my skates on.


I've got a busy week ahead of me, what with a mountain of work to be done at work before I finish up on Wednesday, getting organised for heading to Birmingham on Thursday (not really looking forward to the drive but hey, it'll be worth it), back home on Saturday, then packing to be done for heading away again next Monday.  But I still want to work on getting some hexagons cut out to take with me so I have some sewing to keep my hands occupied and stop them shovelling food into my mouth.  It's a subconscious action, I swear I don't even realise I'm doing it half the time.  Well that's my excuse anyway!

Thursday 4 August 2011

Merry Christmas!?!

No that isn't wrong!  My dad finally got his christmas present last night.  A hot air balloon flight.  It's all very weather dependent so it was all a bit last minute - phone calls in the middle of yesterday afternoon saying it was all go.  He wanted all of us to go along with the grandkids to see him off and what a glorious night it turned out to be.

So while we waited for all the setting up hoo-haa to be done these two had a blast running about in the field, chasing each other, 'accidentally' falling over and through grass about.

It did take a while but eventually this began to happen (that's my dad in the grey jumper - taking more photos!)
Nearly upright ......
 Almost .....
 Nearly .....
 Up, up and away ......
 Far away, floating over the Ochil Hills