scrap quilting part 3

I've run out of white fabric for the log cabin scrap project, and I was in the mood for something quicker and less intricate than the hand pieced hexagons .

1 1/2 inch strips to the rescue. Too narrow for the log cabin. Random lengths and an eclectic mix of colours. I just joined a few of the same colour and shape together, and then sewed it to another few of a different colour. When I had a few joined I made another section and then another, and joined a few of those together.

A couple of hours of chaotic piecing whilst everyone else in the house was still sleeping.

There is no plan for the them, but if I'm storing them somewhere it might as well be on my wall.

They make me smile when I walk into my room.

holiday round up

Thank you for all the lovely comments on Friday's post, feeling much more like myself now.  

Last night's mojitos might have helped.

So how about a speedy round up of the hols? With a truly random selection of pics.

We had a truly wonderful trip. It was Very Hot at times.

 It was quite an effort to not end up looking like a boiled lobster. 

This one was very tasty btw. E liked it too. Miss K pronounced it too spiky to eat.

E discovered a passion for donuts. We did find some gluten free donuts in Trader Joes, they were quite tasty, but not very photogenic...... 

This is Jackson,  New Hampshire. Very Pretty. Natural pools of water for paddling and splashing. Water is a bit theme throughout the trip. I think my family might be partly aquatic, they sought out water wherever we went. Also in the area a mountain side thrills park. Water slides, giant airbags to jump onto, cable car rides, mountain coasters. Thrill seeking children Loved it.... I watched mostly....

Rockport, MA. Frequently used as a film set, most recently "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock, where it pretends to be a town in Alaska. I've never been to Alaska but I doubt it is quite that hot there. Or as picture book pretty.

We lived there nearly 20 years ago, it's barely changed, and I still love it just as much. 

It was liked going on holiday and coming home, all at the same time.

The Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC. The Mall in Washington is filled with monuments and statues and sculptures and water features. Truly Beautiful. Especially at night.  Also along the Mall more museums than you could ever hope to visit in a lifetime. We saw the biggest diamond ever, touched a piece of the moon, read the fading lettering of the Declaration of Independence, wanted to read all the books at Thomas Jefferson's library, learnt about  evolution, and how toilets work in space, sat in the Botanic gardens, and dipped our toes in fountains and pools, collected tiny pieces of driftwood from the river banks, and walked 1 1/2 miles of the 17 miles of corridors in the Pentagon, and went to the zoo.

Back to reality now, I need to email one of  Miss K's teachers and tell him I've put the letters about next terms text books, and syllabus in a safe place, (probably the recycling.........) and please will he email me another copy of them.

I remember her handing them to me, who knows what happened to them after that............

we saw a t-shirt on holiday that said "nothing is truly lost until your mother can't find it" 

perhaps it should say on the back, "unless it's her fault it's lost"

feeling like it's Friday

feeling a bit flat today. Friday feeling? maybe. post holiday slump? probably. GCSE results stress? definitely. (she did ok). overwhelming mountain of laundry glaring at me? let's just pretend that's not there shall we.........

how about some holiday photos instead? from our favourite place of the whole trip.

take one privately owned disused granite quarry, allow it to fill it with water from a natural underground spring and you have the most amazing swimming spot I could possibly imagine.

deep clean water as far as the eye can see.
so so deep.

a giant telegraph pole to play on, in case bobbing about in the water gets boring.

and for the thrill seekers, endless rocks to leap off from terrifying heights, often whilst playing with a bat and ball at the same time, guaranteed to give mothers of said thrill seekers endless anxst and potential heart attacks........ 

I can't bring myself to publish a photograph of the highest jump, you'll think I'm a terrible and irresponsible person and never come back here.......

let's just focus back on that tranquil clear water shall we............

numbers

1 week since we got home from our big adventure to;

emails in my inbox - 113

posts in my bloglovin feed - 394

meals in the fridge - zero

hours catching up on sleep - too many to count

hours with a vague confusion about what day of the week/what time it is - see above

days after we got home that we had a house full of visitors - one

meals planned for visitors - zero (see comment about fridge)

dark sky adventures planned long ago and clear skies wished for - one

impromptu barbeques at Kielder Forest - one - fuel, food and drinks purchased an hour before setting off

emergency stops en route - one - for marshmallows!

number of jumpers worn to stargazing event at Kielder Observatory - not enough........
(seriously it's August in the north of England, does it Really need to be that cold up there (8C), the week before we were living with 32C at the same time of night..........))

number of stars seen - oh my - countless

number of star clusters seen - three

number of rings around Saturn seen - one

number of Saturn's moons - one - Titan

number of galaxies - two

number of times I times  pinched myself at the brightness of Milky Way - many

awe in which I felt myself in, so small amongst the constellations - endless.

distance from the furthest galaxy we saw - 40 million light years

and I thought we'd gone a long way............

feeling sleepy

re-entering the world slowly

feeling a little like this............

(also grateful no-one photographs me sleeping!)

hope all is well,

will try to catch up soon.

liberty trees

When you sew with liberty fabrics there are inevitably little scraps leftover that are too small to be useful but to gorgeous to be parted with.

In cases such as these then tiny scraps can be turned into intricate appliques.

They are incredibly fiddly to sew, but lots of fun!

do you have things that can't be parted with? and do you ever turn them into anything else?

scrap quilting part 2

scrap quilting part 1 was a log cabin project, scrap quilting part 2 is all about hexagons.

one very perfect sized ornament shelf turned hexagon display box, lots of 2 1/2 inch fabric squares. many paper hexagons,

basted on the back, not going through the paper, just catching the corners,

slowly and satisfyingly the boxes are filling up.

Pretty soon I'm going to have to make a decision what to do with them all.

Random scattering of colours?

Stripes?

or perhaps more traditionally more hexagons?

what do you think? what's your favourite paper hexagon design?

August

ok so apart from skipping on all the camping related items, and the swimming and the sunburn, I'm happy with the above list. Actually I look terrifying in my passport photo, lets hope it gets me through customs.

I hope I have time for "have a pina colada day",  I'm unlikely to fit in "pedicure day" which means I'll be a disgrace on "bare feet day" but I'm happy to celebrate "broccoli appreciation day" it's one of my favourite greens.

Happy August x