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

scrap quilting part 1.

In January when I sorted out my fabric and had a massive folding session I also sorted out many many strips of different sizes. 

These are the 2 inch strips and they are slowly becoming a bright and random log cabin.

Each block is part white, and part one colour, with the logs selected at random.

I'm having lots of fun choosing where each block might go, there is absolutely no plan.

When I run out of strips, I'll stop.  

The Bones of You

The Bones of You - by Debbie Howells

The Bones of You is a psychological thriller set in a quiet village in which a teenage girl is murdered. A seemingly perfect family begins to fall apart at the seams as the story unfolds. Nothing is ever quite as it seems.......
The narrative comes mostly from a mum in the village - Kate, her connection with the girl and her need to know what happens, which at times make her get too close, and lose her perspective.
The strongest voice in the story though comes from Rosie, the murdered girl. As she dies the story of her life is played out in front of her, allowing her to see from another perspective things that happened as she grew up, and how they led to what happened to her. Her voice is regretful yet insightful.
Each chapter was short and left you wanting more, switching between the story of Kate and the voice of Rosie. Slowly more and more is revealed, secrets unfold and layers of deception are discovered.

I couldn't put it down, and read it until very late at night, and the next day when I really really had other things I should have been doing..........

The sign of a good book I always think, one that makes you resent the time away from it.

What do you look for in a book? What makes the perfect read?


reviewed for mumsnetter bloggers network, with thanks to Kensington for the book.

reviews by other mumsnetter bloggers



joining in with Circle of Pines a year in books. 

Happy Summer holidays

Wishing you all a Happy Summer.

I'm taking a few weeks off from technology, so I'm having a break from blog writing and visiting, and even instagram (my latest addiction.........)

I've left some scheduled posts, my calendar posts and a few others, I'll respond to any comments when I reconnect.

Have a lovely a few weeks, if you want to leave me some tips for the perfect summer break then I'd love to read them.

this week

this week there has been Prom - it's quite an experience to see your baby all dressed up and grown up looking... 

my photo phobic daughter even let me indulge in endless pictures, although I'm not supposed to show them to everyone. (hence the back of the dress....... which is very pretty, and deserved to be seen, and also those curls, it took a Long time to make those.....)

in moments of calm there's been time for a few hexagons,

photo credit Women in sport

 in moments of not so calm there's been late night England Women's football. My neighbours daughter has just been short listed for best player in the world cup, it was heart breaking to watch them get knocked out. in case you're wondering, no I'm not usually at all interested in football.....

and finally in order to try and gain some control there have been lists. many lists. 

written in fountain pens as inspired by Silverpebble, because if you have to write a list it might as well be a joyful experience.

July yes

Oh July, yes indeed, ice creams, and the smell of cut grass, and then end of term and the start of the holidays.

I shall celebrate you with "drink champagne just because day" perhaps accompanied by "an elaborate cheeseboard day" and if I over indulge then I shall partake in "be at one day"

what are your plans for July? I hope they are fun x

happy day

happiness is a teenager on the last day of exams!

this morning

this morning

I haven't loaded the photos from my camera so this post can have nice pictures and I can see a record of what I haven't photographed this week.

Even if I had then I still haven't got any pictures of the lovely river walk I took earlier this week where the wild flowers were aplenty, the bees were buzzy and the cows were very understanding of the fact that we were in their field instead of on the path.... too busy chatting......(us not the cows.)

I didn't photograph the slug eaten courgette plants - every last scrap eaten, or the very sad nest of dead blue tit babies in the bird box, we noticed the parents had stopped visiting, so after a few more days we checked to find a they'd all died.....

Instead I've been making signs and banners for an "end of exams" party, one more week to go,
oh these GCSE's - they go on Forever.

I've been buying appropriately grown up and sophisticated accessories for the said party -
balloons, streamers, party poppers, bubble wands, lots and lots of sweets, and ice cream!

I've also bought gaiters, and a bright orange survival bag for a Duke of Edinburgh practise expedition for E and a phone case for Miss K. The case is waterproof, sand proof and built to military standards. Not because it's going anywhere exciting or dangerous, she's just impossibly clumsy............

right now, I have to go to a physics exam now, just as well I'm not taking any of these papers, I looked at a boys paper the other morning and thought he'd written that "coffee is stronger than aluminium". It seemed a perfectly reasonable answer to me, but apparently the question was about copper..........

hope you have a lovely weekend. I'm going out to try and buy some more courgette plants..........

June

I love June. 

It is filled with roses blooming and birthdays and the longest day and cake. 

My mum's name is June. June Rose in fact. Her birthday is in June, and mine, and the husbands. 

lots of birthday cake needed then.

according to my calendar we must also celebrate 

extreme enthusiasm day - for cake?

wild abandon day - reckless cake eating?

treat your body like a temple day - an hour without cake?

treat your body like a cake machine day - if you insist!

so there we have it. June is clearly my favourite month. what's yours?

the teenager's prom preparation.

End of week one of exams. order prom shoes online. 

many shoes.

end of week two of exams. pounce upon parcels containing many shoes and pretend to be Cinderella?

Have alarming amount of hair cut off.

3 more weeks of exams to go.

Which should give me the time I need to shorten the dress.

The shoes which were the prettiest and the best fit don't raise the hem of the dress off the floor. 

But they are Very pretty, and can be walked in, always a bonus! 

rainbow

It's been a week of sunshine and showers.
Some of them hail showers.
But I haven't seen a single rainbow.
I went hunting for one in my garden instead.

and learnt that I don't have any orange.

randomness

After a long day then sometimes the only thing that will do is a walk on the beach, I love the long shadows the evening sun makes.

A charity shop find finally had a makeover, and it's big brother rescued from a skip got covered to match.  They are incredibly useful as the cats really like to sleep on them, which means I stand a chance of getting to sit on the sofa.

The cats also like to sit on the fence.  Freddie also likes to do yoga on the fence it seems....

I am helping with an allotment plot with the local ranger group, we need to make a scarecrow and it is very tempting to make one like this.

Finally. Bluebells. The only free morning I had this week was spent hunting for them.
Time well spent. x