Quilt for MIL

I've been very, very slowly working on a bed quilt for my Mother in Law. She gave me free range of her stash and I got to chose the pattern and do the hard work.

Looking through her fabric it was very quickly clear that she favoured blues and so I decided on the Star Struck pattern I'd seen on Quiltville. Thank you Bonnie. I've been wanting to try this pattern for a long time now, so this was the ideal opportunity.

For once everything came together without drama or stress, which made a nice change. Hopefully the border won't play up. I am planning on using the left over triangles in it, so there will be ample opportunity for things to go wrong.

Here is the top so far.

Lanzarote

We had a wonderful time in Lanzarote. The weather was very sunny and breezy so I didn't get too hot but it was warm enough to sit on the beach or swim in the hotel's pool. Had to be a little careful because we all have skin that burns easily and with being winter pale and the breeze stopping you from feeling hot, it was far too easy to get burned. I got sunburnt feet in about 3/4 hour out shopping. The boys really enjoyed themselves and Y managed to get over his fear of water and played in the pool all week. He even got so far as going underwater and managed to swim a little bit. We've promised him that he can go to the local pool at weekends to keep it up. It's a huge step forward. He's always refused point blank before and even the remedial swimming class he did at school didn't help at all.

The Hotel was really nice and very friendly.

We visited the Jameos del Aqua.

The pool is home to weird little white crab/crayfish things which apparently are unique to this cave.

We also took a trip to the Timanfaya National Park to see the volcanoes.

Admission includes a coach trip through the lava fields which was spectacular. It looked like somewhere on an alien planet.

There is also a restaurant which cooks the food using the heat coming from the volcano!

It sits right at the top and is completely circular.

This gives you the most amzing view ever while you eat your lunch. The food is good too.

Finally, while I was downloading these pictures I looked at the photos from the last time we went to Lanzarote. The boys were SO young.

Wedding Present and Jean's Green Quilt

I used up a lot of scraps making this fleece backed bed throw for my friend's daughter's wedding. As always I left making it till the last minute and then it was a real panic to get it done in time.



A while ago now I promised pictures of Jean's Quilt and then promptly forgot again. While we were on holiday I found the photos of it were still on the camera. This turned out so beautifully that I really hated having to part with it.

RIP Bracken

Yesterday our beloved Golden Retriever Bracken died. He was only 6 years and 2 months old.

He had seemed a little under the weather during the weekend and during the morning walk he didn't want to run around as he usually would and instead walked by our side. His tummy seemed slightly bloated and so we made an apointment with the vet just to have him checked out.

They weren't sure what the problem was and so kept him in to run some tests. At 3.30 they called to say that the ultrasound had detected a mass on his spleen and they were going to operate. At 4.30 they phoned to tell us that he had a huge cancerous tumour that had already spread and it was terminal. We had the option of letting him go while still under the anaesthetic or having him stitched up and sent home for a week or so before he would need to be put down. That seemed too cruel and so we went with the first option even though that didn't give us a chance to say goodbye.

The boys loved him so much and are utterly broken hearted. He was very much their dog and truly was the nicest dog in the whole world.

He has left a huge empty hole in our hearts and our lives.

Lots of cooking

Went out for a walk on Monday and picked a lot of fruit to make jam with. Doesn't it look pretty?



Not quite so pretty once boiled down.



Strained it over-night then boiled it up.



And made beautiful jam.



Then I used up some milk from the reduced section and made paneer cheese, flavoured with herbs and garlic. I didn't think to take pictures of it until it was almost gone.



I also made sunflower seed and honey bread, 3 different types of bread rolls, home-made pizza, lasagne and raspberry flapjacks. All of which were eaten before I thought about photos. They were delicious though.

What I'm working on.

I've not done a lot of sewing lately. I did have a bit of a play with foundation piecing though.

I'd had this Mariners Compass pattern sitting in my drawer for years. I can't even remember where it came from originally so can't acknowledge the designer of it. I think I might have traced it out of a magazine... maybe. I never did anything with it as the pointy points and curved flying geese looked really scary but I loved it and finally plucked up the courage to have a go. It's pieced onto Bounce tumble drier sheets and came together surprisingly well. It even lies flat.



I've got a big stack of 6" string blocks and I think it would work really well as the centre piece of a string block and white irish chain. When my cutting table is free again I'll have a go and see if it works.

You've shamed me into it!

Well Dotty has linked to me in her blog and a couple more people have asked why I'd not been blogging lately so I'm making a bit of an effort.

The obvious place to start is with the quilt that I made for Dotty.



A close up of the quilting.


The back. Foolishly I did it with black in the bobbin so the back shows every mistake I made. What was I thinking? :)


I also managed to get a huge tuck in the backing fabric which meant unpicking half a quilt and there was a LOT of quilting on this one. I am deeply endebted to whoever invented the quick-unpick.

It's back to school time for E tomorrow. He's going into Year 10, options have been sorted and it's the run up to GCSE's. Bogglingly he's also opted to take Latin as an afterschool course. This was totally voluntary. He came home and announced that he was going to do it. He's hoping to do something science based when he leaves school. When he was really little he decided he wanted to be a marine biologist and I think that's still in the back of his mind. Maybe Latin will be useful in that. :)

Y has now announced that his trainers no longer fit him, despite them supposedly fitting last week. I suspect he didn't actually try them on and has now realised that he's grown. I'm not quite sure where we are going to find the money for them. We had saved for 'back to school' stuff but that has been spent and there is no room on the credit card. I wonder if they make Tesco Value Trainers.