Snakes and Ladders

I've been working non-stop for the last 2 days. I wanted to make my niece and nephew a play-mat for Xmas. I've been kicking around a few ideas but finally decided to make it as a snakes and ladders board. I've had so much fun with it and the top now finished. I think it's the quickest I've ever finished anything. Unfortunately there won't be photos till tomorrow cos the batteries in the camera are flat.

I'm also half way through making a tiny quilt for my Mum's dolls house. Itsy bitsy squares that finish at 1/2". I'm blind I tell you.... blind!!!!!!

Now finishing up my celebratory mug of mulled wine and staggering off to bed. :)

Sorry I've been missing in action for so long. I was mown down by a huge dog running at top speed (not one of mine!) and busted up my knee really badly. Ah well a fortnights bed rest sounded quite nice, except that I then caught an evil cold which, probably due to me being immobilised, turned into a chest and ear infection. Bless them, the family rallied round fantastically well, hubby was away for nearly half the time, as was MIL, and the boys fed themselves and the dogs and got themselves ready for school with rather less hassle than usual. I'm finally up and about but still hobbling tragically.

I have never watched so much TV in all my life. Within the first few days I had read everything on hand and then re-read a lot of stuff but I'm a fast reader and pretty much ran out of stuff. Ally came with quilting magazines and a ton of vids and DVD's so I've watched CSI, Stargate, Invasion, The 4400, Veronica Mars, Entourage, My Name is Earl, QI and Studio 60. For the first time in ages I can talk about TV shows other than Lost and House. :)

I also did some handquilting. I had one of Laurel Burch's Mystical Horses panels which I had no idea what to do with so I've added borders and have started handquilting it. I don't normally have the patience for hand sewing but I've been quite enjoying doing it. Ah boredom!!!

Sadly the little hedgehog didn't make it. He remained perky and eating well but one day last week seemed a little wobbly on his feet and was dead come morning, still curled up with his hot water bottle.

And finally a couple of photos.

Hiding from the cold and rain with a nice meal and a couple of bottles of wine in the Cinderella Restaurant at Disney.



Small sleeping hedgehog after a large dinner.

I'm back

Disney was fantastic and I'll post some pictures very soon. Things got rather hectic getting the boys back to school and stuff and then we got caught up with a baby hedgehog that we rescued from the dogs. It's tiny and far too small to hibernate so is living in a large plastic box in the computer room. Photos of the cute little chappie will be coming soon too.

Sadly quilting news is nil, I have projects stacked up and waiting and nothing has been done at all. :(

Disney Halloween

With half term and getting ready for the holiday I've not got much done and the camera is packed so I can't even post pictures of the little I have. The string blocks have been finished and sashed and it is waiting for it's borders. The quilt thinks it would like flying geese so I'm waiting out hoping that it will change it's mind. :D

The Steam a Seam came and so I've finished fusing all the dog blocks. They still need to be blanket stitched and of course with the Brother out of action I'm a bit stuck so that's on the back burner again.

The Speed Control for the Pfaff finally arrived. It replaces the foot pedal with an on/off switch and speed dial so that I don't have to squeeze the foot pedal by hand when the machine is on the frame. I've not had chance to properly trial it but I think it will be a godsend, I was getting awful pain and cramping in my hands after about 20 minutes and was having to stop and take a break. Hopefully this will make a difference.

I'm praying the weather in Disneyland Paris won't be too rainy. Cold is OK but wet would be horrible.

MIL is in charge of the dogs for a week. Hopefully they will all survive the experience. She does have a tendency to forget things like walks and food but they are pretty good at reminders!!!

This is Y trying hard to pull the same face as the pumpkin on our previous visit 3 years ago.


The boys looking slightly self conscious with Pooh Bear.


The fantastic face paint at the Halloween Party.


See you in a week.

Presents from Japan

I was so busy yesterday that I forgot to put up the pictures of the presents hubby bought back from Japan. He didn't get any actual shopping time so grabbed some boxes of cakes and crackers from the airport.

They do look very pretty but most of them are very dry bean curd things or weird jelly stuff with things inside it. I've been cheerfully handing out samples to everyone who expresses an interest. Well, it's polite to share and we're certinly not going to be eating them. I haven't found anyone who likes them yet.

The different sorts of rice crackers were really nice so I'm keeping them. Except for the cracker shaped things with the green and white top, which turned out to be strongly anchovy tasting... but sweet, with sugar on top!!! I have never spat anything out so quickly in my life. Drop me a line if you'd like to try these amazing delicacies and I'll send them to you. :)

The Fair came to town

The fair is here so my poor husband got home from Japan, exhausted and jet lagged and was immediately dragged out by the boys. It's cheesy but lots of fun. We spent lots of money on the side shows and the kids won some nasty plastic guns and a bottle of coke (??). We tried hard to get a fluffy seal but failed to throw a single straight dart between us. Being total wimps we avoided the scary rides, E went on the helter-skelter, Y played on the bouncy castle and we all rode the old fashioned Merry-go-round.


Mmmm Candy Floss!!!


Look out, a thief!


Helter Skelter


Carousel Horse


Urban Warfare

Good news and bad news

On the good news side, hubby has just phoned from Japan to say that he'd made it OK. Connections had gone smoothly and he'd been upgraded to First Class so the horrible long flight was way more comfortable than he'd expected. Obviously my advice to dress nicely and not look like he'd just staggered, stoned, off a beach in Jamaica paid off! It's sad he's not going to get much of a chance to have a look round while he's there. The inside of one hotel is much like any other whatever country you're in.

On the bad news side, there's something wrong with my sewing machine. The Brother one, not the new Pfaff. I had half an hour to spare and so I was sewing a couple of Mended Heart blocks while I had a cup of tea. The satin stitch just didn't seem to be feeding through properly and I was getting the stitches piling up on top instead of laying next to each other. I thought maybe the walking foot was faulty so switched to the wide one but that did exactly the same thing, then I tried with an ordinary foot and it was still doing it. I stripped the machine down but there wasn't much in the way of fluff and lint and everything looks like it's working fine. I suppose I'm going to have to take it in to be fixed. MIL is away for a week so I might 'borrow' hers while she's away.

The block I was trying to sew is a complete mess but here's a couple that I did earlier. :)