Sunday 28 October 2007

Walking in the Peak District





Instead of pottering about and ending up not doing very much as is usual on a Saturday we finally arranged to go for a walk in the Peak District with very close friends of ours. So armed with rucksacks full of food supplies myself, my husband, my two daughters, my very good friend L and her husband M, their two daughters and their son set out for the Peak District.
After hitting a couple of traffic jams due to roadworks we eventually arrived at the beginning of the walk. We piled out of our cars all raring to go when one of L's daughters realised she had not got the correct walking boots with her. After a bit of swapping about the poor girl ended up doing the walk in boots rather on the large side for her and not only that she wasn't feeling too well either! Anyway she completed the walk without a moan. Well done L's eldest!

Beside all that we had a lovely walk. It was rather steeper at the beginning than we had anticipated but we all coped well considering some of us (meaning me and dear husband) haven't been walking in years. The views were lovely, the rain held off until the very end
and I for one thoroughly enjoyed myself. Even my eldest daughter was running up and down hills like a mountain goat and all after she had been pulling a face because she had to get up early. She had said she would never forgive L for making her get up so early on a Saturday morning (I am meaning teenage early which is not early of course!). We had one stop for lunch and the only other stop was for a re-arranging of L's son's socks to stop him getting blisters.
After we had been home and sorted ourselves out we rounded off the evening by spending it at L's where we had a Chinese meal. Thank you L and M and family for being such good friends and company. We always enjoy ourselves when we are with you. Looking forward to the next walk.


Thursday 11 October 2007

Feeling Blue Quiltie Swap



This month's quiltie swap for Unlimited Textiles has the theme 'Feeling Blue'. This is the quiltie I am sending to my swap partner. I hope she likes it. Also I am sending a few bits and pieces that she may like to play with.

The background fabric for the quiltie is hand dyed calico. I then layered a piece of chiffon on to it then added machined coloured papers with one of the automatic patterns on my sewing machine. I machine couched and hand couched thread, stamped a repeating pattern with one of the Sherrill Kahn Sorbet Paints, added pieces of organza by machine stitch, added more handstitching and finally added flower sequins and beads.
I do not normally work with blue but I really enjoyed using the different shades of blue and will certainly use it in the future.

Tuesday 2 October 2007

A Lovely Surprise


I have had a lovely surprise. When I bought the latest issue of Stitch magazine in it there are photos of some of the stars from the star swap. I am so excited that a piece of my work has been published in the magazine. What a real buzz to see the star I had made there alongside all those other wonderful stars. Plus the star I received is there as well. There are some very talented people out there.