unedited

With my ongoing computer woes

I'm finding less is more.

Without the help of my usual whistles and bells to hand

I'm sharing my snaps 'ala originale'

like a celeb with no make up.

I kinda quite like the quirky aspects,

I do generally find the first photo is the one I go with anyway.

Some of you have asked what I have been up to..

well I have finished hand quilting my snowday quilt

and right now I'm piecing the love/hate painting mini

but as you can see it's all a bit disconnected

a bit like me!

garden specials

 It may as well be April.

The garden is very much a shrub land right now

with the odd bulb giving a glimpse of spring...

 thank goodness for blossom.

I don't really buy magazines anymore,

but like the December issue

the May garden special has become a must.

I find Country Living a bit hit and miss

which is why if an issue disappoints

I can thumb through my old copies.

It may well be raining but with the spring we've had

I just want to be outside....

ps. I have the worst hayfever ever!

when computers go wrong..

So..this year my computer has been slowly dying

I knew it was imminent

so I fortunately had my passwords uptodate...

It does however leave me a little lost.

Computers are a wonderful thing

until they break...

I am now upstairs trying to blog to you via the mans computer

it's all foreign

no photos

big clunky dusty keyboard

and a mouse!

I'm not sure how long this blackout will last

please bare (or is it bear?) with me...

If all else fails there is always facebook maybe?

ps.
I had not realised I was away for so long
apologies for the worry xxx

getting stitchy with it

So I have chosen to use pink, red and green cottons

along with a cream for the background.

Hand quilting for me is on a par with hand piecing.

There are no fixed rules,

which can be confusing,

with so much choice..

I am toying with the idea of quilting 

petal shapes within the white 

like a daisy with a hex centre..

I might make a trial run to see if I like it.

Any guesses to which backing I went with?

garden chit chat

 Let this be the first of many garden chit chats on the blog!

As is now usual with me

I have had my 360 degree spin of horror moment in the garden.

The moment when I whisper...help....

and then just crack on with it!

I have become accustomed to it now, so lets put that one to bed

(for another year)

and look at the pretty things.

The above are snakes head fritillarys

a gift from a friend,

I wasnt sure they would make it through the winter

but they did!

That said I have lost a number of plants this year

the first being ALL of my lupins

see here for last years show.

Our garden is on clay

so when it rains the beds become lakes..

I guess lupins can only take so much.

Also lost are all my echinacea, a euphorbia, a penstemon and 

quite possibly my catmint.

Thank goodness for the selfsowns!

 A year on from our pond dig and things are getting established

though I have decided to let this area become ungardened  wild.

Bird Cam

Ever felt like you were being watched?

This is how I do it

weeding that is..

keep it real x

macaroon monday

Wish they were macaroons..

however they are my sweet new perle cottons!

You may think ooh now they're Clare colours,

but no

this was an online bundle

colours already selected.

Totally getting this hand quilting lark

but,

 oh 

(think John Travolta singing Summer Nights)

 the possibilities are endless!

Add them to my modest yet growing cotton stash

and I can't help thinking they remind me of something....?

making it work

 Well this took me back to my technical drawing classes!

Not as easy to reproduce as it was to draw willy nilly.

 After taping some A4 sheets together I strolled back and forth with my ruler in hand.

It was actually quite fun

a bit like dot to dot!

 I do love our new space...

I am in between the radio, the kettle and the toilet

why go any where else?

This is how far I got.

I numbered the templates on the back 

and remembered to take a photo

to help me assemble correctly!

I'm thinking now that the orange should be red,

I used orange in the painting, but the tone is a lot darker 

than this orange I have....in other news

still waiting on some perle cotton 

so I can get on with 

some hand quilting.....hurry up already!