My good friend Ethel sent me a gorgeous layer cake (a layer cake is not eatable, I wish, but 40 co-ordinating 10″ squares of coordinating fabric) and some yardage.  It’s a Christmas print, so I have to make a quilt with stars.

The fabric is so soft and silky to the touch that I thought I would use minki for the backing (minki is ultra soft plush) so that it is extra cuddly and warm a bit like Ethel, so every Christmas I will think of her and our friendship.

Both William and Alan came home for the Easter holidays, William has been doing a lot of extra work experience at college which involves a lot of driving to get there on top of the work and his college studies so really felt he needed a break. Alan is doing a full time course  in college in Berlin to learn German and he needed some fresh air. The first thing they did as soon as they got here was to dig a firepit!

They found an old concrete tub which had drainage holes in the bottom and lined the pit with that, it took a lot of muscle to roll it along to their site, but they managed in the end.

Toots was fascinated by all this digging and stayed around to watch and check it out.

They did a great job, all we need to do now is get some nice stonework around it and some seats and we’re good to go.

My sister Susan and her daughter Amber came for a visit so we had a house full, they had to sleep on camp beds in the studio, Susan said it was OK as long as she did not move about too much on the wee bed. Alan did most of the cooking for everyone so I did all the washing up, seemed like a good deal as Alan is a fantastic cook.

Whats with the chipmunk faces?

Again, Alan!

Susan got straight to work in the garden, she bought me a gift of four bags of seed potatoes which we got planted while Peter put up gutters along the back of the big barn. Amber helped the boys get an old bench saw out of the wood shed as Peter wanted to see if he could get it going as it would be very useful and make cutting logs very easy.

Susan and I went on a couple of super bike rides to see some prehistorical burial mounds, (barrows).

We also went to see the local church and a small lake that is usually a good place to see birds.

We also went to the coast, it was very windy and freezing but lovely and sunny.

Susan and Amber also brought me a huge pile of fantastic fabric in all my favourite colours and prints, I have some ideas already for a couple of quilts I plan to make using it. I helped Amber make her first quilt, she did all the work herself all I did was guide her,we took photos as we went but using her phone so I don’t have a photo to show you, she even did the quilting!

All too soon it was time for everyone to go back home and to college, they took with them the sunny weather, its been raining the past couple of days, we needed it so am not complaining. Susan gave me her left over Kroner when she went so I went to the garden centre and bought two dozen strawberry plants!

Spring is beginning to show its self around here at last: after a long and pretty cold winter, the days are getting longer and a little warmer. After the wonderful show of snowdrops and aconites, we now have a few lovely daffodils of the old fashioned kind with double petals and crocus.  Under one of the apple trees, we have a green mass; I am not sure what they are as they show no sign of flowering, but I like the look of all the fresh green around the tree and table. Peter made me a couple of super garden benches for around the table he made last year which has been out all winter and shows no sign of any damage after all the snow and frost.

Peter has been working on the mini tractor as it has been running very slowly and  sometimes not at all, he has stripped it down and cleaned all the inner workings and now only needs a couple of parts, not to mention a wheel nut as the front wheel fell off the other day!

I have been digging and digging, first borders for some summer flowers. I feel like I have been digging for ever, I can’t manage more that about  meter width a day as I am just not that strong, but am very pleased with the borders. I’ve even planted a few plants in them.

Now I’ve started on the vegetable beds, these are situated near the washing line at the other side of the house.  The ground here is pretty solid and its very slow work getting them dug; as you can see I have managed only one so far.

In the smaller bed by the greenhouse I have planted two rows of Jerusalem artichokes and 4 rows of parsnips, neither of which I have grown before but I love them so have to try.

You may have noticed in the photos that we have laid a border of medium sized stones all around the house, these are to try to stop rats from burrowing under the house and setting up home there! We got a lorry load of stones delivered and Peter spent a week-end laying them all around.

I have started sewing seeds into trays, herbs and flowers, I am not having much luck even with heated cable under them, I feel its still too cold and maybe not enough light.

One of the small outbuildings where I keep my gardening tools and was hoping to keep a few chickens has not survived the winter well, I think the weight of the snow weakened an already weak roof and half of it has collapsed, Peter has been working on it, good for him, I just cant face it.

Peter has been away on business for most of March so have had to just get on with it on my own and the kitties miss him lots too but I don’t think he has any more trips for a little while and Easter holidays is just around the corner, both boys, Alan and William will be here so lots to look forward to.

Recently, I’ve been having a little bit of fun quilting using up lots of scrap 5 “squares, here are two quilts that I’ve just finished.

Bubble Cuddle Quilt

I call this one my “bubble cuddle quilt”.  I wanted an extra soft and warm quilt, something to cuddle up in when we have a very cold house.  I finished it just in time, because we forgot to order the oil for the central heating and the boiler went out.  So, we had a very cold weekend, but it was nice sitting around the log burner with a glass of wine and the kitties snuggled up in front of the fire!

I used an extra soft fleece for the back.  It’s not too bulky, but so soft, and I used Hobbs heritage blend for the batting, with pink “loop the loop” quilting to create the bubble effect. I am still without my longarm quilting machine, so it was done on my domestic sewing machine and I like the effect that I achieved.

Pink quilt number two.

I don’t have a name for this quilt yet, as I just made it to have a practice quilting session, but maybe “Hobbs” is a good name for it.  Again, it uses some of my scrap squares, only this time I used 4″ pieces.

I quilted it using Hobbs heritage blend batting as before (Peter brought me back a huge full roll of this from his last trip to Dubai – I have no idea how he got it back on the plane!) and a blue cotton lawn backing. I used a pale pink thread and quilted it using the walking foot first, then filled in some of the rows with free-motion quilting. Hobbs helped with the photos – very appropriate, don’t you think?

After I finished it, I felt that it still lacked that extra “something”, so I got some embroidery thread and hand quilted and chain stitched it some more, in front of the log burner when the heating was off.  These hand finishing touches look amazing and I’ll be doing this again on other quilts.

front

back

Finished blue and cream  quilt top, the pattern is State Fair sampler from Sentimental Stitches with a few changes. I used a nautical fabric so wanted a few of the blocks to go with this theme so changed some of them. Its a mix of piecing, paper piecing, hand piecing and applique ( all sorts). The block size is 6″ finishes as are the paper pieced blocks in the border.

A few photos of the lovely winter aconite that popped up beside the log shed.

I quilted a postage stamp quilt I finished a little while ago, the stamps are 1″ finished and are set on point, just to make it difficult for myself, when I get these ideas I forget I have to quilt the thing. I quilted it using Hobbs heritage blend, I have not used it before and it gave the quilt a bubblier look than I was hoping for, I quilted a small to medium meander in a blue thread to match the blue in the backing which is mainly brown paisley. I used the backing for the binding too, Peter brought it back from a trip to Kuwait a couple of months ago, I am very lucky Peter is happy to have a look around the souks when he is away to find me fabric. As usual as soon as I put the quilt on the washing line up came the wind.

There are approximately 6000 pieces in it, no way are they all different, surely no one has a stash that big.

Fluff and Pepper had to get in on the act while I was taking the photos but soon got bored with it.

While unpacking, the photo below of my brother Bean and I fell out of a book, I was now, as I was then, in awe of my Mum’s beautiful flowers, grown and tended by her.

There was a whole border of these flowers. It may not seem to some like much, but Mum was a mother of six under 10 year old children at the time, a feat into itself. She also got up before 5am in the morning to tend and milk with my Dad a large heard of lovely black and white cows, after this she prepared us steaming porridge, toast and big glasses of milk for breakfast, got us up and ready for school or to go out and play during the holidays. She would then do the clothes washing and housework. Still not finished, she cleaned all the milking equipment until it sparkled. She had rough cracked hands due to all the hot water and strong detergents.

During the summer holidays she would make picnics for us to take to the beach, at Easter we always had an egg rolling picnic. In the winter holidays and the week ends there was always soup and pudding for lunch, she would ring an old Swiss cow bell and we would all appear from out of nowhere.

When we got home from school there were scones and bread and jam and big glasses of milk. Mum would then go off and milk the cows again. And then come in and prepare supper for us all. Then it was bath and bed for us but not for her, she would be back out to the farm to again clean the milking equipment and settle the cows down for the night.

Everybody’s Birthday was celebrated with a family party with a lovely birthday cake, Halloween costumes where made, Christmas decorated, sweaters and mittens knitted, clothes mended, buttons sewn back on, shoes polished, letters written, WI meetings attended, jam made, friends visited, wellies dried out, grazed knees tended, hair cut, I could go on. Instead of a car she had a Massey Ferguson tractor using it as we would use our car these days. She still has a tractor now and still drives it, only around the wood to stock up with logs.

An this is only half of what she did for the family.

And still she had time to grow a beautiful flower border and still does.

Thank you Mum for always being for us then and now and our children and our children’s children,  have a wonderful Mothers day!

The nice thing about unpacking is that every now and then you come across something that transports you back in time. Wanda (an amazing quilter) gave me a fantastic bundle of fabric, a mix of fat quarters, strips, large scrap pieces and some yardage. I was so thrilled by her generosity that I wanted to make something special and made a pineapple using the “Quilt in a Day” method.

I thought it would be easy enough to take a couple of photos to show you. I first hung it on the washing line using the extra strong pegs I bought last summer in Copenhagen with Julia, but as soon as I got the camera out, up came the wind and blew it all over the place, eventually the wind died down and I got some photos.

I decided to take a couple on the giant rock in the garden, suddenly out of nowhere Pepper and Fluff jumped on and under – look to the right of the quilt in the first photo and you will see Hobb’s tail, too!!

Purple seemed to be the colour of the month – look at Julia’s wonderful sewing skills.

Julia was given a bundle of purple silk, and rather than make something for herself with it, she made this wonderful dress for our friend Ethel’s granddaughter Izzy.

She added lace to the waistband and beads to the neckline and lots of organza layers.

She also made a little matching bag and a hair flower, wow!

Ethel told me Izzy wore the dress all the time over Christmas and had this wonderful photo taken with Santa.

I entered these two quilts to the 2015 Journal Quilt Challenge (the theme was “Picture This”) and to my delight I won third place.  There had to be two quilts, each just A4 size, so it was a real challenge, but great fun to do.

True Thomas and Michael Scott

The Story of Michael Scott.

Michael Scott, who lived during the thirteenth century, was known far and near as a great scholar, and it is told that he had dealings with the fairies and other spirits. When he wanted to erect a house or a bridge he called the “wee folk” to his aid, and they did the work for him in a single night. He also had great skill as a healer of wounds and curer of diseases, and the people called him a magician.

Michael Scott and the fairies

The story of True Thomas.

True Thomas lay on Huntlie bank;
A ferlie he spied wi’ his e’e;
And there he saw a lady bright
Come riding down by the Eildon Tree.

Her skirt was o’ the grass-green silk,
Her mantle o’ the velvet fine;
At ilka tett of her horse’s mane
Hung fifty sil’er bells and nine.

True Thomas he pulled off his cap
And louted low down to his knee:
All hail, thou mighty Queen of Heaven!
For thy peer on earth I never did see.

O no, O no, Thomas, she said,
That name does not belang to me;
I am but the Queen of fair Elfland,
That am hither come to visit thee.

Harp and carp, Thomas, she said,
Harp and carp along wi’ me;
And if ye dare to kiss my lips,
Sure of your body I will be.

Betide me weal, betide me woe,
That weird shall never daunten me.
Syne he has kissed her rosy lips,
All underneath the Eildon Tree.

True Thomas

I have long admired Lizzie Mcdougall, a highland story teller and artist and thought I would take inspiration from her work.  You may remember that we worked together last year on this quilt.

Story quilt, Brenda Sanders, Lizzie McDougall and Chrissie Stewart

Here is another story panel I did last year, St Columba and the Worm.

Patchwork ceilidh photo. Lizzie McDougall and Chrissie Stewart with Brenda ‘s Patchwork

St Columba and the worm

On Tuesday I came down with a very nasty bug, I felt so bad I took to my bed for a couple of days. Today I feel so much better and felt I needed a walk outside, for a few days it was -10C and was white with thick snow. Yesterday our pipes froze solid, we had no water and although I tried to thaw it out with a heater it was not working. Our neighbour heard that we were frozen – they turned up with all the defrosting equipment needed and had the pipes thawed out in 15 minutes! I was very touched by their generosity, it was so kind of them.

Anyway back to my walk outside, this morning the snow was gone replaced by sunshine, snowdrops, catkins and kitties. Maybe spring is around the corner, just maybe…………….

Photo post of the beautiful if very cold weather.

While the weather’s been wild, I have been keeping warm and cosy in the house with the log-burner stoked up. Its far too cold in the studio to work, so I took a sewing machine into the house, so while it snowed outside  I caught up with some sewing.

First, I did my mini PP blocks from “Quilting on the Square”.  I had 18 to catch up with: these blocks are 4″ finished and are all paper pieced. There’s only two more months left of this super BOM –  that’s 12 more blocks, then I will have to think about how I am going to lay them out. I will have 72 blocks to work with, so should I add sashing, put them on the point, or straight………………………. The colour was challenging for me as my husband asked me to make it green, not a colour I am very sure of.

Then I did three midget applique blocks for a quilt I’m planning, and I’m not really sure where I’m going with these tiny blocks, but they are lovely.

4″ finished applique blocks

And I started a blue and cream sampler quilt that I have been planning to make for a couple of years now.  It is the State Fair Sampler from Sentimental Stitches.  These are 6″ finished blocks a mix of hand/machine pieced, paper pieced and hand/machined applique.  I am using the Hearty Good Wishes by Janet Clare from the Moda line of fabric which have fishes,whales, seaweed and seagulls on it.  It’s lovely to work with and I wish I got more of it when I saw it in the UK ,but I should have enough to finish the quilt top. I am making a couple of small changes to the pattern, adding a couple of boat theme blocks to compliment the fabric.

I have also been working on a medallion quilt, my first of this style of quilt.  I will share photos of that when it starts to look like something, at the moment its just lots of borders needing stitched together.

I have to say I am loving this wild weather!

I know everybody has had awful weather and we have been let off lightly so far. Snow came three days ago, then freezing fog. The house is growing a fringe of icicles daily.

Horus, Hobbs, Fluff and Toots braved the cold for a short walk in the woods today. Hobbs thought the snow was too cold and climbed a tree to wait for me to give him a carry home.

Toots thought it best to get warmed up and sleep the rest of the day.

Hunts International of Redditch UK, you stink!

Yesterday a friend asked me how it went with my long arm quilting machine, it was too distressful to have to tell her that that the news was not good. Here’s the story so far; last September my Handi Quilter Fusion long arm quilting machine was shipped from the UK to Denmark by Hunts International of Redditch, UK it was arranged by my husband Peter. When the shipment containing over 80 items arrived it was in the back of an articulated lorry, not in the original removal lorry it was packed into in the UK.  The chaps unloaded the lorry in a flash and gave me the form to sign, I asked for time but they were adamant that they had a long way to go and assured me that there was nothing left in the lorry that was mine, gave me some items that I knew were not mine which I returned to them and they sped off.  I did not have time to check that all the items were there before they left, I tried to count the boxes but they were put in such a was as to make it impossible.  To be honest, I trusted Hunts to have done a good job and have taken care with my property…….WRONG!

Hunts lost:

• 2 larges parts of the frame
• 1 box of fittings
• 2 large rolls of batting

Hunts made a mess of everything!

They rushed the packing of the removal lorry (a different lorry to the one they used to deliver my goods) in the UK, my son said they did not have time to really do a good job in his opinion and were not helpful with the actual packing of the items.

They moved the items and stored them in a large warehouse before stuffing them in the back of an articulated lorry that was already full, I live at the bottom of a dirt track and would not have recommended taking such a lorry down it.

They bullied me into signing the papers when they delivered the goods even although I was not happy with signing.

They lied about insurance, making us go through a lengthy claims form, getting them all the details they needed, only to be told we took to long putting the claim in and were not going to pay up, they said the fault was all ours and not theirs! They obviously knew they were never going to honour the claim.

They simply did not care one little bit, so mover beware! Take the time you need a service, don’t be bullied and ask for references and feedback before committing to a removal company.

Just so you know, they weren’t cheap either!

So there you are, in 2013, I shipped a 40ft and a 20ft container from Saudi Arabia to the UK and then to Denmark with East-West Shipping and nothing was damaged, nothing lost, everything was well pack and time was taken to do the inventory and time was given to me upon delivery, one wonders why a British company could not do the same?

So what now, well, Handi Quilter were not helpful either, they told me that they don’t keep spare parts for the Handi Quilter frame and I would need to buy another one. The British company I used to deal with this told me that they had ordered one for me then said a few weeks later that actually they had not.  After weeks of negotiations I was stunned as they were the ones who told me that they had ordered it without first consulting me but I was happy to honour the sale as its what I needed but felt pretty fed up to know that I was now going to have to wait weeks more for a new frame to arrive in the UK, then weeks more and yet more Tax for it to arrive in Denmark so cancelled the order. To be frank, I strongly feel that throughout this whole experience that if you want something done, do it yourself.

I am still without my longarm and find after months of trying to make sense of all of this I cant even look at it now without feeling angry and betrayed, I have packed it away  in a cupboard and will go back to it when I fell less angry, even if I get a new frame at huge cost I know that every time I used the machine it would be with negative thoughts and that would not make for very good quilting.

This year.

This year I’ll read, knit, bake, crochet, clean, decorate, entertain, de-clutter, read classics, watch old movies, make my own clothes, journal, stitch, write, grow a garden and so much more.

I bet we all wish we could have a cats life!

Happy New year ! I hope 2015 is filled with joy for everybody!

We celebrated the New Year at home with family and friends, supper, fireworks, more supper, mulled wine and finally midnight fireworks.

Even after the midnight fireworks most of the wee ones were still full of life.

The last potato chip!

High spirits!

I’m not asleep.

Little helper.

There are 169 x 4.5″ inner blocks, pieced, paper pieced and appliqued, 52 border triangle blocks, pieced, paper pieced and appliqued, 52 border triangles, plain, 4 corner block, one pieced, two paper piece and one appliqued. Approx. 5602 pieces in all.

Baby Jane

Baby Jane

In 2010, Abby the then president of the quilt group in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, DOQG, started a Dear Jane program, I joined in for fun and to give it a go, truthfully, at the time I did not think I would be able to make all of the blocks as they looked kind of complicated, but slowly as I stitched up the blocks my confidence grew, I learned from other members of the group how to applique, paper piece and to precision piece, what generous ladies to share all this knowledge with me.

Baby Jane, the washing line was not high enough to hang the quilt with out it getting dirty.

Too big for the washing line.

The fabrics I used in the quilt were a mix of scraps, some bought and my favourite is the fabric given to me by friends who knew I was working on the quilt who very kindly found and gave me fabric they knew would be perfect for the quilt, these blocks stand out and remind me how lucky I am to know them, ladies from all over the world!

Border triangles

Border triangles, pieced and plain.

Next year I will have a go at quilting it, I don’t know where to start and will have to do a bit of research before I start, then finish it with a scalloped outer border.

Some inner blocks, 4.5″ finished.

Some inner blocks, 4.5″ finished.

The quilt turned out to be about 80″ x 80″, thereabouts.

Corner triangle block.

Corner applique block.

Corner block, paper pieced.

Corner block, paper pieced and applique.

Pepper looking intelligent.

 
Pepper is one day younger than the rest of Isis’s kittens as she was born the day after the other three and came as a big surprise, when we thought that Isis had only given birth to three kittens!  She has such a lovely brindled black and tan colouring that Pepper was a natural name for her (the name was chosen by our youngest son, William, and it is very apt).

Very young Pepper.

Isis protecting her litter.

Pepper is at the back!

Pepper is underneathe the rest!

Pepper was always the reclusive one of the litter.  In Saudi Arabia, she would stay indoors and sleep on the bed, well away from the other kittens, but very contented.  In Devon, she would hide in the airing cupboard all day, only occasionally coming down to be with me in the studio, or dashing out to grab some cruchy biscuits for supper.  We were really worried that she had agrophobia, but here in Denmark, she has really come out of her shell.  Pepper is often the first out in the morning and the last in at night, happy to be out and exploring our empire.  It seems like she really enjoys the peace and quiet and the freedom here – we often see her wandering about the fields and wood without a care in the world.

Horus and Pepper.

Just Pepper.

Pepper at the front!

 
We’ve just figured out that Pepper is the “con man” for our other cats.  Often, she will sit on the table and meeeeeow tirelessly until we give in and give her some treats. As soon as we do, of course, the rest arrive from nowhere to get some for themselves.  Usually, Pepper isn’t really interested in the treats, anyway: it seems she we sent in by the others to con us into getting some treats for them.

After the birds.

Pepper taking a break.

One of Pepper’s hidey holes.

In her favourite basket.

Pepper still has her habit of going into hiding in the house from time to time.  We have an “in and out” board in our hallway so we can try to keep track of where the cats are and there have been a few times recently when Pepper has been marked as “out”.  That creates a search of the woods and fields by Peter and me to try and find her, but when we give up and come in (usually in the dark), who do we find but Pepper, sitting up on the table as good as gold, obviously saying “who are we looking for? I can help”.

Don’t mess with me!

Hobbs on a quilt.

Hobbs is a rather unusual looking cat, no mistake about that.  One of Isis’s four kittens, he was the smallest and weakest of her litter.  However, he was the first kitten to take to solid food – fish mashed up with milk in a bowl.  His first food bowl was bigger than he was, and he made such a mess by paddling in it!

Baby Hobbs in a bowl.

Hobbs in the bowl again.

Lost looking Hobbs.

The Vets in Saudi Arabia nicknamed him “ET” and we think that’s rather unfair.  His big eyes and short nose do give him a dreamy and grumpy look, but he’s really quite bright and very happy at home.  The only time he gets bad tempered is if you try to take a photograph of him – then he growls, as you can see in these photos.
He even growls when we’re taking photos of the house or the other kitties, nowhere near him – in fact, just getting the camera out of its case makes him grumpy.  For a while, he was OK with the iPad and iPhone taking photos, but now he’s twigged that these are cameras, too. Maybe there is such a thing as “cameraphobia”?  I must go on-line and look!

You have a camera!

I hate cameras.

Cat on a hot tin roof.

Hobbs NEVER condescends to eat processed cat food: it must be beneath him.  Instead, he will eat only chicken, and it has to be the right sort of chicken.  His favourite is plain roasted chicken – no BBQ sauce, onions, herbs or garlic.  In Saudi Arabia, we used to get them spit roasted from the Commissary and he would be happy with these.  Now, we tend to roast a couple of chickens in our small oven and cut them up into smaller bags for the freezer.  At a pinch he will eat them defrosted, but they have to be microwaved for 15 seconds (not 10 or 20 seconds) to freshen them up.  And each bowl has to have some chicken bones in it, or he won’t touch it.

Hobbs won’t eat from the bowl like all our other cats, either: he grabs a mouthful of chicken and rushes off with it to one of his hidey holes around the house.  I’m constantly brushing up dried chicken bones from behing the chairs!  His most recent trick is that he likes to choose the colour of his bowl – he has red, blue and grey ones, so we give him the choice.  He clearly tells us which one to use by head butting the one he wants.

Baby Hobbs asleep.

Four sleepy kittens.

Hobbs in Fluff’s tail.

Just Hobbs.

Am I the wrong size for this basket?

Finally got to sleep.

Hobbs has recently taken to exploring the attic of our thatched house.  There is a small gap in the hallway roof and he can just squeeze in there.  We often hear him padding up and down and sometimes he will yowl when he thinks that he can’t get out.  All the dust in the attic makes his big eyes go watery, so we’re going to block up the entry to attic right now. Poor Hobbs will have something else to gurn about then.