Bloggo-holiday and on a clear day you can see France!

I love my blog and I am truly thankful for the wonderful people I have met through this blog. I am looking forward every day to see what you are all up to and am trying my best to give you a little bit of insight in what is happening in my part of the world.

Lately though, a number of things have been happening in my life, that have been very time consuming and draining energy on me.. Some of which you know about (bloomin' windows, lol!), some of which are private however not less draining...

I am struggling to keep up with the family commitments, sewing commitments and still trying to keep up the blog to its usual standard (i.e. more than the weather forecast!) and write my friends back with more than a oneliner and give them the proper attention they deserve..

So I have decided that with this busy summer coming up, people coming to stay here and dropping the kids off all over the place, something will have to give...

I am closing the blog down for the summer holidays therefore.. and will start back blogging when the schools start in september. I will still be on email and post DQS9 progress on flickr, just not the blog for the time being.

I know many of you will be travelling and away for most of this period yourselves so we might not miss each other as much as you would think! I hope you all understand and be back with me in september as I really appreciate your support and will try and keep up with you all of sorts over the summer.

I will leave you with today's pictures. On a clear day you can see far here (this happens sometimes, not often) and see the ferries leaving and entering Dover Harbour and even France ! (if you know where it is, otherwise you might mistake it for a cloud..)


Ferries entering Dover Port;


That 'bank of clouds' in the distance is France!;


Zoomed in closer you can see better it is actually land...;


To the right of this picture (zoomed even closer) you can see the cliffs rising out of the sea, the colour being paler where the cliff face is exposed.(behind the white ferry that looks like a sailboat- it's a ferry, being so far away you would not see the sailboat.. )


I hope you all have a fantastic summer, I'm looking forward to reconnect with you all end of August!

lovely sunny day... bliss....

Cooler but has the rain gone?

Much brighter this morning...



hopefully the rain has finally gone so the painting can be finished... Not much to do... fingers crossed...

Lots of lovely mail...

Last week I was finally a 2nd prize winner on one of Bearpaw's lovely giveaways.. They are always full of lovely goodies so I was very pleased to win this lovely book! It tells you lots of stories of individuals who have organised quilting for a diverse amount of goals, all for charity, from quilting for disaster victims, to war heros, to children with illness etc etc.. It tells the stories and also gives some easy patterns you may use to make some of your own and help the effort of your choice.

I have always known quilters are the most generous,supportive, fantastic bunch of people but it is heartwarming to see all the projects and the good that is being done. This being an American book, most are from the USA, but there are plenty of organisations that operate world wide (Project Linus e.g.) and in the UK there are a lot of UK based ones too doing the same thing.



Thank you for this beautiful and inspirational book Jo !!

AND....



It's here, it's HERE!! Wow... I won this back in March in a contest by Ann of Prairie Primrose Stitches and the Electric Quilt Company (see post here)and it finally arrived! Just look on the back of the box of all the lovely things you will be able to do!



I can't wait to start learning how to use it!! I immediately loaded it, but, being hopeless with technology, I will need to take the manual, and learn the hard way, step by step...(not like my kids who go.. tapety tapety tap and the most wonderful things appear on the computer as by magic... - showing my age here - lol!)....

Thank you Ann, for hosting this event and having me win! and thank you Electric Quilt Company for putting up this wonderful prize!

Duckie box...

Some of you were asking about the cute duckie under my fabrics... It isn't part of the design! It was the lid of my sewing box. This is the box I transport itty bitty stuff in, like little pencils, erasers, seamripper, pins, measuringtape etc etc, when going places. Nice and compact and totally cute!!



No sea photo today.. went out without my camera... Sorry, as it was an amazing view first thing... The rising sun glistening on the sea, whipped up in winds gusting 50 mph, the white horses white in the sunlight, the sea in varying shades of the darkest blue right through to emerald and lighter green.. Ran out of battery, tired, up at 4am when a window started banging.. and not got back to sleep...

Cut out some fabric on the doll quilt and tried to sew it together... I have only one word for you... CURVES... oh no, and another three... TIGHT POINTY CORNERS... Not having done those before... what WAS I thinking??? You should see my tryouts... or maybe no... better not, lol!! Oh well... sigh... trying again.. Practice makes perfect, yes? :-)

Look at what Marie Madeleine Studio is giving away...

Marie Madeleine Studio is giving away a FULL FQ stack of the new line at Lecien.. Flower Sugar Two..

I am in love.... If I don't win this I just might have to order some....:-)

Decision has been made!

Angela (Tweedledee Designs) suggested to swap the orange and green in the outer layers of this design and what do you know... genius! It worked a treat and really like this now! Thanks Angela!!



So on with the pattern pieces (real life size)



and individually cut out, including the center replicated to one piece.



Long way to go... I now have to start cutting (eeeeek.....), but, saved by the bell, real life is intervening, so hopefully see you much later!

Will it stay dry?

Yesterday was a good day. Both for sewing AND painting! Initially we had drizzle so I decided to have a mega sewing session... It cleared up in the afternoon so by the evening (and after 9 hrs designing..) I painted for 2 hrs as well.. it got a bit late in the evening... but both got done!! Yay!! (just one coat left on the windows now and the scaffolding can come down!)

So what's forecast for today.. Looking at the clouds... mmm... could be anything...



and that feeling was reinforced an hour later, when we were standing in full sunshine on the beach, with blue skies and dotted white clouds high above, looking out over sea at this....



Whether I get that last coat of paint on today? Get some sewing done? I will let you know later!

Hope you all have a fine day.

DQS9 - the design stage

As it has been raining for 2 days and I cannot paint...:-( I have taken some time to start on the design process for my doll quilt (you can always leave dusting .. right? :-)

As I have decided to make my quilt square.. I thought of this book, that I once had out of the library but liked so much that I bought it!



Now I don't aspire to make a Rhapsody quilt!! They are a-ma-zing!! Mostly made of solids, very intricate and take months and months to make....(if not years!!)and maybe, just maybe I dare to start one... but not just yet.. as time is short at the moment and time is what you need for these..

However, I decided to go with Ricky Tims' principle of mirror designing... You take a square, fold it in four, then in four again on the diagonals. You end up with a triangle of 1/8th of the whole square. Ricky then explains the design process and drawing these few lines on the triangle isn't as easy as it looks!



Transferring these lines in a mirror image onto the next 1/8th and so on.. leaves you with the complete design;



So far so good...



Colourmatching the colouring pencils to try out colourways (oh this will be so much easier when I get my EQ7!! will this be the last time I go with the 'old-fashioned' method??)

I have come up so far with two colourways... This one;



or this one;



What do you guys think??

Drizzle....

...so no painting again today... I do wish I had finished the job day before yesterday... I DID think you never know how long the good weather lasts... but there you go... I have to patient and wait till the sun returns..



A yacht heading into the wind and drizzle this morning, making good passage with the tide

Another downpour...

Remember we had a downpour a few weeks back and I showed you milky puddles on the beach? We had another one last night... it rained and rained and rained...

Washing down the cliffs, over the promenade and down the walls... leaving white trails of milky limestone....

I love the milky puddles on the beach as a result;



and the chalky water even created a zebra beach!



Hmmm... I can see a quilt in that....

Ferret's quilts - close up and personal

A while back I did a post on the talk that Ferret gave to our local Guild (An evening with Ferret)and the fabulous quilts she brought for us to see. I had forgotten my camera and Ferret kindly gave me permission to use some images from her blog.

They did not show you close up how marvellous her quilting and stitching is! So when I came across the slideshow of Ferrets work on The Quilt Show,(Ferret's slideshow)

I thought you have to go over and have a look. Close up photos of the quilting as well as shots of the entire work. AND all the prizes she has won this year.

Congratulations Ferret! So pleased for you !!

Fabric colour matching...

Yesterday I went to a local patchworkgroup meeting. A speaker, and lots of traders.. as I thought my DQS9 fabrics needed some solids with them... I took them along.. on the off chance but thought.. 'what are the chances to find something matching??'

Just LOOK what I bought...



Isn't that amazing?



and I know you all like the sea and the weather so here it is...Warm but not as hot today... no sun as yet..

The sun might have gone to Lizzie in Australia? Hope you get some lovely winter sunshine Lizzie!

Another hot day..

Barely any wind. A yacht motors out of Ramsgate Royal Harbour whilst the pilot boat just returns from guiding big shipping into the shippinglanes (from the Thames Estuary into the English Channel and vice versa)

Today's weather - especially for Jackie!

Sunrise came with the promise of a hot day....



and not even an hour later it was already hot (the tiny white speck on the horizon is the Dover Calais ferry making its way to France)



and it is indeed a scorcher!! Since it's dry I have spent the morning painting the outside of the house. Sealer, primer and undercoat done! Just the gloss and varnish to do now... phew.....

My DQS9 fabrics have arrived!

I better start designing this weekend!

Early morning swim....

Temperatures dropping a little..

A heavy sky and though not cold, a chilly SW wind blowing up over the beach. Summer is taking a break.

Where's the ball....

Bit grey today and tide in so won't share today's pics but these were taken two days ago when it was a mega picture day and a lovely sunny day at low tide!


Where is that ball??


Aha! There it is!


Oh no.... a wave is coming... shall I duck??


Nah.. better jump for it... get ready.....


JUMP!!!!


Brrrrrrr... where am I??


Oh NO!! the ball is gone! where is it? where is it????


Aaaaaah!! There it is!


LUNGE !!


Got it Mum !!!!!


SOMETIMES.... it is hard work being a dog....

A Mid Summer Night's Dream...

Yesterday evening, I attended a marvellous school production of a midsummer night's dream.. I won't even attempt to summarize the story! Suffice to say it involves two Athenian couples (Demetrius and Helena, Hermia and Lysander), the King of the Fairies and woodfolk Oberon and his queen Titania, a travelling troupe and lots of fairy magic mixing things up a little! (including changing one of the troupe -'Bottom'- to have an asses' head..). I realize I have done Shakespeare a great injustice here as it is one of the greatest plays of all time but really, a blogpost cannot contain it all!



The master of the Revels, Philostrate, looking pensive..



Bottom being groomed by Queen Titania and her Court



and led away by the forest people.



Demetrius and Helena



Oberon and his Queen reunited



Part of the travelling performers



The lion roaring...



Time to take a bow at the end of the performance (Lysander and Hermia taking front stage)



and all too soon it was dark and time to go homeward.... (Canterbury Cathedral illuminated)

This was a school production of the absolute highest standard. A performance which could rival or even outshine professional performances! Well done to the cast, director, choreographer, custom design, make up so in short... all involved! A fantastic performance greatly appreciated and enjoyed by all !