Athens time

Monday, 19 July 2010

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!

Saturday, 17 July 2010

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...

Thursday, 15 July 2010

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? :-)

Wednesday, 14 July 2010

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!