Saturday 15 August 2015

Summer breaks coming too soon to an end!

Okay, so am trialling the new laptop here but what a faff to get my WiFi to accept it.
 Had to chase into town for the phone line techies to sort it in the end.
And now I cant get the WiFi to talk to my phone well enough to load (WiFi only) updates............ me and technology always seem to have issues lol
I have bought a new car and that's got bloody computerised brain cells too!

My first ever car was a Viva, which I bought because it was a delightful pampas green exterior with bottle green interior, ideal I thought for my first car, great to drive and a nice colour : )
I did have the sense to get a chap with car knowledge to check it over for me first though!

I've had mostly roomy estate cars ever since, but my last Astra was donated to my son for his business when his van died and I ended up with a Fiesta Z Tech 1.2, nippy but older.
However despite having genuinely 54000 miles on the clock I fancied a smarter 'last' car.
And blow me, they have brought out a new Viva!
But I hadn't realised how much smarter than me it is!
So I have Ruby now, red yes, not my ideal choice but she was available at the time. 
But I hadn't expected her to have an 'Infotainment System' and here's me useless with remote controls of any kind , or that she would nag me visually to change gears and have so much computerised information hiding away. LOL
And of course now I cant retire completely, I need to pay for her fully too!
What was I thinking!
Both grandkids call me Nannie Green, well Evie says Nannie Gween ..... because the Fiesta was dark green, I know, Nannie Lewis wasn't even considered by Jack despite that being my surname.
By the time Evie arrived, she caught on to the Nannie Green name too and now I have a red car, Jack has vetoed any name change lol

I had Jack the other day and we went to the foreshore beneath the Humber Bridge, to collect stones to then paint into beetles, ladybirds etc.
But instead Jack was inspired to make dinosaurs out of stones! So there am I waxing lyrical about it being beach art, an art attack all of his own and that others can come after and see the handiwork and we can take pictures as a keepsake.

T Rex -


Spinosaurus ...

and despite all my objections, we had to bring them home with us!
They have been relocated lol
Photos were printed and Jack sat and pieced the matching stones happily -
and we painted not a single stone!


Oh and having said that I was putting the edging on 3 of the Millefiori rosettes ...
well I changed my mind again!
The edging was er ... cough ....wavy.... and I foresaw great difficulty in quilting it all,
in fact I now realise that machine quilting anything larger than A1 is beyond me lol
even straight lines LOL
SO - behold one of the rosettes has been cut into!


And using some new wonderful double sided fusible wadding that I saw in a You Tube tutorial and sent off for spontaineoulsy, In R sumthing or other, I now have a Millefiori bag, instead.
With the weirdest flower petal quilting you've ever seen - hey ho
The tutorials, part 1 and 2 are worth watching ( although its better without sound lol) and are the Crafty Gemini with the Missouri Star lady on You Tube.
The wadding is available from Empress Mills here in the UK, well it would be but they sold out at the NEC Quilt Show last weekend and have had to order more in from the US!
It's not cheap but it does give you a fully stand up able bag and is perfect for quilt as you go, though I didn't, quilt as you go.
I fused the rosette to the wadding then quilted it together but I'm going to use the method Gemini uses in the tutorial next with some scraps.


 

Now I have 3 and a half other rosettes to do something with lol
Mind you, I still haven't tried the Lucy Bostons POTCs yet after buying the book and the templates, so that too is to be played with some when.
Actually I'm reading Memories by Lucy Boston at the moment which contains her 2 autobiographical books, Memory in a House and Perverse and Foolish.
She writes with such delightful insight, its visual in many ways too and a fascinating look into the social history of her own childhood.

Anyway, I'm down to my last 2 weeks of summer holidays with some coach trips and days away ahead of me before pal Mary is over from Perth again, then back to work.

Is it just me, when the sun shines do others get the urge to knit or crochet too? Having sorted almost all the yarn stash into bags and stored them in the loft, I get the urge to crochet lol why!!

Hope all is well with you folks

  

Monday 10 August 2015

A christening and a holiday break

I have some issues with my laptop, its dying basically and only works with a fan permanently aimed at it, which is why I have been tardy at posting!
 I really must buy another one - or work out how to use the Ipad as successfully for blogging : )
I am enjoying the summer break from work, the first times I have been off in school holidays since my kids were at school and much younger.
Sadly I am half way through already!
I'm enjoying it so much, I dread going back to work come September!
But I have to since I have bought a new little car, Ruby.
Ruby is a 999cc Viva and my first ever car was a Viva too, think that's what swung it for me. Vivas as my first and last cars lol
We have had Evie's christening, which Jack attended and got himself in on the act lol
Son Mitchell is a godparent and it looks as if he was expecting to be smited from above in this picture lol
He's the big tall chap on the left. Daughter Tylah over on the right.



this piccy captures both the littlies well on a recent walk in the smashing parkland beneath the Humber Bridge


I decided not to make the full Millefiori BOM Quilt though may well still make up the remaining rosettes later on. Having made 5 of the rosettes, I have joined the first 3 together in a skew whiff shape and it is to be a skew whif lap quilt lol
Specifically keeping it smaller may be easier for me to quilt anyway and that may mean it gets finished this year!


In fact I have moved on from this stage, must take a pic or two, but there has been some infilling on some edges and I have turned in all the outer edges and added some edgings.

I have also been making some small crochet square centres for some pieces for the Green fair in November and have done some house painting - gosh I am SO no longer interested in house upkeep lol - and some clothing alterations.
I will be panicking by midweek that the times a flying by and I wanted to do so much more stitching, galavanting to places and do THINGS, in my time off!
Funny how you get the grandkids donated, the minute their parents know your off work!
So watch this space, pics to follow and they may be on a new laptop yet!