Another catch up

I've not been here for a while, hopefully a few weeks at Enmatte will give provide a little more time for blogging and writing. So a quick tour of why I've been away from my desk ... starting with the week the plumbers took away the bath and built a wonderful walk in shower in my Effingham bathroom, well worth the disruption of going to Sue's for a shower each day.

Then the decorator moved in, and everything was in a different place than usual, but again worth the disrupution. Its great to have some colour on the walls (previously cream) and worth the effort I put in cleaning everything before it went back. Maybe Grandma was right about the annual spring clean?


Easter being cold and wet (and a bit snowy)  did not deter Sue and I from continuing along the Thames Path, joined by Arnold on Saturday and also by Chris and Gill on Monday. We have now reached Shiplake having walked past some very pricey real estate including Cliveham. The pubs along the way were warm, with good beer and good food, once outside, well wrapped up, we had the company of swans, red kites and lots of different species of waders.No photos of this stretch yet as I've just failed to insert the ones that Arnold emailed to me, and life really is too short to try again!  There's a great pic of a red kite, once rare but we saw several hovering  in the Berkshire skies last week.

I've also been busy with Mole Valley Quilters tasks, including my first AGM as the Chair. The business of the evening is always dealt with quickly so we can enjoy the 'Show and Tell' ... this year I encouraged folk to bring finished work, work in progress and work that had a confesisonal story attached. I took my Amish wall hanging with its fudged binding! 

Here's a selection made by the members ... applique in liberty prints, a Help the Heroes quilt and some woven gift baskets

Finally, some pics of the quilting I've finished in the past few days. As I mentioned, the Amish wall hanging has a fudged binding and I do hope no-one looks at the back! That said, its OK on the front and I like the combination of hand and machine quilting, and the rather puffy look that the polyester batting gives.it. I only used that batting as it came in the he kit ... it feels nasty/scratchy to touch which I why I never use it otherwise.

  

and yesterday I sewed the binding on the large (ish) scrap quilt I used as one of my practice pieces last time I was here. Again, a rather unorthodox way of finishing the quilt as I bought the fleece backing to the front and used a zigzag stitch to fasten it down. I kept reminding myself that this is just a garden quilt and buying special binding would have been an unnecessary extravagance!!

Its now on my bed as the weather is rather chilly for April ... the sky early this morning was a stunning grey and red and the mountains very clear -that usually means rain!

Well, that's this catch up done, time for coffee, half a pain au raison and another chapter of Claire Tomalin's Dickens -such wonderful writing about the great writer.   Back soon, I hope.