Round 3!

 It's been difficult fitting in blog posting since finishing work.  I need to establish some kind of routine, which will not be easy when so many random, unexpected things seem to take up time every day. Nevertheless, a routine will help keep things going even if it does get disrupted now and then. Something that has confused me since being at home is that there don't seem to be so many hours in the day now.  I don't know where they went! 

I've got a lot done, like cleaning, washing, baking and even doing my own ironing, but not as much of the extra, enjoyable things.  I'm hoping more time will come for that once I've organised that elusive routine.

I seem to have a knack for making things difficult for myself when it comes to stitching, but I won't ever entertain the idea of buying stacks of new fabrics and cutting them up for my patchwork. With production of new fabric being so detrimental to the environment it seems only sensible to me to use what's already 'out there'.  Hence the time spent turning the pile of scraps above into a border for my ongoing Bee Quilt.

 I'm pleased with how it's looking so far.  This is Round 3 with Round 1 being the receipt of all the blocks from around the world during 2010/11 and Round 2 putting them together with sashings.  There should be 3 rounds left to do with Round 4 being another plain border, Round 5, the quilting and finally Round 6, the binding.  

 I've been pestering OH for a few weeks to look out for any fruit going to waste on the estate where he works.  Normally, there are lots of damsons, plums and apples around but this year the harvest has been very poor indeed, and not just in the wild;  garden produce has been seriously unproductive and farmers have been badly affected by the wet weather.  Anyway, I took advantage of the gorgeous day last Saturday and went foraging in the hedges while OH occupied himself renovating his tractor in a barn at work.  Blackberries were my main focus and I wan't disappointed, managing to fill a good sized tub.  Sloes were also in abundance but I left them alone because I don't know what to do with them.

 This was the view behind me as I picked.  The barn to the left of the house is where OH was....

 .....and this is what he was focussing on!  One of his vintage tractors.  He's been sand-blasting off the old paint ready for respraying.  It's turning out to be more time-comsuming than he thought - and I should know all about that!!

I used some of the blackberries in the above crumble along with a few raspberries I bought from a Harvest Supper produce sale and some plums.  I must say it was probably the best crumble I've tasted. The cakes are banana and walnut from over-ripe bananas, but unfortunately not so successful - edible but a bit sunken.

Progress since last time:

Another round on the Bee Quilt
Lots of hexagons (smaller than my usual ones) for a new project.


Bye for now
Teresa x

The Best-Laid Plans............!!

 

 You know how it is with blogging; if normal routine is disrupted, the first thing to suffer is the blog.  And normal routine has certainly been disrupted here lately.  But before all that:

We went to the local annual raft race a couple of weeks ago.  This is OH and friends' Olympic Games themed raft with the 'torch' on the front.  DD and I went to a wedding fayre after they'd set off and hoped to be back to see them finish but, the river was higher than usual after the recent heavy rain and they finished in almost half  their previous time, so we missed it.

 The following weekend was the last of the local agricultural shows.  Our way around the show was blocked for a few minutes to let the winning animals into the ring for their parade.  It was a lovely day where once again we bumped into many friends, spoiled only slightly by a strange sore area below my right knee.

A rose in the garden during one of the many sunny spells we've had since September started (typical!)

 My leg soreness turned out to be a bacterial infection which (according to the out-of-hours emergency GP) needed antibiotics, but the pharmacist gave me half the correct dose tablets and I was taking them for nearly 2 days before I saw my own GP.

(An old metal sign and glass bottles OH found in an old building on the estate where he works  - I've suggested the sign would look good on the side of my shed)

 To cut a long story short, I am now on 2 different lots of antibiotics and having my leg dressed every day.  I was off sick for the whole of my last week at work leading up to my redundancy and missed a last night out with the 'girls' at work!  It was strange not being able to say goodbye to everyone properly but there are a few I will stay in touch with and a couple I will meet occasionally. I also missed choir practice and a music group rehearsal.

 While I was supposed to be resting with my leg up it was difficult to resist the urge to sew when sitting feet from it, which was irritating because I felt fine in myself. Unable to do much, I managed about half an hour a day and eventually got my Bee quilt blocks sashed.  I want to make it bigger than this so will need to think about what to do with it next.

In case you're worried about me being so near to my sewing machine for days on end without being able to do much - fear not - because it gave me the opportunity to get on with hand-sewing the hexagons that, luckily, I prepared recently.

So, what happens now?  I'm a 'lady of leisure' until I decide what to do next.  My leg is healing, so I should be back to normal soon.  This means there SHOULD be more stitching to show around here soon.

Oh...... and I'm looking forward to watching The Pillars of the Earth re-run on TV starting in about 20 minutes.  This time (Leslie) I won't miss the last episode!!!!

Bye for now
Teresa x