Maddening layout of text and photos!

No matter how many times I delete rows blogger keeps putting them back in - resulting in big gaps where I don't want them. Grrr....

Back from Dorset

I have spent last week in Dorset with the boys. Now of course I need a holiday to recover from the holiday. They were OK some of the time, but the rest.......................

I know it sounds mean but I've been looking forward to this holiday since February and constant moaning and whining didn't feature in any of my daydreams. The 8 year old lost the toss of the coin for the bedroom with the bunk beds, that was worth at least 15 minutes of crying. Then we couldn't get all of the TV channels listed - more crying!!. And so on.

Now I have 5 days on my own, apart from work colleages, to enjoy the peace and quiet and try to get back up to speed.

Whilst we were on the beach in Charmouth I ordered more fabric from Doughtys to enable me to make a quilt for my bed. It arrived whilst I was away -

This photo doesn't really show the colours well. There is a lot of Limes and Olive in them. Now I am thinking about what to do. They are a rather zingy combination of prints / colours which is out of character with the bedroom as it currently is - the blue is rather soothing. I plan to do large pieces - I have 2 metres of the Paisley print and the Chrysanthemum, 1 1/2 of the Laurel dots and 1/2 of the lashes. Doughtys only had the Lashes print in another colourway, which I am unlikley to use. I have some plain blue and brown.

I may do something based on a stripe arrangement I saw in "Color Harmony for Quilts" by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr. It's called "Passage to India" and just uses 2 fabrics in reducing and increasing widths.

Or I may use a simple block with large pieces.

Or I may use the Paisley as a wide border and use the other fabrics in a large block in the centre.

But I have lots of time to think on, I have too much on my unfinished list. No 1 to do is the Postage stamp quilt.

I have done a bit of sewing.

I finished the sewing part of one of the 2 Roman Blinds that I'm making, unfortunately I'm not entirely happy with it. So I may have to order 2 Roller Blinds for my Bedroom and use the fabric in my Quilt. The failure of the blind adds to the feeling I have of discontent. But I need to chill and remember that it's only been 4 months since Andrew moved out and it's to be expected that I still have masses of stuff to sort out. Really, masses.

School starts on Thursday. Needless to say neither Andrew, Liam or myself can remember where Liams PE kit ended up. Oh joy.

Here are a few more photos from the holiday.

- Watching Punch and Judy show on Swanage Beach. Joseph has the Lime T Shirt and Liam is to the left.
Liam at Corfe Castle-


East cliff at Bridport -
Liam as an angel -
With all his cuddly toys on the chair. Whilst driving down to Dorset he said "Can I use a wipe to clean my hands?" This is a boy we're talking about - cleaning hands isn't really the priority. Making super hero costumes for the toys is!.

NEC Festival of Quilts

I went to the Festival of Quilts on Thursday. I had mislaid my camera so I don't have photos to show you.
I only had the afternoon there, and I concentrated mainly on looking for fabric for a new quilt.
Firstly though I went to say Hello to Mandy at her Simply Solids stall.

I painted my bedroom blue - and it's difficult to find any bedlinen to go with it, and it's also difficult to find quilting fabric!
But I have found 4 prints, and a plain. Obviously having only bought half a metre of each I now need to buy more. I got all the 4 prints from Doughtys so will try to order some by phone on Monday. 2 were sale fabrics so I have to hope they still have some.
The brown is an Oakshot fabric so I will have to send a swatch to them if I need more.
So the question is - what pattern do I do. I feel I need one with larger rather than smaller pieces so it isn't too busy. I 'll have a look through my extensive quilting library and post any ideas.

I also bought some "worn and washed" fabrics. I had said to myself "Rule - don't buy from a stall that you have bought from previously if you haven't used your purchase yet" Failed!

Oh and I've bought a bit of Christmas fabric to make a few Morsbags for my work colleagues.
And I bought a book -"The Bag Bible".

And a grey print from Monkey Buttons and 2 plain greys from Simply Solids - hopefully to make a few cushion covers for my small living room.