Monthly Archives: June 2018

We Made It To Friday!

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Happy Friday Everyone, we made it!!  It has been a busy week during the day and getting my quilting done in the evening.  I am loving these long, light nights we have at the moment although next Thursday is the Longest Day and the nights will, little by little, start to pull in again!  Treacle wakes up with the birds in the morning, about 4.00am, and I have to encourage her to go back to bed as it is too early to get up!

Although this morning I was out and about early getting my errands done before it got busy and the grocery shopping too.  My first job when I got home was to brush madam! She was not very pleased, especially as I had called her in from the garden!

I was hoping that we could eat outside like last year as above for dinner tomorrow with Mel and Charles but apparently it is going to rain!!!  So I am going to have to use our dining room.  I am miffed after all the nice weather we have had but no it’s going to be raining!!  It is always the same when I plan something, good job I decided not to BBQ!!!

It’s Father’s Day on Sunday and we have a few little things for DH and I have bought the meat for his favourite dinner and the weather is supposed to be nice so we may get to eat outside then!!!

Before we know it, it will be Monday again!  Next week will be busy too as both DH and my cars need their MOT’s to be done and the following weekend, weather depending, we are going to get the garage and room emptied, sorted, tidied and get rid of anything we don’t need!!!  Well it’s a plan!

I hope, whatever you are up to, you lovely lot have a wonderful weekend.

Hugs, Susie xx

Oh It’s A Shame!

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I have several blogs which I read regularly and the ladies who own them post regularly (you can find them on the page “My Favourite Blogs”) but a few have decided not to post anymore because of GDPR!  I know that some of the ladies may be using this as an excuse to end their blogs but a few are concerned about the new rules. 

As I said in my post here you really only have to be concerned about these new rules if you sell through your blog and as a lot of these ladies don’t then they don’t have to worry about it.  

It is such a shame that these rules are affecting such a creative thing and hope these talented ladies do continue to blog.

Anyway onto happier things.  I have been surging ahead with my quilting.  So much so that I despatched DH to the quilt shop in Birmingham near to where he was going for work today to get some supplies!!!!!

I have been working on our friends 50th Anniversary quilt and it had lots of squares in it so I spent one evening chain piecing, which was very calming!!!!

My good friend, Susan, in the US sent me a lovely gift last year and I have used it so much.  It’s this

It has a little blade in and makes cutting between the squares a breeze.

All my squares cut and ready for the next step.

This is the pattern I got from the MSQC tutorials on the web.  It is going together really well and I will show it to you when I have quilted it. 

It’s all a bit much for Treacle!!!!!  She loves Eldest’s bed and of course I am in there too so she loves keeping me company when I am busy sewing, my wonderful QuiltyDale! The only thing is when she begins to snore!!!!!!

I have got my house jobs done today and Girlfriend came for a visit this afternoon which was lovely and tomorrow I have errands to run as on Saturday evening Girlfriends parents, Mel & Charles, are coming for dinner, so looking forward to that.

Sunday is going to be nice again so we can get the final jobs in the garden done and of course it is Father’s Day!  DH will just love gardening on his special day!!!!!

Happy Thursday everyone.

Hugs, Susie xx

A Birthday Quilt!

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It’s Jayne’s Birthday today and she got a quilted piece from me!  This lap quilt in shades of blue.  Over the years I have given her table runners and a bag and now this lap quilt so I joked that I will work my way round eventually to making her a bed quilt!!!  She loved it.

DH is helping by holding the quilt up and Treacle got in on the act too!

A closer look at the flowers.

The back is a faint blue stripe.

Whenever I take pictures of a finished quilt it is either late at night and I need to wrap it to give to the recipient or the weather is dreadful and I can’t take the pictures outside!!!  I have three on the go at the moment so I will try and plan to take the pictures outside and hopefully they will be better!!!

The pattern I used for this quilt is great as it goes together well and  I think looks great when it is finished and is my “Go To” pattern for baby quilts or when I need to make something quickly. 

I am a fan of blue and white quilts as I think they look very clean, similar to red and white quilts.  In fact I need to get some more bright white fabric as I seem to use quite a bit of it.

Sunday and last night I finished getting our friends’ 50th Wedding Anniversary quilt cut out and have started chain piecing the squares together.  I need to sandwich and pin the baby quilt so I can get that quilted and still need to quilt our summer quilt.  This Saturday is supposed to be a rainy day so will probably spend the day quilting.

Happy Birthday Jayne!

I hope you are having a Thrilling Tuesday.

Hugs, Susie xx

Summer Monday!

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It has been another glorious day weather wise today and it was the same at the weekend too.  Our Friends’ daughter got married on Saturday and it all went off very well.  DH, Youngest and I were stuck at the swimming pool all day for the Open for the younger swimmers.  It was a great event and the swimmers really enjoyed themselves although we were all melting as it was very hot!!!

 

As Sunday was good weather too DH and I continued the sorting out of our garden.  We planted the Mock Orange at the front of the border and the rose, Mortimer Sackler, arrived on Friday so we got that put in too.  It has some buds on and I will show you a picture when they open.

The flowers are starting to open and the Bees are loving them.

We got the Boys Den tidy and cleaned it inside and out and the windows!  We are planning later in the year to stain the wood again, before winter.

You can’t see this tree very clearly but we trimmed a few of the branches which were hanging down.

We also got this bed sorted.  We need to trim the Box in the left of the picture but we think a Dunnock may be nesting in there so are leaving it until later in the year.

I am so pleased with everything we have done over the past few weeks.  There are one or two more jobs to do but nothing big.  We have some dates coming up where friends are coming for dinner so I am hoping that the good weather holds and we are able to eat outside.

Treacle spent all day outside with us and was so tired last night, as she had had no sleep all day, that she was solid gone in her basket by 8.00pm!

I spent this morning running errands and working this afternoon.  Tomorrow it is my good friend, Jayne, her Birthday so am seeing her in the morning and then we are going out to lunch next week, as our Birthdays are a week apart.

I hope you are having a great Monday and have a wonderful week.

Hugs, Susie xx

Monthly Friday Book Club.

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This book has to be in my Book Club.  I first read it for my O’Level English Literature Exam at sixteen and loved it.  What sixteen year old girl is not into the romance of it?  If you have seen the film “You’ve Got Mail” (my most favourite of films) Kathleen, the Heroine, mentions this book as her favourite and that she reads it every year!  Well I do read it every year and just love it.

Even though it was written in 1812 it is very easy to read and definitely stands the test of time.  Out of all of Jane Austen’s books this is my favourite.  I remember in class the debate raged as to who was prideful and who was prejudiced and in my opinion they both were at various times in the book.

The BBC did this adaptation of the book in 1995 and it was six, hour-long episodes so went through the book in a lot of detail.  The cast was amazing and so like how I imagined the characters to be.  If you have never seen this then I suggest it goes on a Birthday or Christmas list as a must, even if it is only to see Colin Firth in his wet, white shirt!!!!

If you have never heard of this book it is about Elizabeth Bennet the second of the five Bennet daughters and who is the most sensible of them all.  She and her elder sister Jane are of an age to marry and marry they must as their father’s estate is entailed away from their family to his distant Cousin, Mr Collins the Clergyman. 

Mrs Bennet is determined that all her girls must be married and married to wealthy young men.  When Mr Bingley takes a house near to their home at Longbourne, Mrs Bennet is on the hunt.  They encounter Mr Bingley and his party, including Mr Darcy, at the local assembly where Elizabeth is snubbed by Mr Darcy in her hearing saying  “she is not pretty enough to tempt me”! 

The story unfolds over the chapters where Elizabeth and Darcy keep encountering each other at various social gatherings and walks where each others pride and prejudice keeps them apart.  As with all good love stories it comes good in the end.

I will be taking this book away with me on vacation this year as it is just the right sort of book to read when you have nothing else to do!

Happy Friday everyone.

Hugs, Susie xx

Pride and Prejudice

#TBT.

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Throwback Thursday today is from 2003 (OMG fifteen years ago!!).  This is another day when we were all out in the garden, DH and I actually gardening and the Boys playing.  We loved these types of weekends.  Youngest has a Christmas jumper on, he was always different!!!!!!!!!

Eldest is seven and Youngest is three in this picture.  Just out of shot on the top step is Kelly. 

Here she is sitting on the next step down!

I dropped the wedding present off at our friends home this evening and saw all the things ready for Saturday including quite a lot of alcohol!!!  The weather is set to be dry and warm with some sunshine later in the day.  We hope they have the most wonderful day.  It will no doubt be warm as we are at the swimming pool all day and it will be like a sauna!!!

I ran some other errands today as well having got my house jobs done first thing.  It was very warm today and it looks like it may thunder later!!!  I have more errands to run tomorrow and get my ironing done so everything is ready for the weekend.  I am quite pleased that I have managed to stay on top of work and things this week.  Should I get a gold star?!!!!!!!!!

Treacle has spent the day outside when I was at home but has been investigating where DH has dug over the area for the new plants which I knew she would. I just hope she does not start digging!!!!  The rose we have ordered is hopefully going to be delivered tomorrow so we will be able to get that in on Sunday.

I hope you are having a Thrilling Thursday.

Hugs, Susie xx

The Wednesday Wag.

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I have a new job title, Mom gave it to me after the weekend.  Meet the QuiltyDale!

It is a very important job.  I supervise all of Mom’s work on her quilting jobs and see if they pass muster.  Now they are very long days and after a while the gentle hum of her sewing machine just puts me to sleep.  However I do know when she moves just in case there is a chance of the odd biscuit.

Dad and Youngest come and visit us in the sewing room when they get back from wherever and would you believe it but they sit on my bed which is where I supervise from!  I mean really!

Anyway I love my new title and am doing my up most to live up to my new job but just sometimes it all gets a bit much!

I just have to have a snooze!

I hope you are having a wonderful Woofy Wednesday.

Woof from Treacle, The QuiltyDale!

Tuesday Travels.

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Normally I am busy working on a Tuesday but I had some errands to run so got out and about first thing.  Dry Cleaners done I set off to the garden centre to see if I could get the plants we need to fill the gap we created.  What a disappointment they only had one that we had picked!  We have had to buy the rose direct from the growers so that will take five days to arrive and no one seems to have the Rhododendrons in at all!!!  I think we may have to re-think what we are going to put there.

DH got home early so he decided to clear the soil where we are going to put the new plants as there was still some roots etc left over from the forsythia.  That was a lot of hard work as they were very deep-rooted but he got it done and we put in the only plant the garden centre had:

This will sit in front of the rose when it arrives.

I am hoping that Treacle will leave it alone until it gets a good grounding!!!

DH is at the NEC in Birmingham all week at an exhibition with one of the company’s we work with until Thursday and then Saturday is the second of the swimming club’s Opens.  This is for the younger swimmers so although it is a long day it is great fun and less intense than our Open in January when it is the older swimmers who are all about their times!

I have work to do tomorrow as it is our Year End for the business so lots of paperwork to be done and then Thursday will be house jobs and then more errands to run on Friday.  Our friends’ daughter, who used to babysit the Boys and who is expecting, is getting married on Saturday so I also have their present to deliver on Friday.

I hope you are having a Thrilling Tuesday.

Hugs, Susie xx

A New Week.

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The weekend sped by with not a lot getting done.  Friday night I got all the rest of my jobs completed and dinner made for all the family.  Saturday Youngest did his last session at the swimming club and DH went with him and then straight onto a regional swimming meeting!  He got back mid afternoon and then was out all evening at an event.  Youngest went out with some friends for the day.

This meant that I spent all day quilting and got my super secret quilt finished (the fabric above is what it is made from)   Yeah!!  I just now need to sew the binding to the back, wash, dry it and it will be ready to be sent off.  I have my big summer quilt to do now and I also finished piecing the baby quilt which is needed for October. 

I have also found this pattern I like to make a small quilt for our other good friends who will be celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary in September. It is a Missouri Star Quilt Company quilt which Jenny makes for a baby quilt.  I am going to make it in gold and yellow with contrasting colours as that is the colour for 50th wedding anniversary.

I am really pleased with how my quilting is going this year, having set specific goals and getting them ticked off.  I know it is another list but you know I like lists and I know that some quilters prefer to quilt as they feel but I have to have an order. 

The only thing that I won’t be carrying on with is the BOM “It’s a Wild Life”.  I have never done a BOM before and thought it would good to do especially as it is just one block a month.  However having completed four of them, three of which had applique on them, and putting them together I don’t like the look of it.  Also the blocks are huge and as we have to go through until January I hate to think how big it is going to be when it is finished.  As you know I am not very good at applique and I know that practice makes perfect but I am just not happy with it.  So rather than spend any more time and resources on it I won’t be carrying on.  I think if I had seen the whole quilt first like some of the BOM you can join and pay for then it would have given me a better idea.

I have a trip to the garden centre planned this week to get a few plants to put in place where we took the forsythia out above.  I have seen a couple of rhododendrons I like and also a rambling rose and hope they have them in stock.  As you can see Treacle is still hoping to grow a tennis ball tree!!!!  Tee Hee.

The above are the plants I am looking for; The rose is Mortimer Sackler, a Philadephus Belle Etoile, Rhododendron Azurro, Rhododendron Blue Tit and Rhododendron Goldkrone.

As you know our garden is very “wet” and so we get inundated with slugs and snails so I am being very vigilant to stop them eating all my plants.  At the moment we are doing okay and there are a lot going off to the plant recycling centre! I also have to ensure that the plants are happy in the soil we have and the above ones seem to be.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and going to have a great week.

Hugs, Susie xx