ONE OF THOSE DAYS...

Do you get days when nothing seems to go right?

Today has been one of those for me! The latest problem has been trying to find an image of a clenched fist with the thumb pointing down. Can I? Of course not!

On to the list of Won't Go Right happenings.

This morning, about 4 am, I heard Ashley miaouing, which means he wants to go out.I went downstairs, cautiously, but before I got to the bottom of the stairs he was sick... Another hairball with the surrounding mess, not easy to get off the ridged doormat/carpet. But I cleared that up and went back to bed. He must have had a bad kittenhood experience and won't use a cat flap.

Later, I got my breakfast, and Ashleys, put some fish into his fish-cooking plastic box, added a drop of water and set it turning. A few bangs and pops later I opened the microwave - ah! fish all over the inside, another job to do. And he's not very fond of this. It's called Pouting. I've never heard of it, have you?

I set the iRobot vacuum cleaner going - which stopped after a few minutes telling me the brushes needed cleaning. The ends, which turn in their recesses, were completely choked with cat hair. I cleared that and had a cuppa before getting back to whatever I was trying to do...a few minutes later the same message and another clump of fur had wound itself round the ends. Then I discovered the iRobot had got tangled up with the TV aerial and puilled it out of the metal tube-thing which goes into the wall socket. Luckily that was easy to fix, just poke it back!

I'm having a problem with my cordless phone. Yesterday I changed the batteries as I kept getting 'beeped' while talking to a friend and the phone promptly went into a sulk and wouldn't work at all. I checked with the date on the packet of new batteries and discovered I'd written the 'Bought' date as 2 Feb 2002... Tried to recharge them and, as of this morning, I still had no phone. phoned Panasonic and explained and was asked if I'd kept the original batteries. Yes. So I'm recharging those and at least have had a beep and one bar on the charging icon. Still charging now. I'll have to bring the landline phone downstairs...by the time I get upstairs the caller has rung off.

At the beginning of the week I noticed there was water left in the washing machine drum so asked Stuart how I could clear it - 'You probably need to clean the filter', he suggested, after he told me to drain the drum. I can't get down to do the filter with about 1/4" of space underneath it to put a tray to catch the water, even if I could tilt it backwards. Anyway, he came the day before yesterday and cleared the filter. Now, of course, I have a nice dry stain about 15" square on my recently cleaned kitchen carpet tiles...

Yesterday there was a call on the upstairs phone to say the new lenses from Specsavers, due in this week, would be delayed until next week, sorry.

Went to the library to get away from everything only to sit and read the paper next to a man who licked his fingers every time he turned a page - one of my definite hates! Yuck!

I came home, opened the door, having collected a small parcel the replacement postman had carefully left in full view, and there were 7 or 8 bits of junk mail. Well, not all of it was, actually. The stray cat's saucer's been cleared.At least it hasn't rained yet - sssssh!

PRIZE & PROMS

Yesterday was the Haddenham Horticultural Show. It includes Crafts and those are the sections I was interested in. I took the long hexie quilt plus three photos, one of Sarah's, to enter into the various sections of the Photographic competition. Nothing doing. There were some excellent Portraits but - how do/does the judge pick out what's best?The photo below shows the quilts
which were entered and we were each awarded a prize. The one on the left was 3rd, the centre runner was 2nd and I was lucky enough to be awarded first prize for the long hexie quilt. My prize is a grand 60p - don't spend it all at once! Awful colour walls.....Friends from the art group did well - one diffident friend, who likes pencil drawing, gained 3 prizes and was really pleased, not expecting anything. Another entered 13 paintings in different mediums and sections and won in 9 of them...not bad for a little group.
In the evening I actually watched TV - on a Saturday evening!!! Unheard of, with normal appalling TV on a Saturday. I had listened to part of the Proms on Radio 3 some days before then saw it was part of Saturday evening's listing. As it was Hollywood Musicals music from the 1930s to late 60s that was right up my street. So with Ashley jumping on, off, on my lap I settled down to a couple of hours of reminiscencing. Photos taken from the TV are never really satisfactory - but just a couple. The 1930s section used several Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers b/w films for music and songs - I hadn't heard of the singers but they received a good reception! The days of escapist films to 'take you out of yourself' with dapper Fred and glamorous Ginger, twirling across the screen. No home entertainment, the weekly visit to the cinema was a window on another world. There didn't seem to be much from the 40s. No Big Band music, no Glen Miller, Harry James etc. That was a shame. Those 40s films are really 'my time' with people like Carmen Miranda and her headgear of piles of fruit, Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable (of the million-dollar legs), Ann Sheridan and Ann Miller tap dancing, though James Cagney strutting about singing 'Yankee Doodle Dandy', didn't appeal to me at about 11. America really got into its stride with films for the War Effort after 1941. Mum and I went to the local cinema, the Regal, once a week, sitting under the mock rafters and trellis, intended to make you feel you were outside on a lush verandah...Then a notice would be put on the screen that the air raid warning had gone - but no one moved, we all stayed put in our seats. At least I could remember the majority of the words of the songs in this first half of the show.
This section went from the 1950s to 60s. Well, I married in 1953, another lifetime, and living in the country where there were no buses at all. Then moved to somewhere closer to civilisation though buses stopped running early in the evening so it still meant a 2 mile walk home - and me, being a townie then, was used to buses every 10 minutes... So, cinema visits became, almost, things of the past. No cars for the likes of us. I do remember Show Boat, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (based on the rape of the sabine women and the word I want escapes me) Calamity Jane with Doris Day flashing her smile at us - and who remembers Mario Lanza? So most of the music in this half was familiar but not so much in a film context. As you'll realise I didn't make notes so this is from memory! Finally to bed about 11.30 to have a read before Lights Out. 'Auschwitz, The Nazis and the Final Solution'. Gentle bedtime reading.

MORE OF WENDOVER

I collect books about Buckinghamshire and although I have the Alison Uttley book of Buckinghamshire when I saw another copy in a charity shop in Wendover (in the days when I was allowed to go upstairs, way before 'elf and safety) I bought it for £1.50. Alison Uttley writes a 'roses round the door' view of the past but someone had written this on the frontispiece of the book which is more true to life. Undated, unsigned so I don't have any idea who wrote it - and I've written on the back of the photocopy that it was an ex-Northamptonshire Library book.....

A TRIP TO WENDOVER

Yesterday I went to Stoke Mandeville hospital for an echocardiogram, results in two weeks, but as it was such a sunny day I stirred my stumps and took myself to Wendover in the afternoon. Because I won't pay parking charges in a small, cramped car park, or any other if I can help it, I was a little way out of the town in a side road. I took my push-along shopping trolley as it was market day and my camera and set off. I'll post the photos as I took them, I think.
Wendover is a pretty, mostly unspoiled town, especially if you like old houses, but if HS2 goes ahead this peace will go for ever - appreciate it while you can!

The first house I photo'd was this pretty header-and-stretcher house which stands in a long row of good quality houses. The header bricks are the black ones which are burned against the side of the kiln and used to make patterns as the bricks are laid. I crossed the road and came across this house plaque. It gives you the date of the house though it's not easy to tell as they have been fronted with bricks but the backs of houses always give the game away.I saw this - isn't it called a footscraper? I just can't remember. A relic of the days when roads and pavements weren't paved or in the 20th century market towns were littered withhorse manure, cow and sheep mess as the animals were driven through the town. Doorsteps are well above road level for the same reason - keeping your house clean.

At the junction of the road to Halton and Tring and the main street through Wendover is this Victorian clock tower. The lower part was built in 1842 as a small market hall, says the book I'm using to get information - 'Wendover' by Elizabeth Cull. It's also been the information centre for the town. Just to the right and out of shot is the Victorian school, superseded by the John Colet school in the 1970s.This strange lump of stone - I had it explained to me by a passerby about 10 years ago, which means I've completely forgotten what I was told. I wonder if it's one of those oddments brought down during the ice age and so completely out of character with local geology? It's very weathered and has a shine on it from the hundreds of feet which must have stepped on it over the many decades.It's on the corner of Back Street, which is exactly what it is now, though was originally the main street of Wendover. It's a one way street, as you can imagine. The house on the corner is the gallery of Aces High which you sometimes hear mentioned on TV as being a place to see excellent paintings of aircraft.This is Back Street looking down towards the clock tower. The building on the corner was (I hope) the farmhouse to Vine Tree Farm many years ago. I didn't have pencil or notebook with me...You can see it's an original timber-framed house with brick infilling and originally it was a farm of 70 acres though no trace of the farmland remains, it's all built over. There's a market on Thursdays held on the Manor Waste, which is part of the Icknield Way. The Waste was originally a grass plot then a garden was made here; in 1976 it was given to the people of Wendover, the council decided to pave over the area and the market was revived. The plaques at the base of the memorial on each side give the names of the men killed in two World Wars.Some of the stalls had already packed up by the time I got there but the cheese stall was still there, as you can see. I have an idea Bernard likes cheese...?Looking down the main street nowadays with the Stop HS2 sign just in view on the left hand side. The library is up the turning by the white building so I couldn't resist going in to get a couple of books. (Crickey! the librarians were noisy! Can you remember the days when you daren't sneeze or you'd be made very certain that it wasn't allowed. Nowadays children run about, making a racket. Grrr!) I've got this scene taken in Victorian times - somewhere in one of my books. Can I find it? Of course not!

The Red Lion is the big pub in Wendover. Robert Louis Stevenson stayed here - and so did Cromwell, though Queen Elizabeth 1 isn't mentioned...I thought she'd slept everywhere! The archway in the centre of the photo is the coach entry to the yard at the back.These yard entrances, either for carters bringing goods to shops or for the family's gig or trap are by several of the properties.This must be a working entrance while this one below - is probably the family's vehicle entrance. The house is one of the row of very nice houses which includes the header-and-stretcher house. They all lie behind a wide grass area with old trees shading that side of the road.This last house is the only coloured house - a pale apricot colour.It was the Old Manor Farmhouse, built in the 16/17th century. At the side of the house you can still see the flint infill.I had meant to go to look at the windmill, the end of the Canal and then drive up to the church but I was too tired to venture further and getting dehydrated and hungry, too, so decided to call it a day and go home.
There's lots to see in Wendover - and Halton is just along the road though the Hospital has gone, now an estate, though there's still an RAF presence. Halton House, a Rothschild house, is open one day a year, otherwise it's the Officers' Mess. It's often seen in costume dramas which need a grand staircase....

I'm fed up with trying to eliminate the big gap at the top so - I'll leave it for now and perhaps try yet again later.....

MISCELLANY

I was in Tesco the other day, heard a child saying, 'Look what I've got', 'Can we have this?' and all the usual pleadings from a child - the Mum had a succinct answer - 'Your ears aren't working'. That just tickled me!
Many years ago I was trekking back to the car to unload my carboot treasures before going back for a second go when a Mum and two small girls crossed in my path having done the same thing. Mum said to the eldest child (6-7ish) , 'You're an angel,' whereupon the younger child said, 'And what am I?'. By that time I'd passed on so I didn't hear the answer- I wonder what it was.
Has anyone heard little snippets that caught your attention at the time?
Bucks have put aside £25 million for road repairs - not everywhere, you must understand, that'd be asking too much! Consequently there are small yellow information boards popping up sited on low easels (of course) on the verges to say Road works will begin here in x days time - when you can read it, that is. But so many roads are going to be sorted at the same time it'll be hard to find a way round them all...it's a case of Wait and See.
Another council has joined the fight against HighSpeed 2 making 17 in all. The aim of the Stop HS2 site is to get 100,000 signatures to force a debate in Parliament. It's estimated that £51m will be the cost to every Parliamentary constituency in the country...If you're interested in signing and saving yourself money - the petition is at www.stophs2.org.
Wouldn't you expect that if you live in the country you'll hear country type noises?? A neighbour across the road from the stables is complaining about the noise of the hens going about their daily business, ie laying eggs. The cockerels were given away at their request.... I have two near neighbours who own chickens and I'm not aware of them.

GARDEN MIXTURE, August, still.

Just a few bits and pieces from the garden, quite a miserable selection really. There's a spindly spider in the top of this newly resprouting delphinium. I saw it by accident as I was deadheading, luckily not this creature, though. I have no idea what kind it is, unlike the Hairy Monster in the bathroom sink last night. I put a jamjar over it and slid a card underneath then let it go out of my bedroom window. Not my favourite items but at least I can cope with them, on the whole.
There are two potential 'fishing' cats which come into the garden. One is the prettily marked young cat from next door who's not afraid of anything and interested in everything; the other lives across the road, a young black cat with 4 white socks and a nicely marked face BUT he does like the pond. Since I saw him washing his face and licking his lips he's going to get the blame for this. It must be about the 6th fish I've found dead and/or mangled even though we thought we had netted the pond. Somehow it managed to get through a small gap somewhere. That'll have to be Gillian's first job, if it doesn't rain on Wednesday, when she comes to do jobs in the garden.
The hydrangea has been quite disappointing this year - there's lots of growth, green leaves in abundance but not much in the way of flowers, just these. It covers one of the badger entrances but I haven't seen one of those for about three weeks now.....
We're puzzled by this plant, which is just over 2' tall. There are several around in this part of the garden. It's nothing we've planted but perhaps it is germinated bird seed so we're waiting to see what happens with the flowers, below.
They look as if they'll be spikes.
At last, a butterfly! Or on second thoughts, perhaps it's more likely to be a moth because of the way it's holding its wings. Haven't seen many butterflies (or moths) this year, not even round the outside light...
Here's a plant that's got just a bit mixed up - a primrose in August...

I found a 'Nature Diary' I began keeping in 1995 and continued when I first came here. In 1996 and 97 I'm writing about damsel flies and proper large dragonflies zooming around the garden and over the pond. There were newts in the pond which I'd see from time to time, several frogs and a toad or two, water boatmen, pond snails and other insects paddling on the skin of the pond - where are they now, what's happened? Frogs and the toad(s) can't get into the pond now because of it having been netted but what's happened to the other species? Not as many bees, or even wasps this year. A few lacewings have just put in an appearance but as yet no daddy-long-legs are blundering about. No mullein moth caterpillars this year. Perhaps some of the species will pick up again if we have a mild winter???

(And my followers have disappeared again.....)

BLANKET, HEXIE QUILT, QUILTING ACCESSORIES

This might very well be my last-ever post. I'm tired of the way blogger keeps messing me about so I'm not going to paragraph anything here, just keep going. That's just ONE gripe I have with it!
Anyway - on to nicer things.
The photo above is of the fifth blanket I've made this year and now I'm having a break from kniitting, just for a while, probably until Knit and Natter starts again.

I've finished the long-hexie quilt I started on 26th April using the English Patchwork method and the PDF Kath sent me of the hexie itself. I finished it yesterday morning, 19th August. I hung it on the line to take this photo as it was a sunny day, unlike today which has turned grey.
I tried to do some of it every day and only missed a few sessions for one reason or another. I'm aiming to put it in a local Horticultural Show's Handicrafts section though don't expect it to get anywhere - too many of the patches don't match up and the quilting on the back is - well - Could Be Better. Never mind, it's 'mine'...

This is my plastic quilting frame which comes apart for storage. I've had it for twenty years, or perhaps more, since I can't remember where I bought it. It would have been at a Quilt Show somewhere, perhaps Malvern? The 'bar' resting against the part on the floor is one of the grips which holds the quilt in position when it's spread over the top of the frame.

Here are the 'grips'...

I was given this wooden chair about 10 days ago to pass on but I've kept it because it goes through the frame - my dining chairs are too wide in the seat - no, not me, of course!

This is the bag I made when I first got the frame. As it comes apart this is the easiest way to store it between quilts and it doesn't take up much room, either. I made a tube, cut a circle of firm cardboard which I covered and then stitched to the bottom of the tube. I think the cord through the top came from a duffel coat or something similar plus a couple of beads from - can't remember. It's never been washed but would have to be only part washed as I'm not taking the whole thing apart...

The frame's in here now.

I'm trying out some more crazy quilts and these three trial runs are just plonked on the wall as
I finish machining and pressing them, not in their final position, assuming I continue with them.

These are 5 1/2" wide strips made in the same measurement downwards, too. I saw a blogsite with a quilt made of strings like this so am having a go to see how I feel about it. It began as 9 1/2" wide strips just to be joined into 4' strips without any sashing. I decided that would be over-powering for a lap quilt so cut each piece to 5 1/2" widths, meaning to use the 3 1/2" left over pieces as 'piano key' edging - when it's finished. At a car boot last weekend I bought a single cream duvet cover with this kind of quilt in mind.

Lastly there's this pattern. I fancy this design and the offcuts from this go into one of the other examples. I've had a couple of goes already, one on backing paper (no...) another as a QAYG (no...) and then found this one meant to be cut from widths but, being me, I'm spending ages fiddling about using up scraps. I wonder which, if any of these three, actually become quilts and which end up in the Orphan Blocks box???

Now to see what the layout looks like.

NOSTALGIA

Well, on Saturday I finally got to see where I had lived during the war years. Lots of things have changed but there are many things which have stayed the same.

The house photo above dates from 1979, the last time I went back, when I still had the nerve to drive through London. Definitely wouldn't do it now! It's really depressing, the way it's been allowed to deteriorate - this is about 17 years after my parents left and it never looked like this in their time. The windows have been changed to PVC, the fence and hedge have gone and it looks so rundown.

This is 2011 and still feels neglected. It doesn't look as if anyone lives here. There's the dormer window, an ugly construction; the fanlight over the door, an original feature, as been removed and a couple of steps lead up to the front door. I wonder how the change in floor level inside has been accomplished as it would be level with the original doorway...? There's a little brick wall at the front even though it's not bonded to the next one on the right hand side.

The road, in the 1940s, had no cars parked in it and we children could play rounders, using the telegraph pole and lamp post as bases - the latter has been moved several feet. Hide and seek was possible as metal fences had 'gone for salvage' and we hid behind the bushes and hedges before being scared off by a rap on the window from the irate householder. We played 'he' (or should it be 'hee'?) and Statues. Was that different from Grandmother's Footsteps? We were always outside, in my memory, playing ball games up against the brick pillars of the house opposite (one pillar is still there), 'dabs' or 5 stones, skipping and hopscotch, the grids drawn with pieces of red brick. And 'Knocking Down Ginger', though not me, of course!!!

By 1979 there were a few cars but on Saturday both sides of the road were crammed with cars and this road has been designated as a one way street. Since I was never taught how to back into a space I'd hate to live here now - I'd hate to live here, full stop.

I could still walk along remembering who'd lived in the houses in the 1940s; two elderly spinster sisters and their equally elderly brother whose home smelled (the only time I went in, for some reason) of sweat and old age. Clothes weren't washed frequently then and winter dresses took a long time to dry so this must have been the reason for some of the odour. The hedges have gone, original windows replaced with modern style PVC, front doors have been changed and many have been painted. The little shop has been replaced with another house, too. Stuart and I even walked along the next road to see the back of the houses but extensions and trees obscured the view.

We walked down to see the Catholic Primary School where I went during my pre-Grammar school years, despite being a Protestant. I think we all went to the nearest school so that if there was an invasion our Mums could come and collect us... There's still a school on the site but completely rebuilt, with parking spaces... I must write to them when term begins again. The head, a very Irish man, with big features, ginger hair, red faced and with a strong accent, which I didn't realise at the time, still greeted me even when I was at work years later as he made his (walking) way home.

The road to the school is still a main road but the little cottages which lined one side of the road and the prefabs which replaced them once they were bombed have all gone to be replaced with blocks of flats; the big Victorian and Edwardian houses with large gardens have been replaced with these unlovely constructs.

At the end of my road was this wall with an 'itchy powder' tree, a large London Plane, right on the corner. This is from 1947, me with 3 friends, but unbelievably the wall and the wooden boards at its top is still there, as is the pretty little cottage, though the tree has gone.

And this is me on Saturday against the same wall, having a breather before walking up the hill to the parade of shops. I enjoyed the visit but have no wish to move back to London, I prefer my leafy home with views across the fields, plenty of trees and wildlife - I just wish it wasn't such a dark house. Oh well, can't have everything!

Now, I wonder if this bloomin' thing will double space at the ends of the paragraphs...

TIMES PAST

Tomorrow, I've been promised, my son will take me back to where I spent the war years, in South London to see how it's changed - again. I last went in 1979, then found an estate agent's advert in 2008 and I wonder how tomorrow will be. When we lived there it was an ordinary working-class road of Victorian houses which, by 1979, had definitely gone downhill. By 2008 it had turned into commuters' paradise with a rejuvenated house at a cost of £324,950 just a bus ride into London.
Then I got thinking about the fruit and veg we used to buy in those days...
Apples and pears often had maggots wriggling in the core, apples could be warty and scabby, split and cracked, plums, Victorias of course, always seemed to have those hard bits of 'jelly' in the middle. Peas had maggots, too, horrid to squash one when I was shucking the pods open and running my thumb down the inside, potatoes sometimes had little black slugs in them and were weighed by the greengrocer (what's that???) dirt and all, then tipped into Mum's American cloth shopping bag (what's that???). Lettuce from the allotment had black slimy bits, too, even though they came from the allotment my Dad had a bike ride away.
But the apples were small and sweet - Beauty of Bath - oranges and bananas almost unheard of, homegrown rhubarb which seemed to go on for ever, tomatoes tasted like tomatoes should and smelt that way, too. A greenhouse full of tomatoes on a hot sunny day, yum! Big brown and white spiders lived in there... exuberant mint to go with the lamb - a roast joint on Sunday, cold meat on Monday washday, mince on Tuesday. Celery, proper celery, not the green stuff we have to have these days but blanched white. If you ask for that now in the supermarket no one knows what you are talking about. Fruit in season when you really appreciated it because it wouldn't last for ever...
Ho hum, ain't memory a wonderful thing???

SUGGESTIONS FOR PATCHWORKERS

As you can see I found this letter in a magazine, bought last weekend in a charity shop. I thought it might interest all the stitchers out there.

Years ago, when I was a Gallup interviewer I went from house to house interviewing anyone who was right for the particular survey. Very often I got chatting about their house name. I remember one which was called 'The Wrong'. When I asked why, the lady of the house said it was because when her husband was indoors, he was always in it... Another was Little Meddlers named because of her three sons. She couldn't use Little Medlars as it was already taken and the PO said No.

I didn't do my surveys very quickly but I do have some memories - interviewing a man in his mini swimming costume while lounging on his sun bed by the pool, a lady whose husband had been an engineer in India, a black cat making itself at home on my beige cotton trousers....

PHISHED!

At the weekend, when the computer was playing up - again - though it turned out to be the free-floating mouse in the end - I received a message from PayPal, or did I?
It asked me to fill in all my details as there was an error in those they held for me.
The accompanying request had three spelling mistakes! Hmmm.....
So, yesterday, I was able to find the Paypal site and get their phone number. I rang and spoke to a human (!) and no, it wasn't from PayPal, it was someone on a phishing expedition. I forwarded the email to them to investigate.
This is the second phishing email, the other being some years ago, that one purporting to come from a bank - but I don't have a bank account so I reported that, too.
So, beware, my friends.

BITS AND BOBS

I haven't blogged for a couple of weeks - doesn't it drive you mad when the blog doesn't behave? Where have my Followers gone, though from the outcry on Help it seems to be a Google problem. And why does it decide to do its own paragraphing? I didn't lay out the last blog in the way it appeared!

Anyway, this collection of neatly cut out epimedium leaves is the work of leaf cutter bees but I've never seen one - as far as I know! The cut out pieces are rolled into cylinders and placed in a tunnel (says the AA book of the British Countryside). One end is sealed with a piece of leaf and a store of honey and pollen placed against it. One egg is laid on the food then the cell is sealed. Other cells are made along the tunnel and when the tunnel is full the bee dies. The following spring the new bees emerge.

On to other things now. The long-hexie lap quilt I was making from Kath's template is well on the way to completion.

I didn't want to have a lot of material on my lap while sewing one square in place. I followed the idea of sewing in sections, the yellow squares at the bottom being attached to the piece underneath, in due course.
A couple of days ago I put the 'sandwich' together.

Under this layer of fleece is the backing, which I forgot to photo but it wouldn't show you anything exciting, just a piece of Laura Ashley material I was given ages ago. It's the colour of anemones, red, hyacinth blue, white and green, and densely patterned with flowers. I bought a roll of upholsterers wadding years ago and I've always used this as the batting for quilts and the later offcuts are used for toy stuffing. Once these two layers were wrinkle free I laid the top over the two layers, making sure there was plenty of extra material underneath spread equally on all sides. I've not decided yet whether to do a 'wraparound' binding or a separate one.
Then I had to pin the 'sandwich' every 4" or so but I can't do that on the floor now, so put in half a dozen pins to hold it and then lifted it onto my dining table where I completed the pinning section. So far I've managed to quilt 1/4" in from the seams in half a dozen of the yellow squares using a new roll of tape, bought at the amazing new Hobbycraft store in Aylesbury. My quilting frame has been reassembled and is waiting for me to start work again today. The quilt has to be finished by the end of August if it's to go into Haddenham Horticultural Show's Handicrafts section.
Just one more thing now. Do you remember seeing this photo of a mullein in the garden? It was taken on the 2nd June.Look at it now!!
I asked Sarah to stand beside it to give an idea of the height to which it's grown! (She's about 5'6"). Blue tits were hopping up and down it this morning....

CUDDINGTON FETE

On Saturday I went to 'do' Cuddington Fete with a friend. Neither of us had been there as stall-holders before so got there much too early but better than too late! It was a day of sunshine and showers but we hoped for the best.

I'd phoned Lucas's, a large furniture store in Aylesbury, the previous day to see if they had any very large pieces of scrap plastic which we could use as stall covers in case of rain. Yes, was the answer, and I retrieved two huge covers which we split into lengths. As it turned out, just as well.

Brenda had taken unframed work from The Friday Art Group, cards and framed pictures of her own work. She had also taken bunting and bags which she'd made.

I took a couple of lap quilts, Tiny Teds, two dolly quilts and one patchwork bag.

I didn't expect to sell anything but I was pleasantly surprised! I sold three Tiny Teds though not these in the photo above. They're about 6" tall and stuffed with the offcuts of batting in the quilts.

I also sold a dolly quilt and you can see the size of that from the ruler alongside it.
But I was most surprised to sell a lap quilt - to a couple who wanted to put it on a rocking chair.
The parade began at our end of the street. Small children, with their glad rags on and wearing fantastic hats, were seated on a trailer ready to be pulled along by an ancient little tractor but - the heavens opened! Poor children, sodden with rain before they'd even started. Huddled on their carriage they were glum faced and miserable as they went past. The adults followed on foot. Then the sun reappeared, well, after some minutes...

We'd managed to cover our stall though Brenda lost a couple of paintings. The plastic came in useful after all though we were just a bit wet, too.

It was interesting to find how many ladies wanted to talk about quilting - reminiscing or How To which made the time pass. Nice to talk about something I know about!!!

Now, what can I make towards next year's Fete???

Brenda had taken a couple of photos of the stall but they've come to me by email in a strange format which I can't re-use. Don't ask! I don't understand it. Perhaps it'll get sorted later on.