oh buggar!.....

I've been tagged by 2!!! YES 2 LOVELY LADIES!!!! I've just about worked out what to do, and will be onto it soon, but here in the depths of lovely Dorset, we have been besieged with windy, rainy weather and this cause's havoc with the broadband, so forgive the non response, and normal viewing will be resumed shortly!!
thank you

all I want for christmas...............

is a pink Ukulele and of course learn how to play it!!! I can't play one but the urge to purchase the above instrument and learn is becoming an obsession!!!I love the Ukulele, it's just such a happy instrument, I recently heard Alex James( I think he was in band!!!) quote on radio 4 recently " all you need is a pint of real beer and a Ukulele , to make the world right" and I couldn't agree with him more.
"The UKULELE orchestra of great Britain" IS A FABULOUS collection of Ukulele playing folk, do check them out, there version of 'Wuthering Heights' is spectacular, and nearly caused me to burst my stitches after my surgery, but it did cheer me up!!
"I wish I could learn to shimmy like my sister Kate" is another classic.

out and about.........

since moving to Dorset , me and the Mr like to go out on 'Jaunts' on the weekend. just to get to know the county etc, and we always seem to end up looking in churches, and whether you are religious or not , you have to admit that there is nothing quite like an English county church.

This one is 'St Mary's' in Beaminster, and extremely picturesque little village not far from us.

it's old!!! but has obviously had some rebuild bit at some time, and unfortunately the wooden pews have gone. to be replaced from some rather 'yuk' modern stacking chairs. oh well, the alter was beautiful.And it had a wonderful window and some great statues.

some more patchwork squares.....

just a few more of the patterns from the new quilt.





this tiny patch, above, is my favourite, I'd love a large piece of this.
I suppose because I'm a dress maker first I always think in terms of clothing and amounts of fabric for an item of clothing, but this one just gives me joy to look at . and this is the joy in this quilt for me, not looking at fabric with a view to 'what can i make with it'?! but just enjoying the fabric for itself and its print.

only have items that are beautiful or useful ..........

Now, like a lot of 'sewers', I have a stash of fabric, including a large bag of fabric samples, these are squares  of mainly quilting fabric, you can buy assorted packs, charm packs I think they are called. a bit of a lucky dip.

Now it would be wasteful to throw them away, there are some quite lovely pieces, come just plan odd, but I now have a selection of fabric with a few lovely ones, but now enough of any one design to go with a theme or colour way, so what to do with them?
I also have this rather lovely quilt, I bought it as part of a bed set, in a sale, ridiculously cheap, it have a lovely subtle green boarder and a bit of embroidery , but the main part is cream. Not good with a bed sharing puss-cat. and I'm not really into the minimal thing , or cream, so it never gets used, such a waste!!! and we don't like waste in this house!!!!

I love the Kaffe Fasset school of colour and quilts and spend hours pawing over his books, and I do indeed have a stash of his fabrics to make into a quilt, but I don't want to dilute them with other fabrics that don't  'match up'. so what to do?!!!!!

go back to basics of course!!!! make a quilt out of scraps  using a backing of a quilt you don't use and VOILA!!!!  a thing of beauty( well to my eyes anyway)

How the whole patch work quilt thing started!!!! make use of things and enjoy them.

 and put all together, the patches, have a beauty of there own, and it's a joy to 'find' these slightly odd fabrics. the whole' jumbled up' effect gives  each patch a new 'feeling', and makes them more interesting than when they where viewed alone.

I 've spent ages just looking at the designs in a new light.

Yes , there is a patch with cows on it!!!! why ? I don't know, but it makes me smile.;)
 Koi carp on a bed spread anyone! pretty colours though!!!