Indulge me

She's home!!!!

We'll be at the airport tomorrow picking up Fliss. It won't be until she is in my arms shall I start breathing properly again. She's had the best time and for that we are pleased. I am her Mum and I just need to hold her.
These are one of my two favourite fruits, raspberries being the other. Spending my teenage years in Queensland meant these were never on the menu and now I love it when both gooseberries and raspberries come into season.
I just rinse them, pull off the brown end and snip off the other. Place them in a saucepan with no water except that what is left on from rinsing, and some sugar.
I heat them gently on the simmer plate and very soon they are ready. We'll have them tonight with a little fresh cream.
And the colouring is coming along on the dire quilt.

Something out of nothing

There are some large walls looking bare in our bedroom.
This was my quickie answer whilst I find something to 'fit'. This is just a piece of fabric framed. The colour goes well with the blue and white toile de jouy.

So that's one corner of the bedroom sorted.....

Not much to blog about today

except this visitor to our garden last night.
Not large, one of this year's cubs.

Playing with that awful premarked quilt

Remember in September last year how I quilted up that pre marked quilt top and said it didn't work because there was not enough definition between the grid and the motifs? Yesterday I started to colour it. Not a great job but it's too sticky today to do much so it's nice just sitting under a giant parasol and fiddling about. The kids who end up with it will not criticize my work and it will be a little less boring for them.

Blog integrity

Yesterday I was very surprised to get an email from a US supplier/publisher asking me to recommend their new products on my blog.
I am very saddened by this. If I ever recommend anything at all, it's because I think it's great and it works for me. I will never be induced to support any product or service for any other reason.
I'd like to think the blogging world is free of this sort of thing.
I'm saddened more than anything else.

Remember this guy?

Here he is on the pole of the bird feeder.
I bought one of those ultra powerful water guns and we waged war with each other. I kept it loaded on the bedroom window sill and managed to squirt him a few times but not often enough to stop the blighter.

Now the pole has white lube on it. I couldn't find the camera in time but the funniest sight of my life was watching him try and try and keep sliding down. I looked at getting a baffle but a, they are very ugly and b, very expensive for a bit of plastic. The metal ones were so ugly I wouldn't even consider one.


On the sewing front, Malcolm from Sewfine turned up yesterday morning with my other Aurora back from service and took the other away. I feel very lucky to have such wonderful service and to have two machines so I always have a back up (three if I count the 1260)

They're finished and in the post

You know just how hard you've worked when you have a little panic as they go out the door.....

So I'll see them again hanging at the Festival of Quilts at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. If you have not been before, do go. This is the largest show in Europe and has quilts from all over the globe. Hotel rooms at the NEC were booked out ages ago but you can stay fairly nearby. It can be more than a little overwhelming if you try and do it all in a day. Some do but they are made of sturdier stuff than I, lols.
I was particularly pleased how well they both hung in the bedroom, it will be interesting to see what happens when they get there.......

I have been stitching, honestly

I've put a photo of this stuff up as a warning. Do not buy it! It shouldn't be sold. There is just no way you can eat just one slice of this. Colin and I managed to eat the whole loaf in just a couple of hours. We each sneaked back separately to the kitchen to have another slice until it was gone. You are far better off never having let it once slip through your lips.
I've been making my quickie labels for my quilts again. This time I did it with the zig zag set at about half way. I took it to straight stitch between some of the letters. I didn't use stabiliser but I did heavily starch the fabric before putting it in the hoop.

I might have been a little more elegant if I'd written on the fabric first, but as usual I wanted it done quickly and done is always better than not done (grin).

Going over the quilt carefully to check for any unburied threads I found this feather without the extra quilting on it. How did that happen? Anyway, I think it's all done now. The other quilt needs about another 40" of binding sewn down and then I can post them off. Yeah!

I have been coveting one of these for some time now. I gave in and bought it on Ebay for an astronomical sum. It's produced by Bernina USA . Who would have thought I'd lie in bed at night reading a manual for presser feet?

And just when you are sure there is nothing else in the world you covet along comes the new Bernina. Bigger throat, bigger bobbin, built in dual feed, faster, needle threader and loads loads more. Does anyone have any idea how much this object of desire costs?

and still more, gorilla, dwarf, meercats, sea lions.

Shame about the concrete top on this.
Californian sea lions. They are in a huge lake with two hippopotami but they were too quick for me to get a good shot of them.
This silver back is 34 years old. His mate died last year. He is too old to put with other gorillas so he is on this island by himself. The island is about 1/4 of an acre. He has a tv and apparently prefers cartoons with bright colours. If he doesn't like a program he just turns his back to it.
And who can resist Meercats? They have this lovely litter at the moment.

No photos were permitted inside the house, not for the damage from flash but for security reasons.
If you do go, I recommend you either decamp from the estate for lunch and find a pub or use the cafe in the cellar of the house. Far more civilised than the main eatery.

sculptures at Longleat

These first three are different angles of one sculpture and the last two of another.

More from Longleat- sculpture and the house

This sculpture is lovely. It moves, this is as far open as it will go, then each side slowly rotate and release a water fall each side of you as you drive through, then they gently raise again.

and still more- lions and tigers (ands a wolf)

All bred in captivity. The tigers come from France. Interestingly I heard elsewhere in the last couple of weeks, the country with the largest population of tigers is the USA.

More from Longleat

I don't think you need me to comment on these. It was fantastic to be so close.