Malvern, Quilts UK, cake etc

I was very lucky to get some more of this Nicholas Herbert print on ebay. It is so superb.

And also some of this French hand printed fabric. I get so excited when I can buy these lovely fabrics and know when they eventually go in my quilts, I shall have the only quilts with them.

I was supposed to go to Quilts UK in Malvern on the first day of the show. The weather was raining cats and dogs and I got a call from someone there saying it was packed even more than normal. I suspect that was because the weather meant no one was sitting outside as they normally do for a breather. So I put it off a day.

On the Friday we picked up my new little car and drove up there. I didn't want to arrive too early to avoid the crowds so we stopped for lunch in Upton upon Severn. I noticed this delightful Laundrette. I love how they did their retro windows.

I didn't take many photos at the show but will show you just one of the quilts. It is made by Andrea Strake of Germany. Her hand quilting is exquisite.

To give you scale I put my finger against it (forgive me Andrea, it was clean though under the nail still had stubborn bits of gardening despite scrubbing and pointing my fingers up against the stream in the power shower).

This is how I love quilting by hand or machine, more is more. And it is no surprise to see she received three ribbons for this work.

Because my quilt wasn't finished (still) I had nothing to enter this year...... sigh

I did buy some fabric..... shoot me. But who could resist this Dutch Heritage border print?

I spent Saturday in bed until mid afternoon recovering. I had company.

It is my birthday on Saturday, so I made a cake. It is a bit wonky but it smelt heavenly.

I put tons of really good vanilla in it.
The smell was too much and instead of waiting, I was very naughty and cut it early.

It tastes even better than it looks.

And the last of the tulips have saved themselves for my birthday. I haven't tweaked the colours, this is how they are.

Life (and pain) got in the way.

Life has not been brilliant these last couple of weeks. For those of you who don't know, I have fibromyalgia (please don't send links to wonderful 'cures') and sometimes it gets worse than others, this has been one of those times.
On the quilting front I missed the deadline for entering the quilt this year. A bit of me felt disappointed but another even bigger part of me felt relief. I was pushing myself too far and too hard.
To keep this post vaguely on topic here are a couple of new to me 1980s reproductions of much earlier prints, both are hand printed.

I have been having trouble driving our cars when going round bends I feel like the car is tipping over, it isn't but it feels like it is. Apparently this is yet another symptom of the condition. It is caused by the centre of gravity in taller cars, it was terrible in the 4WD and still there in the little Smart car. I needed to be lower but not so low it would present problems getting in and out. I really didn't mind too much what the replacement would be but I had a few essentials. Automatic gearbox, air con, my rollator had to fit in the back and lower on the road with the wheels on the corners. I got tired sitting is so many cars without even test driving them. The journey ended with me falling in love with a Beetle.

Because mobile phone signal here is less than reliable DH wanted me to have a car which is less likely to break down.  This car is all but new, it has not had a previous owner and has 29 miles on the clock. Dealers here find it works for them to buy extra cars and register them to make their quotas with the makers. These cars are bargains. We're picking it up on Friday.

 

My horrible/lovely cats bought in a tiny bunny. It's about the size of two tennis balls. It was let go in a hedgrerow away from the house. I don't know if it made it or became dinner for some other creature.

You might have noticed we had an election here in the UK last week. I went very early and took this shot on my little walk to the polling station about 100 yds from my house. I thought the mist rolling over the fields looked lovely.

I am sure our little polling station must be amongst the prettiest. It used to be the village school once upon a time.

By the time I had voted, less than ten minutes later, the mist had gone.

Hexagons. Smarties have changed their packaging. This is where the tesselation properties of hexagons comes into play. The circular tubes would have had air between them, these can be packed into a smaller box. I remember the tubes from over 50 years ago, it's silly but I feel a little pang of regret when something from my childhood disappears. On the other hand they didn't taste much like Smarties to me anyway.....

Another little bit of excitment. This little bird house sits indoors on my windowsill in the kitchen. I went to make a cup of tea and a little tiny shrew climbed out of the top window. I don't know who was most surprised. He went out the window when I opened it for him and I have ordered bigger louder bells for the cat collars.

And I came all over in a Domestic Goddess mode and made bread and butter pudding. I prefer it with white bread so bought a loaf specially. It had been years decades even since I have made it so I looked up a recipe. The first two I read had cinamon, sounded wrong to me but hey my memory is shot. It was horrible. It MUST have nutmeg. The birds in the garden liked it.

Happy quilting everyone and perhaps I shall see you at QuiltsUK this week.