Talking of courses

Keith signed up for a two day workshop on woodturning, something he's been wanting to try for a long time. Now that he has his big shed and time he thought it was time give it a go. The workshop was due to start shortly after we arrived back from Austria but snow put paid to that. Finally on Thursday the big day arrived. Here are a couple of photos his tutor took while Keith was engrossed in practising what he'd been taught. He rang me a lunchtime to say he'd enjoyed himself but so far the only thing he'd made was a large pile of wood chippings. Good job the tutor has a woodburner in the workshop.

At the end of the day he was the proud owner of two pieces of wood with different curves and grooves and a candlestick. Tomorrow (Sunday) is the second day of the course and he's planning to make a pen and a bowl. He's really enjoying himself and I get some time to play too.

I keep looking at the big box of scraps I have and am determined to do something with them, what I haven't decided but tomorrow while Keith is at his woodturning course would be a good day for me to make a mess too.

We thought we'd go out for the day today and take photos for our homework but its raining hard with some snow in the rain. Not sure you are supposed to take cameras out in the rain. Buster came with us but solidly refused to get out preferring to stay in the warmth of the car. Not a stupid dog after all.

I've not been entirely idle

I thought I'd start the year with a new cushion cover and having got Carol Taylor's "Art Quilt Design" dvd for Christmas it seemed a good idea to have a go at Carol's technique. She creates the background cloth by bonding fabrics (different weights of fabric) onto a calico/muslin ground. That's okay I thought, I have lots of bits of sheers, velvets, silks, furnishing fabrics etc I'll have a go. Nope... I had lots of fabrics but not enough of anything to create a piece big enough for the cushion I had in mind. What I did find lurking though was a pack of dupion silks in various shades. Carol cuts out the squares and rectangles and throws them effortlessly into a homogenous whole - me, well it looked like the dogs dinner. In the end I did end up with something fairly useful. Next step is to couch yarn round the shapes the couch more yarn on top of the whole thing in circles. Time to try out my new number 43 foot for the Bernina. It worked a treat on the outlining but circles I found more difficult. This is a bit of the larger 26" square I made. By the time I'd got this far (it takes far more time than you realise) I'd had second thoughts about the circles. In fact about the whole cushion thing. What was I doing even contemplating putting couched yarn on something that would get pawed by the dog and thrown on the floor by the men of the house. I must be nuts. Now what was I going to do with it?

Not a problem, I turned some of into my January 'Doodle' theme postcards. I call them "Not Quite Crazy Doodles"

Don't know about you but when I doodle on paper I have a tendancy to create shapes, squares, circles, triangles etc and fill them and their edges with pattern. I rarely doodle faces or houses mine tend to be floral or geometric patterns. I really enjoyed doodling with threads to create these cards. So much so that I shall make my January Journal Page for the Contemporary Quilt 2010 challenge this way and use up a bit more of my 'cushion cover'.

My postman brought me cards with the same 'doodle' theme from Doreen, Jennifer, Chris and Cindy.

These are Cindy and Jennifers cards, they have created zendoodles.

Whilst Jennifer and Doreen have doodled with machine embroidery.

Last month's theme was 'Poem" and I was unable to show Lorna's card as it arriving after I'dleft for Austria. The Owl is a wonderful bright pink and her background is of threads under a layer of sheer then quilted. It looks much nicer in the flesh.

I'm sure many of you will have made resolutions but this year I've not done so. I only last a few weeks anyway before I break them. What I have done though is challenge myself to get to know some of the software I have on my pc better. I've had Electric Quilt for quite some time and upgraded last year to version 6 but have done very little with it. To this end I've enrolled on two courses with the Quilt University. My second challenge is to get to grips with Photoshop. I'm not too bad with Paintshop Pro and its a good jumping off point for Photoshop. However I'm slower with it and instead of working my way through the difficulties I go back to Paintshop. Last, but not least, Keith and I have enrolled in a digital photography course at the local Art Centre. We have to do our homework before Monday night - take 20 to 30 photos changing the f (focal length), make a note of the changes then take them in to show the tutor. So far I've taken 3. Tomorrow we're going out for the day to do our homework.

Over on Julie's blog she's having a give away for her 600th post. I love the work she is doing at the moment and one of her quilts has been used in the advertisement for the Northern Needlework show later this yhear. Head over to her blog and have a look.

New Year in the Alps

We set off for Austria on the 29th in full sun and thick snow expecting to find Austria looking similar. Wrong it was very green although it was sunny. There was snow on the mountain peaks but everywhere else was green although the mist rising from the valley below obscured a lot of the mountains.

On New Years Eve just as the festivities began, it started to snow. We all went outside to watch it come down, as though we'd not seen snow for a decade. At the stroke of midnight the Austrians in the valley set of fireworks and the sound reverberated and echoed round the valley. New Years Day we awoke to a white world and our drivers were a bit concerned that our coach would need snow shoes to take us down the mountainside to Salzburg. However the roads had been cleared and we managed to get to Salzburg without trouble.

In the Mozart Plaza there was a small ice rink where the children were really enjoying themselves. I would have loved to have had a go with the penquin but think I might have needed several to keep me upright.

Just round the corner from the Mozart Plaza you can see the HohenSalzburg Fortress standing on top of the hillside overlooking the town. Its the largest fortress in Europe and houses a small town inside its walls.
It is quite a climb to the top of the Fortress ramparts and by the time I got there my poor old lungs were protesting loudly. But the view over Salzburg was spectacular.
Back in the town we had hot chocolate and very rich cream cakes in one of the many small cafes in the lanes leading off the main square. Under one of the arches in the square were a quartet of blind musicians. I did take a small video so you could hear them but when I played it back I have a small child wandering backwards and forwards in front of the camera, very annoying so maybe I'll do better next time. (the man standing is hiding the 4th player)
We spent half a day in Mayrhofen in the Ziller valley and thought we'd take a ride in a gondola to the top of the ski run. We weren't sure where the cable car started from but several skiiers seemed to be going in the same direction so we thought we'd follow them. Instead of getting to the cable car we found oursellves in back street where we realised too late that they were taking their skis back. to the rental shop!! By the time we did find the lift it was too late to make the trip.

We've not been to Innsbruck before so we were looking forward to the visit but it was freezing cold and snowy a bit uncomfortable to be outside for long. We couldn't go to the Olympic Ski Jump either (although it dominated the town) because a competition was being held and all the roads had been closed to traffic. Incidentally when you stand at the top of the ski jump ready for the off directly below you is a cemetry!!
Because it was so cold we spent a lot of time indoors. This ceiling on the Dom is actually flat but is so skillfully painted that it gives the impression of being domed. I haven't done the colours justice they were quite vibrant even if there was alot of brown.In the old quarter of Innsbruck there are several 13th and 15th century houses that had survived the WWII bombing. This one was once the main the residence of Maximillian and the panelling shows him with both his wives (not married to them at the same time just shown at the same time). And with his councellors.


This house on the corner is known locally as the "Wedding Cake" house and you can see why, especially with the pink and white decorations. We spent quite a lot in Swarovski's 15th Century shop where I drooled over the crystal and marvelled at the prices.

They had a small exhibition in the basement this is the Swarovski "Wedding Cake" It was a
bit over the top for my liking and as the basement was quite dark rather difficult to photograph but I think you get a feel of what it was like.

Our journey home started off well with sun on the mountains making them sparkle, very pretty. However by the time we got down out of the mountains we hit blizzards, road works and traffic jams. All in all it took over 15 hours to get to Leige where we stopped overnight. When we got back to the UK we had more snow than Austria!!

I have done some sewing since I got back which I haven't yet photographed so I'll keep them until next blog.

Happy Christmas snowmates

This Christmas has been memorable because of the amount of snow we've had. It is beginning to go now but I thought we weren't going to get to Walworth Castle for our Christmas lunch but we did. We went out on Christmas eve for a meal with friends and I thought they would need to roll me home I was so full. Christmas day meal though was with the family and we thoroughly enjoyed that too. I must have put on pounds - good job the sales are on so I can go and buy some trousers that fit round the waist!! Christ and Cindy sent me these two cards based on the poem theme, not quite a poem but close enough and very seasonal.

I hope santa was kind to everyone and you got lots of lovely gifts. I must have been very good this year I not only got a watch, pandora bracelet and a new ipod but lots of lovely books and a couple of games for my DS so lots to keep me amused in the days to come.

I had every intension of give the house a good clean but we seem to have had so many people popping in and out over the last few days I decided it wasn't worth the trouble. I'd much rather have the company.

Keith and I both missed our Mum's this year but we wished them a happy Christmas at midnight on Christmas Eve,

Three (well more like two and a half) sleeps before we leave for Austria. Still not sure what I'm taking but I always have this problem and in the end I just throw in whatever I can get it. It always works out that I've taken far too much.

Yesterday was the last of the Advent Swaps, not had time to take photos of the last two the light has been so bad and its very difficult to scan an empty tin.

It struck me tonight that I should have done some snow dyeing so tomorrow if there is enough clean snow left I might just give it a go, if I can remember how.

More advent swaps

The Advent Swap is coming to a close now, only two days and it will be Christmas Day and four days after that Keith and I will be on our way to Austria for New Year. Not sure what 2010 will bring but we both look forward to a fresh start, 2009 has been a difficult year for our family.
]
In the meantime I want to catch up with the Advent Swaps: Day19 brought emery boards with a picture of a ballet dancer on the front. It was difficult to make out what the picture was at first, we thought it was mountains!! on turning them sideways though the true picture emerged. I'm always short of emery boards so they'll come in handy.

Day 20 is a magnetic fridge notebook and pen, my old one is getting a bit bare so this also is a timely gift.

Day 21 brought this lovely coaster and mug warmer. I need to adjust the mug warmer a bit as our mugs are slightly shallower than the warmer.

Day 22 and a new diary for 2010, this one is useful as it also has an address book and spare note pad.

Today's gift is a small metal handbag picture frame with a photo of Iris Joy. It's lovely to put a face to the lady I've been swapping with.

I had a hour to pass this afternoon between finishing the ironing and rewashing the kitchen floor (Buster has feet that hold the mud!!). I decided to do a bit of clearing out of some of my stuff and came across these quilted blocks I did years ago. They are machine embroidery blocks done when I first bought my Brother Galaxie several years ago. I had completely forgot them but decided to sew some together to make a cushion. Unfortunately only four were the same size so I'll need to put my thinking cap on to finish the cushion.

These are two more blocks but they are sewn in a different colour and slightly heavier thread than those above so wouldn't look right together.

I suppose I could always turn them into coasters.

We're going out to dinner tomorrow night with friends and family. My brother and his wife were due to go to New York for Christmas but their flight from Newcastle airport was cancelled at the last minute. Their tour company did try very hard to get them to Heathrow in time for their flight but without avail. They are very disappointed but at least they will get the total amount of their tour back so that at least is something. Just hope we don't have similar problems next week.

Matty's present

My grandson Matthew and his girlfriend called this evening to leave me a present. His picture is below:

They'd been making a snowman for Matty's young brothers and decided to leave me a minature one as well - he's about 9" high and cute. We've had quite a bit of snow over the last 24 hours and just as Keith had shovelled it off the path we are expecting more so I guess we might loose Mr Snowman if it gets too high but at least he won't melt.

Poorly paws is now pesky paws!!

Have you ever tried taking a dog for a walk in the rain and snow when he does not want to go? He suddenly developed a limp, sad look, shivered and ran for home!! When we got back (all of ten minutes later) he jumped around the house with a look on his face that very clearly said "fooled yer!!". He's been full of beans all day but absolutely refuses to go outside for any longer than it takes to relieve himself. Our poorly paws has become a pesky paws as he's got so much energy he's plagueing us to death.

This month's challenge for the private group was to create a postcard based on a favourite childhood poem. I searched long and hard for this one as I had so many of them. The Night Mail by WHAuden with its trainlike meter, Alfred Noyes "The Highwayman" who came riding up to the old inn door or Walter dela Mare's "The Listeners" that scared me when I tried to learn it in bed in the dark. But in the end I decided on Lewis Carroll's "Father William" because as a child it made me laugh.
Jennifer fell in love with her poem when visiting the National Garden Museum. It's "My Garden Gate" by anon (C1875). I admit I'd not heard of this one but Jennifer sent me a copy of the poem and it's very relevant today. The garden gate is seen as shutting all the bewildering politics of life out and keeping the peace within.

Doreen's poem was another one I'd not heard but think I would have loved if I'd heard it as a child. Memories of Childhood (don't know who wrote it must look it up) paints a picture of neighbours gathering to chat and taking it in turn to make the tea and bring out the biscuits.

It's snowing hard here and just to prove me wrong Sy andJulie have just brought in a very wet but happy dog covered in the stuff!!

Poorly paws and pressies

I've been very remiss this week in showing the advent swap goodies I've received but we are going to blame it on the dog. But here they are, there are several bags, shopping, hot wheat and lavender bag (although I had to throw the lavender away as it made me sneeze and cough). I'm fine with the flowers in the garden but dried it becomes an irritant. Still Joy wasn't to know that and I do love the smell. I also recieved a lovely little scissor angel which has already had some use;a glass ornament and I think a stoneware vase.

The postman also brought me three stars, one of which was meant for another person so I shall have to part with it. It will go to Maureen who is its rightful owner tomorrow.

The stars are part of the 'star' swap on MixedMedia-atc group and they are really more beautiful in 'the flesh' than in the photo.

A couple of friends are having a hard time with stress at the moment so I decided to make them a 'Dammit Doll' each. I made one of these when I was working and it got a lot of use. They are very easy to use, lots of examples on the web. I just used a cookie cutter for the basic shape, sewed a sad face on them and a few strands of hair, stuffed them and they are ready to whack when you feel the need to shout 'dammit!!!' Try making one they are fun and effective.

On Sunday we went to Castle Howard, one of the UK's grand houses. The house was all dressed up for Christmas and they were wood fires burning in all the rooms. The atmosphere was wonderful, warm, welcoming and beautiful.
There were several trees throughout the house, all decorated by the Howard family.

Someof the baubles looked good enough to eat. What helped to make it festive was the music, in several rooms small ensembles of musicians were playing carols or Christmas music. The music ranged from jazz to choral to brass. We came home tired but happy and beginning to actually feel as though Christmas is upon us.

Now for the poorly paws bit - Buster has been in the wars. First his arthritic hind quarters have been playing him up due to the cold weather. We had no sooner got medication from the vet for this when he split one of his nails and it had to be removed. We had one very cross, very sore pooch for a few days but he's well on the mend now and beginning to enjoy his romps in the woods again.

New of the errant sewing machine. Bernina finally agreed the machine was faulty and gave me a new one. So far everything seems okay, although I did get an error message shortly after beginning to show but when checking it was my own fault. I was using the BSR and forgot to reduce the foot pressure. I must admit quilting is easy with the BSR but I find lettering a pain and its much easier just to digitise the text than use the, what I feel, is a rather cumbersom way of adding lettering to whatever you are sewing. But there is probably an easier way to do it.

I don't really have much time at the moment to play with it as it gets closer to the big day. Still trying to chase the dust bunnies out of the house but feel sorry for them as its so cold outside.

Advent days 4 to 7

Day 4 of the Advent swap brought a teaspoon with a picture of a Galah bird and a boomerang. Day five a pencil box and a magnetic bookmark with an Australian flowering gum picture. Not really sewing related but certainly representative of the country of my swapper and I shall treasure them.

Days 6 and 7 presents were a hankerchief envelope and a 'gypsy' pencil case. Rather an unusual shape. The sewing on both articles is very skillful and I'm looking forward to opening tomorrow's surprise.
The last of the November "Wish you were here" cards arrived this morning from Cindy. Cindy spends part of her year in Seattle and the fabric she's used on the card is very picturesque. It

Shows various well known beauty sites and tourist attractions and the blackwork centre design of a Seattle.

I've not done a lot of sewing this week as I've been trying to get my cards in the post and do the last bits of Christmas shopping. I'm earlier than usual this time, mainly due to not having my main machine.

Now for the ongoing saga of my Bernina 830 (8 series). As a mentioned in a previous post it has gone back to Bogods in Cardif for the third time for repair. I got a phone call from Alan on Friday. I must say Alan has been very forthcoming and kept me up to date with what's happening. On Friday Alan had cracked my problem and was going to sew for a bit longer then service the machine and reset the counter. After that the 830 would be coming home. He rang today to tell me that half an hour after we spoke the machine broke down again. This time the machine is being replaced but he's decided to open the packages and test them before sending them to me. So third time lucky!!! I hope.

Advent swap goodies

My partner in the Advent Swap is Iris Joy Fechner of Australia and its obvious from Day one that she is a skilled quilter. My Day 1 gift is a bag with a large front pocket made from charm squares produced by Paperbark Woman have a look at her site. I love the aboriginal design fabrics the ones in this bag have lovely names such as 'Bush Onion' Bush Tucker, Freshwater Lifecycle and Honey ant.



Day two is a shoe bag which I will put into use when we go to Salzburg just after Christmas.Close up of the stitching on the shoe bag.In the meantime I've been using up some of my jelly roll strips to make book covers. I made six stars for the star swap on Surface Design when I should only have made two. Ah well I have a couple free if anyone wants one.