Snow/Sew Day

Snowing heavily here today so apart from walking Logan we are having a cosy time. Stuart is napping as he had a stressful time when he returned from Madrid because he had to drive home on Glatteis (sheet ice) on the Autobahn from Düsseldorf. We are going to a Burns Night Dinner tonight and he is giving the 'Speech to the Lassies', so he's having a nice snooze and we'll take a taxi tonight so that neither snow nor whisky will cause a problem getting home. I'm going to continue with the Crescent and Star quilt blocks for my youngest daughter. They look like this:



I had wanted to make her a quilt for her International School graduation as I had for our oldest daughter but she couldn't make up her mind what she wanted. This went on until Summer 2009 (after two years at university) when she made her choice. If I'm industrious, it might be ready for her university graduation - only three years late... Although I could make these blocks by machine, the pattern recommended hand-sewing and it is really nice to have something very portable. I sew these while watching tv, take them on long car journeys to Britain, etc and they are challenging and interesting to make. Soon I will have enough and then comes a white border with applique swags and circles.

Chestnuts

Bought some really good chestnuts a few days ago at a market stall. I have a passion for chestnuts and managed to gather about five kilos from the park and the trees along the river (Rhein) in the autumn. I also collected walnuts. I would take Logan, our border terrier, out for a walk and just fill up my pockets every time. Then they became super-abundant and I took a plastic bag with me. Among other gatherers I met someone I called Walnut Man who was ignoring chestnuts and just going for walnuts - we had a short-lived 'nut' relationship whereby I would hand over any walnuts I'd got that day and he would throw up his giant heavy stick into the nearest chestnut trees and fill up my bag for me. A strange little friendship - I wonder if I will see him next autumn. I used some chestnuts to make and freeze stuffing for the Christmas turkey, puree for soup and I roasted and ate the rest, mmm! I am roasting some now before I sit and watch another episode of 'The Wire' borrowed from a friend and I shall think back to those golden autumn walks and exchanges with the Walnuss Mann.

I love Thursdays!

Because Thursday is a non-work day. Because Thursday is our quilt group day. Because anything we eat on Thursdays is calorie-free and guilt-free. Mind you, two people are avoiding desserts at the moment but I don't feel guilty because I shall start cutting down in February (oh dear, that's next week). Well, we are going to a Burns Night dinner this Saturday and February starts the next day so that's okay. We are only six/seven people and we take turns to host the group and cook lunch. The Spiced Carrot soup was really good, it never fails. The cookies I had not made before and did not have quite enough cranberries for the recipe so I added some chopped hazelnuts to make up the amount. I've passed on the recipe to my daughters because these cookies were so buttery and melty/chewy.

I was expecting to help Gay handsew the binding to the group fundraising quilt which will be raffled. The money raised will be donated to the local church to fund the youth mission trip to Romania. Every year a group of high school students go to a country where help is needed and they work (very hard) but have a lot of fun as well. In the past they have helped to renovate buildings for orphanages, refuges, etc. They learn a lot and, as I said before, my daughters both came back exhausted but happy and wiser. Well, Gay had finished everything all by herself, sore fingers and all. Here's the finished quilt:

It is made from some African fabrics that Gay had bought some time ago. It is not the sort of quilt I would make for myself because the colours would not go with anything in our home but it has been fun to make and is going to make the winner very cosy.

I really need some help with how to get photos uploaded in the right order with paragraphs of text. Anyone out there who knows a quick way, please give me a tip or two. At the moment, I'm moving them about in a time-consuming and probably dinosaur-like way. Can someone bring me up to date?

Post or decorate?

I've been reading quilting blogs for the last couple of years, lurking, watching, thinking. Now I've got my own but have the impression that it's a bit empty and plain compared with most that I read. They are decorated with patterns, full of little sidebar things and have a busy, productive look about them. This one still looks a bit sparse. It took me so long to work out how to do the header photograph and how to get photos into the posts that I dread to think how long it would take me to find the fiddly things as well. How come everybody knows this stuff? Anyway, I think I'll just carry on posting and get fancy-nancy later on as I'm feeling much too tired to try tonight. Woke up today with a terrible headache and at 8.20p.m. still have it. It's been that kind of a day. Still, tomorrow the quilters are coming here and we're going to finish off the fundraising quilt for Romania (shall take a photo of it then). I'll feed them Indian spiced carrot soup (my friend Gay's recipe) and then white chocolate and cranberry cookies. Just the thought of that has cheered me up and made me feel better about being in cold and icy Bonn while Stuart goes off to Madrid tomorrow, Grrrr!

Not talking to myself

I discovered yesterday that Google had finally listed this blog - thank you, Olivia, for noticing. And also cheering were two encouraging comments from Zoe and Jennifer, both of whom were friends of mine during our time in the Netherlands. I was warned about the feeling of 'talking into empty air' when a blog first starts and now I know what they meant but I shall have to be careful not to drivel on now that I know there is someone there... Thank you!

More Insane blocks

And here are some more!

Nearly Insane Quilt progress

I am putting my Nearly Insane blocks here just now so I have a permanent photo record of them. Last year, our main computer died and we couldn't retrieve any of our photos. We have taken measures so this won't happen again but I am now wary of just uploading photos and leaving them there. So, here are the first eight blocks.

I haven't done any sewing on these blocks since September 09 and I really should get back to it - want to get back to it - but need to finish a couple of other quilts first. My German friend, Renate, who lives in South Carolina, has got to the same point I have and I think one of us needs to move on to push the other...