I'll have blah, blah and a side order of blah!

For some reason I've been very blah for the last couple of days. I haven't got anything useful done at all, just mooched around reading, watching telly and wasting time on the internet. I don't know why, but I'm going to blamer the weather, that is just being blah as well!

The truth is more like I have to do a years worth of filing and stuff for my accounts which is my totally least favourite thing to do, even ironing comes before it so I keep putting it off by frittering my time away on doing nothing!

I did however finish the "Loving the Love" top. Thats its name now, not very original, but there you go. This ended up at 56 x 84 inches so one of the biggest quilts I've made. I don't yet know how I will quilt this, I just know it will be hard work shoving it through my little machine. I'm really pleased with how it came out, this is the first time I ever set a block on point so I was a bit worried I would mess it up and then things wouldn't match but most of my seams were ok so that is good enough for me!

Favourite things friday

I first read The Hobbit at around seven, then got my hands on The Lord of the Rings at about the age of 10/11. I remember it took me about 3 months to finish it and I only achieved that because I was laid up in bed sick for a week.

I love it so much. It took me to another world, where magic and fantasy existed, where the littlest people became the greatest heroes, where good eventually triumphed! I loved the many dimensions the story had and the pathos. The sense of history, the poems and the comedy.  The Hobbit had a dragon as well. I've always loved dragons!

I have lost track of how many times I've read it over the years. I even have it on audio cassette but I can't listen to that anymore as I don't have a cassette player. I really much get it on CD.

I enjoyed the films a lot, but they aren't anywhere as good as the book. Especially as they made really silly changes in some places.

If I could only ever read one book again in my life it would be this one (or really all three books that make up the full volume).

Head over to Mrs P for more Favourite Things Friday. http://fairybreadmusings.blogspot.com/

Loving the Love

Amy Butlers Love that is. Here are the blocks I've made so far laid out on my design bed. I didn't know how big I would make this when I started but I like it so much I will go bigger. At the moment it would end up 46x70 which is around my comfort zone for when it come to quilting but I will add a bit more now and push myself.

I went to the V&A again on sunday to see an exhibition of Grace Kellys dresses. The weird thing was a lot of them (especially from the 70s) were horrible. Then they had a picture of her wearing it and it looked amazing on! Very enjoyable though, it finishes this week so not much time left if you want to go.

Everytime I go to the V&A there is always something new to discover. We walked around the Ironwork collection which had the most wonderful pieces and shapes. These gates look like they are made with string, such workmanship.

A random staircase had this installation which is made from picture frame corners - lots and lots of frames!

And a view down into one of the scupture rooms.

Have I mentioned I love this place?

Favourite things Friday

Joining in with Mrs P's new theme over at http://fairybreadmusings.blogspot.com/ of favourite things friday my favourite thing this week is ----- ME!!!

Now no, I'm not being a bigheaded freak, but I started the next term of my counselling course this week. Its a long journey of 4 years until we qualify as it is only part time but I know the biggest thing I have to deal with is giving myself unconditional positive regard. If I can't be kind and caring to myself and show myself love, how can I be that way to others!

So from my early beginnings as a London urchin in the 70s

through to the new romantic 80s as a teenager

and my very brief fit phase - I walked the whole way down this mountain at 19 (please note down, not up thats what cable cars are for)

and my even briefer glam phase in my early 20s (in the most expensive item of clothing I've ever had - £250 in the early 90s, worn once and still in my wardrobe)

to a homeowner in my later 20s

and becoming a freelance consultant in my 30s

I'm now fat, forty and fabulous starting a whole new chapter of my life!

The road to hell...

I was really going to be good. I know I have complained about how much I dislike basting and end up putting it off by started new tops.

I cleared the table of all the bits and pieces of fabric.

I stocked up on wadding.

Then I got some goodies from our friends at Amazon.

And saw this quilt in the jelly roll book.......

Which I kept seeing with all my Amy Butler Loves - fat quarter set and jelly roll!

And had to start with these blocks.

...so much for good intentions!

Its official, I'm a blogaholic

I was all relaxed yesterday after a good meal and gossip with a mate I haven't seen all summer and when I got home I read this post http://thequilter.blogspot.com/2010/09/bye-bye-bloglines.html about how Bloglines is closing down. Bloglines is the reader I use to keep track of all the blogs I read, oh my God, did I have a little panic attack!

What if I could never remember the names of some of my favourite bloggers! What about all the posts I had been saving with ideas for quilts I was going to make one day! Thats when I knew I was a blogaholic. No question about it.

I followed Paula's easy step by step guide to set up in Google Reader instead (copied below with permission) but now I have to go through each one and find the posts I had saved. This is going to take ages, but I am on a deadline! Bloglines closes 1st October - aarrgh! But the thought of not doing it and just letting all those old posts fade away, no! I can't let that happen. I'm definitely addicted.


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You need to have a Google Account which you already have if your blog is in Google Blogger.




1) Sign out of your blog

2) Go to Google.com.

3) In the upper right hand corner of the Google screen you will see "Sign In". Click it.

4) Fill in the blanks. The email and password are the ones you use to sign into your blog

5) Now that you are signed in the screen looks just about normal except you will see your email addy up in the upper right hand corner.

6) Look in the upper left corner of the screen. If you do not see the word "Reader" then click on the word "More". If you still don't see it in the drop down menu click on "Even More" and you will be in the Google page of all the apps they offer. Look under "Communicate, Show & Share" and pick "Reader"

7) You will now have the "Reader" page.

8) At this point I want you to open another browser window/tab. If you do not know how to do this don't worry.

9) Go to your Bloglines account. From the "My Feeds" page, click "Edit Link" at the top of the left panel. There will be a link to export you subscriptions in OPML formal. Choose that, follow any steps it asks you to do. Remember where the OPML file is saved. (This is very important!)

10) Now go back into your Google Reader. (This is why I wanted you to open another tab because you can switch between the tabs easier and faster than typing in the URL.)

11) Look in the upper right hand corner. See the "Settings" option? Click it and then choose "Reader Settings"

12) Right now we are only concerned with the Import/Export . Click on it.

13) See where it wants you to browse for an OPML file? Click on "Browse" and find the OPML file that you exported from Bloglines.

14) Click on "upload"

15) Follow any suggestions.

16) When done you should have the same blogs in your Google Reader that you had in Bloglines.

17) You can make folders in Reader and move the blogs into folders. It is easy to add blogs by clicking on the Add Subscription at the top.

Faffing around

I haven't seemed to be able to focus on anything very constructive this week, instead I've just been faffing around with a few blocks here and there.

Firstly I decided to play with handstitched hexagons using 3/4 inch hexies and some of my tufted tweets scraps. I really like doing them but I made the mistake of using translucent thread. I thought I was oh so clever using this as I didn't have any red thread to use. It was horrible and took twice as long. Okay, it can't be seen but it twisted and turned like a wriggly eel. In future I will rather have my threads visible!

This will eventually be turned into some sort of cushion cover.

On the sewing machine I tried a technique for pineapple blocks that I found here http://shiny4444.blogspot.com/2010/08/karin-hellaby-creates-pineapple-blocks.html and let me say it worked a treat. I only did a couple of rounds as I was just trying it out. I'll add it to my todo list now for a full sized quilt.

These other blocks were just playing, I've no idea what I will do with them eventually!

I need to get on with some basting which is my least favourite part of the whole quilt process, hence the faffing around doing other things!!!

Norway - part 2

Day 5 - Olden

A lovely early morning view.

Followed by a full day trip again all over the countryside. First stop up a very scarey road to Videseter, can you imagine how steep and bendy the road was to get up here!

Then going back down another mountain for a view over the village of Geiranger. Where we were heading to a ferry to cross the fjord. That isn't our ship but another one, Ventura is too big to go into this particular fjord!

In the village the perfect scenic shed!

And then from the ferry the fjord looked magnificant.

Day 6 - Stavanger

In the morning one of the biggest private yachts in the world "Le Grand Bleu" sailed past us. 

We took a boat trip along the Lysefjord on a gloriously sunny afternoon. 

And above us was the Pulpit Rock. It was a lot easier to get there by boat than hiking across the top!

Finally we headed back to the ship past the beautiful marina and back on board Ventura to sail back home and say goodbye to lovely lovely Norway. 

Norway part 1

Be warned, there are lots and lots of pictures in this post. I've tried to just show the highlights out of the hundreds I took but it was hard to narrow it down.

Day 1 - Sailing away from Southampton on the Ventura, one of the biggest cruise liners around.

Day 2 - At sea - a little bit choppy!

Day 3 - Bergen

Its easy to wake up early when this is the view from the balcony.

We did a city tour here and then went up to the top of Mount Fløien by funicular. From here you can see across the whole town and the Ventura perched in the middle bigger that anything.

Henrik Ibsen the playwright spent a long time in Bergen and this is the statue to his memory!!!! Our tour guide told us it was okay to laugh. Considering I associate his work with dark heavy subjects it was definitely a surprise.

Day 4 - Flam

This mornings view of the Sognefjord.

From here we did a full day touring. First to Gudvangen by the Nærøyfjord where they are creating a viking settlement complete with longboat in the fjord (in the middle of the pic behind the moored boats).

Then to the Tvinde Waterfall.

After lunch and a couple of different train journeys through the scenic countryside we returned to Flam, past one of the many trolls dotted around the country and a great view of the ship on the fjord.

More tomorrow.

Home from the sea!

I'm back after my week away cruising to wonderful Norway and very sad to be home I must say. No one to serve me lots of fab meals, make my bed each morning, turn it down at night, leave a choccie on my pillow and no more wonderful fjords and mountains and waterfalls to enjoy.

I have a case full of dirty washing and an empty fridge to look forward to instead! Not fair!

When I go through all my pics I'll show you all some of the highlights, basically all of it.