Been Away

I haven't written for a while because we've had an extremely busy few weeks
Last weekend we went morrising in Cornwall.  Had a great (if rather exhausting time) and danced with some really friendly Cornish sides.  We danced in Boscastle, Crackington Haven and Wadebridge:

We stayed at the Combe Barton Inn in Crackington Haven, with a balcony looking out over the cove - lovely!

Hospital Quilt

Very proud to be able to hand over our hospital quilt to Dr Abigail Macleod today.  I made the binding out of all the different fabrics, and finally put it on last week, and Abigail said she'd come over and collect it.  We've all worked pretty hard on it, and sorting out the pinwheel design was a bit of a nightmare - poor Jackie had to do a lot of unpicking, but it all worked out in the end.  The quilt as you go method was really easy though, and made the whole process much quicker:

 

Unfortunately Sandra is still out celebrating her birthday (how long can it go on for? - What will happen when she's eighty?) and so wasn't  here for the handover to Abigail:

 

Abigail said it would be an enormous comfort to the families of the girls she cares for, which was very touching to hear.

And yes - I even labelled it:

So, well done Jackie, Sandra, Barbara, Lindsay and Dawn!

And Abigail - remember we would love to see you up here working on your second quilt!!


By the way - just looking over the older posts and saw when I was writing about the lambs in the kitchen, I said that hopefully they would survive.  Then I said, oops I spoke too soon, one has just come through the door.  I hope no-one thought I meant one had died - I meant they had just brought another one in for me to care for!  At that point I think I had three or four - now I'm feeding seven!

Oh - and another by the way.  When posing in front of your quilt, always make sure there isn't an elf behind you......

Pesky little creatures play all kinds of tricks.

Nothing doing what it should

Got home from work today to find that instead of hanging out in their lovely paddock, or their amazing hen house, the chicken had decided to move in to the porch:

What a blooming mess!  They'd pulled all the straw out of the bag to make a nest!

Haven't got any quilting pics but had a brilliant workshop on Wednesday.  We started the three part Country Compass course with Lynne Johnson and I really, really enjoyed it.  I am using Japanese fabrics again and think I really love them.  I'll put a picture up when I've completed the first part.

Last weekend was May bank holiday so most of it was taken up with Morris dancing.  Monday was so hot that I'm afraid the Rabbitts rather let the side down:

Oh dear.......

Phew!

What a week!!
I've spent more time in the workshop this week than in the house (- and yes, it shows!) - first we had the Charm Pack weekend workshop.  I wasn't going to start another project......but then I did.  It was actually a lot of fun, and we managed to get so much more accomplished in two days.  Here are some of the works in progress:

I'll put mine up when it's finished!

Then we had Tuesday morning Pitch and Stitch where the sun drew everybody out - there was quite a crowd.  Some of us were working on the hospital quilt which is now very near to completion.

On Wednesday the new Beginner's course started and it was lovely to see all the enthusiasm.

Then today we had the Medallion workshop......Sheila has now lapped me twice as she's on her second Medallion, Jenny has overtaken me, and Jan, who I thought was my comrade in behindness, has suddenly had a surge and gone ahead too.  Oh well, I'll get there in the end.

Things have been a bit bleak on the farm, with TB reactors resulting in Jonathan losing 6 cows (three with calves so he'll have to hand raise them) and the lovely Aberdeen Angus Bull.  It's so upsetting for farmers and little seems to be done to stop the spread of TB.  We'll be cutting the herd down as a result and many farmers are just giving up.  I can see the day when you are more likely to see a badger in the field than a cow in the meadow.

Still, all the youngsters are growing up, the goslings are getting quite tall:

Bottoms up!

And my pet lambs are loving the sunshine:

They are all doing really well!