Beautiful music.....horrible harvest!

Well - what a morning we've had!  Dorina and Brian stayed the night on our CL, and it turns out Dorina is a violinist who has led practically every Symphonia (Scottish, London, Los Angeles) we've ever heard of.  Anyway, she came up this morning to give Jonathan a lesson and also played some pieces for us.  What a joy!  And Jonathan's Happy Birthday is coming along very nicely.

Went to the Festival of Quilts the other week and saw some beautiful quilts.  A few of my favourites were:

Wrapped in Gentleness by Hiromi Yokota - wow! 70,000 beads handsewn to quilt!

In Memory of my Mother by Patricia Fitzgibbons.  This quilt incorpoated old pieces of embroidery - something I've had in mind for a while.

Julia's Venetian Travelling Quilt by Michelle Holmes of Ashby de la Zouch.



ammendment

Belinda's right - it is a Puss Moth.  It was wrongly described on the photo I found. 

Grub's Up!

Had a very nice morning at Pitch and Stitch and we all admired Marie's tapestry cushion she is making.  Marie's husband was a Hungerford man and they come up from Devon each year to visit old friends and family - this is the first time she's joined us at Pitch and Stitch though (although I've admired her crochet in the past) and we look forward to her coming again.
Anyway, it was midday and as we were all starting to feel peckish and our minds were turning to grub - look what started coming through the door:

Ummm.  Good appetite supressant!
I'm trying to find out what it is.  It was about 2 inches long and very fat.  One suggestion is a Hawk Moth caterpillar but I'm pretty sure it's a Pine Hawk Moth Caterpillar.

Help in the garden

Clare and Pauline joined us at Pitch and Stitch this morning - they came up from the caravan site.  Clare was escaping her husband and children for a couple of hours (not really, I'm sure) and brought up some cross stitch and Pauline started on a the little heart kit we have.  It's always so interesting to meet people from other parts of the country.  Obviously, one of the main topics of conversation was how well we are doing in the Olympics and both Sandra and Jackie are lucky enough to have actually  gone up there - Jackie on super saturday so she was still wallowing in the excitement and I was quietly very envious!
This afternoon I was sitting staring out the window, doing nothing and thinking about everything I should be doing, when I saw I was getting a little help in the garden:

This young hare was munching at the water thistles in the rose bed!!! - very helpful!

Summer Break

Wow!  Olympic Fever has hit Lorne Hill Farm!  I'm glued to the TV and loving it all!  I'm keeping everyone informed as to where we are on the medal table and I watched the gymnastics so avidly whilst doing Japanese folded patches that reality has become a little blurred and I'm not sure which I'm best at, the Japanese folded patches or the Japanese handstand.  I've been so inspired by it all that I'm determined to master touching my toes with legs straight by the end of it all.
Now August is here it's time for our summer break.  Although Tuesday morning Pitch and Stitch continues as always, we don't run any workshops in August, although Sandra and I are putting our heads together to work out the Autumn schedule which will recommence in September.

We had the last of the Medallion Quilt Days from the Spring schedule on what was one of the hottest days of the year - the workshop was more like a sweatshop!  A few of the ladies have finished their quilts now - and they look tremendous!

Some are coming along nicely

and some are forging ahead on their second Medallion!

So - there will be spaces on the Medallion Quilt course in September so new people can join. Thanks to the brilliant Lyn Johnson, our teacher, we also have a fantastic new method for basting the quilts - no more crawling around on the floor or taping to tables, using two 4x2s we can baste a whole quilt, in comfort, in a morning:

Pure genius!













We also had a Mariner's Compass workshop recently with Anne Jervey.  It was hand stitched and I used Pauline's fabric and am making it the centre of a quilt for her granddaughter.  I am surrounding it with Japanes patches so the whole quilt will be hand-stitched.  Very girly but quite pretty, I think.

Right, got to go now - I think I'm playing handball next.

And...

Finally got the kneeler finished!

Summertime

It's been quite a busy few weeks round here - and very wet!
Here are some of the things we've been up to:
Christine Brewster came and gave a workshop on willow weaving.  In the morning we made a trivet and basket, and then in the afternoon we moved on to more challenging things and using a sort of 'freestyle' weaving made sculptures.

It was a very productive day and we were all pleased with our efforts.

The day before was Medallion Quilt day - and another of these beautiful quilts was completed:

Well done Jackie.
The day before that was Pitch and Stitch - and Dawn brought along the lovely picture she has needle-felted:

It is of their little dog and Dawn had saved some of his fur from when she used to groom him, and incorporated it into the picture.

Then we went on our lovely holiday in France.  We stayed at Les Jincheres in the Deux Sevres and had a wonderful time.  As you can see from the weather house

The weather was quite changeable, but when it was hot it was very hot, and when it was cloudy it was still warm and we had very little rain which was a welcome change from home!  The gite was lovely and in the middle of nowhere so, as George said, the bad things about it was that it was quiet and there weren't loads of people about and the good thing about it was it was quiet and there weren't loads of people about!



On our return we discovered some new inhabitants at Lorne Hill Farm:

They've moved on now that we're back and banging in and out!
Last Wednesday we had the last day of the Beginner's Sampler course.  Everyone had done so well and Carole had actually finished!  Although not a complete beginner, Carole wanted to do the course to try out stitchery and applique.  She chose to make her quilt to celebrate her daughter's trip over to the other side of the world and so all the pictures were relevant to her travels.  It was so funny one day when we were all sorting out our blocks and talking about hearts and flowers when Carole said "Has anyone seen my Sidney Opera House?"

And this is the whole quilt:

Really stunning!
Finally, we went into Newbury to see the Olympic Torch.  It was far more exciting than I expected and I don't think I've ever seen so many people in town - all happy and cheering

Took some great pictures of the actual torch but it was a pity that the camera wasn't switched on at that point.....