Back in the Saddle Again....

My computer whizz sister Belinda came round yesterday and has sorted out my uploading problem.  So....

We went to the NEC and had a brilliant time.  The hotel was lovely and clean although the view from my window left a bit to be desired:

It's the generator for the air conditioning!  What a racket - I spent all night opening and closing the window: couldn't decide which was worse - the noise or sleeping with no fresh air!  Still, I had an adjoining balcony with Sandra so it was fun banging on her window and making her jump.

Saw some lovely quilts -  my favourites are pictured below, with the names of the makers where possible.

I really loved this one made by a lady in Ireland.  Instead of having a blog she makes a quilt blog of everything she does (someone standing near told me she makes one every year):


By Irene MacWilliam

I thought it was marvellous.

I also saw a similar one to an old quilt a caravanner gave me:

By Linda Fry

I liked the way it was put together so have started taking mine apart to put it back together like this.

Other favourites were:

By Virginia Enright

By Ingrid Huber

 



And the best in show, for anyone who didn't go, was:

 

If Lyn Johnson had put her version of Yoko Saito's quilt in the competition I am sure she would have won - it's not quite finished yet, but still absolutely stunning - so much work:

 

 

 

I didn't always agree with the judges, certainly I thought Philippa Naylor's dress was exquisitely worked and I'm not sure I would have chosen the coracle to win.  Still........beauty in the eye of the beholder.

On the farm it's that time of year again,  so the men are working very hard and I'm providing them with fuel.
I'm very excited about the second brood of swallows we have.  This was the first sighting:

And then I was thrilled to see the whole brood:

They are much bigger now and I suppose they will soon be off to Africa:

They all look a bit grumpy, don't they!

May bug time came and went.  We get so many up here and in the evening they fly down the chimney:

Blooming nuisance.

And finally; it was Lambourn carnival over the Bank Holiday and Linda and Betty were fantastic as Aunt Sally and Worzel Gummidge

 

I think you can tell by the way I'm staring at her blankly that I didn't even recognise her! Absolutely hilarious!!

Uh Oh

Just in case anyone thinks I couldn't find my way out of the Festival of Quilts, or got lost in the hotel we were staying in and am stuck in a laundry shaft somewhere.....I'm not.
I'm having a problem with uploading pictures onto this blog - everytime I try it cuts out.  Very frustrating and I think it's boring without pictures so am hoping for an expert to help me out.
Hopefully, it will be sorted soon so I can tell you all about the NEC and what is happening around here.
We are also in the process of sorting out the Autumn Schedule - so keep checking and we should have everything up here very soon!

Seedlings - a risky business

About three weeks ago I finally was able to plant up all my pots etc since the weather finally realised it was summer.  I took all the seedling out of the greenhouse, including ones Alan, a friend of ours,  had given me, and planted up all the pots, and got all the veg seedlings (far less than usual, just beans, courgettes, pumpkins) into the vegetable patch.
Then, as you do, I watered and fussed over them and watched them grow.  Only one set gave me cause for concern - the Rudbeckia Alan had given me.  I expected fernlike leaves, but these were quite big and fleshy.  Perhaps they'll change as they grow I thought, and kept watching.  Time passed and I grew more suspicious.  "Do you think these look like cabbages?", I asked Jonathan, and he thought so too.  So I sent a picture to Alan.  Are these Rudbeckia Alan?

 

"No, he replied, "that's purple sprouting Brocolli."  Apparently I should have read what was written on the back of the label.....of course.....

Like when my friend found a carrot growing in her hanging basket!  Which reminded another friend of how, when they didn't have enough greenery for buttonholes, used carrot tops!!

All the ladies who came to make the lovely satchels with Clare Kingslake last week deserve an award - it was sooo hot out out there but they produced some lovely work:

Finally, Peter the Peacock stopped a night with us last week.  This is him in with the chickens in their high-security run:

He's not very easy to see and was gone again by morning.

Flying School

Went to Newbury today and inspected my mother's garden.  As the ladies at yesterday's workshop will know, she lopped off the heads of her campanulas and was very cross about it - "that strimmer has a life of it's own!".  She said she wished she had a scythe to cut the grass.  I suggested that at 85 a strimmer isn't that good an idea and a scythe is completely out of the question.
I thought her garden looked lovely though:

Lovely and cool on a hot summer's day.
When I got home I saw that flying school had started:

First, tentative flight to top of door:

short hop to shelves:

 

Mum and Dad show how it's done:

 

Cripes! That's enough for us! We're going back home:

Country Compass

Today was the last day of the three-part Country Compass Workshop with Lynne Johnson.  It's been a brilliant course, if somewhat challenging for some of us.  It was quilt-as-you-go, so, in theory, by the end of the course the quilt should be finished, except for perhaps the binding.
This is a picture of my spot in the workshop by the end of the day:

Hmmm.  A little way to go yet.

At Lorne Hill Farm we pride ourselves on being non-competitive, and obviously I was in no way competing with Anne

                                     












  and certainly not with Jackie

Yes - as you can see, all finished, with just the binding to do.
All I will say is, it's East Garston Fete this weekend,  and I'm going to produce the best cake and flower display the village has ever seen, and my single rose is going to blow the judges away, so, if anyone else from the village is planning on entering, Jackie for instance, you may as well give up now.

Also, Anne brought over the cushion she made on the Charm Pack weekend:

She and Sheila had the same idea.

Meanwhile, on the farm, we have erected security fencing around the hen houses - not very attractive but since the fox has eaten 13 of my lovely hens in the last two months (once just the head), we are not taking anymore chances.

We have also just finished hay making:

That was before, and this was during:

Also, the swallows have been busy and I was horrified to see what looked like a baby pterodactyl staring out of the nest at me.  Horror - I decided a cuckoo must have got at the nest and took a photo:

Well, on closer inspection of the photo I realised what it was:

Panic over!!

Feeling like a pinball

The last few weeks have been so hectic I've felt like a pinball in a pinball machine - being flipped all over the place!  Still, the dreaded 18th Birthday Party has come and gone, the weekend spent standing over the 18 year old while he did the project he should have been working on all year has come and gone (his tutor said he should be proud of me!!), the weekend dancing at the  Wimbourne Festival has come and gone, and now we can settle in to summer!
Quite a bit of sewing has been happening too.
The three part quilt-as-go Country Compass is proving quite a challenge.  I am using textured Japanese fabrics which are just too thick to hand quilt - so I'm having to machine quilt. Eek!  It's been a matter of sew, sew, unpick, unpick, unpick but it's getting there.

Yesterday was Medallion Quilt Day and  it was lovely to have Sheila and Barbara join us again.  I learnt a bit of Northern dialect when Barbara told me she'd been to Harrogate back end.  Back end means late last year.  I thought it sounded like a car part.  Barbara is quite an inspiration - since being widowed she travels all over the place (from the Outer Hebrides to Bulgaria) in her camper.  She came to us from Lancashire via Yorkshire!

Sheila had stayed with us for the Charm Pack weekend and completed her project and made it into a big cushion:

 

The flowers are padded with a bit of wadding - perfect for lounging in a hammock on a summer's day!

 

I was also really pleased to receive a photo of Carol's version of the Joanne's farm Pattern that Clare Kingslake designed especially for us -

The original had a pair of pigs on it - but carol put a dog instead!

 

 

 

Last weekend we had the postcards workshop and everyone made fantastic mini works of art.  I think this is one of our best workshops - everyone really gets into it.  Jo made invitations to a vintage tea party - wouldn't it be great to receive this in the post:

 

 

 

 

We've been quite busy in the village too.  The annual fete is coming up - Saturday 13th July - and yesterday everyone in the village had to take 5 photos for a montage of everyday life.  I haven't yet decided which ones to use, but the following may get in:

 

 Those little goslings have grown so much!!

 

One other thing..... a peacock has been seen in the village recently..... and we know whose it is!  A few weeks ago a neighbour asked us if we wanted a peacock, because he wanted a home for one.  As usual we spoke before we thought and he told us he'd get it over to us.  Last week, after Pitch and Stitch, Jonathan came out to the workshop and asked if I'd seen the neighbour.  I said "No, why?" and he pointed down the drive.  Sandra and Jackie were walking home with a peacock in front of them.  We drove down and were wondering if it was ours when someone came along and said it was from the farm at the end of the road, so she volunteered to drive behind it up to the farm.  We got on with our lives.

Then, last Thursday Dawn called and said our peacock was in our tree.  We said it wasn't ours and she said that it certainly was.  Her brother had put it in our paddock for us last Tuesday.  (After a bit of investigation, we have discovered that Sandra, on her way down the drive, had addressed the peacock in a come hither fashion and so he had).  Well, by the time we had a chance to get it, it had long gone.

Driving through the village on Tuesday, Jonathan called me and told me to get down there, our peacock (by now we've grown quite fond of it) was in the village.  I raced down and tried to round it up (someone took a photo and said they'd pretend they took it on the 26th!) but of course it got away again.

If we ever get it back- I'll take a photo!

 

Finally, here are some pictures which could go into the 26th June collection - perhaps entitled "Where's the most private, safe, secluded and remote place to lay an egg?"

 

First, check out the location:

Try it out for size:

Finally, lay an egg there:

Takes brains you know - she's done it three days in a row now!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 







Work goes on

Well, another sunny morning which makes everything just that little bit easier!
The swallows are renovating their nest in the porch, and it's lovely to have them back again:

And I'm still bottle-feeding my seven lambs twice a day.  It's quite a pain when I'm on my own because they all push and shove to get to the bottle and there's even a bit of biting going on.  Usually, however, I have help from Sophie down the road (and either her mum or Dad and sometimes her brother Jonathan come along too) which is fantastic.  It must be the Kiwi in her - she's brilliant with the sheep!

Jonathan is hand-rearing five calves (three of them were orphaned when their mothers and the bull were culled after proving positive with TB) and Sophie helped feed them on Sunday too -

What a great help!

On the quilting front, I finally finished George's log cabin - it's taken me ages but that's one more off the list.  Now to get on with the rest.......