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.......

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!

Nine!

Checked on the goslings today and there are nine!  Mum and Dad took them out for their first walk:

And then taught them how to feed on their chick crumbs!

Dad is so attentive.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Pickles, Poppy, Poppet and Pip are sometimes like this:

But usually like this:

 

Hungry!!