Who's Blackmailing Who

It's meant to be me blackmailing him but I think it may well be the other way round. The only way I could get him to take his medicine was to put it in chicken and rice, which I had to cook for him. As he was clearly feeling better I thought he could go back onto proper dog food. How wrong could I be! Yesterday morning I put his medicine in his dog food and with true Sparky attitude he didn't eat it. He didn't eat all day. So at 7:30 last night I cooked some more chicken and rice put it in his bowl with the medicine and he ate it!

When he had finished this is the look I got. What do you think he is trying to say?



This is as far as I have got with the wall hanging. I have decided to leave it alone for a while have a think and see what happens.



I have been working on this quilt for a few months now and it's very nearly finished. All I've got to do is two bindings. It's such a pretty quilt.

We had a delivery at the shop on Monday and inside one of the big boxes was some of these little boxes.

Inside the little box is 320 two and a half inch squares. They are so cute you can't help but pick them up and feel them, flick through them and stroke them. If you love fabric you will understand.

Anyway, feelings put to one side I set about using them.

I cut 38 one inch hexagons out of freezer paper.


Decided which squares I was going to use and that wasn't an easy decision.

Then I ironed the freezer paper hexagons onto my chosen squares ready for the next step.

A few words from Neil on a special day

It is 13 years today since Angela & I found each other. There have been ups and downs of course, but she has always supported me in everything I do (especially the businesses) and I am very proud of what she has achieved with Art and Stitch.

She is untidy, impatient, forgetful, aggressive and forthright but I love her more and more every day and cannot imagine being without her.

Happy Anniversary!

Slow Work and A Welcome Home

The wall hanging has not progressed very far, certainly not as quick as I would have liked. I had no idea that using the embellisher could be soo tedious. But I'm going to stick with it and keep my fingers crossed that it does turn into a beautiful piece of fabric which I can then turn into a field full of poppies. You have to use your imagination.

Last night we fetched Sparky back from doggy hospital accompanied by this not so small bag! It's a nightmare trying to get all of these into him. One of the capsules he has to take three times a day.

We still don't know exactly what is wrong with him. He has had an MRI Scan a Spinal Tap more X Rays and lots of blood tests. One of the blood tests has shown that there is a problem with his Thyroid. He hasn't got any medication for that yet because the vet is waiting for the results of some of the tests. Some samples of blood and spinal fluid have been sent to a lab some where in Europe and may take another week before we get the results. So fingers crossed we will get him better soon.

More Homework

This was the give away prize won by Louise. She has now received it and I hope she likes it.



I have made a start on another piece of my homework. I am making a wall hanging inspired by a picture I have of a field full of poppies.

I started with a piece of green felt and laid wool rovings, threads of various kinds and cut up ribbons on top.

The next three pictures are close ups of the various stages.

The next picture shows all the mess covered up with dyed cotton scrim. This was then tacked down and I attacked the piece of fabric with my embellisher.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo but as I haven't finished with the embellisher I will do that tomorrow.
We still don't know what is wrong with Sparky. We took him back to the vets on Friday. The blood tests they had carried out were inconclusive. He had a pain killing injection and they referred him to a specialist. Neil took him yesterday afternoon and he was very impressed the set up and the vet. He said it looks just like an NHS hospital. Tomorrow Sparky is going to have an MRI Scan. The vet thinks it could be a slipped disc in his spine or a tumour. We just want him to get better and come home the house is so quiet without him.

On Friday we took part in the biggest coffee morning to raise money for Macmillan. We had a great time and chatted to a lot of nice people and mananaged to raise £304. We really enjoyed the morning and would like to say a big thank you to all those who attended and helped us to raise so much money.

Finished Homework And A winner

As picked by my dad at 6:45 this morning.

And the winner is Miss_Oakden, if you could email with an address I will get your parcel in the

post.
Finally I have finished the cat shooting gallery and I am really pleased with it. I hope teacher is.

A Lazy Sunday

We took advantage of the glorious weather today and went for a trip to the coast.

This is the ford at Great Walsingham. Beautiful isn't it.

We found a lovely little shop called B T O I It's full of nice goodies that you may not need but still end up taking them home.


Neil treated me to this book. I love beach huts.



And then there was this tea towel. Well- if I have to spend time in the kitchen I want some thing nice to look at!



Tomorrow I have got to take this little fella to doggy hospital. He really wasn't very well on Friday so I rushed home from work and took him to the vets.
He has an ongoing back problem that meant he needed some pain killers but whilst we were there they did some blood tests. The results of these mean he may have a liver problem so he is also taking a liver supplement and needs to go back for more blood test and an ultrasound. We took Sparky with us today and you wouldn't have thought there was anything wrong with him.



And before you ask yes that is a Ben and Jerrys ice cream tub he has got his nose in. He loves ice cream.

This is my 50th post, so in keeping with blogging tradition I am having a give away, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post before Wednesday and you will be entered into a draw.

A Visit To Cambridge

Yesterday we went to Cambridge to see the Moving Forward exhibition. I don't have any pictures to show you as photography wasn't allowed but if you have the time then go and have a look for yourself. The work on show was fantastic. It is a small exhibition but well worth it. While we were there we bumped into Sarah who had gone to Cambridge just to see the exhibition.

I was really pleased I had taken the camera with me because I can share these pictures with you.

Aren't the gates wonderful and this window just appeared at the right time because Neil was having a grumble at me for getting us lost (which I hadn't, when we went back to look at the street map the 'you are here' sticker was in the wrong place- see it's never my fault). I was looking every where except at him and I just happened to look up and see the window. Obviously I had to take a picture and by the time I had finished so had he and we were on the move again.

Tyvek Day

Gina came to the shop today and gave a workshop using Tyvek.

All the ladies produced some fabulous work. There was some very quiet moments during the day because they were all concentrating so much and this shows in the high standard of their work.

They made some beautiful flowers and beads.

Also some lovely Seed Pods.


And the mess on this desk, well I'm sure you can guess who sat here and it wasn't Pam.

Well done ladies.

A weekend away from sewing

I know I spend far too much time indoors - like all of us real work and housework take up most of my waking hours.

So with an unfit husband and an overweight dog in tow I headed for the north Lincolnshire coast on Sunday.

Both Neil and I spent much of our childhood in and around Holbeach (although we never met...), and the flat countryside and sea marshes are familiar to us but neither of us have been there for many years.

Sunday took us beyond Holbeach St Matthew to an isolated part of The Wash SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest).
Although it was glorious day there was a heavy breeze but it was beautifully clear and we could see for miles.

This part of the marsh has a real operational role as a bombing range for the RAF.

Meet Sparky our Bichon Frise - I think he was asking to be taken home for a rest!

We enjoyed ourselves so much we went back today! This time we were slightly further east at Gedney Drove End. As you can see the coast was deserted - we only saw one other couple all the time we were there, who turned out to be neighbours of ours from some ten years ago that we haven't seen since we moved away - what a small world!

Another clear day (with no breeze at all) meant we could see the wind-farm that is offshore of Skegness, and across to Hunstanton, the only west facing resort on the east coast.

Neil is proud of this photo with the dark clouds casting a shadow over part of the sea bank,

And he thinks the clouds are atmospheric in this one.

I hope this might become a regular outing - we could all do with the exercise!

Festival Of Quilts

Yesterday I went The Festival Of Quilts. I apologise now because this is a picture heavy post, It's not all the pictures I took though!
I didn't go on my own I was with Neil, Pam her partner Rob and mum. We all had a great time.

The standard of the quilts was outstanding they were all beautiful.

Next year I think I may have to go and stay overnight as I would have liked to have spent longer looking at the quilts. We arrived before the doors opened and left about 4ish but it just wasn't long enough.
I can't put names to any of the pictures but I am sure will agree with me that they are wonderful.

The detail in this face is amazing. It must have taken the artist ages - it looks like a pencil drawing but as you get closer you start to see the stitches and you are left in awe at the artist's talent.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures.