Expo Veldhoven 2013

Neil and I have had a few days away in Eindhoven in Holland. We went for Expo Veldhoven 2013 and had a fabulous time. The weather was very warm and the hotel was great. I have to say I have never stayed in such a big hotel before. The food was good and the staff were polite and helpful.

This is the window in one of the restaurants it was huge, very impressive.

There was plenty of traders there but I didn't see anything new or that I didn't already have so I came away without buying anything, now that's never happened before Neil was in shock.

The bit I really went for was the exhibition and there were some great quilts on show.

I couldn't come away without a picture of a poppy.

Gill if you're reading this one's for you.

I love the use of colour in this one.

Something for those who like the whimsical.

Simple but effective.

The picture doesn't do this art quilt justice. The maker had made a whole series of quilts in the collage method and they were all fabulous.

The hotel was set on the edge of a wood so I did manage to go for a walk. While out walking I stumbled upon a pond, there was no indication that it was there, no warning signs about being near water - you just walked into a half open space and there it was. The Dutch don't seem to be as mad about health and safety as we are.  So you can imagine my surprise when I also spotted the heron, I was lucky enough to get a picture of it.

Quick Catch up

If you remember back to Christmas last year I left everything to the last minute. I'm determined not to do that this time - so much so that I have started pressie shopping already and now I'm making my first pressie. I can blog about it safely because the person it's for never looks at my blog. It's a scarf in the feather and fan pattern, it does look very small in this picture. I can remember making myself a jumper in this pattern many many years ago. I used a fluffy yellow yarn then, I'd quite like another one but not in yellow or fluffy wool.

Beleive it or not I had a request last week for some of my Millionaire's Shortbread ! How could I refuse. So I made some and Neil delivered it for as I ran out of time. I've had a message back to say it was enjoyed very much.

There has been some other baking going on in the kitchen the usual muffins and cakes and there was a try- out of a new recipe that went in the bin. The recipe that is not the cakes, they were edible and apparently very nice. It was a recipe for blueberry muffins. The recipe stated that it made 12 muffins but they were obviously for 12  people on a diet.

We have had some gorgeous weather today. I went for a walk this afternoon and I had a real spring in my step, it's amazing how much better you can feel  with a bit of sunshine on your face. Today was also Dad's last session of radiotherapy so I was glad for him that he walked out of the hospital into sunshine and not another grey day. I'm sure it helped him feel more positive. Here's to more days like this.

I've Done It

Remember this? It's my piece of fabric for the round robin we are doing in Spectrum. It was such a small piece of fabric that I felt it needed to be made bigger. It took some courage to actually take the rotary cutter to it and cut up someone else's work.

But I finally managed it. I'm still tempted to add some stitching to it but I'm going to leave that to the next person.

I have been doing quite a bit of baking lately, these are Hazelnut Praline muffins that I made for the social stitchers yesterday.

For Neil's birthday I made some Millionaires' Shortbread but I wasn't happy with it. I found another recipe and made some so that we can have a taste test today, so fingers crossed.

I'm still walking in the mornings and who wouldn't when they are as beautiful as they have been. Don't the swans look graceful.

There is one nesting swan.

I finally managed to get a photo of the heron. He's just there in the middle of the picture.

Eva

Eva was christened on Sunday.

Here she is with mummy before the event.

With daddy, both parents looked very proud and they have every reason too - she is a beautiful little girl.

After the event. She was very good and sat for quite a while as pictures were taken.

Actually she was very well behaved all day.

A rare photo of me. Ellie doesn't get as jealous of me as she used to but she still likes to check out what's going on.

Eva and Grandad. The two girls are so different, Eva is like a little dolly and Ellie is a bull in a china shop.

The lucky little girl had two christening cakes. This one was made by her great grandmother.

This one was made by her grandmother.

The day was very enjoyable and went without any hitches.

Cookies

I know it's not normal for me to do two posts on consecutive days but these cookies are lovely so I thought I'd share them with you. I followed a link on Dotty Cookie's blog after she had made some sheep with her children and found the recipe on The Pink Whisk blog . Dotty Cookie found The Pink Whisk courtesy of this lady who made the most perfect looking macaroons. I may have to have a go at making some.

I saw the heron this morning while I was out walking and could have taken a great picture except I didn't have my camera with me - I bet if I take it tomorrow I won't see him. That's what's known as sod's law or just typical of my luck.

Spectrum

Last Wednesday was the monthly meeting of Spectrum. We are doing a Round Robin within the group. We       

all had to produce a piece of work in black and white. The work is then going to passed on 3 times. We can use any media/style of our choice.

This is my piece which was passed onto Anne.

This is Janet's that was passed onto me. I think I'm going to concentrate on making the piece bigger rather than adding any more decoration as was my first thought.

The first of this week's baking is Apple and Sultana muffins. I made them with normal flour so I shan't be eating any but they smelt so nice when they were cooking that I wished I'd used gluten free flour. Never mind there's always next time.

I went to Zumba class last night with Nicki and my legs were aching so much afterwards that I thought they would be achey today but surprisingly they aren't. It's a good laugh and everyone has a great time while getting some some exercise. Roll on next week because there isn't any on Wednesday.

Oooops!

I hadn't realised it had been more than two weeks since I last posted, I've obviously been very busy and time has flown by.

We had a real family easter this year with all the children, grandchildren and parents. Last Saturday was Neil's birthday so the children and grandchildren came over and we had a takeaway (see blog title) with homemade cake to follow. I made Millionaire's Shortbread and grown up Rice Krispie Squares.

Nicki and Ellie also made Rice Krispie squares.

Trying to get a photo of all three little people was a nightmare. Eva looks worried, Ellie has obviously had enough and Freddie is just a happy little chap.

There has been some making going on, I spent far too long on these crocheted cupcakes. I won't be making them again as cute as they are, they are too fiddly. I have also finished the border on my crochet blanket made a bag for Steph and layered and wadded a quilt, so I have been busy.

I'm keeping up with my walking. This was the view at Ferry Meadows first thing this morning.

The sunrise was beautiful.

The swans were graceful, unfortunately I was too slow to get a picture of the heron.

Last but not least I made raspberry and white chocolate muffins for afternoon tea today.

 I'm hoping to have some time to catch up on some blog reading this weekend. Enjoy your weekend.

Old and Achey

You would think that as I got older I would acquire some common sense, well  it would appear not. I let Nicki convince me that it would be fun to go to Zumba with her for an hour last night. I wasn't quite as energetic as she was so I didn't feel too bad when I got up this morning for my stroll around Ferry Meadows. But after half an hour's walking my legs were aching and feeling very heavy - as the day went on my arms started aching along with other body parts. But that's not the end of it I haven't learnt my lesson because I agreed to go with her again tomorrow evening. 

I'm very pleased with my dyeing results, in fact, I'm quite excited. The colours are crisp and vibrant even when I over dyed a printed fabric.

I'm keeping notes on my dyeing for future reference.

Right now I've got this quilt on the basting table so that I can get it ready for a show on Create and Craft TV on Sunday. It won't be quilted, but I will be able to show in more detail how a quilt should be layered and basted. 

Early Morning

I was up at 6 this morning to go for a walk, I nearly got back into bed but once I was out and about I was so glad I hadn't it was a gorgeous morning and the sun was lovely and warm on my back.
This was Ferry Meadows at about 6.30.

The ground looked like it had been sprinkled with icing sugar. A very pretty frost. So far this week I have walked just over 23 miles, I know this because I have an app on my phone that tells me so and of course it's accurate. Even if it isn't I've enjoyed my walks.

Now yellow isn't normally a colour I choose to work in but I've used it twice in the last couple of weeks. Once to make myself a new needle case as the one I use at the moment isn't big enough so this one has six pages and is rather pretty looking for yellow with a splash of red. 

The second time I used yellow was last week at our Spectrum meeting. Gina asked us to take along some fabric and thread in preparation for some hand stitching. We had to choose one stitch and one colour to work in. Again I choose yellow and Fly stitch. The first bit of embroidery that I did was to make a frame with the stitch, which is quite boring although it probably wouldn't be if there was something in the centre, something to bear in mind for the future. Next I worked the stitch in varying shades of yellow over itself again and again building up the surface. I really like this little piece I just love the texture it has created. This will be finished and turned into something I just don't know what at the moment but it would go nice with black.

Whilst at Spectrum we also spoke about dyeing, something I haven't done since my City and Guilds days. Jenny told us about the recipe that she uses and I thought I'd give it a go. I have dyed four fat quarters four different colours but two reds just for comparison, wine red, scarlet and the other two are olive green and golden yellow. The fabrics are on the radiators drying at the moment but I'll show you the results in due course.

Last week I covered a folder to keep my recipes in. I have two drawers in the kitchen full of bits of paper and it drives me mad when ever I want a recipe and I have to look through the whole lot so after however many years I've finally done something about it. That doesn't mean the drawers are now empty, oh no! Only the recipes that have been tried, tested and approved (which means edible in our house) made it into the folder. So that means there may be some experimenting going on in the kitchen while I try the others out or I could just say bother and bin them.