A good weekend's work ...

I know we shouldn't complain about the weather (but that's what we Brits do!). It has been very warm again this weekend, which saps all my energy and then I'm in danger of wanting to move very little -  the thunder and lightening we had yesterday was pretty spectacular, though, and it does feel cooler this evening as I sit now writing this post with the garden doors open :)

DH has worked really hard in the house and garden, bless him. Remember when we cleared the loft, all the 'stuff' went into the spare bedroom:

Well, this is what it looks like tonight after we sorted, binned, charity shop gifted and stored what we are keeping! Ta daaaaaaaaaaa:

It desperately needed doing - dear MIL and SIL arrive on Thursday for a long weekend and though they said they'd happily room share, it was just the push we needed to get it done. And I managed to find some sewing time too ... don't I always?! Here's where I'm up to on my Swedish Quilt:

Just some more sashing to attach and then I need to think about whether it needs a border ... tempted to add a wide 6" out of the blue roses fabric - what do you think?

Have a good week, whatever you're up to :)

New quilt WIP :)

So my dear SIL's birthday bag arrived today in time for her birthday and she is THRILLED with it ... Happy Birthday, Deb ... I'm doing a happy dance!!

It's been glorious weather in London ... if you like it at 30C (90f) ... I'm sorry, I don't! Hey, I grew up in North Wales - we had one hot day a year :) So, when everyone else was in the garden over the weekend, I started a new quilt. Nell was also a bit hot too: 

I bought this fabric whilst on holiday in the Isle of Man. I particularly like the blue roses:

This quilt will be for my friend's Mum's 70th birthday in a month's time ... doing it to myself again - will I never learn?! Inger is Swedish and immensely proud of her heritage so the yellow and blue fabric was a given and my friend suggested adding the white. We went to my dear friend's wedding in Sweden in May - what a beautiful country.

Next - choosing a pattern. I looked at some Boston Quilts and Googled 'yellow and blue quilts', I also Googled '3-colour quilts' ... hmmm, nothing really grabbed me. So, I looked at my books - I know ... BOOKS! And, get this, I found a pattern in this book - the same book I used for my friend's wedding quilt:

Did all my cutting first:

Then I marked all the squares and began sewing just to the right of the line. I know some quilters 'eyeball' the sewing line ... I can't, so I'm happy to spend a few minutes drawing the lines:

And thanks to the tip from Julie @ MackandMabel, I am saving those triangles - who knows what they may come in handy for:

My first few blocks which will need white sashing:

Dear niece and fiancé arrived last night for a week's stay and made us a delicious Chicken Fajita dinner when we got home from work (they can come visit again!):

Linking up with Plum and June:

Did we buy the house?!?

I know my little band of faithful followers are dying to know how the house viewing went on Saturday? You're not?! Well, I'm just going to bore you with all the details anyway :)

Remember the outside:

Well, it was as lovely inside ... not perfect (it's been a holiday home for 9 years and, honestly, you could tell) but it had lots of character and it was still very tempting! Look at the quarry tiles and that Belfast sink on bricks in the downstairs loo:

And the imposing wooden staircase:

And a great sized utility room (never had one, always wanted one):

There were glorious old wooden latch doors, parquet flooring and floorboards everywhere. More than enough space to live and quilt in. So, lots of positives ... but ... it wasn't for us. There was an issue of shared access to half of the drive (leading to a range of local authority outbuildings behind the house used for forestry purposes), there were two large ponds adjacent to the property (actually one looked a bit 'swampy') which would be mosquito paradise and I am mosquito fodder at the best of times and there were a lot of different sized steps all around the house and gardens which wouldn't be visitor friendly enough for us.

I'm sure it will be a wonderful home for someone ... just not for us, sadly :(

On the bright side, we had a wonderful weekend with family in Chester and my dear Aunty G joined us for the house viewing and afterwards for a most delicious lunch at the fabby Pant-yr-Ochain country pub (we were in Wales, remember!) and it was as pretty as its picture:

Back home and we're still in major house upheaval but hoping to get the loft / sewing room painted this weekend. Might have to ask one of DH's friends to help us out ... so not a lot of sewing to share. 

I did make a linen Pants Bag after work tonight. This one is for Lucy who is leaving work to go travelling and I thought this might be a fun gift for her to pack her pants in on her travels:

Remaining optimistic ... I know the right house is out there :)



Linking up to Plum and June's Let's get Acquainted Monday link-up hosted this week by Laura C @ little and lots

and also to Quilt Story's - Fabric Tuesday and Janice @ Better off Thread's Sew Cute Tuesday :)

If you're popping by on Tuesday (June 11th), do please go and visit the lovely Shauna @ lovinquiltin and and leave her a birthday blogging message!