Oops ... I did it again!

DH has officially banned me from eBay! I recently posted about by inability to gauge dimensions and how I am 'fooled' by photographs. To be fair, the dimensions for this chest were accurately depicted by the vendor but somehow in their picture:

... it looked bigger than in my picture:

I have got away with it though :) DH was worried it would be too big for our new snug room so is very pleased with my miscalculation on this occasion! And Nell has given it her approval:

So, from now on, I'll stick to what I know. Before Christmas, I took part in a low volume charm swap, receiving 56 x 5" squares. Having taken some advice previously, I decided to go with the green and cut up 32 squares:

I 'designed' a pattern - adding 2 more low volume squares from my stash ('design' sounds rather grand for my amateurish drawings on graph paper!):

And started sewing the 90 squares together:

Think it needs some borders and sashing though or it's going to be a very small quilt ... that's going to take some time - my (broken) arm is just about coping with an hour here and there, so this will be a slow WIP :(

Linking up:

Lorna:

And Lee:

I just can't be trusted ...

It's okay, I haven't had any more accidents - one broken arm at a time is enough for anyone! Apparently (according to DH), I can't be trusted to shop - online - unsupervised!

In his defence, I have previous form ... a few years ago, I bought an Ikea table for my sewing room (which is in the loft) and it was too big to go through the ceiling hatch ... DH had to saw some inches off it AND unscrew the loft ladder before we finally got it up there! In MY defence, when I saw the picture of the table in the Ikea catalogue, to me it looked like it would fit!

So, when I saw this display cabinet on eBay:

I thought it looked like it was the same size as this one I already have and would be a perfect fit in my sewing room (you can never have enough fabric storage, hey?):

In fact, it's a little bit smaller:

But it will be excellent for displaying my threads:

Might need DH to give me some lessons in reading dimensions! Oh, and can we please agree not to tell him about the 'large scraps bin' that was delivered this morning:

Linking up with Lorna:

A day trip to Canterbury :)

I love our family coming to visit, I love weekends, I love days out hunting for amazing finds and bargains in charity shops, I love buying presents, I love unexpected pleasures, I love finding new quilt shops ... I ticked all the boxes today :)

DH drove me, his Mum and Sis to Canterbury, Kent today ... it's about an hour from where we live ... and we enjoyed the 6 hours we spent there today very much. 

Canterbury is most famous for its Cathedral and Archbishop ... and it is the birthplace of Orlando Bloom (such a pretty boy!):

It is also a vibrant shopping area with a mixture of old and new, cobbled roads, cute cafes and a nice sprinkle of charity shops. Dear SIL is the 'Queen of Finding Bargains' ... I am but a mere amateur in training! These were my bargains today - a 1980 book for £1:

2 metres of Cath Kidston fabric - half price at £10 a metre - but still a bargain:

And 4 yards of fabric in a vintage shop which I may use (at some point) to re-cover our dining room chairs: 

Our unexpected pleasure was a short boat ride with the Canterbury Historic River Tour. We had a lovely young man (Tom L), who graduated last month with a degree in military history, row our boat and entertain us along the River Stour for 45 minutes ... he narrated very well and told some awful jokes - 'Those trees over there in cages are the most dangerous trees in England - they committed treason (trees on!) and were caught by Special Branch!' ... well, we laughed ... you probably had to be there :)

There were a lot of street musicians; some good, some not so good - my favourite was a young trumpeteer who played Somewhere over the Rainbow beautifully * sigh  * ... made me smile.

After lunch and a bit more shopping, we found a patchwork shop ... yay!  Did not think this day could get any better! Hello, The Sewing Shop :) I needed some batting / wadding for my Swedish Quilt (finished the top this morning, basting it tomorrow morning, aren't we DH?!) and I bought some Advent Calendar panels (which I'll write about another day.) Very friendly staff and much to my disappointment (but not to theirs or DH's), it got really busy 5 minutes after we got there ... never mind, I shall return :)

A wonderful day was had by all. Even DH and Mum shopped and this was our collective haul:

Everything we needed, I promise :)