Happiness is blue

forget me nots , all self seeded . this is gardening on the cheap

Watch your backs boys, we,re after your shirts

I am so pleased with this quilt . It is made from 5 old shirts . the pieces were cut various sizes in length but I kept the width the same . The edging fabric is from my stash cut 13" wide to make a wide edging . I filled the edging with thick batting , I would say it is about a 6 oz, weight, it is from a duvet cut up that I didn,t need , it is like the thick edges that use to be found on eiderdowns, the back is pieced from 2 different blue fabrics from my stash , the quilting is big stitch naive to give a country look .

I have another 5 blue and white shirts for another quilt . I shall be on the lookout for 3 yellow shirts . I think they will be harder to come by . I shall mix small florals in with the yellow . Also pink shirts I,ll be seeking , I,ll mix spots with pink . These quilts will belong to my country collection .

Bluebell and myself will soon be off to the Malvern show, the tickets are purchased ,and we are champing at the bit.

Watcth your backs Boys, were after your shirts

How about this!!! I,m so happy the way this quilt has turned out . 5 old shirts ! Round the sides I cut fabric from my stash 13" wide to make a deep border , I had a duvet that I no longer needed , I used really thick filling from it cut in approx 5" wide lengths to make a wide thick edging like we used to have on eiderdowns , The quilting is big stitch naive to give a country look . The back is pieced from 2 different blue ,s out of my stash .

I have another 5 blue and white shirts sourced from the charity shop , all excellent quality . Now I,m on a roll . I want yellow shirts , I know this will not be easy but if I find 3 I.ll add small floral fabrics to make up the required amount .

I Really didn,t Mean to

I must be getting trigger finger happy . I didn,t intend to put 3 pics,. on my blog , perhaps I,m getting clever . I was just going to show another flag cushion . This one is for bluebells,s son Andrew and his girl friend .

The top picture is a jug and bowl on my hall table , I,m sure of no interest to anyone except me . The second pic,.is on the wall in the kitchen, I keep little momentoes there, you might see something that came in the post from you!! I throw nothing out .

I,ve had a very busy day , I have planted 7 flower baskets , 1 tree , several pots with long beans that will be planted out mid to late May , I also planted a Hydrangea , the frost caught it before I planted it but I,m hoping it will be o.k.

I have been plaqued with wasp and hornets this weekend, they hang around the windows and the door trying to get in . Not only the house but the garage too .

The shirt quilt is almost finished , I will show it later in the week , Now? I,m going to have a cup of tea, a shower and put my nose in a book for an hour . Mmmmmm, on second thought I,ll look at a few blogs first .

My Spring Garden

This is the happiness I look out onto when I,m sitting in my conservatory.The raised structure is my fish pond .My garden was completely flattened when the new fencing was done . Stuff is now shooting up nicely

The Dress and a shirt tale

Do you remeber I wrote in a post last week in March how I went out to buy a non stick saucepan and on the way I bought a dress, well, this is the dress .
Bluebell was here so I ask her to take a photograph of the dress . A couple of my blogging friends said lets see the dress , so here it is . Funny though , no one ask to see the saucepan !!

Bluebell rang this morning asking did I want to go shopping . I had told her on Monday I had no diposable income left after my holiday . I was down to £25 .now I,m down to about £1.50 .Good grief .

We went on to the charity shops in search of blue and white striped mens shirts . I was widowed 5 years ago , I have only just been able to cut up my husbands shirts . I have made a quilt ,bluebell liked it so much and thought it a good idea , so the quest was on .She managed to get 4 very nice ones , I stood aside and let her have a pick first . I bought 2 blue and white stripe , because I fancy making another one in a different pattern . I shall need 2 more before I make a start . I also bought a red check one for another project .

We went to the hardware shop , I needed 3 baskets for plants , the ones with a flat side to fit to the wall , the one,s I had are now on the side of the raised fish pond, the fish are doing very well , all survived the winter and are now feeding again . I. also bought a packet of long beans , a pkt,. courgettes and a pkt,. of salad bowl lettuce seeds .

We had coffee and biscuits at Costa coffee for elevenses , went into a lovely craft shop . then went on to have lunch at another favourite haunt . That was our away day today .

Anther flag cushion

This flag cushion is floral and paisley similar to the one shown below .For me there is no hard and fast rule for measurements but I have put a rough guide on the post below

Similar but Different

Flag cushions are very much in at present . They need not be an exact replica but because of this they are fun to make . I have made them in floral fabrics , and various colours . This one is pale green brocade as the main and pieces from my stash on the stripey effect .

I cut 4 rectangles approx , 8" x 6"
add the white 2 1/2 " strips across the rectangle (turn 1/4" in on the sides )
add the blue strip 1 1/4 " on top of the white strip (turn 1/4"in on sides )

Join the 4 rectangles with a broad white strip down and across , then add a narrower strip of another colour on top of the white strip .

Finish as you do any other cushion.

The St George flag that boys and girls use for football would make a nice bedroom cushion for football fans .

Dare I breathe

I think I have managed my download of installing Picasa . I am now one happy girl . It means I have forfeited a sunny morning and held my breath many times waiting to see what happens .

I shall now be able to blog and show my photo,s . the practice run is the welcome sign on the wall of the hotel in Lanzarote with my son and daughter in law .

Now for coffee and a stroll round the garden in the sunshine , happy days are here again .

Getting There

My laptop is almost completed , but until I have sussed how to get Picasa on I cannot show pictures . A big part of the fun of blogging is looking at the pic,s other bloggers show.

I love Saturdays ,up early to fetch the newspapers for myself and a neighbour . Today the sky is blue and clear , no noise , no helicopters or aeroplanes, no clouds or aeroplane trails .

I,m sitting in my conservatory looking out at the garden , it,s lovely and I do feel contented looking at it . I have new plants and a Malus tree to plant sometime this weekend, everything is fine.

Perhaps I,m wrong in saying this , I believe in fate and a reason for everything , I,m refering to the volcano eruption . It will surely make people think , yes, there is a more peaceful exsistance , a few days without hustle and bustle,a calmer way of living . Although I fly when needed I hate the scramble at the airport , the squashed journey on the plane , the commercialism of selling snacks etc,. at inflated prices .

as soon as I havefond how to load Picasa I have a couple of quilts to show .

Enjoy the day

Where O where

I have just written a post , it was published , I read it , but where has it gone !!!

Since this laptop was cleaned trying to get everything back running smoothly has been like a bad dream . Emails not coming in although the BT man said all was o,k now. Blogs going missing . I was up early especially to try to sort stuff out ,

The lovely relaxed feeling I had after my holiday is quickly disappearing . I want to sit sewing .

Opinions and comments please

I have returned from my holiday on the island of Lanzarote . I,ve had a lovely week with my son and daughter in law . lots of laughter ,good food and nice weather.

I now have to decide what to do about my laptop . I have had problems recently , it was taking a long time to get started . I can get into my emails o.k and other things , but ,it takes on average 5 minutes to get into a blog then another 6 or 7 mins,. to bring up any pictures , this is not acceptable .
One person says get a new laptop , another says have it cleaned . The man at P C World said it could be cleaned , no need to buy new . my laptop is 4 yrs old, I,ve been told this is about the lifetime of a laptop .

I,m missing reading all the amazing things bloggers write about , seeing the beautiful crafts and quilts and photographs . It took 20 mins,. to bring up the page to write this post . I,m not computer literate ,will I be able to load a new computer , my friend Silver Sewer used to put me right when I got stuck but she now has a new nesting place far , far away .

My garden has flourished while I have been away , it has lots of spring flowers out . I brought sunshine home with me , it,s lovely to sit outside and get drifts of perfume wafting around . A clematis that I thought hadn,t survived the winter is in leaf , at one time it was waterlogged , in fact more than once . In a weeks time the garden will be a carpet of blue with forget me nots .

Back to the laptop problem , when I finally get the dashboard up I read tantalising snippets but cannot spare the time waiting to get into the blog , for this reason I cannot leave comments but please leave yours for me to read . Hopefully sometime during the coming week I,ll be online again .

Day before the holiday

At present I,m with my family ,we are passing time before we go to the airport for our Easter break . My laptop is almost out of action , it is taking approx 8 mins,. to get into a blog then if I want to leave a comment it takes another 8 mins . It seem I shall have to replace it when I return from my holiday . It means I shall start from square 1, I do hope my blogging friends will rejoin me

Happy Easter to all