It was Moreton Show yesterday, which meant an early start. 

We were there well before our 8.30am report time and found everything ready and waiting for us.  There were  quite a few entries in the hand embroidery class and some exquisite beaded jewellery, carefully made garments, lovely hand made cards and a few inventive recycled items too.  As always, it was great to see what clever people can do – here’s hoping our judgements were helpful and fair.  It’s always especially hard when someone enters their carefully completed work which doesn’t quite conform to the rules, in this case entering a set of 24 embroidered cards when the schedule stated quite clearly “an item of hand embroidery”.  What to do?  Well, in this case, the steward randomly selected one of the cards for judging and the show secretary wrote a short note of explanation.  But there was surely at least one disappointed exhibitor yesterday afternoon and for that, I felt sorry.

Having finished our work, we took the opportunity to take a look at the other classes before the doors opened.  These beautiful dahlia were all primped and perfect – not my favourite flower but who could not admire the care and attention which had gone into those exhibits?

After a delicious hot lunch of roast beef, I was looking forward to visiting the Herefords!  Relaxing in the warm sunshine, being sprayed with a fine mist of scented insect repellent, these gorgeous creatures were content to accept all the acclaim.

Some prizewinners were being taken to the ring to pose for photographs.   Modelling demands a good deal of patience and this fine fellow was running short on his.  Asked to place his four feet squarely on the ground, he was doing his best, though somehow that did not seem to be good enough for the photographer, who seemed intent on achieving nothing short of perfection.  As I took this shot,  he had enough and decided to take his owner for a walk instead!

The sheep were finding the sunshine a bit challenging and were doing their best to find what little shade they could.

After watching the best of breeds compete for their “best in show” rosettes, it was time to head back home.  For me, the show season is nearly over for another year.

Last year, I signed up for Shimelle’s “Learn Something New Every Day” journal prompts and in the same way as enrolling for her Christmas journal is a once and for all sign up, I can play along with this one again for a second year.  What a great deal!  Though I chose to work 100% in Photoshop last year, I found that I missed the therapeutic benefits of cutting and pasting and this year, will take the old route.  Over the last week I’ve been thinking about how to present this year’s journal and what colours and themes I might choose, generally getting geared up for the starting signal and the arrival of that first pdf attachment.

Anyway, September 1 dawned bright and clear and as Shimelle helpfully reminds me in today’s prompt, the day has to be lived before it can be recorded.  Still, eager to get started and with all the motivation associated with a new term, I’ve spent the day identifying what I’ve learned.  Or rather, I’ve spent the day feeling overwhelmed by the learning opportunities which confront my hero and I.

It began so well.  I’m working on a small embroidery project which must remain under wraps for now, but which was not going well.  After three terrible attempts at creating something relatively simple, I sighed and remarked to my hero, sitting across the room, that I could do the job in five minutes if I could be bothered to get my embroidery machine out.

Now, my embroidery machine is a clever little beast and goes by the name of “POEM”.  It plugs into a computer and using very simple CAD software, stitches out a simple design in a small frame.  It’s not very sophisticated but does what it’s told and it’s an awful long time since I used it.

It hitches up to an old computer on my sewing table which we kept specifically for the job.  Still running XP, the only programs on it are the POEM software and that for my Bernina sewing machine.  I switched it on and watched as nothing happened.

This was a task for my hero.  He switched it on and nothing happened.  He tweaked and twiddled and still nothing happened.  We decided that after all these years, the old PC has given up the struggle.

Do we have another PC running XP?  Aha! my “old” work laptop!  Except, look at the software I needed.

Do we have another PC with a floppy disk drive?  Not a chance!

Fortunately, someone had copied all kinds of old programs onto some CDs – see, I chose my hero wisely – and as I write he is working his way through it all, muttering things like config sys and reminding me gently from time to time that it’s not straightforward. 

Have I learned anything new today?  Indeed I have.  How far we have come in just a few short years, from whole programs stored on 1.4mB floppy disks, serial ports, autoexec.bat, DOS and ZIP drives.

I think I might return to hand embroidery now.

Of course, (she says, with a sigh) the other reason my phone signal suddenly disappeared yesterday morning could well have been the well known and widely reported iPhone4 aerial problems.  Just now, whilst fiddling with my phone I noticed the signal suddenly disappear in exactly the same way – but moved my hand from that bottom left hand corner and watched the five bars return instantly.  Next time, will someone please give me a nudge and remind me to hold the phone more carefully?

Yes, thank you, Apple, I have got a complimentary rubber bumper, custom made with holes in all the right places and fitting perfectly.  Trouble is, the hole for the charging cable is ever-so-slightly too small to accommodate the manufacturer supplied charging connection, meaning that every time I plug it in, I have to remove the bumper.  After three days I decided not to put it back on.

Such clever design.  Such irritating design.

The show was great with plenty of enthusiastic participants.  It’s always a delight to see what clever people can do and a real privilege to be able to take a closer look.

A brilliant idea for a class that almost anyone could enter – the tallest weed!  but my favourite was just the other side of the bench from here

Bling up your bear!

When I moved my car later, I discovered I’d been parked in a fairy ring.  Maybe that was the answer to the mystery of the missing phone signal?!

One of my little things has been a wish to post to my blog from my phone. I know many do. I know the technology is there and I can't believe that with all the kit in my bag at any one time, I haven't been able to do it. But this morning might be a first!

I'm sitting here in a beautiful Cotswold landscape, under a clear blue sky, listening to the hubbub inside the flower and produce show marquee. A few last minute entries are being brought in before the 10am deadline. When the hour comes my work will begin.

I'll tell you all about it later.

Oh and I can't believe that my phone signal has just disappeared!

All those rescues and other good works have taken their toll on my hero, who has been suffering with a horrible cold for the last couple of weeks.  So, when this morning dawned bright and clear, we decided that some fresh air treatment was in order and set off on foot to buy the one thing I forgot when doing the shopping yesterday.

After all the rain we’ve had in the last few days, we really appreciated the blue sky.  Everything was looking so fresh, too.

The village sledging field looked like something out of the Teletubbies.

Further on, the huge combine harvester was parked in a corner ready to begin the next field. 

The air was so clear and fresh, the views were great.

That cloud bubbling up on the horizon made us feel good that we’d gone out early.  Perhaps this glorious weather isn’t going to last?

Nearly home.

Sure enough, by the time we were home, had put the kettle on and taken the papers outside to read, the sky had clouded over and there was a threat of rain in the air.

We’d enjoyed the best of the day.

The quilt is done and I’m really pleased with the end result.  But boy, was it a squeeze!

This is what was left over.  I had to use every scrap which was more than two and a half inches wide and after I’d stitched the binding in place, was left with that one piece of the beige border fabric: about six inches.

I’ve put it through the washer and dryer and heaved a sigh of relief that none of that red dye migrated!  The Moda fabrics have a lovely soft, aged feel to them and the end result is cosy, cosy, cosy.

It’s clear where I had to use every inch of fabric in the border, though I like it that way too.  But having dug deep into the waste bin for every scrap, joining a couple of tiny pieces together to get those last inches, imagine how I felt when I lifted up a book on my worktable and found this.

I shall attach it to the label.  Waste not, want not, eh?

It’s much easier to achieve a good result that way.

I got the walking foot out for my sewing machine, to start quilting my little “leftover”.  I wanted to stitch simple, straight lines, nothing fancy.

Hmm.  I remembered there’s a little gizmo in the accessory box for keeping lines parallel.  That’s what I needed.  Out it came.

I’ll admit, I had to google to find out where/how it fitted, it’s so long since I used it.  But of course, once I saw the picture and referred back to my machine, there was only one place it could go.

There was the added bonus of discovering exactly what this little bit of kit does too: fastens the gizmo to the back of the walking foot and screws it into place.

In no time, we were away and the small leftover was quilted.

Now to finish off loose ends and to sew the binding, assuming I have enough fabric left. 

Because it would be silly to buy more fabric to finish off this leftover quilt, wouldn’t it?  What would I do with the leftover fabric?

Or so said my Mum when things didn’t go, ahem, according to plan.

I post this to balance the good life.  To counter all those thoughts of “oh, it’s all right for her, swanning off here and there” and to ensure that my blog doesn’t become one of those stories of a perfect life seen only through rose coloured spectacles.

The pictures might tell a story of everything running smoothly.  Of things under control and ticking over nicely.

Except that as far as our fridge-freezer was concerned, this was not the case.  Today’s unlooked for bonus was to clean out an unexpectedly defrosted fridge-freezer and dispose of the contents.

Yuk.

Whilst my hero has gone off to take the smelly contents to our “Civic Amenity Site”, I’ve hopefully managed to get rid of the horrible aftermath: the smell.

What a lovely way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon.  Not.

Whilst at the Festival of Quilts, I also succumbed to some of the gorgeous Japanese fabric from the Eternal Maker, thinking I’d make a small bag or two.  As I stood dithering and trying to decide which print to choose, I spotted the girls there had their rotary cutters and basic kit in a little sack, exactly as I’d had in mind.  Sold!

I’d seen a pattern in this book a while ago, for a small square “box” made from linen fabric and had it in my mind to use this method.  But I couldn’t quite remember how it was done and since I don’t own the book myself, I asked a friend nicely if she’d remind me.  Except that before she had chance, I’d worked it out for myself…

In no time at all, a good sized bag was complete – all machined, so quick as anything.  But I felt the proportions were wrong, since it was hard to work out what size piece of fabric to start with (no, of course I didn’t try it out in scrap fabric first)  The largest bag has a square base with a side measuring 6 inches and is a good twelve inches deep.  Though I wanted it deep enough to turn over the top a couple of times, I felt the fabric wasn’t stiff enough to stand without some kind of stabilising layer.  So, the next two bags were made with a three inch base and are about ten inches tall.  Much better.

Perfect for putting a few bits and pieces in.  However, I spotted something about my choice of fabric – those little Matryoska dolls are all standing the same way up – and I had to decide whether to have the print up the right way on the turnover or on the lining.  Next time, I must choose a fabric with a two-way pattern.  Anyway, in less than half an hour, I had two small bags complete.

I didn’t stop there.  I’d also bought a couple of metres of heavier weight fabric from Fabrics Galore and soon whipped up a couple more, slightly larger bags with a six inch square base.  This stiffer fabric was a delight to sew and I was tempted to keep going except that it was now four o’clock and I was in need of tea.

But just before I turned off the sewing machine, I remembered I could add a small finishing touch.