Bournemouth

The Boy has started training for two triathlons this summer and has been on desperate lookout for a road bike.  So I was rudely awakened on Saturday morning with "I've bought a bike on eBay so am going to Bournemouth to collect it"!  I managed to persuade him that it was such a beautiful day that we should go to the beach as well.  Apparently the thought hadn't occurred to him!!!

So here are a few pictures from our beautiful March beach trip.  Now I just need the weather to hold for my photoshoot in April!  Off to tackle the garden now, then going to bake some banana bread, and hopefully some time to carry on with my quilt.

Enjoy the sunshine!xx

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to my fabulous Mummy!

We had a joint brother's birthday/Mother's day combo yesterday, so here are some very quick piccies below of the present I made for her.  One Kilner jar filled with fabric and ribbons, preserving disc removed and pincushion in the lid:

And now out for lunch with The Boy's Mum!

What's the fastest cake in the world?

....Scone!  That joke still makes me chuckle, so here's a picture of the scones I made last weekend.

Teeny tiny miniature scones.  With clotted cream and raspberry jam.  So these are the good batch (the five that wouldn't fit on the tray of the first batch).  The first batch (of 18) got a little toasted.  And by a little, I mean a lot!  'Preheat oven to 200 degrees' was somehow interpreted by my feeble brain to mean 'preheat oven to max and cremate the scones'.  Oops!  But this lot were pretty good actually.

What to burn - I mean, BAKE - next? 

Sewing-wise, I've still been piecing together my Blue Lagoon quilt.  I've got all my calico rectangles joined to my four patch squares, and I've got all my individual squares cut up.  Now just to cut the remaining calico and I might have some actual quilting to do!

So until I've cut the rest of the calico, I sat and methodically planned where to put all my four patches.   They were predominantly red, so every set of yellow squares and blue squares is now paired to a red, and the leftover reds are paired with reds (obviously!).  So now I just have to sew the rest of them to each other to finish my rows.  Providing I don't lose my colour chart to remember which order to put them in!

And then once I've finished the rows, I'll put a picture up.  Now, I'm off to scoff the second Creme Egg of the season with a gigantic cuppa!

Birdy Bag

Well it doesn't look like spring's coming to Oxfordshire any time soon.  We've got a lovely mix of rain and snow coming down at the moment, so no glorious sunshine like last weekend.  Looks like the spring wardrobe is going to have to wait a while for its first outing!

So to cheer myself up yesterday I broke open the hot chocolate, and got cracking on my Lotta Jansdotter All Day Tote.  With fabulous results!  I used the bird fabric Mum bought in Malvern, and there's still just under half a metre left for something else.

The terrifying cutting up of all the pieces taken care of:

And the final bag:

Complete with magazine pouch and flask pocket

And interior pockets...

And key chain

I think I've been annoying The Boy with how excited I am about it, but he can't be that annoyed as he agreed to take the photos!  So I'm feeling incredibly positive about it, and not feeling quite "Sew Useless" as before.  It's still going to take some serious bravery to attempt the skirt though!

I've also finally finished piecing together all my four patch squares for my Blue Lagoon quilt.

Just starting on creating my rows now, but still lots of cutting of the calico to go.  More stealing Mum's rotary cutter!

I'm going to attempt making some soda bread now - got to use up the leftover buttermilk from the pink velvet cupcakes.  And then I might even make some scones.  First time for both of them, so really going all out with trying new things this weekend!  Will report back soon on how they both went x