Farm shop, South Queensferry and berries

Today we went to a Farm Shop to buy berries for jam. (More of those later.) I took just a few photos whilst we were at the shop.

A few chickens:


Joanna made a new friend ...



... who was determined to be her friend forever ...



... and looked forlorn when she walked away. :o(



Then we headed off to South Queensferry to see the Forth Bridge:



The Forth Road Bridge:



A long train (not all in the photo) heading up the east coast line - if we were at home, we would have seen the same train passing about 20 minutes after this photo was taken. But we weren't at home, so we didn't see it then. :oD



Some yachts enjoying the light breeze.



And here are the berries we got in the farm shop:





And here are the rasps after cleaning - all bagged and ready to be frozen.



And this was all the waste from the rasps - not very much at all!!



Now, why don't I have any photos of the strawberries all cleaned and bagged ready for the freezer? Probably because I was annoyed by the time I'd finished them and totally forgot to take photos.

Why was I annoyed? Well, I bought 5.2 kg of strawberries and, by the time I'd cleaned them, there was nearly 1 kg of waste. I realise I bought jam berries as opposed to eating berries but nearly 1 kg of waste is just a bit much, in my humble opinion.

Lesson learned - don't buy jam berries. Just buy eating berries, pay the extra and, surely, you won't have to spend over an hour and a half cleaning them.

Mind you, I had the telly on to watch the last real day's racing on the Tour de France and that helped to pass the time. Great race this year - the best I've ever seen in the 7 years I've been watching the Tour. Well done, Cadel Evans! :o)

baby quilt - top done!

I was really pleased with myself this morning as I managed to get the top of the new baby quilt finished.

I changed my mind on the design of it and, instead of doing it like a Sudoku quilt, I decided to join all the 81 squares together in one piece. I like it a lot! There's so much to look at - I think the new baby will be fascinated with it.



Then, because I didn't need so much sashing, I could use one of the bright colours I had in my stash. I didn't think I had enough in the length of the pieces to make the corners as well so I just cut out another 4 pieces of fabric and put them in the corners instead. I *LOVE* it!



Next is putting it on to a fleece blanket for the backing and then adding a binding. I've got both of those things in my sewing room so no need to go and buy anything! Yay!! :o)

new baby quilt - the start

I started cutting out the bits for a baby quilt for our niece Vicky's baby. The baby isn't due until November so plenty time to get the quilt made.

Here are a few photos of the start of the quilt. It's going to be a sudoku quilt like the one I made for her sister Fiona but, instead of using 9 fabrics for the squares, I'm using a different fabric for each square - ie 81 fabrics. I'm also making the squares 4" square rather than 3" square.

In this photo, I've cut 11 squares with the other 71 fabrics sitting waiting to be cut.



Here are all 81 squares cut with the trimmings lying in a tidy pile.



Here I laid them out into 9 rows of 9 to make sure I hadn't miscounted.



And here they are all in their piles of 9 ready to sew.



BTW - I did miscount - I had cut 82 instead of 81. :oD

from the sewing room window - 18 July

Julia knits!

Did you know that Julia Roberts knits? She's been quoted as saying:

"I sit on the set and knit. It's a very social hobby, as opposed to reading at work - I can chat with people and still be fully engaged."

All you need for knitting is a girlfriend to get you started!"

back to sewing

I got back to some sewing yesterday. Yay!

Joanna asked me to make her a purse to keep her coupons in. As that's what I now use the purse I showed here for, it was an easy job for me to re-make it.

My biggest problem was picking the fabrics - as if that mattered! Anyway, here's how it turned out. Thankfully, Joanna likes it! :o)

more Canada pics

I've decided that my favourite photos of our Canada holiday are of the people - and dog - we went to see. So, here are just a few of my faves.

Silly Debbie. :oD



Jason using his "new coffee mug". :oD



I *love* the look on Jason's face! :oD



Who's chasing whom? Is that right? I think it is but it sounds daft! No dafter than Douglas and Molly chasing each other around and around!



Molly and me - she thought I looked cool in my sunspex. :oD



Douglas had many conversations with Molly.



A pair of nutcases.



Isn't she sweet?



Debs and Molly - taking up most of *my* side of the couch as well as their own!



Having more words with Molly. It doesn't look like she's paying attention to him! Ach well, he's used to that! :oD



Debbie and Jason on the boardwalk at Fisherman's Cove.



Even Molly is smiling for Douglas's camera!



Molly swimming.



Molly under the seat trying to get away from the sun.

my Canada loot

Here are some of the things I bought - or was given - in Canada.

This book is full of the most amazing tips and shortcuts about sewing. I've been sewing longer than I can remember and I've learned a lot already - and I'm not even halfway through the book!



This is something I was given. Jason made it. Isn't he a clever laddie? I'm supposed to use it as a cutting board but it's far too nice to use so it's in my kitchen being admired every time I look at it! :o)



More fabric which we bought in Fabricville in Halifax. There's more than this but it was in various places - left with Debbie, gone to Joanna's house or on the washing line - so I can only show these.



A pinny pattern. I could have just made it up myself but I decided to be rash and buy one. :oP



This was in one of the photos yesterday but I decided to take a photo of it on my sewing room wall. I like it!



And these are free patterns - knitting and crochet - that we picked up in Michaels. It never ceases to amaze me that places give these away for nothing. We don't have anything like that over here. It's time we did!! The pink wool is for making the piggy slippers for Joanna. Aren't they the funnest thing? :oD



I've more to show but I need to check Douglas's photos first. He took over 2000 photos on our holiday. Isn't that insane? I think so! :oD

I am a material girl

I thought I'd break down my Canada postings into separate blog posts. Today's is about the most amazing fabric shop I've ever been in.

Before we went to Canada, I'd been reading a blog which had raved about a fabric store in Nova Scotia so, naturally, I asked Debbie if it was close to her. She said it was about an hour away so I said we HAD to go there. So we did.

We left Douglas and Jason to look at the manly shop next door - I think it was a car mechanic but I didn't pay too much attention. I just wanted to get inside! :oD We chatted to the owner for a wee while and Debbie asked if it was okay to take photos. The answer was yes so Debbie snapped away whilst I just wandered about and drooled.

This is the Avonport Discount Fabric Centre. BTW - they do mail order - to anywhere in the world.



And here's what I bought. (The garish fabric in the background is the bedspread on the hotel bed! I didn't buy that! LOL)



A wonderful place and I fully intend going back each time we go to visit Debbie and Jason. :o)

I just remembered something the owner asked us. What did we think of the floor? I assured her that I hadn't even looked at the floor. I think it was painted concrete but, with all that fabulous fabric etc to look at, who would bother looking at the floor??? Not me!!

from the sewing room window - 4 July

We're back! I've got 522 photos to go through from our holiday in Canada - and that's just from my own camera! Douglas and Debbie took gazillions on their cameras so I think it'll take me a while to go through them and pick a few to show here.

In the meantime, here's the photo from the sewing room window yesterday. I wasn't going to take it with the washing hanging there and the lawnmower waiting to be put away but this was our reality yesterday. 6 loads of washing on the line and the grass needing cut. Ahhh, the joys of being "back to normal"! :D