Saturday 2 February 2008

Sew Addictive

One of the things I miss most while living over here in France is having the time, space and dust-free work surface for my sewing. I haven't even had my machine out while I've been here, but recently I joined a sewing group which enables me to indulge in my hobby and I can sew, knit, craft one afternoon a week. Don't get me wrong, I could do more, but with the renovations of the house, we really don't have the time and I have to pack everything away each time I finish to keep it all clean. At the moment I am working on a quilt made up of 24 blocks 14" square so at least I have something small enough to work on and it is all done by hand. Well the blocks are, they will be put together by machine - that is if they ever get that far!! I finished a block this week and I will show you. They are based on celtic knot designs and I just love doing them. I have done 4 designs so far so you see I have quite a way to go yet. Oh if only there was more time in the day to do things like this, and why is it, if you "sneak" some time to "play" you feel guilty. It will be better in the summer because the evenings will be lighter, much better to sew in than artificial lights.

When we bought this house we inherited a cat, ginger and white and we named her Marmalade. We couldn't do much with her for quite a while, but now she is getting used to us and in fact she loves being brushed, but only in the places she likes. I can't get near her back legs or under her tummy. But....it's a start. She has always lived outside as far as we can make out, but like I said, she is liking us being here as you can see.... We still get the telling off from her when we stroke her too hard, the odd nip with the teeth and bat with the paw, claws out of course, but she is getting better....we keep telling ourselves. We can't complain because we don't know how old she is or what she has been through, and after all, she lived in the house on her own long before we arrived so we are her guests, and don't we know it.
Another glorious afternoon and the hen harrier was back. I looked at the book again and just by the way she moves we think that is what it is, but a female, not pale enough to be the male.

4 comments:

apple tree quilter said...

These blocks remind me of some I saw in Japan. The bias was sometimes vareigated and quite appealing. Do I get to quilt the top when it's finished? Sharlene

Stew said...

I thought the cat was a loaf of bread!

If you've not been put off by my miserable last post on the France effect on marriages, have a look at the french blogroll at my site. Under the French flag on the right.
You'll probably recognise some of the blogs there. recently updated blogs move to the top of the list.
Mail me at stewart.paterson@tele2 dot fr if you'd like to be included on the blogroll.

Stew said...

ps - a clip from a french sketch series. The guy says "Consider that an honour" when the cat has kittens on the ladies laundry.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3i8gt_laverie-de-famille-s02-ep17-chat-ma_fun

aims said...

We always say - anyone who likes cats is a good person....there you go!

I had to put my knitting machines away for 10 years while we renovated this old barn. That was really hard on me. Hopefully your renos don't take as long as ours.