Today at the beach

Here are a few pictures I took this morning while we were in town shopping.
This stretch of beach has rocks and, as the sea was a bit rough, I had to walk out on them just for the pleasure of seeing the waves crash :)

Quilted Garden Pail

This is a little project I made a while back. It's from a pattern by Farmyard Creations and I made it up in Debbie Mumm fabrics. The little flowerpot buttons are handmade by women in Africa.
When I bought this pattern I had visions of making all kinds of pails - Easter pail filled with chocolate eggs, Halloween pail filled with tricky treats, Christmas pail filled with holiday goodies etc. but this is the first one I've done so far.
My quilt group will be having a Christmas bazaar in October to raise money for breast cancer research so maybe I'll whip up a few more.

Summer reading schedule

I picked up a few new books while I was in England..........
A Sleep in the Dark by Judith Lennox is set in India in 1914 and later in Edinburgh.
I've read other books by Judith Lennox and enjoyed them.
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards - I've heard a lot about this one and am looking forward to reading it for myself.
Jodie Picoult's The Tenth Circle. Not her latest but one I haven't read. Jodie Picoult is one of my absolute favourite authors so I know I will enjoy it.
Lastly, The Colour by Rose Tremain. I've never heard of this author but it has good reviews and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. This book is about a couple that emigrate from Norfolk to New Zealand and the hardships they endure.
I've always loved reading. Just the smell of a new book is exciting to me.
Happy reading everyone!

New quilting treasures.

I have a nice new stash of quilting treasures to play with now that I'm home :)
I buy a lot of my books from the second hand booksellers on Amazon.co.uk and the Civil War Diary Quilt book by Rosemary Youngs is one of them.
The book contains 121 full size quilt blocks as well as authentic diary entries of 10 women living during the Civil War. Fascinating reading but I'm oh so glad I didn't have to live through it.
While I was in England I managed a very short 20 minute visit to Heath's Country Store in Nottinghamshire (they were about to close)and just had time to grab three FQ's of quilting fabric that I'll use for pinkeeps.
The shop owner, Dee, has her own line of stitchery patterns and the harvest pillow pattern is one of them.
Lastly, the three quilting patterns came from my lovely friend Christine in Canada.
Thank you so much Christine - I absolutely love them :)

Back in blogland.......

It's been a while since I last posted an entry to my blog. This is because I've been on a two week family visit to England.
It was so nice spending time with my daughter and two grandchildren but, oh dear, the weather :(
In the two weeks before we arrived everyone was telling me what wonderful weather the UK was enjoying and how Summer had arrived early.
Well, we enjoyed a few hours of sunshine on the evening we arrived but the following ten days were dismal. Rain, rain and yet more rain. I picked up this postcard at London Gatwick airport as we were waiting for our flight back to sunny Spain. I think you'll get the picture!