Woods

We walked in the woods today, it didn't feel like a happy place to be. It was cold and damp and strangely silent. No birdsong, no creatures buzzing, no squirrels. Just a sense of foreboding...

The trees were motionless, holding their breathe..watching us. The light was dull, the foliage muted despite the autumnal finery.

Dark clouds were gathering, the temperature dropping with each step we took. We found ourselves almost creeping along, treading softly, anxious not to disturb.

We didn't venture very far, it felt like we were intruding. I was glad not to be on my own....the woods have never felt like this before.

It was a relief to get back home, to see a friendly light in a neighbours window and tfeel the warmth of the fire as we opened the door and shut the darkness out. A very unsettling experience.

Tonight we are cosy under the ripply blanket, hot chocolate in hand whilst the rain beats down hard.

Much crafting has been done over the past few weeks. Christmas is just around the corner and lists have been drawn up and pretties allocated to those who will appreciate them most. Lots and lots of xmas tree garlands in soft green alpaca wool....

Lots and lots of sparkly snowflake garlands from Peter Pan DK.

And last, but by no means least, my gorgeous, heart flutteringly beautiful hexagon quilt top is almost finished. There have been one or two glitches. A whole row sewn on out of sequence and another sewn on upside down! A few choice words have been muttered under my breathe and through clenched teeth, but I am now on the last straight...want to see some?

Isn't it splendid?

Dev x

Honey

For a long time now Mr Fairyglade has wanted to keep bees. So off he went to do a course with a local bee keeper and Defra and hey presto...bees! Thousands of them actually, tucked up inside a couple of carboard boxes. Lift the lid and there they were all buzzing around..quite amazing really.

They have spent all summer flying backwards and forwards collecting nectar to make the most amazing tasting honey.

Of course, it wasn't all plain sailing in the beginning. The idea that you just put them into a hive and leave them to it is a bit naive. There is actually a lot of work involved and we were beset by problems early on when they kept swarming. It is quite amazing to see and hear.

It was a warm springlike day and everything appeared normal. Until that is, Mr Fairyglade was suddenly aware of rather a lot of buzzing, an angry sort of buzzing. Cautiously making his way into the meadow area where the hive is situated, he saw hundreds of bees swarming in the air and making for a large shrub opposite the hive. A seething mass of brown. What to do was the question?

On went the funny garb, the recycling box grabbed off the shelf along with a pair of secateurs and a lot of gumption on his part having never had to deal with this before. It doesn't look that bad from a distance does it?

How about a closer look...there must easily be a couple of thousand bees on this branch which he had to lop of the bush..very scary actually.

The trick is to get them back into the hive before they set off for pastures new, taking the queen with them. It's quite a lot to lose when you consider that she is worth around £40 and a single box of bees as picture at the beginning of the post is £160.

So, Mr Fairyglade, with nerves of steel and a cast iron bladder in my opinion, very carefully and patiently put them into a second hive, swiftly thrown together. The trick is to place the branch inside a box and tap it hard so that as many bees as possible fall inside. At this point I must say that they were not particularly happy to be jolted into a big black box and flew into the air in protest. But, with patience and much holding of breath, Mr Fairyglade managed to get the main body safely inside.

Phew, what a relief for all concerned and by evening calm reigned once more in the meadowy area.

A few weeks ago, all his efforts, and theirs for that matter, resulted in the most delicious tasting honey ever. Golden jars of pale amber nectar, the clarity of which is truly beautiful.

Overall, we have filled 12 of these half pound jars, 3 Bon Maman ones and at least another pint and a half in a sterile pot because we have run out of said jars. Not bad for our first attempt. Delicious on toast and poured over warmed figs, scrumptious.

Dev x

Bunting

Where is the year going, I cannot believe that it is August already? Seriously, I find it staggering that it will be Christmas before we know it. On that subject, the first week back at school last year saw Tesco shelves stocked with advent calendars and such. So in approximately 5 weeks the countdown will begin all over again. I can hear you all gasping in horror at the "C" word...sorry ladies!!

Littlest Fairy has finally said goodbye to primary school and big school beckons. This week saw me buying uniform and new shoes. I am stunned at how expensive the uniform is and the things that she is going to need. Football boots...I ask you..what is that all about? I have no objection to physical exercise, but that is ridiculous. It is really worrying her.

As is the norm nowadays, she had a leaving school Prom and a ride in a limo. Not sure how we got sucked in but she enjoyed it, as did her classmates.

It has been a busy week craftwise too. I have had to put the hexagons aside temporarily as there are a couple of birthdays looming and I had the urge to make two of my friends some bunting.

I downloaded a template last year with every intention of making yards and yards of pretty, fluttery bunting and predictably never got round to it! Go on, admit it, I'm not the only one with a folder full of "things to do" that gets longer and longer whilst I get older and older and my eyesight gets dimmer and dimmer!

So, first thing this morning I leapt into action (whilst I can still leap).

As you can see the triangle is 7 inches across and 10 inches long. Any size will do, but this seems about right and doesn't use huge amounts of material in the process.

I decided to make 12 triangle for each garland and spaced them 2 inches apart. I just made it up, but I like them close together. I used some bias binding and, after cutting out the shapes, slotted them inside the binding, pinned and then sewed them on the machine.

Et Voila, very simple and very pretty, I hope the recipients will like it. Almost too good to give away so I made three sets altogether so that littlest fairy could hang some on her playhouse.

Now then, who spotted the black beastie lurking around. Oh, how he has grown and how naughty he has become. 2 pairs of school shoes..yes 2 pairs. A Ted Baker belt, a hairbrush and about 70 trillion toilet rolls. That's his favourite at the moment and I swear he can shred an Andrex roll in under 10 seconds. The mess you would not believe!

This is another of his recent party tricks. No chair involved, just straight from floor to table in one easy movement!

The trouble is that it is so hard to be cross with something as cute as this. Just look at that face...butter wouldn't melt! Oh, and that's another thing...where is the butter..............HECTOR!!

Bye for now. Dev x

What a Scorcher!

Well, what a scorcher of a weekend it has been, and if I am honest I have found it almost unbearable. The apple tree has been a god send and has enabled me to spend most of the time outside without overheating. I cannot remember the last time it rained. Watering the garden is taking hours and we are just managing to keep it all from dying in the baking heat.

The geraniums don't seem to mind the heat.


The figs don't either and are starting to swell and ripen..yum..yum!

The grapes too are thriving and producing tiny clusters of fruit which will hopefully be delicious when they ripen.

Oh, what have we here, can you see it snuggled there under the vines in the early morning sunshine? Oh my, it makes me go a bit giddy looking at it, and no it isn't too much sun! Just lots of gorgeous hexagons slowly coming together into a quilt top.


Would you like a closer look perhaps? Oh, go on then, as you are asking so nicely.....

I just never seem to tire of sewing these together, so much so, that I am also working on the second one for the Littlest Fairy.



This is just to give you a flavour of what it will look like when it is done. I have also sourced some new fabrics from Moda. I so love this material, everything they do is gorgeous in fact.

This is the Santorini range and is available from here. I discovered this site on ebay and have to say that her service is second to none. I ordered on impulse Thursday night around 9.30 pm, [having spent several days drooling] and it was in my letterbox on Saturday morning. She also has a Moda sale on right now, so all in all, fan dabby dozey!!

This will be for my third quilt. I love this design, it is called the Tumbler quilt and have seen several versions now. I also think it would look lovely in christmas fabrics too.

www.modabakeshop.com/2009/09/sweet-baby-quilt.ht

It was our village fete on Saturday, and despite the soaring temperatures, Littlest Fairy and I donned the sun lotion, hats and sunglasses and ventured down to the village green to see what goodies we could find. What do you think about this beautiful vintage apron?

I say vintage, it might not be, but it just looks the part I think. The fabric and the colours just scream vintage to me. It is handmade, 100% cotton and cost me £1. I would love to know what the material is if anyone has any ideas?

Then I spotted this lovely shoulder bag, such a beautiful shade of green suede, sort of applely. It doesn't look to me like it has ever been used and a bargain at £4. I have a friend who is going to be "green" with envy when she spots this one! Ha ha, too late, it is all mine!!

I spotted this pretty on the jewellery stall. It was a trimming removed from a dress so I was told. I thought it might come in useful for something and most of the stones are intact. [Note another piece of Moda fabric underneath].

Anyway, I am away now, the garden desperately needs another watering and I have a basket full of gorgeous hexagons with my name on them.

Dev X

p.s. Has anyone else been getting these japanese/chinese comments? I seem to have a couple each time I post. I don't seem to be able to block them except by moderating my comments before they appear on my blog. Still doesn't stop them coming through though. Such a nuisance and was wondering if there is something more sinister in them? Any advice??

Love it!

I thought it was time to show you an update on my hexagon quilt which, I have to say, is now so lovely it makes me want to sing and cartwheel around the garden shouting yippee at the top of my voice. Of course, I am much too much of a lady to do anything so outrageous...and besides, I would probably seriously injure myself in the process and then where would my lovely quilt be then?

So, at the beginning of the week I had neat little piles of 6 hexagons, and by midweek they then became rows of 18.

As I explained in my last post, I was really struggling with the layout of the quilt. I just couldn't seem to get it right. I decided that I did want it random after all and just joined everything together and crossed my fingers. This afternoon I rushed home from work and took the plunge. I have very little floor space, so decided on the bed as that is where it will end up.

In the end, it was easier than I thought it would be. I only had to swap a couple of rows around to avoid duplicates, but essentially, it just fell into place and I have to say I Love, LOve, LOVE it! YIPPEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, what do you think, go on be honest, do you like????????? Please say that you do. I still have a way to go yet sewing all the rows together and then actually quilting it. I haven't decided on the material for the back or the binding yet. First things first as I still have a lot of sewing to do..and on that note, I'd best make a start.

Dev x

Dilemma!

Such a Dilemma with a capital D am I having over the layout of my new hexagon quilt. I have cut out 324 templates and tacked/basted 324 pieces of scrummy fabric and now I am ready to sew them all together one by one, with tiny little stitches into something that is pleasing to the eye. The only problem is.....How!

I started by picking them out of the basket in a totally random way....The first half dozen look like this and I wasn't very happy with it....

Next up, just place them side by side randomly and see what happens.....

Don't like this either. Next idea was to put them in piles according to colour and see if that inspires me....

Nope, definately nothing happening at the moment. So I know, I will make flowers shapes up in each colour and put them together like that......

This started to make a bit of sense, so I made some coloured piles....

The problem with this idea is that I don't have enough different designs in some of the colours to make them up as I have several repeats...AARRGH!

Who would have thought that it would be such a difficult thing to do. I just want it to look right and at the moment it doesn't. Maybe it is just a case of laying it all out on the floor and playing with it until it fits. So, where do I go from here? Anyone out there who has made one of these who can offer some advice......Well, I am all ears!

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Now, this quilt on the other hand just feels right. I am making two, simultaneously by the way, because Littlest Fairy also needs a new one apparently!

This time, 308 templates cut out in a slightly different hexagon shape. This one is smaller and more elongated.

What is strange about it though, is that I am using mostly the same fabrics for this one as mine..and yet this one just looks so much nicer....mmmmm....can't work it out? I have my next quilting group on Tuesday, so will ask for their advice I think.

What do you think?

Dev x