Autumn Trees

I have finished the little quilt for Kate's art quilt swap. (It's actually two quilts, but they go as a set.) They (and all the other art quilts) can be found here There are some wonderful quilts in this swap. Mine is number 25. I just hope whoever gets mine will forgive my errors. The binding isn't quite even, for one thing. I enjoyed making this quilt and already have ideas for other fabric art when I get home. I have another project still in progress - the quilted bag that I started in class. Hopefully, Kate and I can find time, after we get home from Scotland and before I leave, to finish it, or at least she can show me what to do. I think I can probably finish it myself, but I imagine there are right ways to do it which will be easier than if I just try it on my own.

sports day at Green Lane School

Since I am using Kate's very fast computer, I can put up several photos from the sports day.

Kate has more, as do I, on flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathydillard

On the left is Alex in his sack. On the right is Sarah waiting to get into the sack race.

Here is Olivia waiting to throw a soft javelin. The wind was very strong and many of the javenlins went backwards. Luckily none went over the fence.

Beginnings and endings

Last night, Kate was explaining Facebook to Geoff and me. She asked me if I wanted her to set up an account for me and in a weak moment, I said, 'yes'. So, now I have a page or whatever it's called on Facebook. Of course, I have no idea of what I'm doing or how the system works. I suppose I will find out as I go along. I do have a few friends already, most of them friends of Kate whom I also know. Only one friend is someone in my age category and she's very computer savvy. I have enough to do, just keeping up with my blog and the few I read. Don't know if I'll use Facebook much at all. We'll see.

I've really enjoyed using Kate's computer, mostly. It's very fast - the internet connection, as well as the computer itself. However, the keyboard isn't quite like US ones. A few things are in different places, which means I type some very weird words sometimes. By the time I get used to it, I'll be heading for home and will have to re-accustom myself to mine. We'll be taking the laptop on holiday with us, so that will be different yet.

Today Kate and I visited a few charity shops in Worcester Park. I didn't bring any jeans with me, so I've been looking for a cheap pair. No luck on jeans, all the ones I found have the waist down by the hips. I find those very uncomfortable and also unattractive. However, I got a pair of sweat pants and a very nice pair of navy blue trousers in a stretchy material. Also picked up a couple of long-sleeved tops. So I'll be ok, even if Scotland is chilly. I love poking around in chairity shops. You never know what treasures may be hiding there.

This afternoon, Kate and I were at school for the year-six farewell. The kids talked about what they liked about their years in Green Lane School and sang a couple of songs. Several of the girls were in tears by the time it was over. Tomorrow night is some kind of graduation ceremony. They will wear the uniforms for the schools they will be attending in the fall. I think there are parties on Wednesday - the last day for this school year. Hard to believe that Sarah will be in year 7 in the fall. She won't even be 12 until the end of September. Of course, she's been practicing to be a teenager for several years now. She's very excited about secondary school. I'm sure she'll love it and do fine. Her end of the year report was full of statements about how mature she is and how helpful. We don't always see those traits at home, for some reason. LOL

to quilt or not to quilt

Today Kate helped me with the art quilts I'm making for her little quilt swap. Tomorrow is the deadline, so I really needed to get her advice and finish them. I was trying to figure out how to add a wide binding which would have Pellon inside it to make it stand out like a frame. The way I was trying would have worked, I think, but was not going to be easy. Kate suggested an easier way and I have now finished all the sewing on one of the quilts. I will do the other one tomorrow. There is a lot of hand sewing to put on the binding and I don't exactly enjoy that, especially since I am using Kate's thimble which is too big for me. I finally wrapped my finger with masking tape to keep the thimble on. The final touches, after all the stitching is done will be to add some little animals and an elf which I made from Fimo. I will post photos when they are done. Kate says the quilts are good enough to put into the swap. I almost hate to give them away, but I can always make similar ones. And I'm looking forward to getting a lovely art quilt made by someone else.

Kate's iron burned itself up today. It was weird. I was sewing and heard this odd popping noise, rather like popcorn or the kids popping bubble wrap. Then I smelled smoke! Boy did it stink! We can't figure out why the iron did this, as it is supposed to turn itself off if it overheats. Of course, the warranty had expired a few months ago. Isn't that always the case? So we went shopping for a new iron. A cheap one this time. Kate has very bad luck with irons and has to replace them every few years, so she is not buying any more expensive ones. Mine turns itself off if I don't pick it up and use it after 10 minutes or so. Hopefully, that will prevent problems like we had today.

Cinderella/Rockerfella

Iwent to see the year six play last night. It's a tradition that the class that graduates to secondary school puts on a play at the end of the school year. (yes, in England, the kids are in school into July.) The children did a wonderful job with this play. It was a musical version of the story, with a lot of dancing and singing and quite a few vocal solos. Sarah had two rolls. Her original part was just a bit as a costumer for the rock star. However, one child was absent for the final performance, so Sarah got to be a naughty kitty. I think she enjoyed that part the most. She made a very cute cat.

Today was sports day at the school. Rain had been predicted and it was spitting down rain when we got to school in the morning. However, it never really did much. All morning long the dark rain clouds swept across the sky, with the sun shining brightly in-between. It was pleasantly cood - just right for kids who were racing and throwing nerf javelins and doing other competitive stuff. The team that the North kids were on came in third (out of four) on the sports events, but they took the school prize for the year. This prize is based on all sorts of things throughout the school year - academic, behavior, etc. I took some photos of the kids, but Kate will have to help me get them posted onto flickr before I can show them on my blog.

The parents were invited to participate in some silly races too. I came in second in the 'grandmothers' race' and Kate ran in the 'mums' race'. Geoff was wearing sandals, so could not run in the 'father's race'. Perhaps this was intentional on his part? The guys seemed to take their race very seriously, unlike the mums and grandmothers. It was all in good fun.

I may have mentioned that Kate and Geoff always seem to be having renovations when I visit. This time it's the bathroom. Their handyman (and friend) Mike is working upstairs today. He's putting the new floor into the room. The tiling is done and the sink is installed, but the floor and ceiling are left to do. It's a bit odd to take a shower and then step out onto sub-flooring. I hope the work will be done by the time we get back from Scotland.

on holiday

I'm leaving for England tomorrow night. I'll be visiting Kate and family. We will spend 10 days in Scotland, in a lovely 'cottage' somewhere outside of Aberdeen. I think we'll be doing a lot of just walking around enjoying scenery. It's hard to find tourist attractions for a group ranging in age from 6 to 68! However, the North Sea is fairly close and the family love beaches, so we'll certainly visit the shore. I understand that the North Sea is bitterly cold, especially along the Scottish coast, so I doubt if we'll do more than dip our toes into the water. Kate is the only good swimmer in the family anyway. For swimming, we may go to one of those indoor water playgrounds - with big slides and such like. We'll see if Grandma has the courage to go down one again.

I probably won't be blogging much, if at all, during my trip, but I'll be in touch when I get back. I will take lots of photos and will post them on my flickr account. Look for them at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathydillard.

what was I thinking?

Yesterday was too hot to work outside, except for a bit in the AM in the back. I cleaned up some trimmings that had been lying around for a week or so. Anyway, I had planned to work on my quilting, but the front bedroom, where my sewing is done, gets sun all AM, so it was VERY HOT in there.

Somehow I ended up in the basement (blessedly cool) and decided to rearrange the furniture. I have no idea why this happened, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. The furniture consists of a futon couch/bed, a coffee table, a desk, and many, many bookcases. Yeah, I know, I have way too many books. There are 11 tall bookcases and 3 small ones. Anyway, the purpose of rearranging was to position the couch so that it faced the sliding glass doors. I want to be able to sit and enjoy looking at my plants in the shade garden under the deck. The couch is heavy, but moving it was the easy part!

I also had to move the TV, so that it could be viewed from the couch. Never mind that I don't ever watch it. Maybe I'll want to view one of those DVDs that are still in their wrappers. LOL In order to move the TV, I had to take apart a display/storage unit and move it to where the TV table had been. After I moved the couch, I couldn't put the three short bookcases back behind it, so I had to do some creative rearranging of various pieces of furniture. I did get the pieces all fitted in someway, but then I had to rearrange books, since moving the bookcases had messed my system. (Basically, books are arranged by author except for mysteries that have a shelf of their own and a couple of shelves of unread books. I've been going through the unread ones and getting rid of many of them.) I also had to take down various pictures from the walls and then put them back up in different places. Ditto with the knicknacks that were on some shelves. I ended up moving all the books from the Cs to the Ks. Believe me that's a lot of books! I expected to be sore today, as I used muscles I have not used in a while, but so far nothing aches more than usual. I am very pleased with the room and actually spent some time yesterday afternoon sitting on the couch admiring my plants.