I feel as though I have moved into the vets! I have 3 cats, Tortie and Smudge who are 18 and Tigger who is 11. Last week I made an appointment to take Tigger for her annual check up and boosters. She is slightly feral and likes to stay out all night so in the morning, she came in and had her breakfast and then went off to sleep. I got the box out of the garage and in that instant, she totally vanished. Couldn't find her anywhere - I looked behind the sofa, understairs cupboard, wardrobes upstairs but absolutely no sign of her. So off I went with Tortie who was booked in for Friday morning and this of course upset the computer at the vet's. Got home and there was Tigger curled up fast asleep in the armchair! Both Smudge and Tortie have had to have blood tests. Smudge's results came this morning and she is doing OK on her thyroid tablets - she's not too bad taking them and only occasionally do I have to take 3 or 4 goes to get it into her. This morning was Tortie's turn for a blood test - tortoiseshell cats have a reputation for being feisty and at 18 Tortie Portie hasn't lost hers! After waiting for ages, at least 20 minutes, the vet reappeared and said she was very sorry but they had been unable to take any blood as she wriggled too much and could they keep her for a couple of hours to have another go? If I have to give her tablets I think I might need those gauntlets you see birds of prey handlers wearing!
Good evening at Knit and Natters last night - I hope Tina's new wool shop in Thornbury does well as she is full of enthusiasm.

Yesterday I went to the Weston Quilters quilt show in Weston super Mare, not a place I know well even though it's only a 45 minute drive down the M5 and very popular with everyone. I had been persuaded to enter my red and white yellow brick road quilt so had to go and collect it at the end of the show. I very nearly withdrew it as I had a disaster after sending off the entry form. I looked at it and thought it was a bit hairy (I have 3 cats who love sleeping on my quilts) so bunged it into the washing machine on 30 degrees and of course some of the reds ran! And I had prewashed them as well! So it looked rather pink in places and left me feeling quite disappointed. However because of its size it had been hung on a wall above one of the traders so no-one could get up close and personal! I might try giving it another wash with Colour Catcher to see if some of the pink comes out. It was a lovely show, spent a small fortune on fabric and patterns and I was lucky enough to win one of the bags being raffled so that more than made up for the red fabric running.

This is my red and white yellow brick road quilt. Made with fat quarters bought on a holiday to the US - we went to a small quilt show held by a local quilt group and one of the traders there had this fabulous selection of red and white fat quarters. When I got them home I washed them and to my horror one of them had a large chunk cut out so I couldn't make the full number of blocks. This was taken before the reds ran.


Thursday I went to Hereford with the U3A church visits group. Didn't take long to get there but the traffic in Hereford was fairly bad. The cathedral was lovely and we had a conducted tour which does make a huge difference. I managed to sneak off to Doughtys in the lunch break to get some PFD fabric for an indigo dyeing class I am taking next month and of course came out with not just PFD fabric but a pack of fat quarters and two half metres of Japanese taupes. Then I found their haberdashery shop round the corner and bought some wool to knit a waistcoat .... bread and water for the rest of the month!

It's been a while since I last posted, three months in fact!
Just been to the Food Fair in Thornbury and the carrot cake lady wasn't there, sob! I have signed up with Sainsburys Diets and have lost 3 pounds in the first week so probably just as well she wasn't there as it would have definitely sabotaged things! Does carrot cake count towards your 5 a day? Met Lorraine for a coffee instead.

This is Tigger making the most of the small amount of sunshine we had in August - oh the joys of being a cat!

This photo is rather dark but was taken in Acton Court during the Tudor Tailor talk about a Tudor gentlewoman's wardrobe. Fascinating talk and good to be back at ActonCourt which has to be the most amazing Tudor building in the country.

I have signed up for a week's quilting course in Cornwall in November. It's called Design for the terrified which fits me perfectly! It took a long time to decide to go and part of me is still not entirely convinced about it. I cannot draw to save my life and my imaginatin goes a total blank when the word design comes up. However amongst all the stuff I brought back from my parents' house is a book of Japanese designs and there are 20 different gingko leaf patterns which I would love to make a quilt with so maybe I can do something with them?

This is the cake I made for our street party to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. The recipe came from the BBC Good Food magazine and turned out very well, though the blueberries were a bit on the big side! It was a lovely party and I met lots of new neighbours and at least the weather was dry but it could have been a bit warmer! Great afternoon, something that should happen once a year!

This amazing red poppy appeared in the garden on Monday morning, beautiful colour and contrast between the red and black centre. I planted it years ago but this is the first time it has had such a spectacular flower, and there's another bud to come! It has a lovely long stem so if I'm careful maybe I can dry the seed head and use it in a dried flower arrangement.

Wuhey  - have spent two Saturdays in a row finishing off things started in quilt classes this year. Last Saturday I got the delectable mountains top put together but now need more fabric (!) to do an applique border, and today I made more blocks for the flying geese quilt which is slowly going together on what I call my design wall which is actually a sheet of polysterene and unfortunately not quite big enough for the job. Tomorrow is going to be yet another extremely wet day with rain forecast for most of the day so perhaps I can start sewing the rows together but I also need to tidy up that sewing room as I can barely move in there!
Good day on Thursday when I drove to the creative craft show at the Bath and West Showground - I was on the Region 5 Quilters' Guild stand with Sheila and Lorraine, and we had lots of interest in the quilts display and our sewing. The cats had a pay-back day yesterday as I had been out all day the day before, lots to clean up but I won't go into any nasty details but it didn't smell very sweet!
Also found out that there are two types of polenta - I needed some to make a blueberry cake and guess what I bought the wrong sort! Oh well the cake tasted OK which was the main thing but it did take 30 minutes longer to cook than the recipe said, I will know better next time.

Oh dear so much for New Year resolutions - I have become one of those annoying bloggers who forget to keep their blog up to date which is something that doesn't impress me at all. Since January I have been to France for a week, done at least four more quilt classes and even finished one quilt which is now hanging up in Thornbury Town Hall for the Arts Festival, oh and I went to London for the day in March to see the illuminated manuscripts exhibition at the British Library which was excellent but very very busy and so crowded, you had to stand for ages to wait and see the exhibits in the cabinets but they were well worth the wait. As a result I got a great book for my birthday from my two daughters, The Plantagenets which is a very large and heavy book. France was good - I went to a small town outside Avignon with my friend Gwen whom I have known since I was 8 or 9, and two of her French friends. Lovely area with great markets and nice little villages. Eurostar was impressive as was the TGV from Paris to Avignon.