Now wherever did that week go?

I really can't believe it's a week since I posted

Mind you it's been a very full week - cart loads of laundry, busy weekend, some stitching, a little bit of house cleaning (not my sewing area I'm sorry to say) and loads of reading

At work, like lots of offices in the UK, every few weeks a bloke turns up with a selection of books to leave in case anyone wants to buy them. Often there's not much there to interest me but now and again I find something useful for presents or that someone in the family will enjoy

It's not always books - I picked up a wonderful set of CD's of Roald Dahl's books - the whole family enjoyed listening to some of these while we were away on holiday.

Another time I picked up a set of Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus books - I think 10 in all. I've no idea why I never got straight into them but they appeared just before we went away and I devoured two on the camping trip (along with three other books). Precious little stitching got done on holiday - I went well prepared........... and managed one solitary flower:

Since we returned I've gobbled up another 6 books from the Rebus set (almost one per day) so you can see why I've had precious little time for both blogging and stitching

Once we'd sorted out everything on our return we decided on the Friday morning to take a trip to Heathcoats in Tiverton which is only just over half an hour from here. I hear you asking whatever persuaded DH to make such a potentially expensive trip!

Well of course he had an ulterior motive - his big double canoe has a central locker which can actually seat a person (I have been known to sit in it myself, a bit like pretending to be the Queen of Sheba being paddled round the lake) For some time he's been hinting at getting me to make him a cover for this in similar fabric to the waterproof spray decks. Heathcoats came up trumps and to add to the delight they had a sale on with 20% off all fabric

Here's the afore mentioned waterproof fabric in blue (more than I anticipated buying as he announced once it was on the cutting table that he'd also like a spraydeck to fit the hole too - gulp! not stitched one of those before and don't have a pattern - looks like I'll have to wing that one then)

The fluorescent yellow is a strong solid polyester jersey for making bags to keep the canoe gear in (wetsuits, helmets, life jackets and the like) to replace the tatty old heavy duty carrier bags that have held them for the past 15 years - no chance of losing those in the dark depths of the loft then!

Not sure when all this will get made though - after all we can't have it interfering with the quilting now can we?

Mind you I did pick up some other goodies once Nigel had got bored and gone outside to sit in the sunshine and wait

The picture here is a little blurry - sorry - but I couldn't resist 3 metres of the black spotty, very useful for kids quilt sashings and borders and a couple of metres of the beautiful multicoloured batik - won't this make fabulous bias for celtic knotwork on a black background

Oh and what a surprise some bits and bats of haberdashery hopped into the basket too - the green tape for bag handles and apron ties, variegated threads for machine quilting, pom-pom braid for tote bag decoration and the lovely butterfly ribbon just because I liked it!

Saturday saw Sarah and Nigel off to Twickenham for the England v France world cup warm up rugby game. Nigel was lucky enough to go as a guest of one of his suppliers - a very boozy day was had by all :o)

Sarah went with friends of ours who we met through Sarah and Cat playing at regional level together. They've become firm friends and she stayed with the family over the weekend. They all had a real ball (pardon the pun) at the game and afterwards Sarah met her absolute hero Jonny Wilkinson in the flesh and he touched her hand as he handed her the pen back after signing an autograph for her - not sure if she's washed the hand yet. They met lots of players past and present and it took her until at least Wednesday to come back down off the ceiling.

As they were all getting a day out at the rugby I decided that Nick and Lou and I should do something special - we went to Glastonbury to a children's festival - we had an absolute ball - the weather was glorious and there was plenty to keep them occupied from 11am when we arrived until after 5pm when we left to come home. Boy was I shattered though!

When we all went to Clevedon to collect Sarah on Sunday we took some canoes up and went out on the Marine Lake on the sea front with our friends' daughters after a barbecue at their house - here you can see the afore mentioned central locker that needs a cover stitching

On the Sunday morning Cat had a session straightening Sarah's hair for her - quite a difference from her usual corkscrew curls - we just didn't realise how long it is - please excuse the photographer's delightful feet bottom left!

In the middle of the week I had a lovely surprise - a totally unexpected postcard from a lady I know from BQL - Kandy. The kids all reckon this looks suspiciously like me! Such a clever lady!

As for the stitching - I'd already joined the stitchery swap some weeks ago and have all but finished the piece now except for the binding - can't you just tell I must have been so desperate to sew without tidying the sewing table that I resorted to hand quilting - unheard of for me. There's also a hint of a little something for Karol-Ann in the picture here by way of a swap for some of her lovely African fabric

And finally as I've also joined the four seasons swap I thought I should really make a start on my autumn item - a little bit of stitchery, some piecing and some hand applique should do the trick