A couple of weeks ago Lucy's boyfriend got a puppy. I saw the pup briefly when he bought him home. He was lying on the back seat of the car looking a little perplexed by what was happening but still very interested and with a slight wag of his tail. Yesterday Richard took Scamp to meet the new pup who is about 14 weeks old. Pup, whose name is Buddy, is a Mastador which is a hybrid dog. He is a mixture of a purebred Mastiff and a purebred Labrador Retriever. He is going to be a large dog so Lucy felt it was important for him to meet Scamp so they could become friends. I think she plans for us to take them out for walks together as Buddy gets older.
Buddy seems to be a cute dog and I'm told he is very placid. I haven't had time to go and visit him yet. Scamp was a little perturbed by this puppy who is larger than he is but they got on quite well.
Scamp is in desperate need of a trip to the groomers especially now the weather has gone so hot.
Whilst Scamp has been enjoying trips out we have had to keep Picasso in and we also had to take him to the vet. On Tuesday we noticed that his third eyelid was protruding. As it was covering a large amount of his eye we took him to the vet, who gave him a full check up and decided he had an eye infection. We were told to keep him in and it would resolve over a few days. Keeping Picasso in is very hard work but he is now looking much happier and behaving more like his old self.
Picasso loves to hide in my sewing machine bag. Still a little way to go until his eyes look as good as they do in this photo.
My sewing machine should be back later this week and I will be able to get on with some FMQ. However until then I've been doing a little knitting. Earlier this year I knitted three prem baby hats in blue. I've now got a ball of pink yarn and will knit three more hats
These hats are perfect for the delicate heads of prem babies as they are knitted on 4 double ended needles so there aren't seams to cause unnecessary pressure. The other good point is they knit up very quickly.
I'm linking this post with Anything goes Mondays at Stitch by Stitch
I hope you've had a good Monday. Today has been busy but good. Now all I need to do is order my son's birthday present. His birthday is on Thursday but he only made a decision about what he wanted yesterday evening. Never mind it will be delivered on Wednesday. Then all that's left to do is try and get the family all together so we can have a family dinner. It was so much easier when the children were young. Trying to get three adult children in one place at the same time seems almost impossible at times.
Lyndsey
This week has been really good (apart from still not having my computer back and my sewing machine not being home yet.) On Monday evening we went to the Eagles concert at the O2 arena. The tour is 'The history of the Eagles' and the first half of the concert looked at their early days back in the early 1970's. This was fun for me as I remember seeing them in Barnes when they were recording their first two albums at Olympic studios. Barnes is an area in South west London on the Thames. The concert was great fun. The O2 is a good venue as the acoustics are excellent but getting out of the building takes ages.
On Wednesday I had some sewing time and finally added the white border to the 'Votes for Women' quilt. This quilt was started back in 2012 when Barbara Brackman run her block of the week series at Grandmother's choice
As you can see from the photo I haven't even removed all the loose threads yet. I was so excited to have finished it I just had to take a photo and send to my daughter. Scamp just thought it was for him to curl up on. As always the colours are not quite right. The sashing is a deep purple rather than blue.
So that is my first goal for June completed. I am going to take this top and the backing plus wadding into work on Monday and once I've finished my working day I'm going to make my quilt sandwich using the large table in the conference room. It will be heaven to be able to get the job done without having to crawl round the floor. Once that's done this quilt will have to wait to be quilted as I am making a quilt for a customer and once I get my machine back I need to get on and do the quilting.
On another positive note we are almost at the end of the academic year. I've still got a lot of marking to do but that needs to be finished in the next week. then I have the summer for sewing. I am really looking forward to catching up with my projects. I'm linking this post with Link a finish Friday over at Richard and Tanya Quilts.
I hope you are having a good weekend. The weather here in London is hot and sunny making me want to get out and go somewhere but I must finish marking first.
Lyndsey
On Friday evening John and I went to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square to the Veronese exhibition. Generally when we head out to an art exhibition it is on at the Tate Modern so paintings from the 1500's was a little unusual but we really enjoyed it. Paolo Caliari known as Paola Veronese was an Italian Renaissance painter who was based in Venice. His painting are of religious and mythological subjects.
The painting are full of detail and exquisitely painted, a pleasant change from bold colour blocks or very abstract works. The children in the pictures were all doing typical children activities such as stroking the cat and they had very expressive faces. A good evening out.
When the gallery closed at nine we grabbed a coffee and then took the opportunity to take a walk down the Mall. The banners and seating were up ready for the trooping the colour on Saturday. Trooping the colour is the Queen's annual birthday parade.
This week I haven't done much sewing but i have completed a commission. I was asked to make some bunting for the pub where my youngest daughter is working. They wanted some England flag bunting for going behind the bar during the world cup. I made 8 metres in total. The background fabric is calico and I used quilting cotton for the cross.
I seem to make bunting regularly. Last year I made a 'Happy Birthday' bunting banner.
and I made a lot of purple bunting for some boats that were taking part in the river pagent to mark the Queen's diamond jubilee.
Over the weekend I've been continuing with my knitting but it is very slow going. I was going to finish the Vote for women quilt top this weekend but I will do it on Tuesday. Instead I did some tidying up in the Garden. It's such a shame to waste the good weather.
Tomorrow night we have tickets for the Eagles concert at the O2. I'm really looking forward to it. It's going to be a rush getting from work in time for the start of the concert. Then on Tuesday I will be catching up with my sewing.
I hope you've had a good weekend.
Lyndsey
I'm sorry I've been unable to post for the last week but I've been having various technical problems. First of all my computer wouldn't connect to the internet. John and Richard bought me a lovely new computer for my birthday last December. My old one was still working well for everyday tasks using the office package but its touch pad and internet connection was broken. The touch pad wasn't a problem as I prefer to use a wireless mouse anyway but not being able to go on line was a big issue. My new one is beautiful and hasn't caused any problems until the end of May when I just couldn't access the internet. At first I thought it was our network but since Richard and John were happily connected I realised it was my computer. Richard is excellent with computers and tried every possible ploy to make it work, short of taking the back off it as I didn't want to invalidate my warranty. All to no avail and so my computer has gone off to the repairers. When I phoned the company they told me to back everything up and then press the emergency reset key. That didn't do anything so they made the diagnosis of a hardware problem.
As if that wasn't enough my sewing machine has been playing up. It started with the tension being a bit iffy (highly technical terms are my speciality) when I was free motion quilting but then it started playing up on the straight stitches. So my machine has gone off to the hospital as well. Lucy's machine is at home so I can use this for straight sewing.
So for the last few days I have been being miserable as I couldn't find the cable for my little mini notepad computer and it was dead. Finally I've found it and with the notepad fully recharged I can get back on line. Unfortunately I've missed the end of the month link ups but I'll give you a run down on how last month went and my plans for this month.
As far as my objectives for May went I had a poor month. I still haven't finished the top of my 'Votes for women' quilt and I didn't do any work on the millennium sampler. However I did get other things done. I finished two baby quilts. This first one for Thomas.
and the second for Arthur who is due in August.
I used the same green fabric from the sashing as the backing on this quilt. I knitted a blanket for Arthur as well.
I spent quite a lot of time cutting my scraps into usable pieces and the Brownies have been working very hard to sew the charm squares into 9 patches for making into quilts for charity. We are hoping to have at least four tops made by the end of term so I can quilt them over the summer.
I've spent the last few evenings doing some knitting. I started a jumper for John in double knitting wool. I completed the back quite some time ago but haven't touched it for a while as I was knitting the baby blanket. I'm almost at the neck now. It's not the easiest pattern to do and watch TV as it has cables in it.
Unfortunately knitting doesn't seem to look very interesting until you have finished it.
So goals for the month;
1. Finish 'Votes for women' top
2. Make Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks. This months colour is yellow.
3. Finish 'star trek' quilt top.
I'm keeping this month simple and hoping I can complete them. Now I'm off to upload my camera software onto this notepad so I can upload my photos easily.
Here in London we are enjoying a lovely hot summer day. Hope the weather is good where you are.
Lynds
