Saturday fun and Sunday stitching.

Saturday was a busy day with very little stitching but Scamp had his haircut, John and I visited Barnes wetlands and we went for a walk with Katy. Scamp goes to the groomers 4 times a year to have his hair clipped and enjoy a good wash and blow dry. We wash him at home as needed in between but he is a terrier and terriers like to investigate and have fun so letting his hair grow long, as many Yorkshire Terriers are pictured with, is not an option. So far I haven't been able to get a good photo of him so I've taken one from a previous time. Don't panic he won't get cold as he has a range of jumpers and dog coats that his loving admirers have given him. 

Scamp loves going to the groomers and always jumps into her arms when we enter and then follows her happily for his pamper session. He gets his hair done more frequently than I do but then I don't enjoy my trips to the hairdresser.

While he was in the groomers John and I had just over two hours before we would need to collect him. About a mile from the groomers is the London Wetland Centre. This was created from four disused Victorian reservoirs and provides a great space for wildlife and a venue for bird watching. We hadn't visited since February as it was closed for several months and when it reopened there were very few visitors allowed and the hides weren't open. Now you have to book but only one hide is still closed and during our visit we got to watch a kingfisher at close range. They had put in a one way system and as a result I had fun ignoring the main path and walking along the children's log walkway and over the rope bridge. In fact all the adults were doing the same! As we don't have young children we hadn't followed this route before and so we were surprised when we came across this bunch of cheeky fellas on the benches.

Once we had collected Scamp we drove to our older daughter's flat as we had some items to drop off to her. London is now in the UK tier 2 restrictions which means we couldn't go into Katy's flat, instead we decided to take a walk together. Scamp was more than happy with a walk. John and I are dieting and it works so much better if you up your exercise so a walk fitted the bill perfectly. We walked by the river Thames in Twickenham and found that there had been a very high tide with the river having come across the road. Nothing unusual as high tides often occur at this time of year and don't particularly cause problems but we have had a lot of rain this month and some places have reported flooding.

Once home on Saturday evening I made some butterfly cakes. It was Lucy's turn to decide the cake for the week and she asked for butterfly cakes with lemon curd and butter cream icing. Her last choice was fairy cakes, and I feel a theme going on here. I had one to test and it was delicious but otherwise I won't be eating any more.

This week I've been working on the grandmother's garden quilt. I needed to make quite a lot of flowers for the row I'm adding but I had all the centers prepped. I've made enough flowers to complete the next section of rainbow colours and the 2 Beatrix Potter flowers. After a lot of searching I found the 'safe place' where I'd put the BP fabric. Sunday evening I started adding the flowers to the main quilt top. I got as far as the blue flower which is only attached by two sides of one hexie. 

I like the way this row is looking. I'm going to continue with these flowers this week until I've added the full rainbow section and then I'll switch out and do some stitching on the millennium sampler.

I'm linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching link up. In her post yesterday she wrote about Siddi quilts and I found this very interesting. I've been searching for more information and really one to make a quilt in this style. 

For now I need to start work as I'm interviewing on line this morning and need to read through the application forms.

Take care

Lyndsey