Chelsea Flower Show

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Helena asked me if I'd like to go to the Chelsea Flower Show with her as she had managed to get 2 tickets for Friday evening. Well, who could turn that offer down! I usually go to the RHS Spring show in Malvern but this year it clashed with Harri's birthday weekend, so I didn't manage to get there. It is many years since I've been  to the Chelsea flower show and I have overwhelming memories of being crushed in the throng and not being able to get a great view of the gardens. I always plan to go and then end up not booking tickets and watching it on the telly. Well not this year!

 

 

We couldn't get in until 17.30, so we went first to Tate Britain to have a look at the fabulous 500 years of British Art. This has now been arranged  around the perimeter rooms of Tate Britain in chronological order starting in the 1500's.There are so many wonderful works of art that eventually you get visual overload. We galloped through every single room covering 500  years in about 3 hours! This is clearly not the best way to do this: if I lived in London I would dip in and out , just taking one room , more slowly, at a time (it's also free).

 

 

 

 

They even had one of Barry Flanagan's famous hares! I didn't think to take more photos  but it was well worth the visit.

I had planned that we would walk from the Tate ,across the Thames, and stroll down to the Chelsea Hospital but of course it was absolutely p*ssing it down, and we both got soaked! I even had to buy a brolly in Peter Jones. All I can say was that it was a good job I was wearing winter clothes otherwise I would have frozen to death. 

We managed to see all the show gardens when it was only lightly raining and then took refuge in the Great Pavilion during the heavier down pours. So apologies for the crap photos:

 

 

 

One corner of the B and Q Sentabale Forget- me -knot garden (Prince Harry's garden).

 

A few selected highlights:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did get to see the Australian garden that won best in show, but it was very crowded around it so I didn't get many photos. The planting was absolutely stunning, as were the natural waterfalls  but I didn't like the giant orange solar panel thing. 

 

 



 

One difference between Chelsea and Malvern, is that you can't actually buy any plants in Chelsea, you can only order them. The evening slot was certainly quieter than daytime, but 2 and 1/2  hours is not enough time to see everything, so there were areas that we missed altogether. The rain didn't help either as it is mostly all outside. The quality of the merchandise is certainly much higher in Chelsea (with an appropriately high price tag) and there were some stunning sculptures. I can only dream..

 



 

 

Gardening and art are 2 of my obsessions, but I think I'd better make my next post about sewing!

 

 

 

 



Happy 21st Birthday Harri

This post is one day late because I have some sort of virus and feel like sh*t. Yesterday my darling boy was 21.Where has all the time gone! He has gone from this

To this

And this

To this

and now this.

 

 

 

Because his birthday was on a Monday, we went to London for the weekend before his birthday. Harri is a big fan of South Park and I managed to get some tickets for the Book of Mormon, the musical currently running to packed audiences in Prince of Wales theatre ( some of the time I can be organised-booked these months ago!)

 

 

 

 

We met Madlen at the theatre so it was a family affair. The Book of Mormon was as you would expect, no subtley whatsoever, very, very rude and hilariously funny. We were all laughing uproariously. The cracks came so thick and fast that I'm sure I missed quite a few. It was also very jolly and uplifting, as the cast appeared to be  enjoying themselves as much as the audience.

 

We didn't do very well on the cultural front. We trekked over to The Portland Gallery because I wanted to see the Joan Eardly exhibition, only to find it was closed at weekends. My fault entirely, as I hadn't checked. Then we trekked over to The British Museum to see the Pompeii and Heracaneum exhibition , only the queue ( I hadn't prebooked) was about 2 1/2 hours and Mr Hare doesn't do waiting around ( he wasn't very keen in the first place). So we ended up taking Harri to the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons. He is studying anthropology so was very interested in a lot of the exhibitions especially the primate skulls.

 

We ate a whole variety of food, not always very good but did have a splendid dinner at Granger's in Notting Hill.

 

 

 





 

 

Madlen got absolutely soaked on her way to the restaurant.

 

 

 

We'll gloss over the fact that on Sunday it took us 2 1/2 hours to get out of London. The whole of West London was gridlocked because of an accident in Hammersmith. Then Harri missed his flight from Bristol ( by 10 minutes!) and we had to take him at 04.30 on Monday morning to get the next flight. It is amazing that it is much, much cheaper to fly than take a train, even with a student railcard.

 

All in all though a lovely weekend!



Wonderful Weekend

I've just had the most wonderful weekend!  I travelled to London and stayed one night with my friend Lois and caught up on the gossip. Then, on Saturday I went here

to meet up with some of the other Kinky Bees. This was organised by the lovely Liz of Dandelion Daydreams who is as gorgeous and bubbly in real life as she is online. Quite a few of us turned up- Jo, Moira, Mary, Kate , Sue , Liz of course , Amy and Di ( who isn't a Kinky Bee but came along for fun anyway!). Then all of us, except Amy, went to the Village Haberdashery in Hampstead after we'd had a good getting to know you session in Liberty's café.

 

 

 

 

We also got to meet Annie and her new baby Harvey, her daughter Madelaine and Penny who happened to be serving in the shop. It was great to get to know everyone a little better. 

 

I also managed a visit to Tate Modern

 

 

for the Lichenstein exhibition . This was interesting because he was clearly a ground breaking artist but in the fantasy world where I could actually afford one of his paintings, I wouldn't actually particularly want one on my walls.

 

I also managed to go here

 

and managed to buy two paintings which I will reveal at a later date when I have unwrapped them. This was pure indulgence but  I justified my profligate behaviour on the basis that we've had to defer any holidays because of the roof situation, so obviously I could treat myself....

And then this evening I met my friend Jane at Usk Castle for a sculpture exhibition. Didn't much like the sculptures but the gardens are fabulous even though we viewed them in that very fine drizzle that doesn't seem like rain but you still end up very wet .

I hope that the Kinky Bees will meet up again soon, as I had a lot of fun, even though in Liz's photos on  her blog and flickr , I look like my mother- how did that happen?
  



Spring at last

Thank goodness spring finally seems to be here at last. I've had a very productive weekend. First thing Saturday morning I finished a few more of my EPP hexagons.

 

 

Then Mr Hare and I walked up the Sugarloaf for the first time this year. It was a beautiful morning, frosty first thing then a glorious sunny day. As usual I dressed too warmly and had to gradually strip off!

 

 

This is a holiday cottage that we pass on our route up the mountain . It is one of my favourites.

 

 

 

That's Mr Hare in the distance ( I photographed this on the way down). We haven't done as much walking as I would like due to the frankly awful weather so far this year. We passed lots of sheep

 

 

 

And lots of wonderful views.

 

 

 

 

 

 

England in the distance. When we got back, I tidied up the greenhouse, something I had been meaning to do for some time. Normally, by now I would have lots of seeds planted , but this year it has been too cold. I know it's time to get going though because the weeds are beginning to grow, so the soil has obviously warmed up somewhat.

 

I managed to finish another block for one of my quilts

 

 

 

 

And today I made this flag for the banners  that are going to be displayed in Boston ( Liz Dandelion posted about this site http://vancouvermodernquiltguild.ca/blog/2013/04/to-boston-with-love/)

 

 

As you can see my impro letters leave a lot to be desired, but my next one will be better!.

 

And I've organised to stay with my friend Lois on Friday before I join the other Kinky Bee-ers on Saturday in London. .Just got to book my train tickets! 





 

 

 



 

 







Random Ramblings

Nearly another month gone by and the clocks about to 'spring forward' despite the arctic weather.
I've been on annual leave for 3 weeks this month which has been wonderful and means I've had more time to think!
First up my March makes:

 

 

I made these 2 pouches to hold my EPP bits and pieces. I made one using a pattern I had bought from Elizabeth Hartman because I thought her pouches always look fantastic in her blog and on flickr. The other I made using a modified free pattern from Flossie Teacakes.  The Elizabeth Hartman pattern has lots of ideas for handles etc but the zip insertion technique is far better in Florence's  tutorial because you insert the zip first and then topsew the zip which includes both the outer and lining fabrics.  This gives a much better finished result as the lining fabric is held down and doesn't annoyingly ever get caught in the zip, which it does with the other technique. I'm pleased with them both and I just love the fabric.

 

I also managed 21 EPP blocks:

 

 

 

I've really enjoyed fussy cutting these diamonds and seeing very different end results.

 



 

 Only another 230 to go!

 

I've pieced together my scrappy trips around the world for Helena:

 

 

 

It looks really pretty in real life . Once I'd sewn it together though, I realised that the scrappy lone star that I'd made for the back, just wasn't big enough. This was also annoying so I made another larger one:

 

 

I've now got to sort out having one half star on one side and the other half star on the other side. There will still be a large area of negative space in the middle but it's not as bad as it was.

 

I've also made 3 bee blocks for Mary and I've pieced together a second top for Siblings together. I'm not going to post a picture until I've also finished the original. I haven't had all the blocks back yet.

 

The lovely Charlotte in her post of 5th March talked about how since coming home from Quiltcon she is going to make less quilts because she already has enough quilts in her house. This got me thinking... Apart from one quilt which I need to post to Siblings together ( just got to attach the label that Laura Jane kindly sent) I don't have one finished quilt in the whole house. Now why is this? I have 14 quilts in various stages of development. Half of these  I'm making for specific people as gifts, so they will disappear when they are finished.

 

 

 

 

 Another (above) is a Kaffe Fassett quilt that is one of the first quilts I attempted. I made it before I had ever quilted anything and I was so terrified of spoiling it by cocking up the quilting, that I decided to hand quilt it. That means it has been shoved in a bag never to see the light of day. I occasionally get it out and do a little more but as it is 6 ft square it is going to take forever to finish. I have not pushed forward with it either because although I absolutely love it for itself, it does not fit my decor at all.

 

 

 

 

 And this is another reason why I don't have one finished quilt in my house. My inclination when making quilts is for colour and variety, preferably with scraps. My house isn't like that- the aesthetic would be more toward the Denyse Schmidt very plain, calm quilts in solids with only one or two colours. I am planning to make one quilt like this  eventually (when I've finished the other 14!) The children have both taken the quilts I made for them away, so they're not in the house either.

I have got one quilt I intended to make specifically for my house, to hide a hideous leather sofa that Mr Hare inherited and will not part with. But, again I made it early in my quilting journey and (on advice from one of my local quilting shops !) bought the wrong wadding- a very puffy high loft polyester and then I hand basted it which took hours. As I used the only fabrics I could find at the time ( I had not yet discovered the joys of Oakshot cottons and all the other lovelies out there) and my tastes have changed. I can't face hand-quilting it and so it just languishes in another bag. 

One of the UFO's I started in a class and I don't like it , so even if I finish it it will be given away.Another I tried to make quick and dirty and it didn't work, so it will have to be recycled into scrap. A couple of the others are experiments, so I'm not sure if I will ever finish them but they will also be given away if I do.

 

I have received a lovely present this month

 

 

 

Linda sent me this gorgeous bird that she had paper pieced. It's just beautiful.

 

 

To finish my ramblings for today some gratuitous house fire pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So nearly 3 months on and I still have only a leaking tarpaulin over part of the roof and we've had the coldest Winter in decades!

 

I also discovered a new to me blogger The Bitchy Stitcher . Check out the ironing board cover March 12th 2013 if you want to laugh out loud!