Scrappy Crafting in Brittany

We had a wonderful time in France ...3 weeks in all...mainly travelling around central Brittany although we did make it to the coast a couple of times for some lovely beach walks. I have some great photos of our holiday but this is a crafty post as I know I haven't written one in a while.

I always like to take some crafts along with me on holiday and this time I took all my fabric scraps! Bags and bags of them! I'm completely mad, I know! I also took my Accuquilt cutter. Madder still. Quite a heavy item to take but we fitted it in. I was pleased we did as I spent quite a few evenings (mainly when it was raining outside) sat at the little table in Harvey J cutting useful squares from my scraps. I returned home with these....I will probably make a scrappy quilt from them......

I also wanted to try to make some fabric string as I thought this would be a good thing to do whilst travelling. As a passenger, I enjoy looking at the French countryside but I like to have something to focus on and break the monotony of a long drive. Chris does all the driving in France so I am free to do stuff!

I had found this great tutorial on how to make fabric string from My Poppet.....

Click on the photo to go to the tutorial.

You use scrap 'strings' of about an inch wide and I have loads of these...

So I had a go at making some string and hey presto....

...before I know it I had created a ball of string!

Note that the glove compartment doubles as a sewing/craft box!

I also made a Windmill block for my Holiday Quilt...see the tab Holiday Quilt Blocks above to see my other blocks.

Towards the end of the holiday, I started a scrappy hexagon patchwork quilt. Actually I didn't know what it was going to be at first but once I'd got into the swing of the English paper piecing, (and the fact I could use up more scraps!) I decided I definitely wanted to make a quilt for the recently decorated spare bedroom. 

Mainly in blues.....

by the time I arrived home I had this!

I decided to break up the blues with random hexie flowers of contrasting colours.

So as you can see it was definitely a 'fun with scraps' holiday!

Maggie xx

A Purposeful Trip to Devon with Happy Memories for Spencer

Last month we took a trip down to Devon as we needed to go to Exmouth to have Harvey J (our motorhome) converted to LPG. We were booked in for the conversion on the Thursday but we went down a few days earlier to make the most of the trip away.

Here's a few photos from our trip.

Spencer had fun with some doggy pals at the campsite near Honiton. The horses weren't phased at all by all the racing around.......

We've been to this site before and we were the only campers there..... It's lovely and quiet with nice walks for Spencer....

We drove as far as Plymouth to meet up with my son, Will, and went for a lovely walk on Dartmoor.....

  

We saw several Dartmoor ponies roaming free.....

We took a different route from previous visits.....

and found ourselves walking along a river in beautiful surroundings.....

Later that day we went for a walk and cup of tea on Plymouth Hoe.....

On our trip we also visited Dawlish where the terrible storms caused so much damage. 

Our campsite near Exmouth had beautiful views.....it was lovely to see the cows wandering by early in the morning.... 

And a there was a trip down memory lane for Spencer...Exmouth Beach.....the first beach he visited as a pup.....

It was all a bit bewildering back then.......here's my post from March 2012..... Sun, Sea and Sand for Spencer

That's all for now but I'll be back soon with photos of our trip to France.

Maggie xx

A Bit Late for Early Purple Orchids!

I can't believe how the time flies sometimes. It's now six weeks since my last post and there's quite a bit to catch up on. I hope you're well and enjoying the sunny weather.

Rather than a really long post, I'm going to try to write short posts over the next week or so ......if I can get my act together that is!

These photos are from back in early May. My Uncle Brian came to visit for the day and we went for a walk on the Common. Uncle spotted and identified these Early Purple Orchids. Chris and I had seen them and I thought they were some kind of orchid but we weren't sure.

They were growing everywhere on the Common....

...sometimes alongside pretty yellow cowslips...

Here's Spencer enjoying a good old roll amongst them.......

The crazy dog loves to roll on top of his ball...you can just see it on the left hand side....does your dog do that?

The Latin name for the Early Purple Orchid is Orchis Mascula derived from the Latin Masculus meaning male or virile. This is possibly because the shape of the two tubers resemble certain male private parts (made this 50 year old giggle like a schoolgirl!). 

Apparently the tubers are sometimes called Adam and Eve's root and witches used them to make magical love potions :)

I'll be back soon...I promise!!

Maggie xx