Today is my day. It’s all been a bit of a stretch. We had my son’s confirmation today with all the ensuing hullabaloo and last night when I should have been sewing my EPP I was actually on the garage floor wrestling with the wheels on my car and putting the winter snow wheels on because a bilzzard had hit and we had 6 inches of snow and my husband was just out of the hospital after surgery, so it was left to my 13 year old and I. So there’s a little less to show you than I had hoped…but hey ho…sometimes life just gets in the way. It happens to the best of us from time to time, right?

I finally chose the sunrise palette – it was the one most of you preferred this week and well, when it came down to it I just liked the colours better.

So here it is….the view from my window on an autumn morning last week – looking out towards the Zurich Oberland and I guess eventually Lake Constance and Germany!

Using this palette I pulled out these fabrics – realizing as I did so that I’m really not a brown person and the burgundy/browny shade was seriously lacking in my giant stash!

The EPP pattern I chose was really simple – 60 degree diamonds put together to make 6-pointed stars. One day when I have time (wonder when that will be!) I’m going to make this in Liberty tana lawn. I discovered that I can manage to be seriously inaccurate when cutting out the paper pieces. I now see why people buy pre-cut papers – it’s a seriously good idea!

So far I only have one block done, but who knows what I might manage this evening infront of the TV! I love this block though – it’s simple but I have a thing about stars and it goes together pretty quickly. It’s one of those cold winter night infront of a log fire blocks….

Until tomorrow!

You might want to check out tomorow’s stop on the blog hop – Plum and Jane

Helen

Well I bet that caught your attention! It certainly caught mine!

Yesterday I happened to look at the list of search terms that people had used to find my blog.

Middle-aged nude plain ladies? Sorry? Have I missed something? Have I EVER written a post about middle-aged plain ladies? I mean, in my sleep? Did my son hack his way into the server and create something I didn’t know about? HELLO? Has anyone ever seen me make reference to middle-aged nude plain ladies?, Middle-aged? Well that maybe, but plain? nude?

Sometimes the internet and search engines are a law unto themselves.

I’m sorry to disappoint you, but if you’re coming here looking for that sort of thing you got off at the wrong bus stop sonny.

We only do middle-aged beautiful ladies here and we keep the nudity to an absolute minimum.

Helen

Oh heavens, I don’t know what I’ve started…today someone is looking for ‘nude helen’. Er noooo, not here, if you’re a perv please go away. RIGHT NOW!

This is probably the week when it all falls apart.

It’s my busiest week of the year workwise (although that’s always a bit of a moving feast and difficult to predict). Critical deadlines for two of my biggest clients have come together. Everyone is running late…except as the editor/proofreader I don’t get to do late…I have to eat up all the late for everyone else. Which is why my days this week are going to have 48 hours don’t you know.

My son is being confirmed on Sunday with all the hoopla that goes with that.

And now my husband has fallen off his motorbike and broken his collarbone and will be operated on tomorrow and may or may not be out by Sunday….

Ah well, everything seems to be out of my hands and as a motorbike hater I’m actually pretty relieved that this little adventure didn’t turn out to be a whole lot worse.

On top of which…I picked Sunday for my day for the Travelling Pic Stitch Blog Hop…why oh why…?

During my coffee break this morning I did a mini picture audition for my palette (isn’t Palette Builder from Playcraft just SO clever!):

What do you think? Should I choose this….(the early morning sunrise from my window)

or this….(paradise, where I was last week!)

Let me know!

Helen

I guess a lot of you probably already know that I’m in the Stitch Tease Bee….which it has to be said is a very secretive bee….the end products of all our sneaky stitching can only be revealed next year when each lucky bee member will receive a finished quilt top made by the others.

I’m running a bit behind…or at least I was until today.

I was scared….

I had to do something with curves for Annabella….

And you know how scary curves are….you’ve had the Drunkard’s Path nightmare too, right?

I mean pretty much everybody is scared of curves. If I’m honest I’m not sure what came over Annabella when she asked for them. I guess she was trying to push us shouting and screaming out of our comfort zones.

She did that all right. I’ve put it off and put it off. I’ve thrown all my super-punctual, never late for anything nature out of the window because I DID NOT WANT TO GO DOWN THAT PATH!

But there comes a point in time doesn’t there? That moment when you just have to get out there and fight your dragon.

I girded my loins. I found all the sort of fabric that I know Annabella likes. I made a pattern that scares the willies off me.

And you know. After a bit of shimmying and unpicking and resewing…it was actually OK.

I think I did it.

I climbed Mount Everest without oxygen and I survived.

Unfortunately I can’t show you the photo.

Helen

I don’t know where the last week went….we had school holidays and although the teenagers certainly don’t want to spend time with their mother the days seemed to go by in a whirl of activity, none of which seemed to involve anything creative or interesting to blog about.

The trials and tribulations of parenting teenagers and dealing with the very tough Swiss school system are weighing heavily at the moment and that seems to block free and creative thoughts too. I’ve realized that it’s actually really important that I don’t let it get me all down, so I’m trying to do little things that brighten my day. Recently that’s involved buying a bunch of little sunflowers…

….sitting in the thermal pool outside at the local swimming pool for a couple of hours chatting to a friend who always sees the positive in life, taking a yoga class and of course my stalwart – knitting socks and watching Downton Abbey on TV.

I also read this….

and it’s brilliant …if you like crime novels and Scottish Islands (both of which I do!). It’s set on Shetland, where I spent a summer when I was a student.

Any way, it’s Monday and it’s time to get creative! Hopefully I’ll have a bit more to show you next time!!

Helen