hayley in the snow

are we going to have a white Christmas? I t looks as though Hayley will be pleased if we do!

Me and my boys

Tim, Mark and Jay dwarfing their Mum

hayley enjoying a mince pie

grand daughter Hayley enjoying a mince pie with her Mum on Boxing Day

3 wise? monkeys

here are my 3 sons playing the fool, and a saner photo

Boxing day

This year the Watts family got together at Tim's house on Boxing Day, here are the 4 grand children, Jess, Kyle behind Hayley and Jake

algarve holiday

We had a fantastic 2 weeks holiday on the Algarve. The weather was very kind to us, no rain whatsoever and temps in the late 60s early 70s which was just right for us as we don't like it too hot. We went to Zoomarine and saw a dolphin display which was amazing, also birds of prey, tropical birds, sealions and 4D cinema. We went self catering which allowed us to sample lots of different restaurants especially around the Vilamoura marina

my little witch

Grand daughter Hayley dressed up for Halloween at her nursery school

family get together

Well life has been busy lately so no new posts but we had a family get together yesterday so here we all are

rebecca's purple and green blocks

I am in 2 round robins, a purple study and a green study and as it happens both the blocks i have just worked on belong to Rebecca; to the green one i have added three tatted pieces and an embroidered seam. to the purple one a paisley motif and an embroidered seam, I hope Rebecca likes my additions.

Bargello

This is my latest finished quilt from Bonnie Hunter's http://www.quiltville.com/ site, a great source for using up scraps and FQs. i have often admired bargello quilts but found them daunting, Bonnie's way is so easy.

season to season, Spring

This is not a RR but a block share I work half of my block and it is sent to a partner who works her half and then it is returned to me and I have meanwhile worked half on hers. This is my partner Courtney's finished block, the theme is Spring I added the bee and flower seam, the butterfly and the green tatted wreath, i hope Courtney likes it.

Rosa's green block

This is another RR same thing as the purple but green; this is Rosa's block and I added the tatting in the centre, a butterfly and some tatted lace on the seams.

dianna's purple block rr

I am in a RR on one of my internet groups everything base and embellishments must be purple. Here is the first block I worked on, Dianna's

needlecase for swap

This is my latest finished work, a needlecase/hussif for a swap on one of my groups

helen's quilt

Christmas Eve my daughter in law Helen said she would like me to make her a quilt; Christmas day i asked her what colours although I thought i already knew, i was right, shades of purple! luckily because these are also my favourites i had enough to take part in the quilttalk new years Eve mystery designed by Ann Smith of salamanca New York. I put the final stitches to the quilt on Tuesday and delivered it to my DIL yesterday in time for her birthday on the 29th; she was amazed that i had completed it so quickly and is pictured here with it; the handsome young man also in the picture is my youngest son Jay, her husband

amelia's quilt

this is the quilt that I have just finished for Amelia Elizabeth Ann Read, Clive's great neice born on 23rd December. It was a mystery quilt devised by Renee Belfour but I must admit that I peeped so didn't do it as a mystery.

quilts finished for Christmas

Well i had a sewing frenzy in the run up to Christmas and finished a quilt for Clive's great niece, Tori and at last completed the quilt for my eldest son and daughter in law which was supposed tpo be their Christmas present for 2005 but it was bigger than I have ever quilted before so although I finished the top quickly I baulked at quilting it; but it is done now although still not as nicely as I hoped, still they were pleased to get it at last. I gave Tori hers on 23rd, trouble is she had a new half sister on that day too so I have an order for another quilt, LOL

birthday party

My birthday and my elder grandaughter's are a day apart but since my son and his first wife are divorced he didn't have his kids for the weekend of our birthdays so we celebrated a week late, yesterday; we all went to a local carvery, 3 sons and their wives, me and Clive and 4 grandchildren. I had bought anew camcorder and was trying it out so only took one still photo of Hayley my younger grand daughter enjoying her icecream

advent

Last year I ordered an advent calendar kit to make one for Hayley; I didn't manage to finish it in time and as she was only a few months old didn't stress about it but a month ago I dug it out and finished it.......oh, finished is such a lovely word!

tea cups

The Market square Quilters in Newbury correspond with a group of quilters in Texas. 8 of us got together to make te cup wall hangings for them.