Spring has sprung (part 2)

Well another day dawns bright and sunny though we did have rain overnight as forecast. DH has just brought me a cuppa to enjoy while I sew and mentioned there were frogs spawning in the pond... this I have never been lucky enough to see, so off I went pond-side with camera in hand, and there they were. This is the picture I took and if you look closely you can just see the greeny-brown colours of Mrs Frog just under the eggs. 

There was another frog was at the bottom of the pond which the camera did not capture. I always get sooo excited when I see frog spawn, it takes me right back to being 4 or 5 years old with Mum taking me to a local pond to gather some to take home, then I would watch eagerly for the Tadpoles to hatch, when they were few days old, off we would go again to put them back in their pond. Last year we lost a lot of our frogs, we kept finding then dead in the garden. They had no apparent injuries so I think they must have contracted the same disease that was killing off the wild frog population, hopefully this year they will be OK!

I guess I spoke too soon! I just looked at 'the view from the window' and its 'throwing it down', Good old British weather never fails to amaze me, still it all bodes well for filling up the water butts, and the water from the two roofs you can see here goes into the pond through a system of underground 'drain pipes' buried under one of the flower beds.

I started on the crazy panels for the chicken last night, this is as far as I got, before going to Church, I'm hoping to get them (and maybe the embroidery) finished today so it's watch this space.

I like to use the 'crazy' log cabin technique and I'm trying to make them as near to identical as I can, but as we all know Crazy work very often dictates to the maker how it will look. I've spent the afternoon sewing and got the panels completed and I've made some  features to add at the sewing up stage.This is where I am now.

The panel with all the pieces sewn on always looks a mess at this stage! But once it's trimmed it'll improve.....

Here it is trimmed up, I always stitch around the edges on the machine set on the biggest stitch, this holds all the sides firmly and stops them getting in the way while I'm embroidering and embellishing.

and these are the features beak, tail, wattle, comb etc, I may not use them all or, I may make some different ones I haven't quite decided yet! So as the sun is out I'm off to the conservatory to start the embroidery.

Lorraine.

P.S. By the way if you're out there reading this D I hope you and yours are all OK, I'm glad to know you're keeping an eye on me!! LOL.

What a difference a month makes!

Hi all,

Spring has finally sprung here at Monkey Business HQ, this was the scene from my workroom window one month ago today!

Feb 2nd 2012

And now it looks like this (sorry about the laundry!!!)

 

March 2nd 2012

it was soo pretty and the sun was sooo warm today, has been for most of this week actually :-))) I went outside and took some pictures of the spring flowers which will be a great reminder next winter when I look back.

mini Daffodils

Snowdrops & Crocus

Crocus are so pretty up close

Even the fish are out to play.

DD was here all day on Wednesday so we took the boys and Little H out for a long walk around the village, it was lovely, we planned to go up through the local Bridle Path but it was too muddy and steep for the buggy so DD went that way and I stayed on the road arranging to meet at the top where the path rejoins the road. It was very enjoyable as it was fairly uneventful dog wise and DD only had to hide behind three different cars while other dogs went past out of sight from Ted, he's either losing some of his eyesight or he is getting better as he only barked once, which for him is a miracle. Baby H managed to fall asleep just as we turned back into our street which was NOT what we planned but she managed to stay asleep in the garden for another hour or so then woke up full of beans.

She's thinking Oh no! she's got the camera again!

 Now I said I wouldn't but I have, I've decided to make another chicken this time in Crazy Patchwork I made an Elephant some time ago from a kit I bought from a company who were at Malvern called Rag Bags. They  collect and package recycled fabrics for Quilters, so this is Melanie the elephant of whom I am very fond

Right Side

Left side

 She is of course an Indian Elephant and she deserves an outing as she lives in the Cupboard :-( Anyway back to the chicken, these are the fabrics I have selected,

Yes I know the colours are the same but these are colours I like A LOT! Anyway she can pretend she's a Rhode Island Red which of course as you all know is a breed of chicken! LOL. She will be about 6"-7" square when completed and I'll keep you up to date on my progress.

Well I'd  better go and do some more sewing plus I'm taking Mum to the Women's World Day of Prayer service at Church tonight.

Byeee!

Lorraine.