Pro Euro

When we arrived back from Yorkshire at the weekend, I peered through the French windows in the kitchen to survey the back garden.  It's really a dismal scene of decay, shrouded by Autumn mists, and not in a pretty way.  However, I spotted afar, some pinky dots on the wooden rose arbour and was rewarded for venturing into the garden to find that some of the rose bushes had indeed sprung a few late season blooms.  Oh happy days.  Snippety snip.  It didn't stop there, as my home grown dahlias are still flowering away with abandon, too.

I love flowers, errrm you've probably noticed.  I always like to have a jug of flowers in the house, it seems nice to have something real and living inside(though I guess as they've been cut, they're actually dying, oh dear!)  It's an absolute treat, I think, to be able to step outside and armed with the kitchen scissors, snip away whatever takes your fancy to make a little posy to bring the outdoors inside.  I hadn't thought I'd still be able to do this so a happy girl I am.  In the Den, the dahlias in their clashing colours are taking centre stage.

I have so many dahlia blooms, that in the kitchen, (ah, my pride and joy), I have a couple of shaggy white-tipped red ones in a favourite old Bridport-market-bought milk bottle.  I'd never normally have flowers over here by my hob, ooh how fancy!

There's another whopping purple one on the island.  (The eagle eyed amongst you will note that the sad and empty cake stand has been replaced with an almost empty biscuit jar!)  It's a sad fact that taking photos for the blog is becoming more of a chore than a pleasure at this time of year, with the generally gloomy weather and dull  lighting conditions.  This photo testifies to that.  Ah well.

My absolute favourite rose, David Austin's Jubilee Celebration, is still flowering away and smells divine.  I can't think of another flower I'd rather have here, sitting prettily in their much-longed-for green milk glass (did you know that Re now have a concession in Liberty?  Swooooon.)

In case you were thinking life is all utopian around here, you should know that the other end of my delightful kitchen, being the room that is more usually our sitting room, is looking like this.

No element of the work we've had to have done here this year has been simple, nor has it gone to plan.  Work which should have taken twelve to fourteen weeks is now in its thirty-third week.  Dare I say that we are hopefully nearing the end and unfortunately, the almost-last job is to have the original floor in this room replaced because it was not capable of repair.  Similar, antique boards have been sourced so here's hoping for a good result.  Meanwhile, there's the constant banging of nails, sanding and so on and if you ever wondered what it looks like underneath a one hundred and forty year old floor...

It's not pretty!  It's also blooming freezing.

Let's escape.  Before we head off to the Den, I remembered there are more roses in the lounge.  They don't last long, you can see their petals dropping after a couple of days, but maybe that's why I appreciate them so much.

Upstairs, I decided it was time for a new project today.  The cold spell seems to have landed and I need another project to snuggle up under and hand quilt in front of the fire.  The furry friends agree.

I know that I have blogged about these fabrics before, they date from around the 1930s and emanate mainly from Europe, particularly France and Germany.  I had a "thing" for these when I discovered them a few years back and fought many a hard battle on eBay to grow this particular stash!

I have previously made some little lavender bags, covered coat hangers and several of these lovely Dresden plate cushion covers.  This one resides in my guest room.  The others went to Australia.  Quite a journey. 

This fabric was generally used for bedding.  Why oh why can one not buy bedding as delightful as this any more?  I have one entire pillowcase which I am finding I cannot cut up (all the other fabric is fat quarter-ish sized).

In truth, I did cut up another pillowcase but it had lots of rust stains so I was able to cut those out and salvage the rest.  The pillowcases are, of course, European-style, large and square with a buttoned closure.  I've never found these particularly practical myself, though pretty they undoubtedly are, and yield a lot of fabric.

So out came the rotary cutter, it's time to make a quilt just from these fabrics.  Some have a brushed feel and they are all a little faded and worn, and just deliciously soft and oh so pretty.

I'm only going to make a smallish lap quilt, nice and manageable, I wouldn't dare make a bed-sized one which the furry friends would instantly claim, and subsequently demolish, with their furry clawed adoration.  I figured on 5.5" cut squares, I want them to be quite small when finished, and thought I had maybe twenty different blue-toned fabrics so I'd cut three of each.  Yikes, several hours later, I have errm, quite a lot more than twenty blue-y designs!

I haven't even started on the pink and purple piles, though they in truth are far outnumbered by the blue.  I love this stage of a project, when after many hours of ironing and cutting, I am left with a neat pile of squares all ready to be easily sewn together.  That's my true love, the patch working.

The weekend beckons, as does tonight, a date with my better half, and Mr James Bond at the cinema.  Oh but I am far too excited!  Have a good one, whatever you do...