Battle of the Elements

The week before last Tonya left France and France has hardly stopped crying since, a part from the odd day last week.

This last weekend South West France decided to have a tantrum because she hadn’t visited Carcassone when she said she would!

We’ve had rain rain rain and rain – torrential rain.  Everything is flooded.  Friday and Saturday we had hurricane force winds.  For once, this part of the Dordogne escaped the worst of it and we actually had power for the whole 48 hours, whilst there are still about 1 million homes without electricity.

We went down to Brantôme to see the state of the river, but hardly expected to see this!

When Jen was here in November the river was so low you could see the bottom.  Now look at it!

The Dronne is like the Dordogne!!

So – not a lot of sewing going on.  There has been a slight problem.  It’s called a leaking roof right over my sewing table.  We are in the process of getting it sorted and then hopefully I’ll be able to get back to Blackcurrant Fool.

La neige arrivée

Look what we woke up to this morning.

3 inches of the stuff and more on it’s way.

Magic has decided she loves it!

and to while the time away while I’m waiting for it to thaw, I’ve been practising my hand quilting.

A close up.

Temperature is going down to -6°C tonight and tomorrow is going to be a maximum of -1°C. The schools are closed which is Sod’s Law as they only went back yesterday. Don’t know when The Young One will go back. It is highly unlikely the school bus will get up the hill tomorrow morning and we certainly aren’t going to attempt to drive in this.

Think I’m going to spend the next few days under a quilt in front of the fire. Brrrrrrrrrr.

Colourful Thursday

Jambon sec

I love the colours here.  Makes my fingers itch for some solids and the rotary cutter

Jen pointed out some stringy, skinny letters.

In Summer Mode

I really don’t know what’s happened – just a little bit of tie quilting going on – other than that rien, zilch, nada, nothing!  I suppose its got something to do with the fact that we’ve been doing a lot of entertaining over the last 2 weeks, with more yet to come.

9th August Summer Bash was brilliant – best one ever.  Lots of food, wine and great company.  Oh and archery!

Just after that D-SD and her partner arrived for a few days.  A lot more alcohol, food and laughs.  Everything went flat after they left on Tuesday.

While they were here we managed to fit in one brocante and 2 vide greniers.  For once we came away empty handed.  These were at Riberac Brocante.

Very 1950’s don’t you think.  I love the hat stand.

I love the pattern round the base, but I couldn’t bring myself to buy it so it was left for someone else.

Now what on earth do you suppose this is for?  I thought sewing leather.  It’s in full working order – the stall owner was working the treadle for the onlookers;  a flick of the foot and it was off!  I would have loved to own this, but way out of my price league.

More guests arriving today, more tomorrow and then hoping that Mum and sister Soph will arrive sometime next month.  Keeping everything crossed that they will.  I haven’t seen my Mum since July 2007.

On the sewing front, I’m tying Quilt No. 10 and also the Crumbs quilt.  I’m not at all happy with it.  Half is quilted, half is tied and it looks a mess!  I’m going to tie the red border and hope it looks a bit better.

En soleil encore, donc A+

Goodies in the Mail and Street Theatre

Lots of envelopes arriving again.  Some for Quilts 4 Leukaemia and some for me!

Mum found a bagful of paper pieced hexagons at a jumble sale recently and thought I’d like them.  I know it’s not really my sort of thing, but their original owner obviously put a lot of work into them so I thought I’d have a go at finishing them off!  Don’t know if I can put up with all that hand sewing – these are beautifully done – but, hey, worth a try I think.

Nicolette and I did a private swap recently.  I sent her lots of flowery fabric (forgot to take a photo before I posted it off) and she sent me a metre of gorgeous orange batik.

The flowery and yellow FQ’s were sent to me by non-blogger, Irene, who lives in the UK and has contributed lots of gorgeous red and white blocks.

Thanks Nicolette and Irene.

The weather is horribly hot.  I mean horribly horribly hot.  Feels like 100% humidity.  Too hot for sewing or doing anything quilty, but I have managed to do another couple of stars.  I rejected the 2 smaller ones (orphan bin ) and made another couple of big ones!

I like the spikey look.

On Wednesday DH had another check up with his heart surgeon.  I took the opportunity to go in with him on our own, have a wander round Périgueux marche (some stunning colours, but alas no photos – too many people) and see if we could catch some of Mimos.

Mimos is an international mime festival held every year.  It is now in its 26th year and this year’s theme is the “corps animés”.

Mimos Off is the best bit – street theatre at it’s best.

We only managed to catch one act as it was getting far too hot and we needed to get home.

Right, must get going – gite to clean and house to sort out – only a week to go and 25 people descending for the day !

Coming up for Air

We’ve been busy, getting up at 6.30 am and painting until 10.00 a.m, then collapsing in a heap and trying to get rid of the smell of white spirit.  Why?

Look.

Before

After

And we’re off!

The water temperature has hit the magic 22°C.  I had the first swim last night and another one this morning.  Alex’s mates are here swimming their hearts out (and shouting too), and we feel that summer has finally started!

And today my cup overfloweth!  I found this gem on play.com.  There was only one left!  Help!  Rang up DS-D who was in the middle of cooking for a dinner party.  Told her to drop everything and get it quick before it went.  Isn’t she a star!

And what I am doing now?  Trying my hardest to sew and catch up on those UFO’s.  I’ve cut up an old pink and white skirt and am hoping to start on the quilt for my niece to be.  In the meantime, I’ve got plenty to keep me busy.

I’ve also moved the Liberated Quilters web ring.  Click on the Home/Join link on the badge on the right there and see if you qualify.  If you do, leave a comment and we’ll get back to you.

A+