Catching up - bits and pieces!

Well it's lovely and SUNNY here this morning, the type of morning where you feel like jumping out of bed, and doing all sorts of things, just because the sun is out!

I can now tell you that all my exams are over. (relief!!) So now all I have to do is wait for the results. I hope that I have passed all 4 papers I was doing, which will mean that I have completed 8 papers this year, and I only have 3 left to complete in the first semester of next year. It also means I can now read some books of my choice as opposed to reading serious academic stuff for research.

The new Dan Brown novel (The Lost Symbol) was in the library and DH bought it home for me. I really enjoy his books and this one was just as gripping. It moved at a past pace and I completed it in 3 days.

I have also been working on my large Leanne's House Quilt, as I am hand quilting it, so I try and do some every night if I can. I am quilting it using no.8 perle cotton in pale green. It is looking lovely so far, but I am very much a novice when it comes to hand quilting, and I find it hard to quilt using a hoop.

Here are some ATC's from my swap with Ann, Debbi, Doreen and Annie. Our theme was flowers and what beautiful, and different cards I have! Top middle card (12 o'clock) has been made by Ann using a fab mix of fabric, paper, stamping and paint, card at 3 o'clock was made by Debbi and it looks like it has been painted, stenciled, stamped, stitched and sprayed. The card at 6 o'clock was made by Doreen, she has layered some flowers between 2 pieces of card and pounded them with a hammer to make the background and then stamped over top! The card at 8 o'clock was made by Annie and she has made hers using bright coloured paper and cuttlebug flower shapes. And the last card is mine made cut from an old doily.
They are all lovely cards, thank you very much girls!


Yesterday I decided to do some cleaning and sorting. I HAD to clean my sewing room, as things had begun to mount up, you know, when you rush in and dump stuff on your work bench thinking it will be great for a certain project, and it sits in the same place until you rediscover it 6 months later LOL!
Well, I was getting to the stage that I was too scared to go into the room, just in case everything suddenly collapsed on me, it's only a small room, and I was imagining myself buried under a mountain of fabric and paper and books and other miscellaneous ephemera! So I sorted things out into containers, put fabric away, put books away, found a place for everything. Nice clear table top! Rediscovered the things I had dumped on the table 6 months ago! haha I feel like I can start work in my sewing room again now.

While I was on a roll, I decided to go round the house as well, and cleaned and chucked out anything I thought I wouldn't need. Then I went round and picked up little piles of rubbish and vacuumed. Lovely! (By this time it's 9.30 at night) I feel like I've achieved something!

Then I discovered this wee fellow! I mean how could one not notice this???? Buddy had sneaked it in, I think it was a gift. Maybe he appreciates a clean tidy house too?
I picked it up, it was still warm, and it had the cutest little nose and mouth, and whiskers and ears....... All I could see was Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit! Ah well, at least he won't be spending his nights eating all the veges in MY garden!

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend!
Carole :)