Finishing lines

I have been in Rotterdam, supporting my incredible sister and her partner as they represented Australia in the amateur team at the World Triathlon Finals.


They both crossed the finish line in very respectable times,  and were still up for a big celebration in the evening.


Lots of stitching inpiration in the photos of the pontoon where the swimming leg started

and also from the food stalls  in the superb Markthal.





And in the mesmerising,multiple escalators

All of that dedication and training pushed me to my own finishing line, the binding on Kaleidoscope, started in December 2012.

I evidently don’t finish enough quilts, as I had forgotten how to join the two binding ends together seamlessly. This video, from Heirloom Creations, is the simplest explanation I have every found, a boon for those like me who find the upside-down, back to front instructions of others completely confusing.
 Twenty feet of binding to hand stitch down now, the last part of my quilting and piecing triathlon on this quilt.

Good omens - spheres, hemispheres and almost circles

In these uncertain times, I am seeking good omens wherever I find them in my life. Yesterday, a charity shop find of beautiful yarn from Fyberspates, top, and Posh Yarn, 4 smaller balls. Bought in hanks and a meditative half hour last night spent winding them into balls.

Eight yolks from 6 eggs this morning (pavlova in the making)

Gloriously scented James Galway rose in bloom in the garden

Land of plenty - meat - vegetarians, go no further

It is a very long time since I have seen so immediately the realities of eating meat - butchered carcasses on display at the organic butcher in Oxford.

Land of plenty - cakes

So much sugar in evidence at “The Cake Shop”.  Great to be able to watch the modellers of sugar paste and marzipan through the window - they all had very steady hands!

Land of plenty - fruit and vegetables

A weekend in Oxford, with a visit to the covered market.  Colours, shapes, textures - too cold to draw! Music everywhere, with so many brass bands, it was like being in the midst of a brass band championship.

Cluny cartoons

I am in Paris,

with my lovely husband, visiting our son who is working here.  Much needed by both of us. We spent today walking, walking and walking in the autumn sunshine, ending up at the Cluny Museum, home of the famous Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. The tapestries are really as beautiful and enigmatic as I expected, although I think my husband found my explanation of how tapestries are woven, a little convoluted. The layout, lighting and labelling of many of the of exhibits however seemed very dated in comparison to museums such as the V and A.

The museum is being refurbished, so hopefully this will be addressed. Perhaps it is just a difference between UK and continental museum-keeping and curating. In contrast to the ponderous approach inside, the panelling outside the museum, hiding the building works, has some witty cartoons showing the exhibits being carted off for storage.

 

Firsts of the season

Away in Norfolk this week, and a few firsts of the year:

Swifts

Asparagus

Cromer crab

and a quilt block in a black and blue project, inspired by this book 

 

Happy, Healthy New Year

Why is it, when you have lost your voice, everyone else either starts whispering back to you or shouts very loudly as if there is something wrong with your hearing as well?  No energy for sewing, so I suppose this must be the flu.

On another health note, it is no wonder that the Scots have one of the world’s highest incidence of cardiovascular disease, when one of the favourite meats is Lorne sausage, which to be tasty, “ must have at least 20% fat”.  As one of the Scottish diaspora, thank goodness, this isn’t on sale in our local butcher……………because it is very tasty.

   

Grilling, not frying in at least an attempt to remove some of the 20% fat.

In the pan, and not in the arteries.

Happy New Year.