Brittany Holiday - Carnac & St Malo

We stayed in an appartment in this rather beautiful Chateau in Carnac: Shame it didn't serve any food

Some of the standing stones at Carnac:

 Because it was summer most of the stones are closed off to the public to protect the flora and fauna, so for some groups of stones, such as the ones above,  we were not able to get very close. If we go back between October and March the public are allowed to walk among all of them for the grand sum of €5 each! However so many stones were accessible all year round we didn't feel disappointed at all.

 There were so many stones spread over such a large area. we had to drive between some of the groups.

We thought this one looked like someone from the Muppets - Beaker, maybe?   Some stones were huge:

At St Malo we stayed at a hotel right next to the ocean - and boy it was breezy, but we had a good view from our rooms balcony: 

Lovely restaurant in St Malo - used solely by locals, not a tourist in sight, we really had to use our Franglais in here:

Another lovely restaurant in St Malo:

where I had Fruits De Mere - nom nom nom:














And my dessert: Iles Flottant, I don't think I've ever seen such a huge pudding, good job it was as light as a feather!!:

P.S. - Found an amazing (huge) needlework shop on the outskirts of Rennes: 'Ecolaines' , with patchwork, dressmaking, craft and upholstery fabrics, books, magazines, embroidery threads and equipment, lampshade making stuff, ribbons, lace,  braids and trimmings, wool and Bernina sewing machines. A fantastic place that I would love to go back to next time we go to Brittany and spend more time browsing and buying.  They have two shops, one at 35132 Vezin le Coquet, Rennes and one at 25 Rue des Marechales, Route de Lorient. Worth seeking them out if you are in the area, although you will need to use your French as very little English was spoken.

Brittany Holiday - Rennes and Dinan

Himself and I  had a short break in Brittany. Firstly we stayed in Rennes - A friendly city with almost no English speaking tourists - what a refreshing change! Our hotel was lovelyand quiet although near the city centre, with a smashing receptionist who even came over while we were at dinner to see if we needed help with the menu - it was very thoughtful if him. We also went to the rather lovely Dinan, which is about an hours drive from Rennes.  Both places had numerous very pretty half timbered houses and shops. Some are leaning on their neighbours due to their age! We noticed how tall they are with four or five stories. Properties of a similar age (1500's) in England tend to only be two stories high.

We had the traditional Breton gallettes complet and cider here - yum:-)

Himself loved this carved shop front selling shoes:

Here's me in one of the many cobbled streets:

Notice the 'infill' between the green building and the dull brown one!:

Not much bread left in this wonderful shop:

Dinan castle gate:

Market day in Rennes (the second largest market in France) - These are some oyster stalls in the fish section:

Lovely smiley flower seller:

An Asterix themed stag party, selling condoms and or phallic, hand carved 'megaliths' for a euro each,  to finance more drinking. We bought a granite megalith for €2 - Bargain. We declined the condoms!

Kindle cover

The Whizz Kid asked me if I could make him a Kindle cover as he was worried about the screen breaking as he carted it around to and from work.

It was my pleasure. First I asked him what colour he wanted  "Blue please"  OK, easy so far.

Dug out some of my more 'manly' blue fabrics and discovered a hole in one fabric, last used when I taught a fabric postcard class and took some of my fabrics for people to help themselves to (nothing quite like other peoples stashes to be able to dive into eh?!).  Why on earth would someone do this? It's not even as if there was a motif they needed!

Anyway,  I showed Whizz Kid some fabrics and asked him to pick out as many as he wanted for his cover - this threw him a bit,  you could see the confusion going through his mind so Chic Girl pointed out he could choose absolutely anything as it was being created just for him.

Anyway fabric choices made, I sewed some strips together, I didn't want to do anything too 'fancy' it had to be simple. I then offered him a choice of contrast and bindings - aha, he's now caught on to the concept of 'custom made' and chose a rather 'jazzy' stripe to add some pizzaz.

If I was making this for anyone else I would have used two poppers, one on each corner  but I know The Whizz Kid and just one popper is what he will actually use to keep his Kindle safe.

I made a Pellon stiffener and added three layers of cotton wadding to fit the screen exactly.
 I also made a strap with a caribineer clip attached so it can be attached to his backpack/belt loop/laptop bag to save it getting lost.

I enjoyed doing quilting.

The whizz kid was pleased with the finished article:-)

I have been doing 'stuff'

Honestly I have, it's just  I couldn't get to sign in to upload anything......

My boss was supposed to go to New York for Christmas, but as you may remember we had a bit of snow.......

I wanted to make her a 40th Birthday present, so when I heard she re-booked for her Birthday, I figured I had better get a move on.

I started stiching on dark brown linen

Doesn't look that great yet does it?

Ah, Looks much better now it's been pressed:

  

The finished cushion, linen piping done and zippered back

 Wrapped and ready to be given away - I hope she likes it.

An announcement

I'm very happy to be able announce that Chic Girl and the Whizz Kid are expecting a baby:-) We all knew ages ago of course, but they wanted to be able to tell special friends personally before a general announcement was put out.

Mordecai Wilberthwaite Sasquatch Bubba Sargunar is due on the 2nd October, the day after their wedding anniversary! Hopefully he/she will be kind and not arrive on that particular day, although babies are not very good at paying attention to dates are they?

We are all thrilled to bits and I cannot wait to be a granny. Chic Girl has quite a lovely little bump and at 17 weeks finding not very many of her clothes fit her any more.

Chic Girl was also a bit superstitious about any baby stuff coming into the house - but now the buying and sewing frenzy can begin - Mwahahahahaha

Fast basting

One of my Christmas gifts was a Sewline fabric glue pen from Jo at Villavin. I didn't do anything with it at first, not being so sure what I could use it for..... despite Jo writing me a note saying that "sometimes life is too short for pins". You know what, she is so right! It's just perfect for basting the fabric on to the papers , it's so much easier and quicker than hand basting.  Thanks Jo:-)

Of course now I'm slightly concerned that I am going to run out of the glue and so I need to buy refills and sooner rather than later!

A commission....

To make a "Goth and  Girly but not too sugary" Name wallhanging for a one year old's birthday present.
These were the fabrics  chosen from my stash:

I carefully matched the threads to the colour for each letter:

As you can see I did some very simple quilting:

And this is the finished wallhanging finished today - cute eh?