DIAMONDS AND DISASTER

 I have come to the conclusion that white fabric and I, just do not go hand in hand.    I have continued to work on different types of cathedral window quilts and have come up with a natty way to produce diamonds.  So after spending a bit of time making the sample, I thought I would give the quilt a wash to remove the blue pen leftovers.   

Naturally the colour ran in two of the diamonds......and before you say it, yes they had been washed. 
So what to do, chuck it back in the wash with some bleach - at this point it couldn't look any worse than it did after the first wash.    Here is a discovery -  if you apply bleach to fabric you have used the dreaded blue wash away pen on - you will get dirty brown marks  that do not come out, even with a second and third wash with bleach.   Just so you know........ that's what photo shop was invented for. 

Naturally, I also managed to entrap some bright orange thread in the quilting on the back (I suppose it would have been worse if that was on the front too!)  I will have some instructions ready in the next couple of weeks.

Our quilting group has been playing around with trading cards.   Here are the first round cards - subject "Spring"

 We have since done another round with a Japanese theme (photo's to follow) and the next set will have the theme of "Coffee and Chocolate" - Guess who chose this theme!

Just before we left for holidays, the first of our dahlias came in to flower - I always associated these flowers with earwigs, but they do make for a bright spot in the garden.

O'Reilly joined us on the family holiday - he had to stay in kennels, but was allowed out for day release.

So here is a look at our holidays from the dogs viewpoint.....

I'm not convinced I want to spend 8 hours in the car, but ok if I can sit here.....

 Are we there yet.......

Not sure about this wet stuff.....

 In the swing of if -  fun on the beach.....

Making new friends....

Kids on the beach thought there was a tiger loose at large .......

Resting between games - football, stealing a fish, knocking over fishing rods (well you will fish on a dogs off leash beach), finding a bird wing to drag up and down the beach, chasing seagulls........

Wasn't that kind of someone to leave me a towel to rest on......

 Sand castles are sooo yesterday....

Trying ice-cream for the first time...

Brain freeze, it's stuck to the roof of my mouth.......

And somewhere in the last week or two was Mothers' Day.    We celebrated with these pots of chocolatey gooeyness.

Having injured my back two weeks ago, I have been spending a bit of time laying down, or computering standing up, but  have managed to read a couple of lovely books, both that required tissues and moments of the men in my life wondering what was wrong now.   So if you need a good cry (it may just be me) these are just the ticket:

The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein   (I was blubbering quietly by page 4)   Dog Book

and

Cleo - Helen Brown     Cat Book

So that's it for the minute, 

Sue xxx