I spent a wonderful day on Saturday at my local quilt shop, Quilters Haven, on a class with the very talented Helen Howes, making an "Embellished Landscape" wallhanging. I have been on several classes with Helen in the past, and she is a fantastic tutor. As you can see, I had decided to make my wallhanging in suble neutral shades, so raided my stash box (actually I've got several stash boxes!!) for an assortment of creams and whites and beiges and lace and ric-rac and buttons - well, you get the general idea - and then it was time to get ready and let those creative juices start flowing!!.........

.....first of all we played about with fabrics and bondaweb, and started to create our landscape design with some fusible applique, (and yes we all has to actually DRAW our own designs, which was probably the most stressful part of the day as I can't draw at all!!). I felt very inspired by my recent trip to Norway, so was remembering those magnificent mountains and fjords when I was choosing my fabrics and trying to put my ideas onto paper!....

.....then the fun really stared with some confetti quilting - lots of bits of fabric randomly placed and covered with net and then we were let loose with free motion quilting. I added a few twirly bits with some metallic gold thread. Hmmm - could this resemble the "moraine". This was followed by learning how to make chenille - this was a bit tricky as we had to cut through several layers of fabric, but was made much easier once I'd invested in a Clover Slash Cutter, which was much easier than cutting through all those layers of fabric with a pair of scissors. This piece just has to be washed andd dried to "fluff" it up and make it a bit more textured. Helen then showed us how to pleat fabric - again, this was done completely randomly - we didn't have to press any fabric or measure anything - we just pleated the fabric wherever we wanted to. I think this will represent a "glacier" on my wallhanging! The last thing we made were 3-D leaves. These will be added to the landscape wallhanging at the end, once all the other parts are arranged (arftully of course!!), sewn together and quilted. Helen's final flourish to the day was to show us how to add some foil to our finished wallhanging - this will be added to mine once it is completed and quilted. I always enjoy classes with Helen, as we learn so much from her - and it was great meeting up with some quilting friends, Lesley and Mary, and making new friends too. Now, please excuse me while I carry on quilting and get this finished!

My Bernina sewing machine has been feeling a bit poorly recently - maybe because it is used so much!! Anyway, with a planned leave of absence due to a holiday in Norway, I decided to give my sewing machine a real treat, and arranged for it to have a full service whilst I was away admiring the fjords. I duely dropped it off at my local quilt shop, Quilters Haven, and the wonderful Mr Woods (he's also known as "The Bernina Man") worked his magic - anyway, my wonderful Bernina has now been returned, fully serviced, and with a new lease of life, and is now purring away merrily while I'm sewing. Now then -  what can I make next??

Well it's been very wet here today, with just a bit more than the usual April showers. Mr F has been pottering about in the garden this afternoon, dodging the downpurs of rain - and ohhh look what he found - a blackbirds nest with 4 greedy little beaks peeking out! It was exhausting watching their busy parents flying backwards and forewards with beakfuls of food for their ravenous youngsters.....

.....and while Mr F was getting wet in the garden, I've been keeping dry, sitting in the conservatory with a cuppa, and listening to several of these fellows croaking away in the pond, making a terrible hullaballoo. What a wonderful relaxing way to spend an afternoon. Any sewing? No, not today - I'm going to  collect my Bernina tomorrow - when normal service will resume at Foreman Towers hehe!!

While I was in Bergen, I was lucky enough to visit this great quilt shop, Quiltekroken. I just had to get my photograph taken outside the shop - we were a bit early, as it did not open until 10am, so I waited very patiently.....

.....I thought I'd try another Norwegian pattern, so I bought this one, to make a pretty toilettry bag - which is called "Mona's Toalettveske".....

.....a huge array of beautiful fabrics and threads that were displayed so prettily.....

.....these laces and ribbons were also really pretty, and looked especially nice on these large wooden spools.....

.....more treasures! - just look at all these beautiful fabrics in packs with ribbon and lace.....

.....and outside the shop was a display with this table and chairs - and a runner (AnnAKa pattern of course - and yes, I already have this pattern hehe!!) - I really liked this runner - especially this colourway. Hmm - now, as soon as my Bernina is back from being serviced, I NEED to make this runner - and this toiletry bag of course ;)

While we were in Bergen, we walked around the famous fish market - it all looked so delicious! There were lobsters and crabs and muscles and oysters and red snapper and cod and huge prawns and the ugliest monkfish you ever did see. I had never seen King Crabs in real life before, and they certainly looked spectacular - just look how long those legs are.....

.....and here they are being cooked! No, sadly, I didn't get to taste them, but one of the fisherman persuaded me to try some minke whale meat - it was smoked, and looked very similar to beef, although it tasted quite fishy. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take food back onto the ship, so I couldn't bring any whale meat home with me - I bet Mr F is secretly relieved incase I was going to serve it for Sunday lunch!!

Our ship sailed into Bergen last Saturday morning, with the mists rolling over the mountains, and the city was glistening with rain - thankfully this soon cleared, the sun came out, and we enjoyed a lovely day stolling around cobbled streets and admiring old buildings that form Bryggen, the old wharf area of Bergen. This iconic scene of these Hanseatic commercial buildings  is viewed across the harbour -  (actuallly I was standing quite near a quilt shop when I took this photo hehe!!).....

.....and then I couldn't resist a few "arty" snaps of the most incredible carved doorways.....

.....and windows.....

.....and balconies.....

.....and even the drain covers were incredible - they just don't look anything like this in the UK!!.....

.....and a visit to Bergen really wouldn't be complete without seeing the statue of Edvard Grieg, the Norwegian composer. Bergen is a beautiful city, which unfortunately we only saw a snapshopt of - maybe the next time I go to Norway I can spend longer in Bergen :).....

Well we're finally back from a fabulous cruise along the Norwegian fjords. We have had the best holiday ever - the staff on board the ship were brilliant, the food was just fabulous and as for the afternoon teas on board - well - I've probably eaten my own weight in cakes!!! The scenery has been breathtaking, and some of the views we had were just simply stunning.....

.....the snow-topped mountains were chocolate-box perfect, and the air was so clean and crisp.....

.....up in the mountains, the waterfalls were more often than not still frozen, so although not as spectacular as they will be in a few weeks time, they were still incredible. We had a fantastic time and made some great friends along the way. Oh but it is nice to be home again and sleep in a bed that doesn't rock you to sleep!!

Yippeeeee!! Just look what the postman delivered this morning! 25 fat eighths of a soon-to-be-released fabric, called "Christmas Fun" from my friend Lynette Anderson. She has designed this lovely Christmas-themed fabric for Lecien. It is absolutely gorgeous, with soft muted colours that are just to die for! I shall love playing with this fabric - oh dear what a shame I'm off on my holipops tomorrow so I've got to wait until I get home to start getting creative with it - do you think Mr F would mind if I sneaked a few scraps of this in my suitcase to drool over while I'm sailing to Norway?

Nine years ago today, my dad Brian passed away after a very short illness. I miss him all the time, and often think of things I'd like to tell him (well actually I do still tell him) about all the things that Mr F and my girls have done, things that would have made him proud, and sometimes just things that would've made him laugh. As a nurse, I've spent many long hours with dying patients, and I never realised what an honour it can be to spend those last few hours with someone until I did that for my own dad - I felt both very proud and very privileged to have been able to nurse him at the end. Unfortunately it was a bloody horrid couple of days when my dad passed away, because Mr F's dad passed away the day before. I know - bloody awful.com. Oh dear, this all sounds very bleak, and I don't want it to sound like that all - yes of course I miss him - the whole family misses him - but he's always in our thoughts, and we often laugh about things he would say to us, and we quote what we call "Brian-isms" - you know, the funny things that he would do and say to us - so we remember him with laughter, not with sadness. Anyhooos, when I was nursing my dad, I'd read him the daily newspaper and given him a shave, and my sisters and my mum and me played lots of his old records for him, and a couple of his favourites were Louis Armstrong and Jim Reeves.  I can't bring myself to play Jim on my blog, but here is Louis at his best - listen and enjoy.

A few days ago I wrote about some beautiful jewellery that I had seen in my favourite Etsy shop - Amanda Davie - just look how lovely the packaging is - all tied up with newspaper and string, and decorated with one of Amanda's cute little charms too - this time it's a tiny wing. I might have to invest in one of Amanda's bracelets to attach all these charms on.....

.....the packaging always looks so lovely, it seems a shame to unwrap it, but look what was lurking inside these little brown cardboard boxes - TREASURE!! This beautiful "Reflect" pendant will look great in the summer, worn with a linen shirt and jeans, and I can't wait to wear these "Choose Truth" earrings.