Miscellany of news with pictures

Thank you for comments to Deborah (which by the way, is our youngest's middle name and she Hates it!), Pat, Simon, Frugal in Essex, Sue, Elizabeth, Rachel, Sadie, Bridget and our friend W. at Mid Suffolk Meadow. W works for a council so sent me info about excess noise from music festivals.  I did receive a reply to my Email to Suffolk Coastal District Council, they have offered to widen the area that they inform about the festival and to arrange a meeting with the organisers.

I finished my last post by saying we were about to try out the awning on the caravan. What a nice surprise we got when we pulled it out of it's bag as it is a modern Isabella  awning which is top of the range and in excellent condition apart from needing a few stitches to one of the zips. As this awning is worth well over £500 it means we got the caravan for £1,800 which makes it an even better bargain than we thought. We are so glad we risked Ebay to buy it.

Talking about Ebay, I recently bought something that I've always wanted - a proper patchwork quilt. I even thought about making one, especially after seeing all the quilts that Pam seems to rattle up in no time at all but truthfully I know I never will. I can do cross stitch, I can follow a pattern to make clothes if I needed to. I can knit dishcloths but none of those things make me want to spend more time sewing or making - It's just not me. I would rather be reading or writing, cooking, baking or gardening.
Patchwork quilts were originally made using bits of old cotton clothes and left over material, something we don't have now so few clothes are made from ordinary cotton fabrics. New fabric is usually used nowadays and I just cannot get my head round buying new lengths of cotton, cutting them up and sewing them back together!
After looking for months for the right colour/price this is what I found on Ebay recently. It's American but was in this country so no huge postage costs. Part machine and part hand stitched and I love it.  I couldn't have made it myself for the £35 it cost me.

The Ebay listing said it had been in storage and it certainly had a musty sort of smell, but it was too big to go in a washing machine so I hung it out on the line for several days and kept it in the conservatory on the airer each night and after a week it was fine.

Look what I spotted on the side of our sink-pond . A real Mrs frog examining the stone one.

Saturday
We had one of those mornings when we try and pack in as many errands as possible to save time and fuel. It always seems like a good idea but usually ends up being exhausting.

First stop was here

 to see if anything I had highlighted in the catalogue was worth bidding on. Answer = No.
Then all sorts of places around the edge of Ipswich. ( To avoid going right into town and paying car-parking charges) Lidl, Halfords, Sainsburys, Poundland, Tesco to fill up with diesel before the special offer ends. Home via Woodbridge to call in at The Grape Tree and Boots.
In Lidl I got this tray of 6 plants for £1.69

 to fill up the spaces on  my Shabby chic ladder

 and these for £2 to cheer up the kitchen in case we get anymore house viewings

 In Halfords I got this

to make my bike seat more comfy

In Sainsburys I bought their really good value bacon bits - sadly only 1 bacon chop amongst the packets - we will have to fight over it!

In The Grape Tree I bought Yellow Mustard seed so as to make the Honey Mustard for the Christmas Hampers.

This afternoon - I did nothing!

Back in a few days
Sue