Quiltie and shopping

This wonderful quiltie was waiting on my doorstep when I got home. It was stitched by Sue Krekorian from unlimited textiles group- Thanks Sue.

This stall was spotted on the market at Dignes Les Bains, lots of useful wooden thingies

Couldn't resist buying a FRENCH french knitting doll and the other item is a wooden sewing case, your needles go inside the bobbly bit, your threads on the outside then it slides into the wooden cylinder and the screw top is your thimble.

It was too good to last.......................................

View from the top of Col de la Bonnette

Unfortunately on the way back to the hotel, the charging light came on. So Ian phoned the recovery service who picked up the bike on Sunday to take it to the dealer for repairs

Monday- received phone call to say the shop was closed for the day. Tuesday received call to say they were looking at it.

Wednesday received call to collect the bike. Taxi supplied by recovery company Wednesday afternoon. Bike pronounced ok, no problem other than loose wire.
100 mile later we were clipped by a car on the motorway, stayed on bike, scratched pannier but no serious injury.

Thursday morning travelled a further 100 mile before rectifier/ regulator burnt out big time, so much for the repair!! Recovery service supplied hire car on Friday for 550 mile dash back to Calais

Hopefully the damage is confined to this, anyway bike is still in France awaiting transport to Italia Moto at Lincoln for inspection and repair. The French bike shop will be hearing from us when we have the full report.

The road to the sun

riding the Col du Galibier, France

stop to admire the scenery

stop off at Cannes to top up the suntan

Try and find the sun.

As you can see, the weather was not what we were wanting. The heavy rain in Austria and Switzerland has fallen as snow on the passes and our idea of riding the Grossglockner Strasse in Austria were abandoned after we found out how much snow had fallen there. Although the snow would probably clear after a few days, we decided to head towards the south of France were the roads were still twisty but somewhat warmer.

Back safe and sound (just)

unfortunately these photos have loaded in the wrong order! anyway this is the Grimselpass in Switzerland

Summer Holiday???

but beautiful to look at

Ian finds a snow drift

Yes, I was there, HONEST, just don't like being in front of the camera!

lake at Morzine, France

Packing the bikes for the next leg of the journey, Paris for Andy and Elaine, Switzerland for ourselves

Mountains overlooking Interlaken

Greetings from Interlaken, Switzerland

Guess what, Its still raining here as well, absolutely tipping it down. We have spent the last two nights with friends at St Jean D`Aulps in the French Alps and rode over the mountain passes to Interlaken today. Up till about 4 hours ago the weather was great, then the mist came down, the clouds opened and it poured.
So tomorrow it will be time to either chance the rain and head on to Saltzberg or chase the sun down into Italy.

Last Post for this computer

After using the same computer for seven years, it is now going to be tweaked and prodded to give me some more umph, therefore, I will not be posting until it is returned next month. In the meantime, this is a photo for the unlimited textile members who know me as Guzzisue- this is the original Guzzi pictured somewhere in France last year on the way back from Czech Republic.

NEC Quilt Fest

Visited the International Quilt Festival yesterday at the NEC, had a really great time but spent far too much stocking up with paints etc. Well done to everyone who entered work, hopefully I will be able to enter something next year. ( If I get my sewing head on, sketchbook out, watch fewer DVDs etc, etc, etc)
Currently putting together travel journal kit and generally looking at maps to plan a rough route for our next trip.

ATC

Just finished ATC for unlimited textiles group swap, used my current favourite ingredients- handmade felt and hand stitches. (okay, I used the machine to do the edges)

First quiltie

First attempt at a quiltie, this one is for the unlimited textile group swap. Unfortunately the photo deadens the colours especially the gold highlights.

Pilgrims Rally

It's a long time since we have had to put the tent up in the dark, didn't cause to many problems, only tripped over the guy ropes once !!. Anyway,the rally was organised by Mayflower MCC http://www.mayflowermcc.co.uk/ with the usual good food, drink and flat field for camping.

Saturday was spent in Maldon exploring the town, the quay and watching the annual carnival procession. Both evenings were spent catching up with old friends and sampling the beer on offer.

It all went wrong

The photo above should have ended up on my profile but ended up here instead. Anyway this is me with my very first camera, many years ago. Colour added by Corel Photo- the world was in black and white in those days!!!

Finished Postcard Book

Spent all morning trying to tidy my work room and untangle machine embroidery threads, still looks a little more organised and I can't believe how much stuff I have squirrelled away!!

Anyway, finished the postcard book so the decks are clear for the next project.

Round Britain Rally

Since the sun decided to shine yesterday, Ian went on a round trip of 300 plus miles to bag 4 more landmarks. a Welsh Harp Sculpture at Llangollen, Alleluia Momument at Gwernaffield, Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway at Llanfair Caereinion and the Old River Bridge at Bangor is Y Coed. Not bad for an old bike ( 1982 Suzuki) pictured above during last years rally.

More postcards from Czech

This one is based on the many photos I took of windows and window boxes in Kutna Hora
This is an extract for our holiday journal written on our first night in the Czech Republic.

Originally I kept very brief notes on our holiday in a small A6 note book, these days I pack coloured pencils along with gluestick, scissors and fibre pens together with an A5 sketchbook. I record details from routes, prices, interesting places, conversations, and design ideas.