21 QUESTIONS

A Few Things About Me You Might Not Have Known....

1: What is your current fashion obsession? I wouldn't necessarily call myself fashionable, having struggled with my weight for most of my adult life I tend to go with the motto - The Baggier The Better, however at the moment I am loving the whole over sized shirt (told you - baggy) open over a vest top.

2: What are you wearing today? pyjamas and there is absolutely nothing you can do or say to make me change my mind.

3: Hair? Unwashed, in a bun, a-la top knot style!! But in general life platinum blonde and honey blonde highlights half way down my back rocking the spiral perm God gave me. 

4: Do you nap a lot? I wish!! I'm fairly sure in another life I was a sloth, and I yearn for those days of bygone times!! I do love a good lay in though and on my days off DO NOT phone me before 10am.

5: Why is today special? I have had a taste of what it might be like to be a parent, I have spent the morning doing loads of washing and making home made pies for lunch......for my parents who currently have no kitchen/utility room due to the renovations being done on their house....parenting the parents??

6: What would you like to learn to do? Run!! I would love to learn how to find the motivation and determination to run every day, all the cool kids do it, I wish I could to. 

7: What's for dinner tonight? Whatever you are making me!! But I am super partial to Chicken Pesto Pasta, so maybe that. 

8: What are you listening to right now? Borrow My Heart by Clare Bowen, Sam Palladio and Jonathan Jackson. I absolutely LOVE Nashville, it's like Glee for grown ups but Country style!! And secretly I've always wanted to be a singing cow girl. 

9: What is your favourite weather? The hotter the better, having experienced a few Californian summers, I would totally say that!!

10: What's the last thing you bought? Ingredients to make the aforementioned chicken pies and the new issue of Love Patchwork & Quilting

11: What are your essentials when travelling? A list of all the quilt shops and fabric shops within a suitable distance to where I am staying/visiting, to be clear a suitable distance is anything within a 3 hour driving radius!! My Sunglasses and a good pair of spangly flip flops.

12: What's your style? Whatever is clean on the day! 

13: What is your most challenging goal right now? to be honest I have 2. Firstly trying to lose this last 5lbs!! I have lost 45lbs over the last 18 months and I just can not get rid of that last 5 to make an even 50lbs!! It's so frustrating!! And secondly to keep remembering that I deserve better and not to think that this time might be different because it won't , I may not be perfect but I deserve better.

14: If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be? A big old Brownstone in New York, preferably close to and overlooking Central Park....absolutely beautiful. 

15: Favourite Vacation/Holiday Spot? Huntington Beach, California

16: Name the things you cannot live without: My parents, my sister, my bestests Joelle, Chantal, Lauren and Kerry Q, chocolate and fabric!!  

17: How was your childhood? A mixed bag just like everybody else.

18: What would you like to have in your hands right now? David Beckham, I mean come on?? Look at him, he is absolutely just the most gorgeous being that's ever walked the earth!! 

GOD ALMIGHTY!!

19: What are you most excited for? It's a secret that's not mine to tell, I'm so excited I might just wet myself!!

20: If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go? I would go home and hang out with my favourites

21: Which countries/cities have you visited? I have been very blessed with a wonderful family who love to travel so I have been very spoilt - New York, Florida, Boston, Rhode Island, Huntington Beach, La Jolla, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Carmel Valley, Santa Monica, Cape Town, Joberg, Durban(obvs!), Wales, Scotland, Yorkshire, Barcelona, Rome, The Vatican City, Paris, Calais, Bruges, and a few more I am fairly sure I have forgotten to write down here.

I was set the challenge of these 21 Questions by my Aunty Gilly over at Gill's Jottings, if you fancy taking part in the challenge, I'd love to hear from you so post a comment with a link to your blog post in it.

Happy Quilting

Kerry xx

EVERYTHING'S BETTER WITH SEQUINS

And Great Friends!!

When little children are excited about things coming up they count in 'sleeps', it's not a law written down anywhere it's simply accepted that if a count down of 'sleeps' is involved, it's serious!! Why I ask you is this only exclusive to little children?? I have been counting down from about 200 sleeps until Taylor Swift would be in Hyde Park and I would be there singing very loudly with my favourites!! And on Saturday 27th June there no more sleeps, the actual day had arrived, we were going to Shake It Off along with 65,000 other people living out one of my Wildest Dreams, singing a Love Story whilst watching Sparks Fly all the while hoping there wouldn't be Bad Blood. And it was absolutly amazing!! Taylor Swift might just be the most beautiful person I've ever seen in real life, she's so tall and has such a gorgeous figure and oh my those costumes!!! So many sequins in so many colours every Disney Princess would be jealous. 

The fun didn't stop there no Sir, it has been a few weeks of no stop partying for the crazy Smith girls! This Saturday saw us go back in time to the hay day of our parents (who are actually rather Young for my age) and head off to Club Tropicana, an 80s theme night club of sorts where 80s inspired fashion is the only acceptable form of attire permitted, sooooo.........

As you can see we were true to form and totally got involved, go hard or go home right??!! There was everything from Footloose and Fame to I Wanna Dance With Somebody and no party is complete without Ooops Upside Your Head......complete with dance moves of course!! 

I learnt a few things last week about someone who I thought I knew and who had at one time meant a great deal to me, turns out he was a total liar and he just made a mockery of my thoughts and feelings. I felt really sad to begin with, as anyone would when they confide in a person who just lets them down, but when I thought about it I think I feel more sad for him and the woman he is probably still lying to given he was with her the whole time. Thank God I had a lucky escape from yet another liar, someone else who just isn't worth my tears or my time!! It does mean however that I am still on the market for my knight in shining armour/ Prince Charming, so if anybody has David Beckham or Jamie Dornan on speed dial, hook a sister up!!! 

I haven't just been partying I have been working very hard on a few projects and have some exciting things in the pipe line.......honest!!

Happy Quilting

Kerry xx 

TWO CHEEKY MONKEYS SNUGGLING ON THE BED...

And A Whole Lot Of Shopping!!

So the quilts made it safely across the oceans and found their way to these two cheeky monkeys

And as you can see they loved them!! Look at those smiles and those chubby cheeks, just to beautiful but then I am a very biased Aunty. Something else I am very biased about is how breathing taking The North is, if you have never ventured up there I can't tell you enough how much you should, just don't tell my Granny she won't be pleased if I start sending hoards up there!!

Half of my family is from Yorkshire, it is a fair distance - 263 miles if you want to be picky about it - from where we live down south, so for one week of the summer my Granny (who is rather young to have that title) and I head up to make the rounds visiting friends, friends and quaint little villages that time has forgotten, eating far to many pub lunches and baked goods and of course stopping off at as many quilt shops/ fabric shops that can be found!!   

This is Whitby Abbey, one of my most favourite places on earth, it is set high on top of the cliff face where only the brave can reach it, not because of the cliffs or the heights oh no, but because of the 199 stairs one has to climb to get there!! That is a lot of stairs, I know it looks like a lot of stairs and even saying 199 stairs you know it is a lot of stairs but you don't really, until you have climbed those stairs and then have to turn around and walk back down those stairs...then you will know!!

It was a busy start to the week with lots and lots of walking around all these beautiful places and the end of the week was just as busy with possibly even more walking around at Sandown for The Quilt Champs!! Did you go? Wasn't it wonderful?? I thought so, my bank account didn't however!! 

These are just a small number of things that caught my eye, mostly the really beautiful quilting, a lot of which is free motion and something I really wish I could master!! I'd love to see what caught your eye if you were there?! And if you have any gorgeous projects you are working on I'd love to see them to, not that I need any encouragement to start yet another new project!! Kerry Q already despairs of me, she might just disown me if I start something else!!

Happy Quilting

Kerry xx

MOTHER TRUCKER!!

And A Few Cars...

A while ago I set out to make a quilt for a very special little monkey, he loves bright colors, cars, bikes, trucks and more than anything diggers!! I began in my usual way with researching and came across this darling pattern 

PEAK HOUR

They are available allover the place but I bought mine from the lovely Isabel over at Creative Quilting I loved the idea of the rows of different vehicles and signs, but what it really needed was one almighty digger!!  So I set myself the challenge of creating just that! I started with a small A5 size picture that had to be scaled up to almost single bed size.....eeeeeekkk!!!

Once the overall design was complete, each section then had to be individually drawn onto Bondaweb and ironed on to the fabric choices, as is standard for general machine applique. In true blonde style I did have to start over twice.... the first time I put the chair "in" over the door frame and then the window "in" over the chair!! I amaze even myself at times!

I wanted to make it as realistic as possible, I mean go hard or go home right?!? So I spent quite a long time trying to get some shading into the teeth on the big scoop and the wheel arches, although not totally perfect I think it does make a difference. Life got in the way a bit and unfortunately this project had to be put on hold a while which meant I didn't quite make the deadline I had set myself.

A couple of birthdays, high teas, spa days, thunder storms, very long work days, a few fights with my sewing machine and a lot of fabric buying later rows of cars and trucks started to appear.

And eventually after a lot more late nights, fabric cutting, fights with the sewing machine and some words of wisdom from my lovely quilt group this emerged and found its way onto an African bound plane!! 

I wish I could be there to see my little monkeys reaction to it, hopefully he will love snuggling up in it as much as I loved making it for him and I will get some photos of that darling little face.

I have about 13 new projects that I want to start, 4 new projects that I have started and a good 25 more that I have seen that I totally need in my life, don't roll your eyes at me I know you totally have the same list going!! At the same time as I am typing this post I have another window open on my browser auditioning fabrics for Jen Kingwell's My Small World, which is available in Quiltmania's Spring 2015 special.

You know you want it......

Happy Quilting 

Kerry xx