Thursday 31 May 2012

This time tomorrow...

This time tomorrow... I will (hopefully!) be at the airport, collecting my over-stuffed suitcase at baggage claim, looking out for Jude and Terri who are coming to meet me.  They will hardly fail to recognise me.  The "hairdo" was a disaster... I don't like the cut (squint too short straight line fringe...ewww) and they hardly put any purple or red in at all, so when I told them I was a bit disappointed with that, they offered to put some temporary blue in...  Which has completely taken over....  so now every blond hair I had is some shade between blue and snot green...  And you still can hardly see the purple and red....  And I really don't suit dark hair, I need my blond...  Oh well!  Lesson learnt.  No blue again, and no last minute hairdo's again...  Anyway.  I've got rather a lot to sort out and pack in the mean time, so its laptop off till I'm all ready!
If I don't get the chance to read your blog, or reply to your comment, I apologise - I am still so unprepared its stupid!!

I can leave you with a finish from last week though...


The Not-so-hidden Stars Quilt





No, not my bee quilt.  That is finished, but its also too big for me to get a decent photo of by myself!!  Its coming with me to London though so hopefully my bee mates with assist with a photo shoot, so the mental bee-ast will be revealed soon.


I also got my partners tag done a while ago, and I've heard that it has been received so that's a relief.  I don't think she'll mind if I show you that too.


Tag made for Kat of Mummas time to create

the dolls are not upside down, not if you're Kat and you're wearing it....


And finally, I just made hands down the best summer smoothie...



1 Banana
Large handful blueberries
Large handful frozen raspberries
2 inch piece cucumber (which I hate, but the taste was mostly hidden so it worked okay)
1 pear
1 1/2 tsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp fat free natural yoghurt
half cup orange juice
fresh mint

(tsp honey if the berries aren't entirely sweet...)

Right, have to go sort my "supplies" out!


Saturday 26 May 2012

Fat Quarterly Retreat 2012 Linky party

6 days to go.....  This is my post for the Fat Quarterly Retreat linky party - a lovely idea where all those attending can link up their "I'm coming too" posts and we can stalk each other in less than half the time it normally takes us...

Fat Quarterly


Anyone visiting from there that hasn't read my blog before - fairy nuff, I don't generally get up to much ;-)    My name is Sarah, yes, I do actually have Narcolepsy, its not some kind of ironic blog name, I'm not really that clever...  My little profile pic here and on flickr is a monkey (over there on the right)  cos I have, once or twice, been told I can be a bit of a cheeky monkey.  Though I really don't know *what* they're talking about....

Like Susan, I was incredibly lucky and managed to get in to Brit Bee waaaaay back (just over a year ago!) and it's played a big part in my life since.  I'm self taught / blog taught quilter, and Brit bee has taught me so much in the last year.  More importantly it's introduced me to some wonderful ladies that put up with me, make me laugh, fall over, fall asleep, and generally just cheer me up no end.  I can hardly put into words just how much I am looking forward to this weekend!

I shall be at the Raddison, with my roomy Jude, on Friday.  Unfortunately I'm only staying for Saturday.   I'm doing English Paper Piecing class on Saturday morning, and Embroidery on Saturday afternoon.  After dinner me and Laura Jane will be sitting laughing cheering on the sidelines watching people compete in the Iron (wo)men challenge and the Jelly Roll Race.

I am short, speccy, and *ahem* rather round...  I have bits of red and bits of purple in my hair...
I shall be wearing my tag made for me by lovely Cindy @ Fluffy Sheep Quilting

FQ Retreat London My tag!


Dunno what I'll be wearing but I will be sporting a lovely pair of pink polka dot trainers.

image source

I've been busy for the last couple of weeks desperately trying to get my Brit bee quilt finished in time... Its a bit of a beast to say the least, 94" x 80".  Its almost done!  I will be bringing it with me to show my lovely bee ladies and anyone else that fancies a nosey.  I just might disappear when I unfold it and it is wonderfully cosy... so you might want to look out for a squidgy black and blue quilt that's apparently snoring...
Another thing that I thought might be helpful....  I've whinged a lot over the year about Cataplexy, which is when I lose muscle control sometimes, most often if I'm laughing or frustrated.  To show you that its nothing to worry about, and to give you an idea of what it looks like, I enlisted mum, dad and Wonky Donkey to help out....



See?  Its really embarrassing, but so long as no hot liquids or seam rippers are involved its not that bad.
So.  As long as the June Fog lets my plane take off on Friday morning (there'll be a short fat speccy riot if not) I shall see you all soon!  Would you believe I'm actually rather looking forward to it....

Sarah xxx

PS  I would like to apologise in advance to Lynne Goldsworthy and Katy Jones.   Just on the off chance either of them speak to me...  I fear I might just go bright red, giggle and fall over.  Or even worse, stare a bit and say "you're brilliant!" a few too many times for comfort....  I'm terribly sorry ladies.  (but you are brilliant...)


Monday 14 May 2012

And you will know us by...

It must be spring.  The daily bee situation is starting to happen again...  I'm convinced there must be a nest somewhere...  But, it certainly keeps Elliecat happy!

I had some post the other day that made me happy too....
I got my name tag for the Fat Quarterly Retreat in London (please can I refer to it as FQR London from now on?  I fear I might be mentioning it rather a lot in the next 4 weeks...)


It's WONDERFUL!  What's more, is that it was made for me by a blogger I really cannot wait to meet too, namely Cindy of Fluffy Sheep Quilting.  Cindy is awesome.  We chat about fabric addiction all the time...  Actually, Cindy has some news to tell, very soon, and its BIG....  I think you should all keep a beady eye on Cindy...Like, today....  That's Cindy, at Fluffysheepquilting.com  Dont forget ;-)

Big thanks to Cindy, I love my name tag, and I dont know which side I'll show as they're both so fantastic!  Needless to say miss Elliecat loves it too.  Well, its fabric, fabric that dangles, with ribbon attached....  Its been stolen once already...

My man managed to get me out of the house a little before he left.  We had a visit to Auntie to deliver a wee something to sit on the sofa with her and match nicely with her Stained Pink Quilt.






And, in a lovely if rare moment of glorious sunshine, my man provided me with a little reminder that I do live in a rather beautiful part of the world as we went on our annual find-the-babies drive.   Not the human kind, (boo!) but all the creature cuteness.  

Naturally the baby (fluffy) sheep refused to stay still for long enough to be snapped, the baby cows all kept hiding behind their mummies, and the baby bunnies were a no-show.  We did find a few baby ponies, but made a bit of a horses ass out of taking their photy...




Now there should have been baby sheep in this next photy, but they were far too busy larkin about to pose.  Interesting mix of feathers though wouldnt you say?!


Chickens, roosters, geese, ducks and turkeys!
Just no FLUFFY SHEEP....


Saturday 12 May 2012

BEEn a bit busy...

Oops!  Been a bit lax here and I've got a bit of catching up to do, haven't I?  Right, since I last blogged...

I was incredibly lucky and I managed to get me a slot with Long Arm Chris that would mean getting my bee quilt professionally quilted in time for taking to Fat Quarterly Retreat in London, where I'll be meeting all my wonderful Bee's IN PERSON!  Woohoo!
Slight draw back...  As you may have gathered from previous post, my bee quilt was still just a big plastic bag full of little plastic bags with blocks in them.  And none of those bags contained any blocks done by ME either...

So, having tried to wait for my man to go back to sea before I tackled this, I had waited as long as I could really, and he - for once - didn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, so I explained as nicely as I could that I had to get stuck in to it, I'd be stressed and tired, he'd have to get his own meals, and he'd have to turn a blind eye to the unbelievable amount of mess I was about to make.  Not sure which he found hardest as these were all very unappealing to him, however he was wonderful.  A few raised eyebrows and sighs, but there were also the meals he took care of, and he actually brought me some cups of tea too!

I didn't quite meet my "done in a week" target, but I did get it sent off and I've heard tell it's going on the frame very soon!
Since I'm being so awfully secretive about it all (gotta make my own fun...) I'm only going to show you two of the blocks I made for it.  The rest is being saved for the reveal of the finished quilt!  (I wonder which fabulous quilty book I got these from?)




After my mental sewing marathon the rest has been awfully sleepy.  I have tried to get back up to date with my blog reading, but I did fall asleep rather a lot.  You might find it a bit amusing to know that everyones talk of stamping their own fabric somehow sunk into my subconscious.  Yes, I've done it again.  Round two of "shopping in your sleep"...


Yes, a couple of clicks in your sleep and you too can have a rolling alphabet stamp!  First I knew about it was when I noticed an email from Ebay I didn't remember reading...  d'oh!!