Mysterious visitor, jam for breakfast, lunch and tea, oh yes, and a bit of stitching!

We woke this beautiful. sunny Sunday morning to find this little fellow standing at the end of our path. Now I know gnomes have special powers but I am bemused by his arrival - I have my suspicions and will have to investigate!!

On a less mysterious note, I spent an enjoyable day with my mother today. We stitched for several hours while we toggled back and forth between the men's final at Wimbledon and the Tour de France in Yorkshire. Despite the tragedy of Cav crashing out on Stage 1 and no Wiggo this year, we will still be glued to the TV for the next 3 weeks. So much TV provides an ideal time to get some sewing done and Mom has recently decided that after quite some interval her children deserve a sampler like the ones she made for her grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Here's a detail of the sampler she made for my younger daughter 30 years ago.

And here's mine waiting to be stretched and framed. I've only had to wait 63 years!! She's now working on one for my brother and was thrilled that I could go online and find a throstle motif for the football team he has supported all his life. Mom has decided she loves the internet!!

After another significant interval a quilt Laura and I made in 2004 is about to get another airing. Flock is off to Ste. Marie aux Mines in Alsace shortly.

It'll hang beside Expecting to Fly in the exhibit celebrating 20 years of the European Patchwork Meeting.

In between quilting the new piece for Alsace I've been adding to the pincushion mountain. These are all destined for my stand at the Festival of Quilts next month.

But no matter how busy I am with stitching, it's unwise to ignore the raspberries. They need picking every day.

Last night's crop was 1.5 kilos and after picking was immediately into the jam pot. We have enough jam to last till next year already.

So, with today's bread we could survive on jam sandwiches for quite some time! My children say the loaves look like you could have bought them in a shop - high praise indeed!!

Thanks for dropping by - I appreciate your company. Linda x