I got all caught up in the Paralympics and other goings-on that I completely forgot to share with you the last official summery day here in London Town!

As it just so happened, we were invited to a Tea Party on said day.

















... and what is a tea party without cake? What a spread! Scones, muffins, fruit cake, coffee cake, almond cake, chocolate cake, sandwiches, fruit, and more.

















I say "and more" because I was somewhat distracted from the rest of the cakes by this piece de resistance! What a spectacular triple chocolate cake of greatness. We took home a slice to share (all legit, like. We got a piece to go).

















I don't know what's more impressive: the delicious fruit cake, or the pretty doily-style cake stand. Mm.

















Cake and Almonds, Oh My! With a lot of patience and a healthy supply of nuts, that centre blossom could turn into a bunch of chrysanthemums.






















I think you should forgive me for making floral comparisons: look at that garden. That's the first thing I saw when I walked in, so you can imagine what was on my mind. I know. I couldn't contain my garden-geek-excitement either. Monty Don, eat your heart out.






















I don't know a lot about gardening (I like to sit in them more than I like to, uh, make them) ... but I do know that some of these flowers are suspiciously successful at blooming all-year round.






















... another one of those annual bloomers. My kind of garden!

















The colours that you find in an English Garden like this could inspire a range of crafty goodness. Just look at that balance of pinks and greens!

















Add to that a healthy balance of sage green, cheery sunshine yellow and a deep, inviting maroon and you have a winning combination of colour goodness.

















Okay, I'm almost done here. Just a few more pictures of summer, okay?

















Echinacea?

















Garden squee! I will save you from the thousands of photos I took of Miriam's fabulous veg patch. Let's just say, she doesn't need to order a weekly veg box. Nosirree.

















Other areas of the garden included the piggery (!), the beehive (with real bees, I Kid You Not), the Giant Man Shed (filled with China), King Arthur's Grave, a pond, a greenhouse and let's not forget, statues of maidens.

I am so grateful that this is where we got to spend our last day of summer. The skies are now slightly greyed-over and there is a definite chill in the air. I am - as I type - wearing socks. Socks!


This is the kind of garden that inspired my Garden Party Quilt (okay, yes, and the garden where we had our wedding). I can't wait to snuggle up under the greens, yellows and pinks of my own piece of summer... now, if only the Cotton Patch would deliver my quilt wadding... Huff. 8 days of waiting and counting.

I know it's a strange thing to say, but I didn't get caught up in the Olympics hype at all. I loved the theatrics of the opening and closing ceremonies, but I didn't feel the need to tune in for sprints, dashes, throws or swims. I know.

And then, just after all the hoo-ha finally subsided, Channel 4 started airing their Paralympic adverts with the tagline "Thanks for the warm-up." Shortly after, they announced the new commentary program - The Last Leg. Cheeky, dubious marketing that could either roar with success or whimper with bad taste; I was interested. I dare-say, I might even have been a little bit excited.

So, when the EEWI members were offered tickets to the Paralympic athletics, I signed up.

















This is inside Le Grande Olympic Park. It's much bigger than I thought it would be, with lots of open space, concrete and scaffolding masquerading as art and architecture.

















It wasn't all paved over: these wildflowers were specially introduced as a part of a legacy plan - and they would have looked spectacular in the full swing of things. They looked fabulous on Friday, too.

















We were attending the athletics events and there was a lot going on. Thank goodness we could see quite a bit from our perch: there was shot-put, discus, club, long jump, sprints, long-distance running and chair events. All at the same time.






















The Olympic Flame might be my favourite bit of the whole extravaganza.

















... or maybe it's the cheeky little remote-controlled Mini Coopers that were zipping about all over the place!

















There were 20 of us, the Packed Lunch Gang. Jolly good turnout, if you ask me.

These athletes are incredible. I can't emphasise that enough. There were blind marathon runners (running along with a sighted running partner). There were disabled chair "cyclists", racing around the circuit in a sheer super-human feat of strength and endurance. There were long jumpers with cerebal palsy. Their triumphs and determination make our problems seem completely trivial. Feeling miserable because your goals seem impossibly out of reach? That guy has no vision and he's sprinting around an Olympic Stadium.



The rest of the Olympic Park was spectacular in its size and rather unremarkable in other ways. It was like a big sporting event and had all the hallmarks of a festival: food stalls selling Roast Hog and Pies, Port-a-Loos, masses of crowds and big screens showing off the day's events. Oh yes, and Europe's largest McDonalds. That too.

















The flowers were really pretty. They gave the Olympic Park an element of the natural - even if they were in controlled banks and meadows. I do hope they manage to maintain them after the Para/Olympics are done!

I'm really glad that I managed to get to the events before they ended. They may have disrupted our travel routines (a lot), filled up our local shops (serves me right for living right next door to the stadium!) and taken over the telly ... but they also added a lot of positivity too. For the first time since I've been living in London, people are actually stopping to smile and greet you as you walk past on the streets. The shared enthusiasm for all things British has introduced a generally festive and rather pleasant atmosphere to the East. As my grandfather would say, they can come again.

Every possible Photoshop Gene in my body is telling me to edit these photos before I post them - or at least, to wait for a bit of sun so I can re-take the pics. Every "show off" sensibility is telling me not to share this week's Wednesday WIP. But you know what? The point is that these are works in progress so they don't look perfect. And yes, they desperately need a good iron.

Nothing says "summer" for me like a lovely, lush garden and - of course - garden parties.






















I love garden parties, as you can probably already tell from all my garden party enthusiasm on this-here blog.  I love trees that cover you with hugs of shade, flowers that smile at you with their big blossomy grins, and the spectrum of greens that welcome you like a secret garden with fifty shades of emerald. Ha.

So, lucky for me, this month's WI coffee morning was held at Elizabeth's house. I've mentioned Elizabeth's house before, and I promised I'd take photos of the garden. It's a beautiful oasis set just outside the heart of Walthamstow - you'd hardly believe that you were in London with all of the trees, the reservoir and the ducks hanging about.






















We don't get a lot of summer here, so when it does come around we really try to take full advantage of it. It was as if the weather had heard about our tea party plans and decided to send us its very best bout of sunshine, too, which was fabulous.



And what is a tea-party without miniature Victoria Sponge Cakes?






















There was also cherry and almond cake, and hummingbird cake (which was full of pineapple, bananas and other delicious fruit).

















Elizabeth has a lovely bee dress, so when I saw a cross-stitch pattern for a bee in last month's CrossStitcher, I knew it would end up being a brooch for that dress. It took a few weeks, but I eventually found some time to sit down and stitch. The bee is stitched in Madeira silk on a linen blend backing, and the crochet border is made from a special gift I received from the wonderful Anne.


















... and by pure coincidence, Elizabeth was wearing her bee dress!

















This week at our WI meeting we made bunting that depicted Food Stories. Each bunting triangle has a hand-made item of food on it, with a story attached to the back. We went through the stories and had a good chuckle at how funny some of them were. Such lovely handiwork and clever interpretations, too.

















This is Poppy (or Daisy?) - the kitten that almost was. We had very nearly adopted him when Elizabeth suddenly had many kittens in her kitchen, but the kittens stayed together and are decidedly happy in their lovely garden.






















I couldn't resist a quick photo of this rocking chair with its lovely pillows and beach huts. I love beach huts almost as much as I like garden parties. Mm. Doesn't it look inviting?

So, I've been quilting. I know I'm supposed to have progressed on my Moroccan Cushion, but I got distracted.

















This is my Garden Party Quilt - the project that inspired me to start patchwork and quilting. It is a reminder of the happy moments shared at our "Garden Party" wedding; the appliqué blocks are some of the most special moments from our wedding, and the fabrics are all a part of our colour scheme. I have loved working on this, and watching it grow from an idea into something tangible.

















I've learnt new techniques and made new friends thanks to this quilt. I've discovered that I really, really love patchwork. And florals. Unexpectedly.

And, it's turning out exactly the way I had envisioned it. That's deeply satisfying.






















This is more or less what I had in mind. You have to use your imagination here, dear readers. It's a disappearing nine-patch quilt in two separate sections. The top section is 6 x 6 blocks, and the bottom is 3 x 6. In the middle are a set of windmills (pinwheel blocks). There is going to be a white border around the separate sections, and I'm going to bind it with patterned fabric.






















I had initially thought that I might border each block with a simple 2.5" strip border. I think it might be too busy.

















Here are my fabric choices. This is a pretty floral pattern - but perhaps too light and washed out for this colourful project?

















This is a bold green border which fits in well with the colours and makes it a bit more modern than the "old fashioned" option above.

















This is another option: off-white fabric with a ditsy purple floral pattern.

I can't make up my mind. I love the darker green border which I might use for the binding. While choosing fabrics, I thought that the purple was perfect and bought a generous 2 metres of it... that could make for good binding too!

I'm leaning towards leaving off the block borders altogether, doing some really pretty white quilting in the large white panels, and finishing it off with binding in the darker green. Thank goodness it is a bank holiday weekend coming up: there's going to be a lot of cutting, sewing, patching, nipping, pressing and steaming in my immediate future!