March Stitch Journal and Aprils Challenge

 Just so quickly another month is over. First of all a picture of this past weeks stitches and I was on a couching roll!

And here is the whole of March.

Had a really lovely surprise when I opened up one of my dye jam jars at the weekend. These gorgeous greens came from red onion skins!

The two darker threads and the darker fabric are silk which takes the dye differently. The right hand lace was an ecru viscose, the rest are cotton and linen. Very happy with these as I have not had a darker green before. Stashing these away now for next years stitch journal.

And while I am here I can show you my #4 for the Chookshed Challenge. It is this lovely canvas work scissor keep. A great choice as I have a couple of flights coming up and this small project will be a perfect project to take with me.

Happy stitching

FNSI March

 And my main aim was to get my selvedge tote bag finished - my Chookshed Challenge from February. And I did! I got the sewing machine out for a couple of hours in the afternoon and then spent the evening hand sewing down the bindings. Tah Dah

It's 24" x 18 with a 5" gusset so nice and roomy. The aim is to use it for transporting quilts when I go to my patchwork group but I am sure it will find plenty of other uses.

I saved a couple of nice selvedges for the handles.

Good to have another challenge finished and out of the way.

I have been working on my Stitch Journal again this week.

Doesn't look like much progress but there are three days additions in the last section. That picture is looking a bit bleached - sorry.

We had a couple of days away at the beginning of the week and met up with friends at Stourhead on Monday, a halfway meeting point as they live on the outskirts of London. It was a cold day! Very chilly wind but we braved the gardens. Our men have hip and knee problems so we made use of the National Trust guide and his buggy for a trip around the lake. He was very knowledgeable and agreeable to stopping when I wanted to take a photograph too. 

The garden was originally designed by the owner Henry Hoare in the mid 18th century with various buildings - temple, grotto, cottage etc - set around the lake, some of which still exist. At the moment there are masses of daffodils flowering everywhere.

This is a scale copy of The Pantheon in Rome

and this is a cottage which was evidently lived in even though it seemed just to consist of one room.

The building you can see below is a grotto which we sadly didn't get to visit.

By the time we had finished our ride we were more than ready to head back to the cafe for some warming hot chocolate!

Fortunately Tuesday was a lovely sunny day and we headed to Lullington for our friend to search the graveyard for ancestors - no luck sadly. But the church was well worth a visit with it's Norman arches

and beautiful font.

Already more photographs than I had anticipated but must just show you the last place we visited - Heavens Gate with it's fabulous view of Longleat House.

Thank you for sticking with me this far - normal service will be resumed next week! Have a great week.

Friday Night with Friends

 A weeks delay for our FWWFs but thank you Cheryll for getting us organised this week. Sadly, having spent the day painting the garden fence all I could manage in the way of stitch was my Stitch Journal. Here is the last week

Friday nights sewing was that sweep of running stitch to remind me of the sweep of my paintbrush!

This week saw the completion of the quilting on Wings and Pretty Things. Look carefully and you might spot + marking the last stitch!

I worked on my Chookshed Challenge this week - a simple project that was done in an evening.

This little kit cost me peanuts in a local house clearance warehouse. The fabric is silk and the lovely threads perle. Now hangs from my bedside lamp.

I swapped numbers this month in favour of this simple project as I have secret stitching to do and that is now under way. Also this week I got the handles and bindings ready for my selvedge bag which I hope to complete next week when I get out the sewing machine.

So that is all from me for now. Have a good week. 

A busy week...

 ... but quiet on the sewing front.

We have been celebrating Philips 80th birthday this week with family and friends. Starting last Sunday with a family lunch out at Dunster which was delicious and fun.  Philips dessert plate was very tasteful I thought!

Rum and raisin ice cream and that little pot was full of rum!!! Good job I was driving.

It was a lovely sunny day too for a nice walk through the town and part of the castle grounds. You can see my suggestion of the castle in this weeks stitch journal.

I have been working on Wings again this week - down to the last 1/8th of the outer border and it will be finished this week! I need to get on with other things.

After a dry week and now that we have milder temperatures I need to get a few things done in the garden. Lovely to have spring here but winter is such a great time for sewing!

Have a good week everyone.

March already!

 February seems to have whizzed by, this last week especially. And now it is the 1st of March. The sun is shining! Well to be fair this is the third day in a row of sunshine and it looks set to continue for the next week. We have had a couple of very white frosty mornings - but I really don't mind when it is followed by sunshine.

My Stitch Journal has progressed this week - this was my week.

And here is the month of February.

I now have some nice new threads to use in my journal as I have opened up a few of the jars that have been stashed in my airing cupboard since the beginning of the month. Very happy with these!

The lovely blue is from black bean soaking water. Darker than my previous blue but not a problem. The middle one is an unused teabag (I have another jar with two used teabags in to compare) and the bottom one is brown onion skins. Very happy with that yellow as where the threads actually touched the onion skin they are darker which gives a lovely variegated effect. It will nice to have more choice of threads to use now.

This months Chookshed Challenge number is #2 which is to turn last years Stitch Journal pages into a book and it is a big one. As I have secret stitching to do this month and I would like to complete the selvedge bag, I have swapped it for my #9 which is this lavender bag kit which I picked up for peanuts at a local house clearance warehouse. Shouldn't take me very long and it will be nice to have it made and in use.

Right, I had better get cracking, lots to do this month including the final quilting on Wings and Pretty Things.

See you next week.

Chookshed Challenge #10

 This is not a finish but, I am much further forward than I expected to be! All quilted now and ready to have straps added and binding across the top sections before closing up the sides.

I have a lovely wide Laura Ashley selvedge from the lining fabric which I am going to incorporate into the straps and more of the script fabric I have used for the gusset. I also have scraps of leftover binding which I can use along the top but will need to cut something wider for the sides to contain the bulk.

Happy to set this aside now for a little while and looking forward to getting started on next months challenge.

FNSI February

 I have spent the week mainly working on my selvedge blocks and finished the last one on Thursday evening. Just in time for me to spend my Friday afternoon trimming them and machining them together.

These are the two sides of my large tote bag - the blocks are 8" square finished so 24" x 16" - and I managed to get the base strip attached and everything layered for quilting before it was time to clear up. Lots of quilting to do next time I get the sewing machine out, but happy with my Friday progress.

My stitch journal progress for this week.

Earlier in the week we had a sunny day promised so set out for Killerton House where there is a new 20's costume exhibition. Also it's a good time to see the spring flowers in the grounds. However, the weather worsened the closer we got and we decided to stop off at The Antique Village We had a lovely time wandering round looking at the antiques, vintage and retro items. And sampling the soup and cheese scones from the cafe.

I came home with these delightful little items for my collection.

This gorgeous little pin cushion is mosaic Tunbridge ware from around 1860. The collar around the middle is beeswax, a feature I have not seen before.

The acorn thimble holder is also Tunbridge ware from around 1820 and it came with the thimble although that is of a later date.

The thimble is an early Charles Horner steel lined thimble, something I had not heard of. In 1884 Charles Horner patented the steel lined silver thimble which later became known as the 'Dorcas' thimble. The early ones were marked with PAT which you can just see on the side of mine.

That's all my news for now - hoping to get some knitting done this week - I have cast on my second Trailblazer sock and would like to make some progress.

Wishing you all a good week.