Chookshed Challenge July

 I have made good progress on this over the last week and have got further than expected which is a nice surprise.

This is where I was at the beginning of the month.

And this is where I am now.

I completed the round that was started and added the outer round. I have some hexie flowers left - 2 where the colouring does not fit, 2 blue ones left from a previous project and 3 yellow. I will probably combine the blue and yellows (5) and either add to the backing or make a table topper. A decision for next time. For now it has been put away and added to next years list when I will add extra blue hexies to the edge to straighten things a litlle, face and back it. For now though, I am very happy. Thank you Deana.

I can also share some pictures of my Stitch Journal for the month.

And as expected the rain prediction turned out to be a damp squib! Yesterday we had dampness and a bit of drizzle but not enought to wet the paths or wash the dust off. Maybe next week. |Meanwhile we are now officially in a drought w ith everywhere looking very brown and crisp.

I am off to Festival of Quilts tomorrow so brace yourselves for a picture heavy post next time!

Happy stitching and have a great weekend.

Rain! - well possibly

 Yes, we have rain forecast for overnight tonight, but I am not holding my breath, we have been fooled before with false promises! All I can say is that we have had another week of heatwave although fortunately far more bearable temperatures.

I spotted these from my backdoor at 7am earlier this week. Obviously taking advantage of the fact that the wind had dropped considerably.

My Stitch Journal has progressed - the end of the month is in sight!

The hexagon patchwork has grown this week - mainly thanks to an afternoon with my patchwork group.

I need to get a move on this week as there will be a new Chookshed Challenge next weekend.

I have also made more granny squares but I won't bore you with more pictures of them and been playing in my sketchbook.

So, that has been my week - I am off to play with my hexies, see you next week.

A Quiet Week

 It remains hot and dry here and I have lost count of how many days we have officially been having a heatwave. Not up in the mid 30's thank goodness but hovering around 30 which is hot for us. Lots of crispy brown grass around and the threat of wildfires. There have been a few.

I have been spending some time working in my sketch book this week - there is a Chookshed Challenge not far away that will need a few small designs and I have been working on those.

My Stitch Journal for this week looks like this.

Susan very kindly offered to send me a hexie flower for my quilt and it arrived this week.

Plus a few lovely blues to add into my pathways. I have started to add the flower in but have not made much progress as once again it has been too hot to have it on my lap.

I have made progress with my granny squares though and now have 30 - almost halfway to the 64 that I need.

So that's about it from me this week, hopefully more to share next week.

Happy Stitching.

Count Binface for Clacton!

 Well, what a week it has been! Three deaths - the amazing Bonnie Tyler, newsreader Dermot Murnaghan and sadly (though not because I liked the womans politics) Ann Widdicombe. Another heatwave! Trump making himself look a fool over the football. England getting through to the next round!

And the resignation stunt of the ghastly Nigel Farage.  For those who don't know him, he is a friend of Donald Trump, no more need be said. Farage is standing again as MP for Clacton, supposedly to pit himself against the establishment and for the 'good people' of Clacton to back him. Quite sensibly, all the main stream political parties have decided not to stand against him. However Count Binface has come to save the country! And a lot of the country are behind him judging by facebook. So are these Clacton residents if the bin bag flags flying outside their houses are anything to go by.

So, moving on to more sensible things, here is a Stitch Journal update.

And my Chookshed Challenge.

I have been working on the third round of hexies - I have marked the centre hexie, top centre in the picture. But have not done as much as I would like as I am finding it all a bit hot on my lap. So instead, while the football continues, I have made a start on some crochet. I had quite a lot of yarn left over from the Seashore blanket that I made earlier in the year and have started using it to make granny squares for a warm winter jumper. I purchased some fushia yarn from the same range and am using that to edge the squares. These are what I have come up with this week.

Very happy with how these are looking.

Right, I am off to watch some cricket - and possibly make some more granny squares. See you next week - I wonder what it will bring?

Saturday evening edit!

Oh no - just found out that Patricia Greene has died. She was the longest serving actor on The Archers and played Jill Archer for 65 years. 😢❤️

Almost afraid to listen to the news now!!

A Grand Day Out

 It was a lovely day yesterday - clear blue sky but not too hot. Perfect for a day out and fortunately we had arranged to meet up with friends at A La Ronde which is on the South Devon coast at Exmouth. The original house was built by Jane and Mary Parminter, cousins who had been on The Grand Tour of Europe with Jane's younger sister and another female friend. They were away for several years and on their return Jane and Mary decided to set up home together and they purchased the land where they designed and had built the house that they were to live in - A La Ronde. This is the entrance to the house with the view of Exmouth harbour.

The house has 16 sides. There is a central octagonal hall with wedge shaped rooms leading off it all around the building. It was designed so that you could follow the sunlight from room to room around the house during the day giving the maximum light for reading, sewing etc. No space was wasted and there are cupboards and bookshelves built into every nook and cranny.

I did not take many pictures inside the house as the lighting was not very good. But it is full of treasures collected on their travels along with family heirlooms. However, I soon homed in on some embroidered pictures! I first spotted this stumpwork piece.

Sorry about the reflection and the angle - it was just slightly above my head height.

These two pieces were nearby.

The house is most famous for it's shell frieze around the octagonal gallery at the top of the house. Having recently been cleaned, the National Trust decided that the frieze is now too fragile to allow visitors to view from the gallery so we had to make do with glimpses and there are films of it to view. The staircase up to the gallery is blocked but you can see up - as in these not so brilliant pictures.

You also get glimpses of it from the octagonal hall and mirrors are thoughtfully provided for getting a slighty closer view.

Shell collections are everywhere, mostly behind glass but this one in the fireplace makes for a great display.

The house sits in it's own grounds with the lovely view of the sea.

This is the side of the house facing the sea.

Now a quick recap of my weeks sewing. It was the end of the month so Stitch Journal pictures of June.

And the start of July.

I have added a couple of flowers to my hexie quilt.

And finished a sock.

Thank you if you have made it to the end of this post - I shall be back next week. Happy Stitching.

Chookshed Challenge update

 Rust was my challenge for June and I am very happy with what I achieved. Firstly I tea and rust dyed a small sampler that I started some time ago. It just needed a little more stitching before I dyed it. Here are the before and afterwards again.

And added on to my sample roll.

I then put together a small panel ( just over A4 size) and dyed that, again with rust and tea.

I dyed this piece flat along with some sheets of watercolour paper and am very happy with a couple of these. The one that I did with leaves is worth repeating I think.

I have now stitched into my flower panel adding some beads and lurex thread for sparkle, which of course does not show up in the picture!

And I have started stitching another sample piece using a few previously dyed pieces to see how they will turn out with extra dye.

So now, apart from finding a frame for my flower panel, I am finished with rust for a little while but hope to come back to it again soon.

Deana has pulled #5 for our July project and I am happy to say this is my hexagon project which I last worked on for the Chookshed Challenge last year. For those who do not know, for some years I swapped hexagon flowers once a month with a lovely group of ladies, mostly in Austraila but with one lady from the US. They were all yellow and I have started to sew them together with a blue pathway. This is where I am at  now. You can see the pile of yellow flowers waiting to be added.

You may remeber that in May I put together a small box of hexagons ready to start whenever #5 came up, so I am all set to go this evening when there is yet another football match!

Thank you Deana, I am looking forward to this - no hard thinking, just happy stitch!