Skipping over the weather....

..... we will start with my Stitch Journal for the week, and playing with Fly stitch variations for a few days.

A bit of lace going on today but I might fill in that gap around the heart and semi circle as well.

I finished the first of my Trailblazer socks (Winwick Mum pattern) and am very happy with the pattern and colour. It helps that it uses the Winwick Mum basic sock pattern which I pretty much know off by heart now.

But mainly this week I have been focussed on my Chookshed Challenge - selvedge blocks. I now I have eight blocks complete - 4 more to go!

Happy with how these are looking and I have a plan in my head for turning them into a bag - maybe next week.

We did pop out one day and stopped at the church of  St Etheldreda at St Audries.

 

After a browse round inside - this window glowed beautifully

and I loved these decorated organ pipes -

we couldn't decide if it was warmer out or in! Whichever, we decided against heading to the coast and headed home instead! At least the temperatures are set to increase next week.

Happy stitching

FNWFs February

 As usual thanks to Cheryll for organising our Friday night cyber stitch - you can see who else took part here.

First up for the afternoon was my stitch journal and I added these little snowdrops.

Earlier in the week I came across this delightful snowdrop tile design by Christopher Dresser which I knew would be perfect for my journal.

The first week of February is looking like this

After visiting a friend in the afternoon I settled down with some quilting for the evening. I have been cracking on with Wings this week and have almost finished my quota for the month.

Which will leave me plenty of time to play with my Chookshed Challenge. I had a practise run earlier in the week and have made my first selvedge block.

I used a 9" square of batting and will trim to 8.5". I will need 12 of these to make a tote the size that I want so I need to get busy. Sadly I can see that I shall not be making a huge dent in my selvedge stash!

Also this week I completed my little tree skirt embroidery. Another cute little design.

So that is me up to date - happy stitching everyone and I look forward to reading lots of FNWFs posts.

The End of January

 And I for one am sad that the month is over when all around seem to be rejoicing that February is here and that the 'long, dark' month of January is over! For me January is a great month for brisk chilly walks and lots of cosy sewing and knitting. A time to recoup after Christmas and plan for the coming year - which will no doubt be over before we know it. Anyway less of my moaning and more about what I have been up to this week.

Another fun week with my stitch journal.

The TAST stitches for this week were Raised Chain which I had not tried before You can see two versions at the bottom of the photo. We had some strong wind last weekend, hence the windswept tree.

And here is a picture of my roll for January.

Love how it is turning out. However I can now see that the thread I have is not going to last the year although I have plenty of fabric and lace etc. I can't replicate the threads I dyed using plants from the garden in St Victor but I also have threads dyed with tea, coffee onion skins and black bean water which I can try to reproduce. The other problem I have is that they were solar dyed and that is not going to happen at this time of year. So I am going to try standing my jam jars in the airing cupboard to give them some  warmth. My first jar is underway - we have a casserole with black beans tonight and the soaking water plus some alum and a selection of threads is safely stowed away for a month. Fingers crossed.

My knitting has progressed this week and I turned the heel last night. I also have the next border of Wings marked up and ready to quilt.

We had a nice trip out in some sunshine yesterday - to Stogumber a village about 20 minutes drive from us. We wanted to look around the church of St Mary's which is right in the centre of the village.

When I first looked at the front of the church I was not very impressed - I thought it very unattractive.

However from the rear you see the lovely warm pink stone that has been used for the building.

I found some nice textiles inside. This piano cover caught my eye first.

No accompanying information of course! Then across the other side of the church this hanging below the organ pipes.

I love the rich William Morris style decoration in the altar and choir area.

To the right of the choir is the tomb of Sir George Sydenham, father in law of Sir Francis Drake.

A sad sight in the graveyard was this tree which had blown over in a storm before Christmas.

According to the lady who befriended us in the church, the rings have been counted and it was over 200 years old - a big tree as you can see!

Right this post has been far too long! so time for me to go.

Have a great week.

Chookshed Challenge #10

 My challenge for No 10 is to make a largish tote bag using my collection of selvedges to make blocks.

Not sure how far these will go but I am sure there are more than I can cope with in a month! Need some planning time though before I get started.

Good luck everyone. xx

Chookshed Challenge January

 

Challenge #6 has been put away now - very happy with the progress I have made on this. Not enough blue hexies to finish off round that last flower - I need to shop, chop and baste! 16 of the 42 flowers have been used and hopefully I can get some more of this done over the year when nothing else is calling.

Many thanks to Deana for organising the challenge - looking forward to next months number now.

Sunday Catch up

 Just popping in with an update on what I have been working on this week. First of all my stitch journal for the week up to yesterday.

I have been busy with my Chookshed Challenge and have more hexies basted and extra flowers added.

Bit of a busy photograph but you get the idea. Sorry about the shadow - grim weather and light here today. A shopping trip is needed for more blue pathway fabrics😊😊 One more week on this so hopefully I can make a lot more progress.

Also my Trailblazer socks have progressed and you can now clearly see the pattern.

There is one twist to the front of the sock and one at the back but not central - offset - hope that makes sense.

Thats it from me for this week - happy stitching!

January 2025 FNSI

 Our first FSNI of the year and thanks to Wendy for all her organising. As usual you can see everyone who took part on Wendy's blog here.

As always my first sewing task of the day was my Stitch Journal and this circle was Fridays contribution.

I have added another circle today so here is how my week has looked.

On Monday we needed some fresh air after a weekend indoors so we drove up to Wellington Monument.

From the car park there is a lovely tree lined walk to the Monument.

 And the hedge on either side has been laid at some point in the past.

Just look at all those lovely roots!

There are days when the monument is open and you can climb the steps to the top. Evidently the views are spectacular.

Anyway, you can see that I commemorated our walk in my stitch journal.

So, back to Friday and I spent a couple of hours in the afternoon on the machine whipping up a quick bag to go in our picnic hamper to contain cutlery and other loose bits and bobs - sorry no pic.

Then in the evening more quilting on Wings. No Chookshed Challenge this week as I want to complete my quilting quota for the month before going back to it.

But I have made a start on my next knitting project.

The pattern is not showing up well yet but I am pleased with how it is looking so far.

And that is me for the week - see you next week.