FNSI November

 And we are half way through the month already so fifteen of these squares have now been filled with random stitches and patterns.

We spent part of our Friday at a Christmas market - far too early for such things but I suppose we have to start somewhere. It was a beautiful clear blue sky day after a foggy start. We are getting proper November weather at the moment and are promised even colder next week - and the return of rain which will probably mean snow in the north of the country. Anyway, back to the market which was packed with people and stalls full of nice things. Lots of drinks to sample and chocolate to taste - always welcome. We came away with a few Christmas presents and full tummies after lunch in the restaurant. The market was held at Hestercombe House which has beautiful gardens - sorry no pics but we decided we were ready for home after all that shopping! We did drive home via Lydeard Hill though as it was such a nice day. The trees are all looking beautiful at the moment and the misty view from the car park in the sunshine was beautiful.

Anyway I have been busy quilting away on Wings in the evenings this week so for a change I got out my knitting Friday evening and cracked on with this sock - nearly to the toe now.

Last week I visited a quilt show with some friends at my LQS Come to Quilt. Come to Quilt is home to Dragon Quilters who meet once a fortnight there. There was a lot of work on display and I will share a few of my favourites with you.

This little quilt greeted us at the entrance and was drawing gasps!

This quilt was stunning.

And this wall hanging next to it was also gorgeous. There is a Four Seasons class held regularly at Come to Quilt and this work was made following the class.

Another class that has been held at the shop was a Three Hares quilt and there were several of these on display - some finished some not. This was my favourite as I loved the way it had been personalised with the addition of Green Men in the corners of the 4th border in and hounds chasing the hares in the outer border.

This one was also complete. Not the best lighting though in this room.

And a few more that caught my eye.

This one with all it's bee and honey connections.

And this one because red and white always looks amazing.

Well now, I think I am going to turn the heating on, wrap Wings around my legs and spend some time quilting while I watch the leaves falling from the trees outside.

Have a lovely weekend everyone. Hopefully you can click on the image and read the details below.

FNWFs November

If you are just here for RSC then please feel free to scroll straight to the bottom!

 Friday was not a hugely productive day as other things were happening. However I completed my Stitch Journal piece for the day after lunch. It was the 1st of the month so I was starting on a new 'page'. Squares this month and I filled this one with some simple rows of herringbone.

I am working with white/off white threads this month and pulled out my white box of threads to work with.

In amongst all my threads are some old Pearsalls threads that came to me from my Nana and Aunt when I inherited their stash. Interesting because the bulk of their threads were Anchor stranded. Most of the Pearsalls are a fine floss which I tend to avoid as it is tricky to work with but in this box I found a couple of skeins of 'Broriche silk'.

 It's like a fine silk perle thread and I used it for the herringbone in my first square. It was a delight to work with I must say. Pearsalls the company intrigues me too as they are based in Taunton just down the road from me. They no longer make embroidery threads though, just concentrating on medical threads.

My brown leaf page is of course finished and here are a few pictures.

I did get some knitting done in the evening while watching TV - I made good progress up the leg of a new pair of socks.

As always I am using a West Yorkshire Spinners sock yarn, this one is called Kingfisher.

So that was my FNWFs - many thanks to Cheryll for hosting again this month.

In other news I have been busy quilting Wings - sorry no pics - and also had the sewing machine out during the week to quilt my Magic Lantern runner.

Trimming and binding to come but I must put this away for now - it is a Christmas present and I have a more urgent birthday present to produce!

Also I don't think I have shared with you all my RSC log cabins for the year. I laid them all out on the bed recently just for the fun of it - I have no intention of sewing them together until next year when I shall also have to find some sort of border fabric.

In fact, now that I look back - I don't seem to have shared pictures of my October brown log cabins, so here they are.

Linking up with Angela at some point!

Well that is me all caught up for now. Have a great week.

FNSI October

 It's a beautiful Sunday afternoon here after a night and morning of rain - storm Ashley, the first of the seasons named storms. Fortunately for us it was not as fierce as expected although more rain on top of what we have already had will be looking for somewhere to go.

Friday was a dry day and we had a few errands in town in the morning. I spent a couple of  hours in the afternoon catching up with friends so not much sewing happened. But I did of course do my Stitch Journal leaf for the day and the page is filling up nicely, if a bit too quickly!

I also cut the backing fabrics for my Magic Lantern runner which is now almost ready to layer up - just some little black feet to add first.

It does rather resemble a Dalek at the moment though!

In other sewing news I have been working away on quilting Wings and Pretty Things and have turned the first corner of the wide border.

And have been dipping into another white sampler piece destined for the tea and rust pot!

It will eventually be attached to the first piece and I am on the lookout for a suitable piece of driftwood to wrap it round.

So that is me all caught up, thanks to everyone else for their company and I will see you again soon.

Another Friday....

 ....another day out! And some more lovely hydrangeas.

This time at Dunster Castle which for one reason or another we have not visited since the spring. We started our visit in the Dream Garden, an enclosed garden on the perimiter of the property. It always looks lovely and yesterday was no exception with the Dahlia's and borders looking glorious.

There is a lovely view of the church from the gardens

and we realised that we have never been inside. So instead of returning to the castle we headed into town and spent a while looking round The Priory Church of St George 

Lots of lovely carved wood in this church which was originally shared by the monks from Dunster Priory and the people of the parish.

This next section of the church is behind the altar which you can just glimpse in the first photograph.

(If I had wanted those pictures like that I would never have worked out how!)

The tiles look Victorian to me - not easy to photograph without the light spoiling them. But they were lovely.

After stopping off at the gallery of Maurice Bishop a regular stop both in Dunster and Lymnouth when we visit, we headed off to the NT shop for some flour from the Dunster Water Mill and then back to the car. We could see the sea from the castle with this lovely clear view of Steep Holm.

So headed for Dunster Beach to eat our picnic. Very clear views across the channel to Wales.

Just a couple of pictures of what I have benn working on this week. First up I finished these socks.

I used the Winwick Mum basic sock pattern with West Yorkshire Spinners Amethyst sock wool and their Winwick Mum Wildflowers sock wool. One more pair to get cracking on now before Christmas.

I have of course been keeping up with my Stitch Journal and the leaves are filling out nicely.

Thanks for sticking with me if you have made it this far!

Have a great week

FNwF's October

 It was a cool but mostly sunny day yesterday, and with nothing planned we took the chance to get out for a drive. We headed onto the Quantocks to visit my LQS Come to Quilt in a barn high up on the hills. Having purchased the fabric I need to finish off my table runner (and maybe some embroidery thread!) we drove a little way along the road to Fyne Court. After a browse in the second hand bookshop and a curried cauliflower pasty (delicious) in the cafe we had a little walk around. The gardens are not as developed as some of the National Trust gardens but it was nice to see that work has commenced on repairing the walls and gallery in the walled garden. Hopefully at some time in the future we shall see the beds cleared and planted.

These gardens near the cafe were looking gorgeous though.

And I do love the colours of fading hydrangea's.

This pond is overgrown but evidently has breeding Great Crested Newts which are not as common in the UK as they were in the past. I loved the carved balustrade around the edge of the pond.

From Fyne Court we headed towards the coast and found ourselves in the village of Fiddington and spotted this pretty little church

so of course we had to go in. St Martin of Tours

It was Harvest Festival last weekend and this window was decorated up for it.

These carved pew ends are rather splendid.

And the organ had pride of place.

This sturdy and ornate door handle caught my eye.

The churchyard was very tidy! and we had a nice wander round. We were surprised to find this gravestone of Tony Britton

and these lovely cyclamen

but completely missed the carving mention in the Wikipedia link!

So not a lot of sewing happened. I did my Stitch Journal leaf - yes, leaves this month very appropriately.

And perfect for my choice of brown for my RSC colour this month. I have some gorgeous, rich brown threads in my brown box which I am looking forward to using.

Other than that all I did was some knitting while we watched a film in the evening.

Well, I must go and check my washing - the wind has picked up and I can hear it blowing against the conservatory windows, so need to make sure it is firmly pegged!

Back soon with RSC news until then, happy stitching.