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?

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!

Cooling Down

After a very hot June week - here in Somerset we broke the UK record for the hootest June day on Thursday although that was beaten by somewhere else the next day - it is feeling much cooler here this Saturday afternoon. We have hazy sun and a cooling breeze at times which is very pleasant.

We ventured out on Tuesday to an air conditioned restaurant and my Pilates class on Wednesday - in our village hall which is new and has efficient solar powered aircon/heating - was also a pleasure. Otherwise we have mostly been indoors drinking loads of water with a fan trying to keep the air moving.

Although I have done some sewing - and knitting - I have also been reading and got through two of Louise Penny's 'Three Pines' books and have just started a Salley Vickers book called ' Dancing Backwards'. I do love her books and am always happy to find one I have not read.

My Stitch Journal is up to date and records our hot week.

And I have been working into my tea and rust piece.

Sadly the sparkle I added in the way of beads and lurex thread does not show up in the picture. I am at the point of sitting back and trying to decide if it needs more stitch.

Also I have been knitting away and am up to the heel turn on this pair of socks which is using a WYS sparkle yarn.

These are for a much smaller foot than the last pair so coming along that bit quicker.

Looking forward to pottering about a bit in the garden this week as it gets cooler - maybe even having a day out! Happy stitching.

Heatwave Incoming!

 It's pleasant here today, even a sprinkling of rain but from tomorrow temperatures are set to rise to the mid 30's during the week. Thankdfully not the 40 degrees plus that our friends in France will have but still a tad too hot for us. It is going to affect the whole of southern England with London and the East getting higher temperatures. Our new conservatory roof is going to get a good work out.

This last week has been pleasant and some tidying has happened in the garden. I have picked the first tomatoes (cherry), cucumbers and mange tout peas - plenty more to come. I suspect that anyone who visits will be presented with a cucumber (no sniggering please) as there seems to be a glut forming already.

I have been working on my Stitch Journal of course. Here are this weeks offerings.

And the socks are finished.

These were made using Stylecraft's Head Over Heels, Colours of the World, Sacred Earth and I do love these colours. I have completed the cuff on my next pair - there is a lot of cricket and football around!

I have dyed the white panel I showed you last week.

I think I was a little over ambitious and used too much tea and rust but however it's fine and will probably (thanks Julie) fade in time. I dyed it flat sandwiched between some sheets of paper which I had not tried before and found on this video which is excellent.

So, the results.

This piece of paper went on the bottom with a few leaves scattered on

and I will definitely repeat without the rust as there are some lovely prints in there.

Next the fabric and then another layer of paper with the butterfly and a snowflake on.

Then two thinner sheets of paper with a few screws in between.

These will be cut to page size and added into my sketchbook. For the time being though I need to stitch into my panel and have some beads and threads ready to go.

I finally got to the Roger Fry exhibition in my local museum this week. Roger Fry Which I enjoyed very much. I think this was my favourite painting because of the colour and design

but there were many different paintings in differing styles from throughout his life.

I am ashamed to say that after 4 years here in Taunton it was my first visit to the Museum of Somerset but I shall definitely be going back! The gallery where the exhibition was held was excellent, plenty of space and air con (might be worth another fiver to go back for the air con next week). Good lighting and plenty of information about the artist and the paintings. The whole place looks very swish so I will be back again soon to browse their collections.

Well, I think that is all for now, have a good week.