Welcome to my blog. I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures - in stitch and otherwise! And I hope that you will leave a comment so that I know you have visited.

Saturday 19 December 2015

FNSI and where have I been?

Many thanks to Wendy at Sugarlane Designs for all the work she has put into FNSI over the year. Last night was our final get together for 2015 so do pop over to Wendy's to see what everyone got up to.
As we are in UK I was knitting as we watched the TV and made good progress on this sock.

I've got the complicated bit to do next!

We have been in the UK a week now so if I have not been to visit you lately then that is why - we seem to have been busy all week Christmas shopping and visiting friends.
The weather here is incredibly mild - we saw daffodils flowering the other day - but also mostly grey and damp. However it has been lovely to see the Somerset countryside again with two trips across the levels to Street and to Wells. The levels on a misty morning are one of my favourite memories from when I worked in Street. The Farmers market in Wells is always a treat - just a shame that we can not indulge in all the lovely foods on offer during our stay.
Yesterday we went to the south coast - to Seaton where the sea front was very blustery but in the town all was calm. Found a lovely little craft shop and picked up some bargain Christmas ribbons which will feature in next years Christmas makes.

Well I must get on with wrapping Christmas presents this morning - it's wet and windy outside so an indoor job is perfect.

Wishing all my lovely readers a Very Happy Christmas and a Healthy, Peaceful and Stitchy 2016.


Tuesday 8 December 2015

Piece Yourself Together time again..

.... and the last one for 2015. Thank you very much Anthea for setting this up and organising us this year, it has been great to see what other people are working on and we need to spread the word! 

So, to my swap hexies and this lovely one arrived recently

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And here is one that I sent out in November

The other November hexies to send require fabric that I don't have so they will be sent when I get to UK next week.

Here are my December hexie flowers that I have posted to my swap partners.


Last time I showed you a sneak peak of some half inch hexies that I was working on - they were for postcards which have now been received so I can show you the finished cards.

This one was for the lovely Susan who is busy working on a dissertation for her degree!

 
And this one went to my swap partner Annie  in Sheila's Christmas postcard swap.

Annie blogs at Freeze Frame.

Many thanks to Sheila for organising another lovely postcard swap.

So Happy Christmas to my hexie friends and see you next year.

Monday 7 December 2015

Another CQJP finish

And this is my block for November all done and dusted.


I have managed to incorporate a few TAST stitches in this piece - half cretan, crossed buttonhole, butterfly chain, bullion knots and knotted cretan. Trying to work out how to fit them in is good for the brain cells! and it is great to be trying different stitches.

A few close ups.


 Two layers of half cretan make the triangular section.

 Knotted cretan along the bottom.

 The zig zag on the left is butterfly chain.

The row of crossed stitches on the left is crossed buttonhole and the flower petals are bullion knots.

Today I am linking up with

hosted by Super Mom - No Cape. This is a linky for all things hand embroidered so do pop over and see what everyone has been up to.

Friday 4 December 2015

Throwback Thursday #5

When Jenn A Quarter Inch from the Edge announced that she was setting up her Throwback Thursday linky I fully intended to link up each month with some of my older projects! Well, you know how all good plans somehow go wrong and here we are in month 5 and this is only my second link up!

Click on Jenn's link above to see what everyone else has come up with from the past.

Jenn asked us for Christmassy things this month - well I don't have a Christmas Quilt but this quilt was made five years ago for a Christmas present so I hope that counts!


The Quilters Guild of the British Isles ran a Mystery Quilt over 4 issues of their quarterly magazine. At that time I had not discovered the delights of online shopping for fabric let alone blogging! So this quilt was all made from my stash and the photograph is wonky but it is the only one I have.


This is just a crop of my original picture. Some of the fabrics are vintage Laura Ashley, some more modern. I did not have quite enough of the gorgeous pansy fabric and had to email the shop where I had bought it and they very kindly rummaged around and sent me an oddment that was tucked away in a corner.

The method of making the centre panel produced some spare pieces which very conveniently made a matching cushion but unfortunately I don't seem to have a picture of it.

So that's it - my throwback - I am now looking forward to going to see what everyone else linked up with..
Hope you have a great weekend.

Thursday 26 November 2015

It's EPP time again

Anthea is coping with builders and extensions but has still found time to set up the linky for EPP Tuesday and so we are Piecing Ourselves Together again!





Secret stitching here on the EPP front so I am just showing this sneaky peak which regular readers will have seen already!


But there has been some lovely post and these hexie flowers have arrived from my swap partners this month.

These from Australia


and these from the USA


Ooops - just remembered this birthday card for a special young lady!


Many thanks to Anthea for setting up the linky - I am off to see what everyone has been doing.

Saturday 21 November 2015

FNSI for November....

...... was very productive but involved secret stitching so this is all you get to see!







Many thanks to Wendy for hosting us again. Pop over to Sugarlane Designs to see what everone got up to.

Have a great weekend.

Tuesday 17 November 2015

WIP and a couple of small finishes

It has been a sad weekend for France as you will know. Thank you to all those of you who sent messages of support - they were very much appreciated.

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So, work in progress is on my November CQJP block and here it is.


There are a couple of TAST stitches in there. Crossed Buttonhole





and Half Chevron.




When I was at Ally Pally last month I was looking out for a small project to work on while I was away and found a sweet little scissor keep kit on Sue Hawkins crowded little stall. I finished the scissor keep a few weeks ago but have only just got around to photographing it. Not an easy task for something so small and oddly shaped!


I do love Sue's kits - always such a lot of lovely little details.







My other finish will be a Christmas present and it's another pattern that I found on the Popular Patchwork site. The Simple Sewing Companion is a free pattern.




There are three little pockets so space for a tape measure too which I shall buy in UK so that it has inches as well as centimeters! I should have put a little ruler in one of the pictures - the folded case measures between four and five inches.

So that is my news for now - don't forget that Friday night is FNSI, sign up here to join in with an evening of cyber sewing fun!

I am linking this up to Anthea's CTTY post.

Tuesday 10 November 2015

It's Piece Yourself Together Tuesday

Many thanks to Anthea for hosting the linky to PYT Tuesday. Click here to pop over to Hibiscus Stitches and see what everyone has been doing.


 I have finally got myself organised and have been photographing the swap hexie flowers I have sent and received so here are some recent swaps. First pictures of the hexies I have sent.



And these that I have received.


As you can see I am collecting blue flowers. Apart from my swaps I have been too busy on other projects to do any EPP.

I have a couple of finishes to share in my next blog post so see you soon.

Saturday 7 November 2015

November FNwF

Thanks to Cheryll for hosting us again this month. Follow the link to see what everyone got up to last night.





We are still having an exceptionally mild autumn here - it is 25 degrees outside as I write this! We did have some rain Thursday night/Friday morning so I got out to the garden early yesterday to rake up some of the damp leaves. It's a job I enjoy doing - lots of thinking time! Also it is satisfying to see a nice tidy garden and to see a large compost bin full of leaves which will rot down nicely to spread on the garden next year.


I love looking at the leaves on the ground - lots of lovely colours and patterns just waiting to be stitched!



I especially like raking up the walnut leaves as they have such a gorgeous smell - there are usually a few walnuts lurking under the leaves too, to add to my collection. Walnuts are a cash crop here in our part of the Dordogne and it's highly illegal to nip onto anyones land and help yourself! On Mondays in November at our local market you can see people with their sacks of washed and dried nuts delivering them to the lorries that take them away for processing.

And now, what did I get up to sewing wise - well, I put together my November CQJP block ready to start embellishing.


Black and yellow this time although I am sadly short of yellow fabrics! I did pick up a nice piece of spotted, crumpled black and yellow silk at the K&S last month which I intend to add to the surface. I also stocked up on some yellow threads which I  seemed to be lacking as well. I have just been sorting through my buttons and beads and ribbons for yellows - same story. Still, I think I will have enough.
I finished a sock on Thursday evening so yesterday evening I made a start on it's mate while we watched a film on TV.


A very satisfying day - I hope yours was too.

Thursday 5 November 2015

My crazy block for October and a couple of reminders!

First of all tomorrow night is Friday Night With Friends

Pop over to Cheryll's to sign up for an evening of fun.

Sheila from Sheila's Quilt World is organising a Christmas Postcard Swap - read about it here and if you have never made a fabric postcard before then maybe now would be a good time to start!

And now a few pictures of my CQJP block for October. First the whole block.


Then a few closeups.





Hope you are having a great week.