Saturday Finish

Yes I have finished my little granny squares blanket. You my remember that I made this to use up the yarns left over from making my Hygge so when it came to the border I was down to my last half a ball of the grey. I managed to work three rows of dc all round - well almost, it's about three inches short but I don't think it notices! And then I was left with some oddments of cotton. So I used them to make tassels for the corners and this is what I was left with.

I am happy with that.

I think I must have caught the crochet bug because I am wondering what I can make next!

Hope you are having a great weekend.

EPP Tuesday!

Many thanks once again to Anthea for hosting our EPP link up - pop over to Anthea's blog here to see how her beautiful scrap quilt is coming along and to see who else has linked up.

It has been quiet on the EPP front here - too many other projects on the go and of course last week we were at the seaside! More on that later. First though I have made several of these.

In one of my swap groups we are sending heart flowers to any member of the group who is unwell or in need of a hug. This is a spare - the centres get signed before sending off.

As I mentioned we were away last week and travelled to Mimizan Plage which is on the west coast of France south of Bordeaux. The long golden beach stretches all the way from Arcachon down to Biarritz. Inland is the flat, forested area of Landes which is protected from harsh Atlantic storms by huge sand dunes stretching along the coast.

The beaches are popular with fishermen and surfers as well as the usual sun and beach lovers.

On our first night we saw this stunning sunset at Mimizan looking like the sea was on fire!

There is a river which splits Mimizan Plage into two - the north and the south beaches.

A pleasant place to sit on a warm afternoon to watch the birds, the fishermen and generally people watch!

 

Not one of my better pictures but I was standing on the dune looking inland and over the tops of all the tall pine trees that grow there. This is Cap de l'Homy Plage where it was beautiful to walk along the beach while the tide was out.

 

 

On our way home we visited the small town of Roquefort - this is not the Roquefort of cheese fame which is further east. It's an attractive town with this splendid bridge beautifully decorated with hanging baskets.

 

 

There is a beautiful Church with different sections having been built over many hundreds of years but which has recently been restored. If you click on the Roquefort link you will se a picture of the outside of the church. I loved the interior decoration.

 

 

 

In the courtyard there is the tiny chapel of St Joseph which is also dedicated to St Jacques and welcomes pilgrims on their way to Compostella in Northern Spain.

 

 

 

We were fortunate to have five dry, sunny days away, we left home in rain and arrived back in grey damp!

 

Thank you for making it through to the end of this post.

 

I am also linking up with Needlework Tuesday at Heather's Books and Quilts.

FNSI

Third Friday in September already - my this year is flashing past! Many thanks to Wendy for inviting us to join in - you can catch up with what everyone was working on here

Sadly short on pictures for this post as I was working on 'secret stitching'! However I was extremely pleased with what I made and you will just have to take my word for it. I will include pictures on next months post.

I had just enough time at the end of the evening though to add the initial to this crazy block which is now ready to be embellished. This is also secret stitching but as the recipient does not read my blog, I think, I am safe.

I am going to have to reposition the heart - it is annoying me that I have not got the D quite straight!

I also finished a little pincushion this week - it's missed this years PPPP but will be top of my list for next year. I saw a gorgeous little log cabin pincushion on Chookyblues blog here and knew that I needed one! Here is my version - a little larger I think but I love it.

So that's it from me for today - we are off to the seaside next week for a few days, just hope the weather picks up, it's not been good here. Have a great weekend.

EPP Tuesday - and I nearly forgot!!

Many thanks to Anthea for hosting our link up again today - pop over to her blog to see who else is linking up.
So what have I to show you? Well first of all I have completed my DMTV Summer Stitchalong book cover.

I added some embroidery and beads.

And the finished book cover looks like this.

 

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Having completed the border blocks for my Hexathon quilt I laid them out to work on the correct order. And this is what I have come up with.

 

 

So now I need to make some plain blocks to add in to the 'grassy' spaces.

Some lovely flowers have arrived from my swap partners.

 

I must have shown you the ones I sent last time. I have some ready to send this month but the recipient lives in Florida so I am holding them back for the moment.

 

Sad that there are so many people in the world whose homes are lost for one reason or another - floods, hurricanes and the Rohingya people forced to leave their country for ethnic reasons. So much sadness.

 

I hope that all is well with you and yours.

 

 

Ugly Duckling!

As part of the PPPP this year we are asked to also show a picture of our ugliest or oldest and well worn pincushions. I have something that I discovered after my original post when I was lining up my pincushions for my new header pic. So here it is.

I made this to hold my machine embroidery scissors securely in place having dropped and ruined a pair. I does the job but is not the most attractive item.

Notice the little biscornu pincushion that also missed my original post - definitely not an ugly that one!

If you have not been across to Ida's blog yet to view all the lovely pincushions in the parade then I do hope you will - you can see them here and if you have some lovlies then do share them with us yourself.

The Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade 2017

This was such fun last year that I have been looking forward to joining up again this year. Many thanks to Ida at My Sister Made Me do it for all your hard work in setting this up and arranging for all the lovely prizes!

I went to a car boot sale - vide de grenier as they are known here - last year and spotted this owl pincushion.

He is pewter and had belonged to a friend of mine who had died earlier in the year. Her family were selling some of her things. I could not resist! However, he is a little sad I thought and so I removed the ugly blue lump that was the 'pincushion' and replaced it with a big fluffy velvet pin cushion. Here he is now in all his splendour!

He sits on a little cabinet watching over all the sewing that I do.

A couple of years ago I fell in love with this design from Natalie Bird.

I bought the pattern and then it sat in a drawer for a year. But then last Christmas I decided that it would be my Christmas present to me and so I made up my version.

I based it on my favourite Tilda fabric - the grey with roses which went beautifully with the dusky pink spot - I wish I could get hold of some more of that pink spot!

I replaced the wool applique of the original with embroidery.

And beacause I filled the pincushion with crushed walnut shells it is quite hefty so I replaced the bobble on the top/nose with a loop to make it easy to move around.

For some reasdon this pincushion did not make it to last years post and yet it sits on the table next to me every evening!

Made for me by a dear friend, the extra large thread catcher is useful for storing my handcream, glasses, tapemeasure etc

A tile used as the base makes it nice and stable and the magnetic strip holds my scissors safely in place. The pincushion is large enough to hold masses of pins.

Next up is this Christmas pincushion which again missed out last year - because it is stored away with my Christmas things!

It's a Gail Pan design and I love getting it out to use during December.

I am looking forward to seeing lots of beautiful pincushions in the link up - hope to see you there!

FNwF's and it's September!

September and autumn are here! On Monday it was 35 degrees here - Friday we just managed 20 degrees. Now I don't mind hot weather and I quite enjoy cold weather but I do not like sudden fluctuations like that!

However, cool weather and showers of rain meant that my FNwF started after lunch.

 

My first job was to attach the frame to this little purse - it has been waiting a while and really took very little time once I got started.

 

 

Having got that job out of the way I was free to start on a couple of little gifts for my Christmas box - The side panels here are complete, I just need to make them up into pencil cases next time.

 

 

And so to Friday evening and I finished crocheting together my squares.

 

Very pleased with how these have turned out plus, apart from a few scraps, I have used up all the coloured cottons leftover from my Hygge and I think I may have enough grey to do one row of dc all around the outside. The border will need more than that but I have a ball of a bluey green wool which I think will do the trick. 

 

 Many thanks to Cheryl for hosting FNwF - visit her blog here to see what everyone was doing.

 

A reminder that the Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade starts on Monday. The link up page is here.

And....... Bag It is back! - for more information go here

Have a great weekend and see you soon.