Where have I been?

Well, nowhere really it's just that there has been a lot of secret stitching going on, so not a lot to post about!

However, time for a bit of a catch up. First up is this little lavender sachet which I enjoyed playing with. Hand dyed recycled fabrics and hand dyed threads.

I needed a boxy bag and had not made one before. I found this tutorial by Pink Stitches which worked perfectly for me. I shall be making more of these.

I dyed some fabric at the weekend for the next round of my 1797 Revisited quilt and have made good progress - one side added, another to do. There is football tonight so I should be able to get plenty done.

Starting to think about the colour for the next round now.

A couple of weeks ago I started another little watercolour but soon had to put it away to concentrate on the SS. When I pulled it out of the drawer to work on again I was surprised at how nice it looked - well to me anyway!

It is now finished and I am not so happy with it. But it was not meant to be a masterpiece, more about learning to use the paints and so from that point I have learnt a few lessons

I am mostly happy with the flowers except in a couple of places where I learnt what colours don't layer well! And I am not happy with the background which looks a bit lighter in this photograph than it is. Backgrounds need to be worked on I feel. I plan to cut it down a bit so those legs don't dangle in mid air and pop it into my journal with a few notes about where I feel I went wrong.

Now though I NEED to finish my advent calendar as eeek, it is the 1st on Sunday!

Nearly there. I have been looking out for a buckle to use as the daily marker but have not been able to find anything the right size. So am going to have to try and make something! Watch this space.

Thanks for popping in, see you again soon.

Friday Night Sew In

Last night it was time once again to join with Wendy for a stitchy evening with friends. Thank you Wendy for getting us together. Click on the link to see who else took part.

After a large lunch and a brisk walk I got down to getting this little bag (for a small person) finished. I had to attach the lining to the bag, add the straps and then the popper. Very happy with how it has turned out.

I used that large pink spot as the lining too.

Time to move to a seat by the fire - it has been a chilly few days here. I needed to finish embellishing this heart which is now ready to make into a lavender sachet, along with another one. Hopefully this afternoon!

I have had a busy week in my sewing space, nearly all of it I cant share for now! However, I think I am safe in showing this postcard.

I made an acrylic print onto brown wrapping paper, then when it was dry scrumpled it up. After a bit of smoothing it was pressed onto pelmet vilene with bondaweb and embellished with machine embroidery. Its a while since I made a post card so this was fun. I made two actually - similar but not the same! I love using this technique and have a few more - different designs - waiting to be made up.

Right! Now to get on with finishing those hearts and then hopefully a walk between showers. Enjoy your weekend.

FNwFriends, November already!

Many thanks Cheryll for getting us all together again - you can see what everyone was working on here

I had about half a dozen pieces to add to my latest 1797 round so I made myself do that first.

This is now going away out of temptation as I need to complete some Christmas projects and a few other bits and pieces.

However, the great excitement of the day, being the 1st of the month, was that the instructions for the first border of the Red Manor House BOM popped into my inbox! And so that is what I spent the rest of my Friday (and Saturday morning while watching the rugby) working on.

First there is a narrow floral border - cut and ready to machine on. Then there is a diamond border. Now the instructions use foundation paper pieceing for the diamonds - I don't care for FPP. So I decided some nice hand pieceing would be great for working on, on the sofa in front of TV So that is what I did.

These are all pressed and ready to have their ears trimmed before I machine them together.


Last Friday Jenny released the last embroidery for 'My Vintage Kitchen' and earlier this week I got all the blocks machined together, quilted and bound.

I kept the quilting simple and decided not to add a border  as I do not have a large enough space to display it! I am very happy with this especially using up some of my stash of vintage Laura Ashley.

I also added the background to my watercolour

which I am pleased to say worked out not too bad! However, I have just noticed that pale 'hole' in the middle of the picture! That leaf is going to need darkening up next time I get my paints out.

Hope everyone has a great weekend - we have a big storm heading towards us for tomorrow morning so a bit of hatch battening is in order this afternoon.