March Rainbow Scrap Challenge

 Just a quick post to catch up with this months efforts. I got off to a good start with these yellow Dresdens.

But when I came to add them to my quilt I found I had nowhere to put them! Fortunately I had cut out an extra set of black petals last year so I was able to baste those and make them up. Here they are in place.

Lesson learned - next month I shall be checking that I have a suitable space.

Friday night sew in

 Late to sign up and late to post, but I was there! Thank you Wendy for organising and everyone who took part. Here is the link to see what everyone was working on.

At the beginning of the month I signed up for another Design Matters TV course - #31daysartjournal - designed to get you working a little bit each day into your art journal. A new video each day suggests ideas and challenges to work in your journal all of which are bite sized and doable.

So I started on a new sketchbook and got to this stage

but then discovered when I flattened it out to add some machine stitch that the book was glued and not stitched, so the pages started to fall out! Fast forward to a new sketchbook which arrived this week and I started out by adding paint around the edges.

I ripped all the pages out of the original book and added the ones I really liked to the new book. So Friday afternoons task was to machine them in place. Since then I have been adding oil pastel and more paint and now my book looks like this.

Here are a few of my favourite pages so far.

My plan for the evening was to finish off this Wings and Pretty Things block but having pinned the flower pot in place I realised that I was missing a leaf! So I had to put it aside and started basting the flowers for the next block in stead.

The weather here has improved no end and we have had a few sunny spring like days although the wind has been a tad strong today! The washing loved it though.

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend.

Another seaside visit!

 This time to Weston-super-Mare. For those of you who commented on how far the tide went out at Dunster then Weston is also on the Bristol Channel and has very low tides. It is further around the channel and we were looking across the channel to Dunster.

We parked near the Birnbeck Pier or Old Pier as it is known. The pier is the only pier in the country to link the mainland to an island,  Birnbeck Island. Sadly the pier is in a very poor state of repair and has been closed for some years. Fundraising is underway to repair it but it is a big undertaking.

In this close up you can see the shed and ramp which for many years was the home and launch ramp for the lifeboat, the only lifeboat ramp to face in towards land.

From there we walked past the site of the Royal Pier Hotel which has recently been demolished. The friends we were with pointed out to us, below the sea wall, the site of the 'Ladies Bathing Pool' which had been accessed via a tunnel (now blocked) from the hotel.

This is the blocked up access

and this the pool hewn out of the rocks which would have filled at high tide. It looks to me like it would not have been a particularly comfortable place to swim!

Moving on past some local art - I loved the rusty pipe!

Looking across to the North Somerset coast

Because the tide goes out up to a mile at low tide a bathing pool was built by Knightstone Island which fills at high tide. You see it here in the foreground with Brean Down behind.

No idea what this is or represents, but I liked it.

The island of Steep Holm in the distance past Knightstone.

The Grand Pier which originally opened in 1904 but has burnt down and been rebuilt twice since. This is a pleasure pier and closer to the centre of town than the Birnbeck Pier.

Sadly Weston is a shadow of it's former glory as a smart and popular holiday destination but still worth a visit.

Friday Night with Friends, March

 Didn't get to any sewing until the evening as we were out celebrating Philip's birthday during the day. We visited Dunster which is on the north Somerset coast. The castle and gardens were closed but we enjoyed a walk through the village and lunch in the Luttrell Arms.

Followed by a visit to the beach.

I had three Wings and Pretty Things blocks that needed some embroidery to complete them and this had been my plan for Friday evening. I got most of it completed, adding the last few stitches today.

These pretty fabrics are definitely not easy to photograph!

Many thanks to Cheryll and my other Friday Night Friends.