Friday Night Sew In January

 Our first FNSI of the year - thank you Wendy for organising us. You can see who else took part here.

Earlier this week this lovely book arrived in my library.

I have had my eye on it for some time! I am a great fan of Jennifer's books - her Foolproof Crazy Quilting was my bible when I was learning to crazy quilt. Lots of lovely clear instructions and beautiful examples to inspire.

This new book is equally inspiring and beautifully laid out with different sections on stitches that can be used for stems, leaves, flowers, buds etc. All of which can be combined to make your own individual, whimsical flowers. There is also a section on combining fabrics to make backgrounds.

I had decided to put this book to one side for a while until I had cleared some other projects out of the way but I had no will power!! Consequently on Friday afternoon, out came my box of solar dyed fabrics and threads and I spent a happy few hours layering fabrics and starting to stitch the layers together. I had to force myself to put everything away at this point so that I have a portable project to take to my quilting group next week!

For once the colour reproduction seems to be good - but you can only just spot my stitching across the centre!

In the evening I worked on my Red Manor House quilting - really need to crack on with this if I am to finish before the summer!

Happy Stitching.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2023

 Once again I am linking up with Angela for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2023.

After completing my Dresden Flower top at the end of last year I have been looking for a smaller project. You may have seen my post here where I trialed a heart which I decided was a bit on the small side. So now I have gone for a larger size and these sit neatly on a 6"finished square. I aim to make two a month.

Here are my first two for this months colours - dark and bright blue.

FNWF's and a New Year

 Happy New Year everyone! It seems I have been AWOL for longer than I thought! Anyway, very happy to be joining up with Cheryll and friends again for FNWFs and our first of the year. You can seen what everyone was doing by following the links here . Thank you Cheryll.

I have been working on the 30 Day Sketchbook Challenge which involves a sketch a day for January with daily prompts provided. Fridays prompt was trees so I worked a quick sketch of the trees outside my kitchen window. Trees are always interesting at this time of the year when you can see all the lovely shapes and there are some sections here that would blow up and make good designs.

Here are a couple more pages from earlier in the week - 'sweets and treats' and 'eggs'.

The afternoon started out dry so we drove to Wiveliscombe for a walk around. Having investigated the rather upmarket charity shop - we prefer packed, rummagy shops - we wandered off down a side street looking at some of the interesting old buildings. Just as we were thinking of turning back we spotted a sign for antiques so went off to investigate. Yew Tree Antiques is based in part of an old brewery - through a small, almost hidden, door. Up some windy stairs and another corridor which opens out to a large space crammed with furniture and glass. The smell of beeswax furniture polish was strong, everything shone and all the beautiful glass sparkled. What a treasure trove. Well, the last thing we need is more furniture, but I did treat myself to this pretty biscuit barrel which was one of the first things to catch my eye and which I couldn't leave without!

I need to find it a home where it will show off it's lovey sparkle. Sadly it was raining again by the time we left and so we scuttled back to the car.

I have got back to quilting my Red Manor House again this week and that is what I worked on yesterday evening. I put it aside over Christmas to work on this little project from Sue Hawkins - I can never resist one of her kits when they are on special offer!

I have another of these waiting to be done and I may make it a little longer - the kits are generous and I could easily add 1/2" on to the length.

So that is my news for now - hopefully I will be back soon!

Have a good week.