FNWFs July

 And we say it every month - where does the time go! As I said to someone this morning, it rushes by because we are enjoying what we are doing, simple as that!

Many thanks Cheryll for organising our evening again - pop over to Cheryll's place to see what everyone was working on.

It was a late night and an early Friday morning for us but Yay!! we have a new government! At long last, well overdue. Nice to be able to vote again and although our party did not win, we did get the MP we wanted who I think will be very good for the area. So all in all a happy day. Watched the new PM arrive in Downing Street and make his first speech at lunchtime and then it was time to sew!

First up my Stitch Journal for the day. We are into Aqua this month - and also going very floral!

That oddity for day 2 is supposed to be cricket stumps! we spent the day at the Somerset County Ground with friends watching the talking all through the cricket. Well we do only meet up with one couple once a year.

Anyway, enjoying my flowers for July.

Just had the toe to knit up on a sock so I got that finished next and all sewn up. I started these way back last winter and then put them aside for a couple of commissions. Nice to have these finished and ready for the winter.

The pattern is Easy Lace Sock by Winwick Mum and uses this yarn in a colourway called Starry Night which is no longer available. I got mine at a bargain price from a local charity shop.

The top picture is the true colour.

So moving on and another night of football meant that I was able to crack on with my RSC log cabins for the month. Although I found I only had one piece of foundation fabric cut so could only do one. I finished the embroidery from Jennifer, pressed it and away I went. I had already cut the strips. My Aqua's do all tend more towards dark and medium but I think they will be OK.

More football tonight so maybe the next two will get done!

Have a lovely week everyone. 

It's the end of June

 So time to share my completed Stitch Journal page for the month.

I have really enjoyed working on these narrow bands, lots of possibilities. After my play with blanket stitch I moved on to chain stitch for a few days - bottom left. Again, so many possibilities and new variations to try out. Looking forward to a new month now and it is looking very floral!

I have completed two Field Journal stitcheries this week.

After visiting a couple of websites showcasing new Christmas fabrics, somehow this little Gail Pan chappie appeared on a piece of fabric! He is destined to end up on a cushion cover but I am NOT buying more Christmas fabric! Even though I have spotted a few lovely ones....

In my embroidery folder I have another little Father Christmas embroidery - completed some years ago. Maybe I will have a pair of cushion covers. We shall see.

That's all from me today, looking forward to Friday and Friday Night with Friends and at last 'that election' will finally be out of the way!

I am off to swap my blue embroidery threads for Aqua - have a lovely week.

FNSI June

 Well it was a busy day of sport in our house with two cricket matches and a football match on TV. Needless to say lots of time to sew whilst keeping half an eye on the action!

First up was my stitch journal. 

I have been playing with different buttonhole/blanket stitches this week. Todays is that spiky one on the right which according to my stitch dictionary is German buttonhole stitch and which I like very much. Could be a great crazy quilting seam treatment with the addition of extra stitches and or beads. If you click on the picture you should get a larger version so you can see yesterdays which is a sort of knotted buttonhole and then the legs have been wrapped with different threads. Also very effective I think. Note the buttonhole semi circles, I will come back to them.

Next up yesterday were my swap hexies for the month. I had already cut and basted them so it was just a matter of sewing them together.

Earlier in the week I had made up these little Field Journal blocks into their hexies.

So it was time to pull out some more patterns to work on. I am very strict with myself and just take the first 6 that are on the top of the pile so imagine my surprise when I found I had not one but two of these lovely hexagons with Buttonhole semi circles! What a coincidence. This is the one I worked on last night while the football was on.

I love how effective those buttonhole hearts are.

Many thanks to Wendy for organising our evening again - pop over here to see who else took part and some lovely pictures of Wendy's recent finishes.

That's all from me for now, have a great weekend.

Grim...

 ...and that is all I have to say about the weather.

It's been a busy week. Two curtains have been shortened - but that is boring and you don't want to know!

I finished my RSC log cabins and they have been safely stored away.

I finished the second of the Rum Paradise socks and they too have been safely stored away waiting for the recipients birthday.

I do love these and may need to knit another pair for my man. I have started on the second of the easy lace socks I was working on earlier in the year and put aside for the commissions. No photo as I have only just passed the cuff so nothing much to see.

Another Field Journal embroidery is complete - another one with a lot of stitches! Love it though.

And this is goodbye to the lovely fine white linen sheet that I bought for £5 many years ago and have used for all of these blocks so far and lots of other projects too. The next blocks will be marked up on a white linen (I think) pillowcase that I found in a local junk recycling store.

Last but not least my stitch journal - I know it looks a bit wobbly/not square but it needs a good press!

So that's my update, back next week and I hope you all have a good week.

FNwFs June

 Well, summer put in an appearance for a weekend but has been AWOL ever since! It has been a chilly, windy week although warm when the sun briefly shines!

Friday was just that sort of day. We drove up to Weston-super-Mare to see some friends and after a pub lunch we went on to the Barley Wood Walled Garden for a wander and some coffee. And what a delightful place it was too. You can read the history of the garden here and lovely to see that it has come full circle back to it's original state. My photographs do not do it justice but here we go.

This is the central path running down to the bottom of the garden with lovely wide flower borders on either side, which were stunning and full of colour.

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On either side of those hedges are large vegetable gardens.

The next photograph is taken from the arch you can see in the picture above.

with more vegetable growing and an apple orachrd. There are apple trees espaliered around all the walls and any spare space. All are labelled and they are used for cider.

Through the next arch are more flower beds for cutting, two old railway carriages which have been converted to a cafe and some artists workshops. Only one workshop was open - this one - with some beautiful pottery to admire.

By the car park there is a van full of vegetables from the garden with an honesty box, which was lovely to see. Well worth a visit and I hope we get back there sometime.

So not much time to sew but I did get my Stitch Journal done for the day. In blue now of course as we are in to June and long, narrow channels to fill in this month.

In other blue news, I have started work on my RSC log cabins for the month. One down. First I embroidered this lovely little teapot picture from Jennifer, perfect for blue as I love blue and white china.

Now made up into a log cabin. Two more log cabins to go which I hope to finish this weekend.

Also making a reappearance are my Field Journal embroideries. These two have been completed this week.

Such a lot of work in the red one! Good to have it out of the way finally as I started it months ago.

Well, I think that is quite enough for one post. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else did yesterday and many thanks to Cheryll for getting us all together for another Friday Night. See you next week.

The end of another month...

 ...and the start of summer! Well, at least the weather has perked up and the start of June is looking fine and dry, it is even a bit warmer which is nice.

The end of May means the end of my pink Stitch Journal page and I have really enjoyed this one. I have referenced the work of Hundertwasser in most of the sections - with a blip in the middle for a few holiday memories!

I am now looking forward to a blue month and have pulled out this selection of threads to work with.

I have finished quilting the first of the large border blocks on Wings and Pretty things and have now put it away until the cooler weather comes in the autumn and I need something to snuggle under in the evenings.

The fabrics I used for Wings are mostly from a range by 3 Sisters for Moda which I fell in love with as soon as I saw them. I recently spotted their new range online, Etchings, and couldn't resist ordering a charm pack as the designs and colours are once again just delightful.

No idea what I shall use these for but I just had to have them! Also in the range are some linen fabrics and as a couple of them are script fabrics which I love, I just had to have some! So these dropped into my basket as well.

Earlier this year I bought the Summer Essentials Bag pattern from Irina at Nordic Crafter as I thought it would be handy for my phone whilst out walking. This turned out to be the perfect pattern to use with some of my new linen fabrics and I now have this cute little bag.

This was a great pattern - easy to follow instructions etc. I did make it 1/2" longer as my phone seems to be a little longer than the average. Also if I were making it again I would make the flap a little narrower to allow the strap loops to sit a little more comfortably but really, they are not a problem.

So I think that is enough from me for now - I have holiday photos to share but I will come back another day with those. Meanwhile have a great weekend.

FNSI May

It has been a busy day so I was happy just to collapse onto the sofa in front of the TV with some nice, mindless knitting.

Earlier I had taken a break for half an hour after lunch to work on my stitch journal - todays is the bulls eye bottom right.

Thank you Wendy for getting us together again this Friday - pop over to Wendy's blog here to see who else took part.

Yesterday I finally got my RSC blocks finished along with Jennifer's lovely Joy block.

These blocks are building up nicely now and I will soon have to lay them all out to see how they are looking.

Well, that is all from me for today. Have a lovely weekend everyone.

I made another book!

 I thought that another zig zag book would make a great holiday sketchbook and so having purchased a large sheet of nice quality paper I set to. And this time I remembered a few in progress shots.

First up I folded the paper down to the size that I wanted for my book. I then randomly printed each side with some simple sponge shapes and acrylic paint. I used blue and yellow as I am hoping for plenty of both those colours while we are away! Here you can see the two sides which I remembered to photograph after I had cut them so you can see here how to make the cuts.

I wanted my book landscape but if you wanted a portrait book then you would just make the three cuts from the other two sides.

Having folded my book I then set to dealing with the awkward bits and made pockets out of the two that face upwards.

These will be useful for storing bits and bobs while I am working on the book and will be handy for postcards, tickets or other collected bits.

The awkward bit in the centre faces downwards but there were conveniently placed circles on each side

which I cut around to make windows.

I will be able to stick something interesting behind these before I sew up the base and side.

I had a rifle through my folder of odd bits of paper for something to cover the two end boards and found these which I thought fitted the theme.

They are crumpled brown paper which I have 'cleaned up' my print roller on at some time and then over painted. These bits will always find their moment to shine.

Anyway, I covered the end boards, glued them in place and voila! one finished book.

Summer came to visit briefly last week so I took the opportunity of taking some garden pictures - just as well as we are back to wind and rain today.

Also last week my quilt group - Apple County Quilters - had an open day which was very successful. Having no idea how many would come we were pleasantly surprised by how many people turned up - and by how much they spent of the sales table! It was a bit of a squeeze in a small village hall but we put on a good and varied display of quilts large and small, with the odd bit of knitting thrown in for good measure.

Well, that was a long one! Thanks for making it this far. Have a good week.