October Chookshed Challenge - a finish!

 Yes, finished already, although I loved doing this so much it was hard to put down. So here it is - my Sue Hawkins Fritillary thread cutter pocket and matching magnets.

As anticipated there was plenty of thread left over from the cutter pocket for me to be able to make the magnet covers using the same design. Very very happy with these, the colours are so pretty - I may NEED to see what other kits are available in this range!

This is the last challenge of the year - many thanks to Deana for organising us and I am hoping we are going again next year because I have already started my list!

In other news. I emptied the last two dye jars that were lurking in the greenhouse and I am very pleased with the results of these.

Earlier I had used some dead hollyhock petals which I had picked up from the ground. Some were still soft, some dry but they all had a sort of pod attached to the base of them. Although the dye looked inky black the result was this green.

So I tried again using more petals but cutting away the pod. And this lovely blue is what I got.

In the other jar I had put the dead flowers from a deep purple buddleia and I got this lovely greeny brown.

I now have a bag full of threads and scraps which I am looking forward to using next year. 

Meanwhile, this years Stitch Journal continues on it's way - this week I have been playing with chain stitch variations.

My crochet is coming along nicely now - hopefully a picture of progress next week. I also have another challenge to work on and more about that too next time.

Have a lovely week.

Blast from the Past!!

Very strangely, this post appeared today as being unpublished! Written in 2015 where on earth has it been sitting. So just to get it out of the unpublished box here it is - enjoy. xx


It's Piece Yourself Together time again - and thanks to Anthea for hosting this linky.

Sad to say - I have done no EPPing over the last fortnight!! But I have remembered a small project that I did a few years ago that you may be interested in.

Averil Colby was a well known patchworker back in the 50's 60's and 70's. She wrote several books including one on patchwork which covers the history of patchwork as well as her own EPP methods and work.

In 2011 the Quilt Museum and Gallery in York held an exhibition of her work and I was asked to make a handling sample based on one of her quilts.

This quilt is called High Summer. I apologise for the quality of the pictures, I had to scan them from the book as I cannot find any pictures online.

 I would have loved to see the exhibition as this quilt must be stunning.

And here is my sample based on a small section of the centre panel.

It's about 8" square. You will notice that there is still some tacking holding three papers in place. This was because the sample was not backed in order to show the construction method.

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 This year Bergerac Football Club celebrate their centenery and in honour of the occasion they invited Chelsea Football Club's Under 21 team to come and play a match here in Bergerac.

So Saturday morning saw us sitting in the tribune stand at Bergerac Rugby Club watching this match. Fortunately it was a cloudy morning which made it very pleasant and we even had a few spits of rain!

The band played the national anthems

with the teams lined up infont

On what must be the greenest grass in the drought hit Dordogne at the moment! It even got watered at half time.

The score was Bergerac 4 Chelsea 4 so plenty of opportunity's to wave our flags!

We were even joined by the owner of Chelsea, Roman Abramovich.

A well attended match and good fun - my first live football match.

FNWFs October

 Storm Amy is passing through and from where I am sitting I can see the trees on the green swaying in the wind. We had rain most of yesterday, Friday, and a lot overnight. So yesterday was a perfect day to stay home, bake, paint and sew.

As always the first thing on my list was to work on my Stitch Journal and Friday's contribution was the red black and yellow woven crosses centre right. This picture shows my work for the week

and these the month of September.

After the hot dry summer, our fuchsias now have a new lease of life and the flowers are fabulous. I started a small watercolour of the flowers on one of my plants.

These flowers need more depth of colour and then I shall move on to the leaves. Time passes quickly when concentrating on this.

Then in the evening I was working on my Chookshed Challenge which is coming along nicely. I am having to pace myself here otherwise it would be finished in no time!

Philip has been clearing out the greenhouse now that the tomatoes have finished  and I was asked! to remove 4 solar dye jars which I had forgotten about. So far I have emptied 2 and these are the results.

Sambucus berries. Looking a little washed out in this picture, the silks have taken on a delightful purple colour while the other fibres are a pale purply green. Unusual but pretty.

Rosemary leaves. Again slightly washed out but the silks are a lovely pale yellow.

We had a lovely day out earlier in the week. We were given vouchers for the West Somerset Railway last Christmas and finally got around to using them. The train starts at Bishops Lydeard, just a 15 minute drive from home and the line goes out to the coast at Donniford and then along the coast to Minehead. This is the engine that pulled our train, the Odney Manor.

All the stations are beautifully looked after and most of the work is done by volunteers.

First glimpse of the sea.

We decided not to do the full journey to Minehead but to get off at a favourite place - Blue Anchor. Although we have visited Blue Anchor many times we had never walked up onto the station so it was nice to get off there and have a wander. There is a small museum showing the history of Blue Anchor and the railway line.

As always the station was beautifully kept and the flowers stunning.

It was a lovely sunny day and we had a good view across the Bristol Channel to Wales and three ships queuing to get into Bristol Docks. Here is the view left to Minehead

and this to the right towards Watchet which is around the headland.

As is traditional lunch was a bacon sandwich - not photogenic but delicious.

On the crochet jumper front, I have made another start with a larger hook and the next size up but I can see that it is not going to work so my next move is to measure up a jumper that I have which is a simple shape and make something the same. Maybe I will have something to show next week. In the meantime, happy stitching.

Chookshed Challenge - the last for 2025

 And it is #1 and one I have been really looking forward to! On my list it was a needle magnet covered in canvas work embroidery. Having bought a lovely Sue Hawkins kit at Festival of Quilts I added that to my #1 and am planning to use the leftover threads - there are usually plenty - to make my magnet cover to match the kit.

This is the kit, a cover for a thread cutter.

Of course I was itching to start and so I did at the weekend. Here is my progress so far.

And I love it. For once these colours are pretty true to life, and just gorgeous. So some happy stitching ahead.

I case you missed it my post for the September challenge and finish is here.

Thank you Deana.

I will be back later in the week, in the meantime happy stitching. 

October is fast approaching!

 We had a lovely week away in Cornwall arriving home last weekend. Somewhere along the way I picked up a cold so have not been very productive this week although have read a couple of books. So lets start with Cornwall. 

We stayed in the same house as before with its lovely views of St Ives across the bay. Unfortunately some poor weather meant that the view disappeared on occasions but despite the weather we still had a great time. We went for a return visit to Godrevy this time getting closer to the lighthouse than before. However it was a stormy day and apart from a quick 15 minute walk between showers downpours we happily sat in the car and watched the waves crashing. And it was pretty spectacular.

We had been aiming for the top car park but while we were sitting in the lower one they closed the road due to the high winds. 

We managed to pick a dry day for a visit to the Lizard and on our last day - also dry we went to Mousehole (mouzle for those who don't know).

There is a great view of St Michaels Mount through the harbour entrance - shame about the mist!

I managed to pick up the cold somewhere on the way home and have been feeling under the weather this week although we enjoyed a night away in Axminster on Monday to see Francis Rossi of Status Quo playing some great Quo songs. No pics as they were not allowed😒

I have kept my Stitch Journal up to date - this is the last week and a half

and I am coming to the end of the first strip of linen which is perfect timing at the end of three months.

I pulled out the scrappy ripple blanket during the week whilst looking for something mindless to do and have worked about 15 rows I think.

With the cooler weather it has been nice to have something warm on my lap.

While we were in Cornwall I visited the lovely The Saltwater Yarnery which I discovered in May. This time I went armed with a pattern and came away with some delicious King Cole DK. I started crocheting on Thursday evening when my brain felt a little clearer - it's a top down jumper pattern and starting and setting up looked complicated.

I was a good girl and crocheted a tension square which came up quite small so when I started I used a larger hook feeling that would sort out the problem. However, 10 rows in and it was still looking small - the larger hook does not seem to have sorted the problem.

So this is going to come out. I need to decide now if I try again doing the next size up or find another pattern. Watch this space.

I am looking forward to getting on with my last Chookshed Challenge this week - I will post about it during the week. In the meantime enjoy your weekend.