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.

Finishes!

 Just a quick post to share a few finishes from this week as we are having a few days away. First up is my Chookshed Challenge - the sashiko wall hanging. Well there was not a lot of sewing on this - minimal sashiko stitching and bonded leaves. If the leaves had not been such a complicated shape I would have spent time and appliqued them. But it is what it is.

For the time being it is on the hanger that I use for my seasonal minis as it is autumn and appropriate.

On the subject of autumn, I decided this week with the chillier mornings that porridge time had arrived. So I thought I would make myself a bowl cosy. I found some instructions online and away I went while I had the machine out to finish the panel.

It turned out well although could have been smaller and I am not keen on the 'ears'! Next time I will round those corners off. Worked perfectly with my porridge bowl though.

And my last finish is the scrappy DK socks. All ready to go in my walking shoes.

I used slightly over 50g of WYS 4ply Pennyroyal and 64g of leftover 4ply from previous socks. I divided each scrap ball roughly into two for a 'matching' pair.

That is all from me today - have a great weekend.

FNWFs September

 Many thanks once again to Cheryll for getting us together. Pop over here to see who else joined in.

A dry day after a week of showery weather - and much needed rain - so a day out was called for. We headed to Dunster Castle, one of our favourite places for a walk and some lunch. Although overcast it was a lovely warm day, perfect for walking and with an incredibly clear view across the channel to Wales. Sorry no pics. But some of the gardens. We took the riverside walk along to the water mill. Apart from hydrangeas there was very little in the way of flowers and the river was low but the bridges always fascinate me.

A walk through the water mill takes you out of the main castle grounds and to the Watermill Tea Rooms

where we spent a very pleasant hour in the garden eating lunch and listening to the birds and the running water.

Next we walked around the main road to another castle entrance and called into the Dream Garden which is always quiet and peaceful. This garden was very colourful as the borders were full of dahlia's and it was lovely to have a wander and a sit in the sunshine.

OK, so what did I sew? Well of course I worked on my stitch journal

Friday's contribution was the pink flowers in the pot/basket.

This week I have been concentrating on my Chookshed Challenge which is progressing nice and quickly. The stitching is all complete and on Friday I concentrated on cutting out the leaves. These are backed with something called Steam a Seam which I have not come across before and evidently just need to be ironed into place - no sewing necessary!

I think I will get them positioned and ironed down this afternoon. Then I just need to get the sewing machine out - again! - to get the backing and top and bottom borders in place. Should be a quick finish.

Also this week I finished off the first of my scrappy DK socks and am very happy with the result.

The second one is under way and with an evening of cricket ahead I should make good progress.

Have a good week every one. xx

Chookshed Challenge

 My August challenge #9 is now complete and I am very happy with how it has turned out. My little sketchbook now feels much more booklike and is lovely to hold. Here are the pictures.

Here is the link to how I made the little book back in 2017 and I am now going to make an effort to finish working into the unfinished pages. Very happy to have this finally done.

September's challenge is #3 and that is this sashiko project. I am not sure why I bought this kit, other than that it was on sale, and have been putting off making it up for a while. But I am going to get it done now and maybe it will come in handy as a Christmas present!

Good luck everyone with your #3's.

Thank you to Deana for organising our challenge - you can see what others are working on here.