A Wet November Week

 Yes, it has been pretty damp and gloomy here this week although still mild. However colder brighter weather is on the way thank goodness although I shall now have to move my fushia pots to the greenhouse to protect from frost. They have given lots of pleasure after the last weeks though.

There are still lots of leaves to fall from the trees although quite a few are now bare. I have continued my leaf theme on the Stitch Journal this week.

Have also been playing with leaves in other ways. Spent a happy 10 minutes yesterday afternoon with a leaf and some Aquarelle crayons. Dip the crayon into water then stroke over the leaf to get these delicate leaf prints.

Last weekend I was playing with laying damp leaves onto wet watercolour paper and then dripping on acrylic inks. This was the best section of my first attempt. A subtle print and some blotchy ink!

This was the result of my second attempt with more water and more (non blotchy) paint.

Much happier with this. Also a few sponge print leaves onto a scrap bit of watercolour paper.

These also made it into a couple of sketch books and onto some collage papers.

I had my sewing machine serviced at patchwork on Tuesday. A very nice man comes along with lots of fabric to sell and then sits and services sewing machines for the day. I was very impressed to learn that my lovely Bernina 1008 is worth more second hand now than I paid for it 20 years ago! She is not going anywhere though.

So on Wednesday out she came to be put through her paces and she purrs along beautifully. Remember the tea towels I bought a few weeks ago? Well, they are now two padded and quilted tray mats and very pretty they are too. If I get a chance I will be heading back to the garden centre for another couple.

And finally, I have finished the ripple blanket!

I finished off the edge with two rows of DC giving a neat and tidy, unfussy finish.

It will be heading off to the Care Leavers group later in the week.

So, that was my week - hope yours was a good one too and I will be back next week.

FNWFs November

 It does not seem to have been a very productive Friday for me, mainly because I spent the afternoon sorting through family photographs, newspaper cuttings etc for my family book. I think I made some progress, found out that my Grandmother was one of 10 children and that the house they lived in, in Ipswich, was not far from where I lived and worked for some years! But she never mentioned it as she fell out with her family but I have never known what over.

I did work in my stitch journal, I am adding leaves at the moment.

And here are my October entries.

My evening consisted of some crochet and the ripple blanket has surfaced again this week. Making good progress at the moment.

I think I need to add another 12 or so inches to this, hopefully the wool will take me that far!

The reason that the ripple blanket surfaced is because I finished my crochet jumper. Considering how many false satrts I had I am now very happy with my finished jumper.

I finished off the edges and the neck with a simple shell.

It's been a grey, damp week here but this morning the sun was shining so off we went to the coast for a lovely walk along the prom at Blue Anchor. So mild for November. Stopped off at a favourite butcher on the way home for venison and boar sausages which are our current favourites. We do like to try different butchers sausages when we are out and about.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Chookshed Challenge 2025

 I am so pleased that I joined in with the challenge this year as I have some great finishes that may still have been languishing in a drawer or cupboard! Many thanks to Deana for organising the challenge this year and I am looking forward to joining in again next year.

So here are my finishes for 2025.

And well the first one, January, was not a finish but good progress was made and I now have more blue fabric to continue putting together these yellow flowers next year.

February's challenge was to make a bag using my selvedge stash and this has been so useful for transporting quilts to my patchwork group sessions.

I had a few kits tucked away in a drawer and this was one I made up in March. A very simple lavender bag that I picked up in a charity shop.

In April I worked on another kit - Sue Hawkins this time and if you know me you know I love Sue Hawkins! This time a scissor point cover and matching needle magnet.

In May my challenge was to turn an orphan quilted applique block into a cushion. Another straight forward task which I could should have done years ago.

June and I was putting these Japanese folded squares together - another task that should have been done years ago.

In July I put together all my Stich Journal pages that I had worked on in 2024. I knew I wanted a zigzag book and I am pleased with how this turned out.

August was a project I had been looking forward to - making a cover for a little sketchbook I made many years ago.

September was another kit that had been lurking for a few years. Glad this one is finished but I can't say that I am overly enamoured with it!

Finally in October I worked on another Sue Hawkins kit which I picked up at Festival of Quilts. I had put a covered needle magnet on my original list so added to it this little thread cutter pocket.

Lovely to look back at 10 months of completed projects - next year I WILL remember to put the photographs of each months work into a separate folder as we go through the year!

FNSI again!

 So a rerun of last weeks FNSI as not everyone was involved. Many thanks to Wendy for our evening together.

I spent most of Friday prepping (and cleaning!) ready for a family visit today, although I made time after lunch to work on my Stitch Journal. Here are this weeks additions, Fridays was the laced herringbone far right.

In the evening I was working on my crochet jumper - sleeves coming along nicely.

I have been working on the Wedding Book of my parents wedding this week and have started adding photographs. My main reason though for the book though was to make somewhere safe to keep the cards that Mum had treasured for 69 years. And I have made pockets for these to sit safely in as I think it will be nice for family to go through and take them out in the future.

There were quite a few telegrams - over 20 I think, and these of course are a thing of the past so something unusual for grandchildren and great grandchildren to look at. Here are just a few.

There were much fewer cards though. Here are a few, so pretty.

Lots of gift tags though.

There were several keys and shoes. Notice the lucky horseshoes - one up one way the other the opposite.

Lots more to do, so more next week.

Also this week I managed to finish the fuchsia watercolour I started a few weeks back. Happy with this now.

We met some friends at a garden centre this week and I spotted these tea towels in the kitchen section. Just so pretty and there were quite a few designs.

I have unpicked and trimmed these - they are destined to become tray mats next time the machine comes out.

So that is it from me this week. It has been wet and windy here although dry today and a 'good drying day'! Back to the rain tomorrow.

Have a good week.

FNSI October

 Nothing to show for my afternoon although I was busy. Having completed my Chookshed Challenge I wanted to get on with another project that has long been on my to do list. When my parents died in 2019 I found that Mum had kept all the wedding cards, telegrams, notes etc from their marriage in 1950. Photos too of course. So I thought that I would put them all safely into a book to pass onto my nieces and nephew at some point. I have had the book for a couple of years and had already sorted through a large pile of newspaper cuttings that had also been kept regarding family members.

On Friday afternoon I sorted through the photographs and made a plan for how I want to add everything to the book. Next I need to sort through the cards and start adding things to the book. Hopefully some photographs to show you next week.

My stitch journal contribution for the day was the Feather and Chain stitch on the right. I added the Oyster stitches to it today. These are my additions for the week.

I have been working on my crochet jumper this week. Having given up with the pattern I decided to make up my own based on a knitted tunic I have that I find useful to wear over a shirt. It is a simple boxy shape with three quarter length sleeves. Having made a couple of starts and various errors around the neck I am now safely onto the main body which just involves simple rounds of crochet with no decreases/increases. Here is my progress so far.

Not much else has happened - I have been reading a lot!

We had a nice day out to Dunster visiting the castle as always and having some lunch in the Water Mill tea rooms. On the way we stopped at Watchet which has a great community bookshop, which will close in a couple of weeks for the winter. Picked up a nice crochet jumper book - could have done with that a couple of weeks ago - a novel that was on my reading list and an artist book to add to my collection.

We have lots of autumn colour here - this is a neighbours tree which I look at every day from our conservatory

and these looking to the left from our garden

so I was hoping to find plenty of colour on our walk along the river at Dunster. However, it was all still looking very green, presumably because it is on the coast and therefore milder. However we did find plenty of flowers to enjoy on our walk.

The root area of this fallen tree was covered in cyclamen.

So that was my week - well we had flu jabs this morning and I had dentist and eye apts during the week but that is not very interesting!

Hope you all had a good week and I will be back next week.