A Nice Day Out

 Following on from our cancelled day out to the seaside last week, we had beautiful weather for our re-arranged trip this week. Sidmouth is on the Channel coast of Devon and about an hour from here. Well known for its high proportion of retired residents, it is also part of the Jurassic Coast which sadly is eroding away.

It was a beautiful sunny day, we met our friends for coffee followed by lunch in a very nice hotel with a panoramic view of the sea. We then enjoyed a walk along the promenade and this was the view of the sun starting to set.

I have kept with the Christmas theme on my Stitch Journal this week

and have been making plans for my 2026 journal. I have been thinking that it would be nice to work on something that can be used next year rather than a book or roll that is hidden away. I came up with the idea of a cushion cover as I have a large cushion in my conservatory which could do with a change. I had this linen tablecloth in my stash - can't remember where it came from but charity shop or clearance warehouse.

The embroidery on the tablecloth is all machine worked except for the monogram in the centre which has been worked by hand.

I cut a length from the tablecoth which would fold in half to make the cushion cover with a zip closure. I am left with two nice embroidered lengths from the sides which may be used in a stitch roll another time. Having machined a rough hem all around to prevent fraying I gave the linen a soak in some tea to knock back the bright white. I used Whisper Weft on the back of the fabric to stabilise - I don't want to end up with a strangely shaped piece of embroidery - and then marked out the twelve sections that I will be filling up next year.

Now safely stored away awaiting January 1st.

Mostly this week I have been working on a little Christmas stitchery. I found the pattern and stabilised fabric in my FJ folder when I got it out to mark up some new FJ blocks and thought now would be a good time to stitch it up. It was an Anni Downs freebie from a few years back I think I will make it up into a chair back for next Christmas - it will look good on my Ikea chair with the Christmas cushion that I made last year.

Hopefully a finish later this week. Now I really must get on with quilting my Dresden quilt as I have new projects to work on in the new year.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Chistmas and thank you all for reading and commenting over the last year.

FNSI December

 

Our last Friday Night get together for 2020, many thanks to Wendy for organising us and I understand there are changes afoot for 2021! Pop over to Wendy's blog here to see who else took part and links to their blogs.

So, what should I work on? Which of my WIP's shall I pull out for the evening? Hmmm, I know! I'll start something new! Well, when in doubt......

As it happens a new Hatched and Patched newsletter dropped into my inbox this week including this delightful freebie by Anni Downs.

How appropriate. I soon had it traced out and after basting a few more leaves for my tablecloth (pennance! but they should be the last ones) I got out my thread boxes and started stitching.

Not a huge amount done but I am blaming that on distracting TV!

No idea what I shall do with it yet but I shall enjoy getting it stitched up.

In other news, quilting of the Irish Chain on my Red Manor House continues. The weather has been up and down - wet again today. We are allowed out again without completeing a form to say why we are out - but this has been replaced by an 8pm -6am curfew. Doesnt affect us as we rarely go out at night. Pubs and restaurants remain closed.

Well, on that gloomy note, I hope you all have a good week!

FNSI May

Yesterday was Friday Night Sew In - many thanks to Wendy for hosting us. You can see what everyone got up to here

A few weeks ago I came across Jennifer Clouston's Boro Inspired Sewing Caddy and I immediately thought of my solar dyed fabrics from a couple of years ago.

I pulled out my box of fabrics and had lots of fun choosing the fabrics for the outside of the caddy, working the little embroideries and then 'boroing' it all together. Sorry - no work in progress pics! On Friday afternoon I was able to sew the drawstring bag into position and add the ribbons. So here it is.

The yellow side - fabrics dyed with rosemary, walnut husks and onion skins.

The blue side - fabrics dyed with black bean soaking water, morning glory flowers and elderberries.

The inside

I still need to find a suitable cord to cover and then attach around the outer edge of the bag - it also makes the loop for a button closure. So far everything was from stash but I think I am going to have to go out and buy some suitable cord. I love this little bag and - it goes beautifully with the log cabin pincushion I made last year which sits very neatly inside the drawstring bag.

I have also recently acquired a copy of Anni Downs 'A Gardeners Journal' and have been looking forward to starting on one of the embroideries. I am not planning on making the quilt but the designs will make super minis for gifts - and me! I decided to start with the Dovecote and here is how much progress I made yesterday.

The sun has been shining here for the last few days which has made a pleasant change - last weekend was awful! So I am off outside with my embroidery - hope you have a great weekend.

FNSI and CTTY!

I write this in haste as I have only just got my computer back from being updated to Windows 10 (so far so good, thanks mainly to our local computer whizz who has set most things up as they were before!) and we have guests arriving tomorrow and I want to catch the deadline on CTTY.
So here we go.

Many thanks Wendy for having us round again - good to be sewing with friends. Don't forget to go and vist Wendy to see what everyone was doing on Friday.

My next big UFO to finish this year is my Four Seasons crazy hanging and to do that I needed some fabric for sashing and bordering the blocks. I knew I wanted velvet and so having a large quantity of white velvet in my stash it was time to get my dye out. I bought a pot of olive procion dye powder a while ago in preparation and so as it was a nice afternoon out came my bucket and dye was mixed and used outside.
Here is the result which I am very pleased with - lots of nice subtle variations which is the look I am aiming for by not stirring the fabric about too much.

While I had my dyes out I remembered another UFO languishing in the cupboard. This bag was made a couple of years ago and then I didn't like the colour of the handles! And there was only the lining to add and it would have been finished.

Five minutes with the unpicker and the handles were free - why had I not done this before!!
The handles have now been redyed so watch this space for an update, hopefully on the finished bag.

The trouble with dying is that one thing leads to another and so another piece of velvet and some threads and lace were treated with some marine violet and lemon dye - I am very pleased with the results.

So next on my list while the fabrics were soaking in their dyes were these two heat bags which just needed machining together as I had finished appliqueing the hexagon flowers.

I have used the Anni Downs pattern which is like a pillow case so that the bag of wheat inside can be removed to allow the outer to be washed. Brilliant idea I thought. They have not got their wheat bags yet but as they are going in my Christmas present box they can be filled later and in the mean time take less space.  And so this is why I am linking with Anthea and Christmas Through the Year!

Thank you Anthea.

Have a great week.

The Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade!

This linky for us to show off our pincushions is being run by Ida and you can see all the lovely and interesting examples that have been entered HERE. Many thanks to Ida for hosting this parade and having such a good idea.

Here are the pincushions that I use regularly.

But I am just going to talk about the two that I really enjoyed making.

First of all this Anni Downs pincushion.

I can't remember now if I made the bag first or the pincushion but I love them both and they are perfect for taking with me when I take sewing out for the day.

This set I made some years ago.

The design is my own using perle cotton on canvas. They live in my sewing basket and are used nearly every day.

There are some stunning pincushions in the parade - I do hope that you will go and have a look.