Friday Night Sew In

 Many thanks to Wendy for getting us together again.

Well, I am still playing in my sketchbook - the last video in the series comes out tomorrow but I am getting behind on some of the techniques, there just is not enough time!

I do have a completed page though - well, I think it is complete any way - that I finished up Friday afternoon.

These pages are just a few of the ones that are starting to take shape - waiting for paint and glue to dry is time consuming even if it has been warm and sunny so they are able to dry outside.

In that last one the tracing paper lifts up to reveal the original picture.

Earlier this week I completed the cross hatch quilting of the sheep/bird border of my Red Manor House quilt.

Next up is the Irish Chain border. So for the rest of my Friday I was basting leaves for the tablecloth - they dont make for an exciting photograph! - and I shall get them pinned in place ready for a little light relief from the quilting.

Back in October I showed this peek of some secret stitching.

Now that the recipient has received it I can show you pictures of the completed Travellers Journal.

I joined in with the Summer Stitchalong at DMTV for this project which involves applique, print and stitch to make a book wrap. It was a great project to follow along with and if you fancy trying something a little different then the instructions are still availble- free - here. This is not a pattern - you are shown how to choose a colour palette, play with simple shapes using different techniques and end up with a unique project. Go on, give it a try!

It's been a beautiful sunny mild week here and its been good to be able to sit outside, and crack on with some tidying in the garden. Our lockdown restrictions ease today with non essential shops re-opening and we are able to go further afield for excercise. Still have to complete a form to take with us though stating why we are out and about.

I am looking forward to getting out my Christmas decorations later this week - some of them I havn't seen for over 10 years!

Have a great week.

EPP Tuesday - and I nearly forgot!!

Many thanks to Anthea for hosting our link up again today - pop over to her blog to see who else is linking up.
So what have I to show you? Well first of all I have completed my DMTV Summer Stitchalong book cover.

I added some embroidery and beads.

And the finished book cover looks like this.

 

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Having completed the border blocks for my Hexathon quilt I laid them out to work on the correct order. And this is what I have come up with.

 

 

So now I need to make some plain blocks to add in to the 'grassy' spaces.

Some lovely flowers have arrived from my swap partners.

 

I must have shown you the ones I sent last time. I have some ready to send this month but the recipient lives in Florida so I am holding them back for the moment.

 

Sad that there are so many people in the world whose homes are lost for one reason or another - floods, hurricanes and the Rohingya people forced to leave their country for ethnic reasons. So much sadness.

 

I hope that all is well with you and yours.

 

 

EPP Tuesday again!

And I see that it is now two weeks since my last post - how did that happen?
Anyway, I am here again now and after a couple of weeks of dodgy weather we are back into a canicule (heatwave). Temperatures are set to be 30+ all this week!

So back to business as I have a few things to show you.

First of all thank you to Anthea for hosting our link up - you can go to Anthea's blog here to see what everyone is working on.

First up is my DMTV Stitchalong bookwrap which has now reached this stage.

I have added lots of green seeding to the green areas.

The last stage before I make it up is to add some beads.

I have finished making all the blocks for the border of my Hexathon quilt.

I now need to lay everything out and work out their positions.

In the post today I received some lovely swap hexies.

These are from Wendy of Sugarlane Designs - even her card matches in well with the hexies! Thank you Wendy.

So that is all I have for EPP Tuesday, now on to other things.

I have started crocheting squares. Wot me, crocheting Granny squares! Whatever next! Well, I had a lovely bag of wool and cotton left over from my Hygge shawl and I was wondering what to do with them when along came Sharm from Country Fragrance with a CAL for a Flower Garden blanket and I couldn't resist having a go. At the moment I am just aiming to make the flower blocks as I don't know how far my supplies will go. Here are my first blocks.

They grey border is my wool yarn, the colours are all cottons. It does not show up too well in my photo but the centre petals are raised. It's a nice simple pattern.

Finally, in case you have not heard, the Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade is returning next month.

For more information see here.

So that is all my news for now. We have a small person here with her parents taking up a lot of my time at the moment so I am mostly catching up with small hand stitching projects. Plus we have a plumbing crisis today! - it never rains but it pours. Hope you are having a great week.

Piecing Myself Together!

Many thanks to Anthea for hosting our linky again - great to have you back. Pop over to Anthea's blog to see how her lovely scrappy quilt is coming along and to check out the other link ups.

First of all I have my swap hexies for August - again these are all winging their way to Australia. Well they will be soon - went to the PO this morning and for some reason it was closed so will have to try later in the week. Anyway, here they are.

I love that black, white and aqua combo! The aqua is a little darker in real life.

I have not had much time to work on my Hexathon quilt but I have added a few border blocks to my collection.

I have been a bit distracted by the DMTV stitchalong which now looks like this.

I have just added some quilting around the printed hexies for now but need to add a different stitch before the next part comes out on Thursday. Regular readers of my blog will have read all about this piece in my last blog post but if you are visiting for EPP Tuesday then you might like to go back to that post here to find out what it is all about.

Well that's it from me for today. Hope you are having a good week and lots of time to sew.

Friday Night with Friends

Many thanks to Cheryll for inviting us round again even though she could not be there herself. I am sure everyone enjoyed her hospitality - click here to see what everyone was working on.

I have been following the DMTV Summer Stitchalong for the last few weeks making a book cover. The first couple of weeks involved choosing a book - I am making a cover for my sewing journal - a colour scheme and then some fabrics. We were encouraged to choose a photograph and then pick five colours from that photograph to work with. Here is my selection.

Next we had to pick a shape - triangles, squares, hexagons for instance and make a shape to add to the background of our book cover. Here is mine before I sewed them together and stitched them down. Of course I chose hexies!

So that was the stage I was at by yesterday afternoon. The next stage was to add some single shapes which I did adding in some half inch hexies too.

The final stage was to add some printed hexagons and I did this with a piece of compressed sponge which I cut to a 3/4" hexagon and used with some gold acrylic paint.

As you can see it is now layered up and ready for the next stage which is stitch/quilting. And there I left it.

My next project for the evening was to layer up a couple of mug rugs which I have been working on and add some quilting.

So these are now ready to be trimmed and have their edges turned over - a little job for this evening I think.

All together a very satisfying FNwF - I hope everyone else enjoyed it too.