FNSI and my Chookshed Challenge

 Good to join up again with Wendy and friends for FNSI. For those of you down under and in the middle of winter, we are experiencing what passes for a heatwave here. It was 30 here yesterday so perfect for finding a cool spot and getting on with some sewing.

Having completed the stitching together of my Japanese folded squares on Thursday evening, my first job was to add the hanging loop.

Here you can see my finished piece, front and bag before the addition of the loop.

These are what I started with, made in 2012

and I had to make another 15 squares to bring it up to the size I wanted. All the fabrics were procion dyed, the original fabrics cotton lawn, the later fabrics all recycled.

And here it is hanging in my kitchen where I can enjoy it every day.

Here is the progress I have made on my stitch journal this week.

Friday nights additions were the little flowers and the V shape stitches.

I then moved on to a new project which I plan to finish by the end of the month - but more about that next time.

Meanwhile wishing everyone a great weekend from and hot and sticky Taunton!

FNSI December

 

First of all many thanks to Wendy for organising our Friday Night Sew In's again this year.

As usual I started the afternoon with my Stitch Journal and Fridays star was the middle one of the bottom three.

Sorry for poor photograph - another grey damp day here.

I then walked to our nearest coffee shop with a neighbour and spent an enjoyable couple of hours catching up. However, when we left it was tipping down and we both arrived home looking like drowned rats!

I have completed the quilting on the first outer border of Wings and Pretty things.

Sooo good to have reached the edge. One down, three to go but I have now folded it away until after Christmas as space is at even more of a premium at the moment!

So yesterday evening I pulled out my Field Journal folder where fortunately the next few are already drawn up. This sweet little plant was very quick and easy to stitch up and I am looking forward to working on another one this evening.

I have started on some crochet this week - sorry no pictures but oh is it gorgeous! Some beautiful handspun yarn in a lovely colour combo. Pictures next time.

Meanwhile, I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and I hope you have time for some quiet sewing in amongst all the busy festivities!

FNSI October

 It's a beautiful Sunday afternoon here after a night and morning of rain - storm Ashley, the first of the seasons named storms. Fortunately for us it was not as fierce as expected although more rain on top of what we have already had will be looking for somewhere to go.

Friday was a dry day and we had a few errands in town in the morning. I spent a couple of  hours in the afternoon catching up with friends so not much sewing happened. But I did of course do my Stitch Journal leaf for the day and the page is filling up nicely, if a bit too quickly!

I also cut the backing fabrics for my Magic Lantern runner which is now almost ready to layer up - just some little black feet to add first.

It does rather resemble a Dalek at the moment though!

In other sewing news I have been working away on quilting Wings and Pretty Things and have turned the first corner of the wide border.

And have been dipping into another white sampler piece destined for the tea and rust pot!

It will eventually be attached to the first piece and I am on the lookout for a suitable piece of driftwood to wrap it round.

So that is me all caught up, thanks to everyone else for their company and I will see you again soon.

FNSI September

 Friday Night Sew In has come around quickly again! and the end of September is in sight. Thank you to Wendy for organising our Friday night again this month.

As usual I started my afternoon with my Stitch Journal which is growing nicely.

Then went on to work on my Boro flower panel. I am filling in the gaps now and waiting for inspiration to strike regarding the top left hand corner - that ricrac seemed like a good idea at the time!

Apologies for poor lighting on this one - it is raining this morning and the light is not good.

I cracked on with some knitting in the evening and this morning I finished the second Vintage Tinsel sock.

Again, sorry about the poor light!

We had some lovely weather earlier in the week and took the opportunity to visit Barrington Court. Always a lovely visit and something different to see each season. The borders were looking stunning and the White Garden full of lovely frothy white Cosmos.

I have also been distracted this week by some good reading! We found a new to us author and I have been whizzing through these books. If you like murder/detective stories then I can recommend these which are set in The Lake District.

I plan to spend what looks likely to be a wet afternoon, knitting some baby socks with the last of the Vintage Tinsel wool. Hope you are having a dryer day.

FNSI in August

 And here we are, half way through August! Many thanks to Wendy for organising FNSI every month. You can pop over here to see who else took part.

My day was quiet. After a morning in the garden it was nice to sit and stitch for a while in our conservatory which, as temperatures have dropped, is now a comfortable place to sit in the afternoon.

First up of course was my Stitch Journal which is filling up far too quickly!

Friday's segment was the pointy one top left.

Then I pulled out my Flower Panel which I hadn't touched since my last post. I set to adding some flower stalks and leaves ready for a few flowers. This was fun to do but I need to add flowers soon otherwise I will have forgotten what my plans were!

And I think those leaves are going to need an outline!

This week I have been finishing off a few more Field |Journal blocks. These are very quick to sew but the preparation takes me some time.

So that's it from me for now, it was a lovely afternoon with cyber friends and I would say that I am looking forward to next month but I don't want to wish the time away!

Have a good week.

FNSI June

 Well it was a busy day of sport in our house with two cricket matches and a football match on TV. Needless to say lots of time to sew whilst keeping half an eye on the action!

First up was my stitch journal. 

I have been playing with different buttonhole/blanket stitches this week. Todays is that spiky one on the right which according to my stitch dictionary is German buttonhole stitch and which I like very much. Could be a great crazy quilting seam treatment with the addition of extra stitches and or beads. If you click on the picture you should get a larger version so you can see yesterdays which is a sort of knotted buttonhole and then the legs have been wrapped with different threads. Also very effective I think. Note the buttonhole semi circles, I will come back to them.

Next up yesterday were my swap hexies for the month. I had already cut and basted them so it was just a matter of sewing them together.

Earlier in the week I had made up these little Field Journal blocks into their hexies.

So it was time to pull out some more patterns to work on. I am very strict with myself and just take the first 6 that are on the top of the pile so imagine my surprise when I found I had not one but two of these lovely hexagons with Buttonhole semi circles! What a coincidence. This is the one I worked on last night while the football was on.

I love how effective those buttonhole hearts are.

Many thanks to Wendy for organising our evening again - pop over here to see who else took part and some lovely pictures of Wendy's recent finishes.

That's all from me for now, have a great weekend.

FNSI May

It has been a busy day so I was happy just to collapse onto the sofa in front of the TV with some nice, mindless knitting.

Earlier I had taken a break for half an hour after lunch to work on my stitch journal - todays is the bulls eye bottom right.

Thank you Wendy for getting us together again this Friday - pop over to Wendy's blog here to see who else took part.

Yesterday I finally got my RSC blocks finished along with Jennifer's lovely Joy block.

These blocks are building up nicely now and I will soon have to lay them all out to see how they are looking.

Well, that is all from me for today. Have a lovely weekend everyone.

FNSI April

 Am a bit late posting but have enjoyed finding out what everyone else has been working on. Thanks as always to Wendy for hosting our evening.

Well, not a lot happened here to show I am afraid. I had a list of jobs to do in the afternoon.

Find my 1797 top to prepare backing for quilting was one thing. Not sure where this has got to but I am still looking. However came across my RSC 21/22 Dresden top so that is now top of the quilting pile and I bought backing fabric for it yesterday so that is positive. Also found my Hexathon quilt top from way back when? That just needed a final something in one corner. And of course I was suddenly inspired to add a plain hexagon which I could embroider onto with the title and dates etc. So that was easily done and is now 2nd in the quilting pile - unless I find 1797!

Next up was to sort my bags ready for Saturdays Quilters Guild Regional meeting - a couple of Linus quilts to find plus some show and tell and a sewing kit.

By the time I had done a few other bits and pieces the afternoon was over. So in the evening I worked on my Stitch Journal. Fridays circle was the second in from the right on the bottom row.

After that I just sat back and watched TV!

Had a very enjoyable Saturday at the Regional Day with an excellent talk by Liz Hewitt about her natural dyeing with leaves, rust, mud etc. Lots of beautiful work to look at too. The link will take you straight to the gallery on her web site. Such a lovely lady and more than happy to pass on tips and how toos.

We had a great show and tell too but sorry I didn't get any pictures 😒

What else have I been up to. Well the Stitch Journal continues as you have already seen. Last weekend I made a couple of needle holder magnets from a kit by Sue Hawkins. Cute little strawberries although they do look rather more like cherries I think.

Well, why have I never made these before!! So useful. Just perfect on my quilting frame. So what did I do next - ordered another kit of course. (not sure what happened there but font size has changed)

Anyway, I have now started on my next pair and ordered extra magnets and canvas to have a go at designing my own.

These are called scarlet pimpernel.

I have some RSC to show you but will leave them till next week I think.

Wishing you all a good week from a surprisingly dry and partly sunny Taunton.

FNSI March

 Another Friday came around and it was a busy one for us as we were out all day. So it was nice to sit and relax in the evening with a little bit of slow stitching on my Stitch Journal.

I worked on the rectangle bottom right with knotted feather stitch and French knots. I do love purple so it is nice to have all these different shades and threads to play with. While on the purple theme I finished my RSC blocks for the month earlier this week and they have gone into the folder with the others.

And also on the subject of thread, a dear friend in Australia very kindly sent me these beautiful Cottage Garden threads and I was over the moon!  Thank you.

I am determined to use every bit of these and not sit on them for too long waiting for that 'special' project!

I have been quilting this week and completed the centre panel of Wings.

My next job is to mark up that first border and I am thinking feathers to tie in with the wings. And I do think I am going to be 'winging' it as I usually use a stencil for my borders but can't find one in UK to buy.

Finally, about 10 days ago now, We had visitors here and the weather was good! So I was able to get a decent picture of Red Manor House now that it finally has it's binding.

And in it's new home.

Many thanks to Wendy, who was a busy bee yesterday, for organising our FNSI's.

Hope you have a great weekend.

FNSI January

 And many thanks to Wendy for inviting us again, I look forward to joining everyone on the 3rd Friday for our get together.

I was a bit lax I am afraid on the photograph front. My first task was to alter a skirt - not exciting and certainly not worth a pic!

Next up however I started quilting a cot quilt. The top is one that I made back in the mists of time and has been sitting around waiting for attention. I got it layered up last year and thought I would make a start on the quilting while I had the machine out. I have done about half which took me an hour so I know that next time I get the machine out I need to set aside and hour to finish it off. Sadly it got packed away along with the machine before I realised that I ought to have taken a photo!

In the evening I worked first on my stitch journal. Here is an up to date picture. At the moment I am working on blanket stitch variations.

Then a little bit of knitting on my lace socks.

In other news, the crochet blanket is finished. Pleased with how this turned out and hope it will give someone a nice warm hug next winter.

We have had some cold weather over the last week or so with -7 a couple of nights this week. Mild today and more rain on the way!

I will leave you with a few of my favourite frosty pics.