What have I been doing?

 It is good to get to the end of the week and have several projects to share with you now that Red Manor House is out of the way.

First up my swap hexies for the month.

It seems that I am seriously short of red fabrics so I shall have to do a bit of shopping before red comes around for RSC.

My quilt group are making Linus quilts at the moment and I remembered some blocks that I made from a jelly roll some years ago and hadn't used. Some were squares and some had been cut into triangles ready to machine back into squares so that was my first job.

Two nice post trimming piles are always very satisfying!

Here are all the blocks after machining together.

I need to source some suitable backing fabric now.

In the evenings it has been good to get back to some Field Journal embroidery. These were completed this week - already for making up into hexagons.

I have a large stash of knitting wool lurking under the bed so I thought a new jumper for next winter would be in order. I like knitting for mindless handwork whilst watching TV. Here is my start.

It is my first time using a circular needle - treated myself to some of those lovely Symphony ones - and am finding them easy to use. Also my first attempt at a knitted folded hem and I am very pleased with how that has turned out. Now to add in some more colours.

Very changeable weather here but we have been able to get some garden time this week despite the horrendous deluge we had earlier in the week.

Heres hoping for a nice weekend - for me and for you.

Lucky me!

The perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade is over but you can still go and look at all the beauties on parade here at My Sister Made Me Do It. Many thanks to Ida and friends for organising this great link and for putting together such a great list of prizes. I was very fortunate to win second prize! Which meant that this delightful Moda Jelly Roll - Amelie by Me and My Sister Designs - landed in my post box on Wednesday.

I have never owned a Jelly Roll before so for the moment it is sitting on my desk where I can admire it every time I walk past! Thank you Ida.

We have had a couple of days out this week. On Monday we went to Aulnay which is about 2 hours north west of here to meet some friends for lunch. The church is large and covered in very ornate and beautiful carvings.

Inside I spotted this wall hanging.

Poor photo - sorry - just wanted to give you an idea of size. It is much taller than me.

It's a very simple piece but I think very effective.

Anyway, the town itself is very unremarkable so I wondered why it had such a large Church until I found this tower

- the only remaining part of an enormous chateau which would have dominated the town and brought much wealth to the area.

Yesterday we went to the coast with friends and had a lovely picnic in the sunshine. Afterwards we went to visit another friend who gave us a guided tour of the Cognac house that she works for. These amazing stills are made entirely of copper - there are two. She says that soon they will be polished and gleaming ready for distilling this years crop of grapes.

The onion shape is evidently a legal requirement for all Cognac distilleries. Just a beautiful shape.
The tour was of course followed by a tasting of Pineau (a by product of Cognac) and the five different Cognacs that they sell.

A couple of pictures of the courageous little flowers that have been pushing their way through our dry soil.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend with lots of sewing time.