FNWF - July already!

Many thanks Cheryll for hosting our Friday get together. If you click on the link you will find links to everyone who took part - do go and see what they were working on.

It was 36 degrees here yesterday so needless to say after 11am we were hiding indoors! For the first part of the afternoon I was working on some secret stitching - sorry no pics.
It seemed appropriate to spend the rest of my Friday working on the new Jenny of Elefantz 'stitch-along' - the first stitchery design was released yesterday. You will find the free design and more info here

Here is Jenny's design for the first block

So I drew mine up and then thought about colours. First though I changed cookie to biscuit as this is going to be 'My' Vintage kitchen and we rarely have cookies. More 'British' too. Also I thought that the design of the jar would lend itself beautifully to the blue and white colourway of cornishware - an English classic.

 

You would have thought that at my time of life I would have learnt to spell biscuit correctly! And I went on to make a right hash of the drawing - thank goodness for Frixion pens!

Anyway, this is how far I got with my stitching last night and I should be able to finish it off today.

 

 

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We said goodbye to Dad Last Monday.

The lovely service was taken by my brother, I read a short bio and my nieces and nephew shared some memories of their Grandad - so a nice family affair. It was good to have all the family together - we are spread around the world! - and to meet up with other relations and friends that I have not seen for some time. My brother picked some great photographs for the service sheet.

Their Golden Wedding

 With his great grandchildren last year

It would have been Mum and Dad's 69th wedding anniversary on the day of the funeral.

RIP Dad. xx

FNwF August!

August! Already!
Well, here we are again and it was the first Friday of the month so it was Friday Night with Friends - linking up with Cheryll and all those lovely people who joined in last night.

Thank you Cheryll for getting us altogether again.

Most of my Friday was spent painting the walls in my kitchen - good to have it looking fresh and clean again. So I was very happy to spend Friday evening turning this pretty Jenny of Elefantz embroidery

into this mini quilt top

The buttons are not stitched down yet - they will form part of the quilting. So next job is to put a line of quilting around the inside of the frame and to stitch down the buttons.

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It has been good to join in with another postcard swap - thank you very much Sheila for organising this swap.

Here is the super card that I received from Mary

I love the colour combination, beautiful turquoise.

This is the card I sent to Mary.

It's warming up again here after a couple of cooler days - which we needed.

Happy Sunday.

PYT time

It's Piece Yourself Together time again and I have a couple of things to share with you this time.

First of all my project folder has progressed and is now a folder.

Just a few hexagons to add as embellishment inside.

As you can see a piece of embroidery has already made its way inside!

I have also been working on some hexies for a table runner to go in our spare bedroom and these are now waiting to be sewn together.

Apologies for the poor quality of the photographs - it has been grey and wet here today.

Many thanks to Anthea for hosting the PYT linky - pop over to her blog here to see what everyone has been doing.

Hope you are having a great week.

Piece Yourself Together time

I have had this post written for a couple of weeks having got my dates and Tuesdays all mixed up!

As always, many thanks to Anthea for hosting this linky. Pop over to  Anthea's  blog to see  her almost completed, beautiful table runner and to find out what everyone else has been doing.

I am pleased to say that I actually have something positive to share with you all today!

I was looking for a small hand sewing project to work on over Easter and remembered these hexies that I had sewn together in Spain with the vague idea of making a project folder with them.

I also remembered a piece of Jenny of Elefantz embroidery that I worked a couple of years ago which has been sitting around waiting for a project.
And so I put them together and I now have the outside of my project folder!

Now I need to think about how I am going to finish off the inside - how many pockets I want etc. Hopefully it will not be too long until I can show you the finished folder.

While we were in England we visited Arlington Court in North Devon and I spotted this coverlet in one of the bedrooms.

It was made in the early 19th century and the hexagons are 3/4". Sadly, as you will see from the close up, many of the fabrics have started to disintegrate.

I should imagine that many of the fabrics have faded too. However, it was lovely to see it out on the bed as it had spent many years in a drawer before it was discovered.

I am also linking up with Super Mom No Cape and her
Vintage Embroidery Link

 Happy piecing!

FNSI

Many thanks to Wendy for hosting us again for our Friday night sewing fun - do pop over to Wendy's blog to see what everyone got up to.

It was another grey, wet day in the Dordogne so sewing fun got under way early here.

First up for me was this Jenny of Elephantz sampler panel that I had stitched before Christmas.

I fell in love with it as soon as I saw the pattern!

It needed a patchwork frame to turn it into a mini quilt and it ended the day looking like this.

The rest of my evening was spent working on this UFO from 2012.

I had completed about 95% of the hand quilting and then folded it away and ignored it for 2 years! So it is a high priority finish for this year.

Not a brilliant photo but I think you get the idea. I completed a couple of these curly shapes last night and will crack on with a few more this evening.

Hope your weekend is going well and have a great Sunday.

Linking up with Super Mom No Cape  Vintage Embroidery Monday - do visit and see some beautiful work. 

FNSI is this Friday

Sign up for FNSI here. Your opportunity to catch up with what everyone is up to on Friday night ( we are talking stitch here!) and share some virtual time with stitchers around the world.

Wendy usually has a delicious chocolatey recipe to share too!

Wendy also has a giveaway for some lucky person who signs up. Last  month I was that lucky person! and here is the lovely package that Wendy sent me.

A lovely Jenny of Elefantz pattern with a pretty fat quarter of fabric and a skein of thread to make it with. I love Jenny's designs (you may have noticed!) and the fabric is gorgeous - just perfect to go with the pattern. Thank you very much Wendy.

Looking forward to linking up with everyone on Friday.

Mothering Sunday

Happy Mothering Sunday to all my readers!

Here is the little Jenny of Elefantz posy that I embroidered for my Mum.

Enjoy your day.

Post!

Coming home after a month in warmer climes is not necessarily pleasant but there is always a pile of post to cheer one up! There were some very nice things in my pile of post at the weekend so I am going to share them with you.

First of all Jenny of Elefantz swap - I showed you the items I sent off to my swap partner here - so it was lovely to come home to a parcel from New Zealand! The mother and daughter team from Baa's Amazing Adventures had sent me these lovely things.

This pretty 'Jenny' bird design beautifully stitched and hoop framed. And they kept the bird theme going with a lovely Kiwi teatowel and gorgeous Pukeko bird card.

I had never heard of a Pukeko bird so I have learnt something here!

Thank you both very much Hannah and Karen for lovely gifts.

Maria from The Next Stage had a giveaway in January and introduced me to Susan and her 

justbesensiblesusan blog. Susan takes lots of beautiful photographs and her blog is full of fun. She also is a great artist and produces a range of beautiful cards under the name Susan...sometimes. Maria was giving away two of these gorgeous cards and I won! Here are the two lovely cards I received.

Simple designs but so so effective. Thank you Maria.

And last, but by no means least was this gorgeous vintage inspired card from Susan which I had admired on her blog.

It currently has pride of place on my easel! Thank you Susan.

And talking of postcards, Sheila is organising another postcard swap. This time the theme is spring/Easter so if you fancy joining in then click on her name and it will take you straight to her post with all the details.

Well that is all for now - there is a big birthday here tomorrow (someone will be 70) and I have been busy in the kitchen this afternoon. Looking forward to seeing friends here tomorrow and I will be back soon to share my finished February CQJP block.

FNWF for January

A big thank you to Cheryll for hosting our first evening of the year. I have already read lots of posts about last night and it looks like everyone had a great time.

I was busy working on this little Jenny of Elefantz stitchery. It is so colourful and caught my eye as soon as I saw it. Another evening should see it finished.

Fortunately there were still a few Christmas chocs to help the evening along. Had to give up sewing though at 10 as it was time for The Musketeers, one of my favourite TV series at the moment. Sadly Cardinal Richelieu turned into Dr Who at the end of the last series and the new baddie is just a wee bit too good looking I feel!

Have a good week everyone.