Friday Night with Friends

February already! Where did that month go. We have had a variety of weather over the last month, most of it grey and damp with the odd sunny day tucked in. And so here we are again linking up with Cheryll for a stitchy evening with friends - you can see who else took part and what they were up to here .

I spent an hour Fiday afternoon with my watercolours. A couple of years ago I bought a delightful little leaf printed sketchbook (which so far is too precious to work into haha) and it came wrapped in a small piece of leaf printed paper. I immediately stuck it into one of my sketchbooks and have finally felt inspired to work into it. The result is this little short eared owl. And before you ask, you can only see the ears evidently when the owl is on it's guard!

Those black feathers around the eye look a bit too eyelashy to me but they are pretty true to the photograph that I was working from so I suppose they will be OK.

I am not sure yet if I will paint that white paper above it's head or just cut it away. A decision that could take a while!

On to Friday evening and I stitched down this months RSC hearts onto their background. Pink this month and I think these are looking pretty.

So that's it for now. Linking up with Angela for Scraphappy Saturday

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2023

 Once again I am linking up with Angela for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2023.

After completing my Dresden Flower top at the end of last year I have been looking for a smaller project. You may have seen my post here where I trialed a heart which I decided was a bit on the small side. So now I have gone for a larger size and these sit neatly on a 6"finished square. I aim to make two a month.

Here are my first two for this months colours - dark and bright blue.

FNSI December

 The end of another year of Friday Night Sew In's - already! This year has gone by so quickly. Many thanks to Wendy for hosting all year and organising lovely gifts for participants.

You can see who took part this month here along with some great small gift ideas which will come in handy for next year.

We were out to lunch and then stopped off for some shopping on the way home so I didn't get to sew until the evening.

First up I 'finished' quilting this block on my Red Manor House quilt, and didn't spot that I hadn't actually finished until this afternoon, when I took the steam to it to clear away my line markings! Oh well, something for this evening.

I got RMH out at the beginning of November (it keeps my legs warm in the evenings) and have been quilting these blocks. There are quite a few done now.

It's a while since this last saw the light of day at the end of Feb 2021 - last winter it got used fairly early on as packing and arrived here in UK before me.

This was how I left it and I have probably done 2 more quarters like this.

Anyway, back to last night and I picked up a new Field Journal block but had only done a few stitches when I remembered that I had intended to work on my idea for next years RSC.

When I went to the exhibition at Cowslip Workshops in the summer I saw this quilt and fell in love with the little hearts.

My plan is to make two or three of these each month and applique them to blocks. Here was my test heart which I think is probably a bit on the small side at 3.5" x 3.5"

I might try the next size up next as these won't make a great dent in my stash!

In other news I have completed four Field Journal blocks this week - here they are.

And we have had some frosty mornings over the last week so I have been experimenting with the macro on my new camera.

We have had a couple of jolly cold weeks here but are now promised much milder but wet weather for the next week. Oh well, spring is round the corner! Have a great week.