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 February

 Many thanks Wendy for our Friday Night Sew In - see who else took part here

My first sewing for the day, as always at the moment, was my Stitch Journal. The red page is slowly filling, well actually the month seems to be whizzing past and the page is filling quite quickly!

Yesterdays pebble was the stacked herringbone cross, lower middle. Such a versatile stitch herringbone. And while I am on a red theme here and as I will be linking with Angela for her RSC update here are my log cabins for the month with Jennifer's lovely embroidery (slightly altered to suit me) in the middle of one of them.

These were finished earlier in the week.

But back to Friday. I finally had a trip to a LQS, tucked away on a farm up in the Quantock hills and managed to spend a small fortune but came away with lots of goodies! One of which was binding fabric for my Red Manor House quilt. I machined the binding onto the quilt earlier in the week and have been spending some time each evening hemming it down. So that was my next Friday job. It's a long way around that quilt! I got quite a bit done yesterday but still more to do. Here is work in progress - I think about a quarter left.

Another purchase was the backing fabric for Wings and Pretty Things which has also been waiting quite a while for this next stage. I layered this up at my patchwork group on Tuesday afternoon.

As soon as I have finished hemming RMH I will start hand quilting this. Am so looking forward to quilting again!

Also while I had a large table to work on I layered up last years RSC top.

Those creases are from folding since I layered up - it was ironed before!! This one is for machine quilting and probably Linus so no hurry at the moment.

I think that is all my news for now so I will leave you with the first daffodils in our garden - later than most peoples, I think because they are in a part of the garden that gets no sun. Have a lovely week.

Red Manor House!

 And the last few quilting stitches finally went in on Wednesday - appropriately my birthday.

Here are a few quick pictures taken for Instagram - it was raining so no outdoor pictures.

All hand quilting done over two winters - it has kept my feet nice and cosy!

I will do a proper photoshoot once the binding is on - but first I need to buy fabric which is going to mean sussing out some LQS's!

FNWF's April

 Well I wish I had something more exciting to share with you but I am STILL quilting Red Manor House!

However, just a few more of these sashing panels to work on and then it will be the last narrow border that you can see on the right.

So many other projects that I want to crack on with but am being very strict with myself!

Many thanks t o Cheryll for getting us together again - please pop over to Cherylls blog here to see who else took part.

Friday Night Sew In - February

 Many thanks to Wendy who has been out and about having a great time! for getting us all together again. You can pop over to Wendy's blog here to see who else took part and what they were up to.

I had a fairly lazy afternoon looking at a couple of DMTV videos to get some sketching/painting ideas. I then worked on this little sketch of Waggy the pied wagtail who has been visiting our feeder recently. Now he may not be the most exciting bird - and it turns out there are three although they only come to feed one at a time - but despite all the tasty treats I have been putting out these are the first birds who have stopped to feed. So we are really excited. There are plenty of birds around especially in the trees in the park at the front of the house, but not having any trees in the back garden there is no where for them to perch and check that the coast is clear before feeding. We shall be planting a tree this spring!

Anyway, back to my pencil sketch - it is not finished but I am happy so far.

I must admit to 'cheating' and tracing the outline but then I am doing a series of these and don't want to spend too much time fiddling around getting the basic shape right when I want to concentrate on the technique. Here are a couple of pictures from earlier in the week.

This was my first water colour attempt - not enough water I felt.

I was much happier with this one.

I also had a go at an oyster catcher on an previously painted sketchbook page. He is pecking around in some seaweed in case you wondered!

I spent the evening working on my Red Manor House. The quilting is coming along nicely - and quickly too.

That red sashing will need quilting when I have finished the flying geese. I looked high and low a couple of weeks ago for the stencils I use before starting the flying geese and had given up. Yesterday afternoon while looking for the fabric I want to use for the #sipteaandepp Winter Mystery SAL, which I am way behind on, lo and behold, there were my stencils! No sign of the fabric though haha. Oh well, it will turn up sometime.

Have a great week everyone.

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.

February!

What happened to February? Here we are on the last but one day and it seems to have gone by in a blur! We started off with horrible weather and now are enjoying beautiful sunny days - long may it last.

This last week has seen me busy quilting and I have finished another couple of blocks of my Red Manor House. A quarter of these blocks are now completed.

So I have now decided to put RMH away until next winter and work on a lighter project. Next week will see me start quilting the appliqued tablecloth which will not be so heavy to work on.

I have also added some more applique to the Dresden centre block of Wings and Pretty Things.

I will finish off the corner hearts when I have added the first border.

I have also been working in my sketchbooks this week - this is a finished page from one of them.

I carried on with the pomegranate theme with these collographs

using a tutorial from Design Matters TV. They will be cut out and used in my sketchbooks.

With the weather warming up the garden is coming to life and there is a lot more colour around.

Lovley to see green shoots everywhere.

Have a good week everyone.

FNSI February

 Friday was a lovely day here, if a tad windy! But at least it was dry and it has been good to have some warm sun around again this week.

I started my Friday afternoon with an hour working in my sketchbooks - sorry, no photos - and then went off walking with friends for the rest afternoon.

However, come the evening I got our my Red Manor House with the intention of finishing the quilting of this butterfly block.

But, a good film came on TV and in the end I had little to show for my evening. However this afternoon, two hours and one football match later, I have a completed block.

Many thanks to Wendy for organising our get together yesterday - pop over to Wendy's blog to see who else joined in and to see what they got up to.

In other news this week the centre Dresden for Wings and Pretty Things is now appliqued in place and has it's corona of dots applied too.

I am now on a hunt for some more of the fabric I have used as a background as it works perfectly with the pretty Rue 1800 fabrics.

If anyone has any tucked away in their stash then I would love to hear from you!

Right, I need to catch up with what everyone was doing yesterday - have a good week.

A New Project!

 And I am really excited about this new, long term, project! Michelle has very kindly shared her notes for her Wings and Pretty Things quilt which is full of gorgeous applique and EPP.

These gorgeous fabrics arrived this week which I plan to use for all the applique. They are from a range called Rue 1800 by 3 Sisters for Moda. Just as lovely in real life as they were on the website where I spotted them.

So I got straight in and made the centre Dresden for the quilt - I just need to stitch the centre circle down.

Next up, some applique flowers.

In other news this week I have sent off my swap hexies for the month

and I have been busy quilting my Red Manor House. Having completed the narrow blue border, I am now working on the flower and flower pot blocks.

Its been a cold week here with heavy rain yesterday and the valley is flooded again. But things are looking brighter and warmer for next week thank goodness.

Have a good week.

Friday Night Sew In, 2021 style!

 

Many thanks to Wendy for organising our Friday evening again and for setting up the facebook page - great idea. Pop over to Wendy's blog here to see who else was taking part.

I started after lunch by pulling out some of my hand dyed fabrics as I fancy making a crazy pincushion. As always, it takes far more time deciding which fabrics to use than it does to make the block! Anyway, after a couple of hours I had this little 3.5" block pieced and framed ready for embellishment.

In the evening it was nice to sit by the fire with my Red Manor House on my knees! I am still quilting around the Irish chain border but thankfully the end is in sight - just one more move of the frame will do it.

Somewhere around halfway round this border I wished I had diagonally quilted the squares but by then too late! Anyway, it will be nice to move onto that narrow blue border. But first, my 'reward' for completeing the Irish chain will be to embellish my crazy pincushion!

Another frosty morning here.

And a very pretty sunrise which this picture does not do justice to!

Have a great week.