Chookshed Challenge April and the last week

 Happy to say that my Chookshed Challenge is finished and I have enjoyed working on this one in April.

This is the Wild Strawberry Scissor Point Cover, kit by Sue Hawkins

I already had the magnet needle holder which I made last year and they are going to live together in my hand quilting kit bag. Sue is always very generous with thread and I am hoping I may have enough left overs from both kits to make a matching thimble holder. Watch this space.

While working on this at Quilt group I was offered another of Sue's kits by a lady who had purchased it but didn't feel up to making it. Of course I said Yes Please!

This could be one for next years Chookshed list!

Also finished this week are the Winwick Mum Trailblazer socks which I started back in April.

I made these using West Yorkshire Spinners Passion Fruit Cooler 4ply sock yarn.

I think that is enough finishes for one week! I have of course been working on my Stitch Journal every day - here is my progress since my Easter post.

Happy stitching 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.

FNWF's and a New Year

 Happy New Year everyone! It seems I have been AWOL for longer than I thought! Anyway, very happy to be joining up with Cheryll and friends again for FNWFs and our first of the year. You can seen what everyone was doing by following the links here . Thank you Cheryll.

I have been working on the 30 Day Sketchbook Challenge which involves a sketch a day for January with daily prompts provided. Fridays prompt was trees so I worked a quick sketch of the trees outside my kitchen window. Trees are always interesting at this time of the year when you can see all the lovely shapes and there are some sections here that would blow up and make good designs.

Here are a couple more pages from earlier in the week - 'sweets and treats' and 'eggs'.

The afternoon started out dry so we drove to Wiveliscombe for a walk around. Having investigated the rather upmarket charity shop - we prefer packed, rummagy shops - we wandered off down a side street looking at some of the interesting old buildings. Just as we were thinking of turning back we spotted a sign for antiques so went off to investigate. Yew Tree Antiques is based in part of an old brewery - through a small, almost hidden, door. Up some windy stairs and another corridor which opens out to a large space crammed with furniture and glass. The smell of beeswax furniture polish was strong, everything shone and all the beautiful glass sparkled. What a treasure trove. Well, the last thing we need is more furniture, but I did treat myself to this pretty biscuit barrel which was one of the first things to catch my eye and which I couldn't leave without!

I need to find it a home where it will show off it's lovey sparkle. Sadly it was raining again by the time we left and so we scuttled back to the car.

I have got back to quilting my Red Manor House again this week and that is what I worked on yesterday evening. I put it aside over Christmas to work on this little project from Sue Hawkins - I can never resist one of her kits when they are on special offer!

I have another of these waiting to be done and I may make it a little longer - the kits are generous and I could easily add 1/2" on to the length.

So that is my news for now - hopefully I will be back soon!

Have a good week.

Catching up

It's now a week since we returned home from Spain and March is starting to zip through already! So time for a catch up on what I have been doing.

The Pansy Scissor Keeper that I stitched in Spain is now complete - I forgot to pack any stuffing so it had to be completed when we arrived home.

This was a kit from Sue Hawkins Needleworks and as with all her kits the instructions were clear and easy to follow, plenty of thread and a gorgeous colour combination. Very happy with this.

While we were away I bought some yarn and started crocheting squares to combine into a blanket. I had lots of fun trawling the internet looking for free granny square patterns - some simple some more complicated. Most of them were written with US crochet instructions which it took me while to come to terms with! So here are all the blocks I made while away.

This project has now been stored away until our next trip. Ooops! Just noticed that my heart is upside down in the picture!

Since our return I have started a new cross stitch project - sorry, I don't seem to have any pictures - and been working on the next round, brown rose, of my 1797 revisited quilt.

This #weebrawbag was completed in January as a birthday gift which has now been gifted.

It is a while since I have made a postcard so I have really enjoyed designing and embroidering this card for a special friend. It just needs ends sewing in and then it can be posted on it's way.

It has been fascinating to watch how the garden has changed over the last week with so much early spring colour around now. So I will end with a few pictures from the garden.

WIP and a couple of small finishes

It has been a sad weekend for France as you will know. Thank you to all those of you who sent messages of support - they were very much appreciated.

=================

So, work in progress is on my November CQJP block and here it is.

There are a couple of TAST stitches in there. Crossed Buttonhole

and Half Chevron.

When I was at Ally Pally last month I was looking out for a small project to work on while I was away and found a sweet little scissor keep kit on Sue Hawkins crowded little stall. I finished the scissor keep a few weeks ago but have only just got around to photographing it. Not an easy task for something so small and oddly shaped!

I do love Sue's kits - always such a lot of lovely little details.







My other finish will be a Christmas present and it's another pattern that I found on the Popular Patchwork site. The Simple Sewing Companion is a free pattern.

There are three little pockets so space for a tape measure too which I shall buy in UK so that it has inches as well as centimeters! I should have put a little ruler in one of the pictures - the folded case measures between four and five inches.

So that is my news for now - don't forget that Friday night is FNSI, sign up here to join in with an evening of cyber sewing fun!

I am linking this up to Anthea's CTTY post.