A couple of finishes!

 Yes, I have been beavering away here, clearing up a few ongoing projects. First of all I am proud to show my completed tablecloth!

So pleased with this and apart from the hassle of trying to get those flower baskets square (which they are not!) I loved every stitch of this project.

The flower baskets use scraps from my collection, the applique is all using batiks and I have made a scrappy batik binding.

A couple of shots in the garden (it's the bench that is not level - not my photography)

and finally on the table where it will live.

Now for my second finish I have this scrappy cover for my Kenwood Chef which I started in the summer.

This replaces the old blue and yellow cover that I made many years ago and which has been well used and washed. It is now looking very tired, unlike this picture where it was brand new!

Also to report I have progress on Wings and Pretty Things. Whilst in UK recently I caught up with the fabric I had ordered for the first border so I have been able to add that and the second border of hexies and butterflies.

Now I can make a start on the next applique border of pretty things.

And finally a couple of Field Journal blocks which I finished back in August but had not got around to photographing.

Well that is all for now. I need to get on with some secret stitching this week and I may get out another Field Journal block to work on.

Have a good week.

Friday Night Sew In for August

 Good to be sewing again with virtual friends - thank you Wendy for getting us organised. Pop over to Wendy's blog here to see what everyone was working on.

I spent a little while on the computer first of all. I mentioned in my last post that I am researching all things spiral for a new sketchbook. So I am starting with the very earliest known man made spiral which is this Triskelion or Triskele from Newgrange in The Republic of Ireland.

This symbol was carved over 5000 years ago into the wall of the burial chamber, at the end of a long passage. It was positioned so that during the winter solstice the suns rays would stretch along the passage and illuminate the symbol. The symbol has been used elsewhere including on this Mycenaean vessel

and carved into rock in Galicia in Spain.

These spirals are related to the three legged Tiskelion or Triskeles which can be found in Ancient Greek art, coinage, on the flag of Sicily and as the symbol of The Isle of Man.

OK folks, culture lesson over for the day and yes I did get some sewing done! Quite a lot of quilting on my tablecloth actually as there was a fairly boring football match on TV. I just have one side of the tablecloth to quilt now.

Not easy to photograph but you should be able to make out that the top edge is unquilted.

Right, I am off to visit a few fellow FNSIers.

Have a good week.

FNSI May

 Many thanks to Wendy for organising our Friday Night Sew In and a very Happy Birthday to Wendy too. Pop over to her blog  here to see who else took part.

Having wielded a decorating paintbrush in the morning, it was a pleasure to sit for an hour after lunch with my watercolour paintbrush! My pot of masking fluid arrived this week and so I was able to make a start on my next task which is painting glass. My first attempt was rubbish however attempt number 2 was much more succesfull.

So for Friday afternoon I painted the same glass but with a notebook behind to try and catch its reflections in the glass.

While that was drying I thought I would have a play with a little bird that I spotted on Annie's blog here using a tutorial that is here

Well he definitely needs a bit of tweaking - those legs are too far forward for a start! - but for a quick little doodle not too bad. He needs some ground to stand on too!

Apricots are in season here and I bought some earlier in the week, mainly to paint as they are not a favourite fruit of mine.

My evening was spent working on the quilting of my tablecloth which is coming along slowly but I am very happy with it.

It is certainly nice having it draped over my knees in the evenings - it has been very chilly here for May and we are still lighting fires in the evenings which is unheard of in May. Its been wet too although Thursday was dry and the sound of garden machinery could be heard all around the valley.

Well I think that is me all caught up for now - have a good week everyone and thanks again to Wendy.

Happy New Year!

 Lets hopethat 2021 will be a much better year for us all.

Its been a quiet Christmas period here with plenty of sewing, some reading and of course lots of TV.

I finished the Anni Downes block which you can see in my previous post and I have been slowly working my way around the Irish Chain border on my Red Manor House quilt. Its slow going but I am almost halfway now and itching to get on to the next border.

However, the big news is that I have finished the applique on my scrappy basket tablecloth and it is now ready to be layered up for quilting - I just need to find the right backing fabric.

Not brilliant pictures but the weather is not conducive to fancy outdoor shoots! The colours of the applique batiks is not zinging as much as it does in real life.

I have also been working in my sketchbooks and the recent purchase of a Gelli plate means that there is going to be lots of mono printing going on for a while. Hopefully some pictures soon.

Yesterday it was good to catch up with Chookyblue and friends for an hour or so via Zoom - lovely to see faces new and not so new. I managed to pull out a few hexies to baste while chatting and good to see what others were working on.

So I wish you all the very best for the coming year and look forward to seeing lots of lovely new projects around blogland!

Bit of a change!

 In the weather - last Saturday it was 33 degrees here, today the forecast is for 14 degrees! We have had some rain at last although a couple of big storms missed us and all we got was some light rain from the edge as they passed by.

Instagram has been tempting me again. There has been a stitch along this week for these tubs

which I thought looked very useful. The smallest one in the picture is made using selvedges and I need to make use of my overflowing box of selvedges!

So here it is. The instructions were really clear and easy to follow.

The small tub measures 4.5" diameter and is perfect for storing my label collection.

Now that the weather is cooler I want to get on with quilting Red Manor House and so it needed layering up. I took advantage of a clear dining room table to take a picture of my tablecloth now that all the flowers have been added.

It needs lots more leaves and I have ordered a few more batiks so this is now on hold for a couple of weeks.

I started layering up RMH on the dining room table but it really was not working so I relocated to the outside table which worked a treat!

Played 'thread chicken' with the safety pins!

And so I have made a start on the quilting.

Not easy to see in this picture but I am going round the window frames and the door before outlining the house itself. Nice to have it tucked around my knees now it is chillier although now that it is layered up it is very weighty!

Last weeks use of the new blogger seems to have worked OK thank goodness and all the comments have come through safely. Next bit to investigate is replacing my header picture - I wonder if that procedure will have changed at all!

Have a good week.

FNwF for September

Lovely to get together again virtually with friends around the world. Thank you Cheryll for inviting us - you can see who else took part here.

Friday was a lazy sort of day as we went out to lunch to celebrate friends 55th wedding anniversary. On yet another 30degree plus day it was very pleasant sitting socially distanced under a very wide tree and eating delicious food. Having given our hosts a lift to the venue it was late afternoon before we returned home and I spent an hour or so catching up with blogs and mail plus half an hour talking Paw Patrol and the return to school that didnt happen with my great neice in Ghana!

Then it was time for cricket and I finally got around to doing some sewing. Having completed the applique of all the vine and basic leaves on my tablecloth earlier in the week I was able to make a start on adding the flowers.

Not many done but the cricket got exciting! And having written England off early in the Australian innings there was a nailbiting end with England winning! Whew. And then it was time for bed.

In other news this week I have my autumn hanging in place with a selection of my favourite autumn postcards

My swap hexies for the month are winging their way to Australia.

This months RSC colour is red.

Just one more month to go and then I will have the twenty I need for a quilt. I may need to play around with placement of my Dresdens before next month to see if I have any gaps, or if I go with the colour of the month.

So thats me all caught up for this week. Things are winding down in the vege plot now with just courgettes producing and the odd tomato ripening. Philip has cut most of the grass that we leave long during spring and early summer for the wild flowers, and so we shall soon be pruning and tidying for the winter. Lots of digging to do but that might need to wait until we get some rain (?) as the ground is very hard.

Covid numbers are on the increase here in France - as indeed they seem to be everywhere and it now
seems odd to see someone out and about without a mask instead of the other way around.

Stay separate and safe and have a good week.

Friday Night Sew In - August!

Many thanks to Wendy for inviting us to join her - see who else joined in here

Hard to believe that we are over half way through August! Autumn is just around the corner and so this week I realised it was time to crack on with my Autumn wall hanging. When you last saw it, it looked like this

and was desperately in need of some red berries to bring it to life - which I was dreading doing! So I spent a couple of afternoons adding borders to the piece and plucking up courage to do the berries. Like all these things, in the end, they were no trouble at all once I had worked out how to do them.

And so my task for Friday afternoon was to add a swag of 1/2" hexies to the bottom border of the quilt and layer it up ready for quilting.

The flying geese along the top of the panel are actually migrating cranes which we see a lot of here in the autumn. I plan to do some basic ditch quilting by machine around the border and then hand quilt the applique to add some detail.

In the evening I worked on the applique on my table cloth. The basic vine and leaves are now complete on two sides and the third is nearly done.

In other news I have been working on some secret Christmas stitching and have completed my purple RSC Dresden.

It has been hot here again with just the odd shower to wash the dust off - not enough to soak the ground though which is what we need.

So I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else was working on last night and will be round to visit soon. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

FNSI for July

Thank you Wendy for hosting us again this month - you can see who else took part on Wendy's blog Sugarlane Designs.

First up, I have reverted to Legacy Blogger simply because of the labels system. On my last post I trawled the whole list of labels ticking boxes and then when I added a new label all my ticks disappeared. So annoying.

Earlier this week my fabric order arrived from UK which meant that I was able to add the sashing to my Red Manor House.

And also the border to my baskets.

Which means that on Friday I was working on the applique pieces that will go onto the border. I made a large quantity of bias strip to use as the stem. And then I started cutting out flowers and leaves.

Not good colour repro on that photo sadly.

The applique on the original design really stands out and I realised this was because zingy batik fabrics had been used.

So I went through my scrap box pulling out any batiks and my other fabric boxes and found that I had far more batiks than I thought! I am looking forward to seeing this come to life.

In other news, I finished the two string projects from last weeks scrap haul

And I worked on the applique for my autumn wall hanging.

It now needs a scattering of red berries and then I can add the border.

I have a pile of masks cut out in readiness for a delivery of elastic - but I think we have all seen enough pictures of masks to last for sometime!

So that was my week - hope you all had a good one and I am looking forward to seeing what everyone did for FNSI.

Super Scrappy - its a finish!

Earlier in the week I finished hemming down the binding on my Super Scrappy Quilt and added a signature.

I am really pleased with how this has turned out.

And it is now in its new home - hiding an old chest!

In between other things I have been working on my Red Manor House flower blocks. I now have five of the eight complete.

I very much enjoyed browsing through the book I showed you last week.

The photography is lovely - they used an old railway depot for the photo shoot so lots of rust, machinery and old buildings. Brilliant.
Anyway I have decided on my new project and I am going to use the design from the front cover.

As I only need a lap sized quilt to use as a tablecloth I am just going to make four baskets and then add the applique border all the way around.

As I want to make this a truly scrappy quilt I shall hand piece the flowers. Which of course, just to make life complicated, meant me drawing up the pattern to get the right size for the diamonds as in the book they are cut from three strips machined together. However, I think I have it cracked and have diamonds ready for a trial run. Fingers crossed.

It's been a lovely week here and we have been busy in the garden but today it is grey and wet so I have been catching up around the house. Time now to sit down with some sewing. Have a good weekend.