Saturday Catchup

Is it just me or is anyone else feeling overwhelmed by all the online stuff out there at the moment? There I was thinking that this lockdown was going to be a nice quiet time to get on with ufo's and catch up with things around the house and what I find is that I could be spending all day on the computer!

However, I have managed some sewing - I finished my Basket Case wall hanging with some ditch quilting and it is now hanging in my 'studio'.

I do love it and am really pleased with how it has turned out. It hangs next to a selection of spring/summer flower postcards.

Not the best picture but it is narrow there and tricky to get the camera at the right angle.

Also this week I finished off last weeks stitch challenge which was to fill four shapes with different types of couching.

I enjoyed working on this and it has given me a few ideas of how I can use couching in the future.

I have several flimsys sitting in a pile waiting to be quilted and I thought it about time that I got at least one of them finished off. So out came my Super Scrappy quilt. I put it together in 2018 and you can read about it here -you will need to scroll down a bit.

So first I had to layer it up. Batting was not a problem as I always keep plenty on hand but backing fabric? What did I have. Then I remembered an old yellow cotton sheet that I had found after my Nana died and we were clearing out some of her stash! Nana was very good at stash. There were two sheets and two pillow cases still in their cellophane wrapping and were 'Made in England' which will give you some idea of their age. Anyway they have been well used and are now nice and soft. One of them I used to back my hexagon table cloth and the remains will be used on the back of some secret stitching that I am working on. The other one was sitting in the cupboard and looking at me so out it came!

The flimsy is full of memories - samples of embroidery and quilting from years back, long forgotten fabrics and recycled patchwork, gifted scraps and of course plenty of my own scraps. So nice to have a memory of Nana on the back.

At the moment I am ditch quilting around each block but I may also diagonally quilt it as well.

I will leave you with some pictures of a few of the wild orchids that we have in the garden at the moment.

Early Spider

Green Winged

Lady

Burnt

Pyramidal

Man

Fly

Have a lovely week.

Friday Night with Friends

Many thanks to Cheryll for getting us together again last night for FNwF's. We were 17 last night stitching cyberly together and you can see what everyone got up to here

I received the next part of the Red Manor House BOM this week and this month we have three borders to add. The first red border is on

and so yesterday I was working on the Irish Chain border which comes next. This is where I started

and this is where I ended up!

Now to get them attached.

Cheryll has invited us all to join her again next week - a coronavirus bonus FNwF's!

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The Community Stitch Challenge this week was set by Cas Holmes and was this

·         In response to social distancing and self isolation, Cas is asking you to find a meaningful object from around the home that evokes memories as a starting point for a textile project.

·         Next step is to create a small collage background using simple straight stitches to attach bits of fabric and paper from your stash to a base.

·         Then using the object you’ve chosen as inspiration cut out a shape in fabric and apply it to the background you’ve created.

Finally use hand stitch techniques to embellish and bring your piece to life.

This was the piece that I worked on

I based this on my home and garden which have many special memories for me. I used some of the slow dyed fabrics and threads from a couple of years ago that used stuff from the garden and my pantry and stitched them down onto a piece of batting so that there would be some extra texture. I then added our house number, the sunflower that welcomes you to our door and some flowers to represent the garden.
I loved working on this.

Have a good week - stay home and stay safe!

Saturday Catchup

Hello everyone - greetings from a warm and sunny St Victor. We have had glorious weather for the last couple of weeks but it looks like it is going to cool down tomorrow. We have been busy in the garden - I have been digging and more digging, the end fortunately is in sight. The birds are singing and the blossom is gorgeous.
We have great tits doing up the nest box outside my window - they have been busy pecking at the opening and taking in beakfuls of moss. One of them has a deformation - can you see the hump on its back?

Makes it really easy to spot when it is feeding.

We also had an asiatic hornet starting to build a nest under our covered terrasse

I am afraid she lost her nest when she went out - a swift knock with a broom handle dealt with that!

Last week I showed you the appliqued blocks for my Red Manor House BOM. I soon had them machined together and added to the central block of the quilt top.

I am really pleased with the look I am getting with these fabrics. The next part of the BOM comes on the 1st so I am looking forward to that.

There have been a lot of stitchalongs starting up in blogland, Instagram and facebook. Some very tempting ones - I am particularly taken by the Laundry Basket Quilts Mystery Quilt. The link will take you to day 9 and if you scroll down you will see the layout so far. Very tempting but I am resisting! However, I was attracted to the TextileArtist.org facebook group community stitch challenge. The idea is that each week a different textile artist will set a handstitch challenge - nothing too arduous but a challenge nonetheless. The first weeks challenge was set by Sue Stone who does amazing portraits. Her challenge was to draw a grid on some fabric and fill each box with a different use of the same stitch. You could choose any stitch but I decided to start off with running stitch and here is my sampler.

This was very relaxing to work on in the evening while watching TV. I have marked up another grid and plan to try something a little less formal.

Finally this week I have been drawing pomegranates. I have some in my fruit bowl that are starting to go over so they have lost that smooth shiny skin and have become a bit lumpy bumpy! I love the colours in them - something to work on another time.

The top one looks like it is pirouetting!

I ventured out to the supermarket yesterday. I notice how strange it is to pass houses with cars parked outside where usually there are none and the roads are so quiet. It was eerily quiet in the supermarket too although it was by no means empty. We are only allowed out one in a car now so there is no one to chat to while shopping and that underlying hum was missing! Plenty of stock in the supermarket - including toilet rolls lol.

Have a good week.