Catching Up

Many thanks to everyone for their kind comments after my last post - I am all recovered now thank goodness!

I have been busy hand stitching by the fire for the last few days and have a couple of January tasks ticked off my list. First up my RSC block. I am sticking with Dresdens and so another 'light and bright green' block has been added to my pile.

I also now have four more blocks for the next round of my Red Manor House BOM.

Also I thought you would like to see a few of the Christmas presents that I made which I did not blog about before Christmas.

Meanwhile I am busily stitching on my 1797 Revisited quilt - the end is not far away. An update next time.

Happy stitching!

Where have I been?

Well, nowhere really it's just that there has been a lot of secret stitching going on, so not a lot to post about!

However, time for a bit of a catch up. First up is this little lavender sachet which I enjoyed playing with. Hand dyed recycled fabrics and hand dyed threads.

I needed a boxy bag and had not made one before. I found this tutorial by Pink Stitches which worked perfectly for me. I shall be making more of these.

I dyed some fabric at the weekend for the next round of my 1797 Revisited quilt and have made good progress - one side added, another to do. There is football tonight so I should be able to get plenty done.

Starting to think about the colour for the next round now.

A couple of weeks ago I started another little watercolour but soon had to put it away to concentrate on the SS. When I pulled it out of the drawer to work on again I was surprised at how nice it looked - well to me anyway!

It is now finished and I am not so happy with it. But it was not meant to be a masterpiece, more about learning to use the paints and so from that point I have learnt a few lessons

I am mostly happy with the flowers except in a couple of places where I learnt what colours don't layer well! And I am not happy with the background which looks a bit lighter in this photograph than it is. Backgrounds need to be worked on I feel. I plan to cut it down a bit so those legs don't dangle in mid air and pop it into my journal with a few notes about where I feel I went wrong.

Now though I NEED to finish my advent calendar as eeek, it is the 1st on Sunday!

Nearly there. I have been looking out for a buckle to use as the daily marker but have not been able to find anything the right size. So am going to have to try and make something! Watch this space.

Thanks for popping in, see you again soon.

Friday Finish

It's a grey damp day here in the Dordogne so my Friday Finish came in very handy this morning when we went to the market!

Last week I showed you this picture of my first attempt at Domino knitting.

 A week later and I have these.

My thanks to Barbara for letting me have the pattern. I enjoyed working on these and will definitely be making another pair. There are certain improvements that I can see I can make and I will use smaller needles next time as they could be a little snugger. But I am very happy with them as a first attempt.

These two crazy heart sachets have been gifted this week so I can share pictures of them.

These are quick little makes and are great for trying out stitches and using small scraps of fabric.

It looks like we are in for a wet weekend so I have plenty of sewing plans! Hope you have a happy stitchy weekend.

FNSI

Third Friday in September already - my this year is flashing past! Many thanks to Wendy for inviting us to join in - you can catch up with what everyone was working on here

Sadly short on pictures for this post as I was working on 'secret stitching'! However I was extremely pleased with what I made and you will just have to take my word for it. I will include pictures on next months post.

I had just enough time at the end of the evening though to add the initial to this crazy block which is now ready to be embellished. This is also secret stitching but as the recipient does not read my blog, I think, I am safe.

I am going to have to reposition the heart - it is annoying me that I have not got the D quite straight!

I also finished a little pincushion this week - it's missed this years PPPP but will be top of my list for next year. I saw a gorgeous little log cabin pincushion on Chookyblues blog here and knew that I needed one! Here is my version - a little larger I think but I love it.

So that's it from me for today - we are off to the seaside next week for a few days, just hope the weather picks up, it's not been good here. Have a great weekend.

More crazy happening here

When I decided to get on with some new crazy projects last weekend I thought it would be good to use up some of my hand dyed fabrics. So I hauled two carriers bags of fabric from the wardrobe and tipped them onto the dining table planning to pull out some fabrics to use. Well, what a mess! Some fabrics were rolled in bundles of colour, some were just screwed up and shoved in, some were in smaller poly bags. At this point I decided to make some order out of my fabrics.
Now, I didn't take a picture of the mess I started out with but this is what I ended up with.

Not ironed but at least all in their colours and vaguely flattened out. I plan to get some more plastic shoe boxes to store these in.

I also ended up with this pile of scraps which is destined to become improv log cabins

and a box of bits that really were not worth keeping and which I have binned.

So now it was easy to pick out some fabrics for a few new projects. Two pinky purple ones -

this one is ready to be made up into a lavender door hangar -

and this will be a frame purse.

I also have two green versions ready to start embellishing.

Have a great weekend everyone and hopefully time to sew.

Christmas Through the Year

And this will be my last CTTY post for the year as I think I have completed all my Christmas stitching!

Many thanks to Anthea for keeping us on our toes this year - you can see what other people have been up to on her blog here

I have finished two more wheat bags

and a couple more crazy hearts.

Then I decided that it was time for a Christmas gift for me! I love this Mouse Pincushion pattern by Natalie Bird and bought the pattern last year when I finally tracked down a copy in the UK. But that is as far as it went. Now seemed like a great time to make it.

And here is my completed pincushion.

I adapted the pattern to suit me as I don't do wool applique - instead I embroidered the large mouse and flower on the side panel.

I also swapped the felt ball on the top for a loop - filled with crushed walnut shells this is quite a hefty pin cushion and the loop makes it easy to move around.

I used some of my favourite Tilda fabric and this dusky pink spot which sadly has now all been used up.

The pattern even includes some of my favourite hexies! These are 3/4".

So that's me done for this year - I already have a few ideas for 2017 so watch this space!

Christmas Through The Year October update

Linking up with Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches for this months CTTY update. I thought I had better get cracking on a few more gifts this month so have a few in progress shots to show.

First of all I have a production line of wheat bags on the go

Loosely based on an Anni Downs design you can see some I made earlier in the year here.

These pieces of decorated felt have been cut out ready to sew up into some secret stitching.

And this little Jenny of Elefantz owl is now a complete project apart from her eyes and I need to find suitable buttons for those.

This is a little crazy lavender sachet aprox 4" x 4"

I hope to make at least two more of these if I get a chance.

Autumn is now in full swing - we have lit our first fires of the season and had several frosts.

This walnut tree glowed in the mist when the sun struggled to come through the other morning.

Sadly a very poor crop of walnuts this year.

And a little more autumn colour.

IT's FSNI tomorrow night so if you have not signed up yet then pop over to Wendy's blog now and do so.

Happy stitching