Friday Night With Friends

 And here we are in September! Autumn is beginning and we are starting to clear the garden of plants that have gone over. Thinking about planting bulbs for the spring and feeling thankful for the rain we have had over the last few days and moistening our very dry ground.

Lovely to join in with everyone yesterday for another Friday of sewing. Thanks to Cheryll for organising and you can pop over here to see what everyone was working on.

As usual I started after lunch with my Stitch Journal. We have these little 'pebbles' to fill in this month and I am enjoying working in the round again. I especially love the ones that have finished up with a dimensional look, like shells or urchins. Black (and grey and silver) is of course this months RSC colour.

No work on my Boro flower panel this week - I got side tracked by a Stitch Club video from Textile Artist.org. They usually do a freebie in September and this one really interested me. It is by Deb Cooper who creates beautiful work using recycled fabrics, plant dyes and rust. Well, I do love a bit of rust so how could I resist.

Basically the technique uses fabrics and threads in natural fibres and neutral colours. I have spent this week putting together a small sampler - aprox 6" x 12" - using cotton, linen and silk fabric scraps and threads using a variety of stitches. Deb includes torn papers and found objects too. I must say I loved doing this and also love my sampler - so much so that I had to be really strong and strict with my self to move on to the next stage! Here is my completed sampler.

Next stage was to bundle it up with some rusty nails and a small lump of rusty metal I found in the garage

sorry about the poor lighting! And it is now soaking in hot strong tea for 24 hours.

Well, we were told 48 hours is better but I can't wait that long especially as you have to leave it to dry out before unfolding! Come back next week for the results.

Next up I needed to make a start on my RSC log cabins. The strips are cut but first I needed to embroider the little Joy in the Ordinary block from Jennifer. Here it is today after I pressed and trimmed it.

Tonight I shall be sewing log cabins.

Also this week I managed to complete two socks.

Now, I don't usually knit two socks at a time but when I started the ones on the left (which use Amethyst and Wildflowers yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners) they were going to be in this Treasure Socks design. However, after knitting the leg I decided it was all too tight, even though I had knitted very loosely. So I went back to my usual basic sock pattern. Meanwhile I had also started the sparkly sock on the right as light relief from the pattern. Anyway, that is the story of these socks, two down, two more to go.

So I think that is me all caught up and I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else worked on last night.

Have a good week.

FNWFs April

 A new month means a new RSC colour and that means yellow. So my first hour on Friday afternoon was spent on my Stitch Journal. Circles this month and Fridays circle is the one top right.

I will show you some close ups from last month later in this post.

While stitching I was watching a tutorial about making a zig zag sketchbook from one sheet of paper, easy peasy! So of course I had to have a go. I didn't take any pictures of work in progress but basically what you do is make lots of folds in the large sheet of paper then add some random paint and or script. I went for spirals. Then once dry you make 3 cuts and then fold to make your zig zig book. At three points you get some awkward folds but we were shown how to turn these into pockets and windows before adding the outer covers. So if you are still with me, here is my finished book. I rummaged around and found some spiral printed paper in my stash which was appropriate.

A pocket

and a window

The idea is that you have eliminated 'white page syndrome' and can work into the pages with sketches or collage over anything you don't like. Those splotches were not what I had intended - one side of my paper is very absorbent and instead of being able to swirl that paint around it just soaked in!

Anyway, once I get a larger sheet of paper I shall be repeating this and it was quick, easy and fun.

Next up was my second RSC project and I started on the little embroidery from Jennifer. I got the log cabin strips cut earlier in the week so am all set to go once I finish the embroidery.

And that was my Friday - many thanks to Cheryll for hosting us. Pop over to her blog to see who else took part.

Also this week, a new pair of socks on my needles

and I do love this West Yorkshire Spinners Rum Paradise sock yarn.

Also, as promised some closeups of my March Stitch Journal page now that it has been pressed.

It has been a lovely sunny, if very windy, day here as storm Kathleen passed us by - lets hope she has not done too much damage in the rest of the country.

Have a good week everyone.

A small finish

This lovely Liberty tissue case has lived in my handbag for more years than I care to remember!

And, as you can see, the corners are now very much the worse for wear! So I decided that it was time for me to make a new one. If you follow me on IG you will have seen work in progress on this piece of embroidery.

I thought you might be interested to see where the design comes from and how I transfered it to my piece of fabric.
I have a few of these 'rubbing blocks' which I bought some years ago from Art Van Go. Some of the designs are not to my taste but this particular block has been well worth the purchase.

 Tricky to photograph as it reflects but you should get the idea. It is about 6" square.

I stuck the block to my work surface with some blu tack and then sellotaped my fabric over it.

I then used one of my Markal oil sticks to make a rubbing.

I chose a pretty pearly pink which would glint through my stitching and anywhere else it happened to catch.

The fabric needs to be left for 24 hours and then is ironed, covered with a piece of baking parchment, with a hot iron. The oil is now set and you can get on with your embroidery. I used mainly chain stitch variations with some fly and feather stitches too.

And here is my finished tissue case.

I worked this piece of embroidery for a small bag some years ago using the same method.

Linking up with Super Mom No Cape and her Stitchery Link Party.

Now what are these doing flowering so early - they should not be in flower until May!

Have a great week everyone.

Happy New Year and FNWF

Happy New Year everyone! Thank you for visiting me last year, for your encouraging comments and I hope that you will continue to pop in over 2017.

Many thanks to Cheryll at Gone Stitchin for hosting our Friday night get together - you can see what everyone got up to on this first Friday of the year here.

We arrived home after nearly four weeks in UK on Thursday and I have been busy unpacking, sorting tidying etc ever since. However, I did make sure that I spent yesterday evening in front of the TV with some nice relaxing hand sewing.

I started work on this Gail Pan design during my early December trip to UK (more about that later) and then put it aside in favour of some knitting. So last night I was able to crack on and as you can see there is only the second heart and the running stitch border to do now - maybe tonight!

While we were away I read about Crazy Quilter on a Bike Elaine's Task Master Journal and thought that it might be a good way for me to keep track of my projects for the year. The idea is to have lists of 'to do's' - UFO's gifts etc and also weekly task lists which break down your projects into manageable tasks. Click on the link above to read all about it.

So I went out and bought myself a note book - only £2 in The Works so no great financial layout!

I do intend to make it a nice cover when I get some time. First up I made a list of lists! Then I started making my lists - here is the first one, my UFO list.

OK, so not a long list but, I was working from memory and there will be a lot more added to this list once I get to tidying my cupboards! There are also lists of things I need to do (gifts mainly) things I would like to do (this one will definitely grow over the year) a CTTY list and a list of monthly tasks (swaps, RSC etc)

Then starting at the back I have my weekly to do list - anything not done at the end of the week will get moved to the next weeks list.

There are plenty of pages in the book so I intend to add photographs of everything I finish through the year too.

Many thanks to Chantal for the link to Elaine and her Task Master post and also her Motivational Monday posts. I hope that 2017 will be a great year for you all.

Friday Night Sew In for September

Twenty-five lovely ladies got together last night to sew - thank you very much Wendy for hosting us and you can visit Wendy's blog here to see what everyone was doing.

I have been reading this lovely book by Claire Wellesley Smith.

Slow Stitch means working with recycled or organic fabrics and threads dyed with locally sourced, natural dyestuff and working slowly and rhythmically with the seasons. Threads and fabrics are solar dyed over days or weeks and fabrics might be left outside to weather in sun, wind and rain. Now, I don't think shall be throwing out all my fabrics and starting again but I shall be having a go at dyeing some threads with fruit and leaves foraged from my garden. I was also keen to have a go at some of the simple stitching ideas shown in the book and made a start with this simple piece of dyed wool felt and some strips of my own dyed fabrics left over from my Rainbow Log Cabin.

I love wonky log cabin and I stitched these down by hand. You can see I have drawn in a line to mark my first row of stitching.

Here is the finished piece - it is about 7" square. I love the way this has turned out and also enjoyed slowly stitching along with everyone else.

Christmas Through the Year update

Linking up with Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches for CTTY again

I am pleased to say that my Gardener Girl is complete and has been put away safely until Christmas. Here she is.

A close up of the embroidery.

I enjoyed working on this design which came from Lilipopo

Also linking up with Super Mom no Cape Stitchery Link Party.

Back tomorrow with some EPP - see you soon

Also linking up with Needlework Tuesday at Books and Quilts - thank you Heather. 

A Crazy Finish

The Four Seasons crazy blocks that I made in 2014 are now altogether in a finished quilt! And here it is.

The blocks were 9" square and the finished quilt is 27" square.

The sashing is hand dyed velvet and I have linked the four blocks by adding stitch over the sashing which varies according to which season it is nearest. A few close ups (of course!)

The backing fabric is a beautiful Liberty lawn donated by a friend (thank you) and which turned out to be perfect to bring to the front to make the binding.

My thanks to Carli for setting me off the on the Four Seasons trail and to Jennifer Clouston whose book Foolproof Crazy Quilting inspired much of the stitchery in my blocks. Also to all my readers who have made such lovely comments about my work along the way.

A picture of three 2016 finishes altogether.