WIP's and trialing the new blogger!

Well so far so good - now to add a picture

That was easy but how do I get back to the left hand side of the page?

Anyway, I think I have done as much as I can to my piece of crazy so the next stage is to machine it to the pincushion base. Then I will be able to add the beaded tassels and put a spider on the web.

So I just found left alignment in 'other options', thats good.

I have finished working on my pomegranates page in my sketchbook. The one on the left is with water soluble pencils which I have washed with water. The one on the right normal colouring pencils.

The photographic reproduction is not as good as I would like - the whole page glows a much more golden yellow.

Now, I wonder if I have added any labels - cant see anywhere to save. But having found preview I can see that my labels are there so that is fine.

OK, I shall publish and wait to see if any comments come through as that seems to be the problem most people have had.

See you next time

June FNSI

Many thanks Wendy for hosting our Friday night get together - you can see who took part on Wendy's blog here

I started off after lunch with some drawing - back to pomegranates but this time in colour.

The yellow in the background is a little more golden than shows on my picture and I worked with coloured pencils. Today I started on another pomegranate on the oposite page using water soluble pencils. Still needs more work yet before I let loose with the water!

Anyway, after my play with colours we went off to meet a friend who had transported some things for me from UK earlier in the year. This was the first time we had been able to meet up since then. They were things that came from my parents house after they died last summer, the main thing being this sewing box that my Dad made for Mum about 30/40 years ago - maybe more.

Inside there are three removeable trays - perfectly sized for storing reels of Sylko sewing cotton - and a nice deep storage space underneath.

There were plenty of reels of thread left in the box - I do love reading the names of the colours on those old reels.

Having completed my two flower pots for the week, I allowed myself on Thursday a new project and I had put together some fabrics for a square of crazy quilting - yes, I couldnt resist making a start on a crazy biscornu!

It was good to have my completed pitncushion to hand when I worked out where to concentrate my stitching. The four corners of the top come down to form the sides and therefore wont have any pins in. So they will be focal points. The top four points of the finished pincushion are the centre points of each side - so that is where I shall put my beaded tassels. The four corners of the base will be very visible so I made sure that the fabric I chose works really well with the colours of the top. Whew - hope you got all that lol!
Anyway, yesterday evening I made a start on two of the corners.

I was really pleased with how these roses turned out.

Not a huge ammount done over the evening - the trouble is I pick up my crazy quilting book for a quick flick to pick up ideas and end up spending ages looking at all the gorgeous pictures!

Hope every one else had a good evening. See you soon - I have to try out the dreaded new blogger!!

FNSI for April

Thank you Wendy for inviting us to join you again - you can see who else took part in our Friday Night Sew In here.

Last week I showed you these 'Basket Case' blocks

I had a hankering for some Flying Geese and so my four blocks became this wall hanging!

Having pressed and photographed my hanging I put it aside to add the buttons during the evening and got out my sketchbook. I have been working on another pomegranate page and was determined to get it finished - which I did.

After spending the rest of the afternoon in the garden I settled down in the evening to add the buttons to my baskets and tadah!

Now to get it quilted and I am thinking just some simple ditchquilting around the blocks and the geese might be all that is needed! Watch this space.

I had good intentions of joining in with the Community Stitch Challenge this week and have the fabric and threads prepared and sitting on the table but that is as far as I have got! Maybe this evening. The challenge is to fill four squares or shapes with different types of couching and I will do this to add to my running stitch samples.

In other news, the nightingales have arrived and have been singing their hearts out all week, seemingly 24 hours a day! Lovely to hear them along with the cuckoo and hoopoes. We had some much needed rain yesterday evening but could have done without the wind that came with it. Lots of stuff in the garden needs tying up once it hasdried out a bit.

Our lockdown has been extended until May 11th - what will happen after that we dont know yet but I am sure there will still be lots of restrictions for some time after that.

Hope everyone is holding up - there certainly seems to be a lot more blogging activity going on!

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.