FNwF's June #2

Thanks once again to Cheryll for hosting our Friday night get together. You can see what everyone was working on here

After a nice drive and walk by the river in the morning I sat down after lunch wondering what to do! It's not that I have a shortage of things to do it's just making a decision as to which project to tackle that's the problem! Looking at my list I noticed that I needed to make a postcard to send off to a friend and as I have not made a card for a while I decided that that was the way to go. I decided to make two cards - it's almost as quick and also means I have a spare for another ocasion.

I pulled out a couple of pieces of printed and inked brown paper that I crumpled up then smoothed out a bit before ironing onto some pelmet vilene. I remembered coming across some distessed tyvek motifs recently and actually remembered where I had seen them, so hooked them out and machined them onto the cards then added a few rows of fancy stitching. The backing was machined into place and the cards zig zagged all around. Tadah! One and a half hours of happy play and I have two cards.

In the evening I got out my latest Red Manor BOM block and started sewing. Not a huge amount done due to several things of interest on TV! It is my fourth block and as I am aiming for two a week I am right on schedule.

It's a windy day here with the odd sprinkling of rain - at least it has warmed up a little bit - it has been distictly chilly for the last few days and I had to dig out some socks!

Have a great weekend.

Friday Night Sew In

Last night it was time once again to join with Wendy for a stitchy evening with friends. Thank you Wendy for getting us together. Click on the link to see who else took part.

After a large lunch and a brisk walk I got down to getting this little bag (for a small person) finished. I had to attach the lining to the bag, add the straps and then the popper. Very happy with how it has turned out.

I used that large pink spot as the lining too.

Time to move to a seat by the fire - it has been a chilly few days here. I needed to finish embellishing this heart which is now ready to make into a lavender sachet, along with another one. Hopefully this afternoon!

I have had a busy week in my sewing space, nearly all of it I cant share for now! However, I think I am safe in showing this postcard.

I made an acrylic print onto brown wrapping paper, then when it was dry scrumpled it up. After a bit of smoothing it was pressed onto pelmet vilene with bondaweb and embellished with machine embroidery. Its a while since I made a post card so this was fun. I made two actually - similar but not the same! I love using this technique and have a few more - different designs - waiting to be made up.

Right! Now to get on with finishing those hearts and then hopefully a walk between showers. Enjoy your weekend.

FNSI for November

Just popping in briefly with my FNSI report.

We were out all day yesterday but when we returned I got on with finishing off my Christmas postcards some of which are for swaps so no pretty pics I am afraid!

Thank you very much for hosting us Wendy, hope everyone had a great evening.

Piece Yourself Together time again..

.... and the last one for 2015. Thank you very much Anthea for setting this up and organising us this year, it has been great to see what other people are working on and we need to spread the word! 

So, to my swap hexies and this lovely one arrived recently

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And here is one that I sent out in November

The other November hexies to send require fabric that I don't have so they will be sent when I get to UK next week.

Here are my December hexie flowers that I have posted to my swap partners.

Last time I showed you a sneak peak of some half inch hexies that I was working on - they were for postcards which have now been received so I can show you the finished cards.

This one was for the lovely Susan who is busy working on a dissertation for her degree!

 

And this one went to my swap partner Annie  in Sheila's Christmas postcard swap.

Annie blogs at Freeze Frame.

Many thanks to Sheila for organising another lovely postcard swap.

So Happy Christmas to my hexie friends and see you next year.

It's Piece Yourself Together time again!

And doesn't it come around quickly!

Thank you very much Anthea for hosting this linky and I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else has done. Anthea herself is working on a very pretty Grandmothers Flower Garden so I do hope that you will go and have a look.

I have not had a great deal of time over the last fortnight and some of it has had to be spent on other things but I have basted some more hexies and also started sewing some together.

I have a vague idea of where these are going but will let you know when it is more definite!

Meanwhile the postman has been busy and I have received two beautiful cards in Sheila's swap. Our theme was beach/summer and here are the cards I received.

This one from Judy

of a coneflower made using some of her own dyed corriedale and BFL wool. The stitching is beautiful. The background is creamier than it looks in my picture. It's lovely Judy, thank you very much.

The other card came from Sheila herself and I am so pleased to have swapped with her.

  I love this little boat bobbing on the Nova Scotia sea. Click on the link to Sheila to see a whole series of lovely cards that she has made. Thank you very much Sheila and thank you for hosting our swap.

Here are the cards I sent to Sheila and Judy. Beach huts are a very British thing I think and I always love seeing the rows of bright cheerful colours at the seaside. This one was for Sheila.

And this one for Judy.

I have been admiring the lovely scarecrows that my friend Susan has been making. So what a lovely surprise it was to receive one of my very own in the post. This one is appliqued onto a tote bag and I do think he is gorgeous!

Thank you very much Susan.

Right, that's it for today - blogger seems to be having a few wobbles so I am going to get this posted while the going is good.
Have a great week

FNSI was here again

And don't the months whizz by so quickly!

Many thanks to Wendy for hosting us especially having moved this week! Pop over here to see her new home and here to see what everyone else got up to last night.

I made a start in the afternoon and got the edging done on these cards and ATC's

Just the threads to sew in now.

Then I thought it was time that I started sewing these pieced rows together.

This was a Mystery Quilt from the Quilters Guild that I have been working on over the last year. In each of the four issues of the magazine we were given instructions on how to make two or three of the rows - the width of the row and a clue - ie it could be stars or strip piecing or curves etc. The rest was up to us. Not exactly needing another quilt top I was not going to buy fabric so raided my stash (large) of hand dyed cottons and this is what emerged. The idea was for everyone to finish in time to display the quilts at the AGM but that has long gone! I am going to finish machining these together this afternoon and then think about the colour for the border - no more piecing but just a wide border of hand dyed cotton I think.

Then of course in the evening watching TV out came some hand work and I added some more stitching to my May crazy block.

I hope everyone had a great evening - I shall be off to visit and see what everyone got up to in a while.

Happy weekend.

Postcards for spring and Easter

I have already shown you this lovely postcard

that I received from Jeanneke  in  Sheila's Spring/Easter postcard swap.

Here is the card that I sent to Jeanneke

one of a series of 4, this one is called Forsythia.

The other cards are

Crocus

Tulips

and Japonica

These were fun to stitch on a piece of hand dyed cotton (darker than the photograph shows it) with some of my own dyed threads.

All but one has now arrived at it's destination.

Also this week I have completed my second BOM in my pink series.

and I have an almost finished turquoise crazy block which should be finished any day!

Damp and dreary here today but at least the daffodils and blossom outside my window cheer things up. Have a good weekend.

TAST and catching up

First of all the latest two TAST stitches.

Last weeks TAST stitch was 131 Beaded Lock Stitch and I have two versions at the bottom of the picture, aligned and offset.
This weeks TAST stitch is 132 Kikos flower. This pretty stitch can be worked with varying numbers of petals. I have added a stem to it to make it a proper plant.

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I made good progress with my mini hexagons while I was in UK and have reached the outer edge. I have started adding hexagons to the outside now to turn over to form the edge.

Since I have been back I have received three lovely postcards.

The first to arrive was this one from Judy

depicting birch trees. The foliage is made using some of Judy's lovely dyed wools and is very textural and tactile.

Then came this card from Fiona

with some of her beautiful quilting inside each flower.

Then finally this scrumptious card from Jeannette 

we agreed to swap cards on the theme of poppies. Jeannette has fused organza onto felt and added poppies, seed stitches and beads.

This is the card I sent to Jeannette

Shibori dyed cotton onto which I made a gold Markal rubbing of a poppy seed head and this was emphasised with hand stitch.

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In August Philip found this huge caterpillar in our garden

which he identified as being the caterpillar of the Deaths Head Hawk Moth.

The caterpillar was imprisoned and fed and after about a week turned into a chrysalis.

Then today, this is what we found

a Deaths Head Hawk Moth! Isn't it amazing.

Well, if you have made it to the end of this post, thank you for your perseverance!

Hope you all have a great weekend - we are off to Rome next week for a few days and looking forward to our trip very much.