Chookshed Challenge January

 

Challenge #6 has been put away now - very happy with the progress I have made on this. Not enough blue hexies to finish off round that last flower - I need to shop, chop and baste! 16 of the 42 flowers have been used and hopefully I can get some more of this done over the year when nothing else is calling.

Many thanks to Deana for organising the challenge - looking forward to next months number now.

Sunday Catch up

 Just popping in with an update on what I have been working on this week. First of all my stitch journal for the week up to yesterday.

I have been busy with my Chookshed Challenge and have more hexies basted and extra flowers added.

Bit of a busy photograph but you get the idea. Sorry about the shadow - grim weather and light here today. A shopping trip is needed for more blue pathway fabrics😊😊 One more week on this so hopefully I can make a lot more progress.

Also my Trailblazer socks have progressed and you can now clearly see the pattern.

There is one twist to the front of the sock and one at the back but not central - offset - hope that makes sense.

Thats it from me for this week - happy stitching!

FNSI June

 Well it was a busy day of sport in our house with two cricket matches and a football match on TV. Needless to say lots of time to sew whilst keeping half an eye on the action!

First up was my stitch journal. 

I have been playing with different buttonhole/blanket stitches this week. Todays is that spiky one on the right which according to my stitch dictionary is German buttonhole stitch and which I like very much. Could be a great crazy quilting seam treatment with the addition of extra stitches and or beads. If you click on the picture you should get a larger version so you can see yesterdays which is a sort of knotted buttonhole and then the legs have been wrapped with different threads. Also very effective I think. Note the buttonhole semi circles, I will come back to them.

Next up yesterday were my swap hexies for the month. I had already cut and basted them so it was just a matter of sewing them together.

Earlier in the week I had made up these little Field Journal blocks into their hexies.

So it was time to pull out some more patterns to work on. I am very strict with myself and just take the first 6 that are on the top of the pile so imagine my surprise when I found I had not one but two of these lovely hexagons with Buttonhole semi circles! What a coincidence. This is the one I worked on last night while the football was on.

I love how effective those buttonhole hearts are.

Many thanks to Wendy for organising our evening again - pop over here to see who else took part and some lovely pictures of Wendy's recent finishes.

That's all from me for now, have a great weekend.

FNSI August

 And many thanks to Wendy for hosting again - pop over here to see who else took part. There was also lots of activity over on the facebook page too.

Not much time to sew and so I thought I had better crack on with my swap hexies for the month and here they are

Good to get them done and they will be in the post on Monday.

We have had a busy couple of weeks and so there has not been much happening on the sewing front. I did get my RSC hearts appliqued down last week

Then I couldn't resist getting out all my hearts to see how they looked. Well!

My first regret was setting them on point and my second was using those dark backgrounds for the blue! Oh well.

I have got some pretty floral fabric that I might use as plain blocks between the hearts and for the edging triangles and regig the colours so that the darker backgrounds are at the bottom. On the other hand I could just remake the blue blocks! Two more months to go though before I make a decision.

Another busy week coming up and I should have some travel pics for you next week.

Have a lovely week

What have I been doing?

 It is good to get to the end of the week and have several projects to share with you now that Red Manor House is out of the way.

First up my swap hexies for the month.

It seems that I am seriously short of red fabrics so I shall have to do a bit of shopping before red comes around for RSC.

My quilt group are making Linus quilts at the moment and I remembered some blocks that I made from a jelly roll some years ago and hadn't used. Some were squares and some had been cut into triangles ready to machine back into squares so that was my first job.

Two nice post trimming piles are always very satisfying!

Here are all the blocks after machining together.

I need to source some suitable backing fabric now.

In the evenings it has been good to get back to some Field Journal embroidery. These were completed this week - already for making up into hexagons.

I have a large stash of knitting wool lurking under the bed so I thought a new jumper for next winter would be in order. I like knitting for mindless handwork whilst watching TV. Here is my start.

It is my first time using a circular needle - treated myself to some of those lovely Symphony ones - and am finding them easy to use. Also my first attempt at a knitted folded hem and I am very pleased with how that has turned out. Now to add in some more colours.

Very changeable weather here but we have been able to get some garden time this week despite the horrendous deluge we had earlier in the week.

Heres hoping for a nice weekend - for me and for you.

Friday Night with Friends

 A very profitable FNwFs for me as I ticked several jobs off my list. Having both of us returned from our travels with covid we are confined to home and I can stitch away without any pressure. Fortunately I have only felt like I have a cold although Philip has felt much worse and suffered with a nasty cough and throat. On the mend now fortunately.

So what was I up to - first up I made these pretty swap hexies which will be winging their way down under next time I go out.

Then it was RSC time and I completed the second of my corner rainbow Dresdens.

During the evening I picked up my knitting and completed the back of the heel and the turn on this sock.

Feeling very pleased with myself as I have managed to match the colour change perfectly with the first sock!

Many thanks to Cheryll for getting us together - pop over here to see who else took part and what they got up to.

Still working on all the pictures I took while we were away but will do a holiday post soon.

Have a great weekend.

Playing in my sketchbook

 I have been a bit obsessed with working in my sketchbook this week! The video course is brilliant with lots of information and ideas. My book now looks like this.

I did some more ripping and sticking and then moved on to the next stage. This was to add paint - acrylics, watercolour, whatever we had to hand. Scraping acrylics onto the page with an old credit card was fun and quick.

Painting with thick paint and thin.

The next phase is to use stencils to add focal points and pattern - just had to go with hexies for my stencils!

I have also been working on the pieces of sketchbook that were ripped out and they may go back in at some point.

Another video tomorrow although I really need to get on with some sewing today! I have been quilting in the evenings and slowly working on my Red Manor House. I have also made my swap hexies for the month and they are now winging their way - this month to New Zealand.

Obviously photographing them on a black background was not a good idea! But they were in the envelope and on the way before I realised.

Well, I must away - it's a beautiful day here and there is, as always, lots to do. Have a good week everyone.

FNwF and Chookshed party

What a busy weekend it has been so far - and it's only Saturday afternoon!

Last night was the first Friday of the month so time for Friday Night with Friends hosted by Cheryll. Many thanks for getting us together again Cheryll and you can see who joined in here

It was a wet afternoon here so I got an early start and finished off a pincushion that I have been making for the Perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade next week so no pictures now. I then moved on to work on my swap hexies for the month.

It's the first week of the month so the next set of instructions came for the Red Manor House BOM. This month we have another eight applique blocks to make.  I have completed one block and started work on another yesterday evening.

I have decided to add a small button to the centre of each of the large flowers.

Also this week we have a new Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour - pink.

I even managed to find eight pink fabrics that I had not used in last years pink block.

Of course this weekend its time for the annual Chookshed birthday party.

In the past I have enjoyed stitching along while Chooky and friends party and sew in the Chookshed but this year things are different! Chooky organised a zoom link up for her party and invited me along. The party started yesterday evening at 11pm my time, just as I was off to bed so I popped in this morning for half an hour and then again this afternoon and sewed along for a while. It was so lovely to see and speak to people that I have been chatting to in blogland for the last four or five years. There were people coming and going all the time because of course we are all in different time zones. Great fun and thank you so much Chooky for organising it.

Monday is the first day of PPPP 2020

If you want to find out more  then pop over to Ida's blog here. And I shall be back on Monday with my first PPPP post.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

FNSI for May

Having cut the binding and flange for my Super Scrappy quilt, my plan for Friday was to get the binding machined on and as much of the hand sewing done as possible. However, having added most of the flange on Thursday I discovered I had miscalculated the length of binding needed! So first thing Friday I made another flange strip to add to what I had, and finished machining that in place.

I went through my binding box earlier in the week and pulled out all the odd leftover lengths of binding I had been saving for a rainy day and was surprised to find that I had, what I thought was, just the right amount. Anyway, knowing I would not have enough I machined what I had in place so that I could work out how much more I needed to make.

It's about 40". Anyway, at this point the garden called. Does anyone else have a collection of plastic flower pots saved from purchased plants with the idea that they will 'come in handy one day'? I had a good clear out of my potting corner and filled three large compost bags to go to the tip - and I still have lots left. Seemd such a waste but what to do.

Anyway, when I sat down in the evening I started sewing down the binding that I had machined and managed to get two sides of the quilt done. Am pleased with how the flange is looking with the scrappiness either side.

We had a wet, cold start to the week but the weather is starting to pick up now and the sunshine is back. The garden is growing at a rapid rate!

More secret sewing this week and I made my swap hexies for the month.

We are back to six day a week postal deliveries and I was pleased to see this in the postbox this morning.

It was not due to be delivered until Tuesday! I am so looking forward to curling up with this for a good browse. I am planning a new lap quilt so am looking for inspiration.

Many thanks to Wendy for getting us together again this week - you can see who else joined in here.

Have a good week.

Friday Night with Friends week 2!

Thank you very much Cheryll - great idea to get us all together again this month. You can see who else joined in here

A couple of weeks ago Michelle very kindly shared her 'basket case' design which very much appealed to me and so my plan for FNwF's was to make a few of thses blocks - they are 6.5"

My plan is to join these with a narrow sashing and add a border to make a small summery wall hanging. I plan to fill the baskets with button flowers and a few embroidered leaves something like this.

Thank you Michelle.

Earlier this week I finished adding the April borders to my Red Manor House and so this is how it looks now.

Not the best picture - my 'design wall' is now a little on the small side!

Also this week I have made my swap hexies for the month

and my RSC block

not exactly light and bright but they are what I have.

I decided not to take part in this weeks community stitch challenge - the subject was eyes and I thought I would find it a bit creepy! However, I have seen some beautiful work on the facebook site. Looking forward to next weeks challenge though.

The weather continues to be good and we have been enjoying temperatures in the high 20's on our terasse. The garden is growing very quickly but we have plenty of time at the moment to keep it under control. One bonus of not being away for our usual Easter trip is that we can watch the wisteria flowers open up.

and this rats tail cactus which I hate apart from when it is flowering!

This tree frog seems to have taken a liking for my wasp trap and spends the day there every now and again.

Our nearest town is Riberac where there is a busy Friday market - although not at the moment. However we had heard that there would be a food market there yesterday morning and so I went in at 8 am to pick up some sausages from Helen of Franklins Farm. Just the best sausages. Anyway, when I got to the market there were about 20 stalls, well spread out and surrounded by a barrier with a one way system. There were two gendarmes on duty at the entrance checking our paperwork - the attestation we have to fill out saying why we are out and about dated, timed and signed and identity cards (in my case passport). Once this had been checked and approved we were then directed to use the hand sanitiser before being allowed to enter. All very efficient I thought.

Hope everyone is keeping safe and well at home. Happy stitching.