A last post for February

 I have mostly been quilting Red Manor House so no sewing to show today. And it has also taken me, mostly, away from my sketchbooks. However a couple of things to show. I added the watercolour of a (it seems we have at least three) wagtail to one of my sketchbooks.

and I finished the pencil drawing of same wagtail.

You may remember that last year we visited Taunton Minster to see The Moon.

Last week we visited Exeter Cathedral to see Gaia - The Earth.

Gaia rotates and is much bigger than The Moon. Both spectacular and well worth viewing. The blue lighting in Exeter Cathedral was also stunning.

Have a good week and I will see you again in March!

Friday Night Sew In - February

 Many thanks to Wendy who has been out and about having a great time! for getting us all together again. You can pop over to Wendy's blog here to see who else took part and what they were up to.

I had a fairly lazy afternoon looking at a couple of DMTV videos to get some sketching/painting ideas. I then worked on this little sketch of Waggy the pied wagtail who has been visiting our feeder recently. Now he may not be the most exciting bird - and it turns out there are three although they only come to feed one at a time - but despite all the tasty treats I have been putting out these are the first birds who have stopped to feed. So we are really excited. There are plenty of birds around especially in the trees in the park at the front of the house, but not having any trees in the back garden there is no where for them to perch and check that the coast is clear before feeding. We shall be planting a tree this spring!

Anyway, back to my pencil sketch - it is not finished but I am happy so far.

I must admit to 'cheating' and tracing the outline but then I am doing a series of these and don't want to spend too much time fiddling around getting the basic shape right when I want to concentrate on the technique. Here are a couple of pictures from earlier in the week.

This was my first water colour attempt - not enough water I felt.

I was much happier with this one.

I also had a go at an oyster catcher on an previously painted sketchbook page. He is pecking around in some seaweed in case you wondered!

I spent the evening working on my Red Manor House. The quilting is coming along nicely - and quickly too.

That red sashing will need quilting when I have finished the flying geese. I looked high and low a couple of weeks ago for the stencils I use before starting the flying geese and had given up. Yesterday afternoon while looking for the fabric I want to use for the #sipteaandepp Winter Mystery SAL, which I am way behind on, lo and behold, there were my stencils! No sign of the fabric though haha. Oh well, it will turn up sometime.

Have a great week everyone.

Friday Night with Friends

February already! Where did that month go. We have had a variety of weather over the last month, most of it grey and damp with the odd sunny day tucked in. And so here we are again linking up with Cheryll for a stitchy evening with friends - you can see who else took part and what they were up to here .

I spent an hour Fiday afternoon with my watercolours. A couple of years ago I bought a delightful little leaf printed sketchbook (which so far is too precious to work into haha) and it came wrapped in a small piece of leaf printed paper. I immediately stuck it into one of my sketchbooks and have finally felt inspired to work into it. The result is this little short eared owl. And before you ask, you can only see the ears evidently when the owl is on it's guard!

Those black feathers around the eye look a bit too eyelashy to me but they are pretty true to the photograph that I was working from so I suppose they will be OK.

I am not sure yet if I will paint that white paper above it's head or just cut it away. A decision that could take a while!

On to Friday evening and I stitched down this months RSC hearts onto their background. Pink this month and I think these are looking pretty.

So that's it for now. Linking up with Angela for Scraphappy Saturday

Friday Night Sew In January

 Our first FNSI of the year - thank you Wendy for organising us. You can see who else took part here.

Earlier this week this lovely book arrived in my library.

I have had my eye on it for some time! I am a great fan of Jennifer's books - her Foolproof Crazy Quilting was my bible when I was learning to crazy quilt. Lots of lovely clear instructions and beautiful examples to inspire.

This new book is equally inspiring and beautifully laid out with different sections on stitches that can be used for stems, leaves, flowers, buds etc. All of which can be combined to make your own individual, whimsical flowers. There is also a section on combining fabrics to make backgrounds.

I had decided to put this book to one side for a while until I had cleared some other projects out of the way but I had no will power!! Consequently on Friday afternoon, out came my box of solar dyed fabrics and threads and I spent a happy few hours layering fabrics and starting to stitch the layers together. I had to force myself to put everything away at this point so that I have a portable project to take to my quilting group next week!

For once the colour reproduction seems to be good - but you can only just spot my stitching across the centre!

In the evening I worked on my Red Manor House quilting - really need to crack on with this if I am to finish before the summer!

Happy Stitching.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2023

 Once again I am linking up with Angela for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2023.

After completing my Dresden Flower top at the end of last year I have been looking for a smaller project. You may have seen my post here where I trialed a heart which I decided was a bit on the small side. So now I have gone for a larger size and these sit neatly on a 6"finished square. I aim to make two a month.

Here are my first two for this months colours - dark and bright blue.

FNWF's and a New Year

 Happy New Year everyone! It seems I have been AWOL for longer than I thought! Anyway, very happy to be joining up with Cheryll and friends again for FNWFs and our first of the year. You can seen what everyone was doing by following the links here . Thank you Cheryll.

I have been working on the 30 Day Sketchbook Challenge which involves a sketch a day for January with daily prompts provided. Fridays prompt was trees so I worked a quick sketch of the trees outside my kitchen window. Trees are always interesting at this time of the year when you can see all the lovely shapes and there are some sections here that would blow up and make good designs.

Here are a couple more pages from earlier in the week - 'sweets and treats' and 'eggs'.

The afternoon started out dry so we drove to Wiveliscombe for a walk around. Having investigated the rather upmarket charity shop - we prefer packed, rummagy shops - we wandered off down a side street looking at some of the interesting old buildings. Just as we were thinking of turning back we spotted a sign for antiques so went off to investigate. Yew Tree Antiques is based in part of an old brewery - through a small, almost hidden, door. Up some windy stairs and another corridor which opens out to a large space crammed with furniture and glass. The smell of beeswax furniture polish was strong, everything shone and all the beautiful glass sparkled. What a treasure trove. Well, the last thing we need is more furniture, but I did treat myself to this pretty biscuit barrel which was one of the first things to catch my eye and which I couldn't leave without!

I need to find it a home where it will show off it's lovey sparkle. Sadly it was raining again by the time we left and so we scuttled back to the car.

I have got back to quilting my Red Manor House again this week and that is what I worked on yesterday evening. I put it aside over Christmas to work on this little project from Sue Hawkins - I can never resist one of her kits when they are on special offer!

I have another of these waiting to be done and I may make it a little longer - the kits are generous and I could easily add 1/2" on to the length.

So that is my news for now - hopefully I will be back soon!

Have a good week.

FNSI December

 The end of another year of Friday Night Sew In's - already! This year has gone by so quickly. Many thanks to Wendy for hosting all year and organising lovely gifts for participants.

You can see who took part this month here along with some great small gift ideas which will come in handy for next year.

We were out to lunch and then stopped off for some shopping on the way home so I didn't get to sew until the evening.

First up I 'finished' quilting this block on my Red Manor House quilt, and didn't spot that I hadn't actually finished until this afternoon, when I took the steam to it to clear away my line markings! Oh well, something for this evening.

I got RMH out at the beginning of November (it keeps my legs warm in the evenings) and have been quilting these blocks. There are quite a few done now.

It's a while since this last saw the light of day at the end of Feb 2021 - last winter it got used fairly early on as packing and arrived here in UK before me.

This was how I left it and I have probably done 2 more quarters like this.

Anyway, back to last night and I picked up a new Field Journal block but had only done a few stitches when I remembered that I had intended to work on my idea for next years RSC.

When I went to the exhibition at Cowslip Workshops in the summer I saw this quilt and fell in love with the little hearts.

My plan is to make two or three of these each month and applique them to blocks. Here was my test heart which I think is probably a bit on the small side at 3.5" x 3.5"

I might try the next size up next as these won't make a great dent in my stash!

In other news I have completed four Field Journal blocks this week - here they are.

And we have had some frosty mornings over the last week so I have been experimenting with the macro on my new camera.

We have had a couple of jolly cold weeks here but are now promised much milder but wet weather for the next week. Oh well, spring is round the corner! Have a great week.