Another week....

 ......has flown by! The weather cooled, now it is getting hot again! However the garden is at it's best and I will add in a few photographs at the end. But first up this weeks progress on my stitch journal.

Coming to the end of the month, the end of the fabrics I have been using and threads are now restricted. So it is time to finish up this journal and make a start on a new one, so more on that next week. However, I have been working this week on a small envelope bag which will be a home for this journal.

Some years back I used some of the same fabrics and threads to make a small memento of our home in France following a Cas Holmes online workshop.

6 was the number of our house, the sunflower was made for me by a friends son and we could see fields of sunflowers from our terrasse each summer and lots of flowers from our garden.

I tea dyed a damask napkin, cut it to size and hemmed all around. Then I covered it with the picture and other oddments of fabric before stitching all over with running stitch to hold everything in place. 

I then just overstitched the two sides together and I have a bag.

You can just see that I have added the date to the front flap. Now all I need is to do is add some threads to make a wrap around tie - my brain is still working on that one! I shall be back on Tuesday with more pictures.

I opened up a couple of my solar jars this week with interesting results.

I am afraid the colours do not show up well in the picture. However, the threads on the left were dyed with carrot tops which gave a very pale lemony yellow. The threads and fabric on the right were dyed with Sambucus flowers which look very similar but have a definite lime green tinge which you may be able to spot better in the silk waste. Both very pretty.

Now, as promised, I will leave you with a few pictures of the garden. Have a great weekend.

FNSI and my Chookshed Challenge

 Good to join up again with Wendy and friends for FNSI. For those of you down under and in the middle of winter, we are experiencing what passes for a heatwave here. It was 30 here yesterday so perfect for finding a cool spot and getting on with some sewing.

Having completed the stitching together of my Japanese folded squares on Thursday evening, my first job was to add the hanging loop.

Here you can see my finished piece, front and bag before the addition of the loop.

These are what I started with, made in 2012

and I had to make another 15 squares to bring it up to the size I wanted. All the fabrics were procion dyed, the original fabrics cotton lawn, the later fabrics all recycled.

And here it is hanging in my kitchen where I can enjoy it every day.

Here is the progress I have made on my stitch journal this week.

Friday nights additions were the little flowers and the V shape stitches.

I then moved on to a new project which I plan to finish by the end of the month - but more about that next time.

Meanwhile wishing everyone a great weekend from and hot and sticky Taunton!

Chookshed Challenge

 I have been busily working away on my challenge this week - the Japanese folded patchwork.

Pamela miraculously found online the tutorial that I originally used for making these, originally published in The Quilter. So I now know that the article was written by Anne Williams in 2012. Although that was the year that I started blogging I can find no mention of these whatsoever! That date reminded me however that at that time I had dyed a lot of fabric using cotton lawn which would have made them easier to sew than the ones I made this time with recycled fabrics.

Earlier in the week I finished making the extra squares that I needed for my wall hanging and laid them all out to find the best layout. Here is my final placement after several tweaks, pinned onto a tea towel and ready to sew.

And here you can see where I have got to in sewing them together.

This is going quite quickly so am hopeful of a finish fairly soon.

My Stitch Journal continues - here is this weeks progress.

I need some more decoration on that lace so that will be tomorrows stitching.

Have a great week everyone.

FNWFs June

 Lovely to be joining in with Cheryll and friends again yesterday evening - not much time to sew during the day as I am decorating.

So as usual I started with my stitch journal and here you can see my progress over the last week with the blue buttonhole variation and it's cretan stitch filling being last nights contribution.

Then I moved onto sewing a few more Japanese folded squares. I cut these out earlier in the week to add to the bag I already had. I don't remember sewing these before but I am glad I am not making many more as some of them are proving tough on my hands!

These are the ones I have made this week - that pinned one is proving to be particularly tough so I am leaving it til the end incase I can do without it. Still trying to work out when I first made these but I know it was a long time ago as I was using polyester batting and I have not used that for a very long time!

I have embroidered my Tree Skirt roundel for the month - this was a simple one.

And I have done some sock knitting and am nearly to the toe now - hopefully a finish this week.

So that was my Friday night, and my week.

Hope you all have a great week.

Chookshed Challenge June

 And I have been looking forward to my #5!

Way back in the mists of time, possibly pre blogging as after a quick flick back I can find no sign of them, I made these Japanese Folded Squares. There was an article in my Quilters Guild magazine showing how they were made and I used some of my procion dyed fabrics. 

I think now that my original intention was to join them together at the corners and mount them onto a black background. But now my plan is just to sew them together and use them as a wall hanging in my kitchen. I am two short of a 7x7 but I think I might make more so that it becomes a rectangle. Fortunately I had the foresight to keep my templates so I have not got that to figure out.

So watch this space for my progress in June and thank you Deana.

May comes to an end

 All too quickly it seems to me! However, since I last wrote we have had a lovely holiday in Cornwall and I will try to post about this later in the week. Now after a week at home and with the garden looking reasonable again - why does everything grow so quickly when you are away! - I have spent the last day decorating and have a few more days to do.

But sewing continues whenever possible and of course every day on my Stitch Journal. Here are my contributions for May.

Sock knitting has continued sporadically

as has the crochet ripple blanket.

I have opened a few jars that have been solar dyeing, some more interesting than others! I had high hopes of some pink from avocado skins but ended up with a deep pinkish brown

much darker than in the photograph which looks very beige.

Dandelion flowers, lavender leaves and sambucus leaves have all produced similar pale yellow results but as I found before, silk always comes out darker. Also I found some silk carrier rods lurking in a drawer and have been adding those and they take up lots of dye.

Bamboo kitchen towel has also been successful and I love that small bits of leaf become embedded into it.

I have also been playing around with my sketchbooks and following some online art courses which have been fun and interesting.

I will be back tomorrow with my Chookshed Challenge project for June so see you tomorrow.

Quick catch up!

 Getting ready for a short holiday here so just a few pictures of what I have been up to - actually not very many!

I have finished my Chookshed Challenge for the month - a nice easy one really, don't know why it has taken me so long!

This was the quilted panel I had from many years ago.

And it is now a cushion, here shown gracing a couple of new to me chairs that my neighbour had no use for.

Having used hand dyed fabrics for the applique and border I just had to go into my stash to find something to complement them. Procion dyed fabrics all seem to blend together well I find. This piece was the back of an old cotton shirt that I had dyed magenta and was the perfect size. I love the markings you can get from crumpling the fabric into the dye.

The second picture looks like a tulip to me. Anyway, there was the perfect zip in my stash and an hour later the cover was made.

Here is my stitch journal from the last couple of weeks.

My secret stitching is complete and I have made progress on the latest pair of socks and the crochet blanket - sorry no pics.

Just a few pictures from a recent visit to Dunster Castle although we only did the river walk round to the cafe. It is always very noisy by this bridge as the water rushes down from Exmoor. Always amazing to see how quickly the Gunnera grow, and how big the leaves are!

This little robin came for a visit while we sat there.

So that is all my news for today - short and sweet! Have a great weekend.