Throwback Thursday

It is a while since I linked up with A Quarter Inch From the Edge and

but here I am today with a real blast from the distant past!

In the mid 1980's I had a fabulous holiday in Tunisia touring in a small bus with around 20 French people. This bit was a shock as, having booked and flown from Italy we had expected to be with Italians! Having been living in Italy for nearly three years we had some Italian but spoke hardly any French.

We started in Tunis and visited the coast and the desert, salt flats and film sets - oh yes, and lots of Roman ruins! Of course we were taken to shops and markets selling local crafts and in one place we saw some amazing flat weave rugs which immediately shouted 'patchwork' to me.So I bought a postcard showing some of the designs

and when I got home I turned some of those patterns into a design for a quilt.

And here is the finished quilt

and a view of the border.

Not brilliant photos I am afraid as they are actual photographs - not digital - and I no longer have the quilt.

All hand pieced and hand quilted.

To see all the other 'Throwbacks' pop over to A Quarter Inch from the Edge.

Happy stitching.

PYT time

It's Piece Yourself Together time again and I have a couple of things to share with you this time.

First of all my project folder has progressed and is now a folder.

Just a few hexagons to add as embellishment inside.

As you can see a piece of embroidery has already made its way inside!

I have also been working on some hexies for a table runner to go in our spare bedroom and these are now waiting to be sewn together.

Apologies for the poor quality of the photographs - it has been grey and wet here today.

Many thanks to Anthea for hosting the PYT linky - pop over to her blog here to see what everyone has been doing.

Hope you are having a great week.

FNSI for April

Many thanks once again to Wendy for organising our Friday get together - please pop over to Wendy's blog to see what everyone was doing last night.

I had a choice of projects to work on, but which? So, when in doubt start a new project! And that is just what I did.

I have been cleaning our spare bedroom as we have friends arriving to stay on Monday. We have an old chest of drawers in there and I bought some chalk paint while we were in the UK to give it a new lease of life. This will have to wait until our guests have left but it occurred to me that a pretty table runner on top of the chest would be perfect to show it off and so I got busy with my hexagons. I sorted out all the pale pinks and blues from my hexi stash and then went though my fabric stash looking for the same colours and this was the result of my afternoon and evenings work.

I still have a few more hexies to cut out and then I shall get busy basting.

We have had a lovely display of tulips in our terrasse garden this year.

I took this picture earlier in the week and sadly wind and rain since then mean that they are starting to look a bit bedraggled! But the lovely colour is still there.

Hope your Friday evening was fun.

Piece Yourself Together time

I have had this post written for a couple of weeks having got my dates and Tuesdays all mixed up!

As always, many thanks to Anthea for hosting this linky. Pop over to  Anthea's  blog to see  her almost completed, beautiful table runner and to find out what everyone else has been doing.

I am pleased to say that I actually have something positive to share with you all today!

I was looking for a small hand sewing project to work on over Easter and remembered these hexies that I had sewn together in Spain with the vague idea of making a project folder with them.

I also remembered a piece of Jenny of Elefantz embroidery that I worked a couple of years ago which has been sitting around waiting for a project.
And so I put them together and I now have the outside of my project folder!

Now I need to think about how I am going to finish off the inside - how many pockets I want etc. Hopefully it will not be too long until I can show you the finished folder.

While we were in England we visited Arlington Court in North Devon and I spotted this coverlet in one of the bedrooms.

It was made in the early 19th century and the hexagons are 3/4". Sadly, as you will see from the close up, many of the fabrics have started to disintegrate.

I should imagine that many of the fabrics have faded too. However, it was lovely to see it out on the bed as it had spent many years in a drawer before it was discovered.

I am also linking up with Super Mom No Cape and her
Vintage Embroidery Link

 Happy piecing!

Spring in the garden

I thought you might like to see some pictures of our garden which is looking very colourful with spring flowers at the moment.

I have one small clump of bluebells and I was pleased to see today that the flowers are starting to open.

We have a lovely display of cowslips again this year all around the garden.

There are just a few early tulips open - most are still in bud.

The daffodils are coming to an end.

I love the gorgeous colour of the japonica flowers.

We have been working hard in the garden, mainly getting the veg plot ready for planting summer veg at the end of April. Poles are in place for runner beans and the smaller wigwams are where we have planted mange tout peas. At the far end of the plot there are several rows of broad beans starting to flower. Seeds are in for parsnips and carrots.

Now we are off to the UK for a couple of weeks - no doubt it will all need weeding again when we get back!

Easter FNSI sewing

Happy Easter everyone - I hope that you have had a good weekend.

So on Friday night Wendy very kindly invited us round for an extended FNSI to cover the whole weekend! Many thanks to Wendy for hosting us and also for your super Bunny stitchery.

All this lovely sewing time meant that my Baby Dear Jane

now has a border!

Backing fabric has been ordered and at some time this summer she will be quilted.

Do pop over to Wendy's blog to see what everyone else was working on.

Have a good week.

EPP Tuesday and FNSI/EWSI

It's Piece Yourself Together time again - and if you have been working on some English paper piecing then do pop over to Anthea's blog to share your work or just to see what everyone is up to.

Regular readers of my blog will know that last week I finished a quilt - my first UFO finish of the year. And so there has not been a lot of anything else going on. However, I have made and sent off my swap flowers for the month which are these

And this lovely flower arrived in the post for me this week.

I was in the UK for a few days and as we all know hexies are a nice easy project for when you are traveling and so I managed to baste this collection of 1/2" hexies.

 This coming Friday is FNSI - delayed by a week - but as it is Easter weekend, Wendy has decided to turn it into an Easter Weekend Sew In! A whole weekend of sewing fun. Sign ups are open now so do pop over to Wendy's blog to join in the fun.

I shall be working on my mini Dear Jane - adding the border I hope!

But whatever you do I hape that you all have a great Easter weekend.