EPP Tuesday and more catching up!

It's the fourth Tuesday in the month and so it is time to link up with Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches with all things EPP.

There is not much to report on the EPP front though - just that as well as these

I have altogether 47 diamonds and 26 hexagons basted and ready to add to my Hexathon hexies. They are my project this year for our month in Spain - and we leave tomorrow, so am now very excited!

Just a couple of things to quickly show you - this lovely Christmas postcard arrived for me from Sheila  of Sheila's Quilt World.

 Isn't he jolly! Thank you very much Sheila and I am sorry it has taken me so long to post about him.

Lastly, a last minute project before our trip has been this Noodlehead open wide zippered pouch.

 I had saved all the scraps from the Shibori bag that I made last year and already had the zip so it made up very quickly. Follow the link for Anna's excellent tutorial in three sizes - mine is the largest as I wanted to store all my art materieals together to take away.

By pieceing the lining I had just enough fabric! The base of the bag is 4.5" x 8" and it stands 8" high - looks enormous in my picture but thats the angle I was taking the picture from.

I hope to be posting some pictures of sunny Spain in the next few weeks but they have had a very poor winter and there was even snow on Alicante beach last week.

Have a great February.

FNSI and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Many thanks to Wendy for hosting our first FNSI for 2017. There were 34 of us at the party last night - click on the link to see what everyone was doing.

I was not terribly productive - I cut out these diamonds for my Hexathon quilt and got them all basted, then got interested in a film and the knitting I had intended to get on with stayed in it's bag!

I have been following a few bloggers who do the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and I thought that this year it would be a good idea for me, a way to clear away a few scraps.
So I am joining up with Angela at soscrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

I have decided to use two related block designs - the Friendship Star

and Star on Star

Which, put together, look like this

although I have not joined them yet as I want to play around with the layout a bit. Having read this sad story by Chantal, I now have two of those blocks soaking in Metapex as there was a trace of purple on the kitchen paper when I tested one of the fabrics. I must remember to test all my old fabrics before I use them!

Maybe I should have made more blocks as this has hardly made a dimple in my stash and so following the lead of Fiona I decided to make a storage basket for my desk. I replaced this ugly thing that holds my small rulers and other useful items

with this

I pieced together some scraps of batting and used some fairly stiff fabric (that I don't like very much) for the lining. I found a short length of purplish binding in my box of binding scraps and there we are, a truly scrappy basket. I need one more basket for my desk which I shall do another month and I could do with a new mat to stand my sewing machine on too which could be made by the same method.

Thank you Angela for hosting the RSC.

Catching up

So here we are having gone past the middle of January already and I have lots to catch up on. I now have a new computer and am trying to find all the lovely things I used to find so easily and trying to find passwords for some of the sites I use.

So the first thing I need to tell you about is the wonderful giveaway that I won back at the end of November.

I have been following Christina Erickson on Instagram for a little while now - she does the most amazing embroidery - so when this popped up on her feed I entered.

And, lucky me, I won! Now, Christina lives in Washington and I live in France. But during the course of our email conversations it turned out that not only were we both going to be in UK at the same time but actually going to the same exhibition on the same day! How much of a co-incidence is that. So we arranged to meet outside the V&A and Christina handed over the package which was this beautifully framed piece of embroidery.

The embroidery is aprox  8" x 3.5" and covered in beautiful stitch. Many thanks Christina

it was good to meet you and your Mum and the chocolates were delicious!

The exhibition we had gone to see at the V&A was Opus Anglicanum and what a treat that was.

Do click on the link and scroll down the page - there is a video of how some of the embroidery was worked which is fascinating.

And now a finish for 2017 - four of my CQJP2015 blocks framed, bound, labelled and with a hanging tube.

All I had to do was complete the black feather stitch around the sashing but for some reason perle thread is not available in my neck of the woods so I had to wait for my Christmas trip to UK to buy some more.
The quality of my pics is not good - I think the black sashing must affect things.

So just a reminder of my original four blocks before framing.

So that's it for now - but lots more to show you so I will be back soon!

Happy New Year and FNWF

Happy New Year everyone! Thank you for visiting me last year, for your encouraging comments and I hope that you will continue to pop in over 2017.

Many thanks to Cheryll at Gone Stitchin for hosting our Friday night get together - you can see what everyone got up to on this first Friday of the year here.

We arrived home after nearly four weeks in UK on Thursday and I have been busy unpacking, sorting tidying etc ever since. However, I did make sure that I spent yesterday evening in front of the TV with some nice relaxing hand sewing.

I started work on this Gail Pan design during my early December trip to UK (more about that later) and then put it aside in favour of some knitting. So last night I was able to crack on and as you can see there is only the second heart and the running stitch border to do now - maybe tonight!

While we were away I read about Crazy Quilter on a Bike Elaine's Task Master Journal and thought that it might be a good way for me to keep track of my projects for the year. The idea is to have lists of 'to do's' - UFO's gifts etc and also weekly task lists which break down your projects into manageable tasks. Click on the link above to read all about it.

So I went out and bought myself a note book - only £2 in The Works so no great financial layout!

I do intend to make it a nice cover when I get some time. First up I made a list of lists! Then I started making my lists - here is the first one, my UFO list.

OK, so not a long list but, I was working from memory and there will be a lot more added to this list once I get to tidying my cupboards! There are also lists of things I need to do (gifts mainly) things I would like to do (this one will definitely grow over the year) a CTTY list and a list of monthly tasks (swaps, RSC etc)

Then starting at the back I have my weekly to do list - anything not done at the end of the week will get moved to the next weeks list.

There are plenty of pages in the book so I intend to add photographs of everything I finish through the year too.

Many thanks to Chantal for the link to Elaine and her Task Master post and also her Motivational Monday posts. I hope that 2017 will be a great year for you all.

Happy Christmas!!

Just a quick post to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a very Peaceful and Pieceful New Year!

Just a few pictures to share with you of our brief stay in Brittany on the way to UK.

This was the view from our hotel bedroom in Vannes on the south coast of Brittany.

Having booked through a last minute website you usually get one of the least nice rooms but the helpful receptionist told us she had upgraded us and I could see why when I saw this stunning view.
Unfortunately it was wet so we saved sightseeing in Vannes for another trip and drove on to Josselin which has a very beautiful old centre. Fortunately the rain had stopped by then but it was still very grey.

Since we have been here in Taunton we have mostly been shopping and meeting up with friends and family. Earlier this week we met one couple at Dunster Castle. The castle is run by the National Trust and evenings during December they open the house for a few hours. The rooms are decorated as they would have been in times past, we were given a glass of sherry on arrival and there was music and singing provided by two ladies - one playing harp and the other a flautist. While we were there, there were no children around so all the adults had great fun with jingle bells and clappers!
This is a picture I just managed to get of the castle before it got dark.

You might be able to make out the sea behind the castle - on a clear day you would be able to see the coast of Wales.

Have a lovely Christmas.

EPP Tuesday update

Linking up with Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches again for EPP Tuesday. Many thanks Anthea for organising this linkup all year. You can see what everyone has been working on here

Just a couple of things to show you. I could not resist making one of these little trees that Anthea was working on last time.

It is made from 1/2" hexies and I gave it a blue side and a red/green side so it could be swapped round to suit ones mood! It's already been gifted.

I have also made a start on putting together my hexathon hexies.

We are now in UK for our Christmas break - the sun was actually shining this morning! 

Postcards!

The lovely Sheila at Sheila's Quilt World organised another postcard swap for us - this time the theme was Christmas! Lots of scope for fun. I did two swaps.

First my friend Linda the Scrapmaster sent me this beautiful Angel. Lots of tiny pieces there.

And this super jolly Santa came flying around the world from Maria in Australia.

These are the cards that I sent to Linda and Maria.

Thank you Linda and Maria for your lovely cards and to Sheila for organising our swap.