It's EPP Tuesday

I am linking up again with Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches - a linky for all things English Paper Pieced. Do go and see what other people have been working on and link up yourself if you have some EPP to share.

I finished sewing down my tumbling blocks to their background and have now quilted and bagged the piece ready to turn into a book wrap.

I wanted to try out some King Tut quilting thread that I bought with my Hexathon quilt in mind - don't get excited, no chance of that happening for a while - and used it with some loopy wavy line quilting on the book flaps. I am pleased with it - the colours are nice and vibrant, although not so easy to see in my picture!

So now I just need to sew down the flaps and it will be all ready for use.

Here are my swap hexies for the month.

So on the EPP front that is it for me.

This Friday is FNSI, the link is here if you fancy joining in for a nice stitchy evening.

Thank you to everyone who left a comment on my last post - I tried to reply to most of the comments but some may have escaped me! Will Blogger ever sort this problem out or is this our blogging life of the future?
Hope you are having a good week

Friday Night with Friends

The beginning of another month - well we are a fair way through it already! - and so it's time to get together with friends for our virtual sew-in. Many thanks to Cheryll for hosting us again - you can see what everyone was working on here

Sadly no pretty pics from me as I was working on secret stitching!

However, I did find time to try out my new light pad and traced out this Gardeners Journal block.

Oh wow, bliss! No more sellotaping designs to the window to trace them out. Really pleased with my purchase and wish I had bought one before. It is so slim and light and tucks neatly under my desk. Perfect.

Hope everyone enjoyed their Friday stitching and that you have a great weekend.

Party time!

Great to be invited once again to the Party in the Chookshed!

Thank you Chooky for your invitation - I do hope that you are able to let your hair down and have a great weekend.

It has been a lovely day here - shhhh cos it can't last! So I have spent lots of time in the garden taking advantage in the lull in the rain. Hedges today - the rain weighs them down so you get soaked walking past.

However there was some time to sew after lunch as I caught up with the Archers and finished putting together these tumbling blocks. They are now pinned and ready to applique onto the background fabric.

A bit of time for some secret stitching too. This evenings task is to sew these tumblers down to the background.

In true party style we have feasted on paella and the wine has been flowing!

Wishing you all a great weekend.

Chain Stitch 2

Thank you to everyone who commented on my previous post - I do hope that I have replied to everyone but if I missed anybody then I do apologise.
I hope that Blogger soon sort themselves out as it is annoyingly slow at the moment to reply to comments.

I have been busily chain stitching away since my last post and have finished my block. If you receive my blog by email and you did not receive my last post then you can read it here

 

 

Here is a list of the different chain stitch variations that I used

 

Chain stitch

Whipped chain stitch

Back stitched chain stitch

Twisted chain stitch

Broad chain stitch

Braided stitch

Knotted chain stitch

Half whipped chain stitch

Long armed chain stitch

Heavy chain stitch

Easy cable chain stitch

Triple chain stitch

Detached chain stitch (lazy daisy)

Detached twisted chain stitch

Detached slip chain stitch

Open chain stitch

Berry stitch

Three chain stitch

Petal stitch

Picot stitch

Detached wheatear stitch

French knot border stitch

 

That's 22 different chain stitches - and there are many more!

 

These are my two old faithful reference books

 

 



I have used my block to make this tissue case for my gift box.

So from a soggy Dordogne I hope you have sunny, stitchy weekend.

Chain Stitch

If you have been following my blog for any length of time then you will have seen several projects that I have worked using this piece of plastic.

It is one of a set of double sided rubbing blocks and my favourite by far. This was my first project using the block.

And I turned it into this little Bushkiri bag.

You can see it here with some more little bags I made using some of the other rubbing blocks.

And there is another one

There is a white version

I have used it as the wallpaper at the back of my blog.

And you can read about how I made this pink version here

So once again I am making a tissue case for my gift box and I never tire of this design. However this time I thought I would challenge myself into using as many different chain stitches as I can. Here is my square of fabric just as I was starting - I used a gold Markal paint stick to transfer the design.

So far I have used nine different chain stitches and am aiming to pack in quite a few more.

The greens in the fabric and the threads are not showing up as well as I would like in this picture - it's actually looking a lot brighter and I am very pleased with the look so far.

Hoping that this post reaches everyone - I understand that there are lots of problems with blogger at the moment.
Hope you are having a great weekend.

PYT Tuesday

It's great to have Anthea back - hope you feel better soon Anthea. To link up with all things EPP visit Anthea's blog here  If you have any EPP work on the go then do please link up - we are always looking for eye candy and new inspiration! Thank you Anthea for hosting us.

You may remember that towards the end of last year I started making 1" tumbling block hexies as my new RSC project.

After making 60 of these little hexies I decided that they were taking up too much of my time and so I put them safely away to await inspiration!

This week I decided that it was time that my 2018 sewing journal had a cover and remembered the tumbling blocks. So out they came and I started to play. I started off with these linking circles which I liked very much.

I was thinking that I could join them together and then applique them to a plain background which would look great but then I started filling in the gaps and liked the effect even better.

And so I have started sewing them together - this is as far as I have got.

My only other EPP project at the moment are my swap hexies - these are this months, winging their way to Australia.

I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else has been working on.

FNSI May

Yesterday was Friday Night Sew In - many thanks to Wendy for hosting us. You can see what everyone got up to here

A few weeks ago I came across Jennifer Clouston's Boro Inspired Sewing Caddy and I immediately thought of my solar dyed fabrics from a couple of years ago.

I pulled out my box of fabrics and had lots of fun choosing the fabrics for the outside of the caddy, working the little embroideries and then 'boroing' it all together. Sorry - no work in progress pics! On Friday afternoon I was able to sew the drawstring bag into position and add the ribbons. So here it is.

The yellow side - fabrics dyed with rosemary, walnut husks and onion skins.

The blue side - fabrics dyed with black bean soaking water, morning glory flowers and elderberries.

The inside

I still need to find a suitable cord to cover and then attach around the outer edge of the bag - it also makes the loop for a button closure. So far everything was from stash but I think I am going to have to go out and buy some suitable cord. I love this little bag and - it goes beautifully with the log cabin pincushion I made last year which sits very neatly inside the drawstring bag.

I have also recently acquired a copy of Anni Downs 'A Gardeners Journal' and have been looking forward to starting on one of the embroideries. I am not planning on making the quilt but the designs will make super minis for gifts - and me! I decided to start with the Dovecote and here is how much progress I made yesterday.

The sun has been shining here for the last few days which has made a pleasant change - last weekend was awful! So I am off outside with my embroidery - hope you have a great weekend.