Persian Tiles - a finish!

I have been busily crocheting away every evening this week and finally finished my blanket on Friday. I have to say I am really pleased with it!

And I was happy that yesterday was a nice, dry sunny day and perfect for taking photographs.

The last block of My Vintage Kitchen came from Jenny of Elefantz on Friday so I now have that sewn up.

I need to get the borders machined around my last two blocks then my mini quilt is ready to assemble. Meanwhile I have gone back to basting hexies for 1797 while watching TV.

I have had a little box of water colours for many years now and a selection of 'how to' books picked up from charity shops but which never seem to quite show me how best to use my paints. However, last week a new video from Design Matters TV did exactly what I wanted. I downloaded the design they used and followed along with Linda and hey presto I seem to have a vaguely respectable watercolour of some rudbekia.

Just the scary bit of adding the background now! Next up I plan to have a go at some winter iris that I have a photograph of!

Well, the clocks changed here last night, so for a few weeks I shall be back to getting up in daylight again until winter creeps in.

I'm off to the cinema this afternoon to see Downton Abbey - can't wait!

Friday Night Sew In

The months are rolling by and another Friday night has passed in the company of friends. Many thanks Wendy for getting us all together again. You can catch up with everyone here.

Well, I have very little to show I am afraid as I spent my afternoon working on some secret stitching and then in the evening I got out my crochet and made these.

The Persian Tiles crochet project that I kept in UK to work on while visiting Mum and Dad came back to France with me this summer and has been sitting in the cupboard.

As I have finished all the tiles and just need to make the joining pieces I thought that it was about time that it was completed. So this is my evening task for the coming week.

In other news I have completed another round of my 1797 Revisited.

And I have the next round of turquoise cut out. So if I get fed up with crocheting tiles together I can always baste a few hexies!

Hope you are having a good weekend.

Catching Up

Earlier this year I started putting together a collection of fabrics that I liked but with no specific purpose in mind. Some of them came from a shop that was closing down, some from my stash and a few just caught my eye elsewhere.

As I say, I had no real plan for these fabrics - I just liked them.

Then the Quilters Guild announced over the summer that they were planning a BOM and when I saw the quilt I knew that this was what my fabrics were for!

The Red Manor House BOM is based on a  quilt in the Guild's collection The Red Manor House Coverlet dated to the mid 1800's. A stunning quilt with so much detail.

To sign up for the BOM this is the link.

The first block was released on October 1st and here is my Red Manor House.

So looking forward to November 1st and the next section.

I have also been working on the Jenny of Elefantz stitchalong 'My Vintage Kitchen'. This is the latest block.

I loved those big chunky creamy beige mixing bowls. Two more blocks to go I think.

There has been some secret stitching with these gorgeous Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

And after dyeing some more fabric I now have all the hexies basted for the next round of my 1797 Revisited quilt.

Stitching has commenced!

Weatherwise we are experiencing a very late 'Indian Summer'. Today it was 30 degrees on our terrasse and we are expecting higher temperatures over the weekend. However, the rain that we have had over the last few weeks does mean that the garden is coming back to life and looking green again. But, as I found yesterday when I started digging over part of our vegetable garden ready for planting broad beans for next spring, the ground is very dry still.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Friday Night with Friends and Rainbow Scrap Challenge for October

Many thanks to Cheryll for getting us back together again on the first Friday of the month. Pop over to Cheryll's blog here to see what everyone was working on.

On Thursday evening I completed my RSC block for October. The colour this month was 'darks'! brown, black or grey. I chose brown so pulled out my brown box from the back of the cupboard and found some lovely browns! Anyway back to FNwF and my first job on Friday was to photograph my RSC block.

I am very happy with this. In fact I am very happy with all my blocks. I allowed myself the treat of putting them all together to see how they looked.

It's not the best photograph I am afraid - it was wet out so I had to do it on the sitting room floor. My aim is for 20 blocks altogether so another year of RSC to go.

I have been thinking about getting my 1797 revisited out again so next up I pulled out my fabrics to see which colour to go for next.

I have decided to reverse the colours back to the centre from the green row so searched my supply of mixed turquoise and emerald for the next row.

Not quite enough so then I searched through my supply of white recycled fabrics for suitable pieces to dye and enough for the next turquoise row. That will be my next job after finishing this post.

After popping out for a couple of hours to visit a friend who is recovering from an op, by the evening I just wanted some quiet hand stitching to work on while we caught up with a few TV programmes.
I decided to crack on with my Advent calendar and added all the red and silver cross stitches separating the numbers.

Which means that I am now ready to add the backing fabric. Maybe a job for later this week.

I am very happy with my progress yesterday - thank you all for your company.

And the winner is...

…. Sheila from Sheila's Quilt World!

Congratulations Sheila - I will pop it in the post this week.

One Mission Accomplished!

Yes, the three Santas are complete - and I love them!

It's amazing what a difference those beards make - I really was not sure until I added them. I have decided not to stitch them together until nearer Christmas as I don't know where I would store them - and this could be an ongoing problem! Anyway, meanwhile I shall hunt for a suitable storeage box and some little dangly things to add between the hands.

The pattern for the Three Santa Garland

 

was sent to me by the lovely Maria from Life on the Block when I admired hers last year - and I could not find the pattern anywhere in Europe!

Now that I have finished with the pattern we would like it to go to someone else to enjoy it - and to see where it might travel next. So if you would like to have a go then please say so in the comments box and if there are more than one request then I will pull a name out of the hat. It was fun to do - each figure is about 9.5" tall so not mega fiddly!

September FNSI and our last day away

Thank you very much Wendy for getting us all together again for our virtual sew in. Pop over to Wendy's blog here to see what everyone was working on.

This week I have been on a mission to complete two Christmas projects that I started earlier in the year. So for FNSI I spent the afternoon at my sewing machine dressing the second of my little Santas for my Santa Garland. Here he is.

All he needs now is his beard! Santa no 3 is coming along nicely too so hopefully a completed garland to share with you soon.

In the evening I worked on my new Advent Calendar inspired by one I saw on Sheryl's blog - Sheryl's is gorgeous, I shall be happy if mine is half as nice! The numbers have been worked for a while now and so for the last two evenings I stitched the chain stitch border along the length of the calendar.

Tonight I plan to whip the chain stitch with a silver thread.

And so to the last day of our trip away. The friends we met up with on Saturday were staying on the mainland nearby in Brouage a beautiful old walled town. If you click on the link you will see a picture of how the town looked in the 17th century.
We decided to walk all around the walls which are still intact although restored in places. They are also thick as you can see in this picture.

With regular lookout points.

 

The town was heavily defended - this is one of the two gunpowder stores in the town, which I think looks more like a church!

 

One of the gateways into the town had a large amount of graffiti worked into it's thick walls by soldiers on duty, but bored!

 

 

We found a tunnel that took you out through the walls - presumably a secret entrance at one time.

And this beautiful building was the entrance to the ice house.

Here is a picture of the main street running through the centre of the town.

Our friends were staying in and Air B&B on the main street and we had a delicious lunch in the Breton Creperie next door. Forgot to take a picture of my main but this was my delicious Café Gourmand dessert!

I had half eaten the apple tart and started on the coffee when I remembered to take a picture! There is also chocolate mousse, banana crème brulee and icecream. Yum!

On our return to the island we took a short walk from our apartment to Les Salines where the evening light was making the countryside quite magical. We saw some restored salt workings and the warehouse where you can buy salt during the day.

And more restored fishermen's cabins used as cafes and small shops.

It has been another hot week here but it definitely feels like rain is on the way. Enjoy your weekend.