FNwFs June

 Well, summer put in an appearance for a weekend but has been AWOL ever since! It has been a chilly, windy week although warm when the sun briefly shines!

Friday was just that sort of day. We drove up to Weston-super-Mare to see some friends and after a pub lunch we went on to the Barley Wood Walled Garden for a wander and some coffee. And what a delightful place it was too. You can read the history of the garden here and lovely to see that it has come full circle back to it's original state. My photographs do not do it justice but here we go.

This is the central path running down to the bottom of the garden with lovely wide flower borders on either side, which were stunning and full of colour.

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On either side of those hedges are large vegetable gardens.

The next photograph is taken from the arch you can see in the picture above.

with more vegetable growing and an apple orachrd. There are apple trees espaliered around all the walls and any spare space. All are labelled and they are used for cider.

Through the next arch are more flower beds for cutting, two old railway carriages which have been converted to a cafe and some artists workshops. Only one workshop was open - this one - with some beautiful pottery to admire.

By the car park there is a van full of vegetables from the garden with an honesty box, which was lovely to see. Well worth a visit and I hope we get back there sometime.

So not much time to sew but I did get my Stitch Journal done for the day. In blue now of course as we are in to June and long, narrow channels to fill in this month.

In other blue news, I have started work on my RSC log cabins for the month. One down. First I embroidered this lovely little teapot picture from Jennifer, perfect for blue as I love blue and white china.

Now made up into a log cabin. Two more log cabins to go which I hope to finish this weekend.

Also making a reappearance are my Field Journal embroideries. These two have been completed this week.

Such a lot of work in the red one! Good to have it out of the way finally as I started it months ago.

Well, I think that is quite enough for one post. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else did yesterday and many thanks to Cheryll for getting us all together for another Friday Night. See you next week.

The end of another month...

 ...and the start of summer! Well, at least the weather has perked up and the start of June is looking fine and dry, it is even a bit warmer which is nice.

The end of May means the end of my pink Stitch Journal page and I have really enjoyed this one. I have referenced the work of Hundertwasser in most of the sections - with a blip in the middle for a few holiday memories!

I am now looking forward to a blue month and have pulled out this selection of threads to work with.

I have finished quilting the first of the large border blocks on Wings and Pretty things and have now put it away until the cooler weather comes in the autumn and I need something to snuggle under in the evenings.

The fabrics I used for Wings are mostly from a range by 3 Sisters for Moda which I fell in love with as soon as I saw them. I recently spotted their new range online, Etchings, and couldn't resist ordering a charm pack as the designs and colours are once again just delightful.

No idea what I shall use these for but I just had to have them! Also in the range are some linen fabrics and as a couple of them are script fabrics which I love, I just had to have some! So these dropped into my basket as well.

Earlier this year I bought the Summer Essentials Bag pattern from Irina at Nordic Crafter as I thought it would be handy for my phone whilst out walking. This turned out to be the perfect pattern to use with some of my new linen fabrics and I now have this cute little bag.

This was a great pattern - easy to follow instructions etc. I did make it 1/2" longer as my phone seems to be a little longer than the average. Also if I were making it again I would make the flap a little narrower to allow the strap loops to sit a little more comfortably but really, they are not a problem.

So I think that is enough from me for now - I have holiday photos to share but I will come back another day with those. Meanwhile have a great weekend.

FNSI May

It has been a busy day so I was happy just to collapse onto the sofa in front of the TV with some nice, mindless knitting.

Earlier I had taken a break for half an hour after lunch to work on my stitch journal - todays is the bulls eye bottom right.

Thank you Wendy for getting us together again this Friday - pop over to Wendy's blog here to see who else took part.

Yesterday I finally got my RSC blocks finished along with Jennifer's lovely Joy block.

These blocks are building up nicely now and I will soon have to lay them all out to see how they are looking.

Well, that is all from me for today. Have a lovely weekend everyone.

I made another book!

 I thought that another zig zag book would make a great holiday sketchbook and so having purchased a large sheet of nice quality paper I set to. And this time I remembered a few in progress shots.

First up I folded the paper down to the size that I wanted for my book. I then randomly printed each side with some simple sponge shapes and acrylic paint. I used blue and yellow as I am hoping for plenty of both those colours while we are away! Here you can see the two sides which I remembered to photograph after I had cut them so you can see here how to make the cuts.

I wanted my book landscape but if you wanted a portrait book then you would just make the three cuts from the other two sides.

Having folded my book I then set to dealing with the awkward bits and made pockets out of the two that face upwards.

These will be useful for storing bits and bobs while I am working on the book and will be handy for postcards, tickets or other collected bits.

The awkward bit in the centre faces downwards but there were conveniently placed circles on each side

which I cut around to make windows.

I will be able to stick something interesting behind these before I sew up the base and side.

I had a rifle through my folder of odd bits of paper for something to cover the two end boards and found these which I thought fitted the theme.

They are crumpled brown paper which I have 'cleaned up' my print roller on at some time and then over painted. These bits will always find their moment to shine.

Anyway, I covered the end boards, glued them in place and voila! one finished book.

Summer came to visit briefly last week so I took the opportunity of taking some garden pictures - just as well as we are back to wind and rain today.

Also last week my quilt group - Apple County Quilters - had an open day which was very successful. Having no idea how many would come we were pleasantly surprised by how many people turned up - and by how much they spent of the sales table! It was a bit of a squeeze in a small village hall but we put on a good and varied display of quilts large and small, with the odd bit of knitting thrown in for good measure.

Well, that was a long one! Thanks for making it this far. Have a good week.

Friday Night with Friends May

 And I am late on parade! But have enjoyed catching up with everyone else.

Not a lot of sewing happened here on Friday - just my Stitch Journal for the day. So this month we are 'pretty in pink' and I have enjoyed pulling out a few threads to work with. It seems that for some reason I have a vast amount of pink threads and I don't know why as it is not a favourite colour. Anyway, here we are so far this month.

And here is my finished page for April.

It was lovely to have a visit from my niece and great niece on Friday to help celebrate my birthday - and many thanks to all of you who sent me birthday wishes.

We had a lovely lunch out with of course yummy dessert! Lemon posset.

And a photo for posterity - we don't get to meet up that often.

Earlier in the week I finished quilting the first two borders on Wings

and I have now marked and started quilting the wide applique border. Looking good - photo later. I should get plenty done as my patchwork group has an open day on Tuesday so I should be able to settle down for a good session.

Meanwhile, more celebrations tomorrow and we have a public holiday so there is a car boot sale to visit.

Have a great week.