Christmas Through The Year October update

Linking up with Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches for this months CTTY update. I thought I had better get cracking on a few more gifts this month so have a few in progress shots to show.

First of all I have a production line of wheat bags on the go

Loosely based on an Anni Downs design you can see some I made earlier in the year here.

These pieces of decorated felt have been cut out ready to sew up into some secret stitching.

And this little Jenny of Elefantz owl is now a complete project apart from her eyes and I need to find suitable buttons for those.

This is a little crazy lavender sachet aprox 4" x 4"

I hope to make at least two more of these if I get a chance.

Autumn is now in full swing - we have lit our first fires of the season and had several frosts.

This walnut tree glowed in the mist when the sun struggled to come through the other morning.

Sadly a very poor crop of walnuts this year.

And a little more autumn colour.

IT's FSNI tomorrow night so if you have not signed up yet then pop over to Wendy's blog now and do so.

Happy stitching

Piece Yourself Together time again

It's time to share all things EPP again. If you have been working on some EPP then do go to Anthea's blog and link up your work - and spread the word. Many thanks Anthea for hosting.

I have only one Hexathon block to show you this week. #22 Hyde Park.

This weeks block is underway but taking a while as there are more curves involved! Not my favourite.

I have sent off my swap hexies for the month and have also received a few more for my collection. This beautiful fussy cut flower.

And these have arrived recently too.

Work continues slowly on putting them all together - in between other projects or when I want something portable.

Do you remember this little owl that I picked up at a vide grenier?

Well I have replaced the horrid blue rubbery lump that pretended to be a pincushion and this is what he looks like now.

Much more handsome - and he has a couple of little friends.

I'm also linking up with Needlework Tuesday  at Books and Quilts. 

Happy stitching!

Lucky me!

The perfectly Pleasing Pincushion Parade is over but you can still go and look at all the beauties on parade here at My Sister Made Me Do It. Many thanks to Ida and friends for organising this great link and for putting together such a great list of prizes. I was very fortunate to win second prize! Which meant that this delightful Moda Jelly Roll - Amelie by Me and My Sister Designs - landed in my post box on Wednesday.

I have never owned a Jelly Roll before so for the moment it is sitting on my desk where I can admire it every time I walk past! Thank you Ida.

We have had a couple of days out this week. On Monday we went to Aulnay which is about 2 hours north west of here to meet some friends for lunch. The church is large and covered in very ornate and beautiful carvings.

Inside I spotted this wall hanging.

Poor photo - sorry - just wanted to give you an idea of size. It is much taller than me.

It's a very simple piece but I think very effective.

Anyway, the town itself is very unremarkable so I wondered why it had such a large Church until I found this tower

- the only remaining part of an enormous chateau which would have dominated the town and brought much wealth to the area.

Yesterday we went to the coast with friends and had a lovely picnic in the sunshine. Afterwards we went to visit another friend who gave us a guided tour of the Cognac house that she works for. These amazing stills are made entirely of copper - there are two. She says that soon they will be polished and gleaming ready for distilling this years crop of grapes.

The onion shape is evidently a legal requirement for all Cognac distilleries. Just a beautiful shape.
The tour was of course followed by a tasting of Pineau (a by product of Cognac) and the five different Cognacs that they sell.

A couple of pictures of the courageous little flowers that have been pushing their way through our dry soil.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend with lots of sewing time.

EPP Tuesday update

Many thanks to Anthea for hosting us again - do pop over to Hibiscus Stitches to see what everyone has been up to and to admire the beautiful centre panels that Anthea has put together.

I have three Morris Hexathon blocks to share with you this week.

#19 Woodford Green

#20 Walthamstow

#21 Queen Square

Only five more blocks to go!!

We went to a vide grenier on Sunday morning and I managed to pick up some bargains and some curiosities.

First of all the bargains included a box of delicious beads, four embroidery hoops and this delightful pewter pincushion.

I am going to replace the pincushion bit as they use a nasty rubbery stuff for the insert. He will look lovely with a new puffy velvet back.

Next the curiosities. This 2.5" leather pouch caught my eye as I love the squirrel design.

Inside, this is what I found - a stocking repair kit!

There are four different shades of thread and a pack of three needles. One of the needles has been used as there is a little piece of thread in the eye but they are all now rusty.

Abel Morrall stopped making needles in 1984 when the company was taken over, however these are definitely from a much earlier time.

This little packet intrigued me.

These little match like things are used to stop runs in stockings!

Fortunately the instructions are on the reverse.

There are five tiny emery boards tucked in behind the Stopit sticks.

I spotted this little sewing bag on the same stall.

Embroidered mainly with wools on a linen background with a silk lining it is not the prettiest item I have ever bought but someone spent a lot of time putting this together and I couldn't allow it to languish unloved on the stall any longer.

Autumn is around the corner - the mornings are much cooler now but we are still having hot days and there has been no more rain.

I hope you have a productive week.

A Nice Surprise!

My copy of STITCH arrived this week and it was a nice surprise to find a picture of my work inside the back cover in the readers Gallery section. I had completely forgotten that I had sent in a picture!

I have not had much time to sew this week but did spend an hour finishing off this piece of work.

I lined it and then turned it into this little sewing bag.

Somewhere to keep my Slow Stitching kit.

We have had visitors this week and so have been out and about. First to Brantome.

To St Emilion

and home via St Aulaye to see their Felibree decorations.

We enjoyed a visit to Chateau de Puygilhem which had a brilliant exhibition about the curiosities wealthy people collected on their travels in the 16th and 17th centuries and how they displayed them.

It was a busy week as our visitors also helped us to move this delivery of wood which is now ready for us to use over the winter.

So when it does turn cold we should be nice and cosy.