Saturday Catchup

Hello everyone - greetings from a warm and sunny St Victor. We have had glorious weather for the last couple of weeks but it looks like it is going to cool down tomorrow. We have been busy in the garden - I have been digging and more digging, the end fortunately is in sight. The birds are singing and the blossom is gorgeous.
We have great tits doing up the nest box outside my window - they have been busy pecking at the opening and taking in beakfuls of moss. One of them has a deformation - can you see the hump on its back?

Makes it really easy to spot when it is feeding.

We also had an asiatic hornet starting to build a nest under our covered terrasse

I am afraid she lost her nest when she went out - a swift knock with a broom handle dealt with that!

Last week I showed you the appliqued blocks for my Red Manor House BOM. I soon had them machined together and added to the central block of the quilt top.

I am really pleased with the look I am getting with these fabrics. The next part of the BOM comes on the 1st so I am looking forward to that.

There have been a lot of stitchalongs starting up in blogland, Instagram and facebook. Some very tempting ones - I am particularly taken by the Laundry Basket Quilts Mystery Quilt. The link will take you to day 9 and if you scroll down you will see the layout so far. Very tempting but I am resisting! However, I was attracted to the TextileArtist.org facebook group community stitch challenge. The idea is that each week a different textile artist will set a handstitch challenge - nothing too arduous but a challenge nonetheless. The first weeks challenge was set by Sue Stone who does amazing portraits. Her challenge was to draw a grid on some fabric and fill each box with a different use of the same stitch. You could choose any stitch but I decided to start off with running stitch and here is my sampler.

This was very relaxing to work on in the evening while watching TV. I have marked up another grid and plan to try something a little less formal.

Finally this week I have been drawing pomegranates. I have some in my fruit bowl that are starting to go over so they have lost that smooth shiny skin and have become a bit lumpy bumpy! I love the colours in them - something to work on another time.

The top one looks like it is pirouetting!

I ventured out to the supermarket yesterday. I notice how strange it is to pass houses with cars parked outside where usually there are none and the roads are so quiet. It was eerily quiet in the supermarket too although it was by no means empty. We are only allowed out one in a car now so there is no one to chat to while shopping and that underlying hum was missing! Plenty of stock in the supermarket - including toilet rolls lol.

Have a good week.

FNSI for March

Greetings from lockdown France! So especially nice to able to sew virtually with all my lovely blogging friends. Thank you Wendy for getting us together - you can see who took part here on Wendy's blog.

I spent the first part of my afternoon working in my sketchbook on this 'lifted out' drawing

With this tecnique you cover the page with graphite and then use an eraser to remove the lighter parts of the picture. I enjoyed doing this much more than I expected! and am happy with the result.

Then on to a little secret stitching - sorry, not even the tiniest sneak peek!

In the evening I finished appliqueing these sheep for my Red Manor House BOM.

 and as soon as this is posted I shall be getting out my machine and adding them to these doves, pots and arrows to make a border.

I ventured out to the supermarket on Thursday morning complete with signed and dated form stating why I was out and about. I went to two supermarkets. Neither was busy, busy. Both were well stocked apart from the inevitable toilet paper lol!

So, as it has been a beautiful warm sunny week here we have been busy in the garden catching up with digging and cutting back. The daffodils have almost finished and the tulips are opening up - it's lovely to see their splashes of bright colour.

Stay safe and well everyone and keep stitching.

Catching up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

And it was a bit of a challenge! Orange was the colour for February and having trawled my stash I came up with one piece of orange fabric. Fortunately I met up with my patchwork group last Monday and they very kindly supplied me with the necessary fabrics so now I will have memories of them in my quilt.

Teal for March on the other hand was no problem.

Linking up with SoScrappy for ScrapHappySaturday

Also finished this week a couple of little gifts for a friends birthday.

The little fob on the scissors is for storing a thimble. Its not easy to see but I made an elongated Secret Garden block a la Lynne Edwards. Cant think why I have never made one of those hexagon pin cushions before - think I might need one for me!

We had a 'ladies lunch' on Friday when these were gifted - my last social outing for some time I feel. We have topped up our freezer and store cupboard and plan to stay put for a while. All bars and restaurants here are closed now anyway.

Stay safe everyone.

Friday Night with Friends

Lovely to join in with everyone once again - thank you Cheryll for getting us all together again. You can see who joined in here.

It was a busy day with shopping and the  market in the morning. Then our WDP service in the afternoon. For me it will always be the Womens World Day of  Prayer service but I suppose times must change. Our prayers for the women of Zimbabwe will be appreciated whatever the name of the service I know.

So it was the evening before I was able to get to any sewing, and I needed to get my swap hexies made for the month. A result.

We will have been home from Spain a week tomorrow, Sunday. And apart from today, it has rained every day! Yesterday the river flooded and all the way along to Riberac the fields are flooded. The water is still there today. Tomorrow we are expecting more rain.

So, plenty of time indoors to finish my crochet sampler blanket.

I added an Indalo to a black section on the blanket in cross stitch to indicate that I had worked most of the blanket in Almeria. The corners are a bit too full but then this was a learing experience and I shall know what not to do next time. Overall I am very happy with the border and I managed to use most of the yarn I had in those colours.This was a great holiday project over two years.

There is a new Janie Crow crochet pattern about to be released which I have fallen in love with! It is called The Fruit Garden and is based on the embroideries of May Morris. But, I have promised myself that the next crochet project I do will use my stash. Watch this space!

FNSI for February

Good to be back with Wendy and friends for a cyber Friday get together. Thank you Wendy.

I picked up a cold earlier in the week but fortunately on Friday I was feeling much better and was able to get my crochet hook moving again! I started Friday with my sampler blanket looking like this

and managed three rounds of the border - well I did do the last side on the third round this morning! One round of green crossed treble and two rounds of black trebles.

Next up I think a few rounds of pink shells would be nice. It is reasonably square considering that I have not blocked anything - a miracle I think!

Since my last post we visited the guns at Mazarron. This site was built in the early 1900's overlooking the Bay of Cartagena to protect the military arsenal at Cartagena. 7km of windy track takes you up to the site and the views are spectacular. It was a bit misty so my pictures are not as good as I would have liked.

In the first emplacement there are two huge guns - you can just see one peeping over the rocks in the picture above.

About a km further along the point there were four more guns - there are only three there now as one was moved to Almeria. These are not so big but still large.

Well worth the visit for the amazing views.

Another amazing view was of the murmerating starlings near to where we are staying - I am particularly pleased with this picture.

Friday Night with Friends

Good to be back working with everyone again - thank you Cheryll for getting us all together..

I have been quiet on the blog front as we are back in Spain for our annual winter dose of sunshine and warmth. We managed to get here with storm Gloria chasing our tail and the first few days of our stay were wet and windy. But once she moved on the sunshine returned and we have been having beautiful weather.

Whilst not out and about I have resurected the crochet that I was working on last February and that is what I was working on last night. This is how far I had got at the end of last years holiday.

The blocks are all different - free patterns from the internet. I worked another 10 blocks then started putting them together. Here is where I was yesterday.

I was working on the strip on the left for FNWF's

Today I have made and added another strip so just yesterdays strip to add in and that final block then I can square off.

I plan to add a border using a variety of stitches in keeping with the 'sampler' theme.

I had a lovely day out last weekend when I joined five other ladies on a one day silver jewelery making course at https://www.castellondebedar.com/ Bedar is a small hill town about 20 minutes inland which has an amazing view of the coast. This was our lunchtime view.

Clare took us through all the processes of making a ring and we each went home with a completed ring. Here is mine.

What a great day out and Clare's and partner Shane kept us well fed and watered with a delicious lunch. Here we are busily working away.

As usual we have been up and down the coast visiting favourite places. This beach was new to us though - Playa de Monsul. Its reached by driving about 7km's along a dusty track from San Jose.

Very beautiful. On the way back to San Jose we passed these goats munching away.

Happy Stitching from Spain!

1797 Revisited

And I have a finished flimsy!

In November 2018 I joined a facebook EPP group that were using this quilt

from the V&A as inspiration.

I have used hand dyed fabrics many of which are recycled clothing and enjoyed every minute!

Now Iam wondering if it needs a border!