Another New Year!

It's nearly a month since my last post. During that time we have been to UK to visit friends and family over Christmas and New Year. I hope that you all enjoyed Christmas and I wish you all a

VERY HAPPY 2019!

A new year means a new journal and this year I have decided to combine my sewing journal with my day to day 'to do' lists etc. I purchased a cheap bullet journal last year and had some fun making a cover for it.

I made a large piece of embellished felt ( you can see my method here ) and used a DMTV travel journal tutorial, adapting it to my own needs.

We spent the weekend before New Year in Bristol and visited the Clifton suspension bridge. I have driven over this stunning bridge several times, so on this occasion it was good to spend some time walking over it and looking around the visitor centre.

There were several competitions to choose the design for the bridge during the early 1800's and Isambard Kingdom Brunel's design was eventually chosen. However the bridge you see above, although his design, was modified by the eventual builders. The bridge was opened in 1864, after Brunel's death.

The bridge is a toll bridge and self funding.

There are lovely views - if it is not foggy and grey!

Good to be out for a walk.

Another lovely visit during our trip was to Hestercombe Gardens near Taunton. Another grey day but even in winter the gardens are beautiful and with a small person in our group the Christmas garden trail was worth doing for it's chocolate reward!

The Witches hut is a favourite stopping place ..

I love the way this tree has pushed its way though the back of the hut and produced some beautiful catkins.

Well I think that is enough for one post - more tomorrow!

Friday Night with Friends

We were a small but select little group of stitchers yesterday - just 14 of us for the last FNwF's of the year. Many thanks to Cheryll for hosting - even though she was off on the high seas no doubt having a great time! Pop over to Cheryll's blog here to see what everyone was working on.

A few weeks ago now I started a new EPP project. I am joining in with lots of other EPPers around the world making quilts based on this 1797 quilt which is in the V&A collection.

Most people are reproducing the quilt using modern fabrics but of course I have to be different! and so I am using my hand dyed fabrics.

I started the quilt in November so have added this to the centre of my quilt and plan to add odd dates along the way to mark my progress.

This is where I am up to so far

so my task for Friday was to baste hexagons for the next couple of rounds and here is my evenings work.

However, fairly early on I decided that I was not keen on the sudden transition from green to yellow - as shown here.

So I hunted through my fabrics for a mottled green and yellow to put inbetween.

Which I much prefer - sorry about some of my photos, we have sunshine and showers here today so it is either too bright or too dark to get a good picture!
However, there was not enough fabric to do a round on the quilt so I got another dye batch underway

and while I was at it a batch of ultramarine and marine violet for another project.

They were left to brew overnight.

It's not a drying day today so I ironed them dry as I am keen to get cutting and basting.

Terrible picture of the green/yellow but it has turned out as I wanted as has the larger piece of marine violet/ ultramarine which will be perfect for the project I have in mind.

So all in all a very profitable evening - many thanks Cheryll for getting us all together again and all through the year.

FNSI for November - part two!

Many thanks Wendy for inviting us round again - you can see who joined in here

After a very long and pleasant curry lunch with our lunch club my first job when I got home was to cut out the fabric for another weebrawbag

At this point I decided that I needed to be sitting by the fire and so I got on with some secret stitching and then added the hanging sleeve to my Gardeners Journal panel.
Last up I folded these pentagon stars and pinned them ready to add their beads.

So today I have a bag to make and beads to sew - I had best get on with it!

FNSI November - part one!

Many thanks to Wendy for inviting us round not just once this month but twice!

We have had beautiful weather here all week and Friday was no exception so after adding the final borders to this Gardeners Journal panel (which has been waiting for it's borders for some months) I headed outside to do some more work in the garden.

So then my task for the evening was to add some quilting which I did with a lovely yellow/pale green variegated perle thread.

Then for the last hour of my evening I got out some crochet. I started knitting a pair of socks with this lovely yarn last year but was not happy with the pattern. Now I NEED a cowl so have undone my knitting and started crocheting my cowl. Not sure how big it will turn out but I am sure there will be enough there. It's lovely, simple, rhythmic ripple crochet - perfect for relaxing with at the end of the day.

Thanks Wendy - see you again next week. xx

A Crazy catchup

I realised yesterday that I had not shared with you the crazy quilting that I recently completed for a competition! Part of the brief was not to publish WIP shots as the winner would show all these shots in an article in Crazy Quilt Quarterly Magazine. Well, I did not win so am going to show my pictures now.
Each entrant received a package of fabrics and embellishments to use in a project to make a needlecase, phonecase or something else but I cant remember what that was now! Anyway - here is the package that I received.

There was a lovely piece of printed botanical fabric and silk in various colours, buttons, beads, ribbons, braids and a few threads. We were expected to use as much as possible from the package and only add up to 10 items from our own stash.
I was totally in love with the botanical fabric and having chosen to make a needlecase I contrived to use as much of it as possible. So here is a shot of my piecing.

 



Now a few shots of my embroidery as it progressed

And the finished needlecase

 

 

This was a fun project to work on but also a challenge to use fabrics and embellishments that I might not have chosen myself.

Friday Night with Friends

Many thanks Cheryll for inviting us to share the evening with you again - to find the links to everyone who took part go here

After a couple of grey, damp days we had a lovely sunny afternoon so spent some time in the garden cutting back and tidying - there is always something to do!

So in the evening I got down to some serious stitching and worked on this small piece of embroidery using hand dyed threads and shibori fabric.

The design comes from this lovely little book which is full of useful motifs and ideas for small gift projects.

Cheryll made a very smart heat pad for her kitchen - I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else was working on,

Have a great weekend.