FNSI November

 Lovely to join in with my Friday stitching friends again this week.

I got my sewing machine out for a couple of hours in the afternoon and cracked on with quilting my Churndashalong quilt/tablecloth. It has been waiting a while - there always seem to be other priorities for my machine when I get it out!

Not finished yet but another session should see the quilting finished and binding on so a finish is not far away. 

I am keeping the quilting simple, as you can see, havn't taken out my marker lines yet either.

Very nice to have a finish to report for the evening though. I have been busy crocheting away in the evenings and my scarf was almost finished. All I had to do was finish the border - simple dc - and then join the ends together.

If you remember I picked up two balls of this

at my favourite charity shop and really had no idea how far it would go. In the end it was just enough for a double wrap cowl.

And nice and cosy too!

Many thanks to Wendy and all my fellow stitchers for your company.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2023

Nice to have something interesting to share with Angela this month.

Yes, my flimsy is finished!

All my hearts are in for the year. I may add a narrow border - possibly turning the backing to the front after quilting. I have enjoyed making these hearts and can see more in the future, in the meantime though I am starting to think 2024! 

Many thanks Angela for all your prompts and links over the year.

Have a great weekend everyone.

FNWFs November

 I had plans to write a post last week but it just didn't happen, so lots to catch up on here. First of all though many thanks to Cheryll for hosting us - see who else took part here 

We had visitors and planned to take them to Wellington Monument however when we got there the rain was just arriving along with mist and so no chance of a view of Somerset for them sadly. Had a lovely lunch with them before they went on their way and we headed home.

Earlier in the week I bought this lovely book, all about making your own fabric and paper books.

I have her first book and many years ago I made a little book all about leaves which I love and loved making. Some new techniques to try in this book so I thought I would have a play.

I backed some linen scraps with a vilene stabiliser, also a piece of old white cotton pillowcase. I painted a piece of each with gesso and put them aside to dry. Then took a piece of the cotton and drew a basic flower. Coloured it in with Inktense pencils. For some reason I have not tried these on fabric before, anyway very pleased with how this turned out although I obviously need to use less water as I have a bit of a halo.

Dry pencil

After wetting

I then played with Koh i noor ink paints on the two fabrics and on the gessoed cotton.

Very happy with my samples so far.

A few weeks ago I picked up two balls of this pretty three ply yarn from my favourite charity shop in Wellington.

As soon as I had finished the Woodpecker socks I got out my crochet hook and starting working with this yarn. It is lovely - so soft and silky. So my evening was spent adding a few rows to this scarf.

                                                   ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

After Thursdays stormy weather, a lot of which we were on the edge of, and yesterdays rain, we have had a sunshine and showers day today. We went off to Blue Anchor to meet up with family and were treated to a number of rainbows. This was the best.

If you could see it, Wales is under the rainbow.

Now to catch up, here are the finished Green Woodpecker socks. Lovely sock yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners.

And this week I have been busy with some Crazy Quilting which has been fun to do after so long away. Enjoyed making this little purse for a friend.

Looking a bit lopsided in above pic but it isn't!

Hand dyed recycled fabrics and thread, purchased silk ribbons.

Well I think that is all for now, have a great weekend.

FNSI October

 Had the house to myself for the afternoon so was able to get my machine out and crack on with a couple of projects. First up, this

became this

Just need to look out a button. Having everything cut out and ready to go made this a quick project. Would have been even quicker but I decided to quilt my bag to give it more stability. This is going to be a little gift bag.

Next up my RSC project. I crossed my fingers and ordered some fabric online to make setting squares for my hearts. Very happy with the fabric that arrived and I started sewing the blocks together after I had finished the bag.

Much happier with how this is looking now. All the bits are cut so next time I get the machine out I should get this all together very quickly.

Thought I would crack on with my knitting while the rugby was on in the evening - sock no 2 is on the home run

but I soon got bored with the rugby and my book was calling so that was it for me.

Many thanks Wendy for hosting us all again.

October FNWFs

 Many thanks to Cheryll for getting us together again despite being off on her travels.

Not much time here to sew as we were out most of the day and there were a couple of things on tv in the evening that needed my full attention. However, I did manage to get one of my RSC hearts sewn down and the other one is ready to go.

I decided to go with mauve as my colour for October, not wanting a neutral heart. Very happy with these pretty mauves from my stash. I now need to get some fabric for setting blocks before I decide if I need more these.

Posting this from my kindle as I am in the process of changing computers so if it comes out weird you will know why!

September catch up

 I thought I would keep back all my sewing and crochet progress to make a separate post from our Cornish travels.

First up some completed Field Journal hexagons and the latest embroidered one.

My RSC hearts for September

I am going to have to lay them all out again to see what colour I need for October because light neutrals does not excite me!

The crochet blanket has come on a lot quicker than I thought it would - that's because I couldn't face all that satin stitch on the FJ panel in the evenings!

However, it has now been put away for a bit as some balls of sock wool arrived this week from West Yorkshire Spinners so now I am knitting socks. The first pair I am knitting uses this lovely Green Woodpecker colourway.

Very appropriate for a birder I thought.

So that is it for now and I am all caught up. See you soon.

Cornwall part 2

 

The National Trust property Godolphin was just a few miles from where we were staying near Helston (NW of Helston if you are looking at the map) and I had been looking forward to visiting. Unfortunately it became a case of dodge the showers as we walked round the gardens so it would have been nice to spend more time there.

The house is a two story building most of which is closed to the public as it is used as a holiday let.

The gardens looked lovely considering it was September and raining!

The entrance to the Kings Garden - so called because the gardens were 'fit for a King' and were the entrance to the guest apartments of the house.

At St Erth there is a large park and ride where you can leave your car and take the train for a 10 minute ride to St Ives. We did not spend much time in St Ives as it was incredibly busy and we didnt feel like battling through crowds to get to see anything. However, took a few pictures of the harbour which is very picturesque.

We found a lot of these noisy Turnstones around the harbour area.

Going back on the train we sat on the left hand side so had amazing views of Carbis Bay across to Hayle which was well worth the trip. Unfortunately train windows not clean enough for photographs!

We visited Marazion and looked across to St Michaels Mount.

I was not doing well for photographs that day - here the sun was in totally the wrong direction!

Our last day was incredibly windy - I watched an umbrella fly past the bedroom window before I got up! - and showery. We spent an hour wandering round Helston and then moved on to The Lizard and the chocolate factory near Mullion. Interesting to be able to watch some of the chocolates being made and to indulge in some delicious purchases. There are other interesting craft shops and galleries to visit there too.

From there we drove on to the Lizard point and stopped for lunch. The sun was shining so we sat outside in one of the cafe's huts just in case it rained. But it was incredibly windy. I did fear for my salad as it was delivered! However lovely to sit there and look at the view. I was not looking my best I have to say but there was a very rare photograph taken of me.

After a walk down to the point and a look at the birds we retreated to the car just in time to miss a downpour and happily sat there with our books and binoculars for the rest of the afternoon.

Hope you enjoyed the second installment of our trip - I shall be back soon with some sewing news.