A Mixed Bag This Week!

I had this lovely delivery from Karen at Stitching Life.  Aren't they lovely?  She dyes such rich colours and interesting threads.  Mind you, they go like hot cakes so when she is selling you have to be quick! Can't wait to use them.

Hebe has decided she wants a bit of Steampunk.  Big boots, lace gloves and some rather fetching stockings with big girl pants.  The top layer is being worked on, in my head still.  

She is nothing at all like this little girl!!  A friend mentioned ragdolls the other day and I realised I had never made one.  I'm really quite pleased with her, just a shame she is only 10 inches tall.  

We had a visitor in the house the other night and it's not even Halloween.  I managed a couple of quick photos but the light was low and I didn't have the flash on so as not to scare it. 

We seem to have a lot of bats this year.  There is a bat box at the top of the garden and we wonder if they are using it at all, it's very hard to tell and I'm reluctant to open it to have a look, besides which it would be illegal to do without a licence.

There was beautiful light this morning through some of the plants like the Crimson King maple.

Ever hopeful faces at the table, they don't miss a trick.

But after being so good and patient (and a little bit fuller)...

...they did play very nicely.

I am hopefully going to make something out of this pile.  John has had a thought on a topic for a quilt......

I hope you have a creative week!

Can a Girl Really Have Too Many?

I think I many have over estimated how many 132 foam brushes are.

I had bought a few crafting versions of these to do the Flora Bowley class with but they soon wore through so I found these on line at a fraction of the cost.  Probably because they didn't have the word 'craft' in the description.  Anyway, I think I won't have to worry about buying more for quite some time!

We've had a few really beautiful afternoons here, a little misty in the mornings but clearing by lunchtime and turning into glorious evenings.  Ruger has been on rest with his cruciate injury but he has been going a little stir crazy at home or on the lead.  We took them on a gentle walk along the drove road behind the house to see how he would be.  Slowing down a Pointer is a bit like slowing the tide but it wasn't too bad!

Of course he had his partner in crime with him all the way!

In the distance you can just see that they have been stripping out the hedges.  I would have thought March was a little late in the season as the birds are beginning to nest.  It is nice seeing the laying coming together though.

We disturbed this herd of Roe deer who disappeared off into the next valley.

The grass is always greener.  Especially when those two brown dots in the other field are hares wisely going in the other direction.

Ellie is very good at making sure we are never too far away.  She's growing so fast too, now 4 months old.

 I hope the weather is good for you too, have a great week!

Rip Off Britain

I finally took advantage of one of the Hancock's of Paducah's shipping free offers.

2.5 yards of 108" backing fabric, five packs of 12 fat quarters (that's 60 in total) ((I know I like batiks!!)), and a kit.

With the VAT and Parcelforce handling fees (£20.51) over here the lot cost me a total of £114.

I will say no more.

Very Happy Bunny.

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Time Flies

Well it's heading for two weeks since I last posted and I'm not too sure where the time has gone.

I had a delivery from Oakshot Fabrics.  They had an offer on their huge designer collection and a voucher came through in an email.  Couldn't resist!  You may visually stroke them.

We had a lovely visit to the local Army Air base with a personal tour of the hangers.  Since Elsa started working for us she had several comments from our engineers that they never see where their parts actually end up.  As an Aircraft Technician, she always knew where the parts went but not where they came from!  (Well she did, it being in the family, just not too in-depth!)  She is very lucky to have Mike her fiancée still in the hangers so a few requests were made and a day was arranged and 20 of us had a really great day seeing where some of our parts end up.  Even to the point of finding parts sporting our company name written along with names of the guys who made them, some of who were with us.  This may not thrill some of you but it was a real eye opener  and a very rare treat to clamber all over some of Her Majesty's finest military equipment.  We even had a very up close and personal mini display from 5 Apaches.  As you can imagine, no photos to be published except maybe just a group one.

I was rather taken with the beautiful colours on the buds on this Lucifer crocosmia.

And Elsa and I had a visit from this Vapour moth larvae whilst we were sitting on the patio.  The moth itself is rather bland even down to the female being wingless and blob like, but the caterpillar really does make up for it!

I have been cutting some of my hand dyed fabrics into strips as I have been hand piecing triangles.  I didn't want to go the hexagon route, (I know that 6 of the triangles make a hexagon!) as I thought I could make a more controllable colour wash with them.  Well my strips were 1.75 inches wide.  Except when I took my eye off the ball and they were cut at 1.5 wide.  Luckily last weeks Design Matters TV was about using hand dyed fabric in a Rail Fence pattern and controlling where the colour ends up.  I stopped glaring at the little pile of strips that had been offending me every time I walked into the Eyrie and Rail Fenced them!  I'm sure it will end up as a base for something.

The C&G has had a few fabric moments this past week which I have loved, and now it's back to working in the sketchbook which I still struggle with.  I will climb that hill after a little while playing with other things!

I hope the change in the weather over the next few days doesn't spoil your plans, have a great week!

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A Day Out Hand Quilting

Yesterday was the hand quilting day with Barbara Chainey at Cupcake Cottons.  We set off at 07.30 and had a nice drive up. Only a brief delay at Marlborough, which was unusual, and a drive around Burford when we missed the turning on the roundabout and we still arrived at 09.30 on the dot.  John and the dogs went off for a day at Lechlade fisheries and I went up to join in the sewing group.

It’s a lovely light shop with lots of fabrics and quilts to admire and room enough for classes.

Afternoon tea and the beautiful cupcakes arrived (in style if you read over on the Cupcake Cottons blog). 

I had to buy a piece of fabric or two and a lovely little wooden beehive with beeswax for quilting thread.  My effort at quilting in a hoop was passable but then I didn’t learn to drive a car in a couple of hours either.  I will try and finish the sample so I can say I achieved an end result! 

I was a great day for me meeting two bloggers in one. Thank you Barbara for travelling to the shop and to Jackie and Steph for hosting.  John’s fishing was unsuccessful but he did have a couple of chasers apparently.  Jackie and Steph were kind enough to send me home with a secret parcel for him which put a huge smile on his face though.

Elsa and Mike drove down last night too to start their move back to the south coast.  Lots of cleaning and decorating to be done over the next few days before they can move in fully but they are so excited.  And a last picture of the Imperial Fritillaries that we planted three springs ago and had done nothing each year until now.  Patience does pay in the end. 

I hope your weekend is as lovely and sunny as it promising to be down here.

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Time Waits For No Electrical Supply Company

Well I’m now fed up with the company supplying the track lighting (Not Stuart the electrician who is great and bends over backwards when he works!). The lights are in the room, in a box.  The track, I believe, has now arrived and is the correct one but the connectors are wrong.  Stuart has hair that is too short to pull out or I’m sure he would have by now.  He has told me that he won’t need full access like the blind man did so I have more or less moved in and started using the my space place.  

The room may be shoved in down the side of the house but it appears I am in sparrow central.  I looked up the other day at this view but then the trellis had at least 15 sparrows sat in it, a bit like Celebrity Squares, and up in the top left you can see the sparrow flats.  They have chosen to nest in the eaves at the end of the gutter instead though just above the box.  (Not far from the headboard of our bed on the other side of the wall, hmmm).

I also have plenty of visitors in the close shrubs down the side and perching on the gate right next to the desk.  The Robin has decided it’s the best place to boss everyone from, until the wrens tell him off that is and there is a regular visit from a group of Long Tail Tits as they do their rounds.  It really is amazing to be so close to them all.

The BTO has a Nest Box Challenge from 27^th March which is good to take part in even if you only have a small space, every observation counts.

Jen over at Twisted Stitcher (Oz Style) (she is also doing the City & Guilds) asked about the stand used by Jan Beaney in the In Action video.  I thought it looked good too but had given up trying to find one.  Then the other day I was looking through Three Dimensional Embroidery Stitches by Pat Trott and there it was in the equipment page naming it as the Lowery Workstation, so I treated myself.  

If it helps me not have this constant crick in my neck it has to be good!  (Yes still suffering, still haven’t been able to finish Barbara’s other quilt.  The last thing you want using a longarm is stiffness in the shoulders!).  I have re bound some round hoops except one broken one which I will use as a frame. The things we find to do just to pretend to be creative!!

Thank you for all the lovely comments on the quilted top.  Barbara H was over the moon.  I also quite liked how open the pattern was.  There seems to be a trend in some of the longarmers I follow online to do such heavy quilting one wonders how stiff this makes the quilt in the end.  The Great Tits are still visiting the box Maggi, minus earplugs now too.  Yes hayfever has backed off and Spring is springing so I’m really hoping more and more it’s just the pollen of the hazels.  And Barbara C.  Ha, haha, hahahahaha.  See you Friday.

I was incensed to read Maggi’s post over on her blog To Dream To Stitch.  How can that be, no one can put a trademark on an adjective!!  Anyway it’s an English style and phrase, how dare they!!  I vote we all use SHABBY CHIC as often as possible.  Stupid people. 

Minor rant over, messy stuff to be sploshing around, I have plenty of coursework to catch up on and rugby this afternoon.  GO ENGLAND!!!  Quick pic of Ruger ready to work in the garage last week.

Oh, and don't forget, tonight is the night of the super moon and should be quite a sight at sunset.  Have a good weekend.

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Better Late Than Never

Our current family situation does not react well to rather loud knocks on the door at past 19.30 but that is what happened on both Wednesday and Thursday nights!  After the initial shock it turned out to be delivery men catching up with very late parcels!

Wednesday night's parcel was from Maison Sajou, France, with the embroidery thread selection box I had ordered.  I had first been pointed in the direction of all these lovely things by Jacky and now I have them in my possession, they're mine, mine I tell you!!

The embroidered tin, cards, thread winders, stitch pattern (so you can have a reference of all the colours of the threads) and catalogue all came as a bonus.  The catalogue is beautifully presented in both French and English with plenty of things you just don't find over here.

Thursday night had the delivery of these books which I had ordered about three weeks before Christmas.  Lots of design ideas, all from Dover Publications.

I have finished quilting the JB Baby Blocks using the Suzanne Early method for the long arm.  

Basically you stitch a very large meander right across the quilt top with no space smaller than a clenched fist.  You carry on down the entire quilt to secure all layers and then re load the quilt as a single layer.  It is then just a matter of going back along the meander filling in the spaces either side with your chosen motifs.  I chose a ribbon scroll, a scroll with a feather back and some leaves.  Just three things but they could all be sized to fill in the spaces easily along the meander.  It was great to do, I hope you can see some of the stitching in the photo.  This was taken after washing when the 80/20 wadding had scooched in a little, I just love that effect!

I also chose to do another all over pattern on White Nights only with loops and stars this time and not the double load method.  One of the rules Suzanne Michelle Hyland quilts by when choosing designs is that if the piecing is dark or dominant, don't knock yourself out with the quilting!  The all over designs for these two quilts works well and I'm pleased. 

And a lovely gift I received for Christmas from Chris was two balls of Rico's Can Can yarn.  It's like netting when you open it out and makes frilly scarves.  I've made these two already but I keep thinking of other ways to use the yarn so will be working on that at a later date.

My back is mending well, thank you to those who commented.  Too little exercise can be more detrimental than too much sometimes!  The boys are playing in the garage so I'm going to see what I can play with now.

A happy and healthy New Year to you all.


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Just a Couple of Purchases

Not a lot of news here.  I went to my sewing group and nattered for a couple of hours, helped one of my ladies with a Sun Bonnet Sue appliqué problem and another with some gathering.  We also had birthday cake for two 70th's this past weekend.  Now I'm 30 years younger than most of this lot and they can make me blush I can tell you!!  Love them all!

I had a scoop at Hobbycraft last week where they were selling this lot of in the cheap bin.

I can see at the very least some tassel forms in there.

And I had these in the post from Rainbow Disks. 

An interesting concept I'm still exploring.   Not quite the same as curling up on the sofa with a good wine to read through but intresting all the same.

I'm off to play with Bob and finish a few things!

Art Week Treasures

We've just been to pick up the pieces we bought at Stewarts Garden Centre from the Dorset Arts Week.

This is 'Two Men in a Boat' by Jenny Adams.  She collects all sorts of bits from the beach and makes them into these lovely pictures. 

(Apporx16")

These next three pieces were made by stained glass artist Gillian McCormick.  The first is a picture of what is to us a salmon ladder. 

(Approx 5 foot)

And another pair of hairs.

(Both 7" x 2.5")

A Trip Out

As I said in the last post, it was the Chettle House Garden and Craft open weekend. 

Chettle House is about three miles from us and when we went to the show last year we came away with quite a few goodies for the garden and wanting more this year.

I have quite a few hares around the place, 10 I think at the last count, and this is moongazer No 8.  The nesting birds plaque and Green Man were from Hilltop Garden where Paul Harvey of Whitchurch sells and displays some of his stonework. I know he produces quite a few pieces for resale but they are not mass produced on an imported scale and have great unique qualities. I already have one of his horned gargoyles. 

And I finished the Kingfisher.  John would like this one framed rather than just shoved in the folio! 

I am really having trouble keeping my head out of Jan Messant's book.  It really is lovely and a total inspiration.  I am thinking of translating a couple of her ideas into pieces. We live in a very ancient landscape here, we even find oyster shells from the Romans in the garden and we're 20 miles from the sea, and I would like to incorporate this into something.  Thing are stewing with the little fellas in the back of the brain!!

I hope Spring Holiday is good for you where you are.  I keep putting on skirts but I'm usually back in jeans by lunchtime!!  It will be great weather from tomorrow of course.