Welcome to my blog. I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures - in stitch and otherwise! And I hope that you will leave a comment so that I know you have visited.

Tuesday 28 April 2015

It's EPP Tuesday!

And I am piecing myself together along with Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches





Why not pop along and see what everyone else got up to.

This is my scrap box


It's a plastic shoe box full of smaller pieces of fabric - off cuts and leftovers. And it's about time some of it got shifted. So I have decided to work through the fabrics making the nicer ones into hexagons and being ruthless and throwing anything I am not so keen on!

So this afternoon I spent an hour making a start and ended up with this little pile of hexagons


with the byproduct of some smaller pieces for my 1/2" hexagon collection.

Don't know what I shall make with them yet but I doubt if it will be anything as big as this!


This was my very first quilt and it took me two years - a year to piece and a year to quilt! I had no idea that quilting was done by a running stitch so it is all stab stitched! I soon learned though.

Enjoy your EPPing.

Saturday 25 April 2015

A Finish, WIP and a Giveaway!

Earlier this week Jenny of Elefantz shared this tutorial for her sewing caddy which she designed to sit over the arm of a chair.

 

With so many projects going on here  I of course immediately decided that I had to have one and so dropped everything to get started!
Fortunately I had to hand all the necessary ingredients. This Jenny of E stitchery that used the beautiful Cottage Garden thread that Maria sent me.




I also had these fat quarters that I won in a giveaway a couple of years ago. They were so lovely that I have been keeping them for just the right project.


That fruit fabric is gorgeous but sadly there was no info on the selvedge as to what it is.

Anyway, here is my finished caddy.


I made mine slightly larger than Jenny's so that it will sit nicely on my lap and also contain all the necessary for an afternoons sewing while 'watching' the bowling during the summer. Thank you Jenny, it's a great pattern.

I have also found some time to get on with my April Crazy block and have added some more seam treatments.


I am pleased with the way it is coming along and should have it finished by the end of the month.

So now to the giveaway! Next Sunday is my birthday and so to celebrate I shall be giving away  a collection of goodies - here are some of them.



That gorgeous floral is one of the V&A vintage florals collection and I am sure something delicious can be made with it using the matching spot fabric and the rickrack. If you would like to win these (and I am happy to ship anywhere) then please leave a comment below. Next Sunday I shall ask Mr RNG to choose a winner.

Lots of pink and purple in this post so I shall leave you with some more, in pictures I have taken of our garden. Have a good week.





Saturday 18 April 2015

FNSI





FNSI was last night and once again thank you to Wendy for hosting. To see what everyone got up to go here.

I had a few hours in the afternoon and made a start on my CQJP block for April. This month I am going violet!


I love having this blank canvas of different textures to play around with. Here is how it looked after a couple of hours embroidery.


And so that was my evening over.

I also have this block to show you.


My April pink BOM which is called Antique Tile - I sewed this together while we were away over Easter.

We have had a lovely warm sunny week here - it is amazing what difference a couple of weeks away makes to how the garden looks. Everything is very green now, the tulips are nearly over and all the iris are flowering. The weeds and the grass have all grown too, so lots of gardening going on here.
Hope you are all having a great weekend.

Monday 6 April 2015

Bank Holiday Boot Sale Haul

We do have car boot sales in France but the prices are usually high compared to the UK. We went to one on the edge of Taunton this morning and I came home with a lovely bag of treasure!


The linen sheet is a real bargain as it had been reduced to £5! It is lovely fine, soft linen which will be perfect for embroidered motifs. The doilies and tray cloth were just 50p each as were the earrings which will be perfect for a piece of crazy patch. The little glass posy vase was only 20p! and it is perfect and very sparkly clean. I have a collection of these little vases but this is the first one I have seen that is oval. The marbles will look lovely in the bottom of some of my vases. All together I spent just £9 and enjoyed having a jolly good rummage.

Philip's purchases included this lovely copper kettle to add to our growing collection.


Again, for just £9. It stands about 12" high.

It is a beautiful sunny day here - I hope you have all had a good Easter Monday.

Sunday 5 April 2015

Thursday 2 April 2015

CQJP block for March

Here is my turquoise block which is my Crazy Quilt Journal Project block for March!


And a few details





We are now in UK for Easter. The crossing on Tuesday afternoon was not very pleasant - we had very strong winds the night before and the sea was still quite rough. However, arrived at Plymouth safe, sound and on time so all was well.
So far the weather has been grey and damp but we are staying in a warm and cosy thatched house and hoping for a dry day tomorrow!