HOLIDAY

I know, I promised to be back with pictures and boy have I lot to share. BUT unfortunately since I said I was back online I have had problems with the internet, and Mark has taken the broadband account with him, so I have had to set up a new one, and its giving me endless endless problems trying to set up the connection, as well as getting Mark packed and then sorting the house out once he went I have had no time at all for the computer.

Just to let you know I am off on holiday (a much much needed break from here) for a couple of weeks or so, and then when I get back I will sort out the broadband connection and be back with you all again as normal.

Thanks for the lovely emails and comments I really really appreciate them very much and I am sorry I haven't been visiting but can't due to the internet difficulties.

I'm Back online

Just a very very quick visit to say that I am back online I hope the computer is fixed now.

THANKYOU THANKYOU to all for your comforting comments and emails, I will over the weekend reply to your wonderful emails I have really appreciated you taking the time to leave me a comment or email. I am OK - honestly, its just so very difficult, Mark moves this coming week.

Will be back I promise on a lighter note with some stitchy pictures for you to see.

Hugs and again Thankyou

Message from Su

My sister Su has asked me to do a posting on her behalf to let you all know she is still around and OK, BUT has no computer as hers has died. She hopes to be back soon blogging and commenting hopefully within the month once her computer is either mended or replaced !

Helen

Errant blogger

You may or may not have noticed that I have been a little erratic in my blogging lately, for that I apologise as I have not been feeling much like blogging, emailing, visiting blogs or generally talking of late.

A lot has been happening here at home, and I felt I should give a little explanation of my errant contact.

After 13 1/2 years together Mark and I have parted, this all happened around 3 weeks ago, I am still living at home (as is Mark, but he will be leaving shortly), we are both still great friends and as much as I am finding it all very confusing, bewildering and mind blowingly numb at the moment I am taking each day as it comes, I have a lot of very loving support from my family and also too from Marks family, and I owe to my sister Helen and my SIL Dawn and my friend Bev extra special loving thanks for all their tolerance and listening to my fears and choices I am about to make with my new life.

I have been stitching and I do have some finishes, stitching as always keeps me sane, I haven't started on ANy of my exchanges as yet as I have no heart in that part of my stitching but I intend to start with them again soon, so I hope not to miss any deadlines, but if I do I apologise.

I hope to feel more inclined to take photos of my finishes later this week, if I do you will all be the first to see them.

From Dawn for her Mum

My SIL Dawn as you might recall, wanted me to teach her to stitch and finish, well she has been absolutley amazing, and for her mums (Mu) special birthday today she has made her a wonderful box. Above is a close up of part of the box top, can you see all the pretty beading.

Here is a glimpse of the inside and more of the top, she has used fabric to line both the outside and the the inside - all I must add with no help from me, its all Dawns work.

Here is the inside which she has edged with her own twisted cord and added a wee charm and tassle and used her own inspiration for adding the beads to the design to match the front.

This is the box top in its entirity - I am so proud of her finish and I know that her mum will adore it when she receives it. She has stitched it on antique white evenweave and used DMC threads.

Happy Birthday Mu

Tomorrow is my MIL Mu's Birthday and she will be 60+10ys (must have been a very good year, as both mums are 70 this year, mine and Marks)

I chose to stitch just a quick token gift for her and its Shepherds Bush 'Happy Day'. The linen and threads are all my own choosing as I wanted to stitch it in colours that I knew she would like, hopefully she will like this little token - I think she will. I have feather stitched the sides for added interest and the back is the same linen fabric with her name and a small flower on it.

Tomorrow I will show you what Dawn stitched and finished for her its a real treat I can tell you.

Coffin Buzz freebie

Today is my Dear SIL Dawns birthday and when I saw this gorgeous freebie from
Plum Street Samplers, I knew it had to be done for her.

She is an absolute coffee addict and she also likes to have a lie in and wake up to a good cup of coffee when she can, so this was just perfect.

I've stitched it 1/1 on 28ct linen (unknown colour) and used Carries Creations overdye thread called Cajun Coffee, . I thought that the linen colour reminded me of the top part of a latte coffee (her favourite type of coffee drink) colour and that was why I picked it. The backing fabric is a dark chocolate brown MODA fabric and I finished the edges using blanket stitch (its becoming a favourite type of finish for me I think), the hanger is some old twine string that Mark had and I thought it was reminiscent of Coffee sacks.

Happy Birthday Dawn - Love you loads!

A small progress

Here is my SAL part 4 for Sail Away by Shepherds Bush, I've been so busy I fell behind with it slightly, if you look carefully you can see where I started on the little house last night, which is Part 5 and part 6, I am just going to stitch it now until its finished I think as most of the opthers are almost finished that are doing this.

Also here is my progress with AMAP Quaker Cherub, I seem to have more done than I thought when I compare it to my last progress update, I am almost 1/2 way through this and its such an enjoyable stitch. The lovely fob you can see was a gift from my friend Barb (no blog) and the scissors were frrom Carol.


What fun the Blackbird Designs competition was and wasn't there some amazing finishes and stitching. My mums is up on the BBD blog now along with Carols, it was lovely to see them there and I look forward to next month when they will be posting the entries. Congratulations to Brenda the winner of the draw and to the runners up.

Saturday is another Fobbles stitching day and I am off there again probably taking my Sail Away with me, I am taking an elderly lady who lives around the corner with me this time, she has never been and loves to cross stitch and is keen to go, so Saturday is the perfect day for her and she can meet other like minded stitchers when she's there. She had a fire in her home about 6 months ago, I found out and she lost a lot of her stitching supplies, so wants to stock up and she will have fun there I think.

Petites Lettres Rouge

I couldn't resist, no not one single bit of me could, I had to get this wonderful free design stitched up.

It is if you are wondering what I'm blethering about, it is the pretty little freebie by Blackbird Designs, Alma and Barb are currently offering this little lovely and a competition to boot.

Mine I have stitched to keep with the French theme. I have used 28ct Brittany evenweave 1/1 (well Brittany is in France isn't it!). I have used a Victorian red colour overdye, which I think is an Atalie colour (again a French thread), but I have lost the label and so not sure if it was Atalie or not.

I have kept mostly to the gifted design, but had to change the X and Y round as it just didn't sit right in my eyes, and I have added a bird and a heart and my own name and year, its been great looking at how everyone else has interpreted this design)

I have it in the photograph nestled in a bed of French lace and ribbon, with a scattering of Mother of Pearl buttons. Underneath that there is a red and cream miniature toile (very very French)fabric, (gifted to me by a very dear friend from her precious stash), now you might ask why have I done it this way, well.....

.....its because I want to frame this in an oversized frame, and I want to use all the things you can see in the photo, inside the frame, but as yet I haven't found the frame, but I will soon. I have really enjoyed stitching this little piece, and when I have been doing my blog tours, my my, there are some incredibly stunning finishes of it out there in blogging land, and I know which is my favourite totally finished piece and I think it should win, but I can't say here of course which one as hat wouldn't be fair LOL!

Hope everyone has a great weekend (or at least whats left of it)

Last day of the patchwork course at Fobbles

Day 4 and my final day of the patchwork course at Fobbles, I feel quite bereft now as its been a really really enjoyable course, if you get the opportunity to sign up for one of the courses there, jump at it, (courses are shown on their website) as the ladies are a great bunch of 'gals' everyone was friendly and the chatter that went on amongst us was brilliant, I know I want to join another, and definitely one again with Barbara, I feel I have learnt such a lot, and for all I was the novice amongst everyone, I was certainly not made to feel as such.

Todays pictures will firstly show Ann

Ann was also making a curved logwork quilt in soft pink background and a paisley toning pattern, this looks so lovely IRL.

Ann is another that was finished in her blocks and today finished off her borders and here you can see her starting to add the other layers, Ann, so I am told is a wonderful hand quilter, and next time we meet she will show me some of her wonderful hand quilting for inspiration.

Next is Helen, Helen does some amazing quilts and actually teaches herself, I didn't manage to capture any photos of the one she started on at the beginning of the week, but this is another that she has worked on the last 2 days.

the colours pop at you and so jewel like, its really going to be a stunning one when finished. I wish too that I had taken a pic of her quilt that she brought to show us that she has been working on, it was hearts, in the truely most luscious shades of soft creamy white and pink, it would look perfect in our bedroom too. I thought she might have forgotten it and I could have sneaked it home LOL!!

Finally here is our hostess with the mostest, Bev, she hates me taking her photo, in fact she hates her photo taken, but I managed to sneak this one.

Bev like me is working on a large block log cabin and her colours were beautiful, and its another that I wanted to take home with me LOL!

I, myself managed another 2 blocks today (12 down, 24 to go), but I have a good excuse for not doing as many as yesterday as I cut all my borders out today, the only thing left to cut is the edging, but Barbara said to wait until I was almost ready to use it, so that it didn't get distorted.

Can I also congratulate Barbara and her fanily on the new addition that arrived last night - no not another quilt but a bouncing baby boy Thomas William and mother and baby are doing well.

Thankyou to everyone for making my week so enjoyable I enjoyed everyones company and the course was so interesting, thankyou too to Bev and Edna for our goodie bags that we received and for our lovely surprise yesterday of our very own physio, who gave us some exercises to do and helped us all to relax.

On the stitching side, I am about 1/2 way through stitching the lovely freebie from Alma from BBD, which I want to have finished by the end of the weekend so I can enter the competition they are holding, so I should have some pics of that soon I hope.

Adventures in Patchwork Day 3

Day 3 of the patchwork course at Fobbles, I want to show you a couple of the ladies who are well on their way to finishing their quilt tops,

Firstly let me introduce you to Anne, Anne is making a curved logwork panel for above her bed, and she is well on her way to finishing

Here you can see our tutor Barbara holding up Annes piece its in wonderful shades of golden yellow, this is before Anne has started to add the borders.

Here is the start of Annes borders and the fabric that she chose for them - its really lovely in IRL my pics cannot do this and any of the other quilts justice I can assure you.

Next is Joans turn, Joan is also like me making a big block log cabin quilt but she has a specific colourways not random like mine and so she can pick the way that she wants to place hers into a specific design pattern once her blocks are made up.

This was the first thought of having it set out - Joan hasonly 7 more blocks to complete for her double bed sized quilt, but she laid them out what she has done for us all to see today and so she can decide which fabrics she would use for her borders.

This layout is the final decision, for the layout of Joans quilt and I must say I liked this one the best.

Finally I am happy to say that I have completed 10 of my 36 blocks.

... but Ooooo my aching back LOL! Anyway I have laid 9 of them out for you to see, I cannot arriange mine in a real specific pattern so they are very random, tomorrow is I am sad to say our last day, and think of me as I will be cutting out my borders in readiness - and probably not sewing much, as I want to do these whilst Barbara is still with us so that I can do it right.

Patchwork adventures Day 2

Day 2 of the patchwork course at Fobbles, was again so much fun, I finished all my strip cutting today, all 468 of them, I still have the borders to cut for my 108" quilt which will have 3 different sized borders a 2", 4" and 6" plus the casing, but I will probably start that on Thursday and finish at home. I did manage to stitch another 3 squares today so now I have 4 in total.

I wanted to show you some of the girls work, today is Sheila

Sheila is making the Christmas quilt, in wonderful shades of red and green

Aren't the colours just wonderful, this is some of her strips cut.

.... and here are some of her blocks stitched up, her blocks are a lot narrower width in strips than mine and she is using 9 different fabrics in both the red and the green, this is for her daughter for Christmas, I have forgotten sorry the name of this log cabin style of quilt, I'll check again tomorrow and find the answer, but this is a really lovely design.

Isn't Sheilas machine a super duper one, I love the wee table that it has, much better than my old one, the girls were laughing and teasing me (in a nice way) by saying today I will be wanting a new machine before long, but Barbara our tutor, bless her, said there was nowt wrong with mine, as she actually started quilting using an identical machine to my little old brother and that it will do me well. I am so enjoying the camaraderie of the group and the whole experience of the quilt making, More to show tomorrow and I'll take some pics too of more of my squares as they all look different to each other.
I am still stitching I have to take some pics of my AMAP progress and I have started another 'small' BBD.

Adventures in Patchwork Part 1

Today was my first of the 4 day course at Fobbles learning to do a craft that I am a complete novice at - Patchwork. I went this morning with butterflies in my stomach, not knowing what to expect or whether or not I could master this craft.

I didn't need to worry one single bit, Barbara Slee our course tutor is wonderful, thats Barbara below slaving over a hot ironing board

Barbara gave us all a brief introduction to Log Cabin Patchwork, she explained about its origins. I learnt that it came from Egypt and there was a 'mummy' found in a pyramid, wrapped in a log cabin design shroud and also if you look at a birds eye view of a pyramid it is laid out like log cabin patchwork.

We also learnt that in America, log cabin work always started with the centre block being in red as it signifies the fire in the house and the light and dark blocks around it signify the room, the light part is where the fire shines in and the dark is the shaded part of the room where the firelight never reaches.

My fabric had arrived I chose 'Aviary' by Moda as the colours will look wonderful in our bedroom, and I have cut some of my cutting time down as I bought 2 jelly rolls. I still have to cut my borders and I haven't got a picture there of the fabrics for them,they are 3 different designs taken out of the 'Aviary' range, a cream, pink and soft aqua, for my 2", 4" and 6" borders and the binding, but I will show pics later this week of them.

After dividing my strips to light and dark, I then got to work measuring and cutting them. The block you can see behind my strips belongs to Joan, she is super fast and her fabric choices are wonderful, she had finished 2 blocks before I was halfway through cutting strips LOL!

Barbara took pity on me and said to start and sew one block after I had cut quite a few strips to size.

..Ta Da.....my very first block, only 35 more to do, as I am making a King size quilt for our bedroom.
Tomorrow is more cutting and hopefully much more stitching, so that I will have a few more blocks put together.

I was by far the only inexperienced one of us, as all the other ladies had all made quilts before, and I hope to bring you updates this week of the ladies and their quilts that they are making.

Hope that your week is going as well as mine has started, we also got our 2 week holiday booked for the end of June, which made my day even more exciting and I was full of happiness when I got home tonight, I rang my sister Helen, then my mum and then my MIL rang and then I saw my friend Gill and then spoke to my SIL Dawn and I was just full of my great day - sorry if I bored you ladies (but I don't think I did) LOL!!Tomorrow night, all of us on the course are heading for an evening out for dinner after we have finished the days course work and I am soooo looking forward to it, at least I will sleep tonight as I am shattered now.

Have a great week everyone and I hope that your weather is as wonderfully sunny and warm as ours is.

Be Unto You

I did so enjoy stitching this pretty little sampler by Sheepish Designs (its fifteenth exemplary is the chart Number for any who go looking for it - I don't know where you would get it now as Sheepish Designs are all now OOP, but I am sure there must be somewhere where it can be found. I'm afraid my chart is promised to another), it really is a lovely one to do.

I used 32ct cream linen and the recommended DMC threads and its stitched 1 over 2. I have modified the inside of the design and added the year and my name at the bottom and I also added the extra flower and leaves to the left of the year date.

This was part of my rotation stitching, but I just wanted to get it finished as I was enjoying it so much, so I think the rotation has gone out of the window LOL! But at least I tried.

I hope everyone is having the lovely sunshine that we are here, its a really beautiful Easter Sunday and I wish you all a happy time.

Remember this?.......

...........Easter Parade basket stitched it on 40ct R & R alabaster linen using the recommended GAST threads.

..........Its now finished liked this..........

....I lined an oval box both inside and out with a soft lavender coloured silk fabric. The inside I also padded around the inner edge and the base prior to the silk fabric. Trimmed the inside edge with cream cord and along the top of the base and the base of the lid.

Added a very soft peachy pink ric rac-braid to the top edge of the lid and around the outer edge of the base and then cream cord.

Padded the Easter basket and placed it on the lid top, added more cream cord and ....voila my pretty little box, which I am very proud of I think its one of my better finishes and its sitting on my drawers in our bedroom, looking for all the world like its always been there.