Crochet blanket

Another finish (boy I am on fire!)  Here is my first attempt at crocheting and I am pretty pleased with the result.  OK if you look really closely it doesn't have straight sides in fact it is shaped like a V!  When Faye visited at Easter I realised I was holding the crochet hook wrong and when Faye corrected my rather awkward position, the crochet grew quicker, I didn't get hand ache any more but the down side was my tension changed!!  Never mind I am still as pleased as punch with it (actually I LOVE it) and for a first attempt I think it's OK!

Slow Sunday Stitching

It's been another wet and very windy day here, so a perfect excuse to do some slow Sunday stitching while watching an old film (Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Shall we Dance).

I have been working on them all week, so today I was doing some of the finish touches - I'm really pleased with the way they are turning out!  I am linking up with Kathy's Blog HERE where you can see what other people are sewing today!

Another finish - Little Houses

Animals just don't seem to be able to resist sitting on quilts/crochet/knitting etc. and Lola is no different.  She thought it was a huge game as I was trying to turf her off so I could photograph my latest finish!  It was only when she thought DH had returned home that she ran to the door allowing me a quick snap!  The trouble is she is just so adorable who can resist her.... not me!

UFO and a finish!

 I've had a couple of very productive days!  And I have managed to complete one of my UFOs.  It was one of those situations where so little was needed to complete this picture and yet it has sat in my UFO box for ages.

The technique is taken from Susan Carlsons book Serendipity Quilts and uses up all those tiny little pieces of fabric that I can't bear to part with.

So a good result!

And detail of the dragonfly

But it didn't stop there, finishing the dragonfly seemed to spur me on to look at some of my other projects.  And with that in mind I dug out the Bonnie Hunter scrap houses that I started in 2013 (I think) when I started doing the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I had completed all of the houses but needed to make them wonky and as its been drizzling with rain most of today, it gave me the ideal opportunity to put the edges on!

I have also started to cut the sashing out (taken from my stash of course) and weather permitting I will get that on tomorrow.

Not sure I plan to finish it completely, When the top is done I will probably put it away to be finished as a baby/cot quilt when my friends children start to have babies!

New fabric, thread and other bits!

Before we went on holiday I went to a closing down sale near to my parents home and couldn't resist this fabric.  I've wanted to do something with plain colours and these Moda fabrics are a bit different.

These bits from the haberdashery will be good for Faye's card making and the red ric rac for my red work quilt

But my most exciting buy has got to be the eight skeins of hand dyed thread/tape. I'm looking forward to using it on my butterfly sampler.

Well Dressing part 2

In Buxton in Derbyshire they have several wells that they dress.  Here are a couple more pictures!

This one marks the place where 175 years ago the 6th Duke of Devonshire put in a fountain for the local people.  They were so grateful they decided to dress or decorate the fountain every year and so the tradition in Derbyshire remains!  I think it is mostly made up of hydrangea petals.

The school children of Hathersage dressed this well to celebrate 150 years of Alice in Wonderland - if you look closely you can see that egg shells have been used for her face, arms and legs!

This one was also done by children

Well Dressing

I am in my camper van touring around the Peak District and Derbyshire. And thought I would share this with you.

 During the summer months they have an ancient tradition of Well Dressing.  The custom celebrates water and the life it brings.  Well Dressings are pictures made from growing things (wool, bark, cones, flowers, petals, berries, leaves, seeds and other natural materials) and are constructed on a bed of soft clay spread over a wooden board and erected at the site of the spring or well!

And as you can see they are real works of art.  They can take a team of people up to a week to make and they only last a week before the flowers fade and the clay cracks and dries.

Beautiful!

Slow Sunday Stitching

This is my latest project (I know I wasn't supposed to start anything else until I had finished a couple of my others but as you can see from my previous post I have had two ta-dah's this week so feel I can start this!!)

This is going to be a little hand pieced family tree for DHs son and his family.

I am linking up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching so you can see what others are sewing today.

Ta-Dah!!!!

I do feel I should have a drum roll for this ta-dah moment, especially when I reveal that this little piece was started at a Gloria Loughman class in January 2001.  So its only taken me 14 years to complete (I bet there are lots of people with UFOs exceeding that!)

 And detail of the tree - it was actually only the tree that needed to be added and when I finally settled down to complete, it only took a day!

 And an even closer photo.

This is now hanging in my bedroom!

My second finish is my little textile picture of the bluebell wood.  I just need to decide where to hang it.

Isle of Wight

We have had a lovely few days with DHs brother and sister in law (helped of course by the outstanding weather!)

Yesterday we took the ferry from Lymington over to the the Isle of Wight for lunch!  It's only a 40 minute crossing and it was a beautiful day and as foot passengers not very expensive.

Lymington is a popular harbour and some of the boats moored are amazing - that's a whole lot of money in that one photo!

Can you see the convoy of Canadian Geese traversing the harbour?

Yarmouth is a pretty little port with interesting individual shops and great sea food restaurants!  Lunch consisted of crab and prawn baguettes and salad, washed down with beer and coffee, followed by ice cream - absolutely delicious - and all with a fabulous view of the Solent!

and nice quite roads!

And stunning views!

A really great day.

On the sewing front I've managed to finish two (yes I did say two) UFO's.  There will be a ta dah moment when I've photographed them!