Three Finishes this week

I've posted at last weekend about one of the finishes, a slow stitched table runner which I finished on Sunday here, so I won't going into more detail.  So that was Finish No.1

One Monday I continued with Finish no.2. My Frivols quilt.  I've had this on my Finish A Long list since last year in fact I started making the quilt in January last year, but there's been a lot of stops/starts along the way so I am pleased to have finished this.

It's only 42" square and the coloured fabrics were small squares of Moda's Little Miss Sunshine range in a Frivols tin, which I bought a few years back from Pauline's Patchworks in Dorchester.  The range is no longer available but I wanted to have a fabric to finish off the binding and around Christmas time I found there was some of the fabric on sale at Pretty Fabrics and Trims online shop in green.  I bought a metre which was way more than I needed but I'm sure this will be useful in the future. So last week I got on with the job of Getting It Done.

 I've got in laid out on the spare  bed with two sides on the binding on

 Above is the detail of the pattern and binding

 I just had to show the selvedge of the fabric I used with the motto on it "she always looks on the bright side" - ah, lovely.

So I needed to get the binding slipstitched and finished all bar the label (must get that done soon) on Monday, now there's more daylight in the evenings.

And a little look at the back, where I used some Tula Pink hexagon fabric which goes really well the quilt.

For my third Finish the following day is my pair of Rhubarb V for Valentine socks.  It was too late for the Knit A Long organised by Ellie of Craft House Magic but the first sock was delayed by the heel turn.  I didn't get on with it until a few weeks later, but I got it finished and the second sock was soon on its way and I'm really pleased how its turned out.  I've mentioned about the socks before on this post here towards the end of the post, but with the second sock I used long circular needles for the shaping around the heel and instep before reverting back to short circulars and that seemed to work better than getting in a muddle with DPN's.  As I've said before there is always something new to learn with knitting socks.

So the last bit was doing Kitchener (grafting) stitch and finishing off the ends.   Below are a couple of 'sock-fies' (like selfies but with socks!)

With the smaller (2.25mm needles) this gives a much better tension and they fit really well.

Three finishes in a week!

Swanage Railway

Last Saturday we spent a freezing day in Swanage.  This was the second of the 'Beast From the East' weather episodes and the sky was grey, sea was grey and really stormy.  There was snow too, not a lot but enough to whiten the hills in the Purbecks slightly and while in town it was falling horizontally!

Anyway after going in and out of the shops and visiting a coffee shop to keep warm we went for a ride on Swanage Railway up to Corfe Castle and back.  David volunteers as a signalman on the railway but its not often that he actually travels on a train.

Here's some photos that I took

The steam train operation was 80104,  made in 1955, the year David and I were born.  As well a carriages it was also pulling an observation car.

 There was another engine just outside the sheds which was fired up ready for the Spring Steam Gala which is this weekend.

There is an artist whose house overlooks the railway and she created an artwork on the wall of her garden.

I also enjoyed some of the railway posters both vintage and modern, really artistic

 Beating the traffic by going by train

 And what's happening now and coming soon

And while on the train I came across an old metal advert advertising sewing machines in Weymouth almost hidden by a shrub.

March Catch Up

Its been 22 days since the last post and in between then and now there's been more snow which has come and gone, International (or Worldwide) Quilting Day (which I didn't end up celebrating with some sewing ;o( ) and I'm a few weeks nearer to my retirement date at the end of April ;o)) .

As Spring progresses there's a bit more plant life to see and lighter evenings to come home in.  When it was Mother's Day I bought a plant pot display for my Mum and a different one for my Daughter Sarah, who's a Mum to be. I could not resist the Primroses, which I thought looked different

 These are Zebra Primulas, I bought one for me, one for Mum

 At another garden centre last month I bought some tulips in a pot which were half price.  They're all in flower now.

 Surprised to see the rosemary was in flower already

 And there are a lot of daffodils in flower in the garden

Yesterday I took a photo of the hyacinths in a pot along with a small budealea just coming out in flower.

About a week and a half ago I went to the West Country Embroiderers Dorset Day at Canford Magna.  They have a morning of traders and mini exhibitions to see.  The Christchurch group of the WCE organised the event and their banner had this lovely collection of Dorset Buttons sewn onto felt Paisley shapes.

There were also some hooped embroideries that were inspired but the Sea, which I also saw when I went to the Craft for Crafters show last autumn.

This was followed by lunch then the afternoon speaker, Jennie Rayment.  I've heard her speak before quite a while ago now and she is a very entertaining speaker talking about her travels and the tweaking a tucking that is her quilting speciality.  She mainly uses calico, which in the USA is known as muslin and has the moniker of the "Muslin Mistress" I took a photo after her talk when she was signing her books and I also managed a photo of one of her quilts.  And yes, she is wearing thigh high books and frilly knickers!!

She has such energy travelling to and fro that I think would leave youngsters exhausted!

Sunday afternoons are usually a time I like to spend in my room to sew and I have been trying to progress things to finish this month and I have succeeded with my small hexie table runner.  It's been on my Finish A Long list for a while as it was a slow project with English Paper Pieced hexies sewn together and appliquéd onto a background fabric which had several rows of quilting.  I felt a need to finish off and machine sewed the binding on.  It's only 18" long by 10.5" wide, but much smaller length than the pattern that came with the Bramble Patch Box of Delights and I also preferred the dark grey Grunge background fabric.

 There's the back view for which I made a hexie label to go with it.

 And heres a view on the table with the primrose.

Other sewing projects I've done has been a couple more pouches. which brings my pouch total this year to 6.  I made these last Sunday (for the quilting day that I missed out on the day before).

 Trying something a bit different with binding two opposite sides the quilted square with some ricrac underneath on the pink one.  To the green one I added some ribbon on a couple of the strips.

There they all are.

Another item which I hope to finish this week as I've put on the binding and just got to slipstitch that down is the Frivols quilt, another thing on my Finish A Long list.  Good to see the end in sight for another long awaited finish.

Two sides have been slipstitched already.  So I'm please to be getting this done.

Sock progress - this was taken a few days ago, but the second sock is not far from the toe shaping so not long to go for this now.

So that's it for now.  Still keeping busy.....

A Slightly Longer Weekend

The end of last week even though it was the beginning of March, Winter hadn't given into Spring just yet and despite a mild season the 'Beast From the East' combined with Storm Emma lead to bitterly cold winds, snow and ice rain. on Thursday and Friday.  I left work to go home mid afternoon on Thursday and a lot of people had the same idea as the roads became heavier with traffic. My bus ride took longer than normal and I found out that the bus company suspended their services as the buses couldn't get back into town.

With the ice rain on Thursday night there was a layer of ice over the snow, so I took the decision not to go to work and use one day's holiday.  I took photos over Thursday, Friday and Saturday when the snow very quickly disappeared and by Sunday almost disappeared altogether.

What I found surprising was that the snow was light and powdery and with the winds was blown into some funny shapes instead of an even covering- see the angle in the top photo on the greenhouse.

This gave me an extra day to do some sewing.  Recently announced on UKQU Postcard group was a swap with the subject of Japan, to make postcards inspired by things Japanese.  I made a postcard with folded flowers which I found in the Kumiko Sudo book of Fabled Flowers and added some sashiko stitching.

On Saturday I made another postcard with foundation paper piecing.  Having found a pieced pattern for a pagoda in a book by Susan Briscoe of Little Quilt Blocks I drafted out a pattern as I felt that sewing onto a foundation would be easier than piecing tiny pieces .

I cut the pattern in two so the photo above is the joining back together and it went together really well

 Before trimming

And after, with a border

Both postcards together.  I will find out who my swap partners are later this month, but there are some  really good postcards.

Next I've been sewing some blocks using black/grey fabrics with mustard/orange.  Last year I made a couple of blocks for Bee Blessed but didn't get around to posting.  These are masculine colours and I thought more of these would make a good teenage boy quilt that I would donate locally. I've made 5 so far and being just squares are easy and quick to make in the odd evening or afternoon.

However I found through Instagram that Bee Blessed are asking for assorted blocks including 'orphan' ones so I am happy to oblige and will send some soon.

On the crochet front I am continuing with the Woodland Blanket designed by Attic 24 and have just finished with 2nd group of colour changes so it is coming along and growing steadily, more crochet than un-crochet so thats good and enjoying the colour variations.

So I think I've made the most of a snowy weekend.