Out and About

David and I have been enjoying the sunny weather with some day trips out.  Two weeks ago we visited Tyntesfield NT house and gardens and last week we had a  day trip to Guernsey with a couple of visits to our local haunt Kingston Lacy.

Tyntesfield is just south of Bristol but because there are roadworks around Blandford and trying to avoid that coming back home we ended taking a lot longer with our journeying than it should have done.  But the gardens were gorgeous and the house delightful so it was worth the trip.

 These were the tiles inside the summer house (in the pic above)

 This was the front of the house but you had to walk through to the back (below)

I could not resist taking a photo of the ironwork on the door

The wooden panelled ceiling with the lovely metal chandelier in the dining room.

This was one of many wooden carved panels in one of the rooms and in this one there were flowers.

Last week we went on a day trip to Guernsey from Poole on the Condor ferry  While people were sweltering on the mainland the island was that bit cooler.  We went with my brother-in-law and his wife and met up with relations for a leisurely lunch (there's just enough time for lunch and a meander in St Peter Port) and it was nice to have a catch up.

Local sights look so different from the water.  Coming out of Poole Harbour we passed Brownsea Island

 Looking back to Brownsea with Poole Harbour in the distance, the ferry is just picking up speed

 View of Old Harry Rocks and Ballard Down in the Purbecks

 Coming in to Guernsey there was a cruise ship berthed just outside St Peter Port, the small tender vessel can just be seen in the photo.  The ship was Crown Princess and its next stop was to be Cork in Ireland.

 A view of the Main Street in St Peter Port

 The old market building, which is now a sports shop

 The ferry to go back to Poole is reversing into post with the lifeboat in the foreground

 A view of Castle Cornet as we just left the port

It was a really lovely day out.

My next outing (on my own this time)was on Saturday morning to Merley House, near Wimborne for the Quarterback Quilters' biennial exhibition.  This is a large group who do challenges and workshops so by the time the second year comes around there is quite a lot of work to show.  Here are a few pics.

 These circles panels were from a workshop, love the variety of colours.  Below is from a seahorse/kingfisher foundation piecing workshop

 A display of the quilts in one of the rooms in the house.  Its a lovely light venue,

Some more lovely quilts to see

 Samples from another workshop

 I like the display of 6" squares at the ends of the quilt stands

 some small elephant hangings

Now that exhibition is over there is the Festival of Quilts to look forward to the end of this week and into the weekend.

All About the Scraps

I've started on a new quilt (shock, horror!!).  I saw, not sure where, probably Facebook, about a Scrap Quilt Challenge by Sugar Bowl Crafts and I joined in.  The challenge is in weekly instalments every Thursday with video on the Scrap Challenge Facebook page and Instagram feed.  Last week was sewing the strip sets together in colour order - i.e. blues, yellows, etc. and this week is cutting into the strip sets to make blocks.  I seemed to have jumped in with both feet and so far as at today I've made 18 blocks - 6 on Friday (it was a horrible rainy day, just right for sewing) and today made 12 more.  Here's my progress so far...

 Some strip sets

 The six blocks that I made on Friday

 This morning's little effort

 Joined by 3 more on the bottom row

 A sort out of more 2" strips with 1" strips (for a smaller block) in the fabric rope basket and smaller strips for more fabric rope in the basket below it.

And all 18 blocks sewn so far.

I didn't show you my basket and coaster made from the ball of fabric twine that I made

The basket handles aren't quite opposite each other so look a little odd and I didn't do quite enough stitching in the middle to keep the base solid, so I sewed on a large button which seems to do the job. I got a better start on the coaster though and as you can see from the photo above I have some strips to make more twine.  I really enjoyed making that.  The You Tube tutorial was by Madam Sew, which was another Facebook suggestion!  I blame Facebook for leading me down this rabbit hole!!

It's not all sewing this week as we have been out for the day and tomorrow I will go out for a walk on the beach so I'll have an out and about post soon.

Finish A Long 2019 - Quarter 3

I'm updating where I am with my Unfinished items are for this quarter.  I'm pleased a couple of quilts are finished and off the list.  I hope that I can add something new so you (and I) aren't seeing the same old stuff.  That said I am confident that there will be another quilt finish and a knitting finish too in this quarter.

I will start with the Kingfisher.  This is a slow quilt so I'm not in any hurry to finish this and it will be hand quilted.  It has been been layered up with wadding and backing and has been tacked (basted) last month so it's not just a quilt top now.  I've put away for the time being but I have in a bag with a kit ready to take and sew.  This is how it looked after I'd tacked this up and I love how good this looks.

Another quilt which I layered and tacked up last week is the Tubix quilt.  I bought some mottled green fabric from Doughty's which went just right with the lighter green in the Tubix blocks.

 The large piece of green fabric is the backing for this quilt below

So another quilt thats not just a quilt top.  Good to see some progress.

I've also got my black/grey and orange/mustard quilt which I've not touched in this year so far.  I have backing but no wadding.

My thinking making this a teenage boy's quilt for either Project Linus or Siblings Together for next year. See how this goes.

For the knitting I am on the home straight with my cardigan.  I finished the second sleeve and last night just finished the button band and about to pick up stitches for the buttonhole band.

This has been a bit of slow knitting, but I have been working on other things in between.  But good to know I'm getting there with this.

As for the new items for the Finish A Long I am revisiting the Farmer's Wife 1930's sampler quilt.  I have 15 blocks so far out of 99.  A lot are foundation paper pieced, which is not my favourite piecing technique, but it'll be good to have another go at these blocks.

I've also got a quantity of 6.5" blocks from the Splendid Sampler of a couple of years back.  I made the majority of them, not all.  There's no pic to share as they are contained in a bag somewhere in my room....  They will not go into a quilt, but may be split up to make other items.

If you look at my pages tabs at the top of my blog you will see photos of my progress with the Splendid Sampler and the Farmer's Wife blocks.

So that's my Finish A Long projects for this quarter.  I will link in this post with the Finish A Long via one of the hosts - Sandra at Studio Sew of Course

Busy July

Its the 10th already but so far a busy time.  Catching up on sewing and knitting and will update on my finish a long progress with my unfinished items soon.

Last Sunday saw me making a mat for my little Janome machine that I take to workshops.  Its a very basic machine and its not computerised but does seems to almost do what I chuck at it.  It's already had a cover for several years, but when I use this machine from cold it does tend to be a bit noisy until the oil warms up (I'm making it sound as though its a car!) so a mat would absorb any noisiness, plus I added non-slip matting underneath.

I decided to make migrating Flying Geese from the Flying Geese book by Karin Hellaby and picked out this grapevine fabric and pinks and purples for the geese.  I made rather more than I needed.

 I did very basic quilting on top and wadding and added the bottom fabric, sewed and turned out.  I then hand stitched the non slip mat in place.

The size was just right to fit under the Baby Janome.

I made this just in time for West Country Embroiderers on Monday, where there was some free machining involved (BJ loves free machining). A workshop tutored by Liz Khagi was to make and use a stencil to make flower stems coloured with Markal Paintsticks and to add appliqué flowers.

This was my attempt. I couldn't just leave it at a flower I had to add grass and weeds too!  I sewed this onto a linen fabric and although I should have used a stabiliser underneath (Vilene or Stitch 'n' Tear) it doesn't look too bad.

Here it is with other peoples' samples looked like when we had a show and tell at the end

On Tuesday I went with ladies from Townswomen's Guild on a coach trip to Lyme Regis.  I've been wanting to go there but hadn't been in ages.  The weather was glorious for a stop at West Bay near Bridport for coffee then on to Lyme Regis.  The town is famous for collecting fossils and also as the scene for The French Lieutenant's Woman. There some more details about the town here.

After lunch we walked down to the Cobb, which is the sea wall that partly encloses the harbour and walked back, the sea being so clear near the harbour that we spotted a little jelly fish (that large blue dot you can see in the pic below.

Took a selfie (just so you know I've been there!)

Went on the beach and had a paddle in the sea (away from any jelly fish!

So did a few of us!

This photo was taken on my friend Maureen's phone.  But as you can see it was a really lovely day.

It felt almost like being on holiday.

Finish A Long 2019 - 2nd Quarter Finishes

I don't blog for ages and suddenly I've done 3 blogs in less than 5 days! This is blog number 4 and I shall probably go back into hibernation.

Anyway it is time to record my finishes for this quarter. I am pleased to say that I do have a finished quilt, which is the Strippy Hearts Quilt.  This has been unfinished since the end of 2014 but having already had the backing fabric and wadding too there was no excuse.  I wrote about this quilt here  so that's how I know when I started.  It has ended up being 46" square.  The black fabric for the border was what I had in stash and really sets the colours off nicely.  I decided to quilt circles on the coloured area and wavy stitch quilting in the borders in a multi coloured thread.

A few years back I saw some of the turquoise heart fabric in a Doughty's sale which was perfect.  So I'm pleased it's done.

The other finish for this quarter is the Handy Huswif.  It's not on the list but this has been hibernating for almost two years as I started this not long after visiting the Festival of Quilts in 2017.  Full of enthusiasm I started straight after and came to a stop.  Not sure why - all the pieces were cut out and I'd also made the scissor case part of it and that was it! So last week I got it all out and started sewing the zippered and clear plastic pocket and the divided pocket with the red felt needle holder and it all came together well.  I'd even put a magnetic closure in which was so easy.  So that's another finish.

Some time ago I made quilt as you go blocks and gathered some orphan blocks to make up to a 9 block quilt.  Using the quilt as you go sashing these orphan blocks turned into a quilt which was donated to the local Project Linus group.

Front

Back

This would interest an older child as theres plenty of interest on both sides.

There's still plenty of sewing, knitting and to keep me busy but I will list that for the next quarter next week when the proposed finishes are listed.

I'm linking up with Studio Sew of Course with my finishes.

Thank you for stopping by!