October

Having written blog posts in October about September I am catching up with October rambles.

Coming towards the end of #100hexies100days2019 on Instagram, which finishes tomorrow, I've joined another Instagram challenge of #iloveeppparty2019 so there is a prompt everyday until the end of October.  I'm not good at the everyday for a month type things but somehow I kept up with the 100 days.  I think that's because I spent one day a week prepping the hexies, photographing and posting about every other day so it didn't take up too much time. More time for crafting and less time spent Instagramming!

I've managed to finish the cardigan I was making for Flo to go with her dress for her christening for next Sunday.

It used just over a 100g ball of sparkly white yarn as I broke into a second ball to complete the buttonhole band so I may make a smaller version for my other granddaughter, Cecily.  I used a combination of two patterns - one was for the plain v neck and the other was the eyelet pattern design cardigan, but that had a round neck. When in Skipton I had a chance to visit a branch of Boyes, a department store that I'd visit when in the North (they have branches in York, Scarborough and a few other towns in Yorkshire) where I found some pretty white flower buttons.

Yesterday I went to the Region3 Day of the Quilters' Guild at Brockenhurst with my friend Penny and enjoyed two speakers and the chance of some retail therapy from the traders there.  One of the speakers was Dr Martin Gregory who had a presentation about the history of the sewing machine.  He  bought along machines dating from way back to 1851 and these early machines were in wooden cabinets and because of their value in Victorian times (they were the equivalent of a year's wages for a servant!) the cabinets had lock and keys.  They couldn't be touched as the silver plating had worn off and the varnish over the top of the painted decoration had also deteriorated.

It was an interesting talk about the people who invented different aspects in the development of the sewing machine to the Singers early last century which basically is almost like the machines we have today.

The afternoon speaker was Catherine Lawes whose life has been between England and New Zealand and had some really brilliant quilts and also made coats (which you can see on her website).  Amazingly she did this talk yesterday and workshop today whilst in the midst of moving house.

Here are some of her works that I managed to photograph

My retail opportunity came when one of the traders was selling a selection of their fabrics at half price.  I liked this Lewis and Irene line called Cocktail Party which looks like Sixties Mid Century Modern style and bought this collection of 15 fat quarters.  I don't often buy a large collection of fabric so this seemed decadent to me.

I'd also bought a few more templates from Kallosphere Creative suitable for postcard making

I really like these brilliant little templates. The Beetle one will go well with the Camper van one that I have.

I also took photos of the Contemporary Quilters journal quilts which challenges the quilters to try different techniques.

A really good day out, thank you to the Region 3 organisers.