Social Distancing

Its been difficult trying to stay at home as much as possible, but it has to be done.  I'm shopping less often and buying just what we need as other people are buying up stuff like mad (asks where is all the money coming from - where are they putting it all?) but we've got reasonably stocked freezers (we have two small ones) and fridge so we're ok.  But thats not what you're here for !! On for some brighter stuff.

Spring has sprung and plants are suddenly waking up and growing (so are the weeds - they don't like to be left out) so we've been in the garden this last week and it was lovely to sit outside to drink tea and enjoy the sunshine.

Ive got a white Rhododendron that is currently in flower, but the flowers are fleeting as they disappeared so quickly last year.  So I managed to take a photo.

And a couple of weeks ago my friend Penny gave me a spring flower pot display and thats now come into its own with the Hyacinth now in flower

But Ive not been neglecting the sewing I've spent a few sessions on my mini EPP quilt top and added half blocks - six added two more to go.  So that's coming along - can I added those blocks by the end of this week??

I also made a quilt top from a Project Linus fabric pack. This is a Disappearing Nine Patch, which for a Project Linus quilt has turned out quite large - 54" square, so I'm guessing this will be for an older child/teeneager.  I've bought the fleece to back it with so I'm hoping this week to get that attached to the top and a binding sewn on.

I've now knitted a total of 6 baby hats to go to Poole Hospital so took them over to my friend who runs the local Townswomen's Guild.  I'm not sure that baby hats will be a priority just now, but at least they're done and gathered with hats made by other ladies in the Guild.

Something new that I started last month was a stitching project run by Anne Brookes of H-anne-MADE  which is called 2020 Project - sew4thesoulhannemade.  Not sure how, but I discovered this last month and watched the You Tube videos about the stitches to use in this project.

This is my interpretation below.  I am using scrap fabrics and various threads (mainly hand dyed fine Perle thread) and the fabrics are sewn onto a strip of wadding.  As it happens I have a strip which was trimmed off of a quilt when it was bound which was in my wadding scrap bag and was just right.

Above is the beginning, where I put fabrics on the wadding strip with running stitches and blanket stitch.  I then added Suffolk Puffs (some people know them as YoYo's), which was February's task.  March was to add French knots, Pistil stitch (which is a French knot with a long stem, Colonial knot (still can't get the hang of them and end up with a French Knot!) and Bullion knots.

This where I'm at yesterday.  An April video was brought forward to this weekend and it was to add buttons.   I have an eclectic mix of buttons one of which is shown below - a flower pot!  By chance I had already made one of the Suffolk Puffs into a 'flower' by oversewing and pulling the circle in. So by adding some green stitching turned it into a potted flower arrangement!  Works well, I think.

If you zoom into the middle pic you will see that I added a dragonfly button above the flowers.

So if you are looking for a distraction while  Social Distancing/Self Isolating, this has been a good thing to follow.

I have been watching 'Vlogs'  (spellchecker wants to keep changing to blogs) on You Tube so thought I would share the links - these may be a welcome distraction too.

Little Drops of Wonderful -  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXWQfl7WmeumzOYfKZwhT0g

The Last Homely House East of the Sea - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpWKp6lHakdUNsy49_TLDzA

Crafternoon Treats - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdVVw4ogNhqjUUi_hsvazRw

Abbieanne's Patchwork and Quilting  -https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIlDCFGmVCznXIPdIetHkeQ

If I find any more to link up they will be in more blog posts.  Happy distracting!