May 2020 - Day 31

End of May!  Day of wallpapering and it’s all finished and here’s a short video of the living room.  The last bit tomorrow will involve cleaning and starting to put other furniture back in place.  We’ve been lucky that other things can be put out on the patio as the weather has been so dry.

After another al fresco meal this evening I settled to watch some You Tube videos and pick up the fingerless gloves.

Just all those ends to sew in.

May 2020 - Days 29 and 30

Yesterday and today has been about decorating. It’s good the weather has been warm and dry so we can put things outside on the patio and eat al fresco too.  You will have seen from my previous post that we received the wallpaper so this morning the yellow paper was opened and wallpapering commenced!

The cow parsley pattern has about a 24” repeat but matched up well.  It is used as a feature wall on the wall that has the fireplace.  We thought it would take all day, but by lunchtime that wall was done.

The other wallpaper is a soft white with a textured pattern on it,  as we have quite a few pictures this neutral wallpaper would offset the bright yellow.

By late afternoon two walls were done but there are some really narrow bits that need filling in. Tomorrow the wall with the bay window and the one adjacent to it will be papered.  David was putting the aerial and power points sorted before putting the television back.

This postman delivered this gorgeous skein of yarn

This was from Sherry Iris (on Etsy as Sherry Iris Designs) and the yarn is Wild Strawberry, which was a Flower Power Fund yarn this month, so part of what I paid for the yarn is a donation by the dyer to the Marie Curie.  I saw this at the beginning of the month and loved the gorgeous colour combination.  Included was a lavender bag which I could smell before I opened the package and a strawberry tea bag.  I’ve not got a project in mind for this so it’ll just have to stroke it now and again until I find a use for it.

May 2020 - Days 27 and 28

The past two days have carried on with nice weather, more sewing of masks. Yesterday’s walk saw us at the beach in the evening, but it was really busy as it seems the world and his wife were out enjoying the beach, so we didn’t stay long.

Our wallpaper arrived yesterday

The yellow paper will be on the wall with the fireplace and the cream paper will be on the other walls. So keeping things light to make the most of the light that comes into the room, which is great when it’s sunny, but can be quite dark when it gets cloudy.

I took this photo yesterday of one of the masks that I made- it matched my skirt.

May 2020 - Day 26

We continued with stripping wallpaper this morning so that’s all done and David will doing some painting until the wallpaper arrives.  When I can get to the shops I can choose some curtains and we want to change them too.

This evening I went out for my walk and as I needed to post a couple of letters I went by the local sorting office. On my way home I came across this pebble.

I’m meant to take the pebble and re-hide it, but I’ve left it where it was and see if it’s still there tomorrow.

I’ve now finished my book, so I’m still keeping up with my habit of reading for at least half hour each day.  Yesterday I did two sessions of reading to finish it.  I started The Underground Railroad by Colton Whitehead on th 16th, so it’s taken me 10 days.  I’ve now started on my 4th book this month and this is in real contrast from my last book - ‘Absolute Pandemonium’ autobiography by Brian Blessed.  It was only because most of our books are hidden behind a wall unit in the dining room while we are decorating!  I’ve read a couple of chapters already and I think it will be good.

Anyway, here’s a pic of some roses in our garden growing alongside an erysimum.  See you tomorrow.

May 2020 - Days 24 and 25

I forgot to post yesterday, so catch up today.  After the Sunday morning call to my Mum followed by a Zoom meeting with the children and some of the grandchildren we went for a walk in Broadstone, a village near us.

There is a large recreational park with football pitches. Cricket pitch and woodland walks. It was fairly quiet and quite a pleasant walk.  Saw some rhododendrons, most of which are passing over

The pink one above was gorgeous so I took a closer picture of it.

I finished off my house block

I added two windows with hearts, for all the people who I am missing during lockdown and hope that  we will be able to meet again soon. This will be sent off tomorrow.

Today I’ve helped to clear most of the living room for David to start decorating.  We reckon that it hasn’t been decorated for at least 12 years. The current wallpaper has been on the walls before we went to Yorkshire in 2008, so it’s done well.

Our daughter in law put us onto “I Love Wallpaper” so we chose some samples and quickly made our mind up about what we wanted and ordered at the end on last week.

Meanwhile David is busy stripping and I disappear to my room to sew.. guess what ... more masks!

May 2020 - Day 23

Some block sewing today.

I made the 8th block of the Youngish Quilter Sew Along Here

I’ve used the Lewis and Irene Cocktail Time fabrics (no longer sold), which looks really effective.

I have a few postcards that I collected from exhibitions with instructions from the Modern Quilt group of the Quilters Guild and made a block from it called Cross Patch. Several of them would made a good scrap quilt,

Another block I made is one for the Quilters Guild, who have invited members to make blocks to record the social isolation period with Stay Home Staying Safe. It’s go to have some more detail, but this is mine.  It is foundation pieced.

While I watched some You Tube vlogs, I finished off this crochet lattice facecloth in this soft shade of green.  Just got to weave in the yarn ends of block lightly to get into shape. It was a really nice pattern from Bella Coco. After watching the video on You Tube it was quite easy to follow.

And with supermarket shopping too (Sainsbury’s today and it was quite good, even managed to get some flour). I’ve been kept busy today,

May 2020 - Day 22

This month is rattling by.  In spite of that I’m occasionally not getting confused with what day it is, but sometimes what month.  Talk on the news is about children returning to school in June has made me think its June already! But thank goodness it’s still May.

Today I have been working on more scrubs bags using a second sheet that I was given,  This sheet has a design from the 70’s, I think, it looks that style. It almost seems a shame to cut into it.

With other sheets I’ve got 6 bags plus enough to make strips for the drawstrings, however this one is bigger, a double sheet which yields 8 bags, so now I’ve made 14 bags this week.

I’m hoping this weekend that I can do some selfish sewing again as the new block from the Youngish Quilters was on their blog.  I’m also keen on trying of the Modern Quilters block of a framed cross from one of the postcard tutorials.

May 2020 - Day 21

A day of selfish stitching.  I’m catching up with the Youngish Quilters Sewalong as another block is released tomorrow.  I finished of blocks 5 and 6 which weren’t joined together on Sunday.

The top one is a pinwheel and with the remaining blocks made this diagonal patch block (not sure would you’d call it).

Next was the log cabin block and I used he citrus slices fabric from the Cocktail Time fabrics.

After a trip to B & Q for more decorating bits and bobs for David (he can’t go out shopping a present) I watched some You Tube videos.  While watching I made some more progress on my Sew 4 The Soul piece, which I wrote about here.

I added a few more fabrics to the end of my piece of wadding.  I’ve added a selection of Perle threads  for stitching, some buttons.  Here are some photos below of my progress.

I had done a video clip of my progress

May 2020 Day 20

A view from my window.  It’s been a lovely sunny day and I have been indoors sewing.  David has been painting the doors from the living room and put the doors outside to paint and dry. So we’ve been keeping busy.

I noticed the sky getting busier today too. There’s not been many planes flying over in recent weeks, not even long distance ones so I was surprised to see several vapour trails in the almost cloudless sky.

This is the view I’d normally see from my window.  I am lucky to have my own room to sew, knit and read.  I was just finishing off the scrub bags and made 7 in all.  I can get 6 out of a single sheet and there was a pillowcase which made the 7th.

I’m hoping to work on my own sewing tomorrow, some gardening and enjoy the sunshine.

What’s the view out of your window?

May 2020 - Day 19

Mentioned in Dispatches.

Sometimes it’s good to know that the things you make are well received. Frontline Facemasks are a local group providing Facemasks for key workers and on their Facebook page (it is a private group though) put a few photos where they’ve gone.

 The two owl ones towards the front of the picture of those going to a special school in Ringwood

The two top masks in the above picture were given to postal workers, quite appropriate as one has stamps (the last bit of this fabric which I’ve had for years). Another has airmail labels on it,

Tomorrow will be some scrubs bag making.  I’ve already torn the sheeting fabric and a single sheet makes 6 bags with two narrow strips that will make some of the drawstrings.

May 2020 - Day 18

Monday, the beginning of the week and back on the masks again.  I’ve got some elastic now and enough to do a lot.

I’ve also made some calico bias from a large square.  That took quite a bit of time with the sewing of strips and ironing the folds but I have a substantial amount now and a found a small amount of ready made pink bias tape too.

So this was my makings today 6 masks, almost finished. Then in my bag of mask bits I found 2 linings, so I will make 2 outers and finish the others off.

May 2020 - Day 17

A bit of recreational sewing today.

I don’t often buy a collection of fabric but last year I bought a fat quarter collection of Cocktail Time by Lewis and Irene at a Quilters’ Guild meeting last autumn, at a special price so couldn’t resist. There are 15 fabrics in this collection in some fresh colours,

 They have five different designs of a Mid Century Modern style

 And just look at the selvedge - lots of colourful cocktail glasses!

I wanted to make the blocks from the Youngish Quilters web site.  This is a branch of the Quilters’ Guild, the teenage section of the Young Quilters, which caters for 5 - 18 year olds,  The Youngish Quilters are currently doing a 2020 sew along and several photos have appeared on Instagram so thought I would have a go. There are currently 7 blocks posted on the website.

It’s nice to do ‘Back to Basics’ blocks and today I’ve made blocks 1 - 4 with 5 and 6 in progress.

These aren’t in the right order, though

 Friendship Star - Block 2

 Beggars Block - Block 1

 Ohio Star - Block 4

Churn Dash - Block 3

And blocks 5 and 6 - Windmill blocks - two for the price of one. Currently in progress.

Back to mask making tomorrow.

May 2020 - Day 16

After my post yesterday evening I had this surprise on Facebook yesterday and took a screenshot

If you are in Region 4 of the Quilters’ Guild this will be the cover of the forthcoming newsletter. It is a postcard that I made in March for the UKQU postcard swap on the theme of Dragonflies and Butterflies, which has since flown off to its new owner last month.

Angela, the newsletter editor, asked on the Region 4 Facebook page for some cheery quilt photos for the June edition and this was one of 3 I posted on the site.  Some other people posted theirs and there were some lovely photos, but I was chuffed to find my postcard photo was picked!

I’m keeping up with the book reading habit. I’ve finished Golden Hill which I started on the 3rd and started a new book, which has been on the bookshelf for sometime but hadn’t got around to reading. This is The Underground Railroad by Colton Whitehead, which was a Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction in 2017 and is a story about the Slave Trade in the US.  I’ll see how that goes as I’ve read a few chapters this afternoon.

May 2020 - Day 15

Halfway through May. Another quiet day when I finished off the masks with channels for elastic. More progress has been made on the book I’m currently reading, Golden Hill and have got about two thirds of the way through and pleased to have made progress by reading at least half hour a day.

I haven’t shared photos of me trying on on of the masks, so here they are (please excuse the hair - it does need some attention!)

I’ll try to do something more exciting tomorrow.  I have to start the car so as people can go a bit further afield now, so see how that goes.

May 2020 - Day 14

I haven’t done much today, but did have a walk to help out a friend with a pair of circular needles who lives on the other side of the Heath and for the first time I took two walks as I went out with David this evening.

One our return this evening just before the Clap for Carers a couple of people prepared for the occasion by dressing as dinosaurs, yes, dinosaurs! Here’s the evidence - running across the road!

May 2020 - Day 13

A brighter post today.  The sun was out and there are quite a things growing in the garden so here’s a few pics

And a more positive shopping experience as the quest for decorating materials continues.  I dreaded going to B&Q with scenes of queues a few weeks ago in the press.  The queue at our local one was bad when we went this afternoon, but timed it right later on.  It was really well organised and I found everything I wanted (or that David had put on the list).  The queue for the checkout wasn’t too long either.

All 14 blue masks are done, less the elastic, I’m going to make my own soon, but I’m going to try one of those on the Patrick Grant website because at least there are only two parts instead of six.

May 2020 - Day 12

Shopping happened today.  Finding out that The Range was open I tried to get some decorating items to make a start on decorating the living room while in lockdown.  The room hasn’t been decorated for some years and does need updating, which we’re probably more aware of now.  After a fraught time in narrow aisles while people are browsing while I just wanted to get what I want and the store layout had changed from when I was last there some months ago.All I got was a set of paintbrushes, no paint and no paint cleaner.  So I won’t be back there again.

Tesco shop wasn’t too bad as I didn’t have much to get this week but there are ‘pinch points’ in some aisles that are busier than others.

Back home more masks were completed and there are 9, less elastic, so I will make the channels for the elastic to go in.

As a change I’m doing some crochet

 This is a facecloth/dishcloth made in Rico cotton in this lovel pale green.  It’s a waffle stitch pattern, instructed by Bella Coco

And this is a pic of the masks.  Looks a bit like underwear, doesn’t it ? ;o))