August Catch Up

Now its halfway through August its time for a bit of a catch up.  We're now getting out and about a bit more and now eating out too at local pubs under the "Eat Out to Help Out' scheme once a week now. Seemed a bit strange at first, when we first ventured to a carvery in Worthing when visiting Alex and family but getting more used to the new normal.  Also getting to see more of the people we know too. which is great.

So what else have I been up too?  I bought a book and kit.  This is the third book in the Luna Lapin series, by Sarah Peel of Cool Crafting. 

I could not resist the Herdwick sheep, Daisy and when I learned that the book with the pattern for her and her friends was due out at the end of July I put my order in.  It came in a few days!!  So far I've only made the legs and arms but will hopefully make the rest of her this week.

I've made a couple of small quilts too.  One has gone to Linus and I also donated some fabric that I'm not likely to use. The backing is composed of 2 pieces of fleece fabric that I had left over from other fleece backed quilts made previously. I took the photos in my friend's garden, as I was slip stitching the binding while visiting her! She didn't mind as she's a quilter too. As you can see from the pic below I ran out of binding fabric, so a piece of the dog print was added to it.  I like this effect and might try that again.

I had a turn out of drawers where I keep my fabric stash and pulled out a couple of packs of unfinished quilts.  This quilt was from our days in Yorkshire over 10 years ago!  Last year I put together the pieces to make a long quilt hanging from most of the pieces but the quilt was meant to be wider. A mistake in cutting the triangles and not being able to get more of the cream fabric at the time meant it became a UFO. I think the nearest to this is Cascades 2, but hung sideways, as this was to fill the stairwell of the house we rented at the time.

So I re-arranged the remaining pieces and re-cut some blocks laying them out on the floor (I don't have a design wall - so its either the floor or the bed in the spare room!). I had some green fabric that went well with the other blocks and instead of border and binding I did a wide border instead.  I'm pleased I've got one less UFO.  I’m left with tiny pieces of the fabrics now, so they will go in the scrap box (that needs sorting too).

Just look at the mitred corner, not bad is it? The mitres worked out just right. 

On Saturday 15th August was Granny Square Day.  For those unfamiliar with the Granny Square, it's a crochet square made from clusters of treble stitches which are either made as small squares joined together or one large continuous square.  Click on the link above and there's an explanation.  I have fond memories of my grandmother making large square blankets having been donated wool to make the blankets for the 'old folk', who, more often than not, were older than she was!  Anyway here are my blocks 

The corner 2 corner Granny Square 

The Sunflower Granny 

So I had a go at a Sunflower block from Sew Happy Creative (who did a rainbow sunflower, so pretty) and a Corner 2 Corner block from Simply Crochet  Magazine, which I read through the Readly app,  There was a really big collection of photographed granny squares on Instagram.

I’ve discovered a new to me You Tube video channel called Suzieqmakes, a crafter who lives in Devon and dabbles in sewing, embroidery, journal lingo and cardmaking. I found this through searching for Sew 4 the Soul videos as she is also taking part in this.  I will update later on my progress on my Sew 4 the Soul book.