End of April

As it’s May, I’m doing a round up of what I’ve been up to in April craft wise,  at this end of the month I started and finished a Linus quilt.  My friend has some sight problems at present so was unable to sew together this quilt so passed the pack onto me.

The pack came with all the fabrics cut out and ready to sew so I got going, this was Friday. On Sunday I quilted using the wiggly stitch on my machine and sewing across the diagonal, in the afternoon I sewed on the binding.

This is a view of the back.  I finished off hand stitching the binding to the back on Monday.

It helped to listen to podcasts while sewing this up.  It was good not to have to make decisions about the choice of fabrics or making the block arrangements and just sew.  A really good quick project.

At the beginning of this month at Dorset Creative Embroiderers there was a tutor demonstrating a landscape with a murmurstion, but I made the decision to sit this one out and finish off the project from the previous month, but I ended up adding a murmurstion to what I was doing, so in effect had two projects in one picture! 

This was my landscape from March

Above is the picture made by the tutor

This is my embroidered landscape with the murmuration.  I added a stem stitch border around and next month I will get a frame for this. So that’s another finish.

I am continuing with hexagons, which gives me a bit of slow stitching time. I’ve decided to make a cover for my stitch book with some low volume fabric hexagons and will make a wrap around cover.  The hexagons from last year’s 100 hexies 100 days are being added to and making up 6.5 inch squares to sew ‘flowers’ of hexies on to. I’ve got 25 blocks so far.  It might take me a while to make a quilt.

I’ve been adding to my crochet cactus from last month with making another succulent, this time a String of Pearls. This is from the book of Crochet Succulents by Emma Varnam.

Here’s the succulent in situ.

Last month I was working on Florrie the Fox which I finished before going away on holiday.

Isn’t she sweet? You can see why I wanted to make her and she makes me smile when I see her.   Florrie is a kit from Lucy Locket Land, although the pattern is by Julie Williams of Little Cotton Rabbits.  I’m hoping a sheep one will come up in Lucy’s Year of Little Cotton Rabbits.  But I might just get the sheep pattern…..We’ll wait and see.

While away on holiday I took some sock knitting with me. I’ve only made one sock so far, A plain vanilla sock but based on Kay Jones’ Hobbity Socks, but only for the heel and toes shaping. The photo was taken on the river somewhere between Rotterdam and Kinderdijk and we had the sliding door open on our cabin. 

I have one completed sock and another to go.  The yarn is a hand dye from Cuddlebums, that I bought from Yarndale, year before last. 

Also on the needles is an Aran cardigan for David.  This is a long running project as I started this last year.  I’ve got as far as the raglan shaping on the back, finished a left front, and up to the armhole on the right front.  It’s trying to keep the pattern right while making he decreases.  Having just finished one front, I’ll get the second done before finishing the back. I hope there will be progress next month. 

The ATC I’ve made this month is on the theme of Red and I made a fabric one this month, with strips of red onto red felt with additional stitching and couching. I added adhesive gems in red and finished with red sari silk ribbon.

Before the ATC Zoom meeting there was a crafting one that I don’t often take part in but this month did.  It was to make a presentation box. After being given the size of the pieces to cut out it didn’t take long to put together.

Outside

Inside

So despite taking time out this month I’m still keeping busy.

Let’s see what May brings (brighter weather I hope!).

Holiday to The Netherlands 🇳🇱 - Part 4

 A round up of our holiday. The day we left we went out for the morning to another shopping area near The Palace Square. We checked out of the hotel after having had a lovely English  Breakfast in a nearby coffee shop, which was really small but packed in a lot of people.

We found a reminder of home, with the smell, then sight of Lush (Lush has several production units in Poole). A few doors away was a Lego store.

The Laughing Cavalier and Starry Night

Along with Van Gogh’s self portrait

M C Escher’s Infinite Staircase

As well as Vermeer’s Girl With A Pearl Earring

A close up of the frame with different shades of yellow Lego bricks.  The pieces were artworks in themselves with thousands of bricks used. Each turn in the shop had something that made you think ‘How on earth did they do that?’.

After a wander round we headed back to the hotel to await our taxi to the airport,  but I took the last few pictures of the hotel we stayed in. The gorgeous lights and grand chandelier with the elaborate French Style clock (which wasn’t working at the time and not sure if it does).

Then our flight back to Southampton and home.

Holiday In The Netherlands 🇳🇱 Part 3

 This is the last part of our holiday, spending the last few days in Amsterdam after the river cruise.  The weather was awful for the most part - rain, more rain, hailstones - it didn’t cheer up until last day. We checked in to the hotel, then walked to the Central station where there was information then took one of the free ferries over to The Eye Filmmuseum.  It is a modern museum with amazing architecture but not a lot of content, so took the ferry back, but that was an experience. You can see from the photos below how awful the weather was.

We purchased a day ticket on an app called I Amsterdam, which we used the next day to visit museums and use the tram system.  First we visited the Canal Museum, which informed about the reason for the canals to cope with the ever expanding population in the city. It was in one of the grander houses but it had a beautiful garden.

From there we visited the Rijksmuseum, famed for its classic paintings but Rembrandt and Vermeer (and other artists too, there was just so much to see and so busy with people that we needed timed tickets.  The old part of the building had lovely stained glass windows and floor mosaics 

We walked up to the Van Gogh Museum, but made the mistake of not getting a timed ticket first.  In the Museum Quarter is MoCo or Modern Contemporary Museum.  This is in an Arts and Crafts style building  and contained works from Robbie Williams (yes, the singer formerly with Take That), Andy Warhol, Banksy and others. It also had a Digital Immersive art, with lights and mirrors, some items hanging or being screened. This was quite busy with people trying to get out of the rain (like us).

One of the artworks by Robbie Williams 

Above is a piece by Damien Hurst with the stained glass windows of the museum building.

In the immersive art.  This was fascinating.  It was an unexpected but enjoyable visit. 

The following day we were back at Amsterdam Central station to take the train to Utrecht to get the shuttle train to Utrecht Maliebaan old station, where the Dutch Railway Museum is housed.

The outside of the old station, which is currently being renovated.

A British locomotive, once on a line from Sheffield to Manchester.

The signal box. David visited and had a chat with the volunteer signalman. Below are more locomotives from the past 

After returning to Utrecht then to Amsterdam, we had escape another hailstorm by running into McDonald’s after the storm. Walking across the Palace Square there were guards outside as they were preparing for King Willem Alexander to stay at the Palace.  We found out the next day that he was to be visited by King Felipe of Spain, but we didn’t see any of the royals,

On our walks around the city mostly on the bridges were bikes decorated with flowers by the Flower Bike Man.

(Excuse my finger here)

I think I will leave that here and will round up with a part 4.