Cambridge

Following on from last week's post (the time is just flying, don't you think?) we visited Cambridge. It was easy from our hotel to travel to the nearest park and ride to get into the city centre.  Like it's counterpart Oxford the University of Cambridge is made of several colleges, tried to keep track of the places we were visited but gave up!!  We were able to go into the grounds of two colleges, St Johns and Clare.  The architecture of the buildings were fascinating and it was such a lovely spring day it was just nice to have a meander around the city to see the sites.

Me, in front of the Bridge of Sighs in the grounds of St Johns college

 See if you can spot a couple of swallows nests in this crevices of this archway

 The college building are so ornate I really liked this Norman archway

 A tactile map of the city with Braille

 The ceiling of the entrance to the Fitzwilliam Museum

 And part of the floor inside the museum, just loved the mosaics.

The Round Church, one of just 4 in the Country.  We were interested in the roof to this church as the slate used came from Collyweston in Northamptonshire.  David has done some family history research and found one of his ancestors lived in the area of Collyweston and this slate is peculiar to the area, but is no longer mined.
 

 And this was one photo I could not resist taking, a dinosaur skeleton sculpture outside the Sedgwick Museum, he could make a quick getaway on one of the many bikes parked outside just in front of where it was standing!

Just a few of the photos that we've taken on a lovely Spring Day!

Duxford Spring Quilt Show

Using up holiday as the holiday year at work finishes at the end of March, David and I booked a Travelodge room near Cambridge and a chance to visit Duxford, the Imperial War Museum's aircraft collection at which there happens to be the Spring Quilt Fair.  I'd also offered to look after the trade stall for Nancy, who runs Lina Patchworks selling papers for English Paper Patchwork, while she did a workshop.

Of course I had to buy some fabric there, here is my haul

In the pic above, the blue bag contains a kit with special foot and ruler for free machine quilting.  I hope I can have a go at that during one evening this week.

While David did manage to get to see most of the museums exhibits, I still didn't get the chance to go around at all.  I think another visit may be called for without the distraction of a quilt show.

While on the way to Cambridge we stopped at a supermaket and I bought this magazine

I already have some binding clips which I use quite a bit so this little lot while come in handy.

Just a few of the quilts that I took photos of. I'm sorry I can't credit the makers here. I will have to look at the program and edit this post later.

Books

I've never counted how many books I've got, but I do have quite a few as my bookshelf will show and that's not all.  There are others dotted around the house!   I tend to buy from the shows as there's usually either the Home Workshop or Kaleidoscope books.

As well as books I've bought from new I've also acquired a few books secondhand. One of these books is this one from 1978, which was published by the BBC, called Discovering Patchwork, from a television series about patchwork, so this is about 38 years old. It's in a good state, the pages aren't even yellowed.

So I thought I would take a look through as it's interesting to see the techniques used before rotary cutters, mats and acrylic rulers were used. Templates had to be drafted and the patches were mainly hand pieced, although machine piecing is also featured. English paper piecing, Amish and American block patchwork are the styles of patchwork in this.

There are projects such as an apron, cot quilt and several cushions and this rather fetching waistcoat.

Bags with EPP diamonds.

Very clear instructions about how to draw the templates for patchwork 

I'm pleased I've rediscovered this book and my brief review.

Not A Lot Happening

I had a flu bug last week and struggled as I returned to work this week, though I got better as the week progressed.  Not a lot of sewing has been going on for a couple of weeks now, but should be getting back into full swing.

I'm just doing a catch up of things from earlier this month, which like last month is about pouches, with a Sew Together bag, which I was quite pleased about.  I keep looking at it and opening the large zip as I can't quite believe how it all came together.  I think I have exorcised my fear of zips now.

The top two pics are of the Home Sweet Home blocks that I've made, 7 so far and may make some more next month, see how things go.  I've also made a couple of blocks to send to Bee Blessed. Neither  blocks have been sent to their destinations, but will put that right in the coming week.

In March though, I hope to get some inspiration from the Duxford Quilt Show, near Cambridge, which I'm going to on Friday.  Anyone else going?  David and I will also see the IWM aeroplane museum too while there. We'll also have a visit to Cambridge during that weekend. It'll be nice to have a few days away somewhere different.

It will also be International Quilting Day on 21 March and will be joining the Tarrant Valley Quilters, near Blandford, which is a nice relaxing sewing day out.

 Meanwhile tomorrow we'll be spending time with the grandchildren and seeing Shaun the Sheep the Movie, which was postponed from last Sunday, which I'm really looking forward to. 

Home Sweet Home Blocks

I've had a day's holiday from work today and it was a grim day, so what perfect weather for sewing.  Yesterday I read Lily's Quilts blog written by Mary Emmens about Siblings Together charity and requiring some blocks for making boys quilts. More about it here.

She requested blocks in blue,green, grey and black in a block devised Jera Brandvig of Quilting in the Rain blog.  I decided to have a go.

Excuse the fuzzy pic. I started with a nine patch

The patches were cut diagonally and rejoined. I could now see why it was called Home Sweet Home block- see the house shapes? Yes, it took me a while!

Before I knew it by the afternoon I made 7 blocks.

I was able to pull out all sorts of fabrics, batiks, novelty, mottled fabrics. Made quite a mess of my stash, that'll need a sort out but it was a lot of fun. Shame I have to go back to work tomorrow.

Sew Together Bag

I've spent yesterday and this afternoon making a Sew Together bag, a pattern that I purchased recently from Sew Demented via Craftsy.  I used some fabrics from Hobbycraft. So here I am putting in 4 zips!  At one stage when reading some of the instructions over a few times before getting it I felt a little demented too, but I got there. Quite pleased how it's turned out

I've even managed (by chance) to have this little badger on the zip tab.

On the subject of pouches I received this lovely little one from my friend Benta of Slik Stitches.  

The front is a clear vinyl with the zip. I like the paperclips on the Orange fabric!

And the back, just lovely.

This pouch will be just right for block units. So far this year I've gone  mad on pouches.

Better Late Than Never

I've missed yesterday's Fresh Sewing Day at Lily's Quilts, but I thought I should still do a round up of what I've made in January.

With a bit of jiggery-pokery as things have changed when editing and sharing photos the collage has taken longer to move to where I want to be able to access it to put on the blog, but I've got there in the end.

The big picture shows my snowman, knitted from a Sirdar pattern.  Okay, so Christmas has long gone but it's still winter and some places have snow, but not here in the south coast of England.  Above the snowman are the pencil cases I blogged about a few days ago, here. Next to that is the Open Wide pouch with instructions from Noodlehead's blog tutorial, which I made on Sunday morning.  In the corner are two Maple Leaf blocks which I've made for Bee Blessed.  Sarah from Sew Me has a February block which I'm wanting to have a go at, another variation of squares and half square triangles.  The two remaining pics are of my progress with the Grand Illusion Mystery from Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville blog.  I've also spent a Sunday afternoon trying to get to grips with sewing in an invisible zip, with mixed results.  So I'm pleased I've managed to fit some sewing and a bit of knitting for January.

I've got a couple of days holiday to help use my holiday allowance up and my aim is to make some progress on one of my UFO's for Project Linus - the black and turquoise quilt and get that done, so I've declared these 2 days will be sewing days.  I will also attempt to make some small bits - bookmarks or pin cushions - to build up a charity sale stash this month, things that don't take much time to do. I'll see how that goes.

I'll leave this catch up with a closer look at my Open Wide Pouch

I did edit this, but the photo has gone back to the unedited version.  The wonders of modern technology - pah!!

Saturday Afternoon Sewing

Last weekend when visiting my youngest son and his family my grandson, Freddie, had some drawing to do as part of his homework. There was mention that he could do with a pencil case and with that in mind I started making one using a pattern from. Craftsy class.

Here's the front

And back

The fishes ended up upside down.  But I could just make one, I made another for his brother

Here's both other together. I hope the boys like them.

Did you notice they've got zips? I'm getting better at them.

Flowers

Last week I bought the first of this year's daffodils in M&S which came into full bloom this week and on Thursday I took a photo

They look glorious and I look forward to more bunches of daffodils over the next couple of months.  We have some growing in the garden, which I'm really looking forward to. I really love the sign of coming Spring.

Last Autumn we planted some Hyacinth bulbs for Christmas, except they were forgotten about until after the holidays, but having bought them in the house they are now blooming really well and we are enjoying the lovely fragrance.

Lovely to see flowers in the midst of winter.

Zippedy Do Da

This weekend I went to Hobbycraft in Ferndown for a small Pom Pom maker to make pom-poms for the knitted snowman to finish it off, which I hope will get done this week.  While there I also picked up in of the fat quarter packs of 6 fabrics with a country feel, with badgers, owls and hedgehogs.

Here they are at the bottom of the photo.  At the top are some quarters that I bought before Christmas before all the fabrics go in the wash. I've found that Hobbycraft fq's are imperial rather than metric so are slightly smaller than normal, but they are pretty.

Making progress with the (potential) skirt making I've had a bash at sewing an invisible zip, using a couple of pieces of calico to practice on with more un-sewing than sewing. I've been following some of the instructions from the Craftsy class that I've been taking.

It may look ok from the front, but the the back is definitely as dogs dinner.

I think more practice is called for.

Been Shopping

I'm not a keen shopper but every so often I get the urge. Using birthday money (from way back in November) I bought a couple of Per Una tops from M&S last week, which started it all off. At the weekend it was followed by a couple of pairs of shoes. Anyone that knows me will know how difficult I find this with size 4 feet, so I was really pleased with that.

Not satisfied with going to shops I shopped online on Sunday, first of all with Seasalt, and the "lovely delivery from Cornwall" arrived today with a skirt and top.

I like the packaging.

Not a very good pic as taken this evening, but the fit is good, so I'm happy.

I also sent for a couple of sewing items, a French Curve ruler and a couple of invisible zips (one to try and another for an actual skirt.  Just before Christmas I bought an online class from Craftsy to design and make an A-line skirt, hence need for the ruler and zips as I've never tried inserting an invisible zip before. All these items arrived this week so I've looked forward to getting home to my parcels.  That's all my shopping for now.

Slowly Getting Back to Sewing

It's the start of a working week after the Christmas holidays and I thought I would show you a belated present to my friend Brenda, this little quilted box for putting bits and bobs in. This was made well before the holidays but couldn't show before now.

Here's a photo of what it looks like with my sewing stuff

It started with a square which was quilted with the corners bought in and stitched the adjacent sides. The corner triangles were then turned down and stitched with a button on all four corners. That's how best I can explain it, really. So there's storage in the main box and the little pockets made from the corners can hold small things like scissors or seam rippers, etc. I enjoyed making this and might see if I can make a few more.

I've had a go at English Paper Piecing (EPP) on Sunday on a pattern that I quite liked.  In Love Patchwork and Quilting mag in December was a Dala horse pattern and I rather liked the patchwork saddle for the horse.  The pieces are not too small, but hand piecing in the evening under artificial light weren't good for my eyes.  The stitching is ok but not brilliant and I haven't attempted the curved pieces that surround the edge yet.

Oops that owl is upside down! Not sure where I'm going to use this patchwork, but I'll think of something.

I went out on Sunday with friends to Pauline's Patchwork in Poundbury near Dorchester, a nice trip out there. I'd already signed up for one workshop at the end of May, but I've signed up for another in September.  Blimey, talk about wishing my life away.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Look!

Wanting to change things a bit post-Christmas, a new background and new title header. I hope it looks OK and a bit Spring-like for looking forward in the New Year.

Christmas for David, Sarah and me was a busy-ish one, enjoying Christmas Day at my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's home in Surrey, followed by Boxing Day at home with my sons and their families.  Sarah had to return home to Bristol on Saturday because she was working a late shift at hospital. Her train wasn't running and a later one would have pushed her time-wise so a trip quick trip from Poole to Bristol and back again! Fortunately it was a lovely if cold day which made the drive more enjoyable.

David and I had already booked an overnight stay in Plymouth on Monday so an early start to get to Plymouth at lunchtime and a driving tour around Liskeard, Looe and back to Torpoint with a ferry crossing back to Plymouth. On Tueday we toured around Kingsbridge to Dartmouth, Totnes and Newton Abbot before returning home.  It was just a quick getaway to make the most of our time off over Christmas holidays and not too far a drive to explore when the year progresses.

As you will have guessed not a lot of sewing was done, but more progress was made of knitting the snowman, more of which I hope to show in another blog.

This morning I read Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville blog with the solution for the Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt.  If you have read my previous posts about this I've made 10 of each unit as I didn't want to make a big quilt and see where the 10 took me.  Whether its to make more units for a bigger quilt top or to keep things small.  I have made one block here

Photo taken while in progress on my chair.

Then with the green/neutral/black sashing around it.

There are some blocks left which are to be used as the border in the quilt after a first border strip is sewn around the quilt.  Lets see how big this quilt top will be before I decide on borders.

I don't go back to work until next Monday, so I will have the opportunity to review the past year's sewing and look at what projects lie ahead for the year.

Finally, I'm linking with Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day (haven't done that for a couple of months at least) so if you've popped over to my blog from there - Welcome! Come and say Hello!

Whatever you do have a great New Year with lots to look forward to in 2015.