November Catch Up

This month whizzes by with a round of birthday gatherings and getting out and about.  November sees my Mum, David and I all having birthdays and next month David and I are away on a cruise so we are gearing up for that.

I went for the first time to West Country Embroiderers' local group who meet at Corfe Mullen.  We were shown how to make Dorset Buttons, by Anna from Henry's Buttons and make Christmas themed ones with glittery thread and ribbons.  Here's my attempt.

A sideways view of the buttons the top one is a traditional one with the addition of narrow ribbon for extra decoration to the cartwheel and for the trim.  The bottom one is a Christmas tree, though I had a job trying to stitch French Knots as they kept pulling though to the wrong side so made small stitches instead.  It was an enjoyable day and I think a few more may be made some time soon...

I have just finished the hexagons on my Kingfisher Quilt and in the process of joining the blocks together.  It's taken 46 diamond blocks of hexies and it has been lovely to have this bit of slow stitching sewing the hexies together and appliquéing them onto their backgrounds that I'm going to have to find more hand stitching now, but that might wait until the new year.  Here's the progress so far

 A pile of diamonds

 The last two hexies to be sewn onto their backgrounds

 Arranged on the floor of my room ready to be sewn

Joining the strips together - just over halfway through

I spent Monday piecing the blocks together but have left at this point.  I hope to have the time on Sunday to join it all up and trim the edges.  I have bought a half metre of neutral fabric to put a thin border and will make the decision about what other border/s to put on this.  Quilting and finishing will probably be in the New Year.  So this will go on my self imposed Finish A Long for next year. I love how this is looking and serendipity of the blocks.  When laying out I didn't think much about what goes with what but just went for it and I love it.

Another finish has been this, a small hexie Table mat for Christmas.  I took part in a Christmas Hexie swap two years ago!!!  I don't know why it took me so long to get there, but it has.  Don't look at the wonky stitching it could have been better, but its a finish.

I hope to do a catch up next week before going away.  Have a good, creative weekend.

November

A week into November and less than 7 weeks to Christmas - less than a month until our holiday.  Time as ever flies by!

Last month saw the rediscovery of a crochet project that has been lingering for more than a year.  Crochet Now magazine ran a Crochet A Long (CAL) called Vintage Sweethearts which was designed by Sandra Paul of Cherry Heart blog.  Rather than have the yarn in a net bag I took the decision to work on this and with the longer evenings I have been steadily making crochet blocks of which the one above is in part 7 (I got up to part 6 before abandoning the project).  I have since just finished the blocks in part 8 and made a start on part 9.  As yet I haven't blocked the crochet blocks  and sewn together, that's yet to come.  I have seen a tutorial on YouTube by Helen of Crystals & Crochet about blocking acrylic yarn which has been useful and will at some stage get on with the blocking before sewing up.  Much better to be a blanket than a pile of yarn sitting in a net bag!

So, part 8 is on the left and part 9 is on the right.

Back in September I went to a retreat in Shropshire (which I didn't blog about) and in a lucky dip bag amongst other things I had a fat quarter of a lovely fabric called Boho Forest with squirrels, bears and owls.  Too nice to tuck away in stash so I made a folio with it.

The instructions came from Aneela Hoey's book of Stitched Sewing Organizers, which has been a useful resource for me this year.  I used fabrics from my stash, picking out the colours of the Boho fabric = mainly the taupes, yellows and duck egg blues and appliquéd the bears on the remaining piece of the fat quarter. It will hold the book along with pattern pieces in one place.  I have a couple of dressmaking books with patterns that have to be traced so there will probably be folios made for them too.  I used basal interlining for the cover, which although soft made it heavy so next time I will probably make a quilted cover instead.

A few months a go I signed up to make blocks on a monthly basis for a Siblings Together quilt bee and the requirement was to make blocks of warm colours.

They've now been sent off to the Quilt Bee Mama - a collection of those should make a lovely bright quilt.

It wasn't that long since I went to a quilt show, but I went one in Basingstoke run by North Hampshire Quilters and also took the opportunity to visit my brother-in-law's just a short hop up the motorway after.  They are a large group and their quilt styles are varied - from traditional to modern to contemporary.  A small but enjoyable show

Next Monday will be my first visit to West Country Embroiders Poole branch, making Dorset buttons.  I saw their exhibition back in September and made enquiries about joining, so see how that goes.  

October Happenings

This post will be another miscellany of going out and making things too.  Last week David and I had a short visit to St Austell, Cornwall to visit the Eden Project.  We had some Tesco Clubcard vouchers for our visit there and the offer of a cheap Premier Inn stay gave us the opportunity to visit.  There have been changes to the roads around the area so no twiddly lanes to drive to get to the Eden Project now and avoids the town centre.

The weather on the travel down wasn't good and return journey was even worse, which was followed by glorious weather in the days after we returned home!  Fortunately the day we visited Eden it was dry so that was good.

On our trip down to Cornwall we visited Castle Drogo, near Exeter, which is shrouded in covered scaffolding while work ongoing work takes place.  The castle has always had problems with a leaking flat roof and concrete mortar joining the granite blocks so a layer of the castle has been removed to make the building watertight before relaying the roof.  We took the opportunity to don hi-viz vests and hard hats to climb the temporary stairway and see the work being done from a platform at the top of the building.  The north side of the building is being worked on while the south side is open to visitors and below is the best photo I could take as on the far left you will just see the white of the covers over the scaffolding.

Then after a hairy journey from Castle Drogo down single track lanes with very small passing places until we reached the main roads we went onto St Austell.

I think this must the be third visit we've made to the Eden Project and there is always something new to see as well as familiar things like the allotments with vegetables grown that reflect the different cultures cooking.   There were also some changes to the biomes too with the Californian plants in the Mediterranean biome being replaced by Australian ones.  It just makes for an interesting visit.

 A version of the mud maiden

 Roul  Roul Partridges near the banana plants in the Tropical biome

 Orchid display in the Tropical biome

Loving the colour fade of the Grevillea that comes from Australia in the Mediterranean biome.

Going onto the Core building the mechanical ball run was replaced by the a large sculpture called Infinity Blue, which has blue ceramic panels with holes that blow out vapour circles at intervals to represent invisible bacteria called Cyanobacteria.  It was fascinating to both adults and children watching the puffs of vapour and seeing the rings float and disappear.  Theres a link for more information here

In spite of it being mid October there are some plants that are really putting on a good display like these dahlias on the slopes.

And changes to plants that are just spectacular this time of year, like the vine leaves that are turning

On Saturday I went on a coach trip organised by Happy Patchers to the Craft 4 Crafters show at Shepton Mallet.  It is a mix of crafts, not much knitting but fabric and papercrafts mainly, but also organisations are represented here such as Project Linus, West Country Embroiderers, Somerset Spinning and Weaving amongst others and textile artists doing demonstrations/mini workshops.  I didn't buy much, even came back with change from the budget I set myself.  I was looking forward to seeing 'Briswool' which is a community knitting and crochet project, but it wasn't there as the group had decided to retire the display but it was pretty big so I had to make do with Kevin the crochet crocodile!! He is pretty long and those crochet scales must have taken ages, but the imagination to make something like that as a group  project.  Here's a link to see pictures of the project and to Crafting the City

Just next to Kevin was this seagull

I'm not keen on seagulls but he did look spectacular.

There was a display of exhibits by textile artist Kate Crossley, famed for her grandfather clock at Festival of Quilts a few years back.  There is just so much detail in her work.

And I also like the quilts made from the same pattern but the fabric choices make the quilts different but still recognisable as the same pattern (if you get my drift!)

This is Cornelian quilt from a pattern (which was a block of the month) by Hugs 'n' Kisses which involves hexagons and embroidery so really intricate.  These were just 2 of the quilts on display by the quilt group. And no, I'm not going to have a go at this!

In spite of this gadding about I have made time to make things.  A couple of baby items for Flo, some small socks and a baby bonnet (she isn't keen on hats so a bonnet might stay on better)

Pictures were taken in different light but they are the same shade of pink.

I also made a Wee Braw Bag, which has been seen a lot on Instagram just lately.  I had a copy of the pattern from a past issue of Love Patchwork and Quilting.  It is basically a small drawstring pouch and having made a few of pouches recently it didn't take me long to put it together.

Quilty Week

Since last Saturday most days this week have involved sewing of one sort or another.  Last Saturday I went to a Linus day of the local Project Linus group near Wimborne stitching Christmas quilts.  There were packs of ready cut pieces and basic patterns to sew together to make small quilt tops and together with some fleece fabric (in place of wadding and backing) and binding made really cheerful and cosy quilts.  These will be distributed to hospitals and refuges in the local area. Whilst attaching the link above I came across this BBC South Today report with Joan, Lourdes and Brenda who coordinate the making, collecting and distributing  of quilts in this area - here's the link to the You Tube video

I took one pack and made the quilt as far as attaching the binding by machine to take home and slipstitch the binding to the back of the quilt, which I finished on Saturday evening while watching Strictly Come Dancing. As you can see from the pics below the large square had owls on, well I had to take that pack to stitch together!

I then took another pack thinking it would make the same size quilt, but no, this was bigger! It was 5 blocks across by 5 blocks long and I could only half make the top.  So when I came home I sewed the rest of the quilt top together.

David was volunteering at Swanage Railway on Monday and Tuesday, so it gave me a chance to quilt the larger quilt and then I took it to a sew and natter afternoon on Tuesday at Seahorse Quilting.

Sorry the pic is a bit dark here, the days getting shorter I think the light was going when I took the photo.

During this week and the sewing time that I've I also made a couple of blocks for this month's block drive for Siblings Together group and a request for 2 12.5" Hunter's Star blocks. I love making blocks  and these were made in no time at all.

Another call was put out on Instagram to make some black and white half square triangle (HST) blocks and 16 patch blocks.  So I made a few of those, which will be going in the post tomorrow.

The blocks in both pictures are going towards Siblings Together's quest for 100 quilts before next year's summer camps which joins siblings together who are in the care system, which you can read more about in the link above.

If my modest contribution makes a difference to someone's life then it makes it all worthwhile.

In other stitchy news I'm managing to get more blocks sewn together for the Kingfisher Quilt - the quilt along having been back in July but I'm not doing bad at having made 38 diamonds out of 46, so they are piling up.  It won't be that long and I will have to think about fabric for the half diamonds to complete the rows when I come to join up.  I don't think that I have that much low volume fabric to make it random, so I may have to get metre-age to edge the diamonds.  I will be going to the Crafts 4 Crafters show next weekend so I might see something there - wait and see. This is my quilting project for Quarter 3 and I know this will go into Quarter 4 of my solo finish along.

As for the other items in this last quarter they have all been completed and gifted so thinking cap on for other things to finish in quarter 4 - which is a bit tricky as some things in progress are for Christmas!

Sunny Days

What I love about autumn are those sunny days that just pleasant to go out in, the light is very bright but its not too hot or too cold for walking.  Lately we've been out locally having a wander followed by tea and cake (we share a slice of cake, trying not to be too naughty).

Our nearest and favourite National Trust site is Kingston Lacy, just outside Wimborne, which has a Japanese Tea Garden and Acer Walk; across the back of the grounds is the kitchen garden with a flower garden and allotments for local people.

In the first pic there were dahlias, roses and canna lilies making a colourful display while the weather is still mild, unfortunately the shade of the trees don't show them well.  But the acers looked spectacular as the colours of the leaves change before they fall.

Another afternoon out on Sunday was to visit Moreton between Wareham and Dorchester.  Its not far from Bovingdon Camp, home of the Tank Regiment and was also nearby the home of T E Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia.  The village has a walled garden (and tea room too), which is open to the public and provides employment for people with learning difficulties.  The garden was pleasant to walk around in

We also went to the nearby church, which unusually has etched instead of stained glass windows.

 Almost lets the outside come inside the church, making it very light inside.

And I could not resist taking a photo of the lovely Victorian tiled floor, this was taken near the font. Isn't that just wonderful?

T E Lawrence is buried in the cemetery near the walled garden not in the churchyard and I didn't take a photo, but there were some flowers that an 'American Friend' always sends each year on 1st October  and they were still looking fresh.

Next week will see David and I going off to Cornwall for a couple of days as we have some Eden Project tickets to use and if the weather stays as good as it has been it'll be a bonus.