Interlude

In the days of old black and white television, there used to be a short film called "The Interlude" often used when there were "technical hitches" with a programme, which means that there isn't a lot to blog about.  Not much sewing done because this was the state of my room from the middle of last week until this morning

Try to get any sewing done with that lot!  We emptied out half the contents of the wardrobe (on the left) for easy access to any pipes which then went into the guest room.  Fortunately Sarah stayed last weekend and we're not expected guests very soon, so things were piled on the bed

The cause of the disruption?

Our en-suite loo.  The shower (behind) was replaced some years ago and this time it's the 80's pink loo and wash basin, together with new vanity units.  That was this morning.  So far this evening the unit carcasses were in and the loo plumbed in so will show what it looks like when done next time, but suffice to say it's looking good so far. It's surprising how one small room can cause so much disruption.

So I'll continue this interlude with some views of the garden (lot nicer than looking at our bathroom!)

Normal service will be resumed soon.

Now for Some Sewing Bits

Last Wednesday evening I went to Ringwood Quilters' meeting with my friend Brenda to hear their guest speaker, Janet McCallum talk about her life in quilting.  She is a member of the Contemporary Quilters and of art quilt group By Design.  A really interesting speaker with lots of quilts to show and also a slideshow (of quilts she has sold).

Of course with a quilt meet there is always a raffle.  This is what I won - book (like I need another!) but this one, though published some years ago I've kept reading over again since bringing this home.

 Now all I need is a good slice of time to try a quilt out.

Who can resist fabric?  This was my purchase on Wednesday night

Seaside themed fabric

I also purchase some today at Hardy Quilters' Exhibition today.  I went there with friends Penny and Vera

 Some variegated fabric

And above some (very rare, Makower no longer make this) ombre fabric.  I was looking for this way back in 2010 for a Pat Archibald workshop and couldn't get hold of any.  This was from Becca's Quilting Larder.

Finding it difficult to take pictures of shows to show on the blog (just in case people object) here's a photo overview of this lovely little show.  I guess that Hardy Quilters may put some photo's on their blog here.

Over the weekend I made a few bookwraps for the tombola at the Festival of Quilts in August.

That's kept me out of mischief!

Bit of a Nerdy Post

Sometimes it's difficult to think of a title.  Lately I have been up to all sorts of things, not just quilting.  Some of you may know that I am the Regional Treasurer of Region 4 (Dorset, Devon and Cornwall) of the Quilters Guild of the British Isles and was appointed 2 years ago.  There is a requirement to go to the Guild's Head Office at the Quilt Museum in York for training and so last weekend made the journey up to York and stayed a couple of nights in a guest house.  Having lived in Yorkshire and visited York quite a few times I quite enjoyed the stay up there.  I only had a short viewing in the Museum which was a shame but after the training day was over it was good to get outside and see the gardens.

This was taken from under the walls (York is a walled city and people can walk on them) looking towards the Quilt Museum building to the right of the tree.  To the left is a cafe and the smaller building to the front of the Museum is the Schoolhouse gallery.  The gardens were quite new when I last visited the area and it was nice to enjoy them as the planting is starting to mature. An oasis in a bustling city.

Before going to the Museum I had a chance to wander from the guest house and walked through the York Museum gardens.  The gardens house the ruins of St Mary's Abbey.  Sorry, can't resist and old ruin

And the Museum, above.

 I really loved this fernery planted outside on of the Roman walls

Another bit of ruin

Whilst walking through York I passed the Viking Loom (resisted temptation to visit) and saw quilts in the window, made by Stuart Hillard, one of the Great British Sewing Bee contestants who teaches there.

Sunday saw my return to Bournemouth from York and I really like the architecture of the station there.  The railway is on a curve and the canopy of the station follows it around.  What a feat of engineering.

On my travels the train stopped at Derby and on another platform was a Pullman style dining train.  I had hoped there would be a steam engine with it. but unfortunately not, there were diesels at each end of the train.  I think some trainspotters on the platform were hoping for some action as they waited.

However I was rewarded with a steam engine sighting at Didcot at the Didcot Railway Centre, quickly having to get mobile phone to hand there's a lot of reflection from the glass, but never mind, I got my engine!

Sewing Sunday

After Saturday's outing Sunday was a staying at home day, catching up on chores and other bits and bobs.  Lately I have been following an online course on Craftsy, called "Big techniques from small scraps" tutored by Sarah Fielke, which amongst it's techniques includes using a 60 degree triangle ruler and also a 18 degree (used for Dresden plate) ruler.  So I had a play around that afternoon.

Here's my Dresden plate.  The EZ ruler that I had didn't appear to give any idea of what degree wedge the fan would be but started cutting thinking I would just make an arc, however I got carried away and made this

 The coaster which I used for a circle temple for the middle was made by Sarah when she was at Guide camp several years ago

From which I cut a circle of this cheery fabric from a charm pack.  I didn't have the applique glue so had to use pins until I stitched it.

I also had a go at the triangle ruler playing around with triangles and also cut half triangle shapes

And I could not resist making the "Not quite a Beauty" free cutting New York Beauty Block.  I don't think it curved around enough, think I might need a bit of practice with this.

Finally this is what I made on my day off last week.  Not having been able to go to Anja Townrow's class I had a go at this

It's not the right way around but you get the idea.  I've got to add some decorative stitching and quilt it but pleased how it's turning out.

June already

How did that happen?  All of a sudden it's June and beginning to get summery.  On Saturday David and I took ourselves out for the day to Weymouth and Portland.  We've visited Weymouth a few times before but never ventured to Portland and it was such a nice day we just had to go.

At Weymouth on the South Harbour is Nothe Fort.  In history the south coast was strategically import to ensure that England wasn't invaded by the French, so there are quite a few fortifications built along the coastline.  This was a fascinating place also with not only canons and guns, but also World War II memorabilia and also contained a Cold War bunker.

Oh yes, we both managed to leave our cameras at home, so photos were taken with mobile phones.  Mine managed until I had such a flat battery that it switched itself off!  Anyway above is the view of Portland from Nothe Fort.

 Some big guns

 Looking at Weymouth's tower with a raised glass viewing platform (this was a feature for the Olympics)

A bit sunny, but this was David in front of one of the guns.

After lunch we drove down to Portland and visited Portland Castle, this time another fortified castle built during the reign of Henry VIII (he didn't want the Spanish to invade either).  I took some photos from the upper gun deck.

 One large cannon

 The concrete blocks to the left centre are 2 caissons that would have made part of the Mulberry harbours for D-Day, but they never made it to France.

 Looking down at the gun deck

David again, by a cannon with Weymouth in the background.

 And the outside of the castle.  Just before we left the nearby Coastguard helicopter was scrambled and we just had time to leave the grounds and head to where we could see the helicopter take off.

It then on to Portland Bill lighthouse, which wasn't open so couldn't see inside.  The land around it looked desolate with boulders of Portland stone nearby.  The purple patch inside the fenced area had some Thrift growing, hadn't seen such a large quantity of this growing.  It was then that my phone decided to die on me.  It was a super day and another reminder about how lucky we are to live in this lovely part of the country.

Another Bank Holiday Weekend

This weekend is another long one, this time for 4 days as David and I have both taken an extra day off tomorrow.

Following last week's visit from the plumber, we have decided on a new toilet and washbasin unit for our bathroom, so after visiting local bathroom suppliers we've found something we like and will order it tomorrow.  So from having white furniture with pale pink (very 80's) basin and toilet we'll have dark brown units with white basin and toilet.

Sunday and today have been pottering around days and it's been lovely to have some sunshine and to take advantage of this with a barbeque yesterday evening.  This week I have been doing some sewing though the ribbon weaving didn't work very well after the large piece was cut into sections and the ribbons frayed or unravelled.  Suffice to say I think this will be ditched.  So I've made some different ribbon and lace cards

The top photo shows the ribbon weaving split into 6.

The next two photos show the individual cards that I made (there are 5 signed up to this group so far,

I also made some birthday postcards for ladies whose birthdays are in June - Irene and Marion

I used some squares of the Japanese charm square pack that I've had so quite some time and dig into now and again.  I dug in a bit more and made a couple more postcard tops and will add some shashiko stitches to them.

The one on the left has a crane, I've just realised I arranged the photo with this upside down, oops.

I also had a go at this article that I saw in a Sewing World magazine from last year using sheer fabrics and free machining. The base fabric had fusible webbing and snippets of sheer fabric trapped under a sheer layer and in rows.  There is some free machining on the top row, though you can't really see it here as well as what you can see from the blue bells and leaves.  Didn't take too long to do, must be getting better at this free machine malarky.

I decided that I'd make this postcard sized too.  I quite enjoyed doing something different. So a productive weekend.

Saturday Sewing and Other Bits

On Saturday I joined some ladies for a sewing day where we work on our own projects and have a lot of natter!  A really enjoyable and relaxing day. Choosing a project to work on I needed a book cover for my paperbacks that I take to work to read of a lunchtime.  I's wanted to make the bookcover from Susan Briscoe's book "130 Little Quilt Blocks" which I've found quite a useful reference for quilt blocks.  I used an applique Retro Bird and fused that on a background, ready to stitch.  I used my own block for the back 3d Bow Tie block and the blocks matched in with some really bright Australian fabric that I've had for some years.

Heres the front

 And the back

Just a bit bright!

I thought I would share with you the postcards that I received last month in the Doodling swap.  Some lovely postcards indeed. They were all stitched doodles one with the addition of piecing too.

Now I've started on a new set of postcards for a swap next month called Using Up Ribbons and Lace. So yesterday afternoon I got out my jar of ribbons and bags of odd bits of lace and made a mess

 And below is some weaving pinned at the edges waiting to be ironed onto a fusible background (calico with fusible webbing face up) which I'll do later

I said in my last post I was getting hooked on crochet.  This is what I did during the week, a mandala.  No purpose to this, I just liked it and wanted to have a go.

This was from Simply Crochet, a pattern by Dutch crocheter and blogger, Wink. Her one is in lovely soft colours, mine is just a bit bright. I thought it was an easy pattern to follow, but as the circle became bigger my counting went awry so it's curling upwards, but never mind, I enjoyed making it.