End of June

 What an eventful month it has been. With an injured knee (still recovering but a lot better), Covid, family hospital visits last weekend (all is well now) and granddaughter’s birthday party it’s been a busy month.  It’s amazing I got a finished quilt (mainly due to being at home a lot) but a lot of little bits have been made.  Here’s the purple quilt.

The front

And the back.  I wrote more about the quilt here.  It doesn’t have a home yet.

Also being at home I got on with making a cover for my stitch book, which is to be more of a wrap.  I had a lot of low volume fabric hexagons, to which I added more until I got the size I wanted. I added narrow strips of fabric top and bottom so I didn’t have those awkward bits to cut off. With wadding and lining I quilted with big running stitches of perle thread.  So that’s another little finish.

The outside 

The inside

Wrapped around the book.

I follow a You Tube Mousiemakes and enjoy seeing Helen’s work and she invited people to make a mouse, so I made a very basic one in amigurumi crochet with instructions from another You Tuber Yarnhild, who had several crochet tutorials.  I made this little mouse from some Ricorumi cotton I have in my stash.

Another quick and easy project is this washcloth which is a dishcloth pattern from Garlene of the Kitchen SinkWorkshop as part of her Year of Dishcloths this month. Using the King Cole Cottonsoft yarn with little pops of colour it makes a lovely delicate and soft cloth, lovely to wash oneself with rather than washing the dishes. It was a handy project to take to the knit and natter group this week.

And I must be in the mood for finishing things off as the past couple of  days I’ve been working on an embroidery design by EmBeaRoidery (her shop is on Etsy) of my star sign, Sagittarius.  I had left it for a while but decided to pick it up again to sew the little stars and moons inside the arrow.  I’ll now have to think how I frame it, but it was a lovely design to work on.  This was a pdf pattern that I purchased and used fabric and thread that I had already but she also sells kits.

I’ve made three cards (one I’ve sent already to my daughter in law before I took a photo), below is a swing cards by cutting part of a rectangle one one side of the cards and another of the other side. Easier to show than explain!  This was with the Hotchpotch craft group.

Then with the TG internet group I made another card 

Finally this is my ATC for this month ‘My Favourite Holiday” so I chose the Netherlands and used pictures from Keukenhof  alon with a windmill.

I nearly forgot.  This month some weight disappeared.  Each time I go to my local Slimming World I think I haven’t lost much but I have been losing quite a bit, 2lbs in each of the last 2 weeks.  Week before last I received Slimmer of the Week award, which totally surprised me. Then this week I received my 1stone (14lbs) certificate.  I hope to lose at least another stone, but it’s going well so far.

So that was June.  In July we’re going away for a few days next week to Kent so will share that in another post.

Joining in with Mini Archie’s June Furtle Around the Blogosphere here

On the Up

 Covid has at last gone, but I still have the dodgy knee which may take some time to heal. I’m doing some daily exercise but still on the Ibuprofen, but is more flexible now.  After 4 weeks I took my car for a short drive and all seems to be well apart from the getting in and out. But if I sit in the seat and swing my legs round that will help. So I’m on the up, things are getting better.

I am on the home straight with David’s cardigan and started to sew together today in order than I can start picking up stitches for the front button/buttonhold bands.  It’s good to see the end in sight.

I’ve been hand sewing a hexagon panel which will be a wrap for my stitch book. After the hexagons were sewn on I layered up with scrap wadding piece and some white print fabric underneath. Now I must do some stitching in my stitch book, which has been neglected of late.

As you will know I do not make cards, but recently I made 2 last week and another this week.  One of them is wining its way to my daughter in law, whose birthday is on Wednesday.  So it’s a pic of the second one here. It’s called a swing card and by cutting the rectangle and folding, there’s space to put greeting on the front and message on the back. It does need a bit more decoration though.

Through TG I join the creative crafters Zoom meeting and made a gate fold card with panels in the middle and on the outside. The demonstrator, Jan, used Christmas themed papers, but I’m not ready to embrace Christmas yet.  So I used some floral papers from a small pad from The Works. the butterfly stamp was an addition. That came from a recent magazine. 

I’ve also made the ATC for this month o the theme of favourite holiday.  I used the image of Keukenhof from our recent river cruise brochure together with a windmill from a KLM serviette decoupaged on the bottom left corner.  We’ve enjoyed previous visits to the Netherlands over the years, going to Maastricht, Venlo and Amsterdam.  We’re thinking of going back to the area around Enkhuizen, which we visited briefly while we were on the cruise.  So The Netherlands came to mind for this subject.

Last weekend we managed a trip out to the East Somerset Railway, mainly for the drive, but we did get a train ride, David got to see the signal box (which hasn’t got the levers in yet) and the engine shed, while I too, in the sunshine and fresh air.  After Covid and other stuff it was good to get out for the day.

Cranmore is a pretty station, but the journey just goes to the middle of nowhere and back again. It was really pleasant, nonetheless. 

So on the up and looking forward to a few days away at the beginning of July.

Hello 👋 I’m still here!

 June has been a trying month so far.  Further to my last post when I was diagnosed with Bursitis it turns out I have osteoarthritis in my left knee following a fall.  If that wasn’t enough I had a dose of Coronavirus early last week which is taking its time leaving nearly 2 weeks later. 

 Enough of that though, I am plodding along with David’s cardigan and have completed back, 2 fronts, one sleeve with a second one in progress. This was started back in November and I want to get those of the needles as soon as. You know when you’ve had enough of something just to want to get it out of the way. 

 But I have a finished item - yay!!  I have finished the purple quilt as you go quilt.  End of last week I sewed the binding on and yesterday spent time sewing in ends.  So glad that that I’ve finally finished this after starting over 10 years ago. Here it is with my quilt-holder-upper (David)

And the back

I made the binding before I became ill which were leftover strips of the fabrics used in the quilt.  I sewed the binding onto the quilt on Monday as my machine has an on/off button so I didn’t use the pedal. Yesterday I spent the time sewing ends of the quilted blocks.  I don’t have a home for this quilt yet, so it’s staying on the spare bed for the moment.

I’ve had a surprise today as I received a postcard from my Instagram friend Barbara.  She wasn’t sure of the house number on my address, so after being returned to the Royal Mail (as there was a torn off red sticker on it) it seemed to have been  delivered to another house down the road and the people there kindly popped it through the letter box.  It has really cheered me up.

Hoping for a good weekend and things try to get better.

June! And Goodbye to May

 

Well May went quickly and it’s now 1st June, so about time I had a round up of what I’ve done in May, which won’t take long as I’ve only got a little bit of a finish and a big bit of progress.

This week I have been suffering with leg pain which turned out to be bursitis. The Bursa is a sac of fluid behind the joint, in my case the left knee, which has become inflamed. My leg became swollen and feels like a tree trunk! It was made worse by half term holiday trips out to Wimborne Model Town and another to The Tank Museum. Although I took opportunities to sit down there was a fair bit of walking. So now rest, Paracetamol and Ibuprofen for the next few days.  And I guess reading, knitting, watching You Tubes and a bit of sewing might get done. 

Anyway the finishes last month are a pair of socks and fingerless gloves for me.  The Cuddlebums yarn, called Happy Ending, which I purchased at Yarndale the year before last had its time,  I took the socks with me on holiday to the Netherlands in April so it’s been well travelled. The patterns I’ve used were the Hobbity socks as reference for the heels and toes by Kay Jones and is a patron pattern.  The gloves were the Fingerless or Not by Snapper Knits, which I’ve used several times before.

A second item in progress, which I hope to have finished, but half term and now the poorly knee had put paid to that for a little while is my purple quilt. Below is the front sewn together

It’s shown pinned at the back but all the pieces have been sewn together now, so just the binding to do.

There’s more about he quilt on my previous post.

With the TG (Townswomen’s Guild) online group I made a card . Some how I cut a couple of pieces short and got a bookmark too.

ATC for this month is about TG so I cut a newsletter up as background and added he bold type for the activities that my local group does,

And At Hotchpotch craft group I had a go at macrame feathers, which was quite enjoyable.

Another start was this bag of flowers (which will be made into a pouch eventually.  I haven’t sewn any more of the flowers.

This is a sample of what of the finished article.

So May has been busier than I thought. See what June brings.

Purple Quilt As You Go Quilt

 Believe it or not this quilt had been ‘work in progress’ since 2014!  I’ve written a post last year as I made more blocks to go with the ones that I made that way back. The patterns for the blocks came from Sew At Home Mummy blog series called Classic Blocks Made Modern.  Anyway I got as far as making and quilting the individual blocks and they had been lingering on the spare bed until we had visitors recently. It was time to put them together.

This is how the blocks were on 7 May

Over the last weekend and this week I’ve been putting them together.  Initially joining the fronts of the blocks together in rows. Yesterday and today I’ve joined the rows and although the backs aren’t sewn together at least they are trimmed and pinned together.

And here’s the back.  

I didn’t try to get a pleasing arrangement to the back. As you can see from the photo I still have 2 rows to slip-stitch the backing fabrics.  

I have joined the fronts by machine stitching, trimmed the wadding pieces and whip stitched together.  When I’ve done the last bit of slip stitching I will have to sew in he ends of the quilting threads and remove the tacking threads.  I’ve also got the think about the binding too and I think I will use as much of the fabric that I have in keeping with the scrappiness of the quilt.

It will be good to get this finished at long last.

Missing in Action May

 Over half way through May and I haven’t blogged at all until now.

This is my monthly marker for this month, a portion of knitting of a sock.  I now have a pair 👏.

And with 53 grams of yarn left I started on a pair of fingerless gloves using my favourite pattern, Fingerless or Not by Snapper Knits. With no matching of stripes I should get that done easily.  The sock is a plain one but using the Hobbity Sock pattern by Kay Jones for the heel and toe shaping.  You will see from the photo above that I twisted the stitches in the rib, which I’ve also done for the gloves. This was the last photo of the first glove, which has now progressed to the finger section, but I left my knitting bag at my daughter’s house. I’ll get that back next week.

The end of last week until halfway through this one I’ve been laid low by a virus, which started with a sore throat and cough at the beginning of last week.  I tested and it wasn’t Covid, fortunately but it was still pretty horrible. 

On Monday I was still feeling a little tired but went along to Dorset Creative Embroiderers, which I always look forward to and this time it was a lot of hand stitching.  This was based on an embroidery one of our members sewn over 20 years ago and is based on a picture from an old Inspirations magazine from 1999 (another member of the group had the magazine). 

Below is a photo of the bag she had sewn

This is what I’ve sewn so far. I think I have a little way to go, but it is a project that can easily be picked up and worked on whenever. There’s a heck of a lot of French Knots in the Delphinium! When made up it will become a pouch with the embroidery on the flap.

Going back to the beginning of May (sorry it’s in the wrong order) I visited Wimborne Model Town with some of the ladies from Townswomen’s Guild.  We had tea and cake (of course) followed by a wander around the model town. I’ve been there many times before, but this time there were a couple of new sections.  It is 1/10 scale of the town set in the 1950’s. A lot of the businesses have gone, but some are still there and it was easy to recognise what was there and what is there now.  Along with the model town are models of the model of the model, in even smaller scales.

There are also indoor displays of a model railway, older toys and the Wareham Bears (though I didn’t take a photo of them) who live in a dolls house setting. So below is the railway which is behind glass and controlled by waving your hand over the sensor in front.

There was another room with old toys on display which was called life before Lego.   I think there used to be a small toy museum at Arne, near Wareham so I’m wondering if the display came from there.  It’s not long before you spot “I used to have that when I was young “ and for my this was the Airfix building blocks version of Lego, called Betta Bilda.  Although next to that was some early Lego sets.

After that we went across town to enjoy a small pasta lunch at the local Italian.

So that’s been my May so far.