Simple Pleasures

stitchesoftime2 Comments

Hello there

Hope that you are all having a nice weekend, I have been very busy with decorating since early this morning so have decided to have a nice sit down and do a post with a cup of tea before I go and cook.

Ellie has gone back to University – we helped her move in to her new house on Thursday and left her to unpack.She has got a bigger room this year which is good as she had a lot of stuff! It is a very nice house with a brand new kitchen (not at all like student digs in my day!) so I’m sure she will be very happy there.  

I had a good journey back just sitting stitching  another JBW Xmas ornie with a cup of tea, looking at the lovely views out of the train window now and again. It was a very lovely couple of hours and I really enjoyed it. I do love using trains, I’m sure that driving is very useful and I can see the advantages sometimes but I was very happy sitting and relaxing with my stitching and reading my book.I felt very peaceful and mellow, it was great!

I have treated myself this week to some new books that have been on my wish list on Amazon for a while so I thought that I would show you them (in the absence of any finished stitching – do have two Xmas ornie WIPs which should be done soon!) I do love reading – again another one of my fave things to do and am very sad that the book below is the last in the series at the moment. I started reading the Elm Creek Quilt series  last year on the recommendation of a friend from knitting and I love them, they are a wonderful mix of quilting patterns, history and the story of the women who make the quilts.

New Quilt book Sept

This book as you have probably guessed is about the American Civil war and picks up the stories of the lives of some of the quilters in earlier books such as The Sugar Camp quilt and The Lost Quilter. I really hope that there are more planned for the future!

My other great pleasure is of course finding out more about the history of needlework and this is a book I have had on my wishlist for a long time, I noticed last week that there was a very cheap second – hand copy for sale so snapped it up. The book is a history of American Needlework written by Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder of ‘Little House on the Prairie’ fame. It was Rose who encouraged Laura to write all her books, being a successful author herself and I can’t wait to get some time to study this in more depth.

Needlework Book 1

Here is just a little taste of the lovely stuff inside, some red embroidery, traditional patchwork blocks and an applique quilt from the Brooklyn Museum.

Needlework Book 4

Needlework book 3

Needlework Book 2

I have also treated myself to some new JBW patterns  from Sew and So  – yet more little Xmas ornies! I love these as they are so quick to stitch.

New JBW Sept

My last treat is some new silk thread from The Silk Mill  to stitch all these ornies with – an Xmas colour pack and some extra greens as they are having a 35% off sale until the 5th Sept – to good to miss. That has not arrived yet but will take a pic of it when it does for you so you can admire the silky loveliness!

Well I do hope you all have a lovely week ahead, we are gearing up for the start of a new term with Jake back at college this week, my new students will arrive the week after so it will be all go then, no time for being mellow but I will try to factor in lots and lots of stitching time!

Thanks for visiting.

Photo Scavenger Hunt – August

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photo-scavenger-hunt-2010

I have managed to work out how every else links straight to the blog with all the rest of the pics on by ‘borrowing’ this pic above from Kathy’s blog and putting a link on it so here we go with my pics for August – click the above logo for everyone else’s.

Most of these pics were taken in one week in Spain and luckily there were some very easy words this month for me to be able to get – hope that you like them all!

A boat

Boat
Obviously there are loads of boats in Spain in all the marinas but this poor old thing has been stuck on a plot by the local supermarket for years – I bet it dreams of better days sailing away!

A festival or funfair

This was a very easy one to do in Spain as the local La Marina fiesta was on so here you have a pic of the fireworks at the end of the night.

Festival
However we had a very festive month so here is a pic from the Tribute Band Music Festival we went to this month as well! We also visited the International Festival of Quilts which I have already posted about.

Music Festival

A fountain

The Spanish love public fountains so I was spoilt for choice for this one – however my aunt is a bit of a fan as well and I knew she had a couple in her garden so went to take some pics – turns out she now has 7!  This is a Moorish style one in a corner of her back terrace.

Fountain
A picnic

On the lovely sunny La Marina beach – a very Spanish picnic lunch of tuna empanada, chicken pinchos, olives and tortilla.

picnic
A sport

One of my favourites – not that this is at all competitive! If it is too hot for mountain biking then we swim in the local pool.

Sport
Bread

Served with allioli – garlic mayonnaise – this is one of the best things about Spain, I could live on this! Oh and red wine!

Bread
Fabric

The Spanish have the most beautiful textiles, especially table linen – I have bought quite a few table cloths and runners and here are some more gorgeous ones at the local market.

textiles
Market

At the same market you can get your flamenco dresses (children’s size only unfortunately) with matching shoes.

market 2

market

Mountains

We had really clear skies all the way back so I was able to get some fab shots of mountains – this is the Pyrenees with added snow!

Mountains
Something ancient

This could easily have been used for the next category of something bizarre as well – not original but a copy of ancient Roman architecture.

Ancient 1
The bizarre bit is in the fact that people here re-model their houses in all sorts of styles, this is the next door neighbour showing what the house would have originally looked like when it was built.

Ancient 2

And here is a close up of the lovely gates and portico.

Ancient 3

 Something bizarre

I always thought these little postcards were a bit bizarre when my grandparents used to bring them back from Spain in the 70s – I was surprised to see them still around. The skirt of the dancer is fabric sewn on to the card and her bodice is also hand stitched.

Bizarre

Street food

Churros from the market – a long sugary donut that the Spanish also like to dunk in thick melted chocolate!

Street food

I hope you have enjoyed these pics – I can’t wait to see all the other contributions for this month.

Thanks for visiting.

Endings and beginnings

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We have just got back from Bolsover Castle, our last show with my re-enactment group Order of Fighting Knights. Various members of the group are leaving due to work and other commitments so we are re-forming for next year under a new name – we will now be the Swords of Mercia.

We had a fantastic last weekend – it didn’t rain much which is always a bonus for an English Bank Holiday weekend and the crowd were fabulous and there were so many wonderful comedy moments that none of us could keep a straight face.We had a very nice (if cold!) group BBQ on Sunday night and then sat around the camp fire laughing about the day.

We have been members of the group for the last 10 years and they have been some of the happiest years of my life, they are such a lovely bunch of people and we will always be great friends and keep in touch with the members that have left and I am really excited to be moving on with those that are remaining to do new things.

I realised that though I have posted pics of our camp and the group before I have not really posted many of the castle so went out early this morning before the public arrived to take the pics in this slide show for you.

 

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The castle is very impressive, it was built in the 1600s as an entertainment venue by Sir Charles and Sir William Cavendish and King Charles the First and his wife Henrietta Maria once visited . That is one of things that most excites me about re-enactment, I have camped in places where so many great people were and significant events took place – I am a very lucky girl!

I also have a couple of nice pics of me and Ellie to show you – I had a friend take some pics with my camera as I rarely get ones of me at an event.This is Kerry, me, Ellie and Tracy in the castle grounds (as you can see it was quite windy!), Kerry and Ellie in the sunshine on Sunday and Ellie in the tent during the head-dress talk today demonstrating how to make braid.

Bolsover Aug - girls

Bolsover Aug - Ellie and Kerry

Bolsover Aug - Ellie

I hope that you have had a very nice weekend wherever you are. I have a busy couple of weeks now preparing for another new beginning with the start of the new term but we are here for the next few weekends so I am also looking forward to getting some serious crafting done!

Thanks as always for visiting.

A little finish and some wonderful quilts

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I have finally got around to completing the little pillow I have made for my friend who has had a baby girl recently. The pattern is again a JBW one, called Teddy Bear  – they have cute patterns for all events and seasons not just Xmas ones. I get these mail order from Sew and Sew. I backed the pillow with some of the fabric that I had in my stash left over from my bunny quilt and at the Birmingham Quilt Show I was able to find these very cute buttons which go so well with the design. I don’t know if you can see from the pic below but there is a rocking horse (just above the K) and a pram (to the left of the horse) actually in the design so I thought they were perfect for it.

Baby pillow

As I mentioned Ellie and I had our first visit to the wonderful Birmingham International Festival of Quilts a couple of weeks ago as part of a coach trip with our group. One day was not really long enough at all but if I had gone for longer I would have been so tempted to spend more! Here is a small selection of some of the lovely things we saw – made into a slide show again with my new toy Smilebox.

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More Glamping

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Hello there

You may remember last year I did a couple of posts on the art of glamorous camping or glamping – well we have been adding to our stock of glamping gear and have just spent a lovely weekend at the Tribfest Music Festival  in North Yorkshire where we had a very sunny and enjoyable weekend listening to lots of different tribute bands. My absolute faves were the Take That tribute band ‘Back for Good’  on Saturday night, I have never seen the real group but these were excellent and I very much enjoyed myself.

We had very good facilities again including the most glamping portaloos ever – of course they still got smelly but this is what they looked like. Sinks and mirrors and pretty pictures on the wall! And inside were real flushing toilets with wooden seats and everything!

Glamping 1

My sister bought me some new glamping accessories for my birthday – some wine glass holders that you can use in a  field. You just push it into the ground and it provides a very stable holder for your tipple! You may remember that I have previously posted on the little accessories we have for our drinking round the campfire and these are very lovely for when I do not have my little wine glass table. She bought them while on holiday earlier on in the summer, sorry I do not know where from. Here is Ellie modelling them for me while pouring me a little pre-mixed G and T on Friday night while getting ready to have a BBQ.

Glamping 3

As befits a sophisticated festival there were lots of lovely outfits and some wonderful fancy dress – one of my faves was the Alice Cooper lookalike on Friday night – you can just see him in the middle of this pic, complete with plastic snake!

Glamping 2

I am just about to buy a new tent for next year on the grounds that they are all reduced at the moment, the one we have had for the last 3 years, a Vango Tamor 500, has been great but is starting to show signs of wear and there are a couple of split poles that we have had to patch so we are going to keep that as a reserve, festival tent that kids can use (as in I don’t mind if it comes back even worse for wear) and get another Vango, this time the Icarus 500 which is an updated version. These are great tents for us as they are light weight for taking on the train, sleep 5 so plenty of room for us and all our kit and also have really good bedroom heights so that we can hang our re-enactment clothes up and get dressed in comfort.

I managed to get a good pic of the Seasonal exchange I got when I came back from Spain which was this lovely flower pillow from Lynn. I have put some ribbon on it so that I can hang it with the others in the dining room.

spring ornie from Lynn

Have not got any other finishes to show – things have been very slow around here what with all the being away and we are away again this weekend at Bolsover Castle  for our last re-enactment show of the year.

Hope you all have a lovely week and I will be back again next week with hopefully more pics of sunny camping!

Thanks for visiting.

Lovely life!

stitchesoftime1 Comment

Hello there and I hope that you are all well and happy. We have just got back home from a very lovely day out – my very first trip to the Birmingham Quilt Show which was very good. I went on a coach trip with Ellie and my quilt group and when I have sorted out the pics will post them. I was very restrained and stuck to my shopping list of practical items to finish existing projects plus a very small bit of Xmas fabric (well you have to don’t you – it all needs a good home and I will probably be in China in November when the Harrogate show is on so have to stock up 😉 ).

We have been in Spain all week, lucky us, enjoying very hot weather which meant that little could be done except go to the pool or beach, read and stitch on the terrace. I have nearly completed another little stitched Xmas ornie for me (very appropriate stitching when it is 36 degrees outside!) and have been working on a baby gift as well. We did of course see the family including the recipient of our handmade gifts who I am pleased to say really liked them. Here is Anna-Mae with the cat that Ellen made her and playing with her farm quilt.

Spain - Anna-Mae cat

Spain - Anna - Mae quilt

She is so gorgeous and was a delight to watch playing with the animals and helping ‘Great Nana’ open her presents from us as well. Nana was 99 a few weeks ago and is looking forward to her 100th birthday celebrations as she just had a little party this time!

Spain - Anna- Mae Nana

We also went out for some very nice meals including a Spanish restaurant near our house which we had not tried before that had a very good ‘menu del dia’,  3 lovely courses including a half bottle of wine for 10 euros – Ellie was very impressed with the wine carafe!

Spain - Ellie wine

The flight back was brilliant, there were clear skies till halfway across France which meant I had some wonderful views and was able to get some very nice pics for the Scavenger Hunt which I will post at the end of the month. Here is the view as we left Alicante.

Spain - from air 1

And of course it wouldn’t be one of my Spain posts without a cactus pic now would it! This is variety I have not seen before which looked like little cabbages on stalks.

Spain - Aug cactus 2

And this is a palm tree waving in the wind as we waited for the bus to the beach.

Spain - palm tree

While we were away my Summer Exchange  partner got her stitched piece from me and I had a lovely little pillow from my partner in the US. I have not had any good light yet to take a pic of the pillow but here is the pin and scissor keep I sent to Gaby  in Germany.

Summer Exchange piece front

Summer Exchange piece back

This is a freebie design from The Workbasket website  called Quaker Tree which I have stitched before – again done on sparkly evenweave with Silk Mill thread. The backing fabric I bought from one of the women at quilt group who has a fabric shop and I had the ribbon already in my stash, the ribbon is stitched on to the top of the little pocket that holds the scissors. Charms as before from Stitch Direct.

Well I have a nice quiet week ahead so I am looking forward to some finishing off of stitched items including the large pile of Xmas ornie hearts I have on my coffee table! We are away next weekend and the following one so I am making the most of this time. Hope you are having a nice time wherever you are. Thank you for visiting.

A Quiet Weekend

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Well my planned trip to York did not go ahead as I have been struck down by a very nasty ear infection so have spent the last 3 days in the house trying to get better before my sister, her two kids and small dog arrive to stay tomorrow! I shall have to visit the doc for antibiotics I think as it is not getting much better 😦

I have finished the hemming on the farm quilt and made a little bag for the animals so I have been being productive while laid up. Here are the pockets on the front of the quilt with two of the little animals in that will go into the bag. My idea is that my cousin’s daughter who the present is for will be able to match the animals with the pockets. She is two this week and we will be seeing her at the weekend in Spain.

farm quilt pockets

This is the back of the quilt and a close up of the fabric which has lots of farm words on which she can practise!

farm quilt back

farm quilt backing fabric

The bag was made from fabric scraps and will have a drawstring cord.

Farm quilt bag

I did go out to my brother’s house last night as he and his partner Amanda had invited us round for a meal and they very kindly cooked us delicious food and looked after me so I just had to sit in my chair drinking home-made Cassis and wine (I have also put my back out again somehow!)

They have  a very lovely garden which they are in the process of remodelling (with outdoor BBQ and pizza oven) and Amanda loves garden ornaments as much as I do so here are some shots of her garden – the cat is a present that I bought her a couple of Christmases ago and it holds tea lights.

Ben's garden 1

Ben's garden 2

Ben's garden 3

You can just see Ben sitting in the background of that last pic. They also have an allotment and grow wonderful veg – look at the size of these courgettes! The one on the right is about 14″ long. Amanda very kindly gave me some more of her homemade chutney and jelly to bring home with me as well.

Ben's courgettes

I don’t know if I will be able to do much this coming week as feel pretty awful at the moment, I have been spending most of the weekend sewing up Xmas hearts, have just sent off an exchange to Germany and am halfway through another stitched gift for a friend’s new baby so do have a lot to occupy myself if needed.

I will not be posting now for a couple of weeks as we are off to Spain for a week on Friday. Take care and I will be in touch when I get back.

Thanks for visiting.

Just in time!

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I am pleased to report that I have almost finished the Makower Farm fabric quilt in time to take it to Spain next week. In fact I do have enough time (and hopefully enough fabric) to make a little bag to go with it to keep all the animals in.

I was going to be very pushed for time but as Ellie arrived home late and very tired (but happy and very brown) from her dig yesterday evening we decided to have a quiet day in today so I got it finished. I have not got pics of the completed quilt yet as I need to do the bottom hem but plan to do that tomorrow. This was my progress up until today (as modelled by Jake!)

Farm Quilt Top

Six of the labels have a pocket on them (made of an extra label with the same design shown on) and I have bought six little plastic farm animals to put into the pockets as well as a set of bigger animals.

As this was my own design I have spent a lot of time trying to work out what I could do with fabric I had bought and would it have been much easier had I bought more plain and co-ordinates for sashing and borders but I will know for next time. I have just quilted the top and then made a ‘bag’ with the backing and turned it inside out, partly as I thought it would look better and partly as I was running out of time and fabric to do a border. I think it looks great as the outside border has enough pattern on it anyway.

We have been for a few days out since Mum arrived at the weekend. Firstly to Marsden which was lovely and sunny.

Marsden

Then to Temple Newsam House  near Leeds which is a Tudor and Jacobean mansion that was the birthplace of Lord Darnley who married Mary Queen of Scots.

Temple Newsam 1

Temple Newsam 2

Temple Newsam 3

Lots of fab rooms and textiles inside , including some wonderful portraits, lots of embroidery spotting. No inside pics allowed but I did find a copy of this pic of Arabella Stuart on this very informative website.

Arabella Stuart

The jacket she is wearing reminds me very much of the Layton jacket in the Victoria and Albert Museum that I have written about previously. Below is a pic of Margaret Layton wearing the jacket.It makes me wonder about who made them both and how many more similar jackets exist – was it a popular design, did they know each other and did they ever meet (hopefully not both wearing their jackets!). They were both alive at the same time.

Margaret Layton

There was also a very interesting quilt on one of the beds – no pics allowed so I will have to try to describe it to you and see if anyone has seen anything similar as I have never come across one like it before.

It was made of glazed chintz, Chinese inspired flower / tree of life type designs so late 17th or early 18th century I think. It was patchwork but did not seem to be quilted, no wadding as far as I could tell and the patchwork design was of large squares about 14″ diameter set on point with half triangles at the border. I went to a quilt exhibition at the V and A last year and saw quilts there dating from the 15oos but nothing like this. It looked quite basic, not really stately home style and I was very intrigued so if anyone knows anything about it please let me know.

We have a trip to York to the latest Quilt Museum  exhibition and the Minster planned for later in the week which will be lovely. Hopefully I will get chance to post again before I leave for Spain (with my completed quilt – hurrah!).

Thanks very much for visiting,  see you again soon.

Photo Scavenger Hunt – July

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Apologies for lack of weekly post – have family staying so have been out and about and very busy so normal service will resume soon!

The pics for this month’s Scavenger Hunt were all taken in a week on our recent holiday to London. I had set myself a goal of trying to get the whole list in one week – some of it was ridiculously easy while other words took a bit of searching but here they are and I hope that you like them!

A flag

Being the capital city there were a fair few Union flags around – it is only called the Union Jack when it is on a ship – but this is one of my fave flag pics – taken at Hampton Court.

flag

A kite

Had to be a bit creative with this one as did not see any but did come across this quote from Mary Poppins in the Disney Store on Oxford Road ….

kite

We are very big Disney fans in our house!

Celebration

Being the capital city there are loads that take place here but thought I would share with you some of the memorabilia available for our latest one – the marriage of Prince William and the gorgeous Catherine Middleton on April 29th. This pic was taken in a little gift shop round the corner from the British Museum on a very rainy day. I did buy a fridge magnet to take a pic of but thought this was a lovely pic as you can just see the reflection of tourists in the rain under an umbrella opposite the shop.

Celebration

Fields

Again I had to be creative here as there aren’t that many in central London but we were in the theatre district and I saw this poster advertising the musical from one of my favourite films – how many Christmases did I watch this! Do you remember the bit where they fall asleep in the poppy fields?

Fields

 Flip flops

For when you are feeling particularly patriotic!

flip flops

Ice cream

This is not actually ice cream but a little selection of takeaway desserts from Marks and Spencer where we bought our in train picnic for on the way back – how cute!

ice cream

Red, white and blue

Well I really was spoilt for choice here but I came across some fab shoes in a shop in trendy Carnaby Street – here is the patriotic UK version…

rwb

and the patriotic US version !

rwb 1

Seashells

Again this took some thinking about but then Ellie pointed out that Ariel the Little Mermaid has a bra made of seashells in the Disney film. When Ellie was little she had a dress like this with a long fish tail which she loved.She is most upset that the Disney Store don’t do adult sizes!

Seashells

Something that makes you happy (not a person or an animal!)

Well apart from my family and textiles the thing that makes me most happy is travel (if I get to travel with my family and there are textiles I am super happy!). I really love travelling by train especially as I think it is very exciting and though I use the train a lot I never get bored, I love just sitting looking out of the window watching everything go by. I am sure I would be a terrible driver as I am so used to being able to look all around when I am going anywhere and see all the pretty things. So here is a pic of one of the Docklands Light Railway trains that we used, the views from these of the skyscrapers at Canary Wharf were great – you can just see them in the background here.

Happy

Stars

There was the most amazing ceiling in the chapel at Hampton Court decorated with stars – I couldn’t take a photo inside but here is a pic from the front of the guide-book.

Stars 1

and then when we bought things from the gift shop the bag had this design on.

Stars 2

Strawberries

Here is Ellie enjoying strawberries and creme fraiche as part of our picnic at Hampton Court.

Strawberry

Stripes

And some lovely pots lined up in the Hampton Court gardens.

Stripes

 I do hope that you have enjoyed my pics – very much looking forward to seeing what other people come up with this month. To see the other Scavenger Hunt pics or to join go to the blog.