A Lovely Week!

stitchesoftime8 Comments

Hello again

Hope you have been having a very nice week. I have –  filled with lots of lovely crafting and fun with other people while doing it. I only started crafting socially (as in joining groups) about 4 years ago when I joined the Embroiderers’ Guild but now the kids have grown up and I have a lot more free time for me it forms a large part of my social life and I love it! It is so nice seeing what other people are working on and getting advice when you get stuck and having a good laugh (and usually some cake!) while you are at it. This week was a very nice one as I went to two knitting groups, did one session at WI and spent all day yesterday at a Quilt Workshop run by Christine from my quilt group.

First of all though my Spring Exchange for the Seasonal Exchange blog  has arrived in the USA so I can show you pics of that.When I was given my partner Lisa’s name I went to look on her blog to see what sort of things she liked making and I saw that she had made this as an exchange piece for her to send off and she mentioned that she liked it so much that she would want to make one for herself in the future so I thought this would be perfect and luckily she is pleased with it.

Spring bird ornie 1

 
The design is called Friendship Bird Floss Ring and is from the Jan/Feb issue of Gift of Stitching magazine. It is stitched on evenweave with thread from The Silk Mill. It is the first time I have used the little pearl thread rings which I got from Sew and So.
 
I have seen on a few people’s blog pics of their smaller stitched items photographed outside on bushes so I thought since this is a bird it would be nice for him to be in a tree so here he is in my garden!
 
Spring bird ornie 2

Knitting progress with the pink baby cardi is slow but steady – not helped by the fact that I keep forgetting to do eyelet rows while I am decreasing so I have had to take back quite a few rows!

I have also almost finished my latest Xmas ornie and made a start on another this week as a demo piece for my WI meeting. I have recently joined my local branch of the Women’s Institute which meets monthly with a variety of activities on the programme. This month it was a Craft Bee and I was asked if I would like to demo something so I chose blackwork which turned out to be  good choice as no-one had heard of if. There were quite a few cross stitchers who came to my table but some people who had never tried crafts before so we had a fun evening. The pics below show my demo table and a couple of the pieces that beginners did. I used patterns from the Blackwork Archives  for the beginners as there are some very good simple designs there that you can download.

WI Blackwork 1

WI Blackwork 2

WI Blackwork 3

The quilt workshop I went to was based on a design called Stained Glass Windows. I forgot to get a picture of the original quilt that Christine had made as a demo but it was made from bold plain colours with black sashing to give the effect of stained glass. We had been asked to bring any fabric from our stash and as I have rather a lot of Xmas fabric (ahem!) rather than buying anything new I decided I would use the workshop to make an Xmas version of the sofa throw WIP.

The quilt design seemed quite complex to start off with (especially for me as I am a little spatially challenged!) as you layer seven 10 inch squares of fabric and cut them all at once into seven different sized rectangles, then you lay them out so that each block has one of each of the seven colours.

You can make any size of quilt by cutting extra sets of seven fabrics. I will probably only use 6 of my 7 blocks for the throw – I may cut out pieces for another block to make 8 blocks once I see how big the 6 are (am hoping to get some more quilting done this afternoon in between hedge cutting and other domestic duties!) Here are the three I got finished yesterday, I decided to use green sashing rather than black as I thought it looked more festive. 

May quilt 1

I am very pleased with them as it is the first time I have done a sashed block and it wasn’t as hard as I thought. I had lots of help from the others and it was very nice to see all the different colour combinations that people chose and how they turned out.

In cake news this week I have been experimenting with my recipe and have made a different flavour – vanilla with a hint of ginger (Jake approves!) – here are the strawberry and chocolate star topped versions I made for quilt workshop.

May cupcakes

Lastly I will leave you with some pics of my neighbours’ very cute cat, Henry, who was climbing in the clematis this week and very kindly posed for me. We don’t have any pets any more – all having died of old age –  but Henry comes round a lot and is very friendly.

Henry 2

Henry 1

I just love that last pic – so cute!

Well I hope that you have a lovely week ahead – I am going to be super busy as I am out every night, all social and crafting which is lovely. Thanks as always for visiting and for all the lovely comments! I especially welcome all those new people who have visited through the photo scavenger hunt

Photo Scavenger Hunt – April

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Once again I had great fun with these – trying to interpret some of them in different ways. Most of them were taken on my recent trip to Spain. Hope you like them!

A church

This pic was taken from the boat when we went on our trip to the island of Tabarca and shows the old church which is being restored. I love the contrast of colours between the blue sea and the stones of the buildings.

A cross

Again from Tabarca, this is taken outside the church and is the cross from the top of an old well. I really like this pic – think it is one for printing off and framing.

A sculpture

I did see lots of nice sculptures in Spain as they love public art but then came across this on the beach so thought it was a good one for this category.

A set of keys

I wanted something interesting for this as all my personal keys are very boring them I came across this advert for a cross stitch picture which I think is wonderful so I am using this. The kit is called  Keys to the Kingdom from Rosewood Manor Designs and I am using this pic from their website as I have not got around to ordering this yet. I am going to stitch bits of it as greetings cards – I thought they would be lovely for 18th and 21st cards.

An interesting shop name

Not only an interesting shop name but a very lovely shop. This is my LYS in Huddersfield where I go as much as I can for Knit and Natter!

April showers

Back to Tabarca for this one which is interpreted a bit differently. Most of the beaches in Spain have showers where you can rinse yourself off after your stay. Some are just for feet but this is a full size one. So here you have a pic of a shower taken in April!

Breakfast

I have posted pics of breakfast before on my blog and I now I get to do it again without seeming strange. This is my all time fave brekkie which I have for special occasions – scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and bagel – yum yum! I like the way my chilli sauce has formed a heart shape – breakfast with love!

Eggs

Jake found these in a supermarket in Spain – we were there just before Easter so I guess it must be a Spanish tradition. I was going to use them for scrambled eggs then I thought  ‘ I wonder what huevos cocidas actually means? ‘,  looking at the label – it means boiled eggs so we had them for picnics instead!

Something to do with Shakespeare

This pic was actually taken in March as we went to Stratford for Ellie’s birthday but I thought the fact that we had actually been to Shakespeare’s birthplace was too good to miss. No pics allowed inside so here is a shot of the house.

Something to do with St George’s Day

Again a great one for me as we did a three-day show at Bolsover to celebrate this the other week. My pic of choice from that is a shot of William de Bohun’s beautifully decorated helm resting on its stand after our show. De Bohun himself was looking a little hot after fighting in full armour in very high temperatures!

Something yellow

Again from Spain, these pretty flowers grow wild everywhere, they are all over the beaches and any uncultivated area. I don’t know their proper names, they have very thick fleshy leaves to conserve water and come in pink versions as well.

My camera

Pic taken using mirror in good old blog tradition! My trusty little camera – on its last legs but still taking some lovely pics – what would my blog be without it! It is a Fuji A850, about 2 years old.

ThimbleAnna’s pics can be found here – she’s got a good one for keys and the lists and links to other’s collections are at Kathy’s blog if you want to join in.

Thanks for visiting – see you for more craft updates soon!

Little stash, big ideas

stitchesoftime5 Comments

Hello there

I have been having a very lovely week and I do hope you have too. It has been absolutely glorious weather, I have spent lots of time in the garden, doing both boring practical things like cutting the hedge ;-( and nice stuff like having a bbq and enjoying my flowers. My garden has really matured this year , the clematis is about 3 times the size it was last year and everything is looking very lovely so please indulge me while I show you a few pics.

clematis - may

garden may 1

garden may 2

Quite a lot has been going on indoors as well though this has been a relatively quiet week for me (like most of the population here in the UK) with only 3 work days and lots of lovely holiday. I celebrated the Royal Wedding by having a few friends round for cupcakes and Cava during the ceremony and a little buffet lunch afterwards. I thought Kate’s dress was absolutely stunning – just perfect for her. Will not post pics of that as apparently a third of the world’s population watched the wedding so I’m sure you will have  seen it! However here are my cupcakes that I made for the do – the first chance I have had to use my cake stand!

wedding cupcakes and cava

On the crafting front I have been working on my pink Sublime baby cardi and my JBW Plum Pudding Xmas ornie – the latter is nearly finished. I also have started a new quilting WIP. I said a while ago that I wanted to organise my quilt fabric stash in a similar way to how I have seen other people sort things on their blogs so bought some plastic storage boxes and was surprised to find that I actually have very little quilt fabric (lots of other types of fabric but that is another story!) This is it basically.

stash - may

Pretty poor isn’t it compared to some of the big names out there in the quilting world? However I am planning trips to the Malvern Quilt Show at the end of May and the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in August so will have a chance to add to the stash. Sorting it all out did give me a chance to mull over a project I have had in mind for a while which is a small throw for the back of one of my sofas in the lounge. It is a brown leather sofa which is quite plain and since I have lots of lovely medieval style fabrics I thought I would make a start on cutting out some squares which I did this afternoon.

sofa quilt wip

This is not the final layout just a bit of a working plan, I am thinking about a large central square of one of the dark red fabrics with gold silk sashing and then strips of all the other squares with red silk sashing in between each square. No time limit for this piece just something to pick up as and when I get time – things are about to get very hectic round here with term starting again and all my re-enactment and other things.

I have finished my Spring Exchange piece for the Seasonal Exchange with a whole 3 days to spare  and that has been sent to the USA this week so will post pics of that once it has been received. I got mine from Lisa  last week when I got back from holiday so here are the pics of it. Please do go and visit her blog as she has loads of lovely stitching on it.

Spring Ornie exchange - front

Spring Ornie exchange - back

It is very lovely, the finish is so neat with lots of really even blanket stitch and I love the backing fabric as well. It is hanging on my patio doors with last year’s seasonal exchange Spring ornie making me feel very happy – I do love this season camping, bbqs just being able to be outdoors lots – fabulous!!!

Finally Elmsley Rose asked me in comment a while ago what my header pic was – it is part of a crewel work picture I bought from E-Bay about 4 years ago, unfortunately no info came with it about date or maker but I did promise that I would take a pic of the full thing so here it is. It is not a brilliant pic as it is framed with glass so there are some reflections but I really like this piece – it hangs in my hallway.

hall crewel embroidery

Well I will love you and leave you and hope that you have a very good week ahead. I am looking forward to a quilting workshop next Saturday and as much crafting as I can squeeze into my tight schedule!

Bye for now and thank you for visiting.

St George’s Day re-enactment show at Bolsover

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Well we had a very lovely time this Bank Holiday weekend – very hot weather on Saturday (thankfully cooler on Sunday and Monday as the boys were really melting in their armour!). About 3,000 people came to see us over the three days – thanks if you were one of them. I was doing my head-dress and embroidery talk again – this time in Lady Percy’s tent (as she is being the cook this season in the mornings) assisted by Lady Alice.

Here are some pics for you – starting off in the early morning when we are all getting ready for the public to arrive.

Bolsover April 2
Lord Bardolph (aka Paul) setting up in the arena
Bolsover April 4
Lady Bardolph (aka (Lynn) ready for calligraphy
Bolsover April 3
Lady Percy (aka Tracy) and Ellen and Jake in the kitchen
Bolsover April 5
The Despenser's tent
Bolsover April 6
Cameron (aka Keith) and Paddy setting up for the armour talk
Bolsover April 7
Esme tidying up the flags round the displays
Bolsover April 8
Lord De Bohun (aka Paul) putting on his armour
Bolsover April 9
Lord Zouche (aka Luke) in his padded jack and coif
Bolsover April 10
More of Lady Bardolph's embroidery on Lord Despencer's shirt

These pics from the afternoon show are all taken by my lovely friend Jan from her Facebook page (hope you don’t mind me using them Jan) – as I am not allowed a camera while in kit I have to ‘borrow’ other people’s pics to show you the action.

Bolsover April 13
Lady Despencer (aka Bev) in her heraldic dress
Bolsover April 11
Ellie giving water to Zouche during the tournament

Everyone wanted me to post this one as well as they loved the crazy look on my face – I am just happy that the season has started again and I am camping!

Bolsover April 12
Me (as the nun) Ellie and Zouche

Virtually no crafting has gone on this week – at the weekend we were too busy with medieval stuff to do anything apart from me doing a bit of hand sewing of a coif during the day. I will have to crack on this week as my Spring Exchange piece needs to be mailed by the 1st May. I have had mine from my partner and it is lovely so will take some pics and post that at the weekend.

I am looking forward to the Royal Wedding on Friday – some friends are coming over for cupcakes and cava and then I am hoping for a nice weekend so I can be out in the garden, there may even be a bbq or two!

Hope that you have a nice week and thank you very much again for visiting.

Cross stitch and cactus

stitchesoftime5 Comments

Hello everyone,  have just got back from seeing my wonderful Mum in Spain who was 70 on Monday. Here she is the day before with her very tall and a bit windswept grandson, my lovely Jake .We had a day out with a boat trip to an island just off the coast where I indulged with lots of pretty pics – some which I shall reveal in the April Photo Scavenger Hunt post in a couple of weeks.

Spain - Jake and Granny
On the island of Tabarca

 She had a lovely birthday and appreciated her presents which were a new camera, wool and these wristwarmers which you may remember from a while ago. I also introduced her to the delights of Ravelry so that she can get some lovely patterns to use up all the wool!

Spain wristwarmer
She is a lovely hand model!
 Her friend Eileen had stitched her this  card for her birthday – isn’t this great?
Spain 70 card
The birthday card

I spent a lot of the week knitting and reading my fab Benni Harper quilt mystery books – have finished four this week and am loving them. I am also making good progress on the pink Sublime baby cardi though the eyelets are still proving to be a challenge – have had to abandon the stitch markers as I was doing something peculiar with them which meant I was making holes!

Had great fun with my camera again taking some more pics of the local flora and fauna – look at these wonderful cactus flowers.

Spain cactus1

Spain cactus 2

We are off for the weekend to do our first re-enactment show of the year at Bolsover castle so I am really looking forward to that, the weather forecast is very good for the weekend and  I am really, really looking forward to camping, the first of many this year. I have had four barbeques this week (3 in Spain and 1 here) so am definitely in Summer mood now!

I hope that you have a very lovely weekend and a very Happy Easter to you all – just remember that chocolate is definitely one of your five a day as it is a bean which is of course a vegetable! Thanks for visiting.

Made with love – and surprisingly straight machine stitching!

stitchesoftime3 Comments

Hello there everyone

I have just been sitting outside in my garden basking in the late evening sunshine drinking a glass of bubbly (only the cheap cava type!) and celebrating life. It has been the most glorious weekend here – hope you have had nice weather where you are.We have had a really unexpectedly hot weekend – it is never usually this hot in April in Yorkshire, to be fair it is often not this hot in Yorkshire in July.

I have spent most of the last few days finishing off my charity quilt that I posted about earlier this month. This has been a WIP for many months but I got a lot done on the last Quilt Group sewing day and wanted to get it finished to take to the Quilt Group meeting tomorrow. I am very pleased with the way it has turned out – the machine stitching is not perfect but better than I have managed previously.

Hospice quilt 1
The quilt front with hand quilted hearts
Hospice quilt 3
The quilt back made with fleece and a bunny applique
Hospice quilt 4
Detail of the bunny face with embroidery

The quilt was machine pieced and then mainly machine quilted – I quilted ‘in the ditch’ round all the blocks which was good for developing my machining skills and shadow quilted around the dark turquoise border. The original design had the bunny on the front but the consensus at the quilt sewing day was that the front was very nice on its own so I just added some hand quilted hearts and backed it with fleece and the bunny applique.

In the style of one of the bloggers I very much admire, Hen House , I have taken pics of the finished item in the garden, lovely son Jake has been absolute star today and spent two hours mowing the lawn (not that you can see it in these pics) but it has been a great help. I have been on light duties only as my back has not been good so I have been deadheading!

I have posted lots of pics of my garden before but have been trying to take some more arty shots so this is one I took today which I really like, the garden is looking very splendid now which makes such a difference after the horrible wet and messy months.

Garden - April
Can never remember if this is a Skimmia or a Viburnum - anyway I have two and they are very pretty!

This quilt is going to a local children’s hospice which is opening soon so it has been a strange piece to make. I have enjoyed making it but I have been thinking a lot about who will use it and the things that they and their parents will be going through. It is a cot quilt so that make is very hard to think about especially as I have so many friends who have young babies or are expecting babies. But life is often not easy and all we can really do is support people who are experiencing difficult times, be it friends who you can help face to face or others who you can give a little gift made with love.

On the subject of made with love I thought  that I would show you a few recent baking goodies – one of the reasons that my son is so nice and helps out with the garden is that he gets a regular supply of cake. These are adapted from a very nice recipe from Sainsbury’s magazine and are chocolate orange cupcakes – yum yum.

cake
Version 1 - with Smarties
WI cake
Version 2 - with white chocolate stars

In other crafting news the pink Sublime baby cardi is coming on well – the eyelets have been a bit of a challenge and my knitting friend Barbara suggested stitch markers which I have been trying for the first time but have been getting a bit tangled with – they seem to slow me down a lot! The Spring exchange piece is almost complete. I am off to Spain on this week so am planning lots of lovely sitting on the terrace in the sun reading and crafting – I have four Benni Harper quilt mystery novels to take with me so am in for a lovely time!

If you read last week’s post about Mothers’ day you may remember I was writing about how much I admired all those Mums who have young kids who craft and this week at knitting group I met another person who does just that. She knits, she quilts and she blogs – it was very lovely to meet Justine and I have really enjoyed looking at all her posts and links to fab fabric sites that I have not come across before. I have saved them in my favourites and may have to indulge very soon! Please do go and visit her blog Sew Justine Sew  as it is lovely!

Hope that you have a nice week ahead and see you all in a couple of weeks – thank you for visiting.

Photo Scavenger Hunt – March

stitchesoftime2 Comments

Hello there

An extra post this week as I have got a new addition to the blog. Some time ago I read on Thimbleanna’s blog  about a photo scavenger hunt for each month organised by Kathy – each month she puts a list of things that you have to go and take pics of and post them on your blog and there is a Flickr group as well but not done that yet.

As I love taking pics I though it would be fun to do and it was, there were some that were a bit of a challenge and I had to be quite creative with. I kept my camera in my bag while I was out and about on my visits – quite a few of these are from a day out in Leeds. I have just gone and looked at the list for April on Kathy’s blog and am very excited as there is something that fits in exactly with our recent field trip!

Thimbleanna’s pics for March can be found here and mine are below.

Peeling paint

This picture was taken on my way home from work – my building is next to a canal and this is from the bridge over it.

Peeling paint

A lion

I had to think hard about this one as no zoos near us! But very near the train station where I spend lots of my time is a building called Lion Chambers built in 1853 and they have not one but two lions – one on the roof….

lion 1

… and one over the door.

lion 2

Apparently the one on the roof is not the original stone one but a plastic replica – have not been near enough to check!

A lamb

Of course living in Yorkshire there are loads in the fields but could not get out to the country for a good photo but found this cute little choc one!

lamb

A rainbow

This was a challenge as well – lots of rain here but no bows, until we went to visit my sister and I spotted this logo on one of her Facebook pages.Sorry it is so fuzzy!

Rainbow pic

A collection

I had spotted this the week before in Leeds, this fantastic collection of old sewing machines is the front window display in a clothes shop in one of the beautiful arcades, they are a chain and one of my friends mentioned she had seen the same display in their branch in Manchester so they must have hundreds of them. They are so lovely.

Collection 1

Here is a close up so that you can see them better.

Collection 2

Something as old as me

I was going to use this one for another category but here is a pic of my feet paddling in the sea on my recent visit to Spain!

my feet

An empty chair

This is one of a pair in my garden – we don’t use them to sit on any more but I love the way that the terracotta has weathered.

empty chair

Something sentimental

This belonged to my Nana who now lives in Spain. She bought it when she first visited Spain in the 1960s and it is a little matador jacket and hat for a bottle (every home should have one of course!). It used to live in her lounge which she referred to as ‘the room’ which we only ever went in on special occasions like Christmas. She used to make corned beef and onion sandwiches on white bread which I thought were delicious and trifle and coffee with all milk as a special treat.

bullfighter 1

A fancy gate

This was taken in Leeds again and is at the entrance to one of the Victorian arcades with all the very posh shops in! The actual gates are folded back at the sides.

gate

A shadow

I could have used the one of my feet above but I decided to try some arty shots so this is me taking a pic of one of the statues outside the train station in Leeds.

shadow

A ring

I wanted to interpret this rather than take a picture of a ring. This is part of a water feature outside our train station (again) – as well as water there are lights that change colour.

ring

Something green

Again from my garden, I have several of these terracotta representations of a pagan figure – the ‘Green Man’ – they gradually degrade and get covered in moss.

something green

I have really enjoyed finding all these pics and hope that you have enjoyed looking at them. Have got the new list for April so will be off snapping again!

Happy Mothers’ Day – cupcakes, vintage crochet and knitting

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Hello and a very Happy Mothers’ Day to you if you live in the UK. If you don’t Happy first Sunday in April and I hope that you are having a lovely day anyway! I would like to dedicate this post to all of my lovely friends who are mums both in real life and blogland as a celebration of your fabulousness. And of course to my wonderful Mum who has always been a brilliant friend as well as a mum.

Being a mum is fantastic and I am very thankful that I have such lovely kids who have once again bought me very thoughtful presents and cards.I had a bracelet and  Mackintosh pattern box last week and today as a surprise I got this!

Elm creek book
Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Quilt Book

I have wanted this book  for ages and I was very impressed as normally the kids don’t buy me crafting books from my wish list (they think I have enough already – as if such a thing exists) So thanks very, very much!

I have lots of friends who have in the last few years become new mums and one of the things I value most about the internet is being able to keep in touch with them, to see pics of the kids and to be able to offer support through the power of a nice comment or two when they may be feeling a bit overwhelmed or the kids are poorly, teething etc. I am very lucky to have had a great group of local friends who I met through a Mother and Toddler group and we have kept each other going through the years and are now supporting through teenage and University issues and the joys of having more time to ourselves now we are becoming empty nesters!

I am always impressed by the mums who run their own businesses both ones I know in real life and through blogging. I have mentioned my very talented friend Kat lots of times before and her medieval headdresses and costume business Kats Hats . I would also like to introduce another friend to you who has recently set up her own business, Simply Yummy Cupcakes, which as you can probably tell is a cake business! The link is from Facebook so you might have to be logged in to see it. Now I know a lot of people do cupcakes but these are something very special – I hope she won’t mind me sharing a couple of pics with you of her work – look how  talented she is!

Laura's cakes 1
These are obviously very topical for today!
Laura's cakes 2
These 'bouquets' are made out of cupcakes decorated like roses!

 Laura also makes cupcakes to order for birthdays, weddings and other special events including some very unusual ‘cake pops’ that you can use as wedding favours – she is based in Newport , South Wales in the UK so if you need special cakes go and have a look at her creations.I am planning to do a little baking later on this afternoon for Jake – some chocolate orange cupcakes with chocolate frosting which I tried out on him last week and they got the seal of approval but they are not as wonderful as Laura’s.

Taking inspiration from another very talented mum, Hen House, I went to a Vintage Fair in town yesterday held in a little Victorian Arcade where my friend Lydia has her wool shop Spun. Hen makes the most wonderful things out of her vintage embroidery finds – adding them to quilts and cushions so look what I picked up.

Vintage crochet 2
Two crochet runners and a linen tablecloth

 

Vintage crochet 1
Look at those lovely flowers!

I have tried to learn to crochet but no luck so far but the little flowers on these two pieces are lovely and I thought that I could turn them into something nice with some denim that I have in my stash and some of the fabric that I bought from Lydia not long ago. Lovely daughter Ellie is home from University in May so hopefully we will be able to spend lots of time crafting and I thought she might like these. The tablecloth I plan to incorporate into a quilted throw for my lounge that I have some beautiful medieval prints for which I bought last year. Quite when I will get around to starting these projects I don’t know as I already have several WIPs to complete but it help to have all the stash handy for when the right time arrives doesn’t it!

I have done very well on my current projects – have nearly finished the stitched exchange piece. It has been a tricky stitch, not so much the pattern but the combination of the fabric I chose and the silk thread and the fact that the count is very small so I have to use the magnifying glass and it has been slow going. As I wanted something a bit more mindless to work on this weekend (we were watching a film where I needed concentrate!) and I needed something new for knitting group I have cast on for a baby cardi in my favourite Sublime yarn – this time a dusky pink. I could not get a good pic of the pattern (Blossom from Let’s Knit magazine  August 2010) so apologies but it is a tie front cardi with an eyelet detail in the body (which I have not tried before) and lacy diamond pattern sleeves.

Pink ballet cardi
WIP on the back showing eyelet details

Knitting with the Sublime yarn is wonderful after using the Marble Chunky for my hat. It was quick to knit but not as easy to see the stitch pattern at all whereas with Sublime you can see exactly what you are doing. I am going to Spain again next week (lucky, lucky me – it is my Mum’s 70th birthday in a couple of weeks so we are celebrating out there) so this will be my holiday project along with the JBW pudding ornie.

Speaking of the red chunky hat here it is modelled by me this morning (thanks Jake for taking the pic!) I think it works very well as a slouchy beret and will use the rest of the ball to cast on for a scarf in the same pattern later in the year – not as much need for scarves here in Yorkshire now hurrah!

Red chunky hat modelled
I really like the colour changes in the yarn that give it the stripes and the lacy rib pattern

Well am now off to spend the rest of the day doing my favourite things – lucky me! Hope that you are all having a lovely day wherever you are and thank you very much for visiting.

Birthday and the Bard

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This weekend we went to visit Ellie in Worcester as it is her birthday this week. For her birthday treat she wants to visit London and do some more museum visting (goodie!) which we will do later in the year.On Saturday we took a little trip to Stratford-on-Avon so we could visit some of the Shakespeare houses.

For Ellie this was not only a day out but of course a field trip, she is doing a module on musuems at the moment and is very interested from a professional point of view about how things are displayed and how the information is presented. She is currently employed as a conservation assistant at a Tudor house owned by the National Trust in Worcester so was also very interested in how they were looking after the houses and was not impressed by the cobwebs and dust at one of them!

It was a bit dull and cold so apologies for not having nice sunny pics to show you. They also did not allow interior pics in Shakespeare’s house so have only got exterior pics to show you here.



Stratford 1
Primulas outside Shakespeare's house

 

Stratford 2
More arty pics from the garden

 

Stratford 3
Beautiful carvings on the Griffin Inn

 

There were also very few textiles, there were some bedhangings and clothes in the house – Shakespeares’s father was a glove maker so there was a room laid out as his workshop but most of the textiles were very utilitarian apart from some lovely painted linen wall hangings which were very impressive. I did find a lovely blackwork coif in one of the other displays – apologies as it is a bit dark!

Stratford 4
Seventeenth century coif with insect embroidery

We also went out for a meal with Ellie, my sister, nephew Sam, Jake and her friends. She really liked her birthday pressies which I hoped she would, I bought her Cath Kidston’s Stitch and Sew books, another craft /quilting book  Simple Sewn Gifts by Helen Phillips  and some pretty material and cup cake decorations and cases.

Simple Sewn Gifts
Look at those cute little patchwork hearts!

It is brilliant having a daughter who enjoys the same stuff as I do and I am looking forward to borrowing the books as well when she comes home in the summer! I can’t believe that she will be 20 this week (she can’t either!) she is so grown up now and very lovely!

Ellen b day 1
Ellie with her birthday cupcake fixings
Ellie b day 2
Can't fit that many candles on the cake so she had to make do with the words instead!

I have finished the red chunky wool hat so will get some pics of me modelling it – it has been so nice and warm here that hopefully it is going to straight into the drawer. I managed to get lots done to the garden last week and it is lovely and sunny again today, it is so nice to have an extra hour of daylight in the evenings now so I will have chance to do a bit more pottering later on. I am planning a trip to the garden centre this Sun (as it is Mother’s Day) to buy myself some pretty primulas and lillies for the empty pots.

I am working on a cross stitch exchange for Spring so won’t be able to show you that for a while but have also made a good start on my next Xmas ornie – am doing the JBW Xmas pudding – bit late with this one as it was supposed to be the March finish but better late than never!

JBW Plum pudding
It is stitched over one using a single thread so is coming along fast

Hope that you have all had a lovely week and thank you for visiting.

A quiltilicious week!

stitchesoftime5 Comments

I have been doing lots of quilty things this week. Yesterday was International Quilting Day so it is very fitting that lots of my week should have been spent doing these activities.

The  first thing that I completed was this block to give to one of the members of my quilt group. She is making a charity block quilt and last month gave me a piece of cat fabric which I then added to make a crazy patchwork block. I was pleased with the way this turned out in the end as I has to do the join with the dark turquoise triangle in it several times as I could not get the points right. I have done crazy patchwork before when I have made bags but never with so many different angles so it was a bit of a challenge. It has helped improved my machine work which I wanted to get better at.

cat block
You will recognise this fabric from my current quilt WIP - more of this later!

Yesterday I sent the whole day at the quilt group sewing day where I finally managed to get the rest of the pieces cut out and the whole of the top put together except for the borders which are cut. It was very helpful to have advice from the others as I am very spatially challenged so had a bit of difficulty working out which pieces to sew together first but got there in the end and I am very pleased with the end result. Consensus of opinion among the group was that it looks very nice as it is but I did still want to put the rabbit applique on then one of the group suggested making it double-sided with a fleecy backing and putting the rabbit on that side. I thought that was an excellent idea so am now going to source some pale pink fleece to do that.

Bunny Quilt 3
A bit crumpled but looking good

One of the women from the group Christine, runs her own quilting business – she has a long arm quilting machine and also sells fabric and runs workshops and she had brought her wares with her so I had to have a little indulge. I bought this very cute cat fabric and co-ordinates which I thought would be a good children’s quilt – probably be an Xmas pressie at the rate I am going though!

cat fabric 2

cat fabric 1
A close up of the pretty cats

I also bought two different white on white prints to use as contrasts and this cute vintage bunny print. I now have quite a lot of fat quarters and  feel the need to have a nice box to put them all in like  Crazy Mom  has rather than them be in random drawers all over the lounge as I lose track of what I have bought. I want have them all together so that I can see all the different colours which I hope will help me plan more effectively what I want to make.Will have to buy a box and get sorting!

Vintage bunny fabric
Vintage bunny fabric

Kerry and Tracey from my medieval group came for a sewing day today – we haven’t seen each other for a long time so it was great to have a catch up. I didn’t get much done but did sew up the JBW stocking but they both finished little ornaments , Tracey’s was a lavender filled one for her kitchen which made my conservatory smell really nice and Kerry made a lovely Xmas heart ornie for her tree. They bought loads of Xmas fabric stash when we went to Harrogate last Nov so are starting to use that up.

Tracey's heart
Tracey's heart
Kerry's heart
Kerry's heart

Also managed to make three knitting sessions this week which was bit of a miracle so am making very good progress with the red chunky wool hat. The weather was extremely good at the start and the end of the week – though dull and misty in the middle  – so I may finish it just in time for it to go into a drawer for next Winter but at least I will be prepared!

I have been out in the garden twice doing some tidying up after the long soggy cold season but thankfully there is less frost and snow damage than last year so it won’t take so long to get the garden restored. It does gladden my little heart to see all the signs of Spring, my clematis are looking very good so far and the rhododendron are just about to bloom. I have lost a couple of azaleas and a pireus due to frost but will probably just get some nice bright primulas or similar to put in pots as I have a lot of empty ones at present. I have all of next week off work in order to do lots of house stuff so hopefully the weather will be kind and I can get a lot done outside.

Then we are off to Worcester for next weekend to see Ellie as it is her birthday the week after and we have a little history field trip to Stratford-on-Avon planned. I am hoping to come back with some Shakespearean inspired textile pics for you.

I hope you have a lovely week ahead and thank you very much for visiting.