Tag: photos

Photo Scavenger Hunt – April

stitchesoftime10 Comments

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!

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!