A little slow stitching

At last a day of being able to sit and do a little stitching. The fault for lack of stitching lies not with too much work but with two relatively small family crises. One is now resolved but the other will take longer. However in between life in general, work etc I can sew again. Yesterday I settled comfortably in my chair with Scamp on my lap and worked on this block for 'It's a dogs life' quilt.

I should be able to finish this tonight. Yesterday was so relaxing and as a result I'm expecting to get a lot more done today. Once this one is finished there is only one more before I need to piece the remaining blocks and stitch it all together. 

I have also completed the baby quilt but haven't posted the finish photo yet

Scamp was under very strict instructions not to sit on the quilt. I chose a stripy fabric for the binding. I used a jelly roll for the ribbons on the quilt and the bindings came from the same roll. I cut the strips in half and alternated the colourways. I love the way it looks. The ribbons were quilted in stripes and the background was a large meander.

I have some housework to do and teaching preparation but then I have some sewing to do. I have a summer skirt cut out and ready to go. In typical UK style it's raining at present but it is still warm so I'll get a fair amount of wear out of it before the autumn weather really sets in.

A couple of weeks ago John, Tony and I went walking. Every year our church does a walk in support of the Children's Society and we were checking out the route. It was a 10 mile route but I took Scamp with us as he loves long walks so long as he has regular breaks. The route was out in West Sussex so we traveled by train, another favourite adventure for Scamp.

 On the walk we went under the Ouse Valley viaduct. This is a fabulous victorian structure that was built in 1841 to carry the London to Brighton railway line over the river ouse. It stand 96 feet high and has 37 arches.

For me the most amazing bit was when we stood underneath the viaduct and looked along its length . Instead of each pillar of the arch being solid, to save bricks it was built like this.

This picture shows the detail at the top of the arches and the balustrades a little clearer.

At one point we walked along a path through the middle of a corn field. Now many years ago as a child or teenager (it is that long ago I can't remember) I heard a song from a musical which said 'the corn is as high as an elephant's eye.' I was confused because I'd only seen corn that was shorter than me. Walking through the field with corn on either side of me, that was definitely taller than me I suddenly realised (oh so many years after the event) that what we children had called corn was in fact wheat and the corn referred to in the song was maize or sweetcorn. Der that made the song make more sense.

The walk also took us past a reservoir and nature reserve and we ended at a little cafe where we enjoyed homemade scones and cream. Even Scamp was catered for with dog biscuits provided free by the owners.

I'm linking this post with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching It's very odd coincidence but she's been appliqueing a corn stalk. Go visit and find out what folks have been doing. Have a good day

Lyndsey