Catching up on projects.

Yippee I'm on holiday! June and July were exhausting with far too much work but I finished work on Friday and I'm free until September. I'm only part time but from the middle of June until this weekend I have been working full time and it isn't compatible with getting any sewing done. I'd forgotten how tired a full week at work makes you, and then there's the household chores that have to be done at the weekend. I've made a promise to myself that I'm not going to be doing that again. I need space to just be and to sew and relax.  It's going to take a strong will to keep work in check next year but I think I can do it and if not I'll retire.

Yesterday was a general catch up day so this afternoon I pulled out my projects and made some decisions. I have a baby quilt I need to finish this month so that gets priority. When last I posted about it the project had reached this stage.

The scan showed the baby is a girl so since this photo I've made  quite a number of pink blocks and I think I've nearly got enough blocks for the whole quilt. It's then a case of sewing them all together. 

Ages ago I started quilting one of my scrappy tops from the RSC 2015.  This has also got to be completed before I go back to work.

I also need to catch up with this years rainbow scrap challenge as I haven't made July's blocks yet and also the splendid sampler blocks. I am way way behind with this. 

What I have been doing is some hand sewing. I've been making flowers for the grandmother's flower garden quilt.  I have made enough for the next two rounds. It's such a handy project for when I'm travelling by train. Last week I was in Reading three days and that's a lot of time to sew. The train was hot and sewing took my mind of the discomfort. I hate getting over heated and tend to panic a little so sometimes have to get off the train early but the stitching kept me focused and on the train. This evening I will be adding the rounds to the main piece. Here's how it looks at the moment, well not quite. This is the last picture I posted but I have completed the blue round. The next round is purple.

Although there's been limited time for sewing we have kept up our walking and whilst doing that I've also been hunting out the blue plaques. The first one isn't a blue plaque but still interesting. This is the Windmill on Wimbledon Common. The sails are currently being repaired. You can see over the door there is a plaque.

The plaque says, In the Mill House Robert Baden-Powell, Chief Scout of the World wrote parts of  'Scouting for boys'  in the year 1908.

The rest are blue plaques. This one is to Gustav Holst who wrote The Planets. You can go and listen to it here

Then there is this one to Dame Ninette De Valois who founded the Royal Ballet. You can find out about how she set it up here

Finally there was this plaque which is rather difficult to see to Henry Fielding. Henry Fielding was an English author best known for writing Tom Jones. 

All three of these plaques are In Barnes. Scamp's groomer is based here and we took a walk round whilst he was being washed and pampered. There is also a delightful cafe in Barnes where we had lunch. 

Although I'm planning on Sewing a lot whilst on holiday John has been busy stripping wall paper and doing some re-plastering as he had holiday last week, so I have wallpapering and painting to do. We are really moving forward with all the work we're doing on the house and  I'm feeling confident that it will all be done by Christmas. We are also going to Berlin for a couple of days this week. We have never been but both our daughters have. We have a list of places to visit that will take much longer than our trip. 

Tomorrow we are going walking which will be fun as the weather forecast is for a good day. When we get back I'll be sewing. The machine is already set up and waiting and I can't wait.

Lyndsey