Sewing time

There hasn't been much sewing around here this week so this weekend I needed to play catch up. Last week was busy between work and fitting in hospital appointments and my 6 monthly dental check. That meant that housework was also pushed out so I needed to catch up on this as well. Youngest daughter is self funding her masters and so is very welling to earn money doing my ironing especially as she needed to order back copies of a German magazine as source material for her dissertation (she is studying history). You also need to have a little time to follow your hobbies and meet up with other family members which this week involved a trip to the National Portrait Gallery.

On Friday afternoon John and I cut out of work as soon as we had finished teaching as we had arranged to meet Kathryn and Olly at the gallery.

(Main entrance to the gallery. Image from art news on Google images.)

The exhibition we were going to see, Picasso's portraits, finishes on 5th February and this was the only date we could all do. Everyone remembers Picasso's cubism portraits (you either love them or hate them) but the exhibition was fascinating because it bought 80 of his works together and shows all his styles and approaches to drawing and painting people. It was a very interesting and enjoyable exhibition which gave me lots of ideas for when I next get my sketch book out. After, we went for dinner at Wagamama with its Japanese inspired food. Mmmm yummy.

Saturday started a little late as a week of early mornings really does require a late start on Saturday morning. We had planned to go to Dorking to visit a quilt shop and then to do some walking. On the drive there John realised he'd forgotten his phone which had the walking route so we had to revise our day.

The Quilt Room opened 35 years ago. The shop itself is small but stuffed full of beautiful fabric . Behind the shop is a studio which houses the workshop rooms and long arm machines.

The shop was quite dark so you needed to take fabric to the window to get the true colours but there was plenty to choose from. Unfortunately my other photos were blurry but you get the idea.

I bought myself some fabric, needed for an ongoing project.

and John bought me this bright set of half metres plus the green. The green is for a current project but the oranges and mustard are to fill a colour gap in my stash (although I do have a new project in mind).

I picked up this fabric to make a bag for my Nikon 1 camera. This is the one I try and carry with me most of the time and it just gets tipped into my work bag or rucksack. It needs a little more loving care.

While we were out we treated ourselves to lunch at Pizza Express and enjoyed window shopping in Dorking and visiting the local church.

Once home housework had to be done and dinner prepared but it still left a little time to start the quilting on the 'It's a dog's life' quilt. My January goal was to finish the quilting and at this point I hadn't started it so I set up my machine and finally made a start. By the end of Sunday it was fairly close to being finished and a little later today I shall get back to it.

I have been working on my bag lady in the evenings . Here's how far I've got by the end of Sunday. I love to do some hand stitching on a Sunday evening as a chance for some quiet time as I prepare for the week ahead. 

She's coming along all be it rather slowly. I'm linking this post with Kathy for Slow Stitching Sunday

I had a great weekend and I now I need to catch up with some work before finishing the quilting.

Lyndsey