Catching up with sewing.

This week has been about catching up. Fortunately work has been very manageable but household chores had got a little behind. The last weekend of February we went to the Isle of Wight. Weekends away are great fun and relaxing but it means I need to get the usual weekend chores done during the week. The following weekend we had a trip to Minsmere on the Saturday and family commitments on the Sunday so again limited time for those chores. Never mind I've now caught up and also managed to get slightly ahead. This morning I gave a dining room a spring clean. All the furniture got moved, cleaned and polished if appropriate. Things that had gravitated to the room were returned to their proper place and quite a few items where either thrown away or put on one side to go to the charity shop. It looks beautiful now but I could do with a nap! I could have done the room yesterday but I needed to get my eyes tested, get  some shopping and go to the bank. Instead of cleaning yesterday I choose to play with my sewing.

I started my sewing by looking for the pattern for the double wedding ring quilt I've been wanting to make. The pattern was in Today's Quilter some time back so I had to look through the magazines I'd kept. I found it and printed the pattern out in colour. This will save me taking the magazine when I go fabric shopping next weekend, therefore no chance of it getting lost. I also found the templates which had come with this issue. Once I've got my fabric I will be able to start the quilt.

This is my number 4 challenge for the Chookshed Stitchers Challenge.

I'm on holiday for two weeks from 21st March so I should be able to make a good start on this project.

After that I set about stitching together some of the blocks for the mystery quilt from Good Hope Quilters Guild. I am now a whizz at making half square triangles and this quilt is made entirely of them. There are two ways to put the blocks together one giving a star design and the other a square. I decided to do the square option. There are 9 sets of fabrics which make into 9 blocks I completed 4.

The colours aren't showing up as they are in person due to the light. I still have 6 blocks to make and these have different colours in them. I need to trim the blocks before I can start stitching the rest together.

After that I decided to play at making a mattress for one of the beds in the doll house. I haven't taken a photo so I will show you some other time. By the time I had done that it was evening and time to make dinner. After dinner I decided to work on my knitting. I'm on the second side of the front and it is going well. 

Last weekend John and I went to Minsmere in Suffolk for a bird watching day. I didn't take my main camera with me, just my phone so I haven't got any bird photos to show you. However we had a very successful day seeing over 50 different species of birds plus some deer. I did take a photo of my shadow self. I like this photo as it gives me very long legs. John was busy watching a bird through his scope. You can see one leg of his tripod.

Minsmere is very close to Sizewell B nuclear power station. You can see the dome and building in the photo below. It is the UK's only Pressurised Water Reactor, which started generating electricity in 1995. It has an estimated decommissioning date of 2035. The picture is blurry because the phone was set to give the maximum enlargement. There are plans for new reactor, Sizewell C to replace the present one.

Later the weather improved and I took this picture looking across the reed beds in a different part of the reserve.

On the way home I tried to capture the sky through the coach window. The coach was traveling fast and so this was the best I could do

Now I need to feed Missy and Wesley. It's their dinner time and they are both staring at me, willing me to move to the kitchen. I still need to share our trip to the Isle of Wight but I'll do that in the next post.

Take care

Lyndsey