A new family member and being unwell

I'm sorry I've been so slow posting this week but when I'm not at work my time has been taken up with a new family member. On Monday evening after work we visited a lady who had one male Yorkshire Terrier puppy left. When I'd first contacted her she had three boys and one girl and I reserved a boy. As we were away over the weekend it was decided that we would visit on Monday and if he liked us and the feeling was mutual, he would join the family. He is so cute but we still haven't decided completely on his name. He has been very good so far and he and Missy have made friends and are playing together. Fortunately Missy is very gentle with him and lets him play with her ball and tug rope. She looks very big next to him. I had to clean the floor as Missy got so excited she kept rushing in and out to the garden and tramped mud in. Pup needs to have his next lot of vaccines before he can go outside. Before that we'll have to check for small gaps that he may use to escape from the garden.

His favourite resting place is on top of Missy's tug rope.  Currently it's really difficult to get a good clear photo of him.

I was going to tell you about our trip last weekend but by Tuesday I started feeling very unwell and I still don't feel very good. Not sure if it's covid or flu. Either way I needed to retire to bed and have been sleeping most of the time. I'm now feeling slightly better but I won't be doing much for a while. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll have some energy to post about our trip.

The other thing I wanted to say was that I thought I wasn't get many comments as they weren't feeding back to my email account. My son has now sorted that out for me. It has been an intermittent fault for some time. Anyway my apologises. I love receiving your comments and will reply to you all once I feel slightly more human.

Take care

Lyndsey

A busy Tuesday and a great weekend

I planned to write this post on Tuesday evening but life got in the way. I had taken annual leave on Tuesday which gave me a five day weekend, since Monday was a bank holiday in the UK. Everyone else was working so Missy and I had the house to ourselves. As always there were several household chores to complete before I could claim the time as my own.  Obviously one of the 'chores' was taking Missy for a walk but that is only really a chore when the weather is cold and wet. Walking in the sunshine is a joy and Missy's love of life and walking is very contagious. We spent some time at the park while I threw balls for her to chase and for her to have a good sniff at everything. She stuck her nose in a patch of flowers and spent the next little while sneezing, very delicate ladylike sneezes for the size of dog. Back at home I started some bread. Most weeks I make one large loaf and it lasts all week but sometimes everyone wants toast for breakfast. 

Eventually I was able to make myself a cup of tea and sit and consider what I wanted to achieve on my annual leave day. I have a new quilt project percolating in my brain but it isn't fully formed yet so it was back to the ones I've already started. The dinosaur quilt was calling me. Having finished the first set of 6 dinosaurs I still have 3 more sets to make or 18 blocks. I decided I would cut the fabric for two of the brachiosaurus blocks but cut the background fabric for all 6 blocks. This took quite some time as there are a lot of small pieces. The pattern is by Elizabeth Hartman who also designed Cats in pyjamas

and dogs in sweaters

                               

I also have both of these patterns for future use. They are such fun designs. The patterns have a lot of pieces to them but the instructions are well written and easy to follow. From experience don't try to make too many blocks at the same time, one at a time works very well.  Anyway I spent time cutting fabric. Restricting the amount of cutting I did was a good idea as last time it made my wrists very achy. This time my wrist was still feeling comfortable. Gracious me, does this mean I've started to realise my limitations at last!

Later in the afternoon, once I done some ironing, I got my knitting out and worked on the second sleeve. It should hopefully be finished over the weekend and I can sew my cardigan together. Writing it down my day doesn't sound very busy but I was worn out and needed to go to bed early.

Wednesday and Thursday I was working and so that bring us to Friday. This morning John and I set off on a weekend in Portsmouth. I'm going to tell you about our trip in the next post but over the weekend I did some sewing on the little countryside embroidery. I didn't get a huge amount done as we were out and about all day and I was tired by evening. Here's how far I've got.

I've cut the red fabric for the poppies and I'm really excited to get this piece finished. I'm linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday stitching Pop over and see what everyone has been working on.

I need to download my photos so I can share them on my next post. I'm working tomorrow but I have a day off on Tuesday so blog post and more sewing.

Take care

Lyndsey

Bird watching trip and stitching.

The weekend was fun and productive, even the weather cooperated. On Friday I awarded myself a sewing day. I wanted to finish the remaining 4 stegosaurus blocks and also make the quilt sandwich for the mystery quilt. I started by making the quilt sandwich.  Having taken part in a mystery quilt I decided I'm not over keen on them. I stuck to the instructions that we were given and didn't deviate. I used 9 fat quarters or pieces of left over fabric of the same size. I loved the fabrics I chose but once I started cutting them I felt there wasn't enough definition between them. The fabrics had to be laid out in a set manner to make the nine fabric groups that would be used to make the blocks. You can see what I mean in the photo. Normally I would have changed fabrics around to give a better mix but decide to see how it panned out. 

I made all the blocks and I like the way they turned out but they needed a little lift so I added green sashing and borders. Much better.

For the backing I used some yellow and cream fabric I had in my stash. I didn't have enough of either fabric to make the backing so it has been pieced. This quilt is now ready for quilting so now I'm waiting for inspiration to strike. I have some ideas but it's always useful to give my brain a little extra time. On the occasions when I've rushed into the quilting phase I've found I suddenly have an amazing idea when its too late to change what I'm doing. 

Next I made some bread so that we could have sandwiches for lunch on Saturday. I love how the smell of homemade bread drifts around the house when it's cooking. An estate agent friend once told me that if you want a quick sale on your house make sure you have bread baking and make some fresh ground coffee when the viewing happens. It makes the house much more friendly and home like. Whilst the bread was proving I got on with the dinosaur blocks and by the end of the afternoon I had two more blocks complete.

On Sunday we went to Fingringhoe Wick nature reserve. The sun was shining and it was very warm. The board below explains the history of the area. Remember you can click on the picture to  get an image that you can blow up larger.

This willow had amazing fluffy catkins and the 'fluff' was blowing everywhere.

I had fun spotting the small fungi in one of the meadows

and there were several Southern Marsh Orchids in the same meadow.

The view across the reeds and water was very tranquil. Lots of blue sky and fluffy clouds. My face and arms have already taken on a nice sun kissed appearance but don't worry I remembered my sun screen.

We saw over 30 different species of birds including a white throat, garden warbler, whimbrel and a nightingale. The bird song was everywhere and there were a lot of wild flowers. The reserve also has adders but we didn't see any basking in the sun. They are shy snakes.

On Sunday I awarded myself some more sewing time. I wanted to get all the stegosaurus blocks finished before starting on the next dinosaur. This is my Chookshed challenge for May. I know I won't finish all the blocks but I would love to finish a second set of dinosaurs.  By the end of my sewing time I had 6 completed dinosaurs.

These blocks are large finishing at 21.5 by 10.5 inches. I still need to trim them but I'll do that when all the dinosaur blocks are made and I start piecing the quilt top together.

In the evenings I am working on making the 2nd sleeve for my cardigan. I'm alternating between knitting and the countryside embroidery. That way hopefully both projects will be finished by the end of the month.

Today we were to have visitors but our grandson isn't well. He has a bad cold and so they have stayed at home. Younger daughter was away at her best friends hen do over the weekend but she has now arrived home having had a good time, with massages and other spa treatments and a visit to a vineyard which included wine tasting and lunch. Maybe I'll get my machine out or do some cutting or planning for my next quilt. I think I'll have another cup of tea while I decide what to do next.

Take care

Lyndsey

 

Hello May

 

May already but still the weather is misbehaving. Last night there was a very noisy and prolonged thunderstorm and a downpour. The forecast suggests it will warm up on Monday but there is a whole weekend between now and then and I'd love some warmer weather. I'm not working again until Wednesday and so I have time for sewing and visits. I'm going to enjoy the next few days!

The beginning of the month means a chance to set some plans. So what do I want to achieve this month? Let's start with the Chookshed Stitchers challenge.

My number 5 is the dinosaur quilt. I've been working on this each month this year. In April I made two stegosaurus and part made the remaining four. This month I'd like to finish the remaining stegosaurus and make another set of dinosaurs. For the next set of dinosaurs I can choose from triceratops, brachiosaurus or T Rex. The instructions to make the dinosaurs are very clear and easy to follow which means the blocks go together very easily.

For my one monthly goal I want to complete the countryside embroidery. I've had this as a goal before and failed to finish it but I think I should be able to this month. I'm not sure this is the most recent photo but it is a good approximation of how much I've completed.

I want to make the quilt sandwich and start the quilting on the mystery quilt. This will be the first thing I do tomorrow morning.

I've been practicing sewing the curves for the Blooming rings quilt so I would like to make row 1 of this quilt. I think I'm ready to start stitching this quilt together.

I want to finish knitting my cardigan. I only have one sleeve and the button bands to knit. I've already made a start on the sleeve so I should be able achieve this.

I also want to plan a new quilt. I have a picture of it in my head but need to get it planned out on paper so I can decide if it will work. Tomorrow I have some sewing time so I'll get on with the planning stage and check measurements. I always enjoy the planning stage of a new quilt. 

It's been a long day at work and if I'm going to enjoy my sewing day I need to get some sleep. I have a lot I want to get through tomorrow.

Take care

Lyndsey

April round up

The end of April already, the year seems to be flying by. It's always fun to look back over the month and celebrate achievements and I'm very happy with my achievements this month. Today I wasn't working so I was able to have a sewing day. I had some household chores to do first, tidy the kitchen, laundry including ironing and some meal planning. 

My goal for April was to make the top for the Good Hope Quilters Mystery Quilt. I had made all the 9 blocks. I decided I needed to add sashing and so I had to look though my stash for something suitable. I am currently trying to reduce the amount of fabric I have but I have very little yardage which makes sashing and fabric for the back of a quilt difficult. I knew it would look better with a solid colour for the sashing and I decided on green. Having added the sashing I couldn't decide if I wanted to add a border. In the end I did and I really like this completed quilt top. I would usually use the floor for a photo but Missy kept getting in the way so in the end I took it outside and hung it on the line.  This is the best I could do, it was really sunny and there were lots of shadows. Never mind I'll get a good photo once it's finished.

Number 9 was the Chookshed Stitchers challenge for April. My number 9 was the cat cross stitch and I wanted to finish it. This was the beginning of April...

and this is the end of April. This is a finish. There should be some words above the cat. I stitched these but then unpicked them as I preferred it without the words. I have now washed this piece as it had been stored for some time and the aida was very dirty. Once it is fully dry I will either frame it or turn it into a small wall hanging.

Today I made a cushion for Lucy. I bought the 4 dog blocks when I went to the Stitch Festival in March. This is a large cushion (20 inch cushion pad.)

I completed the pinwheel baby quilt. This has been gifted to the new father and he was very pleased with it, especially the alien panels. 

I made a new peg bag

I Completed the Give it a twirl quilt, which is destined to go to Project Linus.

I complete two stegosaurus dinosaurs, one yellow

and one blue.  The red, orange. purple and green dinosaurs are partially made.

When I was in the garden I had to take a photo of my Lily of the valley. The flowers look so prefect. The weather is warning up over the weekend so hopefully it will be warm enough to sit in the garden and do some hand stitching.

I'm linking this post with Stories from the Sewing Room for One monthly goal link party and Dreamworthy Quilts for the Chookshed Stitchers challenge April link up.

Take care

Lyndsey

Slow Sunday stitching.

Yesterday John and I , plus a few friends did our annual walk to see the bluebell wood. The walk itself is about 5 miles in the Surrey hills. The walk this year was rather muddy due to very heavy rain on Friday night but fortunately the rain stopped in early Saturday morning and the weather stayed dry all day. We passed a field of cows with their calves.

The wild garlic was in flower. 

The bluebells were beautiful

We stopped and had lunch at the garden centre at the end of the walk before getting the train home. The food as always was delicious. By lunch time the sun had come out, rather weakly, and there was no wind so we had lunch in the garden.

Today I have been catching up with my slow stitching. I worked in half hour slots. First I started some bread and then spent half an hour stitching the binding down on the baby quilt. Then I cleaned the kitchen floor before returning to the binding. Over the morning I caught up on some household chores and stitched the binding down. A good use of time.

I also completed the cat cross stitch today. It should have lettering on it

Unfortunately I couldn't make the letters look good even though I tried several times, so I decided the piece was much better without the words and I declared the stitching finished. The stitching isn't exactly right as I had made several mistakes when I first started the piece. This is why it had been put away and forgotten about. Now I need to find a frame so I can display it. I just realised I need to add a pink stitch on the cat's nose. I'll do that in the morning.

I am linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching  Today has been a good day with two finishes. That doesn't happen very often.

Take care

Lyndsey

A sewing day

Yesterday was a none working day, well almost. I had an online meeting that lasted an hour and then I was free to do whatever I wanted. My choice of activities was sewing, so I set up my machine and decided to start with making the peg bag I'd cut out last week. The morning was spent putting it together in between some household chores. It didn't take long.

Having made the bag I decided that I liked the fabrics I used. I'd chosen the fabric because I didn't particularly like them and couldn't think how I could use it in a quilt but didn't want to get rid of them. It's interesting, that when you put the fabric into a different situation it takes on a different look. As a peg bag, the fabric worked well and I particularly like the big red flower on the front. When I'd finish the bag it was lunch time and John had made a delicious soup, just what I wanted.

In the afternoon I decided to make another dinosaur. I wondered if it would be possible to work on the four remaining dinosaurs at the same time. I set the four colours out on my cutting mat and made a start.

I worked on the left side panel first for all four colours, then the right and finally the middle panel. Everything went well until I started making the middle panel. I stitched two pieces together the wrong way round. It took me a little time to sort out but I eventually finished all 12 panels. Note to self, stick with making one block at a time as there are too many pieces involved in the dinosaur blocks.

There are still several steps to complete all four blocks but that will have to wait until Sunday. I am very happy with what I managed to complete.

I still had some time to play with so I pulled out the cat cross stitch. I haven't finished it yet but it is very close. I still have some outlining on the cat to do and the hearts and wording. I want to finish this piece by the end of the month.

In the evening i completed the knitting on the sleeve of my cardigan. This project is also nearly finished. One more sleeve to knit, the button bands to knit and then sewing up. My day had been really good and projects moved forward. 

Today John and I went walking but I'll tell you more tomorrow. 

Take Care 

Lyndsey

Weekend sewing.

This week I haven't been able to do as much sewing as I would have liked due to having sore wrists and an achy right arm. A lot of things I can do with my left arm and hand, including producing readable hand writing, but hand stitching isn't one of them.

Over the week I managed to get another stegosaurus made. This time it is the blue one. It isn't as bright as the yellow stegosaurus but I like it. Having made the pattern once I found it went together quicker but it is still a lengthy process with lots of seams that require pressing before you make the next seam. 

I also sewed the binding onto the baby quilt. I chose to use some red fabric rather than the blue I had used for the borders and the backing. The red gave a better effect. Having finished the quilting I still have ends to sort out but since I had the machine set up I took the opportunity to get the binding on. Now I just need time to stitch it down.

Today I did some hand stitching on the cat cross stitch This has been moving quite slowly but it is nearly done.  As soon as I finish this blog post I will get back to working on it. It's easier to see the cat's head now that the ears have been added. When I'm this close to a finish I just want to keep stitching.

I'm linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching.

My sewing plans for this week are to sew down the binding on the bay quilt, make a third stegosaurus and sew my new peg bag together. Hopefully the cat will be finished in the next couple of evenings and I will need to pick a new hand stitching project. I have several waiting to be worked on or finished.

Take care 

Lyndsey

Bird watching and sewing.

On Saturday, John and I had a trip arranged to Strumpshaw Fen, a nature reserve in Norfolk. We were travelling by coach which meant I could watch the scenery go by, chat and do some hand stitching. I can't read when travelling but I wondered if I could do some knitting or better still crochet. I decided to take some crochet along and was pleased to find that I could happily stitch without making myself travel sick. When we were in the covid lockdowns I had started making crocheted squares to make a blanket. I had a lot of left over yarn and this was a perfect project to use it up. It still isn't finished and utilising some of the coach journey seemed like a great use of time to move this forward. I managed 4 squares on the outward journey and 4 on the return journey. That left me time to enjoy the scenery and chat with John

I have already started crocheting the squares together and it is taking shape very nicely. I still need to make a few more squares but I will be able to make a big blanket. There will be a lot of ends to sew in when it's finished.

Next time I'm travelling on a coach or a train I will take my knitting and see how that goes. I know I can't read when travelling by road as it makes me very travel sick.  

This was the first time we'd visited Strumpshaw Fen. In order to get into the reserve you have to cross a railway line. Most people thought it only had a train pass by once a day and were surprised when they found the line was used by fast trains. Crossing the line worried some folks but the line was straight at this point and so you could see when it was safe to cross. The river Yare runs on the other side of the reserve. The water level was quite high.

As we walked round the reserve we saw a lot of butterflies but they were impossible to photograph as they wouldn't settle anywhere. The selection of butterflies we saw included Peacock, Brimstone, Orange tip butterfly and a few white butterflies but I don't know the difference between them. we did a circular walk around the reserve, stopping to enjoy the views and to watch the birds. At times the ground was very muddy. The area in the photo below was tame compared with some of the mud. 

There were also wild flowers including primroses,

Henbit dead nettle

and garlic mustard

Walking alongside the river we watched several boats go by.

Over the day we saw 30+ different species of birds including several marsh harriers, red kites and a buzzard. |Having stood listening to a Willow Warbler for about 10 minutes we finally managed to locate where he was in the tree. It was also fun watching the large crane fly around. Bird watching becomes more difficult as the tress get their leaves.

Sunday was my sewing day and I finished stitching the binding down on the pinwheel quilt. This is now a finish. 

I also finished the quilting on the Give a Twirl baby quilt. I haven't taken a photo yet so I'll do that once I've added the binding. I need to hunt through my stash to see if I have some suitable fabric. Yesterday, I met baby Lucas who will be the recipient of the quilt once it is finished. He was born on 28th March and is a very cute baby. I must remember to add the quilt label.

The next two days are busy working days but I'm looking forward to another sewing day on Friday. That will be after I've taken Missy to be groomed. I'm hoping to get the first sleeve of my cardigan finished over the next two evenings.

Take care 

Lyndsey