A Friday finish and some not finishes.

 On Thursday I had an annual leave day booked and I had decided that I was going to make good use of the time and finish the dinosaur quilt. This is a large quilt 70 x 85 inches. I'd already started stitching the binding down and had gone round two corners but that still left almost three complete sides to stitch. I decided to break up the hand stitching, so I stitched the first of the three sides down and then did some household chores. Back to the binding for the second side and then I took the dogs for a walk. Once back from the walk I put a video on and got stitching on the last side. Finally the quilt was finished.

This quilt was started in 2024 and completely finished on 21 August 25. It has now gone to its new home.

Whilst I was busy trying to complete the quilt I had a delivery. Once I opened the package I found a lovely solid box.

and inside some delightful embroidery threads that have been hand dyed. These are the threads I ordered to complete the Kantha bird embroideries.

The threads are so smooth and feel lovely to stitch with.

I had hoped to also finish the crocheted Afghan. I've spent some time over the last week crocheting to join the rows. I still have some rows to do so maybe this will be a finish next week.

There are an awful lot of ends to be sewn or woven in before this blanket is finished.

I've also been working on the quilt I'm hand quilting but I think this will take another couple of weeks to be done. I haven't take a photo recently.

I'm linking this post with Friday finish or not finished. It's nice to have a project finished this week.

Take care

Lyndsey

The Summer Exhibition

Every year since 1769 the Royal Academy of Arts have held a summer exhibition. It usually runs from mid June to mid August and over the last few years John and I have been to see what's on display. Last year neither of us where particularly impressed with the way the exhibition was hung or some of the work on display. Instead of giving a feeling of joy and uplifting, last years exhibition put me in a really bad mood. Of course art is very subjective and so this was just our view of the exhibition last year. Fast forward to 2025 and we decided to give it another chance and I am very pleased we went. It felt like a different place and there was a lot of amazing works of art. It wasn't just us who felt this way. Listening to the conversations around us, a lot of people expressed how much better it was this year and how much they were enjoying it. Each year there is a coordinator for the exhibition and this year it was architect Farshid Moussavi RA and her summer committee who selected the work on display. There were 1700 pieces by famous artists and also members of the public. So if you are interested in art do settle down and enjoy the photos. Otherwise come back tomorrow for some quilting instead.

I liked this; African Bird Magic by Yinka Shonibare RA relief print with woodblock and fabric collage.

This one is The Fading Light by David Phillips, acrylic on board. I like that the picture is made up of smaller pictures. There were several pictures that used this technique. Back in 2020, during the covid lockdown I set myself a challenge to paint a small picture everyday during April on the same theme. I found it very difficult but fun.

A Temporary Shift, Twin (Self-Portrait as a Horse), by Anousha Payne got a lot of attention. This was one of my favourites.

Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Imperfections by Mandy Barker. I included these because they reminded me of the pictures the guides used to enjoy making by using sun prints. Putting an object on chemically treated paper and exposing it to sunlight.

Red, Yellow and Blue by Sir Frank Bowling RA provided a lovely splash of colour. It made me feel happy.

Schiaparelli by  Pat O'Connor made me wonder if she was a quilter.

This was one of my favourite pictures, Hunter's Moon by John Ferry. So many questions, why was he or she out on their own at night? The hunter's moon made it very light, I've always enjoyed being out when the moon is full and high in the sky. The moon makes you feel safe in the dark.

This next piece of art caused a lot of discussion. 1 By Zatorski and Zatorski. 101 white rats pelts, 24 ct gold. I have to say they did look rather cute but it didn't make me like rats. It actually made me feel sad.

Art is such an interesting topic. We all have our own opinion about what is art. I find that I may have a particular opinion of a piece of art one day but that my opinion changes depending on my mood. There are some pieces of art that I always like and enjoy and I'm happy to have some beautiful pieces of art, mainly painted by my father or one of my brothers, hanging on the walls at home. The exhibition was interesting and enjoyable but very tiring. I must be getting old as I find moving slowly through a busy exhibition makes my legs tired and after about an hour my concentration goes. 

Today I did some sewing but I'll tell you about it tomorrow.

Take care

Lyndsey

A trip to Northampton.

For some reason I had forgotten about this trip and only remember when looking for a particular photo. At the end of July, John and I went away for two days (one night). We had planned to leave early on Friday morning but in the end it was nearly lunchtime when we set off. We were heading for Northamptonshire as this is a county we had often driven through but had never stopped to visit. We had a hotel booked in Northampton and had some ideas of what we wanted to do. We stopped for lunch at the motorway services and then carried on to Weedon Bec where we visited, Bramble Patch, a quilt shop. At one time I used to have their monthly subscription box, which was fun while I built up my stash. Now I'm trying to reduce my fabric. I didn't take a photo of the outside but here are a few picture from inside. The shop was divided into small areas and had a good range of fabrics. There were quite a few quilts decorating the walls.

This area had a good range of rotary cutters threads etc.

Christmas fabrics and advent calendars were already on display.

They also had a large class room area  with quilts decorating the walls.

It's a relatively small shop but packed with lots of goodies. We visited the week before the Festival of Quilts and the staff were very busy packing up merchandise for their stand. I did buy some fabric to use as the binding for this quilt. 

We then drove a little way down the road to the ordinance depot which was also in Weedon Bec. In the early 1800s the British Army needed a safe place to store muskets, cannon and gunpowder.

Weedon Bec in Northamptonshire was the area chosen. In 1804 work began to build eight storehouses, canal, powder magazines and walls, It took ten years to complete. On site barracks, parade grounds were built with workshops and the stables to house hundreds of horses. there was also a hospital and prison. Huge numbers of items passed through the Depot, as it supplied everything soldiers would need to fight. To help with the organisation, hundreds of civilians worked alongside soldiers. The men and women working here were sworn to secrecy about its role. It was eventually closed in 1965. The buildings now hold a range of small businesses. At each end there is a matching building and the one nearest the entrance housed a small exhibition.

We visited the exhibition and also walked around the site. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be in the vicinity when it was full of gunpowder and munitions. Having explored the site we drove into Northampton and found our hotel. We went for a walk around the city and came across the Guildhall which was impressive.

On Saturday we had planned to do a walk at Braunston, along the canal. We parked our car near the village hall and set off along a footpath that headed through fields to the canal.

There were a lot of blackberries growing in the hedgerow. We didn't stop and pick any as we didn't have a bag or anything to put them in It would have been great to make a bkackberry pie.

We joined the canal at one of the locks, using the bridge to cross to the tow path that would take us to the Braunston tunnel.

Opened in 1796, Braunston tunnel is on the Grand Union canal and about 800 yards east of Braunston top lock. The tunnel is 2,042 yards long and was built by Jessop and Barnes. It is 16 feet wide and 12 feet 3 inches high. Two 7feet wide boats can pass each other in the tunnel but a wide beam needs to wait for assistance to go through the tunnel.

On the day we visited there was a lot of traffic on the canal and it was taking a long time for boats to get through the locks. The walk was beautiful and it was fun watching the boats

There are some tight spots and you have to be a good steerer to get round some of the tight corners.

At one point we cam across a mallard with their ducklings.  There was a bit of a panic before parent and children headed for the water.

For part of the walk we were away from the canal. We came across this old church. It was all locked up so we couldn't go inside.

it rained briefly whilst we walked but not enough to be a problem. The walk in total was about 6 miles. When we got back to the car we decided we needed to get a drink before heading home so we drove through the village where we found the local church. The spire was amazing.

Indie there were a couple of nice stained windows 

I liked this little tree in the reading are of the church.

and this old box looked very old and interesting.

There was some nice embroidery on the Mother's Union banner.

As we left the village I took a last photo of the windmill that was next door to the church

We headed home slowly. We had both enjoyed our short stay breaks. 

Take care

Lyndsey

Afternoon tea, cutting fabric and stitching on binding.

Yesterday was a crafting day but first I had to take Twiglet to the groomers. He was a very scruffy pup and now he's a handsome dashing Yorkshire Terrier again. Twiglet is a big Yorkie, not a teacup or a mini. If he was, I would probably have squashed him by now as he loves to jump into your chair just as you sit down. His grooming went well as he's always well behaved but the heat was getting to me and I felt dizzy so I was relieved when Richard came to meet us and we walked home together. Once home I had to have a rest before the next activity.

This week has been National Afternoon Tea week. I love a traditional afternoon tea and it is the perfect meet up with friends. However I didn't fancy a trip out so decided to do tea and scones for the family. I have a pretty bone china tea set that belonged to my mother. I think it may have been a present but not a wedding present. The design is from the 1950's and my parents got married in 1946. I set the table for the four of us. It was a simple afternoon tea with tea or coffee to drink and scones, jam and cream. In order to set the table I had to move all my sewing bits to the spare chair and top of my machine! I used one of the embroidered table cloths that had been my mothers. This is an antique, a bit like me, as I remember her embroidering it when I was still at primary school.

We all enjoyed the scones and we sat and chatted for quite a while afterwards. We decided we needed to use the tea set more, particularly for special occasions such as birthdays. The last time it was used was after the covid lockdowns. We celebrated Lucy's birthday with a birthday tea party in the back garden at older daughter's house. At this point you could only socialise outside.

After the scones and cream I cleared away and returned to cutting fabric. I started with cutting the fabric for the Christmas quilt. All the patterned fabrics are cut but I still have the background fabric and the sparks or star fabric to do. I worked out the fabric requirements for the additional three blocks.

I decided I wanted to use a yellow batik for the stars but I don't have enough of a single piece. Between the three batik yellows I can cut all the stars but I think I will order more of the bright yellow batik as it really does spark.

Alternatively I do have enough plain yellow fabric for the stars. Once I've cut the background fabric and the star fabric I can get the blocks sewn together.

The seed packets and back ground for the garden quilt are also cut out and ready for sewing. I think I did too much cutting yesterday as my right wrist is a little sore. At least sewing the blocks will rest my wrist.

Yesterday evening I finished a book called The sewing machine by Natalie Fergie

I really enjoyed this book. The story is multigenerational historical fiction. The story starts in 1911 with Jean who works at the Singer factory at the time the 1911 strike took place. It follows the lives of the family though to almost present day and the sewing machine is a main thread in the story. It is this story that meant I didn't get the binding attached to the dinosaur quilt this week. The story also made me look up information about the strike, how many women worked at the factory and what their lives were like. It was fascinating.

I realised I had forgotten to show you what I bought at the Festival of Quilts. I didn't need fabric although John bought me some to make a dress. I'll hopefully get round to that in the near future. I bought this pattern book. This is by the person who designed the bird embroideries. I've also shown the post card for Paint- box threads. These threads are hand dyed and are beautiful to the touch. I've ordered the threads I need to complete the bird stitcheries.

I also bought this kit to make a wall hanging. It comes with the panel of the birds required but the remaining fabric will be from stash. 

What I want to try with this is using the Inktense blocks to paint the background fabric. I bought a small set of the ink blocks a while ago but haven't had time to try them out. On one of the embroidery YouTube channels I follow 'Marion's World', Marion uses them a lot to get the background colours she wants for her embroidery. I'm all for trying something new. To use the inks you use a paint brush and water. They are good for using on fabric and adding more or less water affects the intensity of the colour. The can also easily be mixed. I'm going to be having a play with them over the bank holiday, next weekend.

I also have one of Kate Finlay's bird picture kits to make up before I start on this quilt kit.

Tomorrow I'm back at work. It's been great to be able to fit in some crafting, sewing or whatever I want to work on each day. On the upside, having been off sick and therefore unable to take my holiday, I have an additional 10 days holiday next year. Our holiday runs from September to August and I plan on taking some time off at the end of September.

Now I need to make good use of my time today as I have a lot I want to do.

Take care

Lyndsey

Stroking and choosing fabrics

Yesterday my car went into the garage for a service. Normally I would collect it later in the day but I had my follow up appointment with the plastic surgeon following my breast reconstruction in March. It has all healed really well and I am very happy with the result. The surgeon was happy and has put me on the waiting list for creation of the nipple. It's taken a while to get to this point since I had my mastectomy in 2017 but it has been worth the wait.

This morning was rather busy. I took the dogs out for their morning walk at 7:30. I had a podiatry appointment at 8:30 and then I had to go and collect my car. We decided to do a little shopping on the way home and also to get morning coffee and cake. Once home again I had the afternoon to do some sewing.

I need to make a start on my Chookshed challenge for August. My challenge was to start the Garden quilt as this was to be a gift but I had also decided I wanted to make a Christmas quilt. The Garden quilt was originally being made for an friend but they have decided there is another quilt they would like instead. However, if possible, they would like me to make a smaller sized quilt based on the pattern for their grandchild who loves to 'help' in the garden. This is the pattern I was going to make, and it finishes at 72 x 92inches, too big for a young child.

So last evening I had spent some time doing the maths to scale the quilt down for a child. I gave myself a headache with the maths but came up with a workable pattern. This afternoon I spent some time going through my fabric and enjoying stroking it. I pulled some fabrics to use as the seed packets. In my experience young children love the idea of planting seeds and watching them grow so this row had to be included. I also found some suitable fabric for the carrots, beetroot and cabbages. 

I also think I can use these these gardening themed fabrics.

The more I thought about making a child's garden quilt the more fun I thought it would be. I had to look in my stash for some background fabric and then I would be ready to start cutting the blocks. 

Before starting making the seed blocks, I decided I would go through the Christmas fabrics for the second quilt I wanted to start. A while back I made this Christmas quilt from a pattern by Phoebe Moon Designs. I really like this quilt.

The pattern finishes at 53 X 73 inches and is made from 6 blocks. When I made this quilt I added three additional blocks to make a square quilt finishing at 73 X 73 inches. I wish I'd made a note of the additional fabrics I needed as it would have made life a lot easier. These are the Christmas fabrics I found.

I'm not sure that this selection of fabrics will work so I may have to go shopping. I won't start cutting these blocks until I've made a final decision on the fabrics I'll use.

So I'm off to cut and make the seed packet blocks. They will be slightly smaller than on the pattern so I hope I've got my maths right. I'll show you the blocks in the next post.  

Take care

Lyndsey