June Chookshed challenge and slow Sunday stitching

The beginning of a new month and the chance to reassess the projects that need some love, care and attention. The main problem with having a lot of projects on the go at the same time is that you can't work on everything each month. I couldn't even work on all my projects in one month when I was on sick leave even though I tried. Maybe there will be a miracle when I eventually retire and I'll have unlimited time to do what I want. A girl can dream!

So the Chookshed challenge this month is number 5 and my number 5 is to make the dolls for the doll house. I have everything I need,

I've already sewn the doll patterns together, so now I need to turn them right out out. I have also already made the baby although there a still one or two stitches to add to give more shape.

For each of the dolls I need to use the wire to make a shape to go inside the doll so that the dolls limbs can be manipulated to sit, stand or hold the baby. The baby only has stuffing inside. I've already made the wire shape for the child. Two more to make.

Once the dolls have been stuffed there is a lot of stitching to add structure to them. My aim is to complete all 3 dolls by the end of the month. They will then be able to move into their new home. Of course there will also be clothes to make for them.

Today I'm not working on the dolls , Instead I picking up my embroidered tablecloth that I started a while back. 

I haven't worked on it for some time as my concentration has been poor and I didn't want to make any mistakes. I enjoy stitching on this piece as it reminds me of my mother. She really enjoyed embroider and taught me many of the stitches. I have several tablecloths that she embroidered and I love using them so it was time to stitch one for myself. This evening I'm going to try and finish the yellow flowers and the bells next to them. I also can't wait to embroider the butterfly but I'm saving that until I finish the side. Each side of the cloth has a butterfly and these will be the last thing I stitch on each side.

I'm linking this post with Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching link up party. It's been a while since I last linked up or visited to see what everyone has been stitching. I have no idea why I stopped linking up and I miss the pleasure of enjoying the slow stitching eye candy. Everyone does such beautiful work. I wonder how much of this tablecloth will get finished during June if I spend my slow Sunday stitching time working on it? I'll find out at the end of the month.

Take care

Lyndsey

may round up

Gracious me, where did May go?  It really has whizzed by so quickly. Before I start the new month I like to spend a little time thinking about what happened during the month, what went well and what, not so well. 

Let's start with the thing that made me very happy over the month. This has to be the weather. May has been very warm in London and I have enjoyed spending time in our small garden, knitting, stitching, reading or just enjoying listening to the sounds of the birds and the gently buzz of the bees. 

The Chookshed challenge for May was my Star Trek cross stitch. I have made progress on this but not as much as I would have liked. I can't complain as I often prioritised other projects over this one. This is for my son and he knows it will take a long time to be completed and he is happy about that. Unfortunately I went off cross stitch after completing my millennium sampler. The good news is that I am starting to enjoy stitching it, so it should move along more quickly in future.

Early in the month I started a scrappy quilt as part of my 'use what you have, scrap management challenge'.  I finished this donation quilt on the 30 May.

I made some decisions about the Japanese quilt and made a start on it. I'm currently planning the sashiko designs I will be adding. Today I was testing which system to use to mark the pattern I want to stitch onto the fabric. I'll tell you more next month when I work on this project again.

I've almost finished the second sleeve of my pink cardigan but haven't taken a photo. I also started to think about and plan out a quilt for my brother for Christmas. I know the colours and the blocks I want to make but I need to think about the fabric.

Yesterday evening I managed to finish connecting all 10 rows of squares together for the crocheted blanket. I now need to join them going in the other direction. I will then have loads of ends to sew in before I add a border all the way round.

Over the month we had several outings which were fun. Terry and Yvonne's 60th wedding anniversary.

  

A visit to the London Transport Museum.

A visit to Liberty of London for their 150 anniversary exhibition. Here we saw the large house made out of 1000 quilt blocks.

The trip to Barnes wetland centre where we saw the Canada goose family. They were very attentive parents.

My surgery wounds are healing well ( some are completely healed already.) My brain is less foggy and I'm nowhere near as tired as I was at the beginning of May. I'm looking forward to returning to work on Monday but with a little trepidation as I will be driving there and back as well as no nap during the day. 

For now I need to find out what number was chosen for the Chookshed challenge for June and check what that means I will be working on. Then I'll head to bed and maybe read a little before I go to sleep.

Take care

Lyndsey

Finished, not finished.

As we near the end of the week and month I have been trying to finish some of my projects or at least to ensure I have moved them forward. I have no problem with having lots of projects in progress but they all need to move forward over time. On the 11 May I shared a photo of a quilt top I had made from my scraps. This has since been quilted with diagonal lines using the walking foot. Today I finished sewing on the binding.

All the fabric in this quilt is from my scraps bins or stash. The quilt is a donation quilt for Little Village, a children's charity, which has a branch in my local area.

Not finished, is my crocheted blanket. I haven't got any further with this since I posted earlier this month. I have joined four rows so far but once all 10 rows are attached I will need to join the squares going across. Normally I would have worked on this whilst we watched a film but instead I sat and gave the film my full attention. This should be a finish by next week.

Also not a finish is the second sleeve of my cardigan. I am about half way up the sleeve. My plan was to finish this cardigan by the end of May but that will not happen as once the sleeve is complete and all the pieces sewn together I still have to knit the front edge.

I'm linking this post with Alycia Quilts - Quiltygirl for her Finished or not finished Friday link up. Now what shall I work on for the rest of the afternoon?

Take care

Lyndsey

Thomas, plus the Japanese quilt.

Last Sunday our Grandson was 3 and for his birthday my son paid for tickets for the family (all 7 of us) to go to Buckinghamshire Railway Centre to see Thomas. Our grandson is totally obsessed with trains and for his previous 2 birthdays my son has bought a set of the little railway stories by Rev Wilbert Awdry, and a brio railway set. If you know the little railway stories you will know that they are about Thomas, the tank engine and his friends on the railway. The railway centre had a special event on Sunday and Monday aimed at younger children and Thomas was going to be there. Grandson was very excited! it was decided we would take a picnic, so older daughter organised that and told us what she needed us to take. She provided the birthday cake. The journey there was good and we arrived within 10 minutes of each other.

The only photo I took of Thomas had Sir Topham Hatt in front of it. He really looked like The Fat Controller in the books.

We all enjoyed a ride behind Thomas. Grandson thought it was great fun.

Percy the small engine was also at the event and we had to travel on his train. At this event you paid for the admission tickets and then all rides were free and you could go on as often as you liked. Always good when you have a train obsessed child with you. There was A lovely old bus to explore. I remember travelling on one like this.

Trevor the tractor was also there. Trevor from the original stories is a traction engine. There was also a traction engine giving rides.

The railway centre is a heritage centre and so to walk to the miniature railways you had to walk past a lot of old trains. Many of these were very interesting to the older members of the party.

The walk to the miniature railway was well worth it and we all enjoyed the ride on the train. The route it took was much longer than expected and included a bridge and a tunnel and a lot of things to spot along the way. 

It was a fun day and son and grandson  happily headed back to the car park having spent a lot of time watching the G scale trains.

The journey home was quite quick and uneventful. We were told that little one was fast asleep in his car seat within minutes of leaving the centre. 

On Monday I had a sewing day. I thought I would get more done than I did but this is because the maths got in the way. I decided to work on the Japanese quilt. This was the starting point.

By the end of the day I had increased the size of the quilt. I wanted to keep the quilt square but with the pieces I am using that was impossible unless I rearranged my ideas. That made my brain ache so I continued as I'd planned. 

Now I need to go through my stash to find some fabric for the next round. If possible I don't want to buy any new fabric. So far I am happy with how this is progressing.

Take care

Lyndsey

A little sewing, knitting, bird watching.

Over the last few days I've been doing a little of everything... and at times doing nothing. over my life I have come to realise the importance of being busy but also of slowing down and at times stopping. Recently I've been enjoying spending time sitting in the garden. Usually I take some knitting or sewing with me but sometimes I just like to sit, sometimes close my eyes and to feel the warmth of the sun on my skin, to listen to the birds and the gentle hum of the bees, to breathe in and smell the scent from the roses. Due to the fabulous weather we have had in London over the last few weeks I have enjoyed these simple pleasures often. I'm due to go back to work at the beginning of June and between now and then I need to set up some systems to ensure I allow myself these pleasures. It is unfortunately so easy to let work take over time in your life that it has no right to. My other pleasure over my sick leave has been having time to work on my projects and finish some of them.

So what have I been working on recently? I've been playing with the design of the Japanese quilt. I have plotted out on squared paper how I want it to look and it will finish at 60 x 60 inches.  I started with the sashiko block I had already sewn and gave it a border. I need to press this block.

From here I did a lot of measuring (and scratching of my head) to decide how to place the blocks from the panels, the sashiko I plan to do and also considered whether to make some fan blocks to include in the quilt. The ideas just kept on jumping into my brain and so I made a cup of tea and retired to the garden to quieten my over excited brain. Over a cup of tea I remembered I needed to buy some more sashiko fabric. That was easy and it will be delivered on Tuesday. I had decided to make the quilt as a medallion quilt with the sashiko block as the medallion in the middle. The next round will include some of the Japanese panel blocks and sashiko blocks. I have already chosen the patterns I will use. I made detailed notes of the ideas in my quilters planning notebook. Unfortunately if I don't write it out or do a sketch of my ideas I will forget them and have to start all over a again.

I haven't done any knitting for a while so I cast on the second sleeve of my cardigan and made a start. A slow start I have to say but this will be quick to do. I also got out all the crocheted squares I hadn't used in the blanket I made recently. I had 102 squares so I sorted them into a 10 by 10 square and fasten each row together in the order I wanted. This time I am joining the squares with yellow yarn. 4 rows attached the one way so far. I hope to finish this by the end of the week.

On Friday John and I went bird watching at Barnes Wetland centre, The centre is well used and there was a primary school group in enjoying pond dipping and other activities. As we walked to the entrance past the Peter Scott statue I spotted a swan settled nearby.

I only had my phone with me so I knew any photos I took would be of the flowers. I loved the poppies in the slate garden. 

Walking between hides there were several water iris flowering.

I think this flower is a southern marsh orchid.

On the lagoons several water lilies were almost open.

At the feeders for the small birds a squirrel was perched on the roof.

Whilst in the water nearby  a mother coot and chick were busy.

My favourite photos of the day were of the Canada goose family.

It was a good birdwatching trip with us spotting 43 different species of birds. I really enjoyed this outing as I hadn't been to Barnes for several months.

Today (Monday) I want to do some more quilting on the dinosaur quilt. This is going rather slowly as it is a big and heavy quilt.

Take care

Lyndsey

A visit to Liberty of London.

On Monday, John and I went on an adventure to Liberty of London. The history of Liberty from the internet tells me that in 1875 Arthur Lasenby Liberty borrowed £2000 from his future father in law and took a building on Regent Street London to set up an emporium that would be filled with luxuries and fabrics from distant lands. I'm so pleased he did as it is an amazing treasure trove (especially the fabrics). I didn't take a photo of the outside of the shop because I know I have one somewhere. The outside is so beautiful so I'll post the photo when I find it.  The reason for our visit to Liberty was to see their textile exhibition to celebrate their 150 years anniversary. John had never visited Liberty before and was amazed by how much was crammed into the space and the beauty that this created.

Over it's 150 years Liberty has been intwined with fabric, design, printing and selling the creations. In the run up to their anniversary they worked with their makers, designers from across the globe to create a supersized patchwork house. The house is made up of 1000 blocks and is on display from May to July this year. I took a photo of the house from above.

I took this photo level with the roof. I'm planning on visiting again before July so I can get more photos. 

The artwork below is a 1850's design for a painted shawl design.

another design from the same era.

Again another design from the same era. I love this design.

The following photos are of some of the fabrics and designs on display. I just love the vibrant colours.

Having spent a lot of time enjoying the exhibition I needed to stroke some fabric so I headed to the Tana Lawn. This fabric was developed by Liberty in the 1930's and its name comes from Lake Tana in Ethiopia. This is where the high quality cotton with long staple fibres used in this fabric originated. I love the feel of this fabric and it is also very durable and comes in really vibrant colours. This fabric also drapes very well and feels beautiful to wear. I saw several designed I liked but I had left my fabric notebook at home which helpfully tells me fabric requirements for my favourite blouse and dress patterns. Not a problem since the shop is just a tube (underground) journey away from where I live.

I really enjoyed our day out. I now need to plan in some dressmaking time and another trip to Liberty to buy the fabric I'll need. 

Take care

Lyndsey

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Feeling tired but happy.

All this week I've been feeling tired but I know the reason. The trip to my Aunt and Uncle's 60 wedding anniversary involved quite a lot of driving over the three days. Whilst car seats are comfortable, they aren't brilliant for someone recovering from surgery. This week I have also been trying to get myself back into my usual routine. That includes trying to be up and about as if I was going to work. I managed that for two days! As a result I needed to rest more. More rest involves gentle walking but also more sitting and stitching. Stitching of any kind makes me very happy.

Over the week I made the quilt sandwich for the scrappy quilt below and I quilted it with diagonal lines. Nice and neat and easy. This morning I have added the binding and so this quilt needs the binding hand stitched down to the back. I will make a start on this later today.

During the week I also revisited the Japanese panel that I want to turn into a quilt. I started by cutting the panel into blocks. 

I also hunted through my stash to find any fabrics that could possibly be used when creating the quilt.

I have dark navy fabric for the sashiko and I also found this fabric which could be useful for the backing but I'm not completely sure. There is reasonable yardage of this.

I've been working on the Star Trek cross stitch but I don't have a photo at the moment. I  may well leave posting a photo until the end of the month. 

I was looking through my photos and found some from a trip that John and I made to the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden. I can't remember when it was but the visit was interesting. This is a fun visit for the whole family. As the name suggests it tells the history of transport in London, so the underground, overground and buses.

The photo below is of the B type bus. This was the first mass produced bus for London. At the start of the First world War in 1914 they were commandeered for  the war effort with over 1000 being sent to Europe. Once there, they were used as troop carriers, ambulances and lorries.

This model shows the transport system above ground and the development of the underground.

Original buses were horse drawn. Many of the exhibits you can go inside and try the seats. A lot of the seats had limited padding and I wouldn't fancy riding the bus for any distance.

The omnibus below had quite comfortable seats compared with many but was quite small inside.

I took a photo of this one because it was so bright and cheerful. The bus had moved on from horse drawn. 

A model of the omnibus I showed earlier.

I loved these old style buses. You got on the bus at the back, no door, just a platform. Why did I like them? If the bus was moving away from the stop you could still jump on or if they were stopped at traffic lights or in a traffic jam. The 37 route is still running.

I hope you are all having a good weekend. I'm now going to get on with some cross stitch for the afternoon. The sun has finally come out and I think I'll sit and sew in the garden.

Take care

Lyndsey