Sewing blocks

Having taken Missy and Twiglet out for their morning walk, and I'd tidied the kitchen after breakfast it was time to do a little sewing. Yesterday I cut out another block for the frog quilt, appropriately nammed Hopping block.

Before I started to sew these blocks together I decided to cut out another pair of blocks. That way I would have the pair of blocks ready to sew in the week in case I had time. This time the block has a lot of triangles in the mix. These blocks involved 4 shades of green and by the time I finished the cutting out I was feeling a little weary. This block is named Leap Frog block.

Having cut out the next two blocks I got on with making the hopping block. I tend to chain piece starting with the larger blcok and then the pieces for the smaller block. I know I was tired when I cut the pieces for this block but I was a little annoyed with myself when I realised I'd cut two pieces incorrectly. Fortunately I had enough fabric to recut the pieces. Having made up the block I am very happy with how they turned out. These are really pretty blocks.

I decided to put the pieces for the Leap frog block away to make up another day. I still have two more blocks, one of each size to cut and then I can sew the quilt together.

Having finished sewing for the day I went out to the garden. I had some seedlings I needed to pot into larger pots, hollyhocks and foxgloves. The seedlings just need to be a bit bigger before they are planted into the graden. John and I also did some tidying, starting with cutting back some ivy that had come through the fence from next door. I don't want the ivy to take over areas of the garden so it needed cutting back. There were also roses needing dead heading and we found a few strawberries already ripe and juicy on the strawberry plants. We quickly shared the strawberries, mmm delicious.

This evening I had intended to do some goldwork but I was feeling quite tired so I put it to one side. I'd done a little embroidery on the tablecloth this morning and didn't feel like picking it up again so instead I read a couple of chapters of the book I'm reading. I need to check the authors name and the title before II add it to the post. It's by an author I've never read before. I like the style its written in andI'm enjoying it.

Tomorrow Is a work day but I have no meetings to worry about, so I can catch up with my preparations for the new intake due to start in September. This coming week is busy with student assessments and I have a cardiology appointment. I'm hoping that will be fine. 

Take care

Lyndsey

 

Friday Fun

If you have been visiting for a while you'll know that I work four days a week, Monday to Thursday and that Friday is my fun day, my catch up on projects day. I had a few household chores to do, change the beds, feeding the washing machine, ironing etc, but once they were completed the day was mine to play with.

I set my machine up and pulled out some of my scrap fabrics. I had decided to sew scraps together into 8 inch squares. I wasn't going to spend a lot of time playing with the scraps but I wanted to get a few blocks made. I ended up with 4 completed blocks and several in various states of completion.

I actually found sewing the scraps together much more stressful than I thought. My brain had told me 'don't worry about being too careful of what you use, just get scraps sewn together.' I was using some of my larger scraps rather than tiny bits. I enjoyed making the red block as I loved putting pieces that had been cut at an angle into the mix. I'm happy with these finished blocks and as I said I have several in varying stages of completion. I'll do some sewing on these blocks whenever I set my machine up.

I took some time to cut the next blocks for the frog quilt. This was quite straight forward. There are two blocks of each pattern, one large and one small. This block needs tan and two different greens. I'll get these sewn together today or tomorrow.

Once these are sewn together I'll have 2 more blocks to make both with a large block and a small one. The two remaining blocks need tan and 4 different greens.These will be cut out by the end of today.

Yesterday evening I spent some time sewing on the tablecloth. John was doing some model making at the table and I joined him. It was very companiable. We were both busy with our own hobby and we hardly spoke but it was that peaceful calm. No interruptions from our two dogs or the phone.

This morning I decided I needed to do a little more work on the dollhouse. The house has a basement and I needed to add the steps from street level to the garden. I had been putting this off as I needed to cut out some wood to make it all fit properly. In the end it didn't take long to do and I'm hoping the glue is now all dry and I have a firm join.

Having sort out the steps I decided I needed to make a start on the goldwork embroidery since this is my June Chookshed challenge. Inside the pack the company have put in a sheet with some others of their designs. If I enjoy making the seahorse I'm planning on makinig one or two of the designs in my goldwork book rather than buying another kit.

There are clear instruction for making the seahorse goldwork, starting with a list of kit contents and what isn't provided. 

Before I could start I had to identify a small embroidery hoop. The instructions said to wrap the ring with masking tape to ensure the fabric doesn't slip. Tick job done. Before putting the fabric in the hoop I needed to iron the it and the lining fabric.

 

I needed to trace the seahorse outline and then stitch round the tracing to transfer it to the fabric.  This was tedious and getting the tracing paper off the stitching was even worse. I know from the only time I've done gold work before, probably about 40 plus years ago, we used the window technique to transfer the pattern to the fabric using 2H or 4H pencils.

Anyway the hoop is all ready to start stitching and I may do that later this evening. It all depends on what we decide to do, watch a film, do a jigsaw puzzle or maybe go to the pub to meet up with our friends. I hope you are having a good day and the weather is being kind to you. At present it's raining here in London so staying home and watching a film tonight sounds the best option.

Take care

Lyndsey.

Welcome to June.

Welcome to June and a little later in the month we'll be celebrating the first day of summer. Last week was very hot here in London but today was a lot cooler but still warm. Unfortunately it wasn't that warm in the office. I asked for the air con in our office to be turned down a little but it took about an hour before it felt a comfortable temperature. I dislike the first day back at work after a holiday as it seems to take a while to get back into the swing of things. Being back at work meant I had to get up earlier so I could fit walking Missy and Twiglet into the morning routine. Having walked them a little later in the morning whilst on holiday they weren't impressed with the earlier start to the day.

I was interested to find out what number was called for the chookshed challenge this month. It is number 7 and my number 7 is to try some gold work. As part of my Christmas present John bought me a gold work kit.

I did some gold work many years ago, too many to remember, and I really enjoyed learning how to do it. However that is the only time in my life I have done any and I now need to get my head back into how to work it. Fortunately I have a good book that goes through the whole process so I'll let you know how I get on.

Before I can start I need to find the right size embroidery hoop and also trace out the pattern. I'll do that tomorrow evening, tonight I just want to chill out.

I uploaded a photo of Little Moreton Hall to my last post. This is a National Trust property in Cheshire. not only is it a tudor half timbered manor house, that has a moat and a knot garden but it is deliciously wonky.

The main reason for the hall to be so wonky is said to be due to the weight of the Long Gallery on the top floor. Causes such as being built on marshy ground have been shown to be wrong. Another culpret could be the settlement of the building following the addition of the Long gallery. Wonky or not it has stood for more than 500 years.

The house was owned by the Moretons, who were a wealthy family. The family bought up significant amounts of land following the black death. The building was started by William Moreton in 1504 and was built in stages and completed a hundred years later. 

The house is built around the courtyard. One of the guides, dressed in character was happy to pose in front of the house.

The Great Hall of the building, was used for entertaining.

The bay windows had beautiful patterns created by the lead work and some of the panes had coloured glass.

The next room is the Parlour, known as the Little Parlour in surviving 17th-century documents. The Great Hall, the Parlour and  Withdrawing Room are structurally part of the original building. The wooden panelling is a later addition to the rooms and behind them the original painted panelling was discovered in 1976. The decoration consists of painted imitations of marble and inlay but also Biblical scenes, some of which were painted directly onto the plaster and others on paper that was then pasted to the wall. The paintings tell the story of Susanna and the Elders from the Apocrypha.

The chimney piece was rather fanciful with the arms of Elizabeth 1

In places in the house there was evidence of marks made by burning to ward off evil spirits. These were made with a candle or tapers. 

There is a small chapel for the family.

We climbed the spiral staircase up to the long gallery. This would have provided space to exercise on wet or bad weather days. As you can see the floor is very uneven. The far end of the long gallery had a large window,

and at the other end there was this pretty plaster work.

Just off the long gallery there was a small quiet room to one side with another large chimney piece.

We made our way down one floor to the bedroom. This had a reconstruction bed and cradle. To one side there was an indoor privy which dropped straight into the moat.

I was quite relieved when we finally made our way back downstairs. The spiral staircase and wonky steps in places were a little too precarious for my liking.

Having investigated the house, we made our way to the tea room to have coffee and cake before our drive back to London. We would have liked to have walked around the moat and garden but we needed to be home within a time frame, so this house and garden will be on our list to revisit the next time we are in the area.

The journey home was good and we didn't get too held up by the major road works as we drove around Birmingham. 

I think May has been our best month so far this year for visits and activities. We haven't got a lot booked for June but we are away one of the weekends. 

I now have half an hour before I need to head to bed so I'm going to do a little stitching on my tablecloth.

Take care

Lyndsey

May round up.

Looking back over the month I feel that May has been busy, not just at work but at home as well. I don't feel like I had as much time as usual to work on my various projects but I may be wrong. As I've got older I have found that I want to do a lot of things but I don't have as much energy as I used to have. A busy week means I don't have the energy to enjoy the weekend activities and a busy weekend has the same knock on effect on the working week. The easy answer is to retire but I really enjoy my job and a lot of evidence suggests that carrying on working after retirement age keeps you healthier. Of course it could also be the effect of the wet weather earlier in May, as it definitely effects my mood.The hot weather this week has been delightful but also tiring.

So May was a good month. John and I started the month with a visit to the William Morris Gallery for the Women in Print exhibition. Having said the weather in early May was wet, the day we visited the gallery was very hot. My favourite exhibit was the peacock dress.

My online calendar is showing that I joined a zoom meeting with Chooky from Australia and several other ladies. It was fun to hear what they were working on and what they were doing. I had an invitation to join a zoom meeting  this weekend to celebrate the Chookshed turning 14. Unfortunately I wasn't able to join as we had family committments. Ladies if you are reading this I hope you had a fun time meeting up.

On the weekend of 15th, 16th and 17th we were away in Chester. We had a full and enjoyable weekend and I still haven't shared the photos of Little Moreton Hall that we visited on the Sunday before driving back to London. Here's a photo of the outside. It was fun to visit but it really was very wonky. I'll share the full photos I took in another post.

Last weekend we went to the Buckinghamshire Railway open day, we visited Osterly House and Kew Gardens on Wednesday and today we had a family day at Kempton Waterwork Railway open day. 

Over the month I've been working on my embroidered tablecloth as my Chookshed challenge. I'm happy with the progress I've made and more to the point Ive really enjoyed working on it. My embroidery is definitely improving although there is still a lot of scope for further improvement. I think not stitching on it when I'm feeling very tired would also be helpful.

I would have liked to complete the whole side but that really was unrealistic. Having completed to the half way point of the side I'm very happy. 

I also picked up this cross stitch book mark and added quite a number of stiches to it. It's in my work bag for working on during my lunch break. 

Over the month I made some blocks for the frog quilt. There are 6 different designs and there are two sizes of each design. This month I made 6 blocks, which leaves me 6 more blocks to make in June so I can sew this quilt together.

The small block on the left hadn't been pressed so looks at an odd angle as the sides are sticking up.

Finally I wanted to make some window boxes for the dolls house. My grandson told me the house needed flowers! They're not brilliant but they do the job for now and with practice I'll make them better.

I now need to put the steps together properly. Currently the steps are just leaning against the wall and aren't even at the right angle.

Tomorrow is June 1st. This year seems to be steaming along. I now want to know what the chookshed challenge number is for June. I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

It's nearly time to rest but first I need to make sure I have everything ready for tomorrow. I especially need to check I have my swipe card with me so I can get into the building and my diary as I need to book several appointments.

Take care

Lyndsey

Making fabric and a visit.

Yesterday I was determined to finish the waterwheel  blocks for the frogs quilt. I wasn't happy with some of the seams so I unpicked most of them and resewed them  I finally got them finished and looking almost presentable. Sometimes making a block is so easy and at other times nothing seems to go right. 

I was going to make the next two blocks but there were so many pieces needed that I put the pattern away and pulled out some of my scraps. I wanted to make some fabric from the scraps. To be precise to make some 9 inch  blocks to use up the scraps and then to add sashing around each block before sewing them together into a  quilt top.

It was fun to start making these blocks but it's trickier than I thought. I'll hopefully have time to work on this tomorrow.

I had been checking through my fabric stash and found some red corduroy. I bought this some time ago with the intension of making a skirt. I found my favourite skirt pattern and got it cut out. I may even have time tomorrow to get it sewn together. The pattern requires a zip to be inserted but other than that it's just straight seams.

On Wednesday John and I visited Osterley House, a National Trust property.  The view of the front as we walked from the car park alongside the lake.

We arrived a little before the house opened but that was no problem as we both wanted a coffee and a pastry . We sat in the sun to enjoy our coffee and then we did a walk around the formal garden. This is the view of the back of the house from the meadow.

The formal gardens are off to the left of the house.  At the left corner of the house there was a fabulous area full of daisies. It bought back memories of making daisy chains as a child and also teaching my children how to make them

Before we entered the formal garden area we passed this huge oriental plane tree.

The gardeners were in the process of moving these lemon trees out of the building behind.

                     

I'm not sure what this plant is but it is  beautiful.

This giant milk thistle was fun. The area was in the process of being redesigned. These were bught into the UK as ornamental plants.

There were a lot of poppies around the area.

The main flower garden is being turned into an orchard. They no longer use the cut flowers in the house.

The house currently has an exhibition running until November 1st.  The main exhibition is 'Journeys - Global Textiles from the Karun Thakar Collection.This exhibition showcases over 70 intricately embroidered wedding shawls, baghs, and phulkaris from undivided Punjab. He has been an avid collector since childhood. His collection is internationally recognised for focussing on antique textiles and dress. It has examples from India, Japanese folk textiles, Afghanistan costume, West and North African textiles and weaving.

There were shawls in most of the open rooms. Some of the statues on display served as mannikins.  I've just picked my favourites to show you but I've also included a few things from the house. Most of the shawls will have been embroidered by women and young girls. 

I liked this mosaic table top . The pieces are so small

Some of the shawls had more embroidery than others. It's a good job I wasn't doing the embroidery as it would still be waiting to be finished.

Here's a closer look at the stitching.

I liked the animals and birds on this one.

This beautifully embroidered sofa or settee was at one end of the long gallery with a second facing it from the other end.

Here is a close up. The family who built and owned the house were said to be the third richest in the country. 

I liked the simplicity of the pattern on this shawl.

The stitching was impressive and so even.

This shawl was fun.

There were several  items in glass cases in the long gallery including this delicate ivory boat. Trying to get photos was difficult because of the lighting.

An embroidered cushion on the settee at the other end of the long gallery. The snail is fun.

I'm not sure if this is a bird or a mythical beast. Whatever it is the stitching was really good.

A tapestry chair covering.

This room was very dark to preserve the tapestry. They were made in  Paris and the tapestries covered all the walls.

I was told that this is one very expensive bed. It certainly looks impressive. There was a lot of stitched items in the room including the bed coverings 

and the drapes.

With all the intricate stitching I was vey interested to hear that the owner insisted that his daughters first embroidery had to be in the room. Unfortunately I can't remember how old she was when she made it. I love it when parents insist on having their children's work on display. It's also about family. We have art done by my father and brother and embroidery / cross stitch completed by my mother and me on the walls in our house. Here is the daughter's embroidery.

As you can see some of the fabric is not in the best shape. This is from the top part of the bed.

I liked this shawl but it would have taken a lot of time to make.

I meant to take a photo of the wrong side of the fabric to show you that it looked as beautiful as the right side.

We enjoyed the exhibition and the walk round th house and garden.  When we left Osterly we headed for Kew Garden as we wanted to see the Henry Moore sculptures that are currently on display there, but more of that another day.

This morning I did a little work on my dolls house, no photos at the moment but it's slowly all coming together. I'm about to make a late lunch and then do some more sewing. I hope you day is going well.

Take care

Lyndsey