Oops I started a new project or maybe two.

I meant to be writing this post on Saturday but here I am on Monday trying to squeeze it into a quiet half hour before I head to bed. On Saturday morning we met up with older daughter, husband and their two boys for breakfast at one of our favourite cafes in Barnes. Whilst we waited for our breakfast I helped older grandson to work out a puzzle in his new puzzle book. Breakfast was delicious and it's always tastes even better when you haven't had to cook it yourself.  After breakfast we visited the wetlands center and had fun watching some birds. We visited the children's play area and grandson enjoyed playing in the mud kitchen. Whilst there we visited the white storks for their feeding time. These birds are still quite young. There are three of them but I couldn't get a photo of them all together.

There were signs that spring is on its way. This white blossom was so pretty and delicate.

The pussy willow was very soft and grandson enjoyed stroking them. At first he thought they were leaves so we had to point out the furled up leaves that hadn't yet opened.

I don't know what these berries are but I loved the colour and the white flowers were so cute.

We also found this grandson bird climbing up the giant nest. He loves being out and about and being able to climb or run.

The day was quite cold and and so we decided to head home about lunchtime. It was lovely to meet up but it wasn't the best weather to be out with a 5 week old baby.

Once home again I pulled out the pieces for the quilted jacket. The back of the jacket is black fabric but the fronts and sleeves are patchwork. I got out the wadding I had bought for the project, it's specifically made for clothing. Once the wadding was cut I was able to complete the quilting. On the patchwork I quilted in the ditch . It was then time to start putting it together.

The pattern is from the Sewing Bee book but I needed to alter bits. One of the areas is the neck line which comes up too high on me. I love the mix of the black and white squares. I will have some time to work on this project on Wednesday evening. I don't think it will be fully finished by the end of the month but it will be well on the way.

I also started another project. This is another knitting project and I love the way it is developing.  To knit it you use two balls of yarn and knit two rows from ball A and then two rows from ball B. It produces a great pattern and the colour shades change as you knit it.

It takes 8 balls to knit the cardigan. They came in a box with 4 having blue on the outside and 4 having red . As you knit the colour changes in each ball. Here's the remainder of the yarn in the box.

In addition I have almost finished the last frog stitchery and it should be completed by Saturday. I have another project I want to start which involves a stitched panel and it will makes a nice baby quilt. I need to trace the pattern out so I'm ready to start the stitching when the frogs are completed.

Take care

Lyndsey

Visit to Kew orchid festival

Over the last weekend I experienced computer problems and it has finally died. The good news is that I now have a new Think Pad. My son set it up for me and even choose a great front screen picture from my photo collection. Everything is working perfectly and it's great to use.

Winding back to last weekend, John and I visited the orchid festival at Kew Garden. Sunday was very wet and by the time we had walked to the Princess of Wales Conservatory from the car park we were rather wet. However the conservatory has ten computer controlled climate areas and it was nice and warm, and we dried off quickly. The conservatory is a complex structure of interlinked glass houses that provides 10 different climate zones. The orchids were spread across the different zones depending on the needs. This year the festival was showcasing orchids from China but there were orchids from across the world as well. In China, orchids are a sign of the coming of spring.

During the festival the Lunar New Year will occur on 17 February. The year of the snake ends  and the year of the horse will begin. I liked this snake getting ready to leave . Both me and my new grandson were born in the year of the snake. I am a water snake and he is a wood snake.

We came across a dragon, he looked very majestic.

He was surrounded by orchids.

Carp were circling over the next pond. The purple orchids were very pretty 

and this monkey was sitting keeping guard of this delicate pink orchid.

I also got diverted from orchids for this flower

and these weird flowers which looked like they had been bought back from a distant galaxy by the Enterprise. I really liked them.

Beautiful delicate flowers,

and a giant panda.

Loved the pretty faces.

The yak was fun and had a lovely woolly coat

I enjoyed the colours and the markings on the petals.

We had fun finding the various animals and also watching the joy on the children's faces when they found them.

A tiger up a tree.

At the end there was a horse ready to welcome the New Year, the year of the horse.

As we walked through I also enjoyed seeing some of cacti.

We headed to the café next for a coffee and a cake. As we left the café it was still raining and it continued for the rest of the day but it was worth getting wet for the orchid festival.

Take care

Lyndsey

A good week.

This week the weather has been a little kinder in that it hasn't rained every day and it was getting warmer, but this weekend it has gone decidedly chiller. Never mind I'm going to enjoy the sunshine whilst we've got it. As always the week has been busy but things have been moved forward.

I finished the baby blanket I was knitting. This was to use up the remaining yarn I had left over from knitted a blanket for our grandson. I decided on a basket weave pattern with a white border. The blanket finished at 27 inches square and it still needs to be blocked. This will be a donation to Little Village, a charity local to us that helps parents with young children.

I've been working on the last frog stitchery but I haven't got very far. I need to sort out some more green embroidery floss but I know I've got more in my thread boxes. I've also been hunting in my green fabrics to create the blocks to complete the quilt and looking in my scraps for green fabric for this months Rainbow scrap challenge. 

I finished the quilt top from the January rainbow scrap challenge but I need to go through my fabrics to see if I've got anything suitable for the back. This is also a donation quilt.

Having put the quilt top together I went for working at a smaller size. I painted the wooden bed I'd got in the dolls house white and then set about making a duvet and pillows. I had some small pieces of liberty tana lawn with a small print and this was perfect. I sewed it all by hand and used some light weight wadding.

Not perfect but good enough for me. I'm currently considering making a small quilt for the dolls house.

On the first day of dry weather this week, my son and I took our dogs for a long walk. We'd been sticking mainly to roads whilst it was so wet but they like to run free in a large open space. Once off the lead Missy looked for a puddle and found a lovely muddy one. She had a great time rolling in the mud and splashing water and mud around. Interestingly most of the water and mud comes off her quite quickly but she still had a bath when we got home.

As we walked the dogs we spotted a few daffodils braving the weather.

The crocuses were doing much better but they were in a more sheltered position.

I have started work on the quilted jacket but I haven't taken any photos at the moment. My grandson aided and abetted by my son had been playing with my dressmakers form and some of the measurements had been altered. I had to spend some time getting all the settings correct.  On a bigger scale I still need to make up my older daughter's dining room curtains. 

Tomorrow John and I will be going to the orchid festival at Kew Gardens. Afterwards we'll meet up with the rest of the family for a walk and lunch. I've got my fingers crossed that it will be dry and sunny. I'll tell you about the orchid festival tomorrow.

Take care

Lyndsey