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.