An odd week and a windy and wet weekend

 Last week was an odd week. I was busy at work and felt far too tired when I got home to concentrate on any of my hobbies. I even found reading tiring! I think I fell asleep in a chair every evening, which is not usual for me. The weather was all over the place, with the week ending with the first storm of the year, storm Austen closely followed by storm Boelo. We were going to Swanage for the weekend and on the storm warning it was between a yellow and amber weather warning. Since it wasn't due to hit until later in the afternoon we left early and we had a good journey.Once settled into our room we planned our weekend activities. In the evening we walked down to the town and enjoyed fish and chips whilst watching the sea from one of the shelters along the sea front. Mmmm the fish and chips were delicious. The wind was getting up and the sea was crashing onto the beach but it was beautiful and the moon was reflected in the quieter water away from the beach. On the way back to the hotel we picked up some cake and a bottle of red wine. We spent the rest of the evning chatting and reading. I had taken some embroidery with me but I just wanted to chill out.

Saturday started dry but the forcast was for heavy rain so we decided to visit the tank museum. We'd visited a year ago and our return ticket was still in date and we wanted to see the exhibits we didn't have time to see last time. The rain started as we parked the car at the museum and it was heavy!

In the world War 1 part of the exhibition I found some silk embroideried postcards. These are known as WW1 Silks. Many were made by French and Belgian civilians to earn some money. They were bought by British soldiers. The designs were often flowers or birds. The cards became treasured mementos from 'the boys over there'.

During WW1 the soldiers carried items that bought them comfort and these became known as mascots.  The mascots survived the war and the ones below were gifted to the museum.

Other mascots were live animals. My father was stationed in India ad Burmah during WW2 and they had a dog as their unit mascot.

I had to take a photo of this tank and send to my daughter. I loved that he had a face with one eye winking and his hair style is cute.

The shelves in the mockup of a local shop were rather sparse. That caused quite a bit of discussion amongst a group of ladies who had been children during the war. They spoke about rationing and the need to visit several shops as things run out quickly. Ratioing didn't end until 1954. They were also remembering patching their dresses and darning socks and jumpers to make them last longer. 

After lunch we visited the WW2 exhibition. There were some huge tanks and also stories of the men who were their crew. It was very interesting but at times very sad.

As we drove back to the hotel we had to take extra care as several trees had been blown down and there was a lot of smaller branches and leaves across the road. As always some drivers were determined to go as fast as they could. We spent a quiet evening reading and chatting.

On Sunday we wanted to visit Mottisfont in Hampshire. It had originally been an abbey but became a family estate and is now managed by the National Trust.

The property has some large trees so we kept our distance as the wind was still quite gusty.

We took a tour around the house and a brief walk around the garden. The ground was quite waterlogged so we didn't go far. Some areas were also closed as there are quite a lot of old trees on the estate.

There was also a large crocodil asleep in the bath! The children thought this was very exciting and perfect for halloween.

We enjoyed our visit but wanted to get home before the sun set. The clocks had gone back in the early hours of Sunday and so it was lighter in the morning but gets darker in the evening much earlier. The rest of our journey was good with very little hold ups and not too much rain. Our two dogs were very happy to see us.

It was a good weekend but the poor weather conditions made it stressful at times.We are supposed to be visiting my brother this coming weekend. I hope the weather is better.

Tomorrow I must get back to some sewing. I have Christmas presents I'm making and I'm getting a little behind with it.

Take care

Lyndsey

A slow sewing week but two finishes.

Last week I was able to get some sewing done. Not alot as there were several other calls on my time but enough to move several projects forward and to complete two of them. At the start of the week I spent an evening working on the Red Manor House quilt. I needed to cut some pieces for the appliques in this round. The cutting went well and I have a pile of blocks ready to sew. I had hoped to get them sewn today but I don't feel great. I think I may be getting a cold as I'm sneezing and my head hurts. I decided that I'd leave the applique until another day as I'll only make mistakes and I hate having to unpick things.

Over the week I spent a little time each evening sewing the binding onto my quilted jacket and hand sewing it down. I finished the last bit on Thursday evening. I put the jacket on the dress making form so the creases from holding it to stitch the bindinT could drop out. This jacket is so cute. The pattern is from The great British Sewing Bee,The modern Wardrobe by Juliet Uzor. The book came with a pack of the patterns for the items in the book. So far this is the only item I have made from it. I'm very happy with the jacket and I will be wearing it when John and I go to the theatre next week. 

My second finish was the blouse I had been sewing. I worked on this on Friday. In my head I thought I had very little to do on it but I needed to do the hem, hem the sleeves and do the buttonholes on the placket. It took much longer than I had thought but finally it was done. The pattern is by Sew different and the owner also designed the fabric.

In making this blouse I took my time, I made french seams as the fabric is very light. I measured carefully expecially when completing the hem and the sleeves. It fits really well. 

I haven't done very much dressmaking recently and I was worried they wouldn't fit properly or I wouldn't like them once made. I spent some time making pattern alterations so they woud fit me properly and I didn't hurry the process. I'm not in a rush to make any more clothing items for a while as I want to focus on the Red Manor House quilt and the Japanese style quilt. I am slowly making the arcs for the double wedding ring quilt as well.I decided with that quilt to make all the arcs before moving on to the next step.

Over the week I also had a small disaster when I started knitting my socks. I eventually found a sock pattern using double ended needles that made sense to me. I had decided on the size I needed to knit and the skein had already been rolled into a ball. I started one evening earlier in the week. I had knitted several rows and I put it down as dinner was ready. Unfortunately I didn't put it in my knitting bag as I intended doing some more nitting later. Enter one large yorkshire terrier named Twiglet. My knitting was on the chair and he decided to sit with it. Somehow when he got up he pulled it off the chair and then got caught up with it. Stitches were pulled off the needles and he had the yarn wrapped around his legs. I rescued him and the knitting but I need to start it again. Not a major problem but annoying. Message to self ... always put knitting away in the bag it's safer for the knitting and the dog!

Tomorrow I'm not working as I covered an open day on Saturday.  In the morning I have some work I need to get finished but in the afternoon I will get on with the appliques for the quilt blocks.

Take care

Lyndsey

At last, a sewing day.

I'd planned a sewing day for Saturday but as often happens, life got in the way. As I work 4 days I tend to use Friday's as my catch up on chores around the house. Friday was my visit to the Knit and Stitch exhibition so no chores were done, well apart from cooking. Roll round to Saturday and I had planned a sewing day but there were quite a few chores to catch up on. I won't bore you with the details as we all know the jobs that have to be done to keep life ticking over. Also Saturday wasn't as bad as I'm making out as fairly late in the day I did make a start on my sewing. It was also a good day for catching up on chores as I was home alone. No one to interrupt the work flow so I decided to go through the kitchen shelves, wipe everything down and check dates. That also gave me the chance to identify items that I needed to order, especially the additional items needed in the run up to Christmas, ready to make the Christmas cake and pudding.

Late on Saturday afternoon I made a start on the blouse as all the pieces were cut out. The fabric has a soft feel to it and it is very fine. I decided I needed to use french seams to sew it together. I took my time as I didn't want to make any mistakes and I kept returning to the pattern instructions to ensure I had fully understood them. I didn't get very far on Saturday but it gave me a good starting point for Sunday. Over the day I put the blouse together. It's not completely finished yet as I have to hem the sleeves, hem the blouse and make buttonholes and sew on the buttons. I may be able to finish the blouse over a couple of evenings so long as I'm not too tired. In my experience I make mistakes when I'm tired. It's currently on my mannakin waiting for me to finish it.

I'm very pleased with how neatly the placket went together. The pattern instructions were very clear and well written.

Today I started to add the binding to the quilted jacket. The binding has been attached to the sleeves and I will hand stitch it to the inside. The rest of the binding will take longer to do but it should be finished by the weekend.

I find the clips for quilt binding so useful. Recently, whatever I've been sewing I seem to use the binding clips.

I've found a sock pattern that makes sense to me and I'll make a start on that later this week. The skein has been rolled into a ball and looks very pretty. I found the double ended knitting needles I need. I'll probably start the socks on Thursday evening. John is out that evening so I will be able to concentrate fully until I get the hang of the pattern. Trying things you've not done before is fun but a little stressful - sometimes very stressful.

I pulled out the Red manor house quilt. The next round requires appliques so over the week I'll  cut out the fabrics and shapes I need, ready to sew at the weekend. We have an open day at work next Saturday, but I will take Monday as my day in lieu and that will be my sewing day.

The last week has been a little stressful. Both my son and daughter, who live with us, have been having a major sort out of their beongings. what they want to keep and what they want to get rid of. They have packaged up items for sale and taken items to the charity shops. It has been quite chaotic but today all is calm. The major sort out is over and all belonging are clean, tidy and where they want them. 

We have finally had some serious rain in our part of London and the garden is looking much happier.  Unfortunately it does mean the weeds will also have a growing phase but that can't be helped. I'm also noticing the morning is darker when I need to get up and by 6:30 it is dark in the evening. I'm not looking forward to driving to and from work in the dark.  At least it hasn't gone cold yet.

Take care

Lyndsey

 

Knit and stitch show

Yesterday John and I visited the Knit and Stitch show at Alexandra Palace in London. We travelled by underground and train, and then a walk up the hill to the venue. The walk isn't that long but the hill is steep and I had to make a short stop half way up to get my breath. The wind was also blowing head on which slowed progress a little. Fortunately it didn't start to rain. Once at the venue we needed coffee before we started looking at the various stands. I didn't have a shopping list for the event but I had allocated funds in case I saw any fabric or yarn I liked, and needed to take home. I had an urge to buy some yarn to knit a pair of socks. Ive never knitted any before but they would be perfect for use on winter walks.  

Having rehydrated we were both ready to look round the show. We have a system we use so we don't miss out any areas. We always walk all the way round before we buy anything so we identify the stands we want to revisit later to make purchases. This reduces the need to carry bags around with us. We met several people we knew and of course we stopped to chat. It's always fun to catch up with folks you don't see very often. The show has both fabric and yarn and a good range of embroidery patterns and floss.  Having looked round all the stands and identified the ones we wanted to go back to we headed to the restaurant for a late lunch. They always serve fish and chips on the Friday as one of the lunch options and it was well cooked and very tasty. 

After lunch we needed to make our way back to the items we wanted to buy. We stopped at a stand selling sheffield steel scissors. I wanted some new embroidery scissors as my stork scissors have been used by various members of the family for things other than embroidery. They have been dropped many times and the points have been damaged. I was very happy with this purchase and look forward to using them.

Next we visited one of the wool stands. I seen their pretty sock yarn as we walked round that morning. I wanted to buy some of her sock yarn aas it was so pretty.

I opened the skein to roll it into a ball and this photo shows off the colours better.

My final purchase was some indian block printed fabric.

I was very restrained as there were a lot of fabrics I would have liked to take home with me. However I'm currently wanting to finish the cardigan I'm knitting, to make a couple of blouses that are cut out and waiting and to finish my quilted jacket. I also have a good stock of fabrics and yarn so I can start a new project when I'm ready without needing to buy more.

Today I'm working on one of the blouses and later today I hope to get on with the quilted jacket. I have a problem in that I can't remember where I put the bias tape I bought for finishing around the edges. Hopefully by the time I'm ready to start stitching that on I'll remember where I put it.

I also want to do some work on the Red Manor House quilt. Having re-sorted my sewing cupboard I wasn't sure where it was and it took time to locate it.  The only time I can't find things in my cupboard is after I've done a good tidy up. How is it that I know where to find things when it's a mess?

Right I'm off to enjoy my sewing day,

Take care 

Lyndsey   

A slow week and a visit.

The last week was a disaster area as far as working on any of my projects. Even my carry in my handbag cross stitch project didn't get touched. It's still as it was two weeks ago.

 
Having enjoyed a quiet campus over the summer, once again it is vibrant and busy. It's more fun with all the students around but until it settles into the term time rountine it is tiring.

This month is the final month of the Chockshed challenge for 2026. I hope it's going to happen in 2027 as it really does help focus my mind to work on a project each month. My final project this year is the red manor house quilt. I haven't worked on this quilt since the early part of the year. This is an older photo showing the centre of the quilt.

This is the last round I added to the quilt. 

I also made 4 butterfly blocks for the next round but I think these blocks need to be altered as I don't think there is enough definition between the colours. There are some more appliqued blocks to make and the fabric for these has already been pulled from my stash. All I need to do is get sewing.

Tomorrow is a working day and on Friday I'm going to the Knit and Stitch exhibition at Alexandra Palace so there will be no sewing on this project until Saturday.  The Knit and Stitch exhibition is somehing I go to most years. I must check what I need by way of supplies but I don't think I need very much of anything.

Last Friday, John and I visited Blickling Hall in Norfolk to see the last part of the textile exhibition. This part of the exhibition is titled 'Journeys' and has global textiles from Karun Thakar's extensive textile collection. The textiles were in different parts of the house. As we walked up the path to the house we met Shaun the sheep. This is for their Christmas children's activity.

 

In the hallway of the house there were several lengths of fabric hanging from the ceiling. Unfortunately the hallway was quite dark to protect the fabrics and it was difficult to get a good photo.

The different rooms played host to fabric from different areas of the world. I liked this piece. There was a neat booklet telling you about the different fabrics but I can't remember where I put it so unfortunately I can't give you any more information.

I really liked these embroidered pieces, they must have taken hours and hours to complete.

The box held a piece of yellow silk that had been embroidered

Beautifully embroidered flowers and birds.

There were items of clothing in the different rooms. I loved this piece

This second dress had some information next to it.

In this room there were also some pieces of jewellry with information about it.

There were several kimonos 

It was fun seeing the fabrics and I particularly liked the embroidery. Unfortunately many of the textiles were difficult to get a good picture especially as there was low light level inside the house.

Having visited the exhibition we enjoyed a cup of tea and a cake in the cafe and I looked in the gift shop and found a book that will be perfect for my older grandson. We were going to stay with John's brother and his wife so we turned on the sat nav as we weren't sure of the best route. We enjoyed our visit with them and caught up on a lot of family chat. On Saturday afternoon we headed home to London.

I'm sad I don't have any sewing or stitching to share but I'm hoping to get back to my various projects as the new academic year settles down. Over the last week my daughter Lucy, who lives with us, has done a major sort out of all her belongings and is getting ready to redecorate her room before starting her new job. We are also redecorating and renovating some areas of the house so I shall be using my projects as a calming mechanism. Now I need to find the instructions for the red manor house quilt and make sure I know exactly where I've got to with this quilt. The sewing starts on Saturday.

Take care

Lyndsey