Hello Everybody

It’s Summer and the sun is shining. Hooray!

I’ve been busy helping Husband to tidy and cut the hedges making sure we do not disturb the birds nesting. We have already had one set of robins fledged – there were three youngsters, they have bred again and are now feeding another two babies and the blackbirds had two fledglings and are now feeding their second brood. It’s like a nursery or a relay race as they dart back and forth from the food bowl when we put it out.

Well onto the sewing, I have been busy doing little bits of each of my projects on the go and have done quite a lot to Sophia Loren cross-stitch.

Secondly I have started on the Redwork Design by Mandy Shaw of Dandelion Designs. I have cut out all the pieced patterned fabric and some of the calico squares, as well as starting the first redwork stitched Month. I have rearranged the images (as suggested by Mandy) to suit my feelings with reference to the baskets. So here is the first one …..

This is January, February and March pieced blocks – all make up to 12″ finished blocks. And you can see that I placed one block wrongly (bottom right) OOPS (good job it is not sewn together).

I have ploughed through the books I mentioned back in May and have purchased some new books to read.

All read with great satisfaction.

New books are

My Heart Went Walking by Sally Hannan. (An Irish tale of love, loss and redemption.

The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis (A pair of Mysterious Books, A Doomed Romance. The Echoes of a Love that never died.

The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright by Beth Miller (An absolutely unputdownable feel-good novel about love, loss and taking chances.)

Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz (A follow on from The Magpie Murders.)

Did anyone watch The Magpie Murders on BBC1.??

Do not know any of these authors – just chancing on a good read!!

Bye for now

Thanks for stopping by.

Daisy

Hello everybody

It’s a gorgeous sunny summer day here in Blighty. I hope you have nice weather where you are situated in the world.

I have not done too much sewing on my Honey Bee (Gail Pan) Quilt. Only sewed the two sides to the centre panels. Still deliberating on the corner set up, Perhaps inspiration will come to me as I start removing the cardboard pieces.. So here is where I was last time

and here is where I am now

Actually they look the same but I can assure you in the first picture they are just laid out and sewn together in the second.

That is me so why not take a peek at the other members listed below to see how they have advanced over the last three weeks.

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, and Connie

Hello Everyone

I have managed a smaller amount of sewing this time as the Garden has taken up more time with the nice weather we are having in Old Blighty. Make hay while the sun shines as they used to say.

So here is where I was last time ……

And here is where I am now ….

So that is me- now grab a cuppa of something nice and peruse the other sites listed below as we are all working on different projects.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, 

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Cindy, MaryMargaret

Hi Everybody

Yesterday was a glorious day for gardening, my job was to cut the back hedge which is Winter Jasmine, such a lovely smell, my other favourite is Honeysuckle (liquid honey in a flower – gorgeous). What is your favourite?

Today it is drizzling with rain now (1:30pm), but it was just sun/clouds earlier so I decided to refurbish the garden ornaments. Using some Sampler pots that I purchased from the hardware store where I work and a drop of Nail Varnish for his beak. (Notice I said “his” – yes those who follow my blog will know that I’m in the habit of naming inanimate object so he is Rodney and the tortoise in the image below is Tornado (anything but a whilwind)).

Here are the before and after photos of my mornings’ work.

Before

After.

And for good measure, a rear view …

Well that is it, fun over. Now it is raining I am back to my quilting and cross stitch.

Bye for now and thanks for stopping by.

Daisy

Hello Everybody

I have been stitching small 1.1/2″ squares together for the top and bottom sections of my Honey Bee Quilt (Gail Pan fabric) and have sewn one side of the border section to the main centre piece.

This is where I was last time ….

And this is where I am now

I,ve got a little bit of a loose pleat in the top section, hoping the quilting will sort this. Maybe it is because I only put card around the edges to sew and not a complete piece covering the whole area. Fingers crossed. (Might be another learning curve). I’m also not sure what to do as the corner sections – thinking cap on!!

Well that is all for now

Thank you for reading, so grab a cuppa and peruse the other names listed below to see how the other members of this quilting group have fared over the three weekly interval.

Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, and Connie

Hello everybody

Hope you are well, and enjoying our extended Weekend again.

I have sewn a fair bit on my Modern folk Embroidery (Fruits of Plenty) by Jacob de Graaf. I have finished the central flower in the octagon on the left and started the octagon on the right hand side. Lots of counting and double checking.

Here is where I was last time

Here is where I am now

Well that is me, so why not peruse the other members listed below to see what they have been creating.

Daisy

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, 

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie, Cindy, MaryMargaret

Hello Everybody

This is going to be a bit of a mixed blog – for sewing, gardening and reading.

Where did April Go. It’s May 1st and the weather is inclement still, although I took advantage of a pleasant day on Sunday to clean the pond out. Another job ticked off the gardening to-do list.

Onto the sewing, I have finished the “Jane Austen Quilt” top, removed the paper pieces, batted and backed. Really pleased with this.

This is previous photo (as I forgot to photograph the completed quilt when I laid it out on the bed). I have absolutely no idea how I am going to quilt this yet.

I have also been beavering away at my Sophia Loren cross stitch and have made the decision not to do all the pattern. Here is a photo of where I am at the moment.

Now onto my current reading material. I really like Phiippa Gregory as an author, her writing is profound, well researched and her characters are almost tangible in their happiness, grief, life and death etc. This is a trilogy that I am reading and have completed the first book, Tidelands and now I am nearly finished the second book – Dark Tides and then onto the last book – Dawnlands.

I have also been reading “Miss Benson’s Beetle” which was a thoroughly entertaining book. Rachel Joyce is another author that I really admire and creates very believable characters. Sometimes cried, sometimes guffawed out loud. Jolly Good Read,

Well that is me, thanks for reading, take care.

Daisy

Hello Everybody

The month has whizzed by again, but I have been beavering away at my new-ish project and have sewn together the two side panels which are basically a nine patch block with a centrepiece of a hive in each one. Then the top and bottom has another image in the centre of smaller squares. I have also created the middle section, mainly a preprinted panel by Gail Pan and sewn that together with a border print section. All that is left is more little 1 1/2″ squares to create the top and bottom borders and then sew on the two strips for the side borders. That will finalise the quilt top ( a little way off at the moment). I do have some ideas for quilting the middle section but not sure about the rest.

So without further ado …

Here are some up to date pictures …

Well that is me this post but why not take a peek at what the other members of our group have been working on from the list below.

Daisy

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, and Connie

Hi Everyone

Again I have applied myself well and achieved a little bit more on “The Fruit of Plenty” cross stitch designed by Jacob De Graaf of Modern Folk Embroidery.

This is where I was

And this is my progress

This stitch-a-long is organised by Avis of Sewing Beside the Sea and we post every three weeks. So please pop along to the other sites listed below to see their progress.

Daisy

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, 

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie, Cindy, MaryMargaret

We had quite a hard winter (well one very heavy snowy week) with some of the lowest temperatures I have known. It had had a devastating effect on our garden. Lots of photos to follow.

This was the snowy week and it got to minus 18 degree C. It stayed frozen like this for 4 days and then slowly melted.

The Camelia bush has lost all of its buds and is normally the first to blossom – as you can see in a previous photo – a gorgeous pinky/red flower.

Before

These are the two main plants that didn’t survive the cold very well. The palm tree suffered the worst.

After

As you can see the palm tree has lost all of its leaves. We are hoping that it will generate a new growth somewhere on the trunk but with no leaves to photosynthesise we may have to accept it is dead. The Pieris Forest Flame is just about surviving – although it looks a poor example of it’s beautiful self. There are new shoots lower down and one growing from the old trunk so fingers crossed no more frosts.

The survivors are the Rhododendrum, the Photinia Crispy Pink, the Oak Tree, The Canadian Maple Tree and the Cherry Tree, the last three have blossom and buds. Happy Days!!

But at least we have some spring flowers.

Nothing like a cheery daffodil and I’m not sure what the white flower is and as have thrown out the packaging. Is it a Narcissi’s??

Well that is a little tour of our garden, hopefully we can tend to the damage and hope nature can perform her miracles.

Daisy