The Temple Visit

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Yesterday I made a visit to the London Temple. This meant a 6am start ! The sun shone and there was little traffic until I hit the M25 !! commonly called the 'car park' it lived up to its name.
I had a wonderful Temple visit and enjoyed my lunch overlooking the gardens. The drive home was not so good, as I broke down and had to be rescued by road side assistance. Home at 5.30 very tired and cold as it rained all the way home.

Traveling the Byways

Main road cuts through BYWAY

Stop for lunch by the river

Map marked with route

Meeting the Highway Man

BYWAYS closed for "Health & Safety"!

The narrow Path is a BYWAY !!

Cowslips

Another nice day out using the BYWAYS around Thrapston. Many are temporarily closed due to Health & Safety !  One BYWAY we found was almost too narrow to walk down let alone take the car.
Under the hedgerows were covered in cowslips, one of my favourite flowers.


Many British byways are sinuous, as the poet G. K. Chesterton wrote in The Rolling English Road:


The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road,
A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire . . .
A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread
The night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head

Four more May challenge items completed

The Bird House

French braid



3D Windmills




ME swap quilt










Today's "sit n Sew" at Poppy Patch was very productive. I managed to insert zips and make the backings for three cushions, pictured here with out the inserts.
Also completed hand sewing the binding down on the ME swap block quilt.

The ABC Linus quilt top was completed, but needs wadding and backing etc, before I can call it complete.  

Two wheels on my wagon!

As the old song goes, Two wheels on my wagon...

Something to do with rods and ends are being replaced.

The plan is to go off roading tomorrow, so lets hope the wheels are on and the sun shines.

I cannot stop sewing!

In the last couple of years I took part in three machine embroidery swaps. The first was a bird on a blue background, then flowers and finally butterflies.
The blocks have been stacked in a corner of my workroom as they are all different sizes and I could not decide how to put them together.

I decided just to go for it... added a 1 inch border to all of them having cut them into squares or oblongs. Next I just started sewing at random [ a hard thing for me] and making them fit by adding extra strips of fabric to fill in gaps.

Two blocks left over will be used for something else, but I am quite pleased to have it all in one piece now, and will probably put a fleece backing on it, and use as a snuggle quilt to remind myself of all the friends that made the blocks.

May Challenge #2

Another bag made. I machine embroidered the boot and hat ages ago so thought it was time to do something with them. Red is my favourite colour and I often wear red so this bag will come in very handy.
The lacemaker plaque behind the bag hangs on my garden wall and was bought on a trip to Brugge Belgium when I was organising lace tour.

May Challenge #1

Side 1



Side 2












Spent the afternoon making a little bag from two parasol machine embroidery panels I made some time ago. One side is gold the other white.
I love the design of this bag.. 11 x 14 inches.

THE loaves

My first attempt at Sour dough bread.. smells good hope it tastes good!

The MAY Challenge

3 Postcards

8 Bookmarks

Quilt

3 Cushions

2 Bags

Linus quilt

Today I am setting myself a MAY challenge. All items to be made during the month.
8 bookmarks need machining
3 cushion fronts need backing
2 bags need making
1 Linus quilt needs some work
3 Postcards need machining
1 ME exchange block need a lot of work to make into a quilt.
Total items 18 some easy some not so easy.

Thrapston / Oundle Byways Day

Start of the day

Old Roman tracks

Ruts and blossoms



Wet under foot



Even wetter !

Me driving across a field

Lunch under the trees

Welland Valley

No going into Rutland

Chris leaving a Byway

May Day saw us making a large circle of Byways and lanes around the Thrapston area. It was a wonderful sunny day and the first day many of the Byways are open. The local councils close them from October to April. We were suprised how muddy some of them were as it has been quite dry lately. We passed woods filled with Primroses and lots of Cowslips.. Spring has sprung at last.
In the air we saw Kites flying and the quiet of the countryside made a wonderful change from the pace of normal life.

Sourdough bread

Starter

sponge

Just over a week ago my friend Judith gave me a Sourdough starter, which I have been carefully looking after and feeding.
I have called it Judith as I read that you should name a starter as it takes a bit of looking after!
Last night I took it from the fridge and this morning have set the wheels in motion and mixed it to the "sponge" stage.. yes I have a whole new language to master!
It now needs leaving for a minimum of 2 hours to bubble and grow.
After my visit to Curves Gym I will have my first attempt at Sourdough bread... watch this space!

IAM day

Yesterday was our IAM day at my house.
Seven of us had a wonderful day with lots of laughs.. so many in fact that I forgot to take photos!

I managed to complete another purse and a hot pad made from Somerset patchwork. These together with another quicky gift bag complete the self impossed challenge I gave myself.

Tweets & bag

Managed to finish another draw string bag, and after a "too long" shopping spree find frames for my Bathroom Tweet machine embroidery pictures.

Today is the last day of April and I am doing well on my items I want to complete before a holiday in Mid May.

Left to do: Beads to complete one purse, Somerset patchwork hot mat. Both of which I hope to complete this week.

Setting myself a challenge certainly seems to get things done.. wonder what my next challenge will be?

Abigail's first medal

Today I am a very proud Grandma, as my eldest granddaughter Abigail [age 9] came

3rd in the British Schools Gymnastics Competition in the under 11 level 2 rope solo.

Well done Abigail.

Finishing more items

Baby quilt

Gift bag

Christmas bag

Three more items off the "to-do" list.

The lap size baby quilt was made with fabric from BSK, using the method of joining four strips together, cutting into 8 1/2 inch blocks and rotating one block on top on another sewing all around the edge and then cutting on the diagonals.. easy peasy!

The Gift bag will be used when I need to give a little gift to someone.

Christmas origami bag is made from two squares of fabric, again another easy bag, ideal for a little Christmas gift.

5 more projects completed

3 cushions

2 coin purses

I am still making progress with my 14 items to make and finish before the middle of May.
The three cushion fronts were machine embroidered some time ago. I put zips in the back and managed to get them finished yesterday. The coin purses were a new project and I just love them, used some of my special beads bought long ago to decorate the clasps.

Tadpoles

Due to the terrible weather and continued frosts, I rescued some of the frog spawn from my pond and put it in the Summer house. Now I am the mother of hundreds of tadpoles.. I love watching them.

One of 14 items to make

Verao Bag

Just finished the Verao Bag, one of my "I want to make before the middle of May" items.

It has been hard working on the black, even though I have good light in my workroom and the sun is shining.

I used a black wadding that I had but think the bag would have been better with a thinner wadding.

There are three pockets on the inside and one on the outside, the side ties can be opened to make the bag bigger.