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Saturday 26 April 2014

Only a little Sewing..

It was my Birthday this week and it was such a very enjoyable day, my lovely friend at the Bee made a birthday cake and I had lots of lovely presents.

Mr M bought me a Cherry tree, that hopefully will have lots of eatable fruits on it.
When our rescue dog Bramble died, (she was 17) and she had been with us since she was three, we said we would put her ashes under a cherry tree. 

So yesterday, that is what we did. Half are under the tree and the other half we are going to spread in the strawberry patch, as Bramble used to pinch the strawberries. We always thought it was the birds till I caught her red handed (pawed) backing out of the patch with a big strawberry sticking out of her mouth. 

We have planted it quite close to the little cottage next door, which we rent out to holiday makers, so they will be able to share in its beauty.To the right hand corner of this picture is the plum tree and Gandalf's ashes are under that.


I have done a little sewing on the appliqué BOM, but I am having to pace my self as the wrist is still very painful or I should say the thumb is still painful.


The stems are done and I hope to do some of the little blue forget-me -nots today, thumb and fingers crossed.

 I must show you this beautiful yellow rose. It is called Canary Bird and is just looking wonderful at the moment. I did laugh though today as I see there are potatoes growing in that pot with the basket around it through the forget me nots. The earth came from the compost heap so they must have been in there.



And that stupid bird is building a nest again in the rose arbor, where we sit for coffee in the mornings, and making a splendid mess all over the table.


Mr M put this Robin house up outside one of my sewing room windows, so we could watch if it decided to move in. Mr Robin has not but Mrs Blue Tit is very interested in the flat above it, bringing lots of nesting materials.



And last but not least a present from one of my neighbours. Now that is so cute, and a lovely thing to do with an odd cup and saucer .


Now off to see how long the thumb holds up and how much appliqué I can get done.






Keep safe and keep stitching .....Doti....

Monday 21 April 2014

Suggestions please.

The Parsley quilt is all ready to be hand quilted. I still cannot think of a better name for it, so if any of my readers have a better name for it please comment at the end of this blog.


I like to keep hand sewing for when we are at the Bee, so I am already for Wednesday.

The last Post was called Plodding along and I now see I called another post Plodding along in February. That might tell you something about me always plodding, but I do get there in the end..

Some time was spent on the community quilt, and I must admit I had lots of fun making beach hut blocks and little boats.




The wrist is holding up well but I had to wear my splint.

On a completely different vein, I often put up pictures of the view out of our back door, well here is the said back door.


Its called a stable door and splits in half. Well this was early in the year,


this was about about three weeks ago from a slightly different angle.


 And this was yesterday leaning over the door. My pots are completely hidden, and a new crop of plants have come up. The purple/pink is Honesty, I do not plant it, the birds bring it.


Looking at the picture, I must move that pot under the table. A pair of blue tits nested in it last year and Bilbo(our border terrier) rolled it all around the garden. Moved to the safety of the top of the table they reared their young, and it is now empty. I wonder if they will come back this year?

My knitting has been unpicked and I have started all over again, no pictures to see as yet. My next job is the hand appliqué BOM, going to see how the wrist holds up.



Keep safe and keep stitching........Doti...

Thursday 17 April 2014

Plodding On.

My favourite Quilt shop as you know is Sew an So's of Bungay, so off I went on Monday feeling so much better. The order of the day was Wadding/ batting and wide backing fabric and some fabric for the outer borders for the parsley quilt. I must think of a better name for it than that..


The backing fabric was perfect, a very light grey with (would you believe it) cow parsley on it. I am going to hand quilt this quilt so the next job is to make the quilt sandwich.

I finished the Quilt Show BOM for April, E and J, and the whole thing is coming together nicely. I decided on a nice shade of Pink for my lamb, with dark maroon head and legs.


I now need to sort out the lovely Oakshot fabric for my appliqué BOM for April. When I saw the block this month there was no OMG, I just thought Oh I can do that. So I must be getting better at hand turned appliqué, no fear this month.

But more pressing, I have to get some 6in blocks of Beach Huts done for the community quilt. I saw Susie (the co-ordinator) in the hairdressers this morning and she was in Panic Mode, so it's Beach Huts and sea this afternoon...

Yesterday afternoon,I knew the full meaning of being Retired and leave you with these thoughts. Our lovely Deerhound Gladdie is in season and yesterday afternoon she curled up with me with her head on my lap, just looking for comfort. So I sat and rubbed her tummy and empathised with her. She rarely sits with me as Mr M is the love of her life. It was a lovely half hour and one I will treasure, and one I could not have done if I was still working..




Keep safe and keep stitching ........Doti.....


Saturday 12 April 2014

Where, oh where have 10 days gone.

Well, it is 10 days since I posted on my blog. Mr M and I have been quite poorly. We went down with some bug, we think while we were away or soon after. My goodness, it did lay us low. In fact other than sleep I am not sure what we did.

We are however fighting fit again(nearly). No sewing or knitting has been done, other than to unpick the alphabet blocks I did on the day we went down with the lergy, and I see my knitting will have to be  unpicked also. I went wrong on the first line of pattern above the rib. Oh well, a fresh start.

The garden however is looking good. So here is a little round up of what is flowering at the moment. We feed the birds so find lots of things self- seeded, if they want to grow there then we let them.









Not sure about these violets, they are in the crook of the down pipe and the water butt, and do not seem to be in any soil at all. "MY" they are pretty.. And the pear tree in the one above has lots of blossom this year. Though we lose most of the pears to scrumping, do we mind? Not really, both Mr M and I did it as children and it has far too many pears for us to eat.

Now to get back to some sewing, before the withdrawal symptom set in.



Keep safe and keep stitching.........Doti...

Wednesday 2 April 2014

Good to be sewing again..

Yes indeed, I am back, though not managing any hand sewing as yet. Who would have thought a sprained wrist and thumb could be so painful. I have given the hand a complete rest, in fact I took it on holiday up to London for a long weekend and did no sewing at all.. Well it was our lovely son and daughter-in-law who took us up to London for a Mother's day weekend..

This is what greeted us on our return. Our young Plum tree full of blossoms so it looks like we shall have a good crop this year, the tree is only three years old.


My friend Jan was turning out and discarding fabric scraps, and you know me  and scraps. Well we have four more slab blocks to send to little island quilting for her wonderful project for Mexican Street children. I think she is on quilt 15 now.



I have also done this months Siblings Together 2  charity blocks. They were quite fun to make  although the first one went wrong.


No problem, I shall wad it and back it and quilt it and then send it with the others to little island quilting.

Now today, to get on with the The Quilt Show Alphabet BOM for this month, though as I am doing it in Red and Beige should my sheep in this months be Red or Beige? Watch this space, a nice fetching Pink may be the order of the day.

It feels good to be sewing again though I have not ventured anything other than straight stitching, and then only with my brace on.

I did design some nice cushions from the little drawing I put up last time, but they can wait for another day.






Keep safe and keep stitching........... Doti...