Venturing Out

Hello Friends,

As always, I hope this finds you safe and well, wherever you are in the world.

Life jogs along well here.  Lots of time in my sewing room, and the garden when it's not raining!  

As a family, we've been reluctant to go 'out out' unless it's been necessary, but dipped our toe in the water of venturing further afield recently.  Last week we went to see my daughter and her fiancé in London, which was absolutely brilliant!  We drove down to avoid using public transport, taking with us a picnic and flask of tea for the journey!  Oh what a wonderful reunion we had with them.  As is the case for families all across the world, the parting for so long has been hard, but the coming back together again oh so sweet.

As we had the car we took a trip to Epping Forest, for a walk and a picnic lunch.  It was so lovely flopping on the warm ground for a picnic and a chat.  Why does food always taste even nicer out of doors?

We also went into the West End to do a little bit of shopping and I can honestly say I have never seen Regent Street and Oxford Street so quiet, well, not since I was a child growing up in London! We managed to get everything we needed in a short space of time then went to meet my daughter's friends and their puppy in a local park.  Daisy enjoyed playing 'chase' with her new friend, and we had a good chat and lots of laughter at the dogs' antics.

Once we were back at home, feeling ever braver, my husband and I went shopping for the first time, other than for food.  I felt quite giddy with the excitement at seeing lovely, and rather tempting, things again!  I decided to treat myself to a very pretty breakfast cup and saucer, milk jug and tray. So delicate and fun and don't the puffins and penguins just make you smile?

Two of my dear friends and I have swapped out regular cafe meet ups for long walks with a picnic and I am really enjoying it!  We live in such a beautiful part of the world and are quite spoilt for choice for places to walk from our doorsteps.  This is one of my favourite walks, up on the hills overlooking the beautiful Ribble Valley, feeling like I'm sitting on the top of the world!  

My husband and I have started to be more adventurous where we walk Daisy too, and pack up the mini flask, water, and our Ordnance Survey app, and go off exploring.  Really special.

The River Ribble

On the banks of the River Ribble

Ribble Valley

This pandemic has made us all a bit inventive, and I am pleased over the past few weeks to have spent happy hours with friends in parks, gardens, and even sat on driveways!  Going without things has been OK, but not seeing those we love, not so good.  How truly wonderful it is to reaffirm those relationships and see the smile of a friend, or hear their laughter in real life.  Priceless.

Stay safe,

Donna x 

A Quilted Wallhanging

Hello friends,

Well, I promised last time I would be back to show you my finished quilted wallhanging and here I am!  This has been my main Lockdown Quilting Project, and it kept me sane really, as I lay in bed when I couldn't sleep and plan the fabrics for the next 'house'. My daughter, who I haven't seen for months and miss like crazy, bought the pattern for me and it made me think of her as I stitched away.  The pattern is a digital machine design by Anita Goodesign.  The fabrics were all leftovers from other projects.

Here it is...

The pattern is called "The Village" and the blocks are modular, so I picked my favourites to stitch and laid them out on the bed to decide the layout and colours as I went along. 

We have hung it on wall in my daughter's bedroom here (we still call it her room despite the fact she lives in London!)  It is visible whilst climbing the stairs and I enjoy seeing it every time.  It's over a metre wide, so makes quite a statement!

I'm now back making blocks for my daughter and her fiance's wedding quilt.  I am incorporating Liberty Fabrics into it, (her favourites), and had tried out various blocks, which I then decided not to use as they were too 'busy' and I am going for a more calm, understated look, to match the decor in their home.  Never wanting to waste anything I made them into a mini sofa quilt for Daisy Dog (who isn't allowed to lie directly on the furniture).  She absolutely loves it (despite her face in this photo!) so much so I am making some more blocks, in between wedding blocks, to make a mini sofa quilt for the other room!

Stay safe, until next time,

Donna x 

All Dressed Up but Not Many Places to Go

Hello friends,

Before any hint of lockdown I had decided I needed some new summer clothes.  I have lost some weight recently (deliberately) and a lot of clothes were now too big, or a bit worn out!  Then we became confined to home, and I felt happy and comfortable in a tee shirt and my collection of Miette skirts and dressmaking fell by the wayside.  My cupboard of delicious Liberty Lawn fabrics kept calling me though so I decided to make a couple of dresses for the odd occasions I do anything more glamorous than food shopping at the moment!

I used one of my favourite patterns, New Look 6224, but a view I hadn't used before, the one with flutter sleeves.  I decided to make both dresses in the same style as the fabric was different enough to get away with it.  This also meant I could cut both out at the same time.  Clever, eh? 

I'm really pleased with how they turned out.  The sleeves are so light and fluttery, but provide a bit of coverage from either the sun (Thursday) or the wind (Saturday).  At the moment we are experiencing four seasons of weather in the space of week!

It was nice to do some dressmaking as recently I have done mostly quilting.  I have three on the go!  The quilt for our bed, the wedding quilt for my daughter and her fiance, and a quilted wallhanging.  As the wallhanging is by far the smallest, (the other two are King Size quilts) I decided to make this my project-to-finish-during-lockdown and I'm happy to say I have finished all the blocks and have started stitching them together.  It is a raw-edge applique quilt, and each block was quite labour intensive so took a while.  I'm not going to give away anything else but wait until it's completely finished and then reveal it!  

Oh, I did also make a quick project - a new peg bag!  Ours was literally hanging by a thread so I made a new one from a lovely piece of sturdy calico, which I also used for the lining. I embroidered the front with Sunbonnet Sue, which was a pattern by Anita Goodesign.  The photo isn't great as it's hanging on a white door after I'd given it a final press, but here it is anyway!

Back to joining quilt blocks now!

Take best care,

Donna x