Midsummer

and it is cold, wet and windy....

The first half of June was beautiful, like summer arrived at last.

The garden was loving it, at last some sun and warmth.

The peonies were really good this year, but sadly gone over now.

 

I moved outside, did lot of reading and some sewing, 

although it was too hot most of the time to sew.

I finished all the leaves for quilt border; it was boring in the end, but I am glad I stuck with it, 

they make the border more interesting.

I already had some fabric for the backing, batik with small leave design.

So, a quick dash to MQ to buy some wadding -

and this is the bit I find most difficult, putting it all together.

This is the largest quilt I have made so far (1.80m x 1.80m), so it took some doing.

Being so large, it lends itself to hand quilting with thicker thread and larger stitches. 

As it is much colder now, I have started hand quilting already - 

it is quite nice to have it on my lap in the evening; I am using pearl cotton No16, probably in several shades.

During the warm spell my "Play Cloth" came out and I started to work on another block.

For my new followers - my Play Cloth is a small quilt I work on only in the summer, when I can stitch outside; don't ask why - it just happened and now I look forward to "stitching in the garden" weather to bring it out.

This project was inspired by work of Tiggy Rawling,

and specially one of her quilts.

The various hand dyed fabric patches came from her, and I gave myself a task of filling each one with something different.

I have also been including small embroideries from Tambani project and embroideries from Afganistan, which used to sold at craft shows.

 

Starting new block - no idea yet where this one is going,

and some of the previous ones.

I leave you with few more pictures of our small garden.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2021

Picnic time!

I thought it is best to make another post for this, I didn't want to make the previous one too long.

I must admit I don't like to read too long post on other blogs.

It is the school half term here in UK, and it has become a family tradition to have a picnic with our grandchildren at Barrington Court (NT); we "discovered" this Tudor property when the children were small, it was very safe place for them to run around and explore, including the house, which is empty of furniture. We missed out last year of course, but now we can do it. 

Although the grandchildren are teenagers now, they still enjoy the picnic. There is lots of space for it, including a large grass area right in front of the main house. 

We also always visit their second hand book shop (in the converted stables), which is now open and needless to say we came home with some books.

The house itself is not yet open and numbers of visitors still limited, so pre-booking is recommended.

Just a few pictures from the grounds:

lots of colour around in the very sheltered walled gardens.

It was so nice to spend a day with our daughter and grandchildren, it felt quite "normal".

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2021

Angels... and a lodger.....

I have been away from blogging - about a week ago the sun came out at last and it has been such treat to be outside.

There is some more colour coming through in the garden, a month late, but at last!

When we moved to this house, we planted a white lilac bush in the front garden; this year it is really wonderful and now in the sun, it has the most beautiful scent.

The buds start dusty pink and then open up into pinky white.

And this is the home of our resident hedgehog at the bottom of the garden;

he used to live next door, but last year wasps made their nest in his house and evicted him.

My husband has made him a new house in our garden 

and the hedgehog moved in at the start of the winter.

 Together with our neighbours we all made openings at the bottom of our fences, 

so he can roam from garden to garden.

And yes, some sewing too:

To avoid the monotony of applique leaves, I rescued little forgotten Awakening quilt

(which I  call now "The Funky Angels") 

and made another large block.

These angels definitivy have fashion sense of their own......

I have just finished reading this wonderful book,

author's first novel - how do they do it?

I recommend it.

Oh, I wish the Blogger stopped messing around; I tried to change my header picture - now I am stuck....

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2021