don't you just love birthdays!

They do come every year, and the number is always higher! 

It was my turn last month. 

It was a wonderful sunny day, BBQ time!

I got some new books for my bookshelf, and CD's to listen to when crafting,

but the star present was this special publication of Jane Eyre. I was given my first copy of Jane Eyre

 (in translation) by my parents when I was a teenager (yes, a long time ago!)

I am grateful to Kim for writing about this one on her blog. 

It is beautifully illustrated by Marjolein Bastin , even the textured cover is very tactile.  

There are several books in Marjolein Bastin series, it must be wonderful to have them all on a bookshelf.

There are small surprises hidden through out the book.

And I was given vouchers to spend in Midsomer Quilting shop, 

what else does a girl need?

Besides that, my crafting is on "slow" right now,

just some more small blocks for Blooming Springtime,

and Tobermory squares, which makes 28 so far.

Summer has arrived at last, although we have been having very cold nights,

not much fun for young plants in the garden.

Extra long weekend here in UK to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee ,

the weather could be better - very windy in my part of the world right now, 

but sunny, so that's something to be grateful for.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2022

FNwF

It has been a while since I joined Cheryll's group for Friday night get together.

Thank you, Cheryll,  for getting us together again!

This time I didn't do any sewing, but I did manage to crochet two more squares for Tobermory blanket.

Actually, there hasn't been any sewing going on all this week. After the winter months my tiny work room was in such a mess, some very overdue action was badly needed. 

I decided to do this properly this time, and even sort out all my craft books! I did collect too many over the years, crafts I wanted to have a go at, but never quite around to it, and unlikely I ever will.

 The only way to tackle this is to take all the books down, and then to decide which to put back on the shelves. 

I started with two book shelf units, and  managed to get it down to one! 

The charity shops in the town are very pleased about that 😀. 

This has given me enough space for a small 

"office" corner.   

 

I am not showing the rest of the room just yet, 

there is still lots to do!

If you are lucky to have a sewing room or just a corner somewhere, 

you know how quickly it can get out of control! 😉

After a very dry April we had some rain in last 10 days or so, and the garden has been soaking it up; it is getting quite green now, although we still need some colour.

There is a semi wild patch under the olive tree, which is looking quite pretty now,

with blue Camassias coming through.

The quince tree growing in the pot is covered in blossom this year,

so delicate.

I am having a go at growing strawberries in containers this year.

At last I am enjoying writing the blog again - we had new fibre broadband installed last week, what a difference! Uploading pictures is quick again, how it should be...

I wish you all a very productive crafting week!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2022

FNwF and the rest

 Thank you again to  Cheryll for getting us together for the last FNwF of this year.

Like most, I will not be sorry to see the end of this year, and hopefully we will have much better time in 2021.

I had just a small project ready and managed to finish it as well - small kit by Corinne Lapierre, French Hen, part of the "12 Days of Christmas" set, which many bloggers have been making.

 

My hen looks little more skinny than the original picture, 

but I am quite happy with it, not bad for one evening's work.

My crafting seems to be dominated by crochet at the moment, and although this stack of squares is only about one 1/4 of what I need for the Tobermory blanket, I got seduced by another one of Jane Crow's designs - the Persian Tiles blanket, and on Friday afternoon I finished the first block.

 I like the "Sandalwood" version, but there hasn't been any colour breakdown published, it is available only as a kit from Mary Maxim. I prefer to use Stylecraft Life DK, which has some wool element, so I have made up my own colour combination, which is probably little brighter.

There have been many birthdays and anniversaries missed this year; 

there is a couple of our family ones we will not be able to celebrate as a family this month,

we hope to catch up on all of those next year, when we will be able to get all together at the same time.

Last month was our golden wedding anniversary - 50 years of married life, and friendship for more.

Due to the lockdown we celebrated on our own, with nice dinner and a bottle of wine.

But that morning we did get a surprise -

a truck pulled up outside and unloaded a big parcel.

     

This turnout to be new garden bench - a present from our children, who know how much time we spend in our little garden, and that our old bench was literary on the last leg.

I think I should use this as a motto of my blog!

All we need now is spring!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2020

Friday

and time for another get together at Cheryll's for FNwF.   

Thank you , Cheryll , for getting us together again!

Friday turned out a busy day; after very, very wet October at last we had a couple of lovely dry and bright days (and frosty nights) this week to tidy up the garden and get it ready for winter. By the end of the day we cut back what needed it, rake all the leaves blown in from next door's  HUGE beach tree.

This is a view from my sewing room.

We decided to re -plant one of the beds, which was full of dahlias this year; very nice they looked, but 

they took over and our garden is just too small for anything to be allowed to "take over"!

Now it has a couple of new rose bushes from David Austin and a selection of perennials, some for early spring colour. 

There is still some colour holding on, this abutilon shrub will flower until Christmas, 

may be even longer.

I love the autumn colours of the Persian Ironwood shrub, growing in the large pot just outside our kitchen window; still very young, it will get much larger .

Back inside I stitched a couple more of 3 inch log cabins, 

these will form a border around the central panel of Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt - there is a very slow progress on this one.....

In the evening I managed to make two more squares for Tobermory blanket, 

before it was time to watch more of "DNA", 

Danish crime drama - subtitled of course, so no stitching 😀

We are now in the second lockdown, so our news are full of that;

 now that our American friends have sorted themselves out, the distraction of their elections has now gone as well.

Looking forward to Christmas? May be - we are supposed to spend it at our daughter's house, but we are also slowly filling our freezer with goodies we like, in case it ends up being just two of us; need to stock up with few more books as well.

I wish you all well, have a good week!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2020

...if you go to the woods today..........

This week we took a trip to our old haunts, to the woods on the Stourhead Estate. It seems a very long time since our last visit (everything seems a long time ago at the moment).

Definite signs of a changing season, 

and we even managed to find some mushrooms for our lunch,

despite the fact they did try very hard to hide,

not a bad result in the end.

We came across a small camp someone has built,

In the middle of the forest is "The Convent", a gothic folly from around 1760, which occasionally comes up for lease - see here.

What else have I been up to? The little forgotten Awakening quilt had a little outing; it is getting rather large, so not easy to take a picture. I made another long block for it.

With the coming of chilly nights I can feel a new blanket coming on.........

specially since I came across "Tobermory" pattern by Lucia's Fig Tree.

For those who don't know, Tobermory is a place on the isle of Mull on the west coast of Scotland. It brings back memories of watching TV with my grandchildren - 

the children's TV program "Balamory" was filmed here. 

Tobermory is known for its colourful houses, and these inspired Lucia's design.

Of course there was also another Tobermory - one of the The Wombles of Wimbledon Common (little older TV program, that one I used to watch with my children...a long time ago....).

There is enough colourful wool or wool mixed yarn in my stash to start with (colours not exactly the same as the pattern, but near enough).

first three squares

I am all set for cold nights!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2020