Happy Mother's Day to all UK mums!

Just a quick visit from my children this morning (on the doorstep) - 

this is the second Mother's Day I could not get a hug from them, 

which just reminds, how long we have been living this alternative life.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2021

Barn Dance progress

I spent this morning "garden shopping", to brighten up the horrid day outside. We had some good days, but today is not one of them; yesterday we had our lunch outside in the sunshine. 

Not today - so little online shopping - some new garden plants will be arriving soon - girl has to get some excitement!

 After spending some quality time outside yesterday afternoon (moving few pots around), 

I was full of spring and wonderfully tired in the evening. I was happy, because most of the time I struggle to remember what day it is - they seem to be all the same, just running into each other. 

But I am sure I am not alone feeling like this, winter is bad enough without having to isolate. 

If all goes to plan, we will be allowed to meet up with our families outside at the end of this month!

These days most of my afternoons are spent sewing in front of TV. 

I have been getting on with the Barn Dance - I made two more large applique panels.

One more, and I can start working on the borders.

I binged on all 4 series of "The Last Kingdom" on Netflix, and despite the fact that I am not really into historical novels, I am now reading the first book, because as we know there is always so much more in the book. 

It is well written and I find it very easy to read, however, there is no chance I will read all 13 (yes, thirteen!) books in the series.

Well, that's me, this as exciting as it gets these days 😞

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2021

.......and it goes on.......

Still in lockdown, and since my husband's surgery last week, we are now self-isolating, which means even trips to buy food are out. Thankfully our children are looking after us.

Lots of time to sew!

Since my last post I have made a good progress on Barn Dance; 

lots of triangles and circles later - a border around the central panel (not yet trimmed).

What comes next - four large applique panels which form the next border.  

Preparation for the first one,

 and the finished panel.

I am enjoying this new quilt project, but then - I always love new starts 😉

Like in the "Manor House", I am using fabrics which are probably not "me", but the change is good - and of course I had to "go shopping", on line of course. 

The nice people at Midsomer Quilting price most of their fabrics in units of 10 cm, so if, like me, you need only small pieces for applique, that is what you can order. 

Most websites insist not only on fat qtrs, but a half of meter, which is good for a stash, but in my case totally unnecessary. 

With one eye on coming spring we have a new addition to our garden - 

we bought (mail order of course) a new plum tree to grow in a large pot. 

We planted one before, since we moved to this house, but it did not like it here.

We garden on Mendip rock (there is little depth to the soil), which is OK for most of plants in our garden, but the plum did not like it. Being inspired by  Monty Don's programs, that anything can be grown in a pot, why not? 

The quince tree we planted in the pot last year is very happy and we hope to see some fruit this year.

It is nice to plan for summer, specially on a day like today - wet and windy again, but no longer so cold.

I hope you are keeping well,

enjoy your weekend!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2021

Barn Dance at FNwF

Firstly, thank you very much to Cheryll for hosting another FNwF - 

and here we are in February.

Is it really nearly a year since this whole Covid madness started? Still in another lockdown here in UK, without any ending in sight. We are thankful for our crafting keeping us going through it.

So, what is this Barn Dance?

 No, we did not dance at Cheryll's, although the thought is quite appealing 😁, 

we all could do with a little jig!

The "Barn Dance" is a name of my new large quilt project for this year. The "Manor House" quilt is yet to be quilted, but I really need something new to get my teeth into.

I found this pattern in one of the old issues of Quiltmania magazine; designed by Robyn Fallon, it has all the elements of applique I like - needleturn applique, flowers, birds, and even pears.

I stared working on this last weekend,

and it didn't take me long to finish the centre motif.

And this where I got to on Friday night, having fun with small brown berries. That's when I realized how difficult it is to make perfect small circles which are only 1/2 inch in diametr! 

Still, I am not worried, nothing is really that perfect in the nature.

  Today I added a border, which frames the centre panel quite nicely. 

We are spending lots of time indoors of course, the weather hasn't been nice enough for long walks; January was very, very wet and there was even some of this:

At the moment it is very cold, coming the the east, it could mean more snow 😒

Last week I finished the Lockdown quilt, with very quick hand quilting. I washed it to remove all the makings.

To be honest, I just wanted to get it out of the way, before I started on the Barn Dance quilt.

But the highlight of my last week was of course my first Covid jab!

It made me slightly ill just for a short time, so I allowed myself a day in bed!!!

Enjoy your week and take care!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2021

It is nearly the end of January and I am only now writing the first post of the year.

I have absolutely no excuse, the weeks seem to fly by, but I am finding hard to get motivated. 

December was a very strange month - first the coffee machine gave up, followed by my craft iron, and the weekend before Christmas our freezer decided to give up also!

In the third lockdown now - the most difficult yet. 

During the first lockdown we had wonderful weather and we just hid away in the sanctuary of our garden. It is very different this time; it has either been too cold and mainly icy for walking, or too wet, for most of this month.

But it is not all bad news - my husband had his first dose of Covid19 vaccination last week, and has now at last got a date for his operation, which he was supposed to have last March. I had a call from our doctor's surgery yesterday, inviting me to have my vaccination next week. It is not going to make a huge difference to our lives for a long time yet, but it is a small light at the end of a very long tunnel, as they say. And the first snowdrops are out in our garden.

I have been trying to sort out my sewing room, because as we all know, thing can get our of hand very quickly; I have a terrible habit of pulling things out when looking for something, but very rarely put everything back.  And very often I get distracted by old and forgotten projects.

I am probably not alone in that.

This one is not so old - my 10" "lockdown" blocks, which I made last spring, during the first lockdown. I managed to find some fabric in my stash and at last put it all together, and yes, I am actually quilting it! It should not take long, this is not a large quilt.

It will probably be always known as the "Lockdown Quilt".

After some break I am also reading again; I just finished this lovely book by Richard Osman, his first novel. "The Thursday Murder Club" is a group of friends living in a retirement home, who get together every Thursday, to try to solve old unsolved murder cases. It's a really nice book, funny and touching - "never underestimate the power of the elderly!"                 

Am I looking for that next large applique project?       Yes, always! 😉 

I promise I will do the rounds shortly and come to check out what you have been up to!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2020