what is on my bedside table?

or rather - what is on my garden table? (as I have been spending quite a lot of time outside this weekend).

"SIMPLY MODERNE" -  this is a brand new magazine being published by Quiltmania, to mirror their "Simply Vintage".

I have also been told that this is to replace their "Special" issues.

Whichever is the case, I like this new issue very much, it is a place to show new ideas in quilts.

But of course, I am bias, Quiltmania magazines are my favourite; I like them all.

And yes, I have found something in there which has already gone on my "must do" list!

You can browse through a part of the magazine on their website .

This is not so new book, in fact first published some 15 years ago.The author is new to me and I have only just started reading it, so no recommendations, yet.

But I like the dedication by the author; I quote:

"For my beloved grandparents, Maria and Lev Handler, who have lived through

World War I, the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War,

 who have lived through World War II, 

the siege of Leningrad and evacuation, 

through famine and purges, through Lenin and Stalin, 

and in the golden twilight of their lives, through twenty non-air-conditioned summers of New York.

God bless you."

I will let you know....

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2015

FNwF

Another month gone and here we were, first Friday in August.

Thank you Cheryll for hosting yet another FNwF, and even providing a delicious apricot cake!

What was I making? I just could not wait, I was already sewing in the afternoon; it was a good start to a wonderful weekend , 

very pleasant "stitching in the garden" weather.

I started working on 3rd block of Mrs Beasley's Mystery Sampler quilt, and by the evening I had the applique flowers in place on one part of the block.

And last night I was putting together dresden plate for another part of the block.

Today I carried on piecing together the block and then I spent another relaxing afternoon in the garden; I started working on the embroidery part, before it was time for BBQ.

Lets hope we have another nice day tomorrow, it really feels like summer at last!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2015

this week

We are having a wonderful sunny day today, but what a week it was until yesterday! Cold, rain, cold; the weather people even mentioned the word "frost" more than once! We even put our heating on last Friday and there is an extra quilt on our bed - plenty of those in our house :-).

It was the kind of weather you just want to turn to "comfort" food. I made some bread, new to me, Portuguese Broa bread.  

Not "stitching in the garden" weather by any stretch of imagination, but I am working on another block on my indigo quilt.

I have now stitched on the four embroideries from Afghanistan Initiative, see my post here .

I will be adding even more international flavour to this quilt.
This week arrived my order of two embroideries from Tambani - South African project, about which I wrote before here .
The embroideries are made by Venda women in north of South Africa; it is a way of not only preserving their folk tales, but also earning an extra income to help their families.
You can read all about Tambani here .

I look forward to adding these two stories to my quilt.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2015

just a glimpse of the garden

It has been quite typical English summer week; we had both sun and rain, temperatures quite pleasant, 20 - 24°C. We had quite a bit of rain earlier in the week, welcomed for the garden, but it also did some damage to the flowers.

It was very good for the mini cucumbers I planted in my small herb patch,

but what happened here?  

I found 13 of these little fellows on this one pelargonium having a feast.

 

But the rest of the garden is doing fine, the rain has done it good.

in the front garden the new lavender hedge is doing great

but the rain destroyed some of the rose blossoms

lots of colour in the porch; it can get very hot in here

lots of colour inside too

and hoya seems to be very happy in the kitchen

have a good week stitching!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2015

Wolf Hall at Barrington Court

A perfect summer day for visiting Barrington Court in Somerset (NT property).

The house is empty of any furniture and so it is ideal for staging various exhibitions and Christmas Fair.

Currently you can find few costumes on show here, from BBC historical drama Wolf Hall, some of it which was filmed at Barrington Court.

Yes, you have been here with me on my previous visits; this is probably my favourite of all NT properties in the area.

and few more pictures from the house and the gardens (originally designed with the help of  Getrude Jekyll )

a quick stop in the Barrington Patchwork shop for some threads and couple of fat qtrs,

buy few new plants for the garden in the NT shop

and finish with some refreshments on the terrace - perfect day out 

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2015