My Garden

I love my garden, I spend  a lot of time, effort and money on it, although most of my plants are grown from seed.

It was quite  a challenge

 to get it all planted up before we went on holiday and I did worry about it when we were away. in case it hadn't rained and it all dried up, but as you can see it flourished.

This is my main flower border and faces south so can get very hot and dry

The tree in the middle is a damson tree bought in 2005 from 'Woolies' and it is loaded again this year so another feast of jams and wine, which DH makes.

The little water feature called 'Gladys' works and the trickle of water is a very pleasing sound.

The other side has a small veg plot, we have had courgettes already and a few stawberries.

It's not big, but just enough for us.

The christmas tree looks as though it is growing out of the chimney!

The beans are already flowering so a nice feast is promised there!
We love sitting out in it for our morning coffee, lunch and tea breaks. We even have breakfast some mornings in the sun and loving every minute.
It is our little corner of heaven!

Chris xx

Tuscany, our holiday in Italy

We have just returned from our holiday in Tuscany. Beautiful scenery and wonderful cities.

We have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves but all the walking visiting cities was tiring.

We stayed in the hotel Vittorio in Montecatini... quite a grand hotel. Our room was good and the bed huge and fairly comfortable. The food was tasty but not spectacular but we did have some wonderful lunches in all the different places we visited, which were real Italian food to me.  

Although it had a swimming pool, I only dipped in my feet after a day of walking around!!The spectacular city of Florence was our first place to visit. Just a short train ride from Montecatini. It was so beautiful with wonderful architecture.

Siena is the city where the famous Palio horse race takes place twice a year. During this special occasion, the main square in Siena, the Piazza del Campo, is prepared for the race as the ring around the square is covered with tuff clay.

We had lunch in this piazza and the most delicous ice cream!

Of course you have to visit the famous leaning tower of Pisa.. its amazing how it stays up.

We rested our feet and jumped on the open air bus tour here and it was a lovely way to see all the city.

This amazing tower is in Lucca;every where you looked was the most beautiful buildings

And this is just one of the many little shops in San Gimignano  a very pretty little village with narrow cobbled streets rising up to a centre square. It was very, very hilly!!

Our last day was a visit to a castle, Castelo di Meleto. This castle is a favourite venue for weddings and we met the bride who was to be married there the next day

It was a spectacular place..

This where  we were shown some authentic Italtian cookery. A volunteer was asked for to roll out the home made pasta and my DH had a go. (He was the only one !!)

Not a very good photo because it was me taking it and I pressed the wrong button and took a video! But he loved doing it!!
It was a superb holiday in Italy, which we went to by train across Europe. First stop by Eurostar club class was Paris and then from there first class by TGV to Milan and then onto Florence and from there to Montecatini. The train took us through the Alps and then beautiful Tuscan scenery.
A holiday to remember...we ate an ice cream every day!!  It did however take us a day to catch up with our sleep, as on the last day we were fifteen hours travelling back from Turin,another city to see,  but all in all well worth it.

It has been nice to be home and our own bed is bliss!

Chris xx

 

WIPocalypse update

It might not show but I've done quite a bit of the beading at the top border, in the letters SUMMER and two of the motifs on the left.  I also stitched the line of back stitching around the whole design. The beads are slow, not just the stitching of them on as I like to do a cross stitch to make sure they are secure but threading the beading needle!!LOL

And for my Quakers and Quilts  I have stitched the last quilt block after a lot of frogging.. I had allowed two stitches between the blocks and only one was required... grrrrrr

But it is coming along.. and this with my Christmas ornie and various sewn pieces is my work for May.
I hope to complete Summer Celtic Lady in the not too distance future altho' I have a quilt to make before the end of August  so still a busy time.
Happy stitching all

Chris xx

A girl's dream dress!

I have been extra-ordinarily busy. Last week a phone call from my grand daughter was a request for me to sew her a dress for her prom! It had to look as near as possible to one that Hermione Granger wore for the ball in one of the Harry Potter films!! A tall order!

 So after two days of solid sewing 

I have survived and the dress looks fab! Fitted perfectly after having to adjust the waist as Saskia is a size 8 bust and a size 10 waist!! But I am really pleased with it. I still need to do some hand sewing on the lining inside the bodice and it needs to be shortened and hemmed, so I will go up to Cambridge after our holidays and get it done then. 'Madame Saskia' was well pleased but then started doing this rouching gathering a length of fabric to attach round the waist. This a quick photo which is not very good and it’s a truer red than it shows. It still has tacking round the neck and armholes holding it in place till it all ‘drops’ .I was worrying about stitching in the 18"zip as I don't have a zipper foot but I used my 1/4" foot and it looked perfect, so such a relief and that the round neckline was even! It was a nightmare to sew the georgette and the silk lining! The pleated skirt I marked and tacked carefully and it all fitted the bodice like a dream, whew!! I sewed till 8pm on tuesday and I sewed right up till we left here at 7:30 last eveing to take her back. to Cambridge. So 2 days of solid sewing except for yesterday morning I took an hour and a half out to go to my SW group and then we went into town for a Costa coffee and I had an almond and raspberry slice. I deserved it!! And it was a break for Saskia too as she sewed all the darts and straight seams and did a lot of tacking!

DD was delighted and couldn’t say thank you enough and even son in law was impressed. I added I am impressed myself!! They dashed out and bought me some flowers!! DH said, 'I knew you could do it,'  but I did have a bit of a sleepness night worrying would it look ok? I don’t like the ‘rouching’ that she wants to add but it is her dress!

The photos shows the rouching just pinned round the waist and DH's back view. It needs a hook and loop at the top of the zip too.

I am having an easy day today , although I will have to vac as the dining room is awash with cotton threads on the carpet!

Can you see the dog peeping through the stairs?? We have only just noticed her in the pic I didn't see her when I took the photo! She has to be in the act what ever we're doing!

It is a wonderful day today having got it made, it was such a head ache!

I have said to Saskia, I hope you'll wear this dress more than once??

Happy days!

Chris xx 

Angel on Duty May ornie

This is a Dimensions chart from a Booklet titled 'Country Pleasures.. and easy stitch on 28C even weave with the recommended DMC threads. I added the buttons on the stars. This will be my small for May too as it is quite a lot larger than my other christmas ornies..
I also have been sewing again....

.... and have made a sunflower fabric peg bag!! And it has been used by DH already!
Happy days

Chris xx

My latest sewing project and a change in life habits!

My latest sewing effort. It's a little dorothy drawstring bag. it was such a delight to sew, which might sound a bit silly but I just loved sewing it. I think one of these with some little makeup or shower bits would make a super christmas present. But this one is for me!

It's a nicer sage green than the picture shows and the red fabric lines the pockets and the bag.
I am so loving sewing again and I have so many things I want to do.

And now something else that I am doing....
Trying to lose weight has been a battle for me for the last few years, my latest read is this...

I have had this book for some time but never got round to reading it. I had a bit of set back the beginning of the year with the wrong thyroxin dose, but it is all stabilised now and I  am back to Slimming World. I have also decided to walk each day. I have been having acupuncture for my hip bursitis these last 4 weeks and the relief it has given me is amazing. So I feel I can now walk where as 5 weeks ago I could hardly walk from the kitchen to the lounge. It will mean less stitching and sewing time, but reading this book has brought home to me how being exessively over weight is deadly!

I am happy to follow the SW food plan and I know from experience it works but  I need to alter my every day habits. It is not going to be easy but once I get into a more healthy exercise day I know it will come naturely. I gave up  biscuits for Lent and I never ever think of them now. It seems that anything you do for 7 weeks becomes easier!

So I am giving it a go!

Hope you are happily doing what ever you like to do.

Chris xx 

Just a little patchwork quilted purse.

My latest project in patchwork and quilting is this little fan purse.

I am using it for my rotary cutters and scissors and pins.. I loved doing the fancy stitching along the seams with my Husqvava machine. Bought six years ago and only in the last two years have I used all its features. I think this design would be a very nice Christmas present for friends.

And it is a lovely way to use up small pieces of fabric. I had to go to Hobby Craft in Basildon to buy the zip and had to pay to park! What a price,  here in Billericay parking is free at weekends. So to off set the cost of parking I had to buy some other items! Just some lovely gold cord for Christmas ornies and a bundle of six denim blue pattened fabric fat quarters! Did I need the fabric?? Of course I did!!
Happy stitching all... and today we have glorious sunshine, so I will be happily gardening,
Chris xx

May Wipocalyse.. a late post.

My 'Summer' Celtic Lady is looking good and I can see a finish in the next few months.

The fabric is a dream to stitch, from Polstitches and it is so soft. Lots of beads to sew on but I think I have  nearly finished the actual stitching..

Rosewood Manor, 'Quaker and Quilts' is moving along too, although I must stitch the last 'quilt' piece by the end of May,  if I am to finish this by the end of the year.

I do like stitching this as it has definite sections so shows it growing.

However this Chatelaine Convents Herbal Garden is my nightmare!

Although it has all been enlarged because it was so small (an echart) some of the numbers which are beads are blurred. This small bit I stitched in April has been frogged and frogged, to the extent at one point I was going to throw it, as I stitched a whole section only to find when I peered at it in day light with a magnifying glass, it wasn't the stitch symbol  I thought it was but #4!!
I am sure it will be wonderful when it is finished eventually,  but it will be in my wips for a long, long time..

Apart from my stitching I did a lot of patchwork and quilting as well in April.  'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' quilt was a great success. And DH's family were very pleased with it and very complimentary.  And from that I have been asked to make other quilts! I have a couple and a bag on the go and love sewing it all. I now have an extensive stash of fabrics as well as cross stitch stuff..the colours and designs of fabrics are all so lovely I can't resist. Where  I go for my quilting work shop is an Aladdin's cave, of fabrics and wools.. just bliss to look round!

Happy Stitching and hope you're in the dry, where is all this rain coming from? I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see frogs in my garden any day now!!LOL

Chris xx

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Quilt

I have really enjoyed sewing this.. I am getting better each time I attempt a new quilt. My quarter inch seams are more accurate, and although you can't see very well I have sewn a top stitch in a zig zag pattern on the colourful part.

I planned how I was going to set out the strips and the caterpillars myself. So you could say its my own design!

And I have even sewn a label on to it. I am delighted with it..

So I hope my DH's grand daughter will like it too. It's for her first birthday, where has that year gone??
I think I have the quilting bug, its very rewarding and this is the first quilt I have made to give away!

Happy Days for what ever you're doing.
Chris xx

'Twas the Night by JBW for April.

Did you remember its IHSW and  I have spent the time finishing this JBW 'Twas the Night #3

Not a great picture but I think you can see that it is three charts all stitched together. I thought one by itself was too small for what I want it for.

Stitched on 28C antique white linen with the recommended DMC threads.its backed with red fabric and edged with red ric-rak.

So now  I have four Christmas ornies completed, I am feeling very pleased with myself.

This evening I am taking my Summer Celtic Lady out of my basket.

Happy Stitching

Chris xx