Spring Colours

I went to visit my family over the Easter weekend, and although I was busy I did have time for a little hand sewing. When I first started quilting a few years ago I ordered a swatch pack via mail order. Although I never did place a big order I kept the swatches and figured some day I would find a use. I came across them the other day while sorting out and figured it was time to find something to do with some of these little squares.
So a handful have now been used and have become a set of postcards for a 'Spring Colours' swap. It was nice to get back and do something a little more akin to traditional patchwork. Just a few squares, some simple running stitch and a few button embellishments.
I like how these turned out, something a bit prettier than the usual bright colours I like to work with.

And before I sign off for the day, I wanted to share a link to Vicki's blog. Vicki made a beautiful colour palette from one of my Brownsea photos, check it out here. :)

Watching the Rain

Pip has started to copy me in one of my favourite at home pastimes. Sitting and watching the rain. A cat after my own heart :)

Garden Postcards

Yippee!, I can cross the first thing of that huge to do list I set myself this month. Here is one of the postcards I made for a swap with 'A Garden' theme. As it was just a small swap group of three I figured I could spend a bit more time making each card, so here is my 'Daisy Lawn'. The techniques used were adapted from an article in Stitch Magazine (I was going to tell you which one and who by but I've tidied the magazine away somewhere so safe I can't find it just at the moment!) They were great fun to make.

Local Walking - Castle Combe

The last couple of weeks have been a real mixed bag round here weather wise. We've had blue skies and sunshine, grey skies and hail and everything in between (and sometimes we've had all of these on the same day!). I love the British weather you never can tell from day to day what you're going to get.

On one particularly sunny Sunday a couple of weeks ago we took a beautiful walk round and about the pretty village of Castle Combe. The village has been used as a location for several movies so if you ever get the chance to wander round it yourself it might already seem very familiar! I wish I had taken more advantage of the beautiful blue skies at the start of the walk and taken some more shots in the village.

By the time we got back at the end of the walk the sun had disappeared and it had become quite overcast. You can see what difference a couple of short hours can make by the difference in the sky in these two street scenes.

Anyway enough of the weather and on to the walking. After a stroll through Castle Combe it was time to head up and out of the village to a lovely wooded path. This actually turned out to be my favourite part of the whole walk. It was fabulous to be surrounded by these huge trees.

I just loved these spectacular tangles of roots anchoring these giants to their spot in the earthy ground.

And with the sun shining there were plenty of wonderful textures, patterns and shadows on display. Coming out of the woods we wandered past a farm with a field full of adorable piggies. This picture makes me smile. I love that one piggy has a curly tail while the other is hanging down straight.

All the wandering through wild woods and prancing with piggies is certainly thirsty work. Luckily we happened on a pub at the half way point of the walk :)

The intention was just to stop for a drink but the menu had me salivating so food was ordered too, and we got to eat outside in the sunshine what a fabulous treat for March. My lunch looked more like a work of art than a plate of food. Grilled sardines, delicious!

Thankfully there was still plenty of walking to do to wear off a few of the calories :) I fell in love with this lovely little Church of St John at Ford.

I just loved the different colours in materials used in the building and who wouldn't love this wonky looking steeple?I loved this walk, who could think of a better way to pass a lazy Sunday afternoon?

Confessions of a Shopoholic

A couple of days ago I told you a bit about my visit to Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch. I'm in confessional mode so I thought I'd show you what my money got spend on. (Sorry the photos are a bit dull, I took them after dark in the hotel room after the show.)

I love books and magazines. You can never be surrounded by too much inspiration, new ideas, and new techniques to add to the 'I will try that one day' list. Here are the ones that came home with me on this trip.

A collection of bargain bundles of buttons, ribbons and embellishments. I have to confess that not all of these were purchased at the show, some of the buttons came from 'The Works' store in Birmingham centre. Some new rubber stamps to play with. Haven't done much stamping in a while, but there are some fabulous stamp companies out there and I couldn't resist. There seems to be a 'things with wings' theme going on here :)

I've been thinking about getting a flower foot for my machine for a while, so this had to come home with me too.

As did this collection of lovely kits. Now all I have to do is find time to start them. Trouble is they are all so tempting I want to start them all at once!

And finally an assortment of fabric and threads. Now all that's left for me to do is stop chatting and get to using some of these goodies!!! :)

Postcards from Brownsea - Texture and Colour

Here is one final post from Brownsea, not much to say, just a few simple shots highlighting texture and colour. Hope you enjoy them.

Birmingham at Night

As well as visiting the Embroidery show at the NEC, I stayed overnight in the centre of Birmingham as a little treat to myself. I went to university in Birmingham so will always have a soft spot for the city as it holds so many dear memories of fun and carefree times.

I had a chance to do a little wandering after dark so here is a little snapshot of Birmingham at night.

This first one is the view from my hotel room. So it might not be the prettiest but I think the urban landscape has a beauty all of it's own.

I'm starting to enjoy the solitude in taking the odd trip here or there on my own. Travelling on my own (even to familiar places, makes me feel a lot braver than I really am too, lol, so it's a good boost for the old self confidence) the only downside I find is meal times. Here's what dinner for one looks like.I rarely visit Birmingham without it raining and this trip was no exception. Not long after I left the hotel for my wander it started tipping down. Luckily it was late night shopping so I managed to grab myself a brolly. These brave souls are doing a lot better at keeping up their umbrellas than I did!

The revamped shopping centre - The Bullring - has already become an iconic Birmingham image. Here it is all lit up in the darkness, I love all of the reflections of light in the pavement caused by the rain.

There are also some beautiful civic buildings in the town centre but I have to admit that most of my photos were really poor. The best of the bunch is this one of the town hall.

And to finish off this post a somewhat random shot taken in the hotel lift. There was just something about the simple number layout and the colours that appealed to me.

Hope you enjoyed this whistle stop tour of Birmingham at night.

Hooking

How much crochet do you have to have done before you can officially call yourself a hooker? lol Will this cut it?

As you can see I've still not been able to make much progress on the 'teach myself to crochet this year' goal, but at last I managed to pick up a hook and get started.

Look I'm so proud of my first, albeit slightly uneven, foundation chain I'm sharing not one but two pictures with you :) It's proving to be a lot trickier to pick up than I thought it might be, but having said that so far I've not devoted much time to it. I'm sure with a bit more effort and some concentration I'll get there. This is my first attempt at a row of slip stitch, again not much to show but hey it's a start, right? I WILL have a whole square to share next time crochet pops up on the blog :)

Postcards from Brownsea - Wildlife

Brownsea is a wonderful place for watching a bit of wildlife (and there are a few tamer creatures to be found too!)

On this trip I had some wild fun before even stepping on the Brownsea Ferry. This cheeky black-headed gull and a couple of others wanted to share my gourmet breakfast - a packet of mini cheddars. They hovered around for ages buoyed around in the wind, they were moving around too much for me to get an in focus mid-air shot but it was funny to watch!

A couple of Crows were hanging around on the railings at the ferry point too, although this isn't the best photo I love that he is all wind swept and ruffle feathered :)

On the island itself there are any birds and animals to be seen. Some tamer than others, there are lots of pheasants and even though this fellow had most of the raisins out of my lunch packet he still wouldn't oblige and pose for a good picture, this was the best of the bunch.

Had a bit better luck with one of the many handsome peacocks that wander the island. AM pleased that the area round his eye seems to be in good focus in this one. However, my favourite shot of the day of the peacocks would have been this next one. I really like the quirky angle, and the texture of the feathers on the top of his head. If only I'd managed to not chop the end of his beak off!

There are lots of wild birds to be seen too, and on this visit was lucky enough to see a green woodpecker, a couple of nuthatches, some of the long tailed tits that I love and also lots of seabirds including my all time favourites, the Oyster Catchers. Sadly they all stayed too far away from the little zoom on my camera to be able to get pictures. But to finish off on the birds of the island a quick snap of one of the handsome cocks crowing and possibly the scruffiest chicken in the world.

Brownsea is also home to a population of deer, and I have caught glimpses of them on a couple of the previous trips I've made to the island, but this time was lucky enough to stumble across a whole herd (this was probably because the island was so quiet on the day of the visit, not too much human traffic around disturbing them). Still they were very way and this was the closest shot I was able to get.

Even though there is lots of wildlife to see, and I've been to the island on quite a few occasions now, still the main attraction for me is the possibility that you might get the privilege of spotting a red squirrel or two. I wasn't disappointed and got to see several squirrels frolicking around in the trees :) Again it's really hard to get a picture without a good camera with zoom lens. This is my best effort. lol, not much too see I know but I couldn't post about going wild on Brownsea without a squirrel shot. This guy was so funny, if you look closely you might be able to see he has a stick in his mouth, the stick was a lot longer than he was and he was dragging it up the trunk of the tree, brilliant to watch :)

Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch

As well as my trip to Brownsea last week I also went to Birmingham for an overnight stay. The main reason for my visit was a trip to the NEC. I used to try and get to a couple of the big stitch shows every year but I haven't been for a while so I had a great time wandering round the halls, spending money I don't really have :) Hey we should all get to treat ourselves from time to time, right?

There were plenty of sellers at the show willing to tempt you to part with your hard earned pennies.

Who can resist where there are such wonderful, colourful temptations on offer? As well as plenty of shopping opportunities there were many wonderful embroideries, quilts and paper crafts on display.

As well as fashion shows to watch

And wonderful costumes from 'The Duchess' film on display.

Not to mention all the demonstrations going on at the stands, you couldn't fail to come away feeling inspired to create. So many ideas, so little time, sigh!