Friday, 7 November 2014

Busy, busy...

Just quickly saying hello, because I have been - and still am - very busy...

A lot of work has been done on the wall hanging:

a little free motion - need more practise!

lots of straight lines

the amount of quilting can best be seen from the back
Of course, then all those thread ends needed to be stitched to the back, the main disadvantage of so many stops and starts!

There also has been a LOT of time spent getting my notes organised in a presentable form for my portfolios. No pictures of that (fortunately?!)...

I also made this:

little quilt-as-you-go pouch - front - not showing true colours...

quilt-as-you-go pouch - back

the pouch was constructed in one piece
 I really enjoyed the quilt-as-you-go, but I'm thinking I will need to make more of these, because the construction could have been better... At least the recipient was happy!

Then there was some crochet, mainly in the car while waiting for boys:



I also have been gradually tweaking the blog into something that might look vaguely interesting (notice any changes? I think there's plenty more to do though). Comments and suggestions welcome, just tell me gently...

Happy sewing,
Sandra


Monday, 13 October 2014

Visiting

Having a visitor you have not seen for about 20 years can be very special. Especially when you discover in the first 2 minutes (with some relief) that you can reconnect with the old feeling of friendship and camaraderie as if you have only spoken last week!
Since the weather was good, too, it was decided to be a tourist in our own country and show our visitor a couple of our local "attractions". A walk in a narrow stretch of forest along a stream to the waterfall proved to be a very good choice. The "jungle" feeling was an unusual experience for our guest, and the water is always attractive for boys and adults alike.




A visit to a proper local tourist attraction was also extremely successful, and the sunny weather helped a lot:
Yes, this is Blarney Castle

We had not visited in a long time, and enjoyed it more than we had expected. Of course, several tour buses had just emptied, so the castle itself was quite crowded, but the grounds are large and lovely and much less busy. After the castle the boys enjoyed reading about plant dangers in the Poison Garden:

This beautiful Ricinus was one of many poisonous plants

patterns can be found anywhere...

And there were some wonderful trees:


Even though the weather has been very good this year, we found wonderful signs of Autumn being well on it's way:




Sun and red oak leaves - pure gold in my view!
And no, I did not bend backwards (literally! My back would never be the same again, I think) to kiss the stone, though I did see others do so. Missed my chance to become eloquent I suppose, though I am pretty pleased to have produced another post here for someone to enjoy...

Sandra

Monday, 29 September 2014

An autumnal walk

 On this morning's walk, autumnal mist was shrouding the views...



As usual, the mist first gets worse before it gets better:

same spot, half hour later



The dampness shows up the spider's webs well...


 ...but ruins the blackberries:


And while the fuchsias have started losing their leaves...




...they are still flowering abundantly!



Now there is work to be done, where did I put that wall hanging-in-progress...

Sandra