Rain, Rain, Rain!

It's raining again!  Apparently we in the UK have had the wettest January since records began in 1910!  Looks like it might be a good weekend for finishing some of those rainbow scrap challenge blocks!

Winchester Cathedral

 Today we visited Winchester.  It's only about 30 miles from where we live but we have never stopped off here before!  Our main reason (apart from to have lunch out of course) was to visit the cities Cathedral.

It started off as a small Saxon church and has had bits added to it over 15 centuries.

 The Great Nave has its chairs removed at this time of year so that visitors can see how the Cathedral would have looked in earlier times.  Its absolutely vast and I personally like the colourful batik banners that line it.  Apparently not everyone does ~ some say it detracts from its vast ceiling.  But your eye can't help but be drawn upwards, so I disagree (and of course I am a fan of batik!)

 A close up of one of the banners.

In the Cathedral Library we saw the Winchester Bible (actually there are four bibles).  It is the largest surviving 12th Century English bibles.  It was commissioned by the grandson of William the Conqueror and the writing was done by a single scribe and the illuminated initials on each page were done by artists.  And each page and drawing still glow with beautiful colours and gold leaf.  Every word throughout the bible can still be read (if you read Latin that is).  They are truly works of art and what takes the breath away is they are over 800 years old!

Every year when we get heavy rain the crypt floods so we couldn't go down there.  But this is a picture (taken of a postcard) showing the statue 'Sound II' by Anthony Gormley.  The statue looks as if its floating on the water and I love the reflection.

Jane Austin is also buried here, so there are lots of reasons to visit and somewhere I know we will return to!

Slow Sunday Stitching!

I couldn't decide where to go last week with my felt piece so I got my Embroidery stitch book off the shelf and started working my way through the stitches that took my fancy (so it has become a bit of a sampler piece!)  Included here are fly stitch, open fishbone stitch, feather stitch, french and bullion knots and algerian eye stitch!  Who would have thought I could do all those stitches?

It was rather enjoyable so I've decided to link up to 'Slow Sunday Stitching' which you can find here and see how others have been spending their Sunday!

Fish

Although he's not quite finished yet I thought I would post some pictures.  I'm can't decide if he should have a binding and be hung on the wall or whether I want to put him in a frame?  If he goes in a standard size frame and mount he will have to have another small boarder added!

I've added a couple of pics showing some detail of the fabulous fabric 

and not so fabulous but reasonable quilting! 

The reverse shows the quilting better (not a particularly good photo 

but it gives an idea of how much effort went into it!!)

On the whole I think I love him!

Felting and embroidery

 I haven't done any wet flat felting for ages and over the weekend I thought I would have another go.

I quite enjoy the process of making felt ~ rubbing and rolling it to within an inch of its life!

Both pieces are small, about 5 or 6 inches square. And I'm not sure what flower the first piece is supposed to represent but I'll put it away and think about it.  But the 2nd piece I want to try some embroidery stitches out on.

I gathered together some likely embroidery floss and fancy bits of thread, beads and silk cones, put Calamity Jane on the DVD (always a good film to watch on a Sunday afternoon) and set to work!

Unfortunately my idea of free and easy embroidery fell short ~ I just didn't know what stitches to use or where......so its back to the drawing board (or at least dig out my book of stitches to get some inspiration)!

Hopefully I'll have something better to show next week!!

Ive added a new button on the sidebar so you can see what other people are hand stitching on a Sunday or you can go here

Rainbow Scrap Challenge and flat packs!

I managed to get some Bonnie Hunter houses and catch up on a couple of last years missed colours completed for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (January is blue!).  You can see what Angela and the other Rainbow scrappers have been up to for the week here.

We went into Southampton Ikea today to look for something to put DH's new electric guitar amplifier on (yes apparently it does need its own piece of furniture).  He's happily assembling a flat pack ~ and no swear words at all!  Although to be fair Ikea flat packs go together really easily!  I went with him on the condition I could pop into Fabricland, where I bought some purple fleece to back some Project Linus quilts and some different coloured net to use on more fish!

Origami bags

I've completed the little origami bags started last year!  Yay, another finish for 2014 ~ I'm on a roll now! These are so cute (about 13" long) and I've used some of my very favourite fabrics. I will probably fill them with something nice and give them to my girlfriends for their Birthdays (I don't think they look at my Blog as non of them sew).

I'm also on a quest to complete my 2013 Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.  Hopefully I will have something to show on Saturday!

The Maltings

Yesterday was the Maltings at Farnham.  Faye and I go every year and it's always a good day out.  We have a mooch around the sales tables (you wouldn't think I would need any more fabric after my holiday in America!), we had lunch and admired the quilts from various local quilt groups!  I did of course purchase several fat quarters - I'm doing a class in February  ~ a converging quilt which I want to use the Batiks for and two metres of the brown paisley fabric to make a skirt for the summer. The  sheep fabric I just couldn't resist and some of the other fabric I bought with fish in mind!    It was a really nice day!                                                                                                                                  
 

Textile brown paper book cover

Monday was the first textile class of 2014!  We made brown paper book covers.  I've done something similar in a different class, but what I liked about this one was the painted zips, press studs and hooks!

Here's my wax crayoned brown paper, scrunched and ready to bondaweb to the felt and some bits of vilene I've painted for a previous project and bits of metal..  It wasn't until I got home I realised the last brown paper cover I did was in exactly the same colour scheme!

I decided I was going to give this cover to a girlfriend whose birthday it is soon, which meant I had to get it done super quick!

I have a horrible feeling though it isn't quite snug enough on the book, and if the paper stretches at all it will definitely be too big. Still its wrapped in pretty paper and waiting to be given to her!

Its rather nice to have a finish so early in the year!  It made me review my To Do list.  There are quite a few items on the list that I have no interest in finishing and some were done at class just to try a technique out.  So I am going to take them off the list and concentrate on finishing some of the quilt tops with the aim of completing something at least once a month.  So watch this space!

RSC 14 and Fish

Angela is hosting the Rainbow scrap challenge 2014 again this year (you can hop over using the button on the sidebar to see what everyone is up too!)  January is blue, but as an added incentive she is giving us little 6 inch block challenges each week ~ I'm already two weeks behind but I have managed to do three roman stripe blocks (maybe I should try and do one block a week rather than the three or four I've set myself)

I did spend quite a bit of time cutting up some blue fabric to carry on making Bonnie Hunters little houses with ~ just need some time to sew them together but think I might use them as a leader and ender project?  I did however spend some time contemplating what colour to use behind my fish.  I think this is the one I'm going for!

We did manage to get out for a walk yesterday.  The south of England has been battered by some terrible storms over the last few days (America hasn't fared much better I know), what with the high winds and excessive high tides, lots of people have been flooded (again!)  We are ten minutes walk from the coast and even that short distance has made life bearable for us, although we have a huge tree in the front garden that now needs some urgent assistance from a tree surgeon ~ not sure how easy that will be because I'm sure lots of trees have been damaged and need attention.

I've never seen the tide completely covering the beach before (no wonder the cliff is being eroded away!) These pictures only give you a slight indication of how rough the sea was. But the noise of the waves crashing onto the beach and moving the shingle around was ferocious!  Lets hope calmer weather is on the way!