A Peacocks Garden

There's so little change to show on my Peacocks Garden from last week (and it's what I've been doing in the garden this afternoon!) that it hardly seems worth posting about it.  But in the spirit of slow Sunday stitching I'm going too!  And with the end of August fast approaching I really want to get this month finished!

The UK is in the grips of some gorgeous hot, bank holiday weather - lets face it bank holidays are often a wash out here.  Consequently it was too hot to sit outside yesterday so I got into my sewing room to finish off the raw edge applique on Milly's cushion and start the general quilting around the animals and letters.

I am linking up to Kathy's blog so hop on over to see what others are working on today (link above) and to finish off I thought I would post a picture of Stonehenge.  We have just returned home from spending a few days in Salisbury for DH's birthday and apart from lots of lovely walking and visiting the city we squeezed in a visit here!

This and That!

Its been a busy week again with DHs brother and wife staying over for a few days.  We have had a lovely time with them but it does mean I haven't been very productive this week.  But we have been out and had some nice day trips. One place we visited was Broadlands, the home of Lord Mountbatten (assassinated back in 1979) The house is still lived in by the current Countess so we only had access to some down stairs rooms, but it is a beautiful house and we really enjoyed our visit.

Yesterday we had brunch out in Lymington, a lovely Georgian town just up the road from us.  It gave me the opportunity to pop into the fabric shop on the high street that was celebrating it's first anniversary (I can't believe it's been open a year!) where I bought this fabric to make DH a bag for life. The colours in this fabric are gorgeous and I really wish I had bought more of it because it would look great as a centre panel with maybe stars around it in mauves, reds, yellows.  I may try to get back there and buy more!

Because it was their birthday they gave every customer a little bag of goodies to say thank you for stopping by.  Those buttons are so cute and of course thread is always welcome!

I have managed to assemble more of the French hen from the 12 days of Christmas project I am making from mmmcrafts but until I get the cotton pipe cleaners I can't complete her feet ( someone from my craft group has managed to buy some so I will get them at the next class in September). I have also made a start on Augusts bit from the mystery stitch a long but as you can see very little has been done.

So that just about rounds up my week.  I am linking up to Kathys for some Slow Sunday Stitching although I won't be able to do much stitching that won't stop me enjoying what everyone else is making!

Bayeux Cockeral

 It's been a very odd week!  I've found it hard to settle to anything except my book.  I have just finished reading the latest book written by Alexander McCall Smith in the 44 Scotland Street series.  It was only published at the end of July and when the library notified me a copy was available for collection everything more or less got put on hold!  I absolutely love this series of books and being the first one to read this copy made it even more pleasurable.  So much so that I wanted to savour it and make it last as long as possible, so I rationed myself to a couple of chapters each session and then I would do something else (hence it has taken me six days to read!) This meant I had to find other things to occupy me in between reading.  Soooo I got out the kit I bought while on holiday in France last year and put in a few stem stitches here and there and made some new napkins out of some beautiful Moda fabric I've had on hold until the right project came along!

Yesterday I started doing the raw edge applique on the cushion I am making for Milly, but as that doesn't look much different from last weeks photo I won't show a picture. I managed to get quite a lot of it done due to some very inclement weather on the South coast (winds of 74 mph all day yesterday) which meant it would have been foolish to go out unless absolutely necessary!

I also entertained my brother and nephew who bought these rather gorgeous flowers with them when they visited.  Despite not having done much hand sewing this week I am still linking up with Kathy's blog for some slow Sunday stitching!  Have a good Sunday!

French hen and MILLY!

It's been a busy week!  Last Sunday I started putting the stitches onto the next Christmas ornament from the 12 days of Christmas set. Tomorrow is my craft class and we have a UFO day and a shared lunch. I'm taking some crochet (one of the ladies is a whizz with crochet so i can get help if needed) and I will start sewing French hen together, although I won't be able to complete him tomorrow (I need to source and buy some cotton pipe cleaners to make his feet) I can at least start to assemble him.

I also started to put together the pieces for a cushion for my nieces birthday.

And of course sort out the treads that most match the fabric. It's amazing when I started to look I have several shades of brown and orange!

We spent a few days in London this week visiting The Moon exhibition at Grenwich Maritime Museum with Faye and then saying farewell to her and her husband as they head back to China for their last year of teaching before returning to the UK. So it was nice but sad also, although I know this year will fly by!

I had trouble linking up with Kathy's blog for Slow Sunday Stitching last week but hopefully I will be more successful this week!  Have a good day what ever you are doing today!