Friday 31st July

Sorry I am a day late but I tried to do the blog at Lindsay's and had a disagreement with her laptop so I waited until I got home today to do it on my (trusty?) desktop.  We had a lovely walk on Wednesday round by Castle Howard and Coneysthorpe and had a picnic lunch on the green in the village.  I have managed to get started on my India piece and got the machine embroidery in.

It's a bit difficult to see on the photo but it is supposed to be the Taj Mahl in a pale grey thread.

Diane has been busy doing this lovely snakes and ladders quilt for a charity supported by the patchwork shop Alice Caroline.

She has also been catching up with her blanket stitch which I have to admit I have not finished yet.

I have knit three little hats for the babies in Africa so have bought some cheap wool to make two more jumpers to match them.
Sorry this is a bit short this week but it has been very busy not doing stitch work.

Thursday 23rd July

Just met up again with my stitching friends, sitting in a conservatory with the doors open and socially distancing as best as we could.  Had a lovely walk along Scarborough north bay last Sunday.  We went quite early in the morning so it wasn't too busy, people were being reasonably sensible about distancing, the sun was shining on the sea, a cool breeze blowing and an ice cream at the end!  Yesterday I spent the day helping Lindsay tidy her office after using it as a classroom all through lockdown it was looking as though there had been thirty students in there.  We took all the books off the bookshelves and dusted them and put them back, there must be about 400 of them.
  |Haven't got much in the way of photographs, just this little bead rope using the pieces of canvas work I have done with animal prints.  Just need to tidy up the ends so that I can hang it up.

Think this will need some tassels or something similar to finish it off.

Thursday 16th July

A quiet week this week, had a nice walk with Lindsay on Sunday from the clock tower on the Esplanade along the Cleveland Way until it joins the main road and then coming back the same way.  We went early in the morning and it was lovely and sunny with quite a few yachts sailing in the bay, you just can't beat the Yorkshire coast.
I have been working on my table runner and got the borders on today.

The border fabric is one of the Indian pieces I brought back from holiday last year.  Looking at this picture I can see I need to trim the bottom right corner!

I have also been knitting a tiny sweater for a 'Fish and Chip' baby.  Apparently in Mali there are no clothes or wraps to take new born babies home in so they are wrapped in newspaper to keep them warm.  These little sweaters are being knitted to send out there.  They have to be in dark colours as they will probably not be washed.  I have put the instructions here for anyone who wants to do one.

The sweater takes approximately one ball of wool.

Thursday 9th July

I have just spent a lovely day with some fellow stitchers sitting a metre apart round a table in a conservatory with the door open (a bit chilly on the feet) and we have had a lovely chat, looked at the work that we have all done over lockdown and read the books we have bought/borrowed to fill our time.  It was so good to get back to talking face to face again, you can't beat it.
I have been doing some stitching this week but it is tiny little pieces of canvas work so I will show them next week when I have three or four I can photograph together and you won't need a magnifying glass to find them.  I have also started back on the table runner I was doing, now I have got fabric for the sashing but this has been a busy week and I haven't had any day time to get on my sewing machine (always got a good excuse).
So I thought that today I would show you the work my friends have been doing - they put us all to shame.

Celia's 'Lockdown' sampler

Two more pieces by Celia, celtic work and 'Grannies Sampler'

These two pieces are Eileen's.

Thanks to both Eileen and Celia for letting me put these on our blog.

Thursday 2nd July

Have you all been out and about a bit more since the shops have opened.  I have had a quick wander through Next and been to B&Q but I actually don't feel I want to spend anything in them, the things that the clothes shops sell don't seem to be important anymore.  What is good is that the Sewing Centre is fully open so I have been in there today and bought some fabric to do sashing and bindings for my table runner I started weeks ago, AND I have a hair appointment for next week!!!! Currently, I look as if I have stepped out of a 1940's movie with my hair pinned back with grips and curling around my neck.  I have finally finished the jigsaw that was taking up my time so much.  It was really difficult, you can't really tell in the picture I have put up, but all  the pieces are made up of several different photographs and the picture on the box is not really any help unless you have a super strength magnifying glass.
Some years ago, when Lindsay was at Uni, I made her a little sewing bag with needles, thread, etc. in the hope that she would do any repairs required herself.  I made some canvas work pieces based on animal prints that I had seen (I can't remember the name of the embroiderer but Maureen will know who I mean) and made them into little pockets round the outside of the bag.  I have looked everywhere for my original patterns and can't find them so have borrowed the bag back and made some new patterns.  These will be tiny hangings, I can probably make three of the patterns fit into small pieces and I may do one of them with beads.  This is all putting off my India piece as I can't settle to the designing of it at the moment.

This is the jigsaw!

 You can see how small the pieces will be.  The giraffe print works OK but I must remember not to do a tiger!