End of August

Well, I got loads of gardening done, despite a few wet days. Not as much as I wanted to, but I did get a lot of cutting back done, and progress has been made.

My theory is that if I get the garden as up to date as I can by the autumn, there should be less to do next spring. I don't think I've ever got this far with it before. I'm only showing you the best bits, LOL.

On a completely different subject, I've been making dishcloths. I've only ever made dishcloths to give away before, but I'm always hearing about how much better home-made ones are, so I crocheted some for my kitchen.

These are all made from old Leisure Arts patterns I had. They were so quick to make that it won't matter too much when they get dirty and wear out, because I can always make another. Only a utilitarian thing, but I like them. At least, I like the look of them - I don't think I've ever used a dishcloth this thick and chunky before! I suppose knitted ones would seem thinner.

I've also been doing some quilting . . .

. . . which I'll show you properly when it's finished.

Only Ewe

I don't really know why I wanted to knit a sheep. I think a knitted sheep just seemed like an appropriate thing for someone who knits to have.
The pattern is from Toy Knits by Debbie Bliss, with my own modifications.

I had issues with this pattern, and one of them was the length of the body in proportion to the size of the head. I shortened the body of mine quite a bit, and I also made the ears about twice the size they were in the pattern.

When she was finished she looked very plain, so I got out the flowers I knitted back in February and sewed a few of them on. These were from Nicky Epstein's book of knitted flowers.
I think they dress her up nicely. I do like to add something to a pattern.

It's not easy getting a good picture of a sheep. It was a long and gruelling photo shoot for both of us.

I'm taking a short break from blogging now. I want to put some work in on the garden and if possible get it completely up to date by the end of the summer.

I'll try to keep up with reading blogs and I'll be back in a couple of weeks!

Multicoloured Pansies

Since I posted about this doily in May, I've been thinking about making another one using more colours.
Some of these colours are a bit brighter than I would normally use, but I needed 8 different colours to have 2 pansies of each colour, and I wanted to use the same brand of cotton for the whole thing. I'm hoping the cream and darker green tone down the other colours slightly. It's that bright mauve/purple I'm thinking of.

The yarn is Patons 100% cotton 4 ply. This cotton is smooth and soft to work with and not too string-like.
I thought the pansies on their own were photo-worthy. Love those green pansies!

I don't often like making the same thing more than once, because I'm always wanting to move onto the next thing, but in this case I really did enjoy working with all the different colours, and I knew already that this pattern worked well.

I block doilies by pinning them to shape on an ironing board. I spray them with water, leave to dry, then remove the pins and press. This one needs a lot of pins and it's worth taking some time to get the pinning right and make a nice job of it.

It's been very hot here, especially the first half of the week, so not much gardening has got done, but I have been taking some pictures.

This is a view I like, and it shows the border which runs along the side of our house.

I hope it's not too hot where you are. Have a great weekend :)

Sunshine Day

I don't know if you remember this quilt I posted about back in May. I finished the top but wasn't sure if the colours worked. Well, I've got used to the yellow and I think it does look better quilted. In the light, bright days of summer the colours look all right.
The pattern is Old Glory by Renee Plains. I added an extra row of blocks to mine, making it square.

You can see in the first picture there are two different yellow fabrics. I didn't have enough of either to do all the sashings, so I used a combination of the two.

The sashing strips on the outer edge are a lovely Robyn Pandolph print I've had for years. You can't really see much of it, but still it was nice to be able to use some of it.

I must just say thank you to Twyla and Lindsey for this award:

And to Lyn for this one:

They both write amazing blogs and I'm pleased and very flattered that they thought of me.

I'm supposed to choose several bloggers to pass these awards on to, but there are so many wonderful blogs out there. If you read this blog, whether you comment or not, I appreciate you, so I'm going to follow Meggie's example and say if you'd like an award, consider it yours!

It's been very hot here the last couple of days, too hot to do any gardening, although lots of things need cutting back now. It's nice for a change to walk around the garden with my camera and just observe, rather than feel the compulsive need to work on it, LOL.

I don't know the name of the pink flowers, but behind them is a yellow potentilla, and in front is alchemilla mollis.

Poppy seedheads.

Hope you're enjoying the summer.

Flower Garland

It was my daughter's birthday last Saturday, and not just any birthday but her 21st. I wanted to make some sort of table decoration that she could keep and use afterwards. This was just for her family birthday tea on Saturday - she had another party with friends on Sunday. What it is to be young!

I knew I wanted to make some kind of garland or swag, but I wasn't sure how it would turn out, and it evolved as it went along. At first I was thinking of regular spaces between the flowers, but it turned out differently. It's a combination of 5 different flowers and 2 leaves.

I made all the flowers first and then crocheted them together on a long chain from the back, but it needed more stability, so I tried tacking the sides of each flower to the one next to it with sewing thread, and that made all the difference. Then I sewed the leaves in and finally the small flowers, which were attached on top with French knots.

I'm often asked about the patterns I use. There are lots of crocheted flower patterns available, and I think this idea would work with any arrangement of any flowers. You know I love my books! My flowers were a selection from these 3 books:

99 Floral Motifs to Crochet - Leisure Arts

Crochet Embellishments - Jean Leinhauser, Leisure Arts

201 Crochet Motifs, Blocks, Projects and Ideas - Melody Griffiths (this book uses UK crochet terms).

Rambling On

After some intensive applique I finished the Rambling Rose quilt top, so now it's ready for layering up and quilting.
I wasn't sure about the border fabric, but I wanted to use something I already had, and I had enough of this print, which is a sort of greeny-beige. It's a lighter and warmer shade in real life than it looks in this photo, and the corner blocks are a proper green.

Can you see the appliqued bees? I made my bees smaller than the ones on the pattern, because I wanted a more understated bee.

From roses to hollyhocks, and this beauty is growing outside our dining room window.

A couple of people asked about the quilt in the background behind the bunny in my last post. If I wasn't able to reply to you, you can see a picture of the whole thing here in a post from last year (4th picture down). The pattern is called Cabin Corners and is from Jo Morton's first Jo's Little Women series of patterns. The quilt is just 15 inches square and I think it's one of my all-time favourite patterns.

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That's all for now - it will be my daughter's birthday this weekend, and I've got a cake to bake!

A Bunny and Some Flowers

I finished knitting the bunny I posted about a couple of weeks ago. I gave him a posy of vintage buttons for his garter stitch waistcoat. I really like the naive look of garter stitch. His ears are two layers of knitting. Garter stitch rocks!

I tried to give him a face that was friendly but not too cute. I wasn't sure about the pink stitched nose, but he's done now, and I'm toying with the idea of knitting a sheep. (Get it? Terrible joke.)

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We've had some very warm and sunny weather this week. Even when it's too hot I can't help pottering about outside until the heat drives me in. There always seems to be so much that needs doing.

I had to take a picture of these star-like blue flowers (don't know the name - campanula?) because they're so pretty just now. They grow in a huge mass, especially if they have something to support them.

The tree in the centre background is a buddleia, which should have some flowers on soon.

This is taken from the other side. The plant in the foreground is alchemilla mollis. It has tiny frothy flowers of vibrant acid yellow, almost lime green, and it's really good as a filler in cut flower arrangements.