April furtle

  Well where the flipping heck do I begin with April!!!!! I only went and did my first trip abroad in 3 years!!!!!

The above was not in my first trip abroad 🤣 but rather at my regular fortnightly sewing group, they have lovely biscuits there

I'm slowly picking away at my Blossom Jane, sometimes I want to speed it up, others I'm quite happy with progress.

Below are two of our visits this month, Drumlanrig Castle, then Loch Katrine. It's nice with the better weather now getting out and about.

I'm also out on my bike more! Loving getting back on that again 

Fun at green volunteering at the Kelpies! I helped to make a teepee 😊

Right back to sewing! I decided I needed a crossbody bag for my travels, this fab pattern by minki Kim was great, some lovely rose gold hardware from sew hot added some extra bling to this incredible fabric from Melody Miller, another tick off the fettling list 😊

I managed some more ticks! This was the Sewcialites quilt top, a great free sew along, really enjoyed this one

Sooooo let's get to the Nantes visit!! Look at a very nawty stowaway!

Tuts! 

I wanted to take some hand sewing but luggage space was at a premium so I used up some long hoarded Charley Harper fabric and made this fold over pouch by Aneela Hooey. Great fun to make and very practical too.

Oh this is put of order but here is the finished Sewcialites quilt top, Scoobs doing his stuff 😊

Sooooooo Nantes and pour lamour du fil 2023. What can I say? I think the quilt below was in my top 3

Also so many basket quilts!!!! I loved this one

I've written fuller posts on the trip so please pop over there if you want to see more!

Above is the haul from day one. Below is a close up of two of the uber cute embroidery kits I bought. 

My favourite dedi ger Odille Bailloeul designed the bag for the show, love it so much

Below is another of my top 3 from the show, I now want to do a round medallion!

I went a bit crazy at the Odille Bailloeul  fabric stand!

And the Petra Prins stand!

All that applique!

My little stowaway was very happy!

I did manage some hotel room sewing 🤣

I'll finish with my catching up with the Riley Blake 2023 sewalong,  only 3 more blocks to go after this!

Linking up as ever with the lovely Archie the wonder dog

April cinema

 I've been busy watching films in April! I'm not going out much, don't want to catch anything before my trip to Nantes! So I'm storming through the Planet of the Apes franchise.

First up Beneath the planet of the Apes- loved it, classic 70s Sci fi, moved at a cracking pace , still git the discordant sound track but hey its the 70s after all!

Next up Escape from the planet of the apes. 

I hated this, the only saving grace was Ricardo Montalban. Otherwise it was clichéd and soooooooo dated.

The franchise redeemed itself with the next one - Conquest of the planet of the apes

Still clichéd but more action and more Ricardo Montalban. Sets the scene nicely for the final installment of the 70s run of planet of the apes, not bad - Battle for the planet of the Apes, definitely better than Escape which way my least favourite. Still seems naieve now looking back but hindsight is a wonderful thing ...

So now we are up to the 2000s and Tim Burtons re imagining. Whilst I didn't actively dislike it, it felt out of place somehow. Enjoyable though but Helena Nonham Carter was miscast IMHO.

So fast forward to 2011 and Rise of the planet of the Apes

Yes OK I get it but almost 2 hours is spent setting up the premise, enjoyable but is the longest trailer ever. Good effects and James Franco manages not to be annoying which is good. 

Now this is more like it! "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" cracking film. I haven't seen it before but loved it, great story fab action and despite being over 2 hours long it didn't drag. Good story but not too much heavy handed and obvious moralising which did characterise some of the others in the franchise, one more film to go and I'll be up to date!

Well there was a hiatus while I was in Nantes so this was my last film  of April, Journey to the centre of the earth, great fun, slightly wonky special effects but still great fun.

Sewcialites - Sew along 2022/23

 

Ta dah!!!!! I love this quilt rather a lot, last year when i was still working i would wake up uber early in the morning, usually in a cold sweat .... and I would sooth myself by reading about all the lovely sew alongs which were going on, I would be wistful thinking "when I retire I am going to do all the sewalongs!" And this was the first, the sewcialites a free SAL from the Fat Quarter shop this is the third i think.

The blocks come in 3 sizes so I chose the middle size the 6.5 inch block. First thing I noticed was how bad my piecing had become! I think I have been doing so much FPP I really needed this discipline to get back into more accurate piecing.

Above are my first few blocks and below are some of my last blocks. I used a scrappy grey background just using up loads of grey FQs, the main prints were just a nice random selection from the stash, some FQs which had been hanging around for a while, a nice eclectic bunch.

Much umming and awing over the layout and I can see that from the layout above to the layout below I mispieced one of the sections, a star in the lower left quadrant is going in the wrong direction ... ach with a quilt this busy who will notice!!!

So thats it done, that itch for the SALs has been well and truly scratched! and another thing ticked off the fettle list!

Nantes, day six and seven! last full day!

 So it was time to go, the last day was a day of filling in time, woke up to rain but it passed, my nice park had lots of bits closed off, I chanced 2 croissants for breakfast

pootled up past chateau.

Aww I miss C&A

pootled around for a bit, watched the Marathon, heard church bells. All very very lovely

Mini Bud was sad to go too

We chilled in our hotel until we had to check out, got the airport bus and made our way to the airport. Our flight was changed, originally I was supposed to fly back on the sunday evening but they changed it to the monday morning at 6.20! which meant I had to be at the airport for 4.20 am ..... the airport hotel was ok but not as nice as my main one in Nantes but it did for the evening, I managed to get some sleep before heading off first thing.

Journey home was OK, few delays but I had my kindle and my embroidery so eventually Scoobs picked me up almost 12 hours after I left Nantes!

I am still processing it all, this was a big thing for me and I almost backed out I was getting so nervous but it was fine. Ive been testing ever since I came back and all still negative, I am not so concerned about getting CV while in the UK (still dont want to get it!) but I really didnt want to get it abroad.

So thats it, now to plan the next one! lots of things to think about but travelling is now firmly back on the agenda!

Mini Bud agrees, he had great fun and loved pining his new pins to our pin pennant 😊