Apologies to anyone offended by a wee sweary word, but I do love a wee sweary word as sometimes they perfectly sum things up! July has been full of covid and it's aftermath, the aftermath is brutal, zero energy for anything so patchwork is on hold for a while.
Embroidery and cross stitch are my salvation thankfully I'm able to do little bits when I can
Below is my emotions tracker for 2024, green is happy or calm, purple is meh, blue is tired or sad for the darker blue, orange is worried or nervous and red is angry excited is yellow. There is a lot of purple and light blue in July but that's only natural there is also quite a lot of green, it's all about seeing the bigger picture
And here is one of the sweary ones!! I love these patterns from get stitch done, perfectly sum up feelings about life at the moment 🤣
And here is the finished article! I like the precision of using sovly but it is harder pulling needle through that extra layer. I'll only use it for darker fabrics going on I think
I had such a good time with it I did another! They are really great quick patterns to do, love them
Oh this was my first finish this month and I love it, these trees were a freebie from Victoria Sampler in 2023, I am going to pair them with my Temperature embroideries from 2023 and put i to a book of all my 2023 embroidery projects
So a very different July but I'm adaptable! I think it will be embroidery/cross stitch for a while but that's not a bad thing
As ever huge thanks to Archie the Wonderdog for hosting the furtle
I have completed all my Temperature embroideries for 2023, it was the last year I did it in the spiders Web pattern before switching to the little light stitchery fabric and pattern.
For the previous 2 years of Temperature patterns I paired each month with a corresponding embroidery, when Victoria Sampler brought out these monthly tree patterns for 2023 I thought they were ideal for this. But I also underestimated just how much extra work they would be 🤣 I know how unlike me ...
My very first bout of covid gave me an ideal opportunity to get cracking with them, so here are January to March
And here they all are! All ready to put together in an embroidery book that will have to wait till I've recovered a bit more and also got some firm interfacing. I really enjoyed making these I thought it would take me a lot longer they seemed so fiddly at first but hey this is one finish I need to thank Covid for!
Spare bobble hat for me removed June 2024 no longer needed.
List update-I haven't made any significant changes to the list, I really dont want to add anything because I want to keep moving the list along, I may add some ideas as I find them and there is the big elephant in the room of the upcoming FOQ 🤣🤣 but the beauty of fettling and furtling for me is that it keeps me on track
Blossom Jane - major progress was taking out the black sashing, I really need to get stuck into the blocks again but that can wait till I'm better
Floral big cats no progress but this seems to be a winter project for me, it would be great to get another 2 done this year but they are "intense" 🤣 -Pantherlion, tiger, lynx, cheetah, Jaguar, mountain lion, snow leopard, cloud leopard
OK I've looked through the list and the waiting list below, really want to crack on with some Sea Parrot bird blocks I had them all cut out for coming back from France, also the Bargello it's the last of my '"Pandemic quilt ideas" left to do. Some others may morph into other ideas or get taken off, let's see but for now I'm pretty happy with the list as is 😊
Many thanks as ever to Archie for hosting, Fettling really helps keep me on track 😊
Bargello Angels wings with Tula (serenity pattern)
Moda Blockheads done in donated fabric
Scrap quilt drunkards path
Sisters quilt
Block holders to take to classes
Sew Alongs 2024WeeklyMonthly Other
In the meadow by quiet play in speckled, January-June
Riley Blake BOM January-May
Repro quilter scrappy nine patch
The waiting list
Applique quilt - Threadneedle street
7 charm pack Quilts
Oval drunkards path blocks with Vintage table cloths
Janet Clare minincharm pack Quilts
8 sea parrot Quilts (may combine some)
Vintage flower sampler quilt
Tilda quilt
Birds and baskets quilt in AMH echinacea
Sweet William quilt?
Tula butterfly in capel and castaway or using left over speckled?
Medallion quilt in liberty big prints
Orphan block quilts?
Jen Kingwell Bakers dozen, Blockheads or pluses quilt in Lucy Engles bundles?
Tamara Kate beetle pattern
Non quilting crafts - In progress
Temperature embroideries 2023 + 2024
Trees from Victoria Sampler
Mood wheel of the year for 2024
Get Stitch Done - f**k Rose stitch (somehow got missed off added back in July 24)
Versailles 💗 I have wanted to come here ever since I read the Jean Plaidy Sun King trilogy as a teenager, so I chose this as my birthday celebration for my 60th. We pootled off on the thursday, a nice and easy flight from Glasgow, train from CDG to Paris then change at Notre Dame to get to Versailles. Turns out our lovely Air BNB was 10 mins from the train station
First evening we went to restaurant next door for dinner then chilled back home with wine and snax 😊
This was my meal at the restaurant, squid and polenta, very nice, you can just see Scoobs mash in the background also very nice!
A man intently studying his mash 😂
22/6/2024
Monets Gardens was out first stop on the friday as it did involve a fair bit of travel, a bit more than we bargained for as it turns out because one of our trains just vanished from the board when it was 2 mins away! We eventually just threw money at it and got a taxi from the connecting train station
Below was on the way to the gardens, all so pretty
The gardens were very very busy, but it was OK thats to be expected and oh my it was worth it
The Lily ponds were just stunning, so gald I got to see these at their best
Love seeing the world with this gorgeous man
The house really suprised me! I hadnt realised it would be part of the experience it was gorgeous
This was my favourite room I think
There is an impressionist museum a few minutes up the road from the gardens, so we went there after. A lovely exhibition on "Impressionism and the Sea" Many artists I hadnt come across. Really enjoyed this.
When we were not eating out we made meals from the super market, right next to the super market was this cheese shop, OMG I never got a chance to buy any cheese from here and to be honest I am not sure my tummy could have coped ... but they were so beautiful
We went to another lovely restaurant - Azuli where I had a beautiful Mojito, best i have had
My meal was also amazing, lovely pork and candied Aubergine with capers, amazing and delicious.
The following morning we found a lovely cafe and I had a fantastic flat white
This was a trompe l'oile electrical box, how pretty
Had to have a look at the gates on my wee wander, we were heading there the next day
But first some wine 😂
The next day was when I started to feel really bad but still managed to get to see the Palace, OMG the queues!
Some beautiful sculptures, but to be honest the whole place was very very overwhelming and thats not just because I was feeling ill. I am so glad I went but I can totally see why they had a revolution, so much excess
Ah this was better, the gardens were quite formal but still a breath of fresh air after the interior
The fountains were my favourite
On the wee train which takes you up to the Grand Trianon
I was so chuffed there was an exhibition on of embroidered silks from Napoleons time, this was its last day
The rooms in the Petite Trianon were a bit less excessive which was nice
Thr grounds were very pretty, I did like it here a lot more
This fountain was incredible, one of my favourites
And so this was the final day in Versailles! I knew I was coming down with something but really wasnt expecting this, it was both a shock and a relief, I knew I had to get it at some point, and this was not the worst place to get it
I dont want to finishe with that though, so let have a montage of Monets Gardens and the fountains at Versailles
