Beach Belles

 It is time for another Endeavourers Challenge reveal! This quarter the theme was "a newspaper headline", well didn't that provide endless scope! 

There have been lots of apocalyptic headlines in the last year or so, but I decided to go for something a bit different for the inspiration for my quilt. Like many of you, I suspect, our summer holiday this year was a "staycation", which as we live by the sea wasn't exactly a hardship :) There are no beach huts nearby, but if there were I wonder would they be selling for the record sums described by my chosen headline - https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/jun/06/why-the-humble-beach-hut-is-the-new-des-res  

Beach huts, of course, are not a modern phenomenon mobile changing rooms were in existence in Scarborough on the North East coast of England well before Victorian times. In the 1890's, the mobile rooms had become static and geared towards leisure rather than taking the seawater cures. 

So, I have imagined my Edwardian beach belles enjoying a stroll along the sands on a lovely, summer day in front of the newly built, colourful beach huts. 

I stitched down strips of scrap fabric for the sea and sky, with little bits of lace and shimmery net to represent the sea foam and sunlight on the water. Scraps of fabric were upcycled from my OH's redundant workshirts for the beach huts and the door outlines free motion embroidered.

The Edwardian ladies were from a FQ of fabric lurking in my stash. The fabric was brushed with Mod Podge for Fabric and left to dry, then the ladies were cut out and free-motion appliqued with invisible thread.

I was even able to stitch together several wadding offcuts for this quilt, so it was a very economical exercise indeed.

I am delighted with how this piece turned out and can't wait to see what my fellow Endeavourers have created for this challenge! You can see them for yourself here

Once again, I have to thank Catherine and Janine for organising this group, I am so thankful to have the opportunity to stretch my creative muscles for these Challenges.

Life's a beach!

Welcome to the TGIFF link party where we celebrate that great feeling that finishing a project brings!



I had hoped to be sharing a completed Shoreline embroidery with you today, but sadly I am still plugging away at it so that will have to wait for a (hopefully not too far in the) future post :(

Instead I have another long time in the making completing finish to share.

It doesn't look like and shouldn't have been a long time in the making project but that is what it turned out to be.  The partner lampshade was made ages ago and my intention had always been to make a pair, but the beach hut fabric had disappeared when I first went to complete the second lampshade. That problem was solved when I found the fabric at the Knitting and Stitching Show (over a year ago!). Of course, a short while later I found the original fabric!

I have no excuses for why once I had more than enough fabric I didn't actually set to and finish this, but isn't it amazing the difference that a looming deadline for a finished project can make :)

The lampshade was made using a Dannells kit and it was, again, really straightforward to put together. The hardest part was trying to get the backing off of the double-sided sticky tape!

This was the original lampshade so you can see why it needed replaced!

And here are the pair of matching bedside lamps in situ, there is a definite seaside feel to that bedroom isn't there?

I have some sewing themed fabric that is meant for a new lampshade for my sewing room, hopefully it will not be waiting around as long to be made up as that beach hut fabric was.

So now it is your turn to link up your finishes and, of course, check out your fellow bloggers and congratulate them on finishing too. Add the TGIFF blog button to your blog post so that your readers can join the party too!

An InLinkz Link-up

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Beach Party

We have been having a welcome burst of sunshine recently so that might explain the beach theme of today's post!

When I visited the Festival of Quilts show in 2015 I naturally indulged in some retail therapy and one of my purchases was a canvaswork kit for a scissor keeper from the Sue Hawkins Needlework stand. Well, it has taken a bit longer than I anticipated but I finally have a finished Beach Hut scissor keeper.

The stitching of the canvaswork was pretty straightforward but the website wasn't wrong when it described making up the box shape as fiddly! I had it turned inside out a couple of times to make sure that I was stitching it up properly.

When it came to the instructions for the cord, I was completely stumped. There were no photos to accompany the text and the text just didn't make any sense to me at all. Fortunately I bought a braid making kit at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Olympia a couple of weeks ago, so this was the ideal opportunity to give it a whirl.

It was a pleasure to sit in the sunshine and manipulate the threads around the card to make this braid, even although it undoubtedly took a lot longer than the original instructions intended :)

Sitting in the sunny SW of France it is easy to agree with this sentiment, might be a bit more difficult to hold on to when I am back on the West Coast of Scotland! Still at least now I will have no excuse for losing scissors down the side of the sofa anymore!

That's my finish for this week's TGIFF, now it is your turn to link up and celebrate your finishes this week. As ever don't make this a solitary celebration click on your fellow linkers and leave a celebratory comment on their fabulous finishes. Grab the blog button and add it to your post so that your readers can join in the fun too.

An InLinkz Link-up