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

Would you like chips with that?

Regular readers will know that I have been loving making up a menagerie of beadwork embroideries for our gorgeous grandson. So, I am sure that you will not be surprised to know that I couldn't resist the temptation of another kit when I came across Ann's Orchard Beadwork stand at the Knitting and Stitching show!

Now that we live on the seafront where seagulls are an ever constant, it would have been rude to pass up the chance to stitch up Chips the Seagull now wouldn't it? The seagulls on our seafront are so keen to avail themselves of the odd chip or three that day trippers brave enough to eat their fish and chips on the prom are warned not to feed the seagulls. Those gulls are not timid and have no compunction in diving at the unwary eater to snatch their fatty treats :)

With this kit finished I am running out of excuses to avoid tackling the third of my three challenges for Quilter in the Closet's 100 Day Challenge.

It took me a while to actually find the Craftsy BOM blocks, but find them I did and now I have to decide on the sashing and the borders. I am thinking that I will sash them in white and then add a navy border, as I think that navy sashing might be a bit much. I am also not sure that I have enough of the navy solid, so it might end up being white all the way! Either would be progress though :)

Stitching New to Me's

Welcome to this month's New to Me Link Party, where we celebrate the joys of trying new things whether we are successful or not!

I have several New to Me's this month the most exciting of which was seeing this at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Olympia.

Hardhome Embroidery

When I discovered that this would be at the show and my husband was going to London for a friend's retirement party the same weekend, wild horses couldn't have stopped me piggybacking the trip :) I had thought that I would never get to see the complete embroidery in real life, so was beyond thrilled to be able to see it for myself. Apologies for the photo the piece was in a corridor between two stalls so it was impossible to stand back very far for a photo. Despite standing there for a while I never got the chance to say "I did a bit of that!" :( Second from the top on the left side in case you are wondering. I think this will be the only time that I ever see something that I have made on display at a national exhibition, so you can see why it is my most exciting New to Me :)

My second New to Me is also to do with stitching. I recently went to an EG Trapunto Quilting workshop, which as you can see above I didn't get very far with. However, I did try out a New to Me stitch, Double Herringbone Stitch aka Italian Herringbone Stitch, for one of the areas that will eventually be quilted. The Trapunto is similar to Boutis although much more colourful!

My final New to Me involved tangling with the Beast again. I decided to change the threads for my next lot of stitching on the serger, which turned out to be a very bad idea! The tension went completely to pot as you can see. Fortunately this video on You Tube filled in the gaps in the manual and we were soon good to go. 

All set to tackle a t-shirt for the boy :)

So, that's my New to Me's now it is your turn to link up and celebrate the trials and tribulations of trying something new and, of course, encourage and support your fellow bloggers who have moved out of their comfort zones this month too. As ever the link party will remain open until 23.59 GMT on March 31st, so if you are thinking of trying something new this month but haven't yet here is the nudge that you need. Grab the link party button and take the plunge! Check out the linkers and give them some blogger support for their endeavours too.

An InLinkz Link-up