Textile pages and sewing.

I was delighted to hear that latest page for The Traveling Pages group had finally arrived. Above you can see the Lion and the Mouse under way. I am stitching through water soluble fabric here. Such useful stuff. It tears off easily as well as dissolving well. So handy when I wasn't sure how fragile the layers were going to be.
For the differing layers, I used netting, loose woven white cotton and a densely woven fabric I found in my stash. All embellished with FME. (Free Machine Embroidery.) The figures were copied from photographs found on the internet. Sadly, I didn't find one with a lion next to a mouse........ I wonder why...

This is the finished page. The background is painted using colours from a wonderful photograph I found on the internet showing an african sunset. It also had the silhouette of an acacia tree which I used for the back of the page. For this I used sheer brown voile attached using FME.

I sent it off with a simple retelling of this delightful story. The original fable was written by Aesop and is one of my favourites.

As you can see, Gayle's theme was "All creatures great and small".

Oh, I've been busy with mum's quilt. This was the pieces all placed on top of the fleece I shall be using for the backing. Since this time I have been busily piecing the backing for the smaller pieces. I have been having a lot of fun with curved piecing. I'd never tried doing that before. Sorry about the lack of photos - there just has not been enough decent daylight for a good enough photograph.

Knitting in Whitby.

The view from the cottage windows. We could see right across the harbour. A lovely spot.



Can you see the white painted building at the foot of a larger two story house? It has a strange black symbol painted to the right of the front windows. That is Kipper Cottage. It is the bottom floor of a larger building, but is also a completely separate dwelling. The white shape to the left is also part of the cottage - the front bedroom window. Approached down a slope seen to the right of the painted shape, it is a comfy and cosy place to stay. Beautifully set out, it was a delight to be able to stay there for the weekend. Close to everything, we had a wonderful time exploring.



I just loved this delightful building tucked away in one of the streets leading off from the harbour.



There was even a small replica of the Endeavour, one of the ships taken by Captain Cook on his travels. I couldn't resist the reflection of the rigging.



Here you can see the older part of Whitby with the Abbey perched on top of the promontory. The ruins can be seen behind the church. There is a very steep set of steps up to the Abbey and the surrounding buildings. A fascinating place to visit.

All in all, a rather special weekend.



Just before we left we stumbled upon the Charity Market being held in Northwich. I found these lovely books dating from around 1946.





This is the contents list from the Home Needlecraft book. It has really good illustrations showing how to convert older clothing into new......... Fascinating how ideas come round again.

The knitting? Well, I got a lot of knitting done on Simon's jumper. I am making him a second jumper this Christmas. This one is in charcoal. So nice to sit cosily perched on a comfy settee (sofa) after a day spent exploring.

Ongoing projects.

This is the start of a quilt for my mum. The first blocks have all been placed together on top of the fleece I shall be using as the backing. As I mentioned last time, I shall be adding some extra pieces to heighten the colour a little. It all seems a little flat to my taste at present.

I am about to cast on another knitting project. This time it is a second v-necked jumper for Simon. I made him one for last Christmas. This time, the sweater will be charcoal in colour. The yarn will be this lovely shade which the lovely owner of Crafty Stitches (my local yarn shop) got in for me. I'm using the instructions from this rather battered book. It has been much used over the years, having been printed in 1977 - the year I got married. (The 20th edition of this particular publication.)

I am also working on a pair of gloves with fingers. The pattern is "Knotty", by Julia Mueller. I've managed to finish the right glove, and have reached the halfway stage of the cable pattern on the back of the left glove. I'd never knitted gloves before this pair. Luckily, it is an easy pattern to follow. I love the long cuffs.

I did manage to finish one project in the past few days. It was this pair of socks. They were made following the Through the Loops Mystery Sock 2010 clues. Designed by Kirsten Kapur they were a really interesting project to knit. I'm looking forward to the next Mystery Sock.

I received one page from the Traveling Pages this week, and heard that another of my pages had arrived at long last.

The first to arrive was this one, my Shabby Chic page for Debi. You can learn more about this page here.

The next page to arrive was Juliette's November page for me. She has dyed some really interesting fabrics. More details are here. Juliette's Blog can be found here.

One more interesting detail for you. I went to a concert in a rather fascinating building and I only wish I could have taken some photos. However, it was far too dark. I was with the Condate, the choir I sing with in a concert with the Barnton Silver Band. The building we were in is "The Monastery". Do visit the website to see a little of this extraordinary place.