Ta-dah!

Remember this wool:

 

Well, this is what it has turned into, ta-dah!

 

During the course of this year Burnice, Tash and I have crotcheted our way through this book.

 

We chose squares to crotchet each month.  So most evenings this year you could find me crotcheting in front of the tv!  A great way to spend an evening.  We have ended up with 100 squares, all different (well actually there are 2 that are the same, can you spot them?).  Because they are all different they ended up slightly different sizes, so the finished blanket is a bit lumpy.   I crotcheted mine together with cream wool, and did a simple double crotchet border in cream and then green.  My idea was to have green as the dominant colour and to make it look like a garden.   I am so happy with this colourful blanket and am looking forward to the cooler weather so I can snuggle under it.  It is very warm!

Scavenger Hunt–Final edition

Rinda’s Scavenger Hunt finishes in a few days, so it’s time to wrap up with my final photos:

A Painted Bus.  Here’s one of our local ‘Pulse’ buses.

A Sign welcoming you to my town.  The signs on the edge of town are really boring, so I thought I’d give you this which is near the town centre.

A Lamp post.  Love all the flowers on it!

Me wearing something that represents the season.  I give you 2 photos, one with toenails painted, a summer activity, one of me wearing shorts, sunglasses and sun hat,and one of me in my motorbike jacket.  This is definately something I only wear in the summer!

I was unable to find a juggler, so I give you bird houses!  Found these at the Sussex Prairie Gardens that I visited with Mum this week.

Dressmaking

I’ve been pretty busy sewing over the past few weeks.  When it was too hot outside, I came in and sewed!  I did a little photo shoot in the back garden with Maurice as my photographer.  Here are some of the things I have made:

First off, Prefontaine Shorts from Made by Moxie.  I got the pattern in the Perfect Pattern Parcel.  This is the second make out of that PPP.  I made these in gorgeous red and yellow quilting cotton, with yellow pockets and binding.

This blouse is from a free pattern with the magazine Love Sewing.  The pattern is by Simple Sew.   I must admit I needed some help with this one! The instructions weren’t very good!  I go to a dressmaking ‘drop-in’ on a Tuesday morning at More Sewing. I love this fabric!  The photo doesn’t really show it off to it’s best.  It was a remnant from  C&H Fabrics in Brighton.  With it’s 3/4 length sleeves, I think this will get a lot of wear in the autumn.

This blouse is probably the best thing I have ever made!  The pattern is New Look 6104.  It did need a little altering across the back, which Laura at More Sewing helped me with.  The fabric is an off white broderie anglais from Fabricland.  It will go with lots of things in my wardrobe so will get a lot of wear.

Finally – a kimono!  This is a free pattern from Sew Caroline.  I do love a free pattern!  I find patterns very expensive, and if you add the cost of the fabric, it is often not a lot cheaper to make clothes these days!  This kimono was made from a remnant from C&H fabrics which cost about £7, and the trim was about £3, which makes a total of £10, not bad!  I had to make the kimono about 1” shorter in the length and the sleeves as I did not have quite enough fabric!  But I think it looks OK.

My next project is the Lilou dress from Tillie’s book, Love at First Stitch.  I have it cut our ready to begin sewing.  After that I’ll be looking for some ideas for autumn/winter sewing.

Scavenger Hunt–The bike show

We went to a vintage motobike show at Ardingly back in July.  I was hoping to tick a few more things off my list, maybe a horn, or a person with a tattoo?

So without further ado, here’s a horn!  In fact, this was the only horn I found, as most of the bikes from the 1970s and 1980s, and don’t have such an elegant looking horn.  This was on a bike from the 1930s.

On the other hand, there were plenty of tattoos!  Look at these arms!! Quite a work of art.

How about this mascot – another work-of-art – on the petrol tank of a Honda Goldwing.  It is beautiful, and the bike is pretty splendid too!

Finally, here’s a parade of motorbikes in the car park.

I still have a few to get: a sign welcoming people into my home town, a juggler, a photo bomb, and me holding something representing the season. 

I’m linking up with Rinda for August Scavenger Hunt.

August–Month in Numbers

Welcome to my month in numbers for August.  As usual I am linking up with Julie’s blog. 

It’s been a productive Summer in the garden.  I have harvested 6 different vegetables: beans, chard, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, sweetcorn and beetroot.  My largest cucumber measured 13 inches long, and weighed 1lb 8oz.  My largest tomato (so far) weighed 14oz.

I picked 3 corns and we had them for lunch one Saturday.  They went straight into the pot from the garden, and boy! did they taste sweet!

I visited 2 stunning gardens this month.  Christopher Lloyd’s garden at Great Dixter in East Sussex is somewhere I had always wanted to go:

This last weekend, we visited Charleston House, country home of the Bloomsbury set in the early part of the 20th century.  It is in East Sussex too, just past Lewes.  No photos allowed inside the house, but here’s a few of the garden. 

We loved the inside of the house!  Every piece of furniture had been painted by Vanessa Bell or Duncan Grant.  Such lovely muted colours and designs!  I really want to have a go myself.

There was 1 very large wasps nest that was in our loft.  The wasps were very busy, there must have been thousands in there!  The Pest Control man from the council came to cover it in toxic powder, and now the wasps have gone.  6 wasps escaped into the house, 5 of which were killed by his spray and 1 survived to be let out of the window.

We had 2 rides out on the new bike (Triumph Bonneville). 1 to Charleston above, and 1 to Petworth, a pretty little village in West Sussex that is full of antique shops!  Within a walking distance of half a mile radius there are 24 antique and interior design shops!

 

That’s it from me this month!  Do pop over to Julies blog to have a look at what everyone else has been up to in August,numerically of course!