Family hunting and a quilt shop.

Friday saw us all heading to Wiltshire to look for some of Michael's ancestors. They lived and died in Heytesbury and Knook, which turned out to be very small farming towns just outside Warminster. From entries in the visitors' book in Knook Church, the whole village is a single address. After meeting up with a friend for lunch, we had a flying trip to a lovely yarn shop where I treated myself to a ball of sock wool...can't get enough of these. I seem hooked on knitting socks, small enough to not get bored, but enough work to be a challenge.

On the way back home we stopped at midsomer quilting where I needed something suitable for the outer borders of a Japanese taupes quilt I'm making. Naturally the first bolt I selected was nearly £11...still got the champagne tastes on a beer buget! Eventually settled on the dark fabric on the right of this selection. The others just jumped into my basket. Not doing a lot for my stash busting am I?

Earlier this week, we decided that Hannah's bedroom needed to be redecorated. It's not been done since she was born, and she'd made a horrible mess of it. It's now looking pretty stunning in shades of pink, with white furniture. I'm making cushions for on her bed and after buying some fuschia pink with diamantes on, I thought we could dye some of our own (and stash bust a little at the same time!) She settled on Magenta with Mauve sploshes, and we tried adding salt crystals to the final fabric as it dried, to see the effect.

This is it as it's drying, before being washed. The Mauve has turned out more deep purple than we liked, but the salt had concentrated the dye into little specks of more intense colour. Just need to make it into a cushion cover now!

Show's Over Folks.....

After a lot of hard work by lots of people, we finally had the Plym Piecemakers' Show this weekend. Not sure of final figures, but I know we raised more than we could have hoped for. P and D were masterful on the sales table...nothing was priced, and people were asked to "make an offer"...while being reminded of the charity we were suppoorting. Fabulous tactics ;-)

After nearly 7 hours to set up and 6 on each day the show was open, I'm exhausted, but thrilled that it all seemed to go smoothly. Hopefully, everyone enjoyed it as much as I did, and will respond to suggestions of doing another in 2 years.

So for now, I'm having a couple of days off sewing, but thinking of the new pieces I can make...lots of inspiration from the 9 magazines I bought....It's OK, I donated about 30. I also treated the kitchen to a cafetiere cosy. Slightly too big for ours, but I can make one to fit....and it'll make a great gift along with a bag of good coffee and help me along in my mission to stash bust as well!

Next on the horizon is a trip to Torquay next Monday with my sister for a girly day out. We're planning to visit Sewing the Seeds and treat ourselves to afternoon tea. Possibly not so good for either stash busting or weight busting!