Show & Tell Summer Edition

Well thank you for the lovely welcome back and for patiently sitting through the somewhat long slide show of holiday photos.

So while we were in England, it wasn't all beaches, playgrounds and museums.  There were some stitchy related things too.

August was my turn as queen bee in the Sew Euro Bee An bee. Despite the fact I had had over a year to decide on my block I prevaricated and then some.  In the end I went old school and asked for churn dash blocks; I sent my bee mates some of Jenean Morrison's Beechwood Park and bits of my low volume layer cake from Rebecca's amazing swap. 

This is where I'm at at the moment. The colours remind me of Opal Fruits or Starbursts if you like, and while I'm sure I will love it in the end - the colours are just a bit different for me. Here are my blocks together with those received from Pippa, Celine and Di - thank you!

Beechwood Park Churn Dash blocks

On the hand sewing front, I finally finished the main panel of my Hexy MF EPP top, almost exactly a year after starting it.  Here it is lazing on my mum's garden bench. Now I just need to build up the courage to applique it to the background fabric.

I also finished a very overdue EPP block for Marguerite. While it was ridiculously fiddly it was actually quite enjoyable in the end.

What about fabric? There were some modest(ish) additions to the stash.

I picked up some forgotten half yards I had ordered from Cindy when she was having a sale many moons ago.  I did of course pay for them but as it was in another season it doesn't count right?

I also collected these gorgeous Oakshott FQs which I bought from Fiona when she was having an IG de-stash (again a while back so they don't count *ahem*) 

and these beautiful charms...

which I'm thinking could work very nicely with my amazing Tula Pink charms below from a recent swap.  I have to give a very belated and huge shout out to lovely Jennifer who took up another place on the swap so that I could join in. It was a U.S based only swap - Jenn cut my fabric for me and then posted the charms on to me in England. Thank you my friend!

The bargain find of our visit was this beautiful Liberty fabric, which I picked up in Greenwich market. I paid a tenner for 6 yards which was just silly really. The colours will work so well here...once I decide what to do with it.

If you are based in the UK and are not a member of Annie's CAB then you should be. In return for giving your view on beautiful upcoming fabric ranges, Annie enters you in to a monthly draw. My name was drawn in July and I spent my winnings on the texty fabrics I used in these paper pieced bee blocks for Katy.

At the end of July I received a token from Annie for my August birthday and I bought some of AMH's amazing Hand Drawn Garden as well as a couple of other bits and pieces.

Lastly, there was the obligatory purchase of some new quilting books. I was eventually seduced in to buying the 100 Modern Quilt Blocks after seeing all these amazing blocks popping up everywhere, and the book at the back has been on my amazon wishlist forever...I bought it secondhand from Amazon for about a fiver including shipping from the States - for that I can forgive a few bent corners. It's a great book on improv. and very inspiring!

Lastly, separated from my stash and a bad case of itchy fingers, I decided to knit! Now knitting and I do not get on. In fact the brand of knitting needles I'm using would best describe my knitting efforts to date. Still, undeterred I bought some gorgeous Rowan Lima yarn and have nearly finished knitting a cowl. This photo doesn't do the colour justice but it's really pretty. it measures from the floor to my chest and so it's quite long.

...and there endeth this long and really quite colourful post.  Now to just shake off a horrible head cold and make a start on my ever-growing to-do list!