Time to Dust off the Sewing Machine

As Summer fast approaches Autumn, I'm pleased to say that our weather here in the UK has finally gone back to what's normal for this time of year, instead of the prolonged heatwave we have had.  As I'm getting older, I'm definitely finding it much harder to cope with the heat, Lol!

The hot weather didn't stop me from stitching though and August proved to be a productive month. 

My stitching diary shows that I worked on 3 wip, had 2 new starts, finished 3 projects and managed to fully finish 4 projects.

The first wip that I stitched on was Bluebird of Happiness from Cottage Garden Samplings, which was last worked on in back in May.    This is where it was left.

I stitched on it for another 8 days and this is where it is now.

Just love the little houses in this series!

The next wip was Coffee Shoppe from Dimensions.

I stitched on this for a total of 7 more days.

The final wip I worked on you have already seen because it only took another 4 days to completely finish it.

That was 'Santa Claus is coming to Town' by Historische Stickmuster.

The two new starts you've also already seen and they were both finishes too.

'8 Maid's A-Milking' - 12 Days of Christmas - from Bothy Threads

And 'Bristol Berries 2' from Erica Michaels, which is also the first of my 4 fully finishes.

I think I may have caught the ‘Berry Bug’ because I can’t wait to stitch the other two on the chart and I’m finding myself looking for more to stitch………….I’m sure I’m not the only one to go down that particular rabbit hole, Lol!

When it comes to fully finishing, I always find it a bit of a task, because despite having a dedicated craft room, it’s sadly small and doesn’t have enough room to leave my sewing machine out all the time.

So for that reason I tend to leave them until I have a few projects that need attention and this time there were a couple of other items that needed attention too, (a pair of curtains that needed taking up and the sleeves of a beach cover-up needed shortening) so the time had finally come!

I dealt with the two ‘boring’ projects first and then tackled the fun stuff.

I had the final 3 panels from ‘Beach Rules' by Primrose Cottage that needed sorting.

 ‘Build Sandcastles'

‘Roll with the Tides'

and finally ‘Make Memories’ 

I decided to make this pillow with a little pocket.........because I have a plan and a story!

You have to go back to my childhood and also think forward to a trip I have coming up in a couple of weeks.

From the age of around 5 (in the early 60's) my parents took myself and my two brothers down to Woolacombe, North Devon for our summer holidays, on five consecutive years, so as you can imagine, I have many memories of those trips.

I visited there again once in the late 70’s with friends, but haven't been back since.  

I'm sure you'll have already guessed, but for my late summer break I'll be going back for another visit, and I'm looking forward to seeing how much it's changed over the last 50 years.

The little pocket is destine to be filled with some 'Now & Then' photos and other little trinkets I might find. 

 Here’s my final display of ‘Beach Rules’

lay of ‘Beach Rules’ I don't know how much stitching I'll get done during September because I have a Big Birthday (70) coming up and as well as a few celebrations planned I also have two short breaks away.  

So we'll play it by ear and see where my needle takes me.

Happy Stitching!

Sue

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