Summer loving

I love summer holidays.  I don't even need to go away, I am happy to be at home with my daughter, with Damian when possible, with our pets and have lots of free time.  I have reduced working hours in the summer and at the moment there are just under 3 weeks of hoiday to enjoy- it seems to be longer this year and with favourable weather I am loving it.

We have just returned from visiting my husband's family in the North West.  Lula is an only child so she has the fun of being one of the gang with her cousins.  I visited my granny who is in good health and we went through old photos.  The joy of an iphone is being able to snap the snaps.  She is with my late grandfather looking very much the young couple in love.  I adore the shine of her tightly pinned hair, very film star.  The picture below shows her with her sisters. She is back right.  The styles look very like the sort of thing you could easily find in Colette patterns.

This was a glamourous blurry and tiny photo of her at the beach.  It captures a mood and a time before they had a child, before the second world war.

It was truly a pleasure to see her.  I don't see her often and I wish I lived nearer.  All the visitng lead to lots of time on the train so I pulled out neglected EPP started last year when the olympics was on and completed the central rosette of the design.  Now I need to prep the next for another set of train journeys coming up soon.  I really enjoyed getting back into hand sewing again.  This quilt is 'Tesseltations II' from Feathering the Nest

 I finished another Miss Maggie rabbit, ready for a new baby gift.  This is my third.  Each is immensely enjoyable to put together.  She needs clothes and I am thinking of drafting some bloomers to go with the dress.

And a visit to the Northwest always means a trip to Abakhan.  From left to right:  1m feathery georgette, 1m drape comma mamade silky fabric,  1.5m striped jersey and 2.4m tweedy looking printed cotton.  These were all remants from their clothing fabric bins.  All this fabric for £14- such bargains!  The craft fabric was disappointing this time, I couldn't find anything I liked but there were a lot more dress remnants to chose from.

And now I am home I need to get my swap item finished for The Sewing Room Flickr swap.  One of the items I am making is The Social Tote, a collaborative pattern between Anna Graham and Carolyn Friedlander.  It is one of those projects that you need to give your full attention to, a brain workout as well as a sewing one and it has worked well so far.  I am making two, one for me, one for my swap partner. 

And I am getting the itch to get more clothes made.  Planning that in my head so far.  Happy holidays!