Marguerite Bag

Hello and thanks for visiting! Its been ages since I did a "proper" blog post - all my recent ones have just been to tell you about my podcast, but I've really missed chitty chatting so I thought I'd rectify that with a post today.

We're just back from a lovely dog walk at Greys' Court, which is a National Trust property. We didn't go into the house, or take many photos, as we had a reluctant teenager with us, and had to keep moving, but here are a couple of pics of the bluebells, which was our primary reason for choosing Grey's Court.

Back home, in making news, I have finished a beautiful bag, the Marguerite Bag. It's a pattern by Emma Wright, as featured in issue 166 of Inside Crochet magazine.

The pattern called for Wool Couture Cotton but I used Drops Muskat, which is a mercerised cotton, in colours Denim, White and Sunflower.

I blocked all the squares on my lovely wooden blocking board, by simply spraying them with water and leaving to dry. Once blocked I was able to really easily assemble them into the bag shape, which is such a clever design.

The next job was to add the straps. I went a bit off piste here - the pattern called for a chain of 64 stitches for each strap but I wanted my straps longer so I did 130 chains. Then I felt like it needed to be wider than the one in the pattern, so I added a row of trebles all around. 

Finally I chose some lovely bright fabric with which to line it.

I used the sewing machine to make a rectangle taller than the bag, then I cut down in a big zig-zag around to mirror the points and dips of the squares (diamonds ?). I ironed a seam allowance and then hand stitched the lining in place.

And here is the lovely Brenda modelling the final result...

I'm totally in love with this bag, I love how summery and bright and sunny it is. Now we just need some weather to match!

Til next time,

Jillxxx

The Vyne

Earlier this week my dear Friend and I had a visit to the Vyne, a National Trust Property not too far from us. You can read about one of my previous visits to the Vyne here.

Friend and I both have NT membership and usually use it with our respective families, meaning that we never really get to look around the actual houses very much, as we are usually dealing with small ones running off, or older ones declaring they're bored. But this time we had no offspring in tow, it was just the two of us with cameras, chat, and a thirst for a good cuppa.

The Vyne, and by that I mean the house itself, dates back to Tudor times (1600's), although it has had many changes since - you can read a bit more of its history here.

The house is set before a lovely ornamental lake - you can just see the house peeping through on left in the picture above. The Trust have very thoughtfully provided loads of "proper" deckchairs - we decided next time we will bring a proper picnic in a proper picnic hamper :)

The Canadian geese looked a bit hungry, so we didn't hang around as we had no food for them ....

The grounds are beautiful, as you would expect in any NT maintained property :)

We had a very leisurely stroll followed by a cream tea - yum! (For my friends overseas a "cream tea" means a scone with jam and clotted cream (naughty!) and a pot of tea with which to wash it down :)

Next to the tea-room is the shop, I loved these metallic garden ornaments ....

Fortified with tea and scones we went for a mooch around the house. I wasn't able to get many good photographs as flash photography is not allowed, but here are a few that I did manage. I loved how the rooms are all interconnected, you can see the full length of the house looking down through the doorways.

In one of the rooms there was a pianist playing, how lovely!

I spotted this beautiful embroidery on the covering of a chair ....

My favourite part of the house was the Chapel. The Chapel itself was only used by the priest and the choir - the members of the household could join in the service from a raised gallery which was screened off, and the the staff of the house had to sit in a different room altogether. In the Chapel there is some fabulous stained glass which dates back to the 1600's.

The top panels all depict religious images, the bottom panels are of Tudor scenes - of King Henry VIII and various wives. Only one tiny area has been replaced, the rest is original, yes that means it's been there for 400 years. 400 YEARS ! I find that absolutely staggering.

On the floor, in front of where the choir would sit, is some amazing mosaic tiling - it is believed to be Roman ....

My next favourite bit of the house was a series of small rooms that the NT have turned into one of their famed second-hand bookshops. What is it about a bookshop - I could spend hours and hours and hours browsing around, I think its the randomness, you never know when you will find just the right book. I loved how they had the main bookshop, and then "more books" ....

Actually there was another room with all the "yet-to-be-sorted" books, where there were a couple of staff members sorting out what I assume were boxes of donated books. Oh my word, I would have LOVED to have been let loose in there! Anyway I managed to find 3 paperbacks which I will probably take on holidays, and there was a 3 for 2 offer so they cost me £2 total - oooooh I love a good bargain.

Back outside we spotted the same tree that I'd noticed on my previous visit ....

Apparently this tree has stood for quite some time - during the time of Trafalgar (early 1800's), the then owner of the house, William Chute, was offered 100 pounds and then 100 guineas for the tree for timber (presumably for ships), he refused both offers and the tree still stands. A mere 200-plus years old! Look at that crazy angle at which its leaning, its amazing it can hold itself up.

We also had a peek inside the summerhouse. This would have been used as a shelter from which to admire the garden, or as a cosy place to retreat to after dinner, and in more recent times (1800's) it was used as a dovecote. The timbers in the roof have been dated back to the 1600's so it too has been standing a very long time.

There's a flowerbed close by which reflects the shape of the summerhouse ....

.... the pink flowers are geraniums ... imagine planting all of those!!!

We wended our way back dwon the tree-lined path, and onwards home after a very relaxing and reviving day :)

I'll be posting with crochet updates over the weekend, til then byeeeeeeeee

xxxxxxxxx

Easter and Giveaway Winners

I bet you thought I'd given up blogging at the 1 year mark .... well of course not :) Sorry about a slightly longer absence than usual but we've been busy having a really marvellous Easter holidays, I mean really tippity top. It's been one of those holidays where we've found the perfect balance of going out .... staying in .... doing lots .... and relaxing ..... There really has been much to be thankful for.

.... sweetheart roses - sweet indeed

.... spring greenery from the garden

.... little chocolate eggs from my lovely hubby

.... fun day out at Basildon Park

.... doing their Easter quiz-trail 

... and admiring the beautiful blooms

.... enjoying first crochet in the garden this year

The weather has been fabulous here, I hope it's been as good wherever you are. We've really made the most of it with trips to the park, lots of time in the garden, Little Man and his friends have been out on their bikes and playing nerf-gun wars on the field, and the girls have been trampolining, playing hopscotch, making assault courses, skipping, ..... oh the list of outdoor pursuits goes on and on, its been so lovely to see them having all this wholesome fun :)

Just before Easter I had spotted these little chick beanbags on Pinterest. (http://www.petalstopicots.com/2014/03/crochet-chicken-pattern-little-chick-bean-bag-pattern) I decided to make a whole bunch so we could play beanbag games with them. And of course they had to be rainbow coloured.

I tell you, this is a fab stash-busting project. Each chick is just a rectangle, twice as long as it is wide, then you sew it up at a strange angle, add on some of those red wobbly bits on their heads (should they only be for roosters ??) and some beaks and ta-daaaah ..... little beanbag chickens .....

If you think they are looking rather menacing, you should have seen the first one I made with pointy eyes. Very Angry Birds.

In the absence of a suitable Easter bucket, we stuffed them all in a Halloween pail and took them outside for some beanbag fun.

The homemade beanbag tossy stand thingy was another Pinterest find. Got to love Pinterest, eh ?

Now. After all that jolliness, get our tissues ready for I have a sad little tale to tell you. Little Man and his friend were out on their bikes yesterday and found this little chap at the roadside. They very carfeully carried him home in one of their bike helmets (so proud of them both :) The doorbell rang. "We found a tortoise" they said. "A tortoise?" I said. "Er.....". And so we phoned the vet. And took the tortoise, in a shoebox balanced very carefully on Little Man's lap in the car, to said vet - me, my 3 Little Peeps plus Little Man's friend. Quite an expedition. And so the vet took a look at the tortoise. Which turned out to be a turtle.

"He's very poorly...." said the vet "... very skinny and dehydrated..." he continued. Turns out he is a type of Asian Box Turtle. Aquatic, not native to the UK, difficult to look after, and of high monetry value. Often used for breeding, illegally. And really not in great shape at all. The vet said he would monitor it overnight and call us today with an update. In the meantime we called at a few houses to see if anyone had an escapee turtle (how does that even happen) but in reality I was rather hoping we wouldn't find anyone as I have a suspicion that the poor little turtle was, at best, not being looked after properly, and at worst, had been abandoned.

So the vet called this morning, poor little turtle didn't do well overnight, isn't feeding himself so needs tube-feeding which would need an anaesthetic which would add more stress and trauma....... aaaah bless him :( Vet is going to monitor again tonight but between us we agreed it would be best, if there's no improvement overnight, to put him to sleep :( We, hubby and I, considered giving poor little turtle a home, but we don't think we'd be able to care for him properly. Poor little turtle :(

Phew. Sorry. Bit of a sad ending there. I am supremely proud of my boy and his friend so being so caring, they were so worried and so gentle with poor little turtle.

And onto brighter things. Little Miss helped me to pick the Blog Birthday Giveaway Winners :) 

We wrote out the names, folded them up and plonked them in my button tin. If you're wondering where the buttons are, they are now in jars and sorted according to colour (wee bit OCD ??).

And the lucky winners are ..... Niki Murray - hurray!!! And HouseWithHearts - yippee!!!

I'll be in touch tomorrow ladies to get your contact details :) And then you can await an exciting parcel in the post :)

Enjoy the rest of your Easter hols people - mwah!

xxxxx