Our wee trip to Yorkshire Coast

As we're not getting away this autumn we booked ourselves a wee cottage just a few miles outside of Filey.

It was a beautiful wee village.

Here we are exploring the beach on the first night - holiday selfie!

Of course Pippa had to come too

We treated ourselves to fish and chips.... I have to say these were about the best fish and chips I've ever had.  

I'm not really one for fish and chips - that's the boyfriends preferred take away choice.  But man these were good

We had them on a bench overlooking the beach.  It was just perfect.  So romantic.

On saturday we drove to scarborough for the day

We played the slot games

We didn't win a penny but only spent pennies so who cares!

Pippa's not allowed on scarborough beach during the summer - they have a no dog rule, which quite frankly SUCKS.  In my opinion it's like saying 'no children'.  They make a mess, they pee in the sea, they leave rubbish everywhere, they're a trip hazard running around the place, what harm do little doggies do?  There should be a fine for not picking up after them and an enforced lead rule if anything but to ban all dogs is just ridiculous.  Sort it out scarborough council!

Anyway rant over.  We enjoyed the view from afar but as a consequence none of the businesses along by the beach got our trade!

The pirate boat is dog friendly tho!  Here we are having a quick trip out

Then that evening we drove up to Whitby Abby

Another dog friendly site!

And then we went to find the chip shop that was voted the 2014 best fish and chips in the uK

They were OK - but not as good as Inghams the previous night.

Pippa's looking for dracula here.

Then we had a walk around the town.  Pippa posed on some creels.  So cute

On sunday we went a walk by the cliffs.  These cliffs were really cool - they were completely white like chalk.  

It was like being on a different planet

Everyone wrote their names on stones with the lime stone and put them on the cliffs.

Here's our effort

Here is Pippa in the stones.  Just before this the boyfriend fell over.  It was quite funny

Then we went a walk along the top and by the lighthouse

Those cliffs were high - they gave me vertigo!

On the way home we found a miniature village so stuck our heads in

I have to say it was incredible.

The next day before we came home we went to the village where heartbeat and harry potter was filmed.

This is Hogwarts platform from the first film.  The steam railway still runs through it.

The next trip to yorkshire is going to involve a steam railway journey - they accept dogs! :)

Then we drove to another village where hogwarts was filmed which was really cute - it was the village in the last films.  The ice cream was great!

So much fun to have a quick break.  But too short.  Saving is hard.

My birthday...

So it really has been an incredibly busy summer.  It was my birthday a few weeks ago and so we went to the races on the Saturday...

It was more an opportunity to get dressed up and wear a fascinator!

It was ladies day....

The blokes did come along too but it was all about us girls.  

To be honest - it was fun, but only cos of the company - the races itself were a bit rubbish.  We couldn't even buy a cocktail or a glass of prosecco!  Not really what I signed up for but on the plus side there was a boy band tribute band on at night time complete with a fake take that!  They went down a treat!  

For my birthday I got some lovely presents including an overlocker from the boyfriend!

Puss got a present too....

The box!

Commonwealth frolics

So this post is kind of late to the table but July saw Glasgow host the commonwealth games.

It was brilliant - the city was just alive.  

It started off with a rocking party and we were lucky enough to be doing some filming down at Glasgow Green so got to soak up the atmosphere.

  

The weather was insane!

 

The people were fantastic and Glasgow really put on a show.

We also got to go see some gymnastics - which was so good

  

And then some more filming - this time a flash mob with Nicola Benedetti

  

We got to do a quick interview with her for our film too.

There was just so much going on around the city.  We had these cool wee clydes all over the city too

 

And it was a challenge to say the least, with a closed airspace but we even managed to get permission to fly a drone and get some aerials - which looked incredible...

  

And the city finished it all off with another big party, so it meant back to the Green....

 

For some compulsory flag waving!

And even more compulsory beer drinking!

It was sooooo much fun!  Wish we could do it all again

Patterns and fabrics

I recently bought these lovely fabrics.... and the Colette knit dress pattern

I just need to find time to make them now.  The green bird fabric is going to be a dressing gown

In other news I've been attending an advanced dressmaking class and I've just about finished my hawthorn blouse - just sleeves and buttons to go in - but man those plackets are a nuisance!

Crochet

So anybody who follows me on twitter or instagram you will know I have been getting really into crochet lately.

Whilst I love my sewing - I find it quite anti-social and when i'm in the sewing room I can't interact with the boyfriend... and when I'm sat watching a movie or box set with him I feel guilty I'm not sewing so I wanted something to do with my hands.  I do knit but on anything more complicated than a straight stitch it's impossible for me to knit and really watch something.  The boyfriend says I'm an angry knitter - not really the point, right?  But if he interrupts me when i'm in the middle of a lace pattern what do you expect?!  lol.  So anyway crochet seems a perfect fit.  I'd been wanting to learn for a while and I just started following videos on youtube and taught myself.

I'd been making granny squares for a while.... so I still have those piled up to put together in a blanket... so I just decided to keep going...

It started coming up fairly quickly

Soon enough I had a Pippa sized blanket...

She seemed to get pretty comfy in that there blanket....

And then later on that night still wouldn't let it go..

That face just says it all right?  Don't steal my blanket mum?  lol

Anyway I did (cruel mum) and it's still coming together really well now.... except I ran out of wool just a few crochets away from the end of a row - so I'm now awaiting my ebay delivery (hopefully tomorrow) as I'm getting crochet withdrawals.

It really is the perfect craft to do in front of the box and a great way to use up yarn!

xx

Recent Fabric Purchases

I have bought quite a bit of fabric recently.

Let's start by admiring this amazing silk Liberty bird fabric.

It's amazing.  I love it.  I feel like I need more practice making blouses before I start to cut this up!

So I took advantage of a sale on Minerva

And bought this gorgeous bundle.  I've started to make the Hawthorn Colette Pattern at my Advanced Dressmaking Class  and I think I will use the dark green cotton.  Then if I have time I think I'd like to do it in the blue satin.  I've never sewn anything with satin before, so I want to get the shirt right first and then use the tough fabric.

This final bundle is an old purchase from my last trip to the States, to JoAnns.  It will make up my next quit, which I think will be a Flying Geese design.  

But for now after finishing those last quilt projects, I'm going to concentrate on dress making and get the most out of my course.

Quick Diamond Quilt

I've been meaning to make a quilt for Pippa for some time.  She always loves my quilts and I hate how the dog/cat hair gets stuck to them, so I figured if I made her, her own she could stop stealing mine!

I used some bits and pieces of either scraps I had left over, or fat quarters I have had in my stash for a LONG time

I wanted to make it pink for a girl dog! ;)

Out of each fat quarter I managed to get a rectangle piece for a triangle and a strip for binding later on

The bigger rectangle pieces I cut on the diagonal

Then use one light and one dark

And lay out to sew together... 

                                         

Use a dark, light, dark, light combo pile

                                        

This is for ease of grabbing, next to your machine

Just sew along the edge

Chain stitch to be thread economical!

Then iron to the light side

And this will be your first part of the block.  You need four of these to make one block

You make your diamond, by sewing the light or dark edges together.  You want to alternate how you do this for effect on the top.  I did a 9 block quilt. 

This is me trying out different designs.  I finally settled on the light vs dark design, rather than a giant pinwheel.

So I had 9 of these blocks, 3 per row.

The smaller strips from earlier I just sewed together to make a binding.  You could use it as a border and then use a plain colour for a binding, but I was happy with this.

So many different opportunities to play around with this design.  

I think Pippa's happy with this one tho

 She jumped straight on it.  Yawned and fell asleep

So that's one sewing companion happy.

Next it's time for Sparky to get his own quilt.  Here he is next to my machine on his favourite perch.