I love weekends

... espacially those that last three days, like this one :-)



First, I want to thank you for the kind comments you have left on my blogs. I do appreciate them, and like many of you I'm glad to belong to this community!



This has been a quiet weekend, with a beautiful weather. My daughter was there, but she went out in the evenings to meet friends and came early in the mornings. So she has been sleeping most of the time. Leaving me plenty of free time for textile art.



At last, I've had some time to read Stitch. And the cracker inside was a good opportunity to see how the new machine does free embroidery. It is not finished yet, I have to put some embellishments. I like to make "lace" with hydrosoluble. So this is the first step,
and the result when the hydrosoluble is gone. In Stitch, they use soluble paper. But I think this one may be better: you can dissolve the hydrosoluble just enough to have the lace effect, and still have a stiff effect. I hope I will work on it next weekend. And more important, I love this machine, especially the possibility to select three sewing speeds. And to have the needle down anytime I stop pressing the pedal, with the foot lifted just enough to turn the fabric. My second priority for this weekend was sewing this lettuce. Quite a challence, especially as I drew the pattern on a support, and then cut the bits from that support. In fact, this produces defaults, small defaults, but added together, they end making a big one. The last seam was a bit difficult to achieve. So ladies, if you are sewing on paper and read in the instructions "photocopy", do photocopy :() Anyway, I like it. next vegetable is an artichocke. With curved seams too. I really must be insane to do that.
And the last picture for today is the TAST challenge, with the Lace Border Stitch. It looks complex but it is fun to do, and far more easier as it looks.

Green Thumb Sunday

Autumn is coming very slowly, we still have high temperatures in the day (24°C), although they drop in the evening and in the early morning. And not a single drop of rain...
The garden is still doing well: I don't remember the name of this rose. Like William Morris, it needed time to setlle in, but I think it is feeling well now. It has always made its best efforts to flower.

The canna bud I showed you last week turned into a beautiful flower.
The yucca buds are growing at high speed!
And this was the visitor I found yesterday morning. Clearly a mantis, but much smaller than those I met up to now. I suppose it is a male ?

Have a nice gardening Sunday all.

Marseilles

Thursday was a graduation for Emilie. In Marseilles this time (she had a first graduation day at another school, in the Middle of France, two years ago). For this special occasion, I took the afternoon off, and we decided to have lunch in Marseilles.
So here were are. I had not forgotten that she looks that much like her father :-) After lunch, we took a walk. We went only to the very center of Marseilles so there are only a few pictures.
Marseilles is a very old city, and those two pictures show you ruin found right in the middle of the city. They made a garden around them.
This year, we have a cow parade in Marseilles. This one represents all the villages that make the city. It stands at the old harbour.
And this is a view of the old harbour.

This church faces the old harbour. I did not alter the color of the sky, by the way. Behind the old harbour are a lot of small streets, with restaurants or shops. It was taken in the middle of the afternoon, so it is a bit empty.
Another place to relax.
Then it was time to go to the ceremony. Unfortunately, my camera did not work properly, so I have no picture to show you. They have tried to make it modern, so between the speeches, or when the students walked to the scene, they played some music. Amazingly it was disco. I had not expected Donna Summer or the Bee Gees to be there :-)

Misc.

Nikkipolani, I'm a bit stuborn :-) William Morris was part of an order I've made with another lady. She knows everything and can't bear that a plant does not obey her wishes. As it is very hot here, and windy too, roses do not feel comfortable. And the other lady was always complaining that David Austeen roses are not worth their price. The bad girl in me wanted to prove her wrong. My opinion is that you must give plants time. And it is what I did, I gave William Morris some time, and I'm glad I did.

Wicked Gardener, I will show you pictures of the yucca. They are growing at high speed, but this week I left home before there was light enough, and came back too late to make pictures. I'll make some this weekend.

Thank you Mumm and JoWynn. I'm glad you've enjoyed the vegs and the tour in the garden.

Blackswanp Girl, I will definitively keep the egg plant! I like it a lot, and the middle seam was too difficult to make to throw it away (5 trials to sew 2 cm..., because of the biais, the pies would not go where I wanted them to go...)

ZQuilts, I agree with you, David Austeen roses are beautiful, and Rose De Rescht is a beauty on itself. I lile also roses by Meilland, a French grower.
Thank you Lisa and Jhoaniquing for your kind comment. Euh, what does TLC means ? I'm sure it is obvious, but I just cannot find the meaning ;-)
Aiyana, I'll have another rose for next week... Don't get me wrong, my garden is not full of roses because it is too hot for them here, but I do have some nice ones. And Aiyana, your blog surprises me everytime I drop by. You seem to have a forest of cactii :-)
Thank you Sisah for your comment on fabrics vegs. I don't know which is easier, growing or sewing ...

Hugs to all

TAST week 40

The stitch of TAST this week is Linked Double Chain.

I needed some background to play with the linked double chain. Or, if you prefer, this was the perfect occasion to play with my new toy:

I like my mechanical sewing maching very much, and it still works properly if not perfectly. But new machines offer new functions too. I've been dreaming of a new one for three years now, looking at various brands and models. My choice went equally to Janome, but there is no dealer in the area, and to Husqvarna. And last week, there was a special offer in my local shop, and I made the jump. I did not have much time to play with it, but I like it already very much.

I had ordered a flower stitcher for my previous sewing machine, but I would not fit. The new machine accepts it, so I have exercised this morning. It came with instructions in English, more in German, and there is the article on WOW. Clearly, I still have to understand how to get concentric circles. Playing with non linear stitches leads to non circular circles, but it can be interesting. I'm rather pleased with this first attempt, although more exercise will be good.

Anyway, here is my piece for wk40:

Growing, no sorry, Sewing vegetables

At the shop, we have all started a quilt with vegetables. They are sewed on a paper support. Not necessarily an easy method for me, I just cannot think in mirror :-). For the moment, I have an egg plant, a tomato (not sure I will keep it, must see how it looks among the other vegetables) and peppers.

I'm working on a lettuce. With curved seams... I'm not working on paper for this one, as I cannot figure how to manage mirror sewing and curved seams. So I'm "simply" piecing it together. There are little arrows on the pattern for this one, so I figure they show the grain. Another reason for piecing. I hope I can post the result soon.

Green Tumb Sunday - October surprises

Green Thumb Sunday


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Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Thursday was supposed to be a rainy day, it has been a sunny day, just as the day after and today...

I came back home early, and my first surprise was this rose, that seemed to wait for me so that I could admire her. It is William Morris by David Austeen. It had a hardtime to establish itself in my garden. Took at least three years. During those three years, it remained frail. I pruned it hard every year, it grew stronger each year but I was not sure it would make it, until now where it is a real rose bush with strong branches and a lot of roses. It is in the front garden, on the North.

Then I went to the South garden, and cut faded flowers on the canna, to discover it was blooming again. It is the third bloom of this year. I'm very proud of it. It is one of the plants that enjoyed clearly my regained motivation in gardening :-) It got larger leaves, and more flowers, as if it was saying "thank you".

I went on to the back of the garden, where I have two yuccas. And they too had some surprise for me: two stems with buds. I could not see them from front, but they were visible from the side. I like to watch them grow, and suddenly those white bells are here!