Is that ... is that sunshine??? Looks like flaming June has finally arrived

Yup, we're over halfway through June, but finally the Great British Summer has put in an appearance.  It's been blissfully warm - even dare I say it, hot! - for the last couple of days, and let's hope that carries on over the weekend.  The photos above and below were taken at St Aidans RSPB reserve which is within walking distance for me, and I think that purple flower is a Common Orchid.  There are lots of them dotted around, among a sea of white daisies and mauve thistles, along with all the beautiful seed heads of the grasses.  

It's the ideal place to go for a quiet early evening stroll, with just a few twitchers and dog walkers for company.  Apart from hundreds of birds that is, squawking away and occasionally giving you the Evil Eye and a hiss if you come too near their babies.  

It's not been the weather to stay inside, so I haven't got much crafty stuff done.  I tacked a layer of polyester wadding on to the back of this patchwork, something that's been lying around for ages waiting for me to deal with it.  Looking at this English Paper Piecing now, it's a wonder to me that I had the patience to make all those hexagons and half-hexs.  The hours that must've gone into that.  

I had a couple of crafty projects that didn't turn out how I wanted them too.  I'd made this little pouch a while ago, and fancied making a second one.  Dug out the material and sewed it together, then make a yo-yo (a.k.a. Suffolk Puff) for the base.  Spent a while getting the size of the yo-yo right and neatly attaching it to the pouch, only to find I'd sewed it on to the top of the pouch not the base.  Meaning the pouch's pockets were upside down.  Doh!  I couldn't face unpicking it, so that got tossed into the scraps basket, to be recycled into cushion stuffing.  Then I tried making a slow-stitched brooch.  I'd seen these by embroiderer Jessie Chorley - link here - and really liked them.  Bought some kilt pins online, and began making a little charm brooch.  But that didn't go right either.  My stitches pulled, they looked too big and clumsy, the brooch was a fraction too wide to hang nicely from the kilt pin ... I gave up on it and stuck it on a journal page while I started a second version.  

This is something else that is partially complete, as so many of my crafty projects are.  It's a length of black felt, covered in blue or mainly blue fabric, and stitched into.  I've started adding embroidery in bright red thread to it as well.  I'll cut out a circle of black felt for the base, and hopefully this'll make a useful and reasonably sturdy fabric basket.  

I think part of the fun of this kind of stitching is getting over any worries about your lines not being straight enough, or your stitches being even.  So what if they're not perfect?  Who else but you is going to notice?  

I found these two patterns in a charity shop, for the grand price of 50p each.  I'd assumed both were sewing patterns, but the one on the right is all about applying glue, not using thread.  Included with the instructions were cardboard templates, and you glue wadding and material to them in order to construct your sewing case.  I struggled a bit with the hinged element of the design and will have to bodge that section, but otherwise it's all quite straightforward.  Though I'm not entirely comfortable using all that glue - not the most environmentally friendly product - so I'm already thinking how the pattern can be adapted, ditching the cardboard and using felt and folk-art style embroidery.  

As you can see, I needed to use a lot of plastic clips to keep the material in place while the glue dried.  The hearts are currently getting thoroughly stuck together under a heavy pile of books, so I'll show you the outcome in my next post.  

Hope the sun's shining wherever you are.  Bye!