Selvages , Flowers and Books.

During the odd minutes I managed to grab I have now got some projects underway. Here I am sorting by colour my bag of saved selvages.

I started on the purple and mauves first. I am making them into 12.5 " squares that will later be cut. After reading how others had handled theirs I decided to try without a fabric backing. It seems to be working but requires lots of careful pinning and heaps of pressing. So far I like the " fabric " I have created. Some strips have quite a generous amount of fabric along with the selvage, others none at all, so I am interspersing the widths as well as the colours.
That is my machine sewing project underway. By hand I am appliqueing circles and working on the felt ball. My homework for this week is find all the things I am supposed to have for the class I am taking with Hazel Foot next weekend. Some I don't have so will have to source them ( more on that when it happens. )
 The hand sewing is coming on okay; still not sure I am going to be pleased with it...... maybe it's when I am sewing it........ while watching rugby...which last night was rather boring...... Those of you like Dale and Farmgirl and Ruth and Murray ( friends - no blog )will know what I mean. I would have been hugely disappointed if I had spent good money to see that! Hope tonights' game  is better. Go ABs!  ( something I learned in the last 24 hours is,  sausage rolls are messy things.....we never have them but as we had guests last night to watch the match I put on suitable nibbles - those were for half time and meant that not only did I vacuum before they came I had to do it today as well - they had plates too.( that means it will be 5 years till I make them again! )
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 I have spent all afternoon in the garden mowing; weeding and pricking out my seedlings. Here are some bright spots.

Love in the Mist ( Nigella ) is out.

The 2 red Rubicon rhododendrons are flowering ( beside a very weedy shell path )

                                              These purple babianas took me by surprise.

                                           The day lilies are starting to bloom.

                              This looks like a big lilac but is a miniature. The fab smell is all Lilac. It is actually mauve not pink as it looks here.
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 I forgot to mention I had finished reading Wild Swans. It was a long gruelling read, but I made myself finish it. If they could live it the least I could do was read it. I knew a little of the awful goings on in China but had no idea about the extent and deprivation and constant killing and needless waste and lying that was their lives.
 Since then I have been catching up on my magazines and am ready to read something light by way of contrast.
 I hope you have all done something you like this weekend - maybe not for the whole time but at least part of it. Cheers!