Hot outside

 I've spent a lot of this week hiding inside from the heat wave, which has gone up to 31C at some points. Stupid climate change.  It's been too hot to go up to my longarm attic room much, although I have made a start on stitching the pantograph design for my New Zealand quilt.  When we did one night of camping yesterday, close to our storage yard, just to check everything is working on the caravan and that we haven't forgotten anything, it went up to about 30C at the campsite. But luckily it was partially overcast and there was a good breeze, so we were able to huddle in the scrap of shade in front of the caravan in reasonable comfort.

This week I finished binding the Lori Holt My Favourite Things quilt and it's hanging in the hallway.  Her designs are so cheerful and vintage, and  I like all the embellishments and details.  I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out. I used all my own fabrics and the free pattern she publishes on her blog, and guesstimated/eyeballed the shapes as I didn't buy her templates which are very expensive here in the UK.  I used three vintage crochet doilies in place of her fabric doiley shapes.  I custom quilted this on my longarm frame with my Handiquilter Simply Sixteen.

Temu was advertising some cute snap-clasp purses on Facebook. I don't buy from Temu but I had some snap-clasp purse frames in my stash.  So I tinkered with some scrap fabric until I got the shape right, then made up a purse using some of my recently purchased Japanese fabric.  Fun.

I also had a go at winging a lined totebag with my Korean fabric.  The pics are fresh off the machine so not pressed or threads trimmed yet.  It's come out a bit taller than I was envisaging, I will have to tinker with the dimensions a bit to achieve more pleasing proportions.  The front and back are cut from a panel of printed historical scenes, and the bottom is a fabric featuring Korean script.  The lining shows traditional Korean 'hanok' houses.

I also finally finished the CrossStitcher magazine free cover kit (over two issues) for a harbourside scene, which came with blue spotted fabric to make a simple bag.  I decided to make a lined zip pouch instead, with fleece lining to give it some body. I used a seashell fabric for the lining. The cross stitch took me absolutely ages and I did not do a great job - I need to buy a magnifier that will let me also watch TV because I just can't see well enough to make neat stitches any more.

Hope you are staying cool where you live.