April Furtling, Inside and Out

HAPPY BELTANE to one and all as we move out of April and into May. 'March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers' and all that. Oh, but there's also 'Ne'er cast a clout 'til May be out' - and certainly the weather has taken another chilly turn  here in Lanarkshire.  Which may be as well for me as I have TONS of the stitchy stuff to finish but as the days get longer and warmer, I get further away from my sewing space. I need to make the most of the chill and crack on a bit, I think.

So, what was happening stitchy-wise at the Grout Homestead in March? Well, perhaps not as much as should have been but I have enjoyed Highland Cow wrangling as I got a good start on the enlarged version of Tartankiwi's pattern. A friend had asked me to make her an fpp cow at double the size of the original and this seemed perfectly doable. Until I got to the printing, that is. I'd assumed I just needed to find an A3 printer and increase the print size but, no. For techy reasons too boring to go in to, the best I could print was a pattern at almost 150% so thats what we'll have to put up with! So, work started ...

I'd been warned that, whilst the pattern would adapt nicely in scale,some of the bigger background pieces with tricky angles could become fairly unwieldy.  My friend had chosen a lovely turquoise print from a past Alison Glass collection (she's just moved to an island, my friend not Alison!, and wanted to bring sea and field together in the colour scheme) but this print was now hard to come by so cutting and piecing of the harder big bits was tense as I was worried about making a hash and running out of fabric. However, deep sigh of relief as I stitched the final piece with fabric to spare. Phew!

Now the jigsaw commences 

        Followed by a therapuetic evening of paper-tearing while singing along to the                                                                                 radio

I am now waiting for backing fabric and while I wait I'm swithering as to whether to add a bit of a border to bring the piece a few inches closer to the original size requested as apparently the coo is destined for a large wall space overlooking the Atlantic (envious? Me?) but whatever I decide, this project has just been delightful from the start and I know I'm going to struggle with handing this coo over!

                                                               So far so good

Meanwhile,  my Trinket SAL limps along, not because I'm not enjoying it but simply because the coo has more of a deadline. I made the decision at the start of the SAL to blitz on ahead as once it got underway I would soon fall behind in real time, and I'm glad I did. I've started loads of sew-along  projects in the past but once I fall behind , I lose motivation and then they're destined to join the big pile in the corner of the room! But I'm still in the game with this one - yay! - and have just finished my second lot of blocks for the final element of the project, taking me up to 81 completed fpp blocks with just my choice of my favourite 16 to complete this stage. Then just to decide on layout! I'm tempted to go with the original chequer board design and have some nice charcoal background fabric in mind, but I'm still thinking thinking thinking...

10 final Trinket 'Life' blocks

And finally on the stitchy front, a very small project but one that I really enjoyed participating in: a Pass It On postcard. This is part of a collaborative art project in which you ask for the postcard to be sent to you (@thelittlestthistle had had this one before me) and then add something to it before passing it onto the next creative.

The back of the card reads, "in today's world where we're bombarded with bad news and negativity, it is my hope that these postcards will spread a little colour, joy and hope." and it seems to have been started by @rosewildsmith / #passitonpostards.  I've added my contribution and am excited to see who is going to request it next. I then pass it on and the process starts over again. Very simple, very quick and very positive! And it only took minutes!

So, that's been the indoor furtling save  for a few bee blocks and a handstitched Hexie epp quilt top I sometimes play with in the evenings. Outdoor furtling has upped its game considerably for April with longer exploring rides with Murph the Smurf, who has decided he's scared of sheep which is a problem in sheep country but hey! Boo often comes along too now so that's nice - although both crits are jealous of each other!

Watch out, Murph! There be sheep out there! And, even worse, LAMBS.....

Climby-walky wise, I've still been able to tick off a hill per week and my highlight last month was to climb Steeple, a remote Lake District peak I've had in my sights for years. It proved to be everything I wanted it to be;  remote, exposed and thrilling. It was part of a tremendous and long day, at the end of which I almost met my Waterloo by descending by an awful screen gully of maybe 600 ft. Why, I'm still wondering as it was awful and there wasn't another soul about to pick me up and dust me down. Boo thought it was the best fun ever, especially at times when the whole gully started to move under our feet - or, most often, my bottom!  Adrenalin is a worrying thing at times but probably helped us survive!

                                                            The glorious Steeple

The summit of Pillar - with mandatory Teacayk

The third picture was taken on Scafell Pike, England's highest, the next day so the mental scars were clearly already healing! Onwards and Upwards. 😂


And Boo had her first experience of wild camping when we backpacked from home, up a local hill in the hope of a sunrise this past week. The result was something I will never forget. Nor is the enormous dog fox we encountered as we trudged back off the hill in time to sort the ponies' breakfasts . All was magnificent!

                                                           Home for the night

The scale of beauty that can reduce you to tears

Boo couldn't believe it either!

Have a lovely May, everyone and here's to whatever adventures we all enjoy in our different ways. May they all be good ones!  Thank you for reading. Sue x (@sueandboo)

  Slainte

Linking up to Mini Archie's Furtle Around the Blogoshere

<p style="text-align:center"><a href="https://archiethewonderdog.blogspot.com/p/furtling.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQYbZh5ffUAvj3A2OFKOCSPFkfcUEi6TPn8zP5M2CNWnl-_42OEkreMECClrKub9P0OJNDzepT6jWLdDRrKNiBLFrscKqd7ORi0QKJKYpmZ4lFZjBnpuL65NiiREzwd8K-fKBWjo2I-wGG/s200/textgram_1548790799.png" alt="Archie The Wonder Dog" /></a></p>