fabulous skies and wedding presents...

We have had some amazing blustery days just lately - the sort of sunshine that makes you think its going to feel like summer, then when you venture outside strong winds that nearly knock you off your feet. I had some sheets on the line yesterday and had to do battle with them just to get them in - as fast as I unpegged a bit the wind whipped it back around the line!

But accompanying this weather have been some fab skies...

A couple of nights ago, as the sun was setting the bottoms of the clouds were all tinged with pink against  a sky that was still pretty blue. Made me think of 'Red sky at night, shepherds delight' that my mum used to always say - always makes me feel optimistic about the chances of the next day's weather prospects!

Then last night there was the most stunning rainbow; what caught my eye first was the low sun that looked as though it was shining a spotlight on the church in the distance...

You might be able to just pick out the church tower poking up from the dark hedge in the middle of the picture - it usually looks quite grey but was bright gold. The rainbow was a full double that arced from one side of the field to the other and at each end was so bright you could barely look at it.

It lasted for quite a few minutes and as the sky darkened it seemed to brighten even more before fading away...

There must have been a pot of gold under there, don't you think?

In order to catch these picture I had to drop my project for the evening - the wedding present cushions I posted about before. The wedding is Saturday so the pressure was in to get my act together and finish them and...

Ta dah! But you've kind of seen these before because I posted about them when I finished the fronts, so...

...here are the backs! I couldn't find two jumpers to recycle that were quite right (I was looking for cotton jumpers to match the cotton yarn I used - so much thin acrylic out there!) so for the smaller one I used up what was left of the rowan cottons I'd used for the grannies. For the larger cushion, I found a cardigan in Oxfam which just fitted the bill.

It had a pretty moss stitch button band so I used the back and the buttonhole side of the front and just added some bright new buttons. Easy peasy!!! The only bit that I struggled with was doing the cutting up! This was a Boden cardigan (Boden is something I dream of being able to afford!!) and was quite a nice boxy cardigan - I was tempted to keep it but it was a bit tired on the sleeves and I really needed to finish the cushions so I went for it. Once I've made that first snip, I'm away - no more worries! 

And here they are waiting to be parcelled up...

I hope Kathy & Will enjoy them!

Til next time then

Sx

PS thanks for your nice comments after yesterdays moans - have a bit more perspective on things today and not feeling so miserable! x