We spent two and a half days in Cowes and I was very sad to leave it. However leave we must. So my Husband took me back to Gosport and dropped me off at the marina so I could get the train from Portsmouth harbour, so it was back on the Gosport ferry for my last trip, and on to a train home.

But before that I want to share some more pics.

Me wearing another of my tops and using my bag. This was in the shower block at East Cowes.

Coiled ropes!

Watching my Husband on Kooshty motoring up the harbour as he sets off for home. He’ll take 3 days as he’ll not do it in one go.

I love this picture. I was sitting on the Gosport ferry and thats our boat in the centre of the picture as he sails away!

And thats the end.

I enjoyed our little holiday very much and look forward to hopefully getting more confident and maybe going further.

I hope you don’t mind that the last 3 posts haven’t been about sewing, but this is my other passion.

I last went to the Isle of Wight about 15 years ago and hated it! Have never felt the desire to go back. Oh wait tell a lie, have been to East Cowes twice on a boat but only saw a small bit of the town and still wasn’t very impressed. So the feeling that I wanted to go to the Isle of Wight took me by surprise. I think it had more to do with wanting to sail again and Cowes being the nearest to us. Anyway I was excited and anxious to go there.

Once we’d arrived, and I’d like to say what a good job my Husband does of getting the boat out of and into its berth on his own. I am still no use on the boat, I’m just company and the coffee maker. So hats off to him! So back to the story, once we’d arrived and freshened up we took a walk into the town of East Cowes, and found a very lovely esplanade, with fantastic views over the Solent and looking over to the main land and also of Cowes. We had a walk along the esplanade and watched the coming and going of all the nautical activity.

The next day we took the chain link ferry or the floating bridge over to Cowes. I loved this! I have a very weird love of these ferries that take people on a very short journey (in order to avoid what would otherwise be a very long car journey) to the other side of a river. And I get so freaking happy, I think my Husband worries about me a bit…

Here’s some pics of this wonderful thing. Its full of these interesting little art works that I loved.

They’ve put a lot of effort into making it fun and quirk for the time it takes to get from one side to the other is probably less than a minute. However it takes cars as well as foot passengers and you probably wait longer to set off than it takes to cross, so these quirky little art works give you something to look at, if you don’t want to look at whats going on outside on the water. Seriously though I can’t tell you how much I loved this!

Once in Cowes I discovered a town full of charm and wonder. Cowes also has a fantastic esplanade which we spent two days walking up and down, with a lot of sitting and enjoying the views.

Above is a wonderful place where we had a gorgeous lunch one day. The old shop front is just beautiful.

Love the sign.

The sea does like to try and get on land here. It was pretty much hight tide when we arrived and this is how it goes.

I love the colour of the rust.

I think this is called Egypt point, which is a nautical navigation mark, I believe.

We found a pub with an even better view than the “Still and West” in Old Portsmouth. This was in Gurnard which is just along the esplanade from Cowes. We sat here for about an hour and a half just watching the sea and the boats and the clouds, it was really so peaceful. Didn’t want to leave…

Husband and I had two weeks off back in September and so we trundled off to the Solent again. He went first taking our boat to Gosport and I hopped on the train the next day and met him there. I can’t tell you how much I love going to the Solent and the areas around there. I love love love Portsmouth and I love how getting from Gosport to Portsmouth is a little ferry ride away via the Gosport ferry. I love that if you live in Gosport and you have no interest in boats (but why wouldn’t you?) your day to day life still depends on getting on a boat to get you quickly from one side of the harbour to the other. Its the same in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, but more about that later.

Here I am in Gunwharf quays. It was really hot when I arrived and stayed like that for a couple of days which was nice.

I do love a sunset picture with boats. Taken from the “Still and West” pub.

On the pontoon at the marina. This dress came into its own in the hot weather. I can’t tell you how much I love it. And the bag is proving to be pretty damn useful too.

Lovely night time view of the Spinnaker tower form our boat.

We spent about 4 days in Gosport/Portsmouth and then we moved onto Cowes. Now this is the bit that is a major achievement for me. Although I have sailed a couple of times now at Eastbourne, sailing on unfamiliar waters is a different story. It was only a 2 hour journey from Gosport to Cowes but I was still quite anxious. There is just so much traffic out on the solent. There are boats everywhere! Big ones, little ones, fast ones, slow ones. EVERYWHERE! You have to keep your eye on the ball at all times. You can be sailing along quite happily and if you’re not paying attention you look around and there’s a bloody great container ship coming up behind you. However we do keep an eye out so we saw the bloody great container ship when it was still a way off, but boy do they gain on you fast.

I sort of relaxed into it after a while and started to take some pictures.

I think taking pictures helps take my mind off it all, so I do tend to take a lot…

I Love this one above.

And below is our little boat in her berth at East Cowes marina.

She’s usually pretty much one of the smallest boats in the marina, but we love her.

Can you spot her in the above picture?

Just realised I have many many more pics I want to share so will break this up into two or more posts.

For my bags! Yep I’ve been making lots of bags and am hoping to sell them to lovely people. I realised I’d made the ultimate tote bag and thought other people might love them too. I know thats a pretty big claim, but I know bags and I know I’ve hit on a great size and shape for a fabulous tote bag.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/essjcreative?ref=l2-shopheader-name There’s the link.

Here’s some pics of the bags…

Red

Blue

Black

I’m calling them the Humbug striped bag, as i think they look like humbugs.

I really do love mine and my Niece loves hers too.

So its been a while, I’m sorry. I have neglected you my little blog. I’m here now to make amends.

Whilst browsing Fabric godmother a little while ago I came upon this unusual looking fabric

And promptly ordered 3metres of it. Its a roma jersey jacquard. Its quite textured and feels almost woolly, but its not. And unlike most jersey fabrics it does need to have the edges finished as it has a backing and I think the potential to fray. Besides that it was lovely to work with and I enjoyed making yet another trapeze top with it.

I used just over a metre for this top leaving me enough to hopefully make a dress out of it too. Would have had to use way more than a metre if I’d made a long sleeve version.

The above picture shows that the sleeve pattern piece is hanging off the end of the fabric.

Didn’t take long to make and I’m very happy with it. The fabric feels lovely to wear and I think would look good in a sweatshirt type top. I must have a go at making one, one day.

My Husband seems to quite like it too which is nice.