Chookshed Challenge 2026

 Looking forward to joining in again with Deanna for another Chookshed Challenge and to following along with everyones projects.

In case you missed it, here is my roundup of 2025 projects and what a great success last year was.

So my list for this year is

1. Embroidered Rabbit

2. Retreat Bag

3. Canvaswork Kit

4. RSC log cabin quilt

5. Swap hexies

6. Gold oval frame embroideries

7. Rust project

8. Use eco print fabric

9. Summer Meadow embroidery kit

10. To be decided?

#3 has been drawn as our project for January and this is a beautiful Sue Hawkins kit. Now I am sure you know by now how much I love a Sue Hawkins kit!

This one was given to me by a fellow member of my quilt group who also loves Sue Hawkins. By coincidence we have identical thimble holders which was the very first kit that I bought from Sue about 20 years ago.

This is the kit that Gail gave to me.

Unfortunately, having made a start on the kit herself, she decided that it was beyond her. So my first job will be to unpick her work ready to make a fresh start.

I also need to give the pattern a good read through and sort out the threads.

I suspect that this is going to take me more than a month, especially with the Attic 24 CAL starting next week. But what I have not completed at the end of the month can be my #10 along with any other unfinished projects.

So my second post of the day, I shall be back next weekend with updates on my progress. Have a great week.

Stitch Journal 2025

 This is late as I had imntended to post on the 31st to put the year to bed, so to speak. However a cold knocked me out and although I was able to complete the stitching on the 31st, making the effort to take photographs was a step too far! However, feeling much better today after three days (and several books) on the sofa.

So here is my completed Stitch Journal for the last six months.

No 'arty in the garden pictures' as it is far too cold. Although it is a bright sunny day, the sun doesn't reach our garden this time of year and there is still frost on the ground now, which is mid afternoon.

Finally, a year of stitch all packaged up for posterity!

I have made a start on my SJ for 2026 and will show my progress next week, meanwhile I will be back later today with my Chookshed Challenge list for 2026.

Happy Stitching

A Nice Day Out

 Following on from our cancelled day out to the seaside last week, we had beautiful weather for our re-arranged trip this week. Sidmouth is on the Channel coast of Devon and about an hour from here. Well known for its high proportion of retired residents, it is also part of the Jurassic Coast which sadly is eroding away.

It was a beautiful sunny day, we met our friends for coffee followed by lunch in a very nice hotel with a panoramic view of the sea. We then enjoyed a walk along the promenade and this was the view of the sun starting to set.

I have kept with the Christmas theme on my Stitch Journal this week

and have been making plans for my 2026 journal. I have been thinking that it would be nice to work on something that can be used next year rather than a book or roll that is hidden away. I came up with the idea of a cushion cover as I have a large cushion in my conservatory which could do with a change. I had this linen tablecloth in my stash - can't remember where it came from but charity shop or clearance warehouse.

The embroidery on the tablecloth is all machine worked except for the monogram in the centre which has been worked by hand.

I cut a length from the tablecoth which would fold in half to make the cushion cover with a zip closure. I am left with two nice embroidered lengths from the sides which may be used in a stitch roll another time. Having machined a rough hem all around to prevent fraying I gave the linen a soak in some tea to knock back the bright white. I used Whisper Weft on the back of the fabric to stabilise - I don't want to end up with a strangely shaped piece of embroidery - and then marked out the twelve sections that I will be filling up next year.

Now safely stored away awaiting January 1st.

Mostly this week I have been working on a little Christmas stitchery. I found the pattern and stabilised fabric in my FJ folder when I got it out to mark up some new FJ blocks and thought now would be a good time to stitch it up. It was an Anni Downs freebie from a few years back I think I will make it up into a chair back for next Christmas - it will look good on my Ikea chair with the Christmas cushion that I made last year.

Hopefully a finish later this week. Now I really must get on with quilting my Dresden quilt as I have new projects to work on in the new year.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Chistmas and thank you all for reading and commenting over the last year.

Saturday Catchup

 Welcome and thanks for popping in - not really en enticing title to my blog today so I hope you find something to enjoy.

Nearly halfway through the month already, I have been keeping up with the Christmas theme for my Stitch Journal and here are the latest additions.

I have been knitting frantically this week and now have a finished pair of socks to show.

I think this is the first time I have managed matching toes! Very happy with how they have turned out and they are going to keep my feet nice and cosy.

Also this week I finished up the last of a batch of Field Journal hexagons - there was not much to finish, just hemming over the backing but it has been hanging round for a while. I usually work on these when I go to my patchwork group but have not been much lately.

Anyway, good to have these done and now I can mark up another batch to keep me going in the new year.

It's been a quiet week with a trip to the seaside cancelled due to bad weather - storm Bram. We have rescheduled for this week so hopefully the weather will treat us kindly and we will be able to meet up with friends. I shall be busy wrapping presents this week I expect as most of the shopping has been done. I hope to get some time to carry on with quilting my Dresdens quilt too.

I hope you have a lovely week.

FNWFs December

 Many thanks to Cheryll for organising our Friday night get together. Sadly she is now moving to Facebook only - Facebook and I do not see eye to eye - so I will no longer be joining in but it has been fun over many years.

As usual I started my afternoon with my Stitch Journal and added a Christmas tree as that was what I did next. Here is my SJ week.

And here is my tree complete with lovely new tree skirt!

After that I moved on to some relaxing knitting. Earlier in the year I spotted this ball of yarn in a tiny shop in Cornwall and fell in love with the colours.

Not bothering to read the label I snapped it up. Of course I later realised that it was going to knit up in wide stripes which is not my favourite😢but I still love the colours and with some bamboo in the mix it has a lovely sheen and a soft feel.

And what about the other Ryegrass sock I hear you ask? Well I realised that I needed some new socks PDQ and the Ryegrass were taking too long, hence the new start. I can knit these while watching television and I did all that stocking stitch last night so hopefully I will soon have these finished.

Otherwise this week I have been working on the bag to store my Stitch Journal in at the end of the year. It is now finished. The stitching did somewhat distort the fabric....

                                              

......however the bag looks fine when it has the stitch roll inside and I am calling the slope on the flap a 'design feature'. The stitched fabric has a lovely feel to it.

That is all from me - back to getting out decorations and writing Christmas cards now. Have a great week.

Frosty mornings

 We have had a couple this week. I had to pop out to the car first thing this morning and found these beautiful feathery shapes on the windscreen.

Aren't they gorgeous!

This week I have mostly been using some accumulated oddments of thread in my Stitch Journal - those bits of expensive thread that are too long to throw away!

And as it is the end of the month, a view of the month in stitch.

You may remember that I am using what I think was a nightdress case as the background for my roll. I unpicked the case and cut it into three 6" x 48" strips and have stitched on two of the strips. It seemed obvious to use the third strip to make a case for the finished roll. I have doubled up the strip and sewn it together and am now embellishing it before I fold it into 3 and make it into a small bag.

I plan to work my way along the strip in a rainbow of colour.

The tree skirt is finished. I used this Hatched and Patched pattern.

It is 19" across although the pattern gives dimensions of 20". However, it would be easy enough to extend the segments for a larger skirt. This will be perfect for my small tabletop tree.

Also finished this week is my first Ryegrass sock.

Not the sock I am most proud of although I do love those colours. I got bored with the slowness of the pattern halfway along the foot and you can see I finished it off with stripes. You will also notice the colour mistake when I swapped from pattern to stripe - I spotted it as I started the toe and was not about to undo it! I have done the rib for the second sock - maybe I will start on the pattern tghis week. I need to get in the habit of doing one 8 row pattern sequence a day.

I have also done some more quilting on the Dresden quilt - no pics though as you have seen enough.

We picked up a job lot of garden pots at our local house clearance depot recently, for a very reasonable price. Included was this welly boot pot which I gave a good wash and planted up with Cyclamen and ivy. Love it on my front door step.

And finally it is Advent Sunday and my Advent calendar is in position poised for tomorrow morning. The first of my Christmas decorations - the rest will come out of hiding later this week.

Happy Advent to one and all.

FNSI November

 And I have to admit that FNSI completely passed me by - but then I don't join in on Facebook so probably not surprising. Facebook is something I check first thing in the morning to see if anyone has a birthday and then I move on to more interesting things!

Anyway, my Friday was productive. After a little Christmas shopping in Taunton's Independent Quarter where there are some delightful shops including a new cheese shop which I made a beeline for, I spent some time with my sewing machine.

If you remember, I have been embroidering a little Christmas roundel each month this year and now is time to make up my Christmas Tree Skirt. It all went together pretty easily yesterday afternoon and in the evening I started appliqueing the roundels. Here it is so far.

I do like how it is looking although if I was starting again I might use a variegated blue thread with a little silver for the embroideries. Finished pictures next week.

My Stitch Journal picture for the week.

Now that the ripple blanket is finished I have started quilting my RSC Dresden Flower quilt which is nice and warm on my legs these chilly evenings. I ditch quilted around the blocks earlier in the year and am now just adding some hand quilting to the flowers. These work up quite quickly.

Also making a reappearance this week are my Ryegrass socks although I have no picture. Am hoping to have the first one finished by the end of the week.

We had two beautiful frosty but sunny days this week. Such a lovely change after all the grey and rain, which we are sadly back to today. Should have taken some frosty pics, the car was covered in white which sparkled in the sun.

We had a couple of days out this week meeting friends but nowhere photo worthy although we did have a nice couple of lunches. Maybe next week, hope you have a good one.