A Happy and Not So Happy Christmas!

 First up the Happy bit - I found the Christmas decorations that I thought had been lost in our move from France! Happy dance from me. It was lovely to unwrap all the lovely things I have collected over the years and get them out on display. I am not one for clearing stuff away to make special Christmas displays - I just like to feed Christmassy things in amongst our normal collections. But here are a few little collections of Christmas dotted around the house.

The green Christmas Tree in the first picture lights up and sings, you may - or may not! be able to click on the picture for a video.

The little toboggan girl in the last picture is new for this year, otherwise everything else has been in my collection for a while.

Bought a new Christmas tree online with fingers crossed and am very happy with it's shape - not too wide as we do not have the space for a large tree! but plenty of branches to hang all my decorations from.

Very pleased to have found my tree decorations as most of them have been collected on my travels and some are over 40 years old.

Now for the not so happy - Philip visited our local hospital for a scan to look for gall stones on the Wednesday before Christmas. While there he was rushed to A&E with a very high temperature and kept in until Boxing Day due to an infected bile duct caused by the gall stones. Sepsis was diagnosed and we are thankful that we were at the hospital and dealt with so quickly. So hospital visiting was how I spent my Christmas! However, happy to report he is now recovering slowly although very tired. 

It has all been very quiet around here although family have popped in for visits - but I am still enjoying my decorations!

I like to get out my decorations a week before Christmas and leave them, by tradition, out until 12th night so six more days enjoyment to come. We need all the joy and light we can get at this time of year!

This year I made a proper Christmas cake and had it all ready to ice but in the end that didn't happen. However I have taste tested and it is pretty good!

Fortunately the Christmas presents I had been making were finished in time. Jennifer at https://www.elefantz.com/ posted this a week or so before Christmas which set me off on making these.

There were another two but they missed out on the photo shoot as I used them as soon as they were finished!

All the embroideries are different, to suit the recipients.

I also manged to finish the Starling socks that I had been working on.

They have been worn and washed now and very snuggly they are too!

Hopefully that is me all caught up.

Wishing you all a very Happy, Healthy and Peaceful New Year.

It was a beautiful sunny day today and so we went to the coast - Watchet Quay looking beautiful in the sunshine.

In the top picture the large building top right is The East Quay. There are two large exhibition galleries and lots of small artisan workshops and shops.

I wanted to see the Grayson Perry Exhibition of two large wall hangings which is currently in the ground floor gallery. And I was not disappointed as they are stunning.

I lifted these pictures from the internet but am sure the colours were much richer! Below is the blurb from the East Quay website.

 Gallery One at East Quay will feature two tapestries by Grayson Perry, on loan from the Crafts Council collection designed and created for Perry's House for Essex project. The tapestries depict key events from the life of a fictional character named Julie Cope, an ordinary Essex woman living in the latter half of the twentieth century. Through the tapestries, Grayson conveys the beauty, vibrancy, and contradictions of a regular individual - telling the stories, in his words, of “the trials, tribulations, celebrations and mistakes of an average life".

The first of the tapestries displayed, titled A Perfect Match, shows Julie’s early years from birth to marriage. Julie’s later years, second marriage, and death are depicted in the second tapestry, In it's Familiarity, Golden. The Ballad of Julie Cope, a written narrative, will be displayed alongside the tapestries for viewers to read. The tapestries were acquired by the Crafts Council with support from the Art Fund (with a contribution from The Wolfson Foundation) and a donation from Maylis and James Grand.

The first picture shows her birth during floods on Canvey Island and her first marriage. The second shows her later life, second marriage and death in a motor bike accident, bottom right.

Hope you enjoy looking at them.

FNWF's for December

 And our last FNWF's for the year. Many thanks to Cheryll for organising us again over the year and I for one look forward to our Fridays next year.

It was a cold grim day here but we had arranged to go out so out we went! Nothing of interest to report except that at lunchtime the trees on the hills were still sporting frost and looking very pretty!

There was not much of the afternoon left by the time we got home so after doodling a few snowflakes in my sketchbook - we missed out on the snow that fell earlier in the week - and cooking dinner I settled down with my knitting for an evening of snooker.

Another pair of socks are under way - this time for me - and the yarn is called starling. I love the colours.

Having had to take back three or four inches due to a dropped stitch, I have now made that up and am at the toe decrease stage. Something for later today I think.

Earlier in the week I had the sewing machine out to finish my Churndashalong quilt - which I did and it is now waiting for some warmer weather so I can wash it. Photo shoot to come!

But I also whipped up one of these Hemmingway pouches and it was very quick and easy to put together!

The link will take you to the pattern on Etsy. It comes in four sizes - mine is the smallest and is perfect for pencils. The larger sizes make book or tablet sized cases. The only thing I would do differently is the binding on the inner seams which is far too bulky on the corner and impossible to poke out properly. I think a neat over sewing with a zigzag would be sufficient. Otherwise I am really pleased with it.

That is all for now, have a happy stitchy weekend and I leave you with a picture of the garden I took about half an hour ago, just after lunch. No sign of it lifting today!