The End of November

 What a strange month it has been with dank, grey, damp days followed by bright crisp mornings with frost and the odd sleet shower and then howling wind, rain and floods. Now we are having a very mild couple of days before the temperature dips again. 

Tomorrow is officially the fist day of winter and being the first day of December I shall be making my first batch of mince pies of the season. The mincemeat has been maturing for the last couple of weeks and I am looking forward to my first taste. And of course my Advent calendar is hanging up and ready to go.

Since my last post I have completed the first Kingfisher sock and no 2 is well under way - pictures next time. I have also been busy quilting Wings and am almost at the end of the wide border - again, pictures next time.

But what I do have pictures of is my completed November Stitch Journal page which looks like this.

My photographs make it look like all the stitching was done in white but there are some cream threads in there too and the odd bit of sparkle here and there!

The table runner is completed and ready to wrap and gift. Sorry about the slightly skewy photos!

The big news of the week is that this came home with us from the charity shop yesterday!

It is a lovely Victorian writing slope which we could not leave behind. I have always wanted one of these.

It is in very good condition (and has a key for the working lock) and I have given it a good clean and polish. It smells delicious!

I love the ink stains and it has three secret drawers too. So looking forward to filling this with lots of stuff!

Well that is all from me for now - I am off to draw up my Stitch Journal page for December and sort some threads. Hope you have a great week and that I shall se you at Cheryll's on Friday for Friday Night with Friends.

FNSI November

 And we are half way through the month already so fifteen of these squares have now been filled with random stitches and patterns.

We spent part of our Friday at a Christmas market - far too early for such things but I suppose we have to start somewhere. It was a beautiful clear blue sky day after a foggy start. We are getting proper November weather at the moment and are promised even colder next week - and the return of rain which will probably mean snow in the north of the country. Anyway, back to the market which was packed with people and stalls full of nice things. Lots of drinks to sample and chocolate to taste - always welcome. We came away with a few Christmas presents and full tummies after lunch in the restaurant. The market was held at Hestercombe House which has beautiful gardens - sorry no pics but we decided we were ready for home after all that shopping! We did drive home via Lydeard Hill though as it was such a nice day. The trees are all looking beautiful at the moment and the misty view from the car park in the sunshine was beautiful.

Anyway I have been busy quilting away on Wings in the evenings this week so for a change I got out my knitting Friday evening and cracked on with this sock - nearly to the toe now.

Last week I visited a quilt show with some friends at my LQS Come to Quilt. Come to Quilt is home to Dragon Quilters who meet once a fortnight there. There was a lot of work on display and I will share a few of my favourites with you.

This little quilt greeted us at the entrance and was drawing gasps!

This quilt was stunning.

And this wall hanging next to it was also gorgeous. There is a Four Seasons class held regularly at Come to Quilt and this work was made following the class.

Another class that has been held at the shop was a Three Hares quilt and there were several of these on display - some finished some not. This was my favourite as I loved the way it had been personalised with the addition of Green Men in the corners of the 4th border in and hounds chasing the hares in the outer border.

This one was also complete. Not the best lighting though in this room.

And a few more that caught my eye.

This one with all it's bee and honey connections.

And this one because red and white always looks amazing.

Well now, I think I am going to turn the heating on, wrap Wings around my legs and spend some time quilting while I watch the leaves falling from the trees outside.

Have a lovely weekend everyone. Hopefully you can click on the image and read the details below.

FNWFs November

If you are just here for RSC then please feel free to scroll straight to the bottom!

 Friday was not a hugely productive day as other things were happening. However I completed my Stitch Journal piece for the day after lunch. It was the 1st of the month so I was starting on a new 'page'. Squares this month and I filled this one with some simple rows of herringbone.

I am working with white/off white threads this month and pulled out my white box of threads to work with.

In amongst all my threads are some old Pearsalls threads that came to me from my Nana and Aunt when I inherited their stash. Interesting because the bulk of their threads were Anchor stranded. Most of the Pearsalls are a fine floss which I tend to avoid as it is tricky to work with but in this box I found a couple of skeins of 'Broriche silk'.

 It's like a fine silk perle thread and I used it for the herringbone in my first square. It was a delight to work with I must say. Pearsalls the company intrigues me too as they are based in Taunton just down the road from me. They no longer make embroidery threads though, just concentrating on medical threads.

My brown leaf page is of course finished and here are a few pictures.

I did get some knitting done in the evening while watching TV - I made good progress up the leg of a new pair of socks.

As always I am using a West Yorkshire Spinners sock yarn, this one is called Kingfisher.

So that was my FNWFs - many thanks to Cheryll for hosting again this month.

In other news I have been busy quilting Wings - sorry no pics - and also had the sewing machine out during the week to quilt my Magic Lantern runner.

Trimming and binding to come but I must put this away for now - it is a Christmas present and I have a more urgent birthday present to produce!

Also I don't think I have shared with you all my RSC log cabins for the year. I laid them all out on the bed recently just for the fun of it - I have no intention of sewing them together until next year when I shall also have to find some sort of border fabric.

In fact, now that I look back - I don't seem to have shared pictures of my October brown log cabins, so here they are.

Linking up with Angela at some point!

Well that is me all caught up for now. Have a great week.