Your lucky day!

 Yes! two posts in one day from me, what ever is going on!

So this one is just a catch up post with what I have been up to this week.

Christmas was quiet but pleasant and we are now in that twixmas period. I have been enjoying a little hand sewing this week along with a few Christmas specials on TV although some of the repeats are getting very tired now. And no, we did not watch Gavin and Stacy!

I have of course kept up with with my Stitch Journal - and look - just three days to go! and that includes today which I shall work on as soon as I have finished this post.

Not a brilliant photo but the next one will be all pressed and looking lovely.

I have also finished a couple of Field Journal embroideries

These were straightforward - the one I am working on now involves bullion knots and I am slowly working up to them!

My next post will be in 2025. My thanks to everyone who has followed me over the last year and for all your lovely comments, so very much appreciated.

Happy Stitchy 2025.

Chookshed Challenge 2025

 Having looked through my drawers and UFO lists I decided a while ago that I would have enough projects to join in with this challenge in 2025. I have also decided that I will be giving the Rainbow Scrap Challenge a miss in 2025 which will give me more time to work on these projects along with all the other things I am working on or planning.

So here is my list of projects.

1. Another needle minder - I bought the magnet and canvas for this earlier in the year and have decided          that I need another one!

2. Turn my 2024 Stitch Journal pages into a book. This will be a big one as I will need to make two            cover pages as well as join my 12 pages together.

3. Sashiko panel - a kit I bought a few years ago.

4. Sue Hawkins scissor keep - I think I bought this kit a couple of years ago too.

5. Many years ago I mad a whole load of Japanese folded squares which have been sitting in a box ever          since - they need joining together and making into something!

6. I have a lot of hexie flowers from my swap group that need making into something or somethings!

7. I need a cover for a small handmade sketch book I made sometime ago and which looks at me every          day on my desk.

8. I have a quilted applique panel that needs making into a cushion cover.

9. Lavender bag kit I bought earlier this year from a junk shop.

10. Large tote bag for carrying quilting projects to my quilt group.

Many thanks to Deana for organising this challenge - I shall be linking up with her.

FNSI December

 

First of all many thanks to Wendy for organising our Friday Night Sew In's again this year.

As usual I started the afternoon with my Stitch Journal and Fridays star was the middle one of the bottom three.

Sorry for poor photograph - another grey damp day here.

I then walked to our nearest coffee shop with a neighbour and spent an enjoyable couple of hours catching up. However, when we left it was tipping down and we both arrived home looking like drowned rats!

I have completed the quilting on the first outer border of Wings and Pretty things.

Sooo good to have reached the edge. One down, three to go but I have now folded it away until after Christmas as space is at even more of a premium at the moment!

So yesterday evening I pulled out my Field Journal folder where fortunately the next few are already drawn up. This sweet little plant was very quick and easy to stitch up and I am looking forward to working on another one this evening.

I have started on some crochet this week - sorry no pictures but oh is it gorgeous! Some beautiful handspun yarn in a lovely colour combo. Pictures next time.

Meanwhile, I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and I hope you have time for some quiet sewing in amongst all the busy festivities!

Mid December already!

 And what a grey and dismal week it has been! The storm last Saturday was as bad as forecast with lots of damage in the county and West of the country. Fortunately we survived damage free, we are in a dip and do not catch the worst of the wind. However, I did enjoy sitting indoors and watching all the leaves from the trees to the front of our house skip away across the surface of the park! Hardly any left on the trees now. Since then we have had grey weather and yesterday was particularly damp and dismal but today is a bright sunny day with lots of blue sky.

As usual I have been enjoying my stitch journal.

I have been thinking for the last month or so about how I can continue on with this but in my own way. I have all these nice solar dyed threads and fabrics left from my boro flower panel - see header picture -

and thought that it would be nice to make use of them. So I have decided to use them to make a daily stitch roll using this lovely old mill spool that I picked up recently in a charity shop.

So I am all ready now to start stitching on January 1st.

And to keep myself on track I have decided a daily post on Instagram will make sure I am up to date.

I have been quilting this week too - no pictures - and have also finished these Kingfisher socks.

So Christmas knitting all done and dusted. Christmas decorations have gone up this week and I had a present wrapping session one afternoon. Just a few more to do. We shall be entertaining twice over Christmas so now I need to plan my menus!

Have a good week everyone and happy stitching.

Friday Night with Friends December

 

Friday was a grey and windy day so after a trip to the supermarket we were happy to spend the day indoors. So straight after lunch I got on with my stitch journal - a new page now for December and we are all starry!

These are quick and fun to work.

I have been busy the last few weeks quilting the wide border of Wings and this week I came to the end of all the cross hatching. Just so happy with how it is looking.

Now to work on the outer borders. I spent some time yesterday marking up the feathers along one edge and in the evening made a start on the quilting.

We are in the middle of storm Darragh today. We had a red weather warning this morning expiring at 11.00am but I am pretty sure the winds have been stronger since we moved down to an amber warning! Strong enough to blow over my cast iron garden chairs anyway. Evidently we are to expect another 24 hours of strong winds so plenty of time to play in the kitchen - mince pies need to be made as we have finished the first batch - and with my sewing.

Have a good weekend every one.

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.