The End of January

 And I for one am sad that the month is over when all around seem to be rejoicing that February is here and that the 'long, dark' month of January is over! For me January is a great month for brisk chilly walks and lots of cosy sewing and knitting. A time to recoup after Christmas and plan for the coming year - which will no doubt be over before we know it. Anyway less of my moaning and more about what I have been up to this week.

Another fun week with my stitch journal.

The TAST stitches for this week were Raised Chain which I had not tried before You can see two versions at the bottom of the photo. We had some strong wind last weekend, hence the windswept tree.

And here is a picture of my roll for January.

Love how it is turning out. However I can now see that the thread I have is not going to last the year although I have plenty of fabric and lace etc. I can't replicate the threads I dyed using plants from the garden in St Victor but I also have threads dyed with tea, coffee onion skins and black bean water which I can try to reproduce. The other problem I have is that they were solar dyed and that is not going to happen at this time of year. So I am going to try standing my jam jars in the airing cupboard to give them some  warmth. My first jar is underway - we have a casserole with black beans tonight and the soaking water plus some alum and a selection of threads is safely stowed away for a month. Fingers crossed.

My knitting has progressed this week and I turned the heel last night. I also have the next border of Wings marked up and ready to quilt.

We had a nice trip out in some sunshine yesterday - to Stogumber a village about 20 minutes drive from us. We wanted to look around the church of St Mary's which is right in the centre of the village.

When I first looked at the front of the church I was not very impressed - I thought it very unattractive.

However from the rear you see the lovely warm pink stone that has been used for the building.

I found some nice textiles inside. This piano cover caught my eye first.

No accompanying information of course! Then across the other side of the church this hanging below the organ pipes.

I love the rich William Morris style decoration in the altar and choir area.

To the right of the choir is the tomb of Sir George Sydenham, father in law of Sir Francis Drake.

A sad sight in the graveyard was this tree which had blown over in a storm before Christmas.

According to the lady who befriended us in the church, the rings have been counted and it was over 200 years old - a big tree as you can see!

Right this post has been far too long! so time for me to go.

Have a great week.