January 2025 FNSI

 Our first FSNI of the year and thanks to Wendy for all her organising. As usual you can see everyone who took part on Wendy's blog here.

As always my first sewing task of the day was my Stitch Journal and this circle was Fridays contribution.

I have added another circle today so here is how my week has looked.

On Monday we needed some fresh air after a weekend indoors so we drove up to Wellington Monument.

From the car park there is a lovely tree lined walk to the Monument.

 And the hedge on either side has been laid at some point in the past.

Just look at all those lovely roots!

There are days when the monument is open and you can climb the steps to the top. Evidently the views are spectacular.

Anyway, you can see that I commemorated our walk in my stitch journal.

So, back to Friday and I spent a couple of hours in the afternoon on the machine whipping up a quick bag to go in our picnic hamper to contain cutlery and other loose bits and bobs - sorry no pic.

Then in the evening more quilting on Wings. No Chookshed Challenge this week as I want to complete my quilting quota for the month before going back to it.

But I have made a start on my next knitting project.

The pattern is not showing up well yet but I am pleased with how it is looking so far.

And that is me for the week - see you next week.

 It's the second week of January and it has been a cold one. None of the predicted snow arrived here although there is plenty of it around the country. We can also see some sitting on the hills around Taunton.

So it has been a hibernating sort of week although we did venture out for lunch on our Wedding Anniversary.

My Stitch Journal is slowly building and I am enjoying my daily visits. Here it is as of yesterday.

I shall add todays stitches later while the FA cup football is playing in the background.

Working with these threads and fabrics reminded me of the Slow Stitch book that first got me started on solar dyeing and so I pulled it out for a browse.

One immediate benefit of this was that I found a dearly loved bookmark which I thought I had lost!

It was lovely to browse through the book again, and I am inspired to dye some more fabrics this summer for next years stitch journal - I need to be held to this!

I also found this lovely quote which I thought I would share.

This week also found me pulling out my Chookshed Challenge no 6. It is to use some of the hexie flowers that I have received in swaps over the last few years.

Here they all are - 41 of them.

I have decided to add a blue pathway around them as I join and they will either be a lap quilt or tablecloth - decision to be made at some point in the future.

So far I have cut and basted a batch of blue hexies and started adding the flowers together.

But I have parked this now for a week while I crack on with quilting Wings - I would like to complete another outer border by the end of the month. No pictures but I can assure you I have started!

I had not intended starting any more knitting for the time being but along came the annual Winwick Mum KAL and I was tempted. There is a free pattern - use the link just above - which I thought would be ideal to use with this yarn which has been sitting in my knitting bag.

It is not necessary to use the pattern to join in - just something using any Winwick Mum pattern or yarn. See here for more information about the Winter Haven KAL. I am planning to get some stitches cast on this evening.

Well, I think that is all I have to tell you for now - hope you all have a great week.

Finishes and New Beginnings

First up a few finishes from the beginning of the week and my final stitch journal page is complete!

I have really enjoyed working on these pages over the year and look forward to putting them all into book form later this year.

I also completed another Field Journal embroidery - this was the one with bullion knots which actually turned out OK I am pleased to say!

And now for the new year. I have started on my stitch journal roll which I shall be working on every day this year (and posting daily to Instagram, link in sidebar). This is how it looks three days in.

A flower to brighten a few chilly days, but at least the sun was shining. Grey again today and possible snow later.

Another new start for this year is this Hatched and Patched tree skirt that I fell in love with last year.

I plan to embroider one of the little roundels each month and then put it all together in October. Here is the first embroidery complete and waiting to be trimmed and turned ready for appliqueing later.

Since the New Year another Field Journal embroidery was completed.

I wonder why that corner is missing!! This is my last FJ block for now as Wings and Pretty things will be coming out again soon.

I think I mentioned before that I had started some crochet but had no pictures. Well the crochet has progressed over the Christmas period and this is how it is looking now.

I bought a skein of this gorgeous handspun yarn in a local craft shop while searching for Christmas presents and just had to have it. I love those smoky sunset colours. I had no idea how far it would go so started out with the premise that it would at least make a cowl but that I would carry on with it as far as it would go. So I am pleased that I am going to have a reasonable length scarf. Just a little more to go but I do love how this pattern is working up - just simple chain and little picots which are easy and quick to work. I got the pattern from this delightful book which is full of lots of simple craft ideas.

So far I have not got around to my No 6 from the Chookshed Challenge which is to make something/s with the swap hexie flowers I have received over the last few years. I shall be getting them out for a play this week.

Well I think that is all from me for now, I hope you have a great week and I shall be back again next Saturday.