A Nice Day Out

 Following on from our cancelled day out to the seaside last week, we had beautiful weather for our re-arranged trip this week. Sidmouth is on the Channel coast of Devon and about an hour from here. Well known for its high proportion of retired residents, it is also part of the Jurassic Coast which sadly is eroding away.

It was a beautiful sunny day, we met our friends for coffee followed by lunch in a very nice hotel with a panoramic view of the sea. We then enjoyed a walk along the promenade and this was the view of the sun starting to set.

I have kept with the Christmas theme on my Stitch Journal this week

and have been making plans for my 2026 journal. I have been thinking that it would be nice to work on something that can be used next year rather than a book or roll that is hidden away. I came up with the idea of a cushion cover as I have a large cushion in my conservatory which could do with a change. I had this linen tablecloth in my stash - can't remember where it came from but charity shop or clearance warehouse.

The embroidery on the tablecloth is all machine worked except for the monogram in the centre which has been worked by hand.

I cut a length from the tablecoth which would fold in half to make the cushion cover with a zip closure. I am left with two nice embroidered lengths from the sides which may be used in a stitch roll another time. Having machined a rough hem all around to prevent fraying I gave the linen a soak in some tea to knock back the bright white. I used Whisper Weft on the back of the fabric to stabilise - I don't want to end up with a strangely shaped piece of embroidery - and then marked out the twelve sections that I will be filling up next year.

Now safely stored away awaiting January 1st.

Mostly this week I have been working on a little Christmas stitchery. I found the pattern and stabilised fabric in my FJ folder when I got it out to mark up some new FJ blocks and thought now would be a good time to stitch it up. It was an Anni Downs freebie from a few years back I think I will make it up into a chair back for next Christmas - it will look good on my Ikea chair with the Christmas cushion that I made last year.

Hopefully a finish later this week. Now I really must get on with quilting my Dresden quilt as I have new projects to work on in the new year.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Chistmas and thank you all for reading and commenting over the last year.

FNSI for October

Goodness this months FNSI has come round very quickly!

Thank you very much for hosting Wendy after your busy week.

Following last months FNSI I was visited by Tracy the Outback Craftaholic. And I am so pleased that I was because of course I returned the visit and found myself another great blog to follow. Not only that but Tracy had a giveaway that I could not resist entering for and yes, you have guessed it, I won! And I am so, so pleased.

I thought this Gail Pan book would be good and it certainly is. Lots of lovely Christmas projects to stitch. The book arrived last weekend while we were away and I could not wait to get started. My first project was soon traced up and stitching commenced. So appropriately that is what I was doing yesterday.

And this is as far as I had got when I had to give up and go to bed last night!

I had two friends visiting in the afternoon - Linda who is completing the quilting on her first quilt - a goosey gander lap quilt and Babs who was planning a hanging tote to store her rulers and cutters. She made a good start on one of the patchwork pockets for it too. So a lovely gossipy productive afternoon raced by helped along with tea and chocolate cookies.

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I have finished all the patchwork now on my hexagon table topper - all it needs is some lining fabric and maybe a few tied stitches to hold the layers.

I am very pleased with the way that the edging has worked out.

And of course I still love the back! I shall be sorry to cover it up.

I am still sorting through my pictures from Rome - had to take my second best camera to save weight and it does not have a viewfinder. So although the quality of pictures it takes is good, in brilliant sunshine, which is what we had, it was not always easy to see what I was taking!!

However, we had a fabulous time and I shall tell you all about it soon.

Hope you are having a great weekend.