And it's a wrap!

 My Chookshed Challenge #3 is complete. This was my January challenge, the little Sue Hawkins scissor stand kit.

I finished it mid week and am very happy with it. It stands just over 2.5" high and is 1.5" wide.

I had left the veg garden until last and the bullion knots were tricky as I was sewing through the canvas but I got there without damaging my hands which was a miracle!

From left to right - cabbage, carrots, cauiflower, radish and courgettes.

Here are the other four sides.

Now I am looking forward to learning the challenge number for February. In the meantime I have been crocheting away and am now about halfway through week 3 of the CAL. Week 4 arrived yesterday.

And of course my Stitch Journal. We are now at the end of the month and the first section is complete.

It has still been raining. Another storm passed through Monday night and on Tuesday a major incident was declared for Somerset with unusually high flooding in Taunton and the surrounding area. Thankfully it is all receding now but it is raining today and there is another warning for heavy rain on Monday.

I walked down to the river on Tuesday morning thinking to get some pictures of the floods sparkling in the sunshine. However, sods law decreed that by the time I got there (10 minutes walk) the sunshine had turned to rain and all I got were some dull pictures of turgid waters!

I walked along the main road and above was the view from the bridge to my left, below the view across the meadows to the right.

Here you can see the river which is nipping along at a pretty sharpish pace.

Although we are not far from the river we are fortunate that it floods on the side away from our village and out onto the meadows.

So that is all the news from here - have a great week everyone and happy stitching.

FNSI January

 Many thanks to Wendy for continuing FNSI on blogger as well as Facebook. Good to join in with everyone again. You can see who else took part here and our winners from the end of 2025.

We had a lovely day out to Watchet, a favourite harbour town on the West Somerset coast. It was a beautiful sunny morning and we met friends for coffee which turned into lunch. It was then time for a walk by the harbour at which point we had the first of several showers. So popped into the East Quay arts centre for a browse round the shop and the Two Rivers Paper Mill. I was tempted to buy a pack of their paper offcuts for my new sketchbook project. They are between exhibitions at the moment.

It stopped raining so we went for a walk out to the sea wall and got back to East Quay in time to dive into the restaurant for a coffee and miss the next shower. And then it was time to go home. Sorry no pictures - too busy talking😂

So when I got home I worked on my Stitch Journal This is how it is looking so far - half way through the month already!

Friday's addition was the blue flower top left, todays the scroll stitch scroll.

Then it was time to work on my crochet. I completed the first 30 rows of the CAL earlier in the week so last night I made a start on the new colour chart for the next 40 rows.

Also this week I have been working on my Chookshed Challenge and I have now completed the base stitching for all 6 sides of the box.

And started adding the flowers and vegetables.

When I went to my patchwork group this week I was able to show my progress to the lady who gifted me the kit and she was delighted to see it taking shape. She however was working with some Japanese fabrics and her project was looking very tempting!

So that was my week, a perfect quiet January week with plenty of time to sew as well as a nice trip out. I hope yours was good too.

A Quiet week

 It is taking longer to get over this cold than I had hoped. And that, combined with Philip catching it and the cold weather means we have hardly been out this week. Which means one positive thing! - yes, plenty of time to sew.

My Stitch Journal is well under way - day 10 already!

My main focus this week has been my Chookshed Challenge - the Sue Hawkins kit. Having investigated further into the envelope I was given I found this picture of the finished scissor stand - much clearer than the one I posted last week.

Having spent about 10 minutes trying to unpick what the previous owner had started, I gave up and pulled a new piece of canvas from the drawer to work on. I have made really good progress as you can see.

So far I have done the top and two sides. I have decided to complete all the background stitching before adding the raised vegetables and flowers so that I can avoid catching them with stray threads while I work. I cracked on with this project because I knew that with the Attic 24 CAL starting on Friday I would be turning all my attention there for a while.

The first set on instructions for the Wildshore CAL arrived yesterday and I made a good start.

If I want to keep up with the CAL I will need to do about twice this amount before next Friday but I suspect that I will lapse to concentrate on other projects. I am very happy with how it is looking so far, the Yarnsmiths merino is lovely to crochet with and the colours gorgeous. I love Lucy's shell pattern too.

You can find the instructions for the shell pattern on the Attic 24 website under Wildshore CAL if you fancy trying it out. It is quick to work and if you can count to three then you are good to go!

So that is all from me today. I has been a beautiful sunny day but back to the rain tomorrow. Have a lovely week.