A week in stitches

Last week I was off work - we had plenty of holiday to take, and so we decided it would be lovely to spend some time pottering at home. We did spend lots of time in the garden, and took the opportunity to catch up with good friends, but it also meant I could focus on my stitching. I had 4 things that I wanted to do in my head: finish a quilt top that I'd started the previous weekend, start the quilt top made from the other half of the jelly roll (two quilts from one jelly roll - brilliant idea for a book!), finish the BBD Summer / Autumn / Winter and pull out fruit bellpull again - I think I managed 3.5 out of 4!!

This is the quilt top: 'Strip the Willow' made using half a jelly roll of French General's 'Papillion'. I have planned the colours and cutting for the other quilt (clues are in my last TUSAL post), but I didn't start cutting or stitching yet.

I finished BBD's Summer / Autumn / Winter, the Loose Feathers pattern from 2011. I had some 'fun' re-charting it to say 2013, and then somehow managed to screw up the placement of my initials and the date and motifs, despite lots of counting, charting and double checking. I moved the motif between the Z and the J twice - the second time only by 1 square, but it does look better where it ended up!!

I pulled out TW's fruit bellpull on Sunday afternoon, this is a before photo of the grapes block - I've stitched a bit more green since then.

And finally, a progress so far photo. I'd love to get this finished before I start teaching again in late September. Always the optimist ;)

Don't forget to comment on my last blog post if you'd like to be entered into my 300th post giveaway. Now, where did I leave that needle...

Happy stitching folks x

Greetings from Knoxville!

Well I made it across the pond on Saturday, and spent yesterday acclimatising to the lovely warm weather and pootling around town - KX is a lovely city, it felt really relaxed and family friendly, lots of street cafes and parks etc.

Before I felt I managed to finish the quilt I started and I did most of the large leaves on the grapes block of Fruit Bellpull:

I also took a pic of my ORT jar for the TUSAL today:

Trying to work out if I can get to a lovely-looking cross stitch shop today, before my conference starts. It's 7 miles out of town and I don't have a car.... So tempted to take a taxi ;)

Happy stitching folks x

Happy Easter!

It's been a lovely sunny day here today, and the snow is melting. Not fast enough for my liking - it's still quite deep where it drifted, but our spring bulbs are fighting through!

Today I started a new quilt, using a lovely set of 3" squares of vintage prints that my friend Jamie gave me about 2 years ago. I've only got 3 more blocks to make, then I can start putting it together. I'll probably spend much of tomorrow working out what order they should go in!

I never posted a TUSAL pic this month. Only 21 days late, but here it is. The layer of dark reds/pinks near the top are from the cherries.

My plan for this evening involves stitching, watching TV and eating some Easter eggs :)

Happy stitching folks xx

Christmas Stitching

Argh, time has been flying past at great speed, and I've had far too much to do - work, social life, stitching commitments - which means my little corner of the net has been a tad neglected of late, for which I am very sorry - I do hope I still have readers! I'm also extremely behind my blog reading - I doubt I'll be able to catch up with all of your lovely posts, but my stitchy friends are often in my mind, if not on the computer screen.

I won't bore you with the work, socially I've been up and down the country visiting friends and relatives, out for fabulous meals on FAR too many occasions, to some very fabulous parties and sat and ate a lot at home and with family. The post-Christmas weight watchers meeting will NOT be fun!!! But the eating and drinking was, and I like to think I have sensible priorities here...bring on the port and cheese ;) I'm currently at my parents, and looking forward to a lovely New Years party with my school friends.

As for stitching - as usual I over committed myself... I signed up for the TWCOE again, and got everything stitched and posted in time (just)... then failed miserably to post the photos on the TWBB. I'm posting here first, as now webshots has changed I'm not sure how to post pics on a BB. Hopefully a link to here will help.  I did take photos of both of the ornies I made, but one of them must have been taken with my camera (which has had a dead battery for 6 weeks, so I used my photo card in a work camera, and switched it back, then didn't bring my camera with me as I couldn't remember where the charger was... and that's how stupidly busy I've been - no time to charge a camera up!). I did remember to take photos of the ornies I received as I was dashing out of the house to come to my parents on the 27th, thankfully.

So here they are - 3/4 of my TWCOE experience this year:

Unicorn from Fantasy Sampler, which I sent to Jen.

Colour variation of the corner motif from Peacock Tapestry, from Measi. I love the blues in this one.

I'm not sure who the designer is, but I also received this wonderful ornie. And I'm really forgetful, so I can't remember who sent it to me [edited to add that this came from Natty].  The ornie is on my tree and the card is up at home... both of which are 90 miles away. Grrrr, must ask Santa for more brain cells next year.

Thank you both for sending me such wonderful ornaments. I also sent A Partridge in a Pear Tree from the JCS ornie magazine to Natty - photo to follow when I get back home ;)

Edited to say that the photograph is now here: http://www.astitchintime-jo.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/2013-year-of-happy-dance.html.

So why all the chaos? During the Olympics I did a lot of quilting (we had 2 weeks off work, a staycation, and the second week coincided with the first week of the Olympics. As well as watching the TV non stop all week, I finished a lap quilt, and picked up the purple sampler quilt I started years ago. I decided I'd finish it for my sister's Christmas present. I also decided to trial quilt as you go, as I have a small machine and a small table, so manhandling a large quilt is tricky. Of course none of this went to plan... We went away on the 16th Dec to Nottingham ( had tickets to see Kate Rusby, and I could work from Eddy's office for my last 3 days of work before Christmas), then to Birmingham to see his family. At that point I'd JUST started to stitch the ready quilted blocks together. And I'd not bought the fabric for the borders yet. QAYG involves A LOT of hand stitching, so I took what needed hand stitching with me, and got that done fine. We returned to Leeds to find that my local quilting shop had closed for the Christmas vacation - so we lost an afternoon driving round trying to find suitable fabric. And then I found that although the initial hand stitching was quick, the long seams were not. On Christmas eve I'd not quite got the main quilt top together, never mind the borders and the binding! Christmas day I didn't touch the quilt... it didn't seem like a Christmassy thing to do, would have been rude to ignore Eddy, we needed the table to eat dinner and I had 2 days to get it done, what was there to worry a out???? Boxing day I started quilting at 9.30 am and finished at 12.45 am... with short breaks to eat. And I still had one long seam to hand stitch and the binding to do... We weren't leaving until 4pm on the 27th.. Plenty of time??? Hmmm, maybe not! I still had to hand stitch the back of the binding - that's another 4 long seams, as well as all the machine sewing for the binding. In  finished the quilt at 5 pm, packed in 20 mins flat (leaving camera at home), and spend down the motorway. My sister was a bit annoyed we were late as she was cooking dinner and was very hungry when we turned up at 7.05 pm... but forgave all when she opened her present. Good job too!

I took this photo with my phone, standing on my mum's bed, just before 'lil sis left to stay at her boyfriends for New Year.... I love the final thing, and yes, she was worth the effort!

And for the next few days I'm barely touching a needle. Hopefully when I get home the hole in my finger will have healed. Maybe I should invest in a thimble??? And next year, if it's not finished by the end of November, I'm going to BUY presents instead of make them. Yeah, I believe me too.....

Happy Stitching!!!

I Heart My Quilt

I finished my first ever quilt!!!!!!




I could just leave this post at that... The quilt is called 'Teacher's Pet', and is supposed to be makeable in just 5 hours. Hmmmm. I fell in love with Moda's Rural Jardin fabrics, especially the duck egg blue at the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show 18 months ago. It didn't actually take me that long to do the centre of the quilt top, but then the project stalled while I was doing the borders. For months. Anyway I did eventually finish the top. At which point I felt there was too much pale cream - essentially because I didn't realise the setting triangles were not supposed to be one of the fabrics in the design. So I decided I'd try a little appliqué. And when I did the two big hearts I thought a smattering of little chain stitch hearts would look cute too...

Quilting this on my tiny table was * interesting* - and not quite perfect (hey, it's my first ever quilt), but I am really, really pleased with the result. I finished it on Wednesday, and I've spent most of the rest of the week snoozing under it :)

Last weekend I picked up an old friend:



I last blogged about this on Christmas eve 2009!! I took the photo above as a 'before' photo, although by the time I thought of that I'd actually added a single length of floss to the tendril heading upwards. And then, not much afterwards I realised the leaf on the right was one stitch to high up - so I did a little flogging, and a little restitching, and this is where I'm up to now:



So not a huge amount of progress in 2 years and 3 months, but at least it's not abandoned any more! And I have no idea why I neglected it for so long, as I LOVE stitching it....

I'm off out today - shopping in York with a good friend - to avoid the last day of the six nations. But I plan on picking up my needle this evening - Happy Stitching everyone!

First happy dance of 2012 and an overdue ORT report

I have finished something!!!! And not just anything, but the Bedfordshire lace butterfly I started back in May 2009! I am unbelievably proud of this little bit of lace, I have learnt so much during Christine Springett's courses, and it really shows in the pieces I am producing.



I'm also very proud to say that I have finished my first quilt top. Of course I've not finished the quilt yet... I have no idea how I'm going to successfully quit it using my basic sewing machine and my very small dining table... But here is a photo of the top as it was when I completed the pattern.



I decided that I wasn't entirely happy at this point. When I started this I somehow misinterpreted the pattern and used the plan cream in the setting triangles in the blocks as well - instead of another pretty print. So there is WAY too much plain cream. So I decided the play a bit. But I didn't take a photo of the quilt top once I'd made my additions - so that will have to be a surprise! Since then I have pinned by batting and backing cloth to the quilt and folded it up carefully. Hopefully I'll be able to start the quilting process at the weekend.

And now for a very late ORT report. Last year I took part in the TUSAL - the totally useless stitch along. I religiously collected all of my ORTs (old ratty threads) into a pretty vase, and at each full moon posted a picture of the vase and my collection on my blog. Until September, when I went temporarily AWOL from blogland.... BUT, I did remember to take a photo of the ORTs before I cleared the vase out to start my 2012 collection:



I am VERY late with my first ORT report of 2012, but here it is. The green at the bottom is from Peacock Firescreen, the red layer is a surprise, and the browny-gold layer is from a little Mill Hill Christmas ornament kit - a mandolin - that my mum popped in my Christmas stocking this year, and that I expect will be my second happy dance of the year.



Happy stitching everyone!

Spring florals

Well I've been off work for 13 days, and over that time I've met up with my mum, aunt cousin and cousin's son for the day, visited Margaret in Birmingham, bought some lovely new clothes and some lovely new stash, had good friends over for dinner, and then a very old friend and her son over for lunch, and done lots and lots of gardening, stitching, knitting and quilting! The glorious spring weather has helped make this a fabulous break, and I've really enjoyed watching our plants grow, flowers start to bloom, and the lovely floral fabrics that is 'Rural Jardin'

So over the last few days of this fantatsic break I've been watching lots of snooker and other TV while quilting and knitting. My scarf is now 2/3 done - I've just started with the 3rd and final ball of yarn. Thankfully no frogging of late :) As it hasn't changed in any way other than length I won't share another photo!!

I've also been racing ahead with the Teacher's Pet quilt top. Yesterday I laid out all of the blocks to finalise the arrangement. The suggested one from the pattern didn't quite work:



So I switched the top left block with one left over (there are 2 spare blocks, which will be cushions - both are identical with lots of cream, so I am pondering an applique something in the middle of the large cream square, with either the pink or red fabric, as that is what I'll have left over! Last night I stitched the rows together, and today I stitched the rows to each other. This photo is of the main part of the quilt top all stitched together (taken with a flash - the photo I took yesterday is much more accurate in terms of colour):



I'm really pleased how it has turned out - not too bad for my first quilt top! With hindsight I would have picked another fabric from the Rural Jardin range, and used the plain cream/beige for the setting triangles and another patterned fabric for the squares in the blocks, but it's far too late now!! Next I need to cut out and add the three borders - pink, then cream, then pale blue. But not for a couple of weeks - it's back to work tomorrow (boo!) and next weekend we are away on a lacemaking/bobbin turning course. I spent some time today pricking out my pattern (a sampler of advanced Bedfordshire Lace techniques) and finding (almost) everything I need to take.

As it is now May it's time to review and set some goals... In April I wanted to:

1) Get A New Beginning past the half way mark Yes!
2) Work on another WIP Yes! - Eeyore's Problem
3) Start fruit bell pull YES!!
4) Select and buy a chart for Helene's birth sampler Yes - it's a Classic Pooh birth sampler, which was her first choice!
5) Make some lace Nope, not a single bobbin was touched (apart from winding some this morning, which doesn't count as it's a) not making lace and b) May...)
6) Do some knitting YES!!
7) Do some quilting YES!!

And I am pretty happy with that!

In May I'd like to:

1) Work on at least two xs WIPs
2) Finish knitting my scarf
3) Start Helene's birth sampler
4) Start to stitch something with the lovely goodies Karin sent me from her giveaway
5) Add the borders to my quilt top
6) Make some lace
7) Start my giveaway prize stitching, now I have the necessary supplies

Not much, eh?

Happy Stitching x

Productive days off work...

I am enjoying the most fantastically relaxing and productive break from work! Since we got back from Margaret's we've slept late, read, gardened, watched TV and had friends over for food. I have also had time to do lots of cross stitch, knitting and even some quilting! The gardening is pretty dull at present - lots of clearing and digging, but nothing pretty (yet!). But the crafting is most definitely pretty!

First I should share a progress picture of Fruit Bellpull which I took this afternoon - although I haven't actually done any stitching on it since we were in Birmingham:



I actually remembered to take the photos outside in the sunshine today, so the colours look really lovely! I used my newly constructed garden bench as a back drop:



I bought the bench at Coughton Court last summer. We popped it in the loft over the winter and I finally unpacked it and put it together a few days ago. Turns out I only had to tighten 9 nuts, the easiest flat packed furniture I've ever put together!! Next to Fruit Bellpull is the scarf I've been knitting. It's about half done now - it would be much longer, but I had to pull out about 6 inches last night, as I realised I'm managed to reverse the pattern part way up. Grrrr! I love the middle cable:



I also pulled out a really old WIP - Eeyore's Problem by Designer Stitches. I last worked on it in September 2009. My taste in cross stitch has changed considerably over the years and I don't think I'd pick something this bright (or on aida) anymore, but I still love this design:



I've also started ANOTHER quilting project. For which I am blaming Joy - her lovely recent posts have been very inspiring! (I now have three quilts on the go, worrying as I've never, ever finished a quilting project bigger than my four hearts cushion... oh well, I do enjoy having lots of WIPs on the go). Yesterday I spent HOURS cutting it out. Not that it was complicated, it's just the first time I've used Moda fabric (Rural Jardin by French General), and I was petrified I'd cut it out wrong.... It's for a simple (and allegedly quick) pattern that I bought at Quilting Chicks in Cortez when we were on holiday in the US last year, called 'The Teacher's Pet'. Apparently the quilt top can be cut out and sewn together in five hours, but not at the speed I cut it out!!! I've done 2 of the 4 seams on each of the blocks so far - and I can certainly say that it is going together very quickly. This is how it looks so far:



It seems it's another month for Blogoversaries - Edgar is celebrating the fourth blogoversary of Blacksheep's Bit of the Web with a giveaway - do go and have a look at his blog, his stitching is truly inspiring!

I think that's it for now. Only two more days of my extended break to go... I really need to fit in some more quilting, gardening, cross stitch, do a couple of jobs around the house and finally get some lace out. I may be a little busy...

Happy stitching x

Four hearts HD

So two weeks ago I went on a day long quilting course at the Skep to master using triangles... Maureen had picked out a really pretty four hearts pattern to try out. I was immediately inspired to do this in pink (not the bright reds Maureen had pulled out for us to pick from), so nipped into the shop and picked 4 fat quarters. I think the fabrics I chose have a really 'Old Colonial America' feel to them, if you know what I mean.




Sorry for the not great photos. I've left my camera at work, so these were taken on my iphone.
ETA: I have no idea why they are rotated.. I just rotated them by 90 degrees and uploaded again, and the new images are rotated through 180 degrees in blogger. So I deleted them again. I give up...

I really enjoyed the class, once again learnt some new things, and am really, really happy with my cushion cover. Even though I'm not really a pink person I think my choice of fabrics was just right. I finished the binding and did the button holes at home - which of course took over a week to do. Mostly because I couldn't remember how to make a button hole....

This weekend I'm trying to finish my cardigan (sewing it together is making my fingers hurt, so it is slow going), and am stitching on A New Beginning. I may try and share a couple of photos tomorrow.

And to remind anyone reading this tonight - there is still time to enter my giveaway - see my last post. I'm thinking of stitching a Black Bird Designs piece for the winner...

Lots of progress

Once again I gone into butterfly mode, flitting from one project to the next...

I've made lots of progress on Hedgerow Birds:


I've started a Sweetheart Tree biscornu (my first ever bis), but haven't really made enough progress to warrant a snap yet.

I made two more blocks of Amish Star. I've love the red/green block. Actually, they are both pretty nice, although the blue/green one is actually blue green and brown, my camera is doing a bad job of getting colours right...



And I made a little gift for Sarah, one of my PhD students who is heading back to the states this weekend. It's a Celtic knot design from Celtic Charted Designs by CO Spinhoven/Dover Press. I backed it with the fabric it's resting on. I finished it late yesterday and then dashed over to Chrissie's for Sarah's last stitch and bitch - where we had a lengthy discussion about who gave me the book. Chrissie and Sonia both said they had to book and might have LENT it to me, but I'm sure it was a gift... possibly from Sarah and Amy, from when Sarah was working at the Scottish Crannog centre - but none of us are very sure!! Anyway, Sarah loved it, and it will join a Highland Cow bookmark that I stitched her around about when she was in Scotland!



I'm still off work, but slowly getting back to rights. My mum is coming to stay for a few days - I need to leave for Leeds train station in about 10 minutes... I'm planning a trip to Texere Yarns as part of the festivities, as we're both trying to get (back) into knitting.... Told you I was flitting from project to project.

Oh yes, and as part of my stash buying at the weekend I bought some Quaker Cloth for my next TW start... It's a biggie!

Happy Stitching x

Progress and Goals

I have a confession to make - I've been off work for a couple of weeks with anxiety/stress... so I've made WAY more progress on everything than normal. I'm feeling much better now, and hope to get back to work soon. But on the plus side it's been a great opportunity for some real progress - with all of my crafts!

On Sunday I felt like quilting - and pulled out Amish star. I completed 3 more blocks, making that 4 in total, and therefore 1/4 of the blocks are done. Here are some photos:

This one is my favourite so far... it's the colours...





And all 4 blocks together

I've also been stitching Hedgerow Birds, and I'm really happy with the progress so far:

Hedgerow Birds, Blackbird Designs

Thanks to Gio for answering my question about the floss - I had a feeling you'd know ;)

Also, I completely forgot to answer a question Gina had about Wild Thyme Fairy - in actual fact the amount of back stitching wasn't too bad at all. I did most of it in one evening, and for the most part is wasn't fiddly - long stitches, and only one colour. The face detail was a little more complicated, as it's essentially over one, but there was so little of it, that armed with a sharp needle, it was not too bad at all. The BS on this was much better than on Pooh and Eeyore, let alone a TW or Dracolair!!

Right, time for February goals... I was quite pleased with my progress in January:

1) stitch an ornament did two
2) finish Wild Thyme Fairy yes
3) start Hedgerow Birds yes
4) work on another WIP yes - A New Beggining got quite a bit of attention
5) lace, hopefully... yes - the flower motif is almost finished

February goals:

1) Finish sewing in the threads on the Bedfordshire flower, and also complete a lace ornament I have almost done
2) Work on another lace project
3) Work on Hedgerow Birds
4) Work on another WIP
5) Do some quilting
6) Maybe start some knitting

That should keep me busy :)

I'll try and post about my lace tomorrow... hopefully I'll have finished it by then.

Happy Stitching!

Harrogate knitting and Stitching

OK, so this is a week late... Last weekend was Harrogate knitting and stitching show. For the last few years I've gone for a good stash shop with Margaret, or with Sonia and Pam. This year I swore blind I wasn't going to go... (it can get a bit 'samey')... and then Phyllis asked me if I'd help with the Lace Guild stall!!!

On Saturday I drove up to Harrogate, arriving a little later than planned due to the snow. I set up my lace table and pillow, and set to work on a little gold and green Christmas ornament as a demonstration piece. I was delighted to realise one of the other volunteers was Jane, who goes to the Christine Springett class in May. It was great fun making the ornament, and talking to anyone who passed by, mostly explaining lace isn't as tricky as it looks, and showing them a couple of stitches.

We had an amazing display of entries to the latest Lace Guild competition - on the theme of 'movement'. The John Bull trophy winner was a map of the London Underground made entirely of lace - it was a real talking point. Irritatingly I'd forgotten my camera, and my phone battery died just as I arrived in Harrogate, so I don't have any photos of the display.

But what about the inevitable stash shopping??? I had a break at lunchtime, when I bought two sweetheart tree charts (Lets get fancy fob and Holiday Holly biscornu), then right at the end of the day I bought a quilting kit from Oakshott (who had a lovely range of shot fabrics), and enough Moda fabric to make another lap quilt (from a pettern I have in my stash). Hmmmm, I've never actually finished anything bigger than a table mat....



Phyllis bought me an Oakshott cotton pack - enough fabric to make either a bag or two simple bowls, with a free pattern - for my birthday.



All in all it was a great day!!

This week I've cut out the Oakshott fabric into pieces for 'Amish Star', and today I have made the first block (of 16). I'm quite pleased with the results:


I wonder how long it will take me to make (I would have made more blocks today, I think, but I've been hit with another winter cold - nothing too bad, but my nose is rather runny, which makes sitting at the sewing machine tricky!!)

Quilting class fun

Yesterday I took an introductory patchwork & quilting class, organised by The Skep Knitting and Quilting Shop in Farsley. Although I have taught myself the basics from books, there were a few things I'm not very good at (cutting out, matching corners and getting consistent seams for starts), so I thought the absolute beginners class would be a good idea. Plus although I've made a few blocks, I've never actually done any sashing, quilting or binding!!

The day started with a near miss for me - as I was backing out of the drive I remembered that I needed the cable and foot for my sewing machine. Shall I just say I wasn't the only one!! When we arrived we all had a cuppa, and Maureen, the teacher, gave us all a present from Clare, who runs the Skep - a lovely pin cushion complete with a few pins, a needle and a wonderful 10% off voucher... more on that later ;)



We all made a simple 16 patch block, and I chose not-very-typically-Jo colours for mine. The green fabric with bright pink berries really caught my eye - and the plain cerise pink was a perfect match!! Once I'd made the first 4 small units, I tried arranging them in different ways, and decided that they looked fabulous as a Puss in the Corner design. Maureen was very taken with my choice of fabrics and design, and suggested that we should quilt through the plain pink using a leaf motif, using a lovely variegated green thread. The sashing was surprisingly simple, as was attaching the binding, but the mitred corners were really tricky... By the end of the class I'd got everything finished apart from 2 mitred corners and stitching the binding to the back by hand. I did 2 corners and some hemming last night, and finished it in front of the TV this morning:



I had a blast yesterday, and learnt LOADS - Maureen was a great teacher, and very funny. I can't wait to sign up for quilting 2. Plus Louise and I fancy the crocheting class that they run. Pam even kept the Skep open late for us so we could go shopping after we finished. I only bought 2 fat quarters, as i have plenty in my stash already and no real idea of what I want to make next. But I picked up some more wool to make another cable knit scarf (I like the one for Cancer Research UK so much I'm making one for me!!), and some lovely ribbons for finishing Christmas ornaments:



Oh, and I forgot to say - at lunchtime we were treated to homemade apple pie and/or mince pies made by Pam. Thankfully I don't like mince pies, so my ww week wasn't totally trashed ;) And that reminds me of another thing - I had a major victory at ww this week - I passed the 50lbs mark - I can't believe I have lost 50.5lbs since January!!!

Last time I posted I promised a photo of Peacock Firescreen:



I've made quite a bit of progress on it this week since the last time I shared a photo (which is exactly where it stood when I picked it up), something else I'm really happy with.

Anyway, I have to say I am having a wonderful weekend on my own (Eddy's at a conference, and is on his way home right now). I'm planning a nice tea tonight with apple crumble with our own apples for pudding. Hope your weekends have been just as lovely.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Jo the crafting butterfly...

Do you ever get in one of those moods where although everything you are doing is fun, you just can't stick with it? Well that's been me this last week...

After the last post I struggled for a few days to settle down to anything in particular... I did a bit of knitting on and off - my scarf is now 75cm long, about half way - which is good as it's freezing today, I think I'm going to need it sooner rather than later!

At the weekend I was in the mood for quilting again. But I was worried I didn't have enough of the paler shades... so I had a quick look online for quilting shops, and realised that there was a real brick-and-mortar (well, stone-and-mortar, this being Yorkshire) quiliting shop not 10 mins drive away... (I tend to buy myself quilitng supplies when I see them - as I don't generally actually do any quiliting, something I am trying to remedy). So I popped over to the Skep Knitting and Quilting Shop, where I got 3 fat quarters - one in white with lilac spots for the sampler quilt I am attempting to make (ahem), and two lovely bright ones to use as cover cloths for my lace - having stolen my cover cloths back from my lace pillows for use in the supposed quilt (it WILL be a quilt, it WILL be a quilt).

That night we watched Wallander in Swedish. Brilliant I thought, I can read subtitles while knitting. Except I can't very well, managed to get the knitting going the wrong way, and realised after I'd done about 6-8cm of knitting. I can confirm however that I can unpick knitting while reading subtitles....

Sunday I made a single block for the quilt, having spent most of the day thinking about the design and colour combinations (again).

Sunday night and Monday I picked up Fantasy Triptych. Which I am loving again... have made some good progress with the green:


Tonight, however, I fancied a change - and started the LHN ornament from last years JCS special issue.

Yup, I am a self-certified crafting butterfly...

A perfect weekend

This weekend has been so lovely. And it's hard to say what exactly made it perfect... we did very little, but achieved a lot, and were very chilled out all of the time. Plus I did LOADS of crafts... and not all cross stitch!

On Friday night I finished Sunflower charms, and picked up Peacock firescreen. We ate a veggie lasagne - courgette and swiss chard - with roast potatoes, and most of the veggies were homegrown.

Saturday I did the food shopping, started Pooh and Eeyore, I blogged and did some knitting in front of Wallander (the Swedish version, which I LOVE. I can knit and read subtitles, a useful new form of multitasking...). Eddy did loads of tidying in the garden. We watched a movie. I sorted through my wardrobe - only 6 items that are too small, and lots that are too big have been moved to the spare wardrobe ready to be given to charity or part exchange for money off (a new Monsoon initiative, which I can't wait to take advantage of). I don't have many clothes, but at least I know which ones fit. I still need to sort through the shelves though... many t-shirts!

Sunday I did some more on Pooh and Eeyore, Dave came over and fixed out dripping tap (this has been an epic tale of non-tap fixing until now...), we harvested artichokes and potatoes, and ate artichokes and peas, Greek-style roast potatoes, feta and bread for lunch - and ate on the patio, for once it wasn't cold and rainy. I pulled out some quilting stuff and made 3 blocks - my second attempt at quilting and much more successful than last time! I took Eddy to the station (not so good) then came home and cooked some new weight watchers recipes - for tea tonight and for tomorrow.

So for not doing much I was pretty busy! Now I just need to pick a movie and a craft and veg out until bedtime. Until then, here are some photos of the results of my labour (none of the knitting though - I've now done 45cm of the scarf, but it looks pretty similar to last time!):