Happy Christmas 2025

 From our house to yours, have a lovely time 🎄🥂

December and New Discoveries

 

It’s December it’ll be a busy month leading up to Christmas.  My monthly marker this month is a book folded Christmas tree that I made at my local Townswomen’s Guild Hotchpotch craft group. That was a really good morning of chatter while folding pages (over 120-ish of them) before decorating and adding a string of tiny lights.

Anyway as for new discoveries this week I have a pair of AirPods. Nothing new there, they’ve been around for some time but it’s a first for me.  After the heaviness of David’s wireless headphones to listen to podcasts while sewing then the frustration of wearing cheap ear pods that kept running out of power, bit the bullet and got these in a Black Friday sale. These are brilliant and wished I bought sooner. Recognised my phone straight away, the sound is clear and the charge lasts for a long time. Using while machine sewing the volume adjusts itself too. They aren’t noise cancelling so I still need to be aware of what’s around me, but they are just the job for listening to podcasts and maybe listening to music.

Another discovery I found are books on Readly.  I have subscribed to Readly for a number of years and it has UK as well as some other countries magazines, newspapers and this discovery is of Search Books, who publish craft and art books and they have a small selection of their books.  The advantage is that being on iPad the articles can be read by expanding out the page making the type easier to read. A couple of the books featured is Carolyn Forster’s Quilt as You Go.  I have the printed book but the type in the book is grey rather than black which can make it difficult to read, so I’m pleased it’s on Readly. There’s also a crocheted wreaths book by Anna Nikipirowicz which is good for crochet ideas for small items amongst others. There is another page with art books too. I hope there may be a few textile/embroidery books.No affiliation as I pay a subscription.

It shows you’re never too old to find new discoveries. Everyday is a school day.

Getting things finished

I started this post 2 weeks ago….

 I’ve been feeling overwhelmed recently, some due to David’s health and he’s getting much better now. Some of it has been due to having a lot of projects in progress and slowly these are getting completed.  I’ve had a large quilt ongoing since I picked up the quilt kit in August. Last month  I also picked up a couple of kits for Project Linus West Dorset. So let’s start with those.

I had a SCBU quilt, a small one given to those in the unit at Dorset County Hospital (I’m guessing some may go to Bournemouth Hospital too) and their size (about 30” square) makes then easy to put together and finish. Sweet, is it? It’s now been passed on to go to Dorchester this week.

Last week I put together a larger quilt and on Saturday layered up and quilted.  Adding the binding I stitched this down and it was also finished. So that can go too. I had to trim off top and bottom as the backing fabric was literally the size of the top (the pack did say to trim if needed). 

Both quilts have now gone to my friend who took them to Dorchester on my behalf, but I’m not getting another kit at present. So that’s 2 done and a quilt top put together and layered up.

I started knitting socks for David as he had difficulty to get normal socks on and had a few pairs of knitted socks which were easier to put on. I made the socks in just 5 days with just enough of the main yarn!

Like me he has small feet so I used the West Yorkshire Spinners self striping yarn that I’d used to make him some fingerless gloves. It’s called Brenda, a Yarndale exclusive wool named after one of the mascot sheep in 2024 and I combined with plain WYS yarn in Nutmeg for heels and toes.  I had just a tiny smidge of the yarn left.  I made a 64 stitch plain socks using 2.5mm needles (so a slightly larger needle than I would use for my socks) but I refer to one of the Bakery Bears patterns for heels and toes and toe shaping. 

Now today’s update…..

This week has been a busy one so not much chance of sewing, so knitting had been on the agenda as it’s easy to pick up.  I have been working on a cardigan for my youngest granddaughter. I’ve used a King Cole pattern but I’ve found that I made the back too short so I’ve made the fronts and undone the back to the armhole shaping.

I’m making progress on a Quilt for Care Leavers from a kit picked up back in August.  It is sandwiched together and I’ve started machine quilting.  Being bigger than the Linus Quilts I had to put the layers together working on one half of the quilt, then shifting along the table to work on the other half.  I use spring clamps to keep the layers taut while pinning together. This is how it looks at present. I’m hoping for a bit of time to get in with more quilting next week.

I’m pleased that I’m clearing things and a chance to ‘breathe’ and tidy up a bit.

Yesterday (Friday 28th) was my birthday and I am now 70 so officially old, though I don’t feel it. David reached the same milestone 2 weeks ago.  We have been spoiled with various events and look forward to a family get together this weekend.   David’s health is a lot better since his recent operation and is walking well, so all is good.

We now have the spectre that is Christmas approaching and made a start on that already. Have you? 

November Starts

Above is my monthly marker for November, which is a dahlia flower at Kingston Lacy near Wimborne. 

I recently did a Wool Warehouse order of yarn and started a cardigan for my youngest granddaughter using their Yarnsmiths Lagoon acrylic yarn in blues and purples. The pattern is by King Cole.  

The back has now been completed and I’ve made a start on the front.

I’m hoping it’s big enough for her as she’s grown quite a bit!

Unfortunately it’s the time of year for secret making on the run up to Christmas.  But one thing I can share now is the mystery gnome, Gnumpkin. Below is a photo of him sitting on the mantle piece. 

That’s him in pieces.

I love making the mystery gnomes but I can’t make each one, so I do have to dip out.  I enjoy the different knitting techniques used to make them, there’s always something new to learn.  The pattern is by Sarah Schira of Imagined Landscapes. There’s a Christmas one called Gnandad’s Adventure coming up, which I won’t take part in this time.

Last weekend I got out my Botanical journal and decorated a few pages.  

It’s an ongoing process that I can take my time over. I’ve painted some of the background pages, added old book pages and decorated with paper washi tape, taken pictures from old greetings cards and also done some stamping.  It’s something different to keep creating.

This week I got out a kit that I bought in Koblenz, Germany, earlier this year. It was one of the stops on the river cruise on the Rhine. I went into a fabric and yarn shop and bought this along with some yarn. The shop is called Die Tupfelchen. The instructions are in German, but having watched the demo on You Tube and with my knowledge of making pouches, it didn’t take long to put together. 

So that’s been the starts for November so far.

The end of October…

And a finish or two.  I finished off a cardigan, which I’m disappointed with and yet to make a decision to frog or not.  But a better finish was these pair of mitts for my granddaughter, using up leftover yarn from a couple of previous jumpers I made her. The mitten pattern is from Sirdar’s Accessories book.

I finished some fingerless mitts for myself.  The pattern is from The Wool Shed and design is Lewes. I’ve only shown one here, but believe me I have made a pair.  Lots of ends to sew in as you can imagine, but a lot of fun to make and good for using odds and ends of yarn.

I’ve taken part in a mystery gnome knitalong by Sarah Schira of Imagined Landscapes and this gnome is Gnumpkin, an autumal gnome.  I hoped I could share here as I don’t have many followers, but not for another week (sorry, I’ll have to keep you in suspense).  I enjoy the gnome patterns as they are not only fun to make but also there’s also something to learn too, so a real skill builder.

As for sewing in September and October saw me making a lot of quilt as you go squares to make pouches. The picture below shows them matched up with zips and below that one of the pouches completed.  They were sold at the local Townswomen’s Guild charity meeting along with other crafts.  Some were given to my friend for another charity sales table.

I’ve made a small 24” quilt from a kit suppled by West Dorset Project Linus group for Dorset County Hospital’s SCBU.  It’s a really sweet quilt with vehicles on it.  I’m now putting together a bigger quilt, which I hope will be ready in a couple of weeks. This will be a girly quilt with the main squares having handbags on it.

At Dorset Creative Embroiderers I made a purse from kit and instructions from Sarah of Sixty Four Packing Cases . She supplied the materials from which I made the purse, which is on a wool felt base with fabrics to free machine onto the base.  The following day I handstitched the purse frame with backstitch.

Another small bit of embroidery I’ve completed are these magnetic needle minders from a kit I purchased earlier this year at the Brockenhurst Needlework Fiesta by Sue Hawkins Needleworks. They have quite strong magnets in them and they’re only 1” square. A lovely accompaniment to my stitching.

I’ve also been doing some paper crafting, which makes a real change.  A couple of years ago I bought a journal kit from Janie’s Originals called The Botanist Sketchbook.  I made the book fairly quickly, but I’ve taken my time with collecting and putting in pictures, painting or gluing in backgrounds. When showing this to my friend week before last she gained me a number of floral picture cards to put into it, so I must get busy and find homes for the cards. Here’s a couple of pages, one painted and one with an old book page.

This was a page I made up with a background of paper from The Works (last year’s autumn pad) and washi tape stamps. 

I’ve also made and ATC for the TG online ATC swap and the theme this month is Green.  As I have offcuts of card and paper I sought out the green pieces and did some weaving with narrow strips. I painted over with Mod Podge, added the word Green and added a few green sticky gem stars. All on a green card back.

During this month I went to the Knit + Stich Show at Alexandra Palace, which I wrote about here so that made me more inspired.  The only trouble is that I need more time! 

So that was my October and it went quick.  November will see more knitting content as I’ve just today picked up my Wool Warehouse delivery and I’ll get cracking on a new cardigan for my other granddaughter.    Keeeeeep. Busy!! 

All can be revealed….

 The past few months I have been working on a secret mini quilt. I have been a member of the UKQU (UK Quilters United) group on Facebook for some years and earlier in the year announced a secret mini quilt swap and opened up a sub group for this.  There was a form to complete with likes, dislikes other distractions (besides quilting), colour choices, etc and I soon received the name of the person I would be making the quilt for along with her preferences.  As a group we were encouraged to ‘stalk’, not in a creepy way but to look at any clues through social media which would encourage me to make a quilt that my partner would appreciate.

I was assigned to Cathy.  She lives further along the coast from me in East Sussex. I noticed that she is taking part in Focus Cutting Sewalong run by Naomi Clark-Mordy. There is an Instagram hashtag #focuscuttingsewalong to follow if you want to know more. It highlights certain aspects of fabric prints in shapes, which this year is a pentagon crown of which three of these shapes put together make a hexagon. See this image from Lina Patchwork below that I took a screenshot of.

I bought the pack of pieces but never made any, but it got me thinking of hexagons.

I already had assorted hexagon papers and I also had a card die of hexagons in different sizes and a few Ashmead Designs hexies too.  Using various novelty and patterned prints in my stash I got together quite a few assorted hexies.

Next I had to make the quilt background.  Cathy has a love of colour but I thought of a slightly more calming but colourful background for the hexies.  I had a fat quarter of rainbow stars in Lewis and Irene Over the Rainbow range (from 2021) which was perfect and I also had some rainbow ombré fabric for the binding.  

Above is a small corner of the quilt, which I converted to greyscale as a teaser on the group page, just to show there was a quilt in progress.  The rainbow binding were two strips of fabric going from the middle point of the quilt to the top and bottom with both strips meeting in the middle of both ends. As you can see  I quilted with wavy lines of straight stitch, some lines with white thread, some with a white metallic just catching the light.

With that done and adding hexies as and when. I turned my attention to the ‘extras’, a little gift to put with the finished quilt.  I thought as she was gaining these pentagon/hexagon shapes, Cathy would need something to put them in, so I made a Lola pouch (pattern by Sotak Handmade) which I’ve made several times.  As we both live in different towns on the south coast, common to both places would be gulls.  I have some Gulls in Breton Jumpers which fitted that theme. 

I have a yarn subscription this year with Blue Fern yarns and there’s always a tea sachet, coffee stick and Lotus biscuit with that, so I popped those in the pocket and added a pack of  Percy Pig sweets in too, Cathy’s favourite sweets (didn’t know how many varieties there were!). Also in the bag was a postcard (made in 2018) of sunflowers and a crochet coaster (designed by Sussex based designer Eleanora Tully of Coastal Crochet). Picture below by Cathy on her Facebook post.

Back to the quilt and I had the pleasure of putting on the hexies to the quilt. I had the idea of tumbling hexies, getting bigger and joining together at the bottom of the quilt.  Taking the focus cutting in mind (some would call this fussy cutting) I used the various sizes of papers. By the time I got to the 1” hexies at the bottom they looked enormous compared with those in he rest of the quilt! 

Anyway I finished at the end of August and it was waiting patiently through September to await sending to Cathy this month.  I had a bit of a panic as I learnt she’d gone to Paris, but that was only a day trip, so she was home to receive her quilt and she was delighted! So here it is

Do you want to know what I got?

Following me was Janet, who also got that I lived on the south coast and was inspired to make this lovely underwater quilt

She also included a handy pouch with a fabric marker (that’ll come in useful) and machine needles (definitely useful!). I’m not sure where it’ll hang yet, but there will be a home for it. 

It was fun to make although I felt a little overwhelmed at the beginning when the members of the group were putting up posts of do you like this or that to get clues about their partners.  But once that calmed down and ideas were gathering it was easier to get on and get it done.  I might do it again next time…..

October Out and About

 Last weekend on Saturday David and I visited Kingston Lacy near Wimborne to see the autumn colours.  There is a Japanese garden which has some lovely acer trees which turn into some gorgeous colours this time of year.

The next two photos are in the tea garden.

Going to the kitchen garden, it was lovely to see late summer flowers 

And harvested pumpkins in the greenhouse 

On display between the tea room and shop

On Sunday, an early start from Wimborne, I went with the Quarterjack Quilters on a coach trip to the Knit + Stitch show at Alexandra Palace in North London.  It’s quite a trek from Dorset (about 3 hours each way).  It has a variety of needlecraft suppliers, with workshops (I didn’t take part), demonstrations and exhibitions. 

I enjoyed the Anne Kelly’s exhibition.  The stitching on objects, like embroidering over and old quilt

Adding stitching details to a work box and cases

The Embroiderers Guild had an exhibition of the works of past embroiderers in their collection 

On the exterior walls of the gallery were artworks by current members of the Embroiderers Guild, on the theme of Land and Sea

I love the texture in the photo below

Near the entrance was the exhibition of winners from the Festival of Quilts, here are a few below.

An enjoyable if a shattering Sunday. I made some purchases including some Christmas presents.

It was lovely and sunny so I had time to enjoy it before heading home on the coach.