Electrical Appliances and Christmas

Hope you had a great Christmas. We had a good one just a few family and pretty much chilled.

Can't say that for our electrical appliances though, a week before the big day my washer died. My sister has one in storage so I was able to borrow that for over the festive period, thanks Liz. I am hopeful that mine is fixable and will ring an engineer tomorrow....

The dryer is making a rather strange noise too, I will have to get the engineer to look at that whilst he is here.

My sewing studio is a bit of a disaster zone, I've been ripping jeans apart with gay abandon for a quilt for my nephew for Christmas. There are threads all over the carpet and the bits I didn't use are strewn around the room. Our house guest is out today, I'm not at work and actually have some spare time, so thought I'd begin my next project. But I wanted to have a little clean before I began in earnest, or at least get the threads off the carpet. The vacuum cleaner took one look at the job I had lined up for it and promptly died. So now I've got to get that fixed too grrrrh

Just a tiny area of the carpet waiting for a good clean.

What is it with electrical appliances at Christmas? In the past our fridge decided to die on Christmas Eve, I'm pretty sure the dishwasher died at Christmas too.

I should just get on with the next sewing project.....

A Recent Finish

I've not done a lot of sewing this year as my sewing studio has been in uproar for a good part of it. We've had the decorators in and a new carpet has been fitted which meant getting everything out. I now have the unenviable task of finding homes for much of my equipment. The shelving arrangement I had before just wasn't working so I'm now trying to establish something better. My stuff is lodged around the rest of the house, whilst I make some decisions, which isn't ideal but I want it to be right when we've finished!

In the meantime I've been busy sewing Christmas projects for the shop:

This is a great new Christmas stocking from Makower, featuring Santa on one side and snowmen on the other. Pictured here as a work in progress all ready for quilting and the finished article.

I made the stocking double sided but it could easily be made into two stockings by using a plain back.

You cannot see here but I quilted it using a metallic thread from Gutermann, so it's all glittery.

Goslings Two Weeks on...

What a difference 2 weeks make in the life of goslings, or rather guslings as they are known here, due to the fact they are most often seen eating ;-)

 Captured here in a rare moment giving their jaws a rest, enjoying yesterday's sunshine.

Return of the Bees

It was a better day for bees today, thankfully there were a few more than yesterday but not as many as there ought to bee (sorry couldn't resist that one ;-) )

 Three busy bees hopefully this means we will get some apples in the autumn.

Apple Blossom

This is our apple tree, as you can see it is laden with stunningly beautiful blossom. It smells delicious too :)

The air should be filled with the sight and sound of busy buzzing bees. Unfortunately today there were just two, very worrying where have all the bees gone?

Goslings

I've finally taken some pictures of the goslings:

In their pen in the barn 

Relaxing in the sun

 As it is such a beautiful day they have been outside for the first time today.

The proud parents!

The First Gosling.....Ahhh.....

How cute is this little guy? He's the first gosling my son hatched in his incubator.

He/she has now been joined by two more, whose photo I have yet to take.

The Dark Side and the Power of Two.....

  

Once again I've been seduced by the dark side....

One cold, dark and miserable November afternoon, I was seduced by the gorgeous wrap/shrug thing on the Debbie Bliss poster below:

Its also on the front cover of the Angel Pattern book. I'd been wearing the gossamer like fingerless gloves from the same book to keep my hands warm and was bowled over by just how warm they were, considering how light and airy they are.
  So the wrap had been whispering to me for some time, the Party Angel yarn was tempting me too but the warmth of the gloves was my undoing, under these provocative circumstances I did the only thing a girl can do.... I indulged.

For those who don't know, Party Angel is a delicate yarn in a delicious blend of Super Kid Mohair & Silk with a very fine thread of glitter running through it. The glitter gives a very subtle glisten to the yarn nothing too blingy.

Now this thing is knit in one piece and its got more than a hundred stitches. As you may know knitting isn't my passion and after the first flush of excitement it all got a bit tedious, but I'm not a quitter and I still want the wrap so I've had to force myself to keep going. This is where the power of two comes in, now don't laugh but what I'm doing is knitting just two rows of it a day. I know 2 rows doesn't sound a lot, its not, but its achievable and it does add up. I can't say I've stuck to two every day and some weeks I've been less than enthusiastic but most weeks I have managed to do a few rows even if it was only a couple. This week I've been particularly good and managed most days. I began a new ball at the weekend and I've done over an inch since then, I do like measurable progress.

Obviously its not yet finished but it is about half way there, if I keep on like this I may even have it finished for next Christmas..... but don't bet on it.

Quilt Festival

Check out the fantastic Quilt Festival at Farfield Mill, Sedburgh, Cumbria. There are some very well known names involved, including Pauline Burbidge, I love her work. I've got to get up there and have a look. Runs until Sunday 7th April 2013.

New Year - First Finish

Now the festivities are over I can get back to some sewing..... yeah.

For my first finish of the New Year, I made up this cute little book panel from Moda. It was very badly cut at the end of the bolt so it's been hanging around my sewing studio for some time and I've had to make some modifications to it. This is one time when not rushing in with your first idea really paid off, I had been going to abandon some of the pages, but today it occurred to me that if I made into a rag book I could keep all the pages. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out and in fact I prefer it to the original. Result!