Melting in Milnthorpe & Christmas in July

Wow but its hot. This is England, how can it be 22 degrees at 8 o'clock in the morning?

It seems I've got to an age where I'd rather be inside sewing in weather like this.... what happened Enough about the weather, on to sewing..

At the shop we've taken delivery of Christmas. So I'm now busy making up advent calendars, Christmas stockings and such like.

Starting with the Advent Stockings from Makower UK.

Here's one I finished, just 23 more to go.....

First day of spring

According to google today is the first day of spring... I guess that explains the rain then!

Feeling miffed, I pegged the washing out and missed the start of the rain so the washing is now as wet as when I pegged it out!

Rain on the window

A forlorn daffodil in the garden.

On the positive side there will be no garden guilt as I spend the afternoon sewing!

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!
  

A Cold and Frosty December Morning

Oh my but its cold out there today. At 6:00 am this morning I took pity on my youngest son, and in temperatures of -4 degrees C, very slowly on untreated roads, I drove him to work. He normally goes on his push bike. I'd been out quite late last night at Susan Dixon's Quilter's dinner and I didn't have to get up this morning so I'm expecting lots of good mummy points for this selfless act :) I know that these temperatures are nothing to what other countries have to cope with but I'm a total wimp when it comes to the cold and driving in it.

Later on this morning I took the some pictures, it was bitterly cold and very foggy, thankfully the fog has lifted now.

This is the view from my kitchen window.

I love the little ice crystals that form on leaves and plants.

Went to the Heaves Hotel for the aforementioned dinner, the food was superb, the staff friendly and welcoming, and the company were, as ever with quilters, great fun. We had a choir on the stairs singing Carols for us before dinner and sang Carols around the piano with the choir after. Met up with old friends not seen for a while and hopefully made a few new ones too. Many thanks to Susan for arranging it all. 

Apple Harvest

At the beginning of the month we finally picked the apples from our tree.

The chap from next door came in September assured us they were cooking apples, and helped himself to a bucketful. We tried one too but the pips were still white. Having been told that apples weren't ready util the pips turned brown we waited, and waited and waited.... until finally at the beginning of November, just when we'd decided to pick them regardless, they were ready.

Turns out they are very tasty eating apples too, not the cookers our neighbour claimed.

It was a gorgeous morning the fruit was, as you can see, dripping from the overnight rain.  So I took a snap of the field too.

The trees are now bereft of their leaves but how pretty it looked just a couple of weeks ago.

Granny Squares

Now we've got all this warmth, I am loath to leave it in the evenings and go to my sewing studio, so I'm getting much less sewing done. On the other hand as I cannot bear to sit and do nothing, I've been crocheting granny squares.

When my mother, who was a very good and somewhat prolific knitter, died earlier this year I inherited her wool (talk about coals to Newcastle!). What to do with it all? I decided to hand the unfinished items to daughter Charlotte, she's a much better knitter than I and will finish them beautifully. But all the odd balls... time to make some granny squares for a blanket. I've only just learnt to crochet and granny squares are about my limit at the moment.  I've begun with this not terribly pleasant green, which I am sure is left overs from school jumpers for my children. Then getting bored of that colour I picked out the next ball, a navy blue, which is great but until we get a decent light I am barely able to see in the evening. Oh how we laughed when our parents complained of not being able to see dark colours at night.... I digress, hopefully, if I make enough different coloured squares, one day it will all look ok in a blanket.... um!

Ahh... warmth

Oh the excitement..... we've just had a wood burning stove fitted and I'm warm!

Before we moved here we were told by the previous occupants that the house was quite a cold one, but we didn't worry too much as most of the houses we've lived in have been somewhat on the cold side. It is nice to have the stove, it makes it nice and cosy and no longer cold!

Knitting

Having got over the giddiness I'm now knitting a slip over for my Dad. Not that it will be done in time for Father's day this Sunday, knitting isn't really my thing and it takes me a long to get it done.

I'm using this Stylecraft pattern and the same brown wool as shown on the pattern.

More Jubilympic giddyness..

I've finished another Union Jack cushion using less obvious fabrics this time.

I got really frugal with this one and used up the left overs for piecing the back, I also added a red, a white and a blue button to fasten it.

I'm also working on a tapestry type cross stitch Union Jack design which will most likely end up as a cushion too. Pictures as soon as I've finished it.

Gettin Giddy....

I said I might get a bit giddy...
I did but not only with the Jubilee stuff with the blog too. Three posts in one month that's got to be a record for me!

So to the Jubileee (which my daughter is calling Jubilympics, others maybe too but I'm out of touch!) giddiness... I made mini bunting using Benartex's 'Cool Britannia' fabric for the shop. The bunting is now up in the window and unfortunately I forgot to take pictures. Then I adapted the free pattern from Makower to make this pillowcase using yet more of the 'Cool Britannia'.

For the back I used another co-ordinating 'Cool Britannia' print.

Apologies for the picture quality, they were taken last night in bad light, sorry.

Jubilee Cushion

Here is my latest project a cushion for the Jubilee, using Makower's patriotic 'I love London' Fabrics.

I used the pattern designed by Hilary Gooding, which is provided by Makower for free here.

I love this pattern and may get a little giddy and make more.....