Angel Giveaway

Today's the day if you had entered into the giveaway for this little lady.

Here are all the names ready to go into the pot to be drawn by Pati, our lovely receptionist.

This is Pati she is lovely, very efficient and we couldn't manage without her even if she does think I'm mad.

Here she is doing the deed.

And the winner is Gina. Congratulations Gina, your parcel will be in the post today I hope you like it.

I hope you are all enjoying the snow. It took me an hour to get to the shop this morning but my journey was very pretty. I used the back roads this morning and it was magical driving underneath white trees. The sun was just rising, the sky was beautiful and I forgot about all the inconvenience that the white stuff causes- until I go home!

January's issue of Patchwork and Quilting features Art and Stitch in the "let's go shopping" series. Judi Mendelssohn came to see us a couple of weeks ago (what a delightful lady she is) and we spent a couple of hours talking about us, the shop, the training room and our workshop programme. The article is an amusing (and encouraging) summary of what we do and how we do it -and has a picture of Neil in case you were wondering what he looks like!

Xmas Giveaway

OK, I give in and admit that Xmas is on its way. I did write three xmas cards this morning. Sunday evening Anthony and his girlfriend put the tree up. I think they did a great job it looks lovely.

The angel is as pretty as ever.

Monday morning we took Sparky back to the vets at Newmarket, he had to have some blood tests to check how he is getting on with the medication. Imagine the amusement when the vet picked him up to put him on the table and we spotted hanging from his neck a snowflake. It appears that when they decorated the tree they decorated the dog as well!

If you would like to win this little angel for your tree all you need to do is leave a comment before 9:00am Friday and I will put your name into a draw which will be drawn on Friday morning so that she can go in Fridays post.

Funny Weather

I thought I would show you some pictures I took in the garden this morning.

This geranium is still going strong




along with this fuschia. They are both very pretty and it is lovely to see them but not what I would expect at this time of year.

I got the pattern for these angels from here they are fiddly to make but there is a sense of satisfaction in making them. Thank you Dotty for the pattern.

Never Say Never

This is what we had for our evening meal on Tuesday. It's chicken and bacon pie with peas.

I thought I'd blog about this culinary achievement because nobody will believe me if I just told them about it.

This is how it looked before it went into the oven and that's egg not varnish on the pastry I'm not that hopeless! I will admit that I didn't make the pastry that was courtesy of Saxby. Well I can't do everything.


This was the spectacular offering that came out of the oven.

And this is how it looked when I cut into it.

Even if I do say so myself it was very yummy and everybody's plate was empty. You never know I might try again next year.

Course Work

This is a book I have made as part of my shape work. We started with a sketch book and played around with various shapes making different patterns. We also looked at how shapes are used in advertising, on food labels and any where else that you see shape.

Then we made a book and are meant to choose a shape and fill the book with patterns made using that shape, I've got as far as making the book.



This is a sample that I made in class using kunin felt, all to do with shape again.

The white side is meant to be the right side but I prefer the black. I really enjoyed making this. You know how it is when you make something because you have to so you just get on and do it (eventually), and then there are times when you make something because you have to but you enjoy the process, this was one of those times.

I have been doing some more work on my hanging but had to stop because I broke the embellisher needles changed them and then broke the new ones. So more new ones are on order.

It's A HAT

Yes it's a hat. I made it with the wool I got from here . It's a very nice fitting hat and the ear flaps do keep your ears warm.

Well done to Gina and Barbara who both guessed the right answer.

What Is It?

Can you guess what I am making?

Even this little fella is confused.

Just in case you were wondering the little fella belongs to the dog.

Hexagons And Prairie Points

Remember the hexagons and prairie points? Last time you saw them they were in bits and now they have all been put together to make this.


An oversized pincushion. It stands 10cm in height and 19.5cm across. It's larger than I imagined it would be but that might have some thing to do with the fact that I didn't read all the instructions. (Well who does?) I should have cut the middle band down to 3½" in width before joining together but never mind it still works the same. I've stuffed it with sawdust after some advice from a friend (thank you Barbara). As I was putting it together I didn't like it and wished I'd never started but now it's finished and I've had time to look at it I am pleased with it. I think it's going to be very useful and I've never had a pincushion before - can you believe that!


I added some embellishments of my own and I think more will follow. The hexagon and square button are handmade and I've had them for ages, I always knew I'd find a use for them.

This oval pendant used to be a necklace until this afternoon, I had it as a child (see you should never throw anything away) and it has got my name on it as well as some flowers (bad photo) so that just had to go on there.

There are enough squares in the box to make another two pincushions so you may see some more.

I'm Back

I've been away, we spent last week in Wales, here to be exact. We had a lovely time and I didn't want to come home. We went from Monday to Friday and it just wasn't long enough. I came back to work on the Saturday and I just haven't been able to get back into the swing of things. I'm sure you know that feeling.

One thing I have managed to do is work on my Shape sketchbook for my course. It's going in the right direction but it's not finished.

Here I have been looking at circles, how they are used in design and advertising and I have started to play around with them. Looking at this page now I could have made a face with measles using the coloured dots- Can you see it? Although I'm not sure that's what teacher had in mind :-)

This is some of my work on squares. I particularly like the pattern I made at the bottom left of the right hand page. I'm sure that would make a nice quilt. And I'm sure that's what the teacher had in mind more than a face of measles.

This is just a couple of pages where I was playing around with shapes and making patterns.

Hopefully I will get my creative mojo back soon and more interesting things will be produced.

I hope you have a good weekend whatever the weather.

Goings On

This is my Friendship Braid quilt. If you look close enough you can see the basting stitches - I had just finished layering it up when I took this picture. I am now going to quilt it which won't be an easy task because it's so large. We had to put three tables together to layer it up. I've used Bamboo Wadding for the first time, it feels like silk so I just had to try it.

On Saturday Gina was at the shop giving a workshop on Machine Embroidered Textures. It was a very quiet class, all the ladies were so absorbed in their work. The pictures below are of their work. I love all the colours it was so nice to see all the schemes coming together.

The next picture is of Gina's work. She has put a temporary frame around her work and you can see what a lovely picture it will make.

It was a lovely workshop all the ladies enjoyed themselves and Gina was as wonderful as ever.

Nearly Finished Table Mats

I have now made table mats 5 and 6. Now all I have to do is layer them up, quilt them and bind them. I am really pleased with these and I will do Square Dance again.

I took Sparky back to the vets yesterday for a check up. He has now got another tablet to add to his cocktail of drugs. It takes ages to get his food ready now. It used to be so quick just giving him dog food and biscuits. Now I have to warm up the chicken and rice, crush tablets, split capsules (and remember which ones I've done) and make chicken gravy. Thank god for gravy granules. Then I have to do it all again at tea time. The new tablet is for his thyroid. The vets still don't know if it's his thyroid causing a neurological problem or the other way round. So we have to try these tablets and see what happens. We have got to take him back to the Dick White Centre next week.

A Finished Quilt

This is christmas table mat number 4, numbers 5 and 6 are waiting to be made.

We've got a social stitching day at the shop today so Steph said she would like to make a cake for every one and she did. Last night she made these lovely Pumpkin Muffins. They smelt so good when they came out of the oven, temptation was hard to resist . Not too much longer now to wait for coffee break.

I thought you might like to see this. Do you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning? So does this fella. He got up came downstairs jumped onto the sofa laid the cushion down and curled up on it. Neil came down felt sorry for him and covered him up. The dog stayed there for half an hour!

This is my crazy quilt as you go quilt finished and hanging up on the wall. It's so large that I had to take two pictures. I'm not totally happy with the borders, they didn't go on very well but they're on and staying. Overall I am happy with it, I just love all the colours.

Last night I spent some time on my hexagons. I now have two strips sewn together and 27 prairie points (only need 26) so now all I need to do is put it all together.

Thoughts Of Christmas

The hexagons are progressing slowly but surely. They are very pretty and I have enjoyed the little bit of handsewing. I did have some help, I must confess, and say thank you to Barbara who tacked the fabric to the paper hexagons which saved me a lot of time.






At the same time I have started work on some table mats for christmas (that dreaded word).
The pattern is square dance and I am really enjoying putting it together.

The black one is my favourite although it looks brown in the picture.

Just another three to go. I wanted to make each one different but now I'm worried that once it gets to christmas day lunch there are going to be arguments, every one has been picking their favourites.

We have had a poignant weekend. Steph's fiance has gone to Afghanistan. There has been lots of tears and even though it's only been a few days since he went we miss him lots. He is due back just before Christmas. Nick is in the RAF (a communications officer) and is confident that all will be well. We think of him every day so far away from home as well as all the other servicemen and their families.