I will never understand blogger that's for sure. I've just logged on to do this post and things have changed again and so far it's not promising as one picture has already disappeared.

This is the stocking I made for Ellie, it's different on either side.

Here she is wearing it.

We did have her to stay for the night on Friday and she was as good as gold. She had her last bottle at 9.30pm and slept right through until her father woke her and us at 7.30am  ringing to say he was coming to collect her. As you can imagine I wasn't overly joyed at been woken up but Ellie just smiled. On Christmas Eve we all went on The Santa Special, here's Ellie with her mum and dad (and Dave the Clown).

We had a lovely christmas, time spent with family and friends. I hope you had a good one.

Elfing Around

Last week I started on my preperations for Xmas. I know I've left it rather late but never mind at least I'm trying. (mmm isn't she trying....(NLW))

So far I have managed to make three stockings and believe me that was trying enough. Years ago I made some for the children, when they were considerably younger. I had a lovely pattern, very easy and worked every time, so I kept it. Do you think I can find it? No of course not! Anyway  I wasn't going to let this beat me - oh no  (many a word said in jest) so I drew around one of the stockings and made my own pattern. That was easy enough, but I didn't have any instructions never mind, that wasn't going to stop me, I mean how difficult can it be to make a stocking? Well let me tell you if you're not having a good day it can be b....y difficult. Everything was going fine, I put the first one together so easy and I was proud of myself my homemade pattern had worked. Or so I thought, oh no it hadn't , when I held up the stocking  the loop was on the very top edge which would be the bottom edge of the cuff when the cuff is folded over. That's no good so I picked it out of the seam and sewed it back on in the right place on the outside of the stocking.

Amy's stocking was completed.

Now for stocking number two which is for Nicki. You'd expect this one to be perfect wouldn't you, everyone learns from their mistakes, don't they? No not in my case, yet again it was the hanging loop that was the wrong. So for a second time I unpicked the loop from the seam and sewed it back on - on the outside.

Now it was time for number three and Steph's stocking. By now I had learnt my lesson I didn't even attempt to insert the hanging loop.I made the stocking and attatched the loop on the outside without even considering inserting it. At last job done and three stockings made, I've just got one more to make but it's a little bit more special.

One thing I did manage to do and found very easy was to make a paper flower. It's just there on the tree in amongst all the other decorations. If I make another eleven of those I can stick them altogether and have a flower ball.

I thought I'd share this picture with you, It's our own little elf who had a date with santa later in the day. Don't you think she looks the part?

Sleeping Beauty

I've finished my wreath and it's now hanging up.



Something else that's finished is my little felted wall hanging. You can't see on the picture but I put some Angelina fibres in with the wool tops and when the light catches them they have a nice little sparkle - nothing too bright.

 Friday evening we got to babysit this little girl. She is very cute and cuddly but not very entertaining, all she does is sleep.

This is her 'I'm sleeping leave me alone' pose, which she is very good at.

This is her 'ok you didn't get the message now go away' pose.

Next Friday we may have her for the whole night (yippee) she's bound to be awake at some point then.

Having Fun

As we were having a quiet day in the shop today Dawn and I thought we might like to do something a little different. We decided to have a go at making a Poinsettia wreath using the pages from an old book to make the flowers and leaves. This isn't our idea, it came from here .

First we drew our flowers and leaves.

Then the fun bit we painted the flowers, leaves and berries.

Here's Dawn enjoying herself in the bright sunshine.

These are Dawn's flowers.

These are mine. The highlights or little white spots were added using a tippex pen.

I cut mine out this evening and now all I need to do is glue them onto a wreath.

This was fun to do, it didn't take long or cost much and could easily be done by children, not sure what that says about us, except that maybe we like the simple things in life now and again.

Holes

Yesterday we had a meeting of Spectrum and I was able to ask Gina for advice on colours. As you know I wasn't at all sure about the purple thread I had chosen. Gina was convinced that it was actually the right colour and I needed to work some more knots to be able to get a true picture. She was right.

This is a sample I made using four other colours none of which looked right. Although I enjoyed making it as the thread is beautiful to work with.

Anyway I have now managed to work my way around one of the big splodges. I wish you could see this in real life the colours are so much better than they appear on here.

Here's a close up, but the colours don't look much better. I must have worked thousands of knots and there's probably thousands more to do. Guess what I'm off to do now!

Absence

It's been a long time since my last post, I haven't been getting on with blogger at all. It wouldn't load my pictures, I kept trying for days then when it did it took 5 hours to load 1 picture so after weeks of trying I gave up and then last week it decided that I wasn't allowed to comment on other blogs saying that I had no acess to the pages. Well I'm sure you can imagine my frustration and what I wanted to do to the computer, then last night Neil asked if I'd given up for good which made me even more frustrated thinking a stupid bit of metal and plastic had beaten me, so here I am again having another go and so far so good. If this post works I'm going blog hopping tonight to see what I've missed so fingers crossed.

I have been very busy and there's been lots going on in the shop that I haven't been able to post about but never mind.

I've been busy working on my holes. I'm really enjoying the hand embroidery it's proving to be very therapeutic. Last week I started to use one of the purple colours but it doesn't look at all right it's difficult to see from the pictures. For the first picture I laid it over the dark purple fabric that will go underneath when it's finished.

This picture was taken with it just laying on the table, the purple thread looks very stark. I think I need to use paler shades of purple or not bother at all. I'm going to try the paler ones first of course before making a decision.

Something else I'm working on is getting into the Xmas spirit. Time seems to have passed by so quickly this year I really don't feel at all ready for it and have no desire to go Xmas shopping. We have already had two cards and it's not even December. More importantly though it's Steph's birthday on Saturday and I know I bought her a card a long time ago (as always because birthday cards this time of year tend to be naff) and I put it somewhere safe but can I find it? I haven't got long to find it because we are going to Wales on Thursday for a few days and a couple of exhibitions at Newport.

Anyway I have digressed, back to the Xmas spirit. Today I have been making Xmas trees, here they are on the floor of my sewing room.

More pieces waiting to be put together.

Fingers crossed this posts successfully.

Calico

This week we have a local group called Calico exhibiting at the shop. The ladies are members of the Peterborough Embroiderers Guild, it is only a small exhibition but the work is wonderful. They are clearly experienced ladies who take great pleasure in what they do. The  four following photos are of  some of their work on show there is more to see all of a high standard. If you're passing and get the chance to pop in and have a look they would be pleased to see you.

I am making progress on my picture. I've finished all the eyelets and it's all hand stitching from now on. I don't do a lot of hand stitching but I'm enjoying this. It seems to be something I'm enjoying more often these days although I'm sure I won't be a convert. I'm embroidering colonial knots, lots of them in lovely silk thread from Mulberry Silks. I'm going to use five different colours of thread for the knots, the idea is that they will blend in with the  eyelets but add texture and then there will be some beads for shine and richness. That's the hope anyway so I had better go and do some more.

Take Two

Take two pumpkins, cut open and scrape.

Then chop.

Turn to pulp, allow to cool and freeze ready to make muffins for the all nighter that we are having at the shop. It will be a long night but lots of fun and then off for a cooked breakfast in the morning.

Last Saturday Gina came to teach Diva Dolls. Lots of heads were made and lots of rolling around with laughter. The ladies had a great time and discusions were going on about boob sizes, clothes, shoes and colours. Gina is back this Saturday for the second part of the workshop to finish the dolls. Unfortunately I will be in Germany so I won't get to see them finished. I'm relying on Pam for lots of pictures.

Yesterday I made this. A table runner for Steph, I thought it might cheer her up. It did, she likes it very much.

I should really have been working on this. It's going to be a hanging/picture to be shown in the Spectrum exhibition next year. I'm sure teacher   will understand, I know she has been distracted from degree work.

I have enjoyed working on this piece - making the eyelets can be quite therapeutic to work although sometimes it can be monotonous. I'm going to do some hand stitching and beading as well.

Steph is finding things a little difficult without painkillers, she spent all day yesterday in bed but she does look a little bit better. A lot of very kind people have sent get well wishes for Steph and she is grateful to you all. Sometimes I think that no one reads my blog as I don't get many comments but over the last few weeks it has become very clear that actually there are a lot of people that do read it so I will carry on blogging. I would like to thank you all for the the kind wishes for Steph and all the congratulations on becoming grandparents. Ellie is doing very well putting on weight and sleeping a lot. I think she's got flat batteries. We baby sat on Saturday evening the first time she had been left with any one we felt very honoured she was as good as gold and we enjoyed every minute. Except for some reason Neil felt it necessary to complain that he didn't get many cuddles-I really don't understand how that could have happened.

Not Getting Any Where Fast

I've had a hectic week since I last blogged. I feel as though I haven't achieved very much at all but I know

I haven't stopped all week. Now blogger is playing up - when I started there were three pictures on here but I haven't got a clue where the third one has gone.

I have managed to finish a couple of cushion covers.

The white and green one was started in one of Pam's classes. I'm very pleased with it, not my usual colours but very pretty. The embroidered pieces were cut from a tablecloth that really had seen better days and I had been given the lace a few months ago so a bit of recycling going on there. I think I may be doing some more of this.  

This one is made up from the practice star block I did before I made the star quilt for Nicki and Anthony and rather than waste the block I wanted to do something useful with it, I think it turned out very well. I've given this one to Pam for the tombola next month.

On Sunday we had a lovely family lunch for those who had not yet met the newest member of the family. Yes I did cook, I made two lasagnes and a chicken and pasta dish for Sam's girlfriend and a scrumptious desert but didn't think about taking a picture until we had eaten it.

Unfortunately Steph and Nick couldn't be with us they already had arrangements to go to Yorkshire for a birthday celebration, which they had to leave early because Steph was ill. She has not had a good week at all. She has been very poorly and the GP referred her to the hospital last week. We spent a whole day in Peterborough Hospital and I mean a whole day. We arrived in time for a 10.00am appointment and walked out at 4.40pm. Apart from making sure that there wasn't a serious problem with her eyes nothing else was achieved. Peterborough Hospital really is awful, it's filthy, the staff (and by staff I mean nurses and doctors) are rude and there certainly isn't any element of care, we were there all day without a drink or any lunch and every time we asked how much longer they said 'you're next' so of course I didn't dare nip off to buy some lunch. When Steph mentioned this to the doctor at the end of the day his reply was "it's not my fault". We have been told by the GP to make a complaint as this wasn't the only thing that went wrong during our visit. I've spoken to her this morning and she really isn't very well but she has an appointment this evening at the Queen's Hospital in Nottingham so fingers crossed  that this visit goes much better. I don't think it could be much worse really, I will let you know.

Baby Baby Baby

I apologise now for all the baby pictures but she is a cutie. All these pictures were taken when she was about 16 hrs old. She is such a good baby, she only cries to be fed every four hours (how civilised is that) or if her nappy is dirty, the rest of the time she just sleeps.

 Here's proud grandad.

Blogger has turned this photo round.

The proud parents.

Stephanie with her niece.

Me with the little bundle of joy.

I have managed to do some sewing, I think I did it in my sleep.

My little felted hanging with some more hand stitching. I keep picking it up ready to do some more stitching but I have to stop myself because really it's got enough on it already but I enjoyed making it so much.

I have made another cushion cover for Pam's tombola but I forgot to take a picture, will do that next week.

These lovely flowers are from Neil to celebrate the 15 years that we have been together, aren't they lovely.