November Catch Up or Better Late Than Never

This month is rattling by and today its just a month away from Christmas, so it seems the year is whizzing by too!  I've not been feeling brilliant of late having had a cold for over 2 weeks and trying to fight off the germs, but feeling a lot better this week.

So Sunday before last I took part in the inaugural "A Time for Quilters" event which brought together traders from the local quilting community in one place, along with show and tell and demonstrations and I was the one demonstrating! So no time to take pics but I did make a few purchases from local shops - Cherry Tree, Lovely Jubbly Fabrics and (new to me) Duck and Weave Fabrics.

There were a lot of people to the event, which was at Hamworthy Club near Wimborne in the morning so quite busy, but it tailed off in the afternoon.  But not a bad day, nonetheless.

Later last week Lily's Quilts had a destash event on Instagram and I managed to purchase a pack of Makower fabrics (oh dear!).  I liked the Rhadsody range that Makower had recently released so it was a chance to buy.

I got the secret sewing for Christmas done and it's been sent off to the recipient so I'm pleased to have got that done and also sent off my Siblings Together block for this month. But apart from those and the demos at the quilt day there's not been much on the sewing front.

The teals and yellows will make a super quilt, I'm sure.

Yesterday I cast on a new pair of socks.  I did the rib while watching the Bakery Bears podcast (it's long - nearly 2 hours!)

 And this is where I got to last night while watching the television

I'm using the Easy Cable pattern from Winwick Mum (it's a free pattern) and the yarn I bought back in February from Unravel is from Giddy Aunt Yarns and the colour is OOhLaLa and it has a wee bit of sparkly Stellina in it, just right for this time of year.  It's really knitting up lovely.

I'm starting to think about projects for the New Year and I've ordered yarn from Wool Warehouse to make a cardigan.  Also I want to take part in the new crochet a long (CAL) by Lucy of Attic24 to make the Dahlia Blanket.  I asked the family if anyone wanted a crochet blanket they could give a home for and my daughter would like it, so I'm pleased to be able to make this for her and it would be a lovely bright pop of colour in her home.

So I'm still keeping busy, if being a little quieter.

November

After last month’s blogging marathon, it’s taken me until almost the middle of November to post anything.  It’s been busy so far with my Mum’s 90th birthday celebrations (she had the big birthday last Thursday) culminating in a surprise party on Sunday at my sister’s with us, our husbands, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren present - 18 of us in all.  She enjoyed the surprise to seeing everyone together.

Returning to normality, I went to West Country Embroiderers group on Monday doing a painting and embroidery workshop entitled The Wave, which was a lot of fun.  It was run by another member of the group and it’s great that using similar shades of blue how different the pictures look.

 I made a second painting while I had some paint left.  I made a more stormy wave with this one

This was teacher's sample so this is the sort of look we're aiming for..

I’ve just finished some knitting today as I completed the Fair Isle fingerless mitts.  They’ve just got to been washing and currently being blocked.  I'll have to think what to knit/crochet next.  I'll post photos in my next blog post when all the ends are trimmed after blocking.

I've spent some time this afternoon doing some secret sewing, but it's what I wanted to do has not quite worked out how I'd like.  So might have another bash at it tomorrow.

Weekend before last David was at Swanage Railway and the weather was awful so I stayed at home and sewed.  A friend of mine wanted to make book covers and I gave approximated measurements but I had a go just to see if those measurements worked and they did.  I didn't quilt them but did back with outside fabric with some Vilene to give extra body to the cover.  Here they are

I had an A5 one (with the cats) which had a narrow spine and and A6 (with the wellie boots)which was a hardback spiral bound book.   I've got a diary to use from next month and am looking to cover that instead of the plain green cover that it has.  Makes it a lot easier to see in my handbag!

That's it for now.