Countdown to Christmas 4 ☃️

 I started this post on Saturday…..

Let’s have a snowman emoji, although it’s not snowing here.  Today I’ve been getting in the Christmas 🤶 mood with playing Christmas songs on Spotify while cooking.  I’ve made quiches, a cheesecake and rock buns to take to a family get together tomorrow at my youngest son’s.  Taking a lateral flow test before we go tomorrow so keeping fingers crossed that it’ll be ok.  I don’t do baking that often and earlier the kitchen looked like a bomb had hit it, but it all turned out ok and everything was put in its place so all good.  Then David asks, “what’s for dinner” but I haven’t thought about that yet.  I’m sure we’ll find something.  

I’ve got to finish off a pair of fingerless mitts for one of the presents, which will get done tonight while watching Strictly Cone Dancing - it’s the final tonight.  As there’s only two contestants left, I’m not sure how they will stretch the programme.

Now it’s Wednesday….

We now know what won Strictly Come Dancing and it was a well deserved win.  As for the prep for Sunday, well.

Sunday morning came and we had a phone call from youngest son that his boy had come down with tummy bug.  It had gone through the rest of the family but Freddie was the last one, so the family get together wasn’t happening. BUT, I invited my daughter, husband and granddaughter over for dinner instead, as Flo, my granddaughter, was staying here overnight and looking after her the next day, so that was ok.  Then older son, Alex said he would come here (it’s a 2 hour journey for him) to stay a while a exchange presents but then he turned up with the rest of his family, so it was a good job I had plenty of food in.  It was a bit of a squeeze with 9 of us in our small living room, but it was a good afternoon.  We will catch up with youngest son on Friday and all is well with his family, thankfully.  What a day that was!

After seeing my mum and sister yesterday for a lovely meal cooked by my Mum, I can feel I can get on with Christmas prep here at home.  The big bird is resting in the fridge, I’ve got red cabbage and apple cooking in the slow cooker and as it’s a sunny day I’m getting washing done too.  

Not much crafting I can show here today, but I can show the lovely display of Christmas trees at St Aldelm’s church in Branksome where we took Flo.

This is just a few of the pictures that we took of the trees, decorated by church groups, organisations and families.  It’s an annual (apart from last year) event and the atmosphere of the church makes it just a lovely place to go.

I received my ATC this week from Thelma on the theme of Victoriana, which is a lovely picture from an embroidery transfer sheet.

Below are mine (I usually make 2) and sent the one on the right hand side.

I also received some Christmas cards from the ATC group, which I’ll show on my next post, which I hope to do on Christmas Eve - blimey, that’s just 2 days away!

Christmas Countdown 3 🎅

 This has been a week of dinners out. First was one with Canford Heath Townswomen’s Guild at a local pub, which after missing Christmas last year was at its usual really good standard. Apart from mask wearing to and from the tables seemed almost normal.

This week David and I were celebrating our 44th wedding anniversary so a trip to Prezzo in Wimborne, which was really lovely and an adventure going on bus rides (it involves 2 buses) to get there and back.  

Having birthdays and anniversary close to the end of the year always has to compete with Christmas and trying not to have that take over events, but it is difficult.

I received a belated birthday present from my youngest son and daughter-in-law of a small stone owl.  I have a larger one out in the garden, but this will stay indoors, joining the others on the fireplace. Here is is just to the right of the light.

Today’s Christmas event is a quilty one, for a change.  Most Christmases, a local quilt group, Quarterjack Quilters, hold a lunch with a guest speaker, which was Judi Mendelssohn.  She was once editor of British Patchwork and Quilting magazine and I think now organises tours.

This was just one of her quilts in blues with brown/mustard contrast.

This was the speaker, explaining her work to some of the ladies after her talk. She bought several large bags with her.

A competition of small Christmas quilts.

And I won one of the prizes in the raffle. In fact most people won a prize in the raffle.  Mine was a Christmas oven gloves and hand towel, with a knitted tea cosy, pack of serviettes and tin of shortbread. Sorry about the shadow, I couldn’t avoid it.

But I have been making this week, unusually for me some cardmaking. I have two packs of 6 cards and envelopes. I had some tags cut from last year’s cards.  I’d also done some stamping in red and green inks of a bauble and the ‘Merry and Bright’, The background papers were some pads of papers after making cards for TG last year. I’m really pleased how these turned out.

I’ve got some more card and envelope packs, so I hope to get a few more done this week. 

The coming week, I hope, will be a bit quieter, with no events after tomorrow to get the cards sent and last of present shopping done.  That’s the theory, anyway! 

Countdown to Christmas 2 🎄

 I went to the first Christmas dinner this week to the local pub with the weekly Knit and Natter group.  It wasn’t a proper Christmas menu, but the atmosphere was good (and it saved me cooking later).  There are 2 more to go this month.

On Friday the Christmas tree was put up.  David and I have collected decorations from various places over the years and of course there are some made ones too.  There was barely space on the tree for baubles!

Decorating the mirror above the fireplace. Behind me on the door is the Christmas Mandala that I crocheted while on a cruise in December 2018 (it’s also on my header at the top of the blog).

The middle section of the tree - the alien in his spaceship from a holiday in the US, the reindeer from Banff, Canada, a pair of reindeer from Stratford Upon Avon, the pheasant (bought just last week) from our latest break.  The green bell I made when I used to go to Barnsley embroiderers - gosh that was a long time ago.

The wreath I crocheted as an Advent project in 2019.  Most of the patterns came from the Crocheted Wreaths and Garlands, by Kate Eastwood.

And another decoration that comes out each year is the Christmas pudding.  A polystyrene sphered covered in Somerset folded patchwork.  Underneath is a small table runner with Christmas trees appliquéd. So that’s just a selection of the decorations that we have. 

Another job we’ve done is to have our booster COVID jabs and pleased to have got that out of the way.

It is no surprise to people that know me that I like mince pies.  I’ve found out that Sainsbury’s do mince pie favour tea - I enjoyed the hot cross bun tea before Easter (so much so, that I will stock up before next Easter!) so I hope this will be good.  Also as an alternative to the pies McVities make Mince pie digestive biscuits, that’ll be interesting to try.   I hope to report back in another post how good they are.

December - Countdown to Christmas 🎄

 Here is my monthly marker for December

The image was a prototype postcard that I’ve kept in my sample folder but never made into a card. Perhaps you might have a glimpse of my sample folder.  So here we go…

First project for December has been the Pigs in Blankets.  I started to see some pop up on one of the groups on Facebook, so with the link to the pattern on Ravelry I purchased the pattern. Designed by Jo of A Right Good Hook It’s a crochet Amigurumi pig with a Granny blanket.  Quick to make, as it only took an evening and the following morning to make. 

I love this little spontaneous bit of crochet, it’s cute and fun, if the snout and ears were a bit fiddly.

I also made a start on my gnome, but no spoilers are allowed at present….

VLOGMAS

If you have any time in December there are several You Tubers who are running Vlogmas vlogs. Some might be daily, some might be every few days, but here’s some of my suggestions to look at. Most are just a few minutes long. (I’m not leaving links here, go to You Tube and search for the titles below).

Mousie Makes - do have a look at this one, Helen has made stories around the creatures of the enchanted forest,

Hannah’s Happy Place 

Crafty Cleggs

Crafternoon Treats

Sheep and Cheerful

This Little Wonderful Life 

So that’s just a few and if I come across any more I will let you know, but I’d you know of any worth watching then leave me a comment. 

I’ll probably be posting every few days but hope there will be more posts than normal as there’s quite a bit going on this month on the run up to Christmas.

🎄🎄🎄

Furtling in November

 It’s been my birthday recently so I treated myself to a couple of quilting books, both by the same author, Carolyn Forster.  The Quilt As You Go book only went on sale on the 21st so I waited to get both books together.  The other book is Big Stitch Quilting.

I’ve finished the Yuletide blanket, which has finished on Saturday.  I finished at row 72 before adding the border rows. The final row, rather than working just double crochet stitches I worked some picots every 3rd stitch and in the corners.  It finished at a really big 57” square and really love that it’s so colourful.

Having finished the blanket, I have been asked to make another.  Rather than struggling to get it done for Christmas I might save starting on that until after the holidays.  As mentioned in previous blog posts this blanket is designed by Lucy of Attic24  (but you knew that, of course).

But meanwhile I am working on my latest socks.  I’m now on the heel stitches.  I used part of the Easy Lace pattern by Winwick Mum.

A couple of blocks have been made for the Siblings Together been and Nicky was this month’s block mama.  She’d requested a couple of half square triangle blocks arranged in a pinwheel style.

They look very much like Victorian floor tiles.  I should think that all the blocks would make a really brilliant quilt.

I’ve also made a couple of ATC’s, one which I keep and one sent to swap and the theme was Victoriana.  I e kept the clock one.  I had a small sheet of Victorian images, which I glued onto card.  The background striped card was used as a background and some the clock one had border strips stuck one and the ladies one had gold outline stickers on.  The featured items had self adhesive pads on the back to raise 

So, for December?  Well catching up on Christmas shopping and food shopping, but hope to get some crafting time in, including joining in the Gnome Knit a Long, which is my Advent Project this year (image by Imagined Landscapes) which I won’t be able to share until 24 December.

Joining Mini Archie’s monthly Furtle Around the Blogosphere 

So that was my furtling for November.

A Bit of Time Away

With both birthdays in November and anniversary in December, David and I go away for a break.  It has been difficult to get away this year and not done as many trips as we'd like, but such are the times we are living in.  So out break this year was a few days earlier this week to Barnstaple in north Devon and stayed at the Imperial Hotel, which is a luxury hotel with dinner, and breakfast (no having to find places to eat!).

We were blessed with sunny, if cold, days and the first morning we walked along the River Taw along what was once a railway line, but is now used for walkers and cyclists.   A pleasant walk seeing and hearing coastal birds until a couple of miles along we found a garden centre with a cafe, just right for a coffee break before making a return back to the town.  The station is no more, though the sign still remains.  This line would have taken people along the north Devon coast and there was once a bridge (completely disappeared) that crossed the river.

Back in the town it was a mooch around the shops (found a birthday present for a December birthday) and seeing the Pannier Market, which didn't have any traders so completely empty, but there were some Christmas wreaths hanging from the ceiling.

Tuesday saw us at the local museum. It has a modern extension and the older part of the building is being renovated. We spent an hour or so exploring and it even had a model railway of one of the old lines that ran through the town. One of the former industries was a furniture maker, Shapland and Petter, which made a lot of Arts and Crafts style furniture.  This cabinet below had some beautiful carving and inlay work.

I liked this panel, below

And as a more modern addition, the museum used the designs to the brickwork of the building extension and a sample was shown below.

Outside we saw some old building too. The cafe in The Strand has a statue of Queen Anne

The carving looks resplendent against the blue sky.  Nearby was a square with a mosaic timeline of the town from ancient times to modern day, which was sadly not looking its best.  (Please excuse my foot!)

So we had two lovely days of exploring and it was time to go home on the Wednesday.  Lets hope that the next year will bring more places to go to.

Mid November

 I’ve been enjoying the autumn weather with the trees turning colour, which has been quite late this year.

These are all local to where I live. I’m lucky that there are paths that have a lot of trees, that have a calming effect of me when I’m out walking.  I try to get out each day at least for 20 minutes but more often it’s 30 - 40 minutes, which is important as the days are getting shorter. These pictures were taken last week and today the leaf cover is definitely much thinner.

Since I’ve finished Flo’s cardigan, here’s another one I’ve started for her.  She is at pre-school this year and is playing outside a lot, so layers of clothing are called for and at least cardigans are easy to put on and pull off.  This one is in Stylecraft Special DK in Cornish Blue (the colour of the bobbles in the green cardigan).  I found a stitch pattern which I’ve used on the bottom of the cardigan. Unlike to bobble cardigan, knitted all in one, this is knitted traditionally in pieces and joined.

I’ve not done much on the sewing front, in fact nothing at all, so it’s mainly been knitting (cardigan above) and crochet (the Yuletide blanket).

In this morning’s post I received a newsletter from West Country Embroiderers.  On the inside of the front cover was this photo.

There was a competition at the recent Spectrum of Stitch exhibition of 3D items and the second prize winner, Jenny Parrott, made the patchwork sewing machine.  My fabric ‘jug’ was right behind it and was in the picture! As you can see I’ve taken a photo with the jug next to the newsletter.

November

 

Speeding towards the end of the year November for us is birthday month.  My Mum, David and I all have birthdays in this month and for David and I we reach State Retirement Age, (wow, how did that happen). 

 My monthly marker above is the still-in-progress Yuletide Blanket,  but I am nearly at the point where the borders are added, so not long until it’s completed. The picture shows a couple of shafts of sunlight on he blanket as I took the picture.  It’s a cosy blanket which sits across my lap as it work on it.

This week I made 2 more hearts, which has added to the two I made last week and yesterday I took them to the Area Rep for the local region of the Quilters’ Guild.  She had a workshop last week that I couldn’t go to to make these so I made the hearts at home instead. These will be for breast cancer patients at Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester, but some may possibly go to Poole Hospital. 

This week I have gone down a virtual rabbit hole!  I was looking at Instagram when I came across this mystery Gnome KAL (knit a long) that will start in December and the designer had a discount on the pattern for a short time so I bought it. (Image below from Imagined Landscapes)

 No sooner than I purchased that I then went and looked for a mini skein set to make it.  Ordered it on Wednesday and it arrived yesterday. It’s from Lamington Lass on Etsy and I ordered these lovely autumnal colours, and it’s called ‘Gnutmeg and Egg Nog’.

Gnever Gnitted a Gnome before, so this will be exciting. I wondered what to do as an Advent project this year and as clues will be daily from 1 to 24 December this should fit the bill. It’s only the 5th today so I’ve got to wait for 25 days.

In the meantime I have some socks on the go, some Stylecraft Head Over Heels in the Red Pots Colourway and taking part of the Easy Lace socks pattern (by Winwick Mum) on the side of the leg. I’ve just finished the heel flap and will be picking up stitches.

So that’s how my November is looking so far.