Hats and Gossip in the Garden

The clocks went back today which meant an extra hour in bed - lovely!  I actually have three Ta-dah's today! Yay happy dance!  I finished Amber's hat.

And knitted this beanie to be sent to Ukraine.  I have some more yarn so will make another one at least.  We've also been asked to knit fingerless gloves too, never made those so I might give them a miss.

I also attached the Dresdens to the background fabric.  Which means I have all four completed now.

These were the last components of the main part of the quilt, so I arranged them on the floor just to make sure.

Yep that's it (well apart from two borders).  I just need to sew the blocks together which isn't straight forward, the instructions seem to be clear though.  But that will be for another day!

Today for slow Sunday stitching I will get the binding finished on Woodland Creatures.

and then I can start on my Christmas red work hanging heart from Dandelion Designs!

Have a great day!

Hats, binding and Dresden plates

I really want to get some of my UFOs finished!  I know, how many times have you heard me say that?  Well this week I decided to get on with it (and stop talking about it) and today for slow Sunday stitching I have several hand stitching projects.  This week I rescued Woodland Creatures from the UFO box and quilted it. I've also attached the binding and have a label made.  Task number one!

I will then move on to finishing the Dresden plates.  They are starched and the papers removed and pinned in place, ready to go.  Task two!

And task three is to finish Ambers winter hat.  She has a new winter coat in navy with press studs and dinosaur triangles down the back in these colours.  I just couldn't resist knitting a hat to go with it, but really what was I thinking?  Look at all those ends to sew in before I join the seam.  When thats done I will decide if it needs a bobble on top.  Last years hat did but it shed a lot of wool, so I haven't decided yet.

I hope by next week I have three Tah Dah's to show!

Jump on over to Kathy's blog to see other slow Sunday stitching projects.

Have a good week.

Cushions, blankets and Paddington Bear!

 It has been a bit of a miserable week with several of us in the family not being well.  The worst has been baby Amber who not only has a chest infection but conjunctivitis too!  That of course means antibiotics orally and some for her eyes too.  Not easy on a 20 month old!  Still we all seem to be on the mend now and despite not feeling great I've had a productive week.

Some time ago I made the cars for a cushion for Faye's friends baby who has just turned one.  I was determined to finish it.

It is only a small cushion so I'm glad I didn't try to add three cars on the front.  I rather like the traffic light.  The back was far to plain and white so I added a road sign!

I've also been working on my Attic 24 sweet pea blanket for over a year now and decided that needed to be finished too!

I do love the colours in this one.  This is my fifth crochet blanket using Attic 24s colours and patterns.  Below is a picture of three of them.  The other two live in my motor home.

I haven't looked at Gossip in Garden since returning from holiday, but decided to finish sewing together the last two Dresden plates.  They will need spray starching and attaching to the background squares and the centre circles to be completed.

I will link up with Kathy for some slow Sunday stitching but to finish on I thought I would show you a photo of our trip to the pumpkin farm last week and their tribute to Queen Elizabeth and Paddington bear (made out of pumpkins and squash, complete with a marmalade sandwich!)

Slow Sunday stitching

 Last Monday was my craft group and this month we took our own projects to work on.  After discovering Tiggley Textiles on line I've been making small hand embroidered cards.  I made a couple in September.  And two more at class this week.

I did have to finish them off when I got home, we spend a lot of time chatting instead of sewing!

In the evenings I've been working on my sweet pea blanket from Attic 24 and have three more border rounds to complete and then it is done (seven rounds in total).  Hopefully I can show completed photos next week for slow Sunday stitching.  In the meantime hop on over to Kathy's blog and see what people are stitching today! 

Mottisfont Abbey

 Saturday was glorious sunshine, with a hint of autumn chill in the air (I love those kind of days).  We've had a busy week looking after Amber so decided to head to Mottisfont Abbey, our nearest National Trust property.

We walked Lola around the estate, before visiting the exhibition of artwork 'Tales of Narnia'.  The water colour paintings of Pauline Baynes who did the illustrations from the world of Narnia for C.S. Lewis's books.

Behind Mr Tumnus and Susan you can see the wardrobe and the light! Beautiful artwork, but it made me realise I don't think I've read all the Narnia books - there were certainly some pictures I didn't recognise.  I will have to revisit the books!

The house will be decorated for Christmas, which is always lovely and this year the theme will be
The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe.  We were wondering about taking Amber to see it, although keeping a 22month old under control in a stately home might be challenging!

Turtle dove, polar bear and nutcracker soldiers!

It's been a really busy week, but I have managed a bit of sewing, some cross stitch and I've been working on my crochet blanket (does keep me warm while I'm working on it!)  First a couple of finishes.  

Here is Ambers second Christmas decoration from mmmcrafts.  There wasn't much to finish on this just stuffing and assemble.  I have sewn 2022 on it but I've positioned it wrongly and its now hidden.  Hay ho I will think a bit more about it for 2023s decoration!  Of course, this Christmas there will be another baby, but I can't think about a decoration for him just yet!

It prompted me to make my nieces Christmas tag and for that I went to one of my red work books from Dandelion designs and I made this little polar bear.

While we were on holiday, I bought a new cross stitch kit for the grand price of £2.99. I couldn't resist it.....I'm rather partial to the nutcracker soldiers.  It has everything included, even a hoop to frame it in.  This has been my go to project if Im out and about and waiting for Faye for example.  Yesterday I drove her to a photo shoot (she was photographing a 0ne year olds cake smash - I wonder if that's a thing anywhere else, it certainly seems to be gaining popularity here in the UK!)  Anyway, I got quite a bit done sitting in the car with my coffee flask, cake and cross stitch!

I rather like him and I'm tempted to just crack on and finish him!

I am linking up to Kathys blog for slow Sunday stitching, hop on over and take a look at what others are working on this Sunday.