Spring is on the way!

Lovely to see clumps of snowdrops in my garden, the herald of spring.. today it was only 2°C when we took our dog Nell to the park. She recognised where we were as soon as we got out of the car. She ran and ran and almost skipped with joy! I was well wrapped up but I need a hat, it was freezing!

 

We stopped and watched the ducks slipping on the frozen part of the lake. It was so funny to see them skidding as they landed.  Can't wait for the weather to warm up, but  it seems we are to have colder weather, although I shouldn't complain as people up north have snow and I just have snowdrops, which are wonderful. When I see these popping through the frozen soil, it makes me want to skip for joy, just like Nell!

(Actually I don't know if I can skip anymore!LOL)

 

Happy days

xx

OPAM.....My JANUARY finish.

How people have different likes!!

This shawl is for my daughter.

Of all the colours she could have chosen, she chose charcoal grey!!

  This is my back to show the stitch.. it was a free Ravelry pattern, South Bay Shawlette..a two row repeating pattern. 

The wool is Berroco which is 50%wool, 20% alpaca and 30%nylon .. it feels quite heavy and is very warm.  The colour is Salt and Pepper and I used a 5mm hook.. it took two 100g hanks, bought from Love Knitting..

Although I enjoy crocheting, I found this difficult to do because of the colour, but it was what she wanted... so I hope she wears it all day and every day and every blinging night too!!!

Happy Days.

xx

 

PS. Having finished this I am enjoying my evening knitting a cardigan for myself while outside the wind is swirling round huge snowflakes!!

 

 

 

 

A Busy Bee making my Tulip Quilt

Making this tulip quilt is taking time.

 Each of the tulip heads has 9 sections to sew together and I have hand sewn these. all

30 !!

 The leaves are made in two parts, each part has 3 sections....

 Then there is the stem sewing the two parts together..

 And then the actual tulip head is sewn onto the leaf section, to make one unit.

There are 30 of these..

And they are not finished.. now they have a cream fabric sewn between the tulips before they are sewn into the patchwork blocks.. whew!! All this has been hand sewn although I intend to sew the tulip head to the leaf section by machine.

I have to have 192 of these.. I have only cut half so far!

But I am sure once it is finished it will be very pretty and will make a lovely warm quilt for a friend of mine.  And I love sewing it all.

Too cold to be out and about so inside sewing is the best way to spend a cold afternoon.

Hope you're in out of the cold and enjoying what ever you like to do too.

 

xx

 

When I retired, I wanted........

The scent from these hyacinths is so strong I have had to put them in our conservatory.. But aren't they magnificent!

A present from my DD for my birthday which was before Christmas. I put them outside until after Christmas, so they have lasted a long time.

Not a wonderful photograph as these orchids are on the landing windowsill which seems to suit them.

When I was asked what I wanted to do when I retired many years ago I said... 'Grow orchids and keep bees.' I  haven't managed the bees but my orchids flower for months on end.

These are several years old. I feed them once a month and only give them a table spoon of water once a week. I love them, they always look so sophisticated and elegant to me.
Of course it never occurred to me that I would do so much craft stuff as well.. do you know 'Retirement' is not bad, in fact it is wonderful!
What did you want to do when you retired and have you been able to fulfil your dreams?  I 'd love to know..

xx

Progress and YOTA

I am very pleased with my progress of my new start and have spent all this last week just stitching this.

It is so pretty and as it grows I love it more and more!

 

 But it is this WIP that I am going to use for YOTA Year of the acronym is a plan to finish off WIPs.

 And the quilt that I am sewing is this tulip design, which  I will sew at my sewing class and for a week of evenings too.

I intend to rotate these three WIPs, I want to work on each one for a week of evenings and see how I go.
Of course things happen and maybe I won't be able to, but my intentions are to stitch and sew each evening.. although I do have my Italian evening class one evening and also that has an afternoon taken up with home work.. yes home work. But the classes are not cheap and I would like to be able to make myself understood when we holiday there, so no point doing the class if I don't make the effort at home.
So what are you doing? I have been reading blogs and I did note not so many stitchers are having a new start for the first 15 days of January.. but lots else going on.
I have so many charts I need to be more focused and try to get them done.
So ...a presto and ciao!

XX

New cross stitch for a new year

I saw this chart and loved it right away so bought it back in November 2014.  Yes it was just pages from a magazine but it was only pennies.... I have all the threads bar two and 32c linen so I have started it already... only a few stitches. With these horrible winter days I can sit and stitch happily in the warm.

Yeh... happy days stitching away and looking out at the blustery wet weather.. but not as bad as Maine where today the news said it could be as low as -35 C brrrrrr.
And Scotland where they have very high gusts of wind, so our water logged lawn is nothing in comparison.

Roll on spring.. we do have one snowdrop in flower and lots more to come, as I bought 500 in the green last year. Just the thought of them all in flower makes my heart sing!

Hope it's not too cold where you are or indeed too hot as S. Australia has 45C and the threat of fires.. here in the East of England we are blessed with not too harsh winters and lovely sunny dry summers..
Happy days and happy stitching all.

xx

I feel so proud...

In 2014 I quilted, cross stitched, knitted and crocheted.  Quilting included three double bed sized quilts. I am improving each time I sew a new project and am happy with hand sewing or machining. As well as all these I managed to read 90 books and of course grew my veggies and tomatoes,  so a busy year.  I didn't achieve my dream weight but I am 10 pounds less than I was this time last year, so this year I am trying 100% to lose this weight!
DH is helping and so far for the last 6 days I have walked 20 mins or more. It's not hard to do, so it's a habit I want to get into to!!

Happy New Year to all my followers and indeed to all the super peeps out there in the blogging world.
May 2015 be Happy, Healthy and Blessed for you all.

XX

Happy Christmas All

   Hope everyone has a very Happy Christmas and that you are able to share this holy time with your family and friends..

 

Chris x

Christmas is coming!!

I have been very busy making things for Christmas.

This is a quilted runner for our side board.

 This is on our table not the side board because the side board is full of presents waiting to be wrapped!

 It's not such an orangy red but you can see the design. A nine square block in the middle and then surrounded by strips. I can't wait now to get the side board 'dressed' with this and all the little Christmassy things we normally put out, included our angel and then in the centre our Christmas cake, which always takes pride of place. Of course it isn't iced yet, a pleasure still to come!

And I have made another After Eight Box. It looks the same colour but it is a totally different colour.

I am half way through a crochet shawl for my daughter in charcoal grey, Yes dark grey, Of all the beautiful variegated yarns she could have chosen, she wanted dark grey. I will have finished it by the end of this week, hopefully!

Happy Christmas to all, there are  only 11 days to go!

XX

 

I haven't been idle!!

I knitted this little shawlette from yarn I bought at Yaledale.. its on a hanger not on me as I am having a bad hair day! (I have an appointment tomorrow with my magic girl who makes me look 10 years younger with my hair crafted!!)

 Very bright colours and just garter stitch but very effective with the multi colours and the dog tooth edging. Sorry I can't remember where I bought the pattern from

 And I have made this After Eight box.. I have the materials to make another one which I will do this week.. just a little present for my friend and a little extra for my daughter.

Christmas is just round the corner and I seem to be on top of everything...... except this morning I have realised that the crochet shawl that I am making for my daughter is on a too small sized hook.. grrrr shall I undo and redo??? Probably because it isn't lacy enough. So I shall be busy over the next week to get it done!

Hope everyone is having a happy pre-Christmas time and is not too rushed to find time and look at the beautifully decorated shop windows and sigh!

xx