Cold and Frosty

Oh My Word, what a very cold and frosty Morning: -9° and really thick  ice on the troughs.

The two Hornbeams in our garden are really clinging onto their leaves, but a couple more nights like this and they'll be laid bare.

Then, for some reason I thought there was only going to be four ladies at the workshop...and then there were eight, which was a lovely surprise!

Janet brought her hexagon quilt to bind at yesterday's Pitch and Stitch, it's so bright and beautiful, just what we need on these cold, dark days.

I have been particularly struck by how early it seems to get dark this winter - it's like the middle of the night by 4.30 so you feel like the day is nearly done, and yet in Summer you'd think nothing of starting something at that time!

Last week Barbara brought along her lovely tuffet which she made at a workshop recently (not here, and I can't remember where, maybe Lady Sew & Sew but I may be wrong).  She's rightly very proud of it, and I'm sure it'll be a long while before anyone is allowed to put their feet up on it!

Christmas is just around the corner now.  I'll be running outside to put the Christmas lights along the front of the house tomorrow (we take the putting up of lights very seriously in School Lane, East Garston) and my Christmas puds are maturing nicely in the larder.  I made them last week, and as well as the family having a stir and making a wish, the ladies who came to our crochet class also had a go!

I've been busy making little Christmas gifts, which will have to remain secret for a while.  I need to point out to Lynne that they are just fun little things,  and they are deliberately made in a homespun way!


Next week will be the last of our workshops for 2016, apart from the Christmas wreaths, and we'll all be making Frosty:



 



There are still a couple of places on the workshop, if anyone would like to join us!

You Can't Turn Your Back for a Minute

For quite a few years now we have used George's old bedroom as a holding room for things that either only get used about once a year, or that should really be thrown out.

Well, when I was enjoying my day out yesterday, Jonathan decided it was time to sort out that room.

So, he's taken half the stuff out and put it in bags on the landing.....and the rest he's put into the green room until we can decide what to do with it.

So instead of having a little junk room in the back of the house, we now have all our junk in the guest bedroom.

It's time he went back to work.

Bright Colours for Dark Days

Someone reminded me today that I haven't updated this blog recently, so I have put aside a few minutes to do just that.  The main reason I'm reluctant to start is technical - for some reason I'm having trouble uploading the photos on Picasa, so it takes ages to add pictures, but here goes anyway.....

The workshops have been going really well, and it's lovely to see all the different things people are making at the Tuesday morning sessions.  Next Wednesday is the Crochet workshop with Helen, - there are still a couple of places if anyone is interested!

Last year I made my friends little lavender bags out of linen, with crocheted linen granny squares on top and I was very pleased with them

but, as you can see, they were a bit 'made up' - so it will be good to find out how they should have been done!

Meanwhile, I have finished my crocheted blanket, and was thrilled with it, but you know how it is......the very next day Ros decided to bring to the workshop the blanket she has just finished knitting.....

Words failed us....

it was so absolutely stunning

we all wanted it

I'd like to make one, (that's a bit of an inside joke, my will is always greater than my skill) but, first I must get on and finish the scarf I started in Ros's workshop - it's coming along but I'm struggling to knit the 'grown up' way so it's not very relaxing

Got to be done by Christmas though!!

What else has been happening? - Mr Rabbitts is recovering well, but I'm finding it hard to understand why he has to have 2 cups of tea in bed in the morning (he said his consultant said so) and yet was able to (accidentally) jump off a four foot wall this afternoon.

Today I went to two quilting talks at my local quilt group.  The first was by Pamela Smith and the theme was "Russia: patchwork and quilting, ancient & modern".  It was so interesting - lots of facts and history, most interesting of which was that whilst we associate the red in Russia with Communism; in fact the words for 'red' and beautiful are interchangeable - so Red Square is actually Beautiful Square - and the Russians love bright, beautiful red textiles.

She had lots of examples of pre- 1990's Russian printed fabric

and a beautiful old quilt

 

and other memorabilia

Sadly for her she sat next to me at lunch and I asked so many questions! - I could have listened to her all day but she went home.

Then in the afternoon Margaret Johnson entertained us with her quilts from around the world - lots of funny stories and so many lovely quilts but my favourites were the 1930's American one

and this old Welsh woollen one:

 

which prompted the question, "Had I finished my Donegal Tweed quilt?", to which Sandra replied "No - it's hanging, unfinished,  over the sofa where I put it to solve the décor problem".

Well, unfinished or not, with the log fire in front and a tweed quilt behind, it's exceedingly hygge.

 

Autumn Colours

I have practically finished my crocheted blanket from the pattern I bought from Black Sheep Wool at the Ally Pally last year ( I started it in June), and only have the border to do.

I was looking at it just now, and thought how all the colours can be seen outside this Autumn.

Obviously the sunny days we've had mean the skies have matched the blues, but the pink is exactly the same as the pink of the Spindle berries

I love our Spindle trees - and was interested to read that the wood used to be used for making spindles (surprise!), knitting needles and bobbins.

In the right light they just look so beautiful and practically glow.

But back to the colours of the blanket.  The dark red is the same as the Dogwood

and the gold/brown colour is, of course, everywhere but I think the best match is the climbing hydrangea:

or the little fir cones that have grown on our Spruce for the first time. 

So there you are!

We had a bag making day in the workshop last Saturday and everyone really had their heads down

Some people even managed to make two!

I am using mine to store my knitting - great workshop with Ros yesterday where I not only made a start on a beautiful scarf, but also learnt to say 'yarn' and not 'wool' and furthermore discovered that I put an extra twist into the stitches I knit - a habit I plan to break.

Hip, Hip.....

Hurray! - but more about that later.

This post has been a while coming, and since I've already written it once and then accidently deleted it, it's likely to be a short one.

We've been busy, with lots going on, including the little East Garston Craft Show last weekend.  I'd gone down on the Friday night to set up but hadn't read the e mail saying the times had changed so found the place all locked up.  Robert kindly took my stuff down on Saturday though and set it up for me, leaving Frosty to keep guard:

The reason I couldn't be there was because I was at

 

The Ally Pally Knitting & Stitching Show.  We had a great time, and I am getting very good at not buying things.  I didn't buy the Latvian Stocking kit, but was really tempted by the four day knitting trip to Latvia.  I've brought the flier home and keep looking at it and dreaming!!  I did buy wool for a new crochet blanket - I've nearly finished the one I bought last year and have really enjoyed doing it.  I didn't buy anymore linen thread but I had to get some more linen - lots of plans for that.

The next day was Harvest Festival - a sign that Autumn has arrived.  I'm still picking Blackberries and Raspberries, but the devil has sadly spat on most of them.  The Dogwood my sister gave me years ago and which we planted outside the workshop, is looking really beautiful and we love looking out at it:

We didn't go to the Harvest lunch, though, and I'll explain why later.

We  have been very busy in the workshop, and it was lovely to see three quilts made by Pam, Pippa and Jackie:

Pam and Pippa have now made a start on their Sutton Grange Quilts, but Jackie is mainly making rabbits or clothes for rabbits.  My Bobbin Pin Cushion with the sheep has gone over to Jersey (huge sigh of relief for those who thought they might be getting it for Christmas) to remind Victoria of the hills of home, and now I'm making one for me with Scottie dogs!

Finally the really big thing that has happened the last couple of weeks is that Jonathan has had his hip replacement!

The patient is recovering well, (note, only one stick now!) and not too bored yet so hopefully after two or three months he'll be able to live up to his name and be hopping around all over the place.

Now, let's see if I can publish, rather than delete, this post!

Three Weeks Have Passed

Well I'm blowed! - It's been three weeks since my last post and such a lot has been happening.

We had the French Twinners here so enjoyed a weekend of days out including a trip to Corfe Castle

 

 

which was lovely and then on the steam train down to Swanage

Where we had a meal and then a wonderful swim in the sea:

On the Monday we had three families over to Lorne Hill Farm for a feast (everyone brought a selection of food) - the sun was so hot that we had to move the laden tables to the back of the house to eat, then later back to the front to enjoy lively discussions and games of (very competitive) croquet as the sun set!

The next weekend (harvest had finished the Thursday before) we went over to the Isle of Wight for their day of dance.  It was the first time I had been there and we had a lovely day - and just missing the ferry home (of course) gave us the chance to look around the very pretty town of Yarmouth

I think they said this was the longest wooden pier in Britain.

The next weekend we got to see George's band, Ctrl, Alt, Indie for the first time at the Cider in the Barn Festival

 

and then the next day we danced at Highclere Castle - and as part of the entertainment for their Edwardian Afternoon we were allowed to look all around the house and gardens which was brilliant.

So, I think I have a few good excuses for falling a bit behind with this blog. 

And of course, as well as all these extra-curricular activities, life has to go on as normal.  School started back, household chores had to be done and, you know when you are rushing around and think, right, dinner's on, I'll take the dogs for a twenty minute walk round the field then we'll eat......and then this happens:

Nice.  Should have known better than to let them run out in the field where the cows had been.

On a happier note, the Autumn workshops got off to a cracking start with our Bobbin Patch giant Bobbin pincushions - sheep everywhere - these are just four of them  - three ran off before I got a chance to take a photo!

Teeny Tiny Hexagons

So there were lots of sniggers in the workshop when I started on a little project I've been looking forward to since I bought the kit from Foltvilag at the NEC.  I love all the Foltvilag things - they're a Hungarian company and watching Margit working with all her different templates is always fascinating.  There were sniggers because it was generally thought that, yet again, my ambition was greater than my skill.

Anyway, I got my head down, and by the end of the day I'd made these:

See how tiny they are?  That's a real 50p piece next to them!

Annoyingly Foltvilag don't supply patterns with their kits - you have to email them to get the instructions.  I emailed at least twice, and kept checking to see if they'd sent them, but they didn't come.  And I couldn't wait.

So I went ahead and made the purse anyway, hoping I'd got it right.

When the instructions came through today, I realised I hadn't done it quite right, but it's okay and I'm pretty pleased with my little change purse!

I'm going to make more - the right way next time!