After a Slow Start....

This year is just racing away!  Where did February and March go?

Such a lot has been happening - Pitch and Stitch every Tuesday morning is a real hive of activity.  The other day there was nine of us working and chatting away and I took pictures of everyone but my computer is misbehaving and I can't transfer the photos - hopeless!

You'll have to take my word for it that there was knitting, crochet, quilting, rug-making, Bargello seat cover making, tapestry, patchwork paper piecing and cross stitch.

 

I have been knitting for my baby grandson with kits from Stitch and Story

 

Very quick and easy to do with lovely soft yarn

 

I did the biggest size so he can grow into his Miffy hat and sweater!

Meanwhile on the farm we are about 2/3 of the way through calving

and looking out for the arrival of our lambs any day now.

I am now completely obsessed with shrooming and every walk includes a quick (sometimes not so quick) scout through Rogers Wood up on the hill.  I was particularly pleased when someone said they thought I'd staged this photo

I most certainly hadn't!

I'm now a convert to Instagram and put lots of pictures up on that - but mostly of mushrooms I'm afraid.  It's also the only way I get to see what George is up to in Japan - it's lovely that he is getting to see so much of the world but he's not that good at letting me know what he's up to......

 

Snow Day

Well, today has been a snow day - all day, it's only just stopped, and so I have been housebound.

I'd like to say I spent the day sitting in front of a crackling fire and quilting, or knitting, or crocheting, but I haven't.

I've spent the day doing two things (if we don't count taking the dogs out for frequent, short walks).

The main thing I've been doing is eating.  I cooked a fried breakfast for the boys because they'd been out in the snow, and I ate it too.  Then I made soup and ate that too.  With a great chunk of bread.  And then when they came in again this afternoon I joined them for tea and crumpets.  And now I have pizza in the oven.

The other thing I've been doing is taking loads of photos and videos and putting them on social media.

For example:

a snowbound workshop.












And this:

And the view from the kitchen first thing this morning:

Which was really quite boring because of course everyone in this part of the world was looking out at snow, but it's just so fascinating, and it just kept on coming!

I did get George to take a photo of my finished Kate Davies designed 'Traigh' which I started at the Ros Harwood workshop we did this Autumn (I was posing in a similar fashion to her on the pattern, but it's turned out to be a somewhat less sophisticated photo!).

 

Finally this evening, when I went out to put away the chicken (although they hadn't come out all day anyway) and geese, we saw this little wren sheltering in the porch.

It was so tiny and fragile and reminded me of the very great loss someone I know has suffered recently.

They look Okay......

After my Hob covers disintegrated in the (first) wash, I decided I may as well make my own replacements:

I think they look okay.....but I'm making some belated New Year Resolutions to try and stop making the same mistakes I make every time I start a new project.

1. Never, ever start a project thinking, "if I get a move on with this I should have it done by lunchtime and then I can cook the roast".
2. Never start by carefully drawing out the circle with a compass and then decide it will be much quicker to draw it freehand.
3. Never layer the wadding and two pieces of fabric together and then zig zag stitch around the edge in the hope it will hold it together - you'll have to unpick it because it will go very wrong as the fabrics revolt.
4. Never decide it will be much quicker to just machine quilt the layers rather than tack them in place first; again, you'll have to unpick it because the fabrics revolt.
5. Never quickly think, "Right, so I want the binding to be 1/2 an inch wide so that's 1/2 an inch front and back plus two 1/4 inch seams so that makes 1 and a half inches" and not remember to double it.
6. In fact, never, never think, "I'll quickly do this".

Four days later they are finally done but the work is pretty shoddy to say the least.  Best part was yesterday at Pitch and Stitch when I was huffing and puffing over it and Eileen said I'm too much of a perfectionist.  I think I know a few people who would splutter at that.

I know the sun has been shining but I have been making quite a meal of January, so I felt a bit feeble when I read my cousin's blog all about their lovely walks along the beach and work in the garden.  I decided (when it stopped raining) that I would walk around the garden and seek out colour.

The pansies are getting more established

and the Hellebore is in flower

The Winter Jasmine is the best it's ever been (probably because Jonathan forgot to cut it back)

and the Viburnum is pretty and heavily scented

and I'm so pleased with my succulents I brought back from Wales

But best of all has to be something I didn't even know existed until Pippa (well, who else?) pointed out the tiny little pin prick flowers on the hazel.

Oh, and then of course

 

 

Happy New Year to Everyone!

Well, this Christmas is going on for EVER!

And I'm hanging on to it - I've never been one of those people who take their decorations down before Twelfth Night, (a friend of mine used to take hers down on Boxing Day, and this year she said she wasn't going to put any up) so I'll be taking mine down on Saturday.  I went to Marlborough yesterday and was pleased to see the Christmas lights still up, and on, both there and in Hungerford.

As ever, this Christmas has included lots of home made gifts....

.....my quilting friends and I exchanged home-made gifts and I was thrilled to receive the collection below:

My gifts to them were the cause of some considerable pain.....back in October I had the idea of making little scissor purses for them, and then four days before we were due to exchange I decided I'd better get on and make them.  I stalled for two days with the prototype which went horribly wrong and was thrown aside.  Then I sent to work again and literally a couple of hours before I had to hand them over, managed to finish them.

They weren't too bad in the end.

Then some of the ladies at pitch and Stitch found the prototype and insisted it couldn't be thrown away, so I changed it a bit and turned it into a tissue holder for my Auntie Pauline.

Hmmmn.

And Isaac enjoyed his home made gift from me

made from the pattern I bought from Tactile Treasures and the Ally Pally.

Anyway, we have had a lovely Christmas with our little grandson coming over so everyone finally got to meet him, and I got to spend lots of money on essential things like cots, highchairs, activity centres and various musical toys.  I was so pleased to be able to put in Victoria's room this musical box which my cousin Jen, and her husband Steve, made years ago.  That's it, in the picture at the top of this post and it still works as good as new. 

We've sung lots of carols, eaten lots of food, visited friends and family and had visitors here.  I just finished my Christmas puzzle yesterday

which is a bit special because my sister, who leant it to me, knows the artist who painted the original picture - Mary Tozer.

And I even convinced everyone to join me on a shrooming expedition up in the woods and we found some very interesting specimens

which I can now attempt to identify with my lovely book I was given for Christmas!

Possibly the biggest surprise was my discovery of these

 

under the Hazel tree at the top of our drive - there are loads of them.  Have I been going around with my eyes shut all these years?

Apologies in Advance....

To any crafty people who are reading this post and may be disappointed (there will be some craft photos at the end so go straight there if that's what you are after), but I have to confess that I have become a total fungiphile.

Back at the end of the summer people started posting photos of interesting fungi, and when I lamented that there was no fungus in our woods Pippa insisted there would be, I just had to look properly.

Well, I have been walking these woods and fields for nearly a quarter of a century....and I must have been walking around with my eyes shut!!  They are everywhere!  And I don't like to just look at them, I like to take photos....and if I've forgotten to take my phone, I try not to look because I couldn't bare to see some fascinating specimens and not be able to photograph them!

I've seen stands of toadstools

Little lonely ones

Cute little ones hiding in trees

Rather disgusting ones

Lacy ones

                                                                     Fat ones 

Orange ones

Carpets of them

 

 

and ones stretching up into the trees above my head.

How is it that I've never seen them before.....and what else is up in those woods that I never see......?

Anyway - that's got that out of my system so now back to the workshop.

Betty brought in her completed Yoko Saito Town quilt, which she started here on the farm, to show us

Very much a Summer town, we decided.  Denise is busy quilting hers, and didn't want a photo of it before it's finished, but I did snap a few details

 

Such stunning quilts.

And Ros brought in her linen quilt to show us

Those pebbly colours will look perfect in the beach house.

Then the other weekend I visited a neighbour.  Last Christmas she told me she was planning on upholstering a chair in needlepoint, and asked me for some pointers.  Well, she is now well on her way.

Her canvas was meticulously planned

and this is going to be a very beautiful chair indeed

 

 covered in really pretty pansies, one of her favourite flowers

I can't wait to see it finished but this is an opus so I'm afraid I'm going to have to!

Finally, my sister and I went to a lantern making workshop in Hungerford on Saturday

 

It was a lot of fun, but I hadn't realised we would be making them to parade at the Victorian Extravaganza!  Anyway, I finished mine off in the workshop this morning (all kinds of things go on at Pitch and Stitch) - hope it works!

All Too Much

Don't worry - I'm not about to throw in the towel but there has been so much going on....Most of it good.

Best of all, of course, was the flying visit from the next generation and welcoming our little grandson to Lorne Hill Farm

Here he is ready for bed and in the outfit Lynn gave him.  A very sweet little baby and I could fill this post with pictures of him - but, don't worry, I won't.

As everyone knows, the weekend before last was Remembrance Day and our little village put on a show to be proud of.  In the church there was an amazing exhibition of memorabilia from the First World War.  Villagers were asked to display anything they had from the war, and there was so much to see.  There were a number of diaries written by grandparents who were in the war and made fascinating reading.

Local Cabinetmaker John Hing had made wooden life size silhouettes of soldiers, one to represent every man from the village who had died in the war, and they were displayed in the churchyard.  It was really very moving.

There were 15 in all, and although we stand at the memorial every year, seeing this life size representation of those poor men really made you think.

So that was a busy weekend.

And things have been very busy in the workshop too - yesterday I walked around and took pictures of everything people were working on in the Tuesday morning drop in.

Ros, of course, was knitting (when she wasn't helping Louise and me with ours!)

Sally was doing some lovely applique with tweed fabric (It's an owl picture)

 

Janet was working on hexagons 

Louise had her Attic 24 blanket and Jane was working on her Yoko Saito quilt

 

Jackie was working on her stunning quilt for her great niece 

 Anthea was putting the finishing touches on this wash bag she's made and Barbara was working on her scrappy quilt.

 

and Glenys finished one sock and started on it's pair!

 

So that means in one little workshop there was knitting, crocheting, sewing, applique, old English piecing, quilting and I was working on my tapestry cushion.  Crafting is clearly very much alive and well in East Garston!

 

I tried to do my knitting but can't concentrate with so much going on, so didn't.  But the scarf I started at Ros's workshop really is coming along very nicely!

 

 

Glenys started coming after Mother's Day this year when her daughters gave her four mornings at Lorne Hill Farm Pitch and Stitch as a gift.  She wasn't sure what to work on so bought a tapestry cushion to make.  She was just finishing that, and wondering aloud what to do next, when Eileen came through the door saying, "my friend is moving and has given me this tapestry kit if anyone wants it", quick as a flash Glenys said, "I'll have that".

 

And now it's finished

 

I have now combined my daily walks with the dogs with fungus hunting - now that I am actually slowing down and looking properly, I see mushrooms and toad stools everywhere!  We had our first snow this morning and Pippa said once the snow comes the fungi will disappear, but I managed to spot some today - this was a whole pathway of them

 

And this isn't a very good picture but I was pleased to find this little thing in a hollow tree.

It's actually really a relief to get out of the house because Jonathan has gone bonkers and keeps buying new furniture......he seems to be replacing every dresser and cupboard in the house, which means constantly emptying things and tables being piled high with 25 years worth of STUFF.  Clearing out a cupboard the other day I got quite ruthless with throwing stuff away.  That night I remembered a little Jaguar key tag and mentioned it to Jonathan.  He said that must have been from his father's Jaguar and started reminiscing about how they all loved that car.  There was only one thing for it - the next day we went through all the rubbish bags with a fine tooth comb to find that little badge but of course we couldn't.  Then I had a thought and pulled out the drawer in the new dresser - there it was.....so I wasn't so ruthless after all.

However, that might change......please, someone, make him STOP!!