Slow stitching, fast stitching, all sorts of stitching.

Yesterday, John and I went birdwatching. We visited the Hickling Broad and Marshes Nature reserve. This was a planned trip by coach from London. We had to be at Embankment by 07:45 and although it was light, it was misty and drizzly. The drizzle persisted all day but worse was the cold. I went fully prepared with thermal everything on but I still got very cold.

I only took one photo whilst we were there as I tried to keep my gloved hands in my pockets when not using my binoculars. There were a lot of birds to see and we managed to watch over 40 different species., including ducks, geese, gulls, small birds and raptors. We went to watch the raptor roost and on the way we past this old mill. I was hopeful I would see an owl around this area but it didn't happen.

I was so tired and slept all the way back to London. Once in London we found that the underground line we needed was running very slowly due to faulty points, so we caught a bus instead. Not my favourite form of transport in London but it did the job.

On the  coach drive to the reserve I worked on the small frog stitchery. I have the frog's eyes to finish and this one is done. 

I've sorted the threads I want to use for the fish block below and will start it a little later today. I hope to finish this over the week. When I drew out the remaining patterns on Friday I made sure to leave a much bigger gap around the stitcheries.

When we finally got home yesterday and had eaten I settled down and did a little more work on my knitting. The pattern is 20 rows and predominately knit and purl so it's nice and easy knitting to do whilst watching TV.

This morning I carried on my search for forgotten projects, fabrics etc. I came across several things but I put all but one of them back to be dealt with another day. The one I kept out was some church dash blocks which I made as part of the RSC challenge several years ago. I laid what I had on the bed and played around with the blocks. Finally I found an arrangement I liked and set up the machine to get them sewn together. I have 5 blocks left over but they are all the same colour so difficult to integrate into this quilt top. I'm pleased with how this top turned out. I can't decide whether to add a border or not. It's small but still a useful baby size at 30 x40 inches. I'll look through my fabric and if I spot anything that will work I may add a border.

Today is also the day I'm going to do some mending. John caught a thread in one of his jumpers and created a hole that needs sewing up plus I have a zip to replace on my black work trousers and a button on one of my blouses. Not exciting stitching but it all needs to be done.

Once the mending is done I will get on with the star trek cross stitch as it is easier to sew in daylight. 

I'm linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching link up. Time to check out some stitching eye candy.

I'm hoping this week will be good for stitching but it all depends on how busy work gets.

Take care

Lyndsey