Snow , a finish and a UFO

This last weekend was fun here in London because we had snow. Those of you who have lots of snow every year probably think I'm slightly mad for getting excited about it but doesn't usually settle in London and if it does it soon melts. So snow that was deep enough to make a snowman and have a snowball fight is exciting. I even had a snow day on Friday as I teach in Reading which is some way out of London. All my students contacted me to say they wouldn't be in because of the snow that had fallen overnight where they lived making travel very difficult. So I settled in front of my sewing machine and had a great day. Here in London we only had a small amount of snow of Friday but it was very cold. On Saturday John and I went to the wetlands centre in Barnes as usually at this time of year the Bewick swans have arrived and the Bitterns will be there if not visible. We didn't stay very long as it was so cold but we enjoyed watching the birds that were there and the walk.

There wasn't very much to see but there were a group of Redpoll having a great time. For snow lovers Sunday was fun as it snowed all day. Scamp loved his walk, jumping at the snow, eating it and getting excited as it stuck to his fur. Picasso stayed snuggled up in his quilt indoors - a sensible cat for once.

My finish was my Christmas table runner. I only wanted a flimsy runner so there is no batting in it. The backing is the white solid and I have stitched in the ditch around the pinwheels to stabilise the two layers. I didn't want to bind the runner so the back and front were stitched right sides together and then turned right side out. The opening was slip stitched closed. Now I have two Christmas runners I can use.

I spent time on Friday piecing together my granny squares from the cherry christmas jelly roll. The blocks are 8 and half inches and I have 49 blocks. I've put these away while I decided what fabric I want to use for the sashing and borders. I'm not in a decision making mood at the moment.

I started my quilting on the Dresden plate quilt on Sunday. I had to stitch baste it as I have no idea where my tin of safety pins has gone and I had no spray baste or hairspray in the house.  I am very pleased to have got so far with this quilt this month and I'm hoping to have it finished by the 31st.

I decided to echo quilt the outline of the plate but as you can see some of my stitches aren't even lengths and I went a little wonky. However I'm not going to let it cause me to put the quilt away in the drawer for months. 

I'm linking this post with Connie's Tuesday Linky Party at Freemotion by the river

Don't forget that Dare to Dresden starts on Thursday. The button is on the side bar.