Busy catching up.

I love Christmas and always look forward to getting the tree decorated, the presents wrapped and the food all organised. This year is no exception, and I'm very pleased because I've made a gingerbread house, a christmas cake and the christmas puddings.. The presents are wrapped but I still have a couple to buy but hopefully that will be sorted on Wednesday when Lucy and I finish up the last little bits for the holiday. Oh I must remember I need a tasty special veggie menu for Lucy for Christmas dinner.

In the run up to the holiday I tried really hard to complete everything for work but I have a few things I need to do. The good news is I don't need to go into the office to do them. So last Friday was my last working day of 2015. We go back to work on the 4th January 2016. Wow it seems strange writing that.

I need to have a major sort out and reorganise of all my sewing bits. I have so many scraps that I must make some scrappy quilts this coming year. I started the process of using some scraps by making a block for the baby quilt. This is from a pattern in Today's Quilter issue 3. 

This is a new publication in the UK that started in the Autumn. I came across issue 3 one day whilst scanning the magazine section in our supermarket. I bought issue 4 and have subscribed to the magazine as I like what I've seen so far. I often miss them because the shops don't seem to stock enough for the demand.

Anyway this cute baby quilt was in the 3rd issue and as I needed to make another baby quilt I thought it would be perfect. 

I already had a lot of  2 and half inch squares so I just had to find 27 squares for each dog. That hardly made a dent in the box.The block went together very quickly. John couldn't see the dog shape at first but he had just woken up from a nap.- this being on holiday is very tiring!

Kathryn and Olly visited last night-hence why I wasn't able to finish this post. They were both tired having hosted their first Christmas party in their flat. Their flat is small so there weren't huge numbers of people but they had a lot of fun. They're hoping to make this a yearly event. Kathryn wanted to make a couple of gardening kneelers for Olly's mom for Christmas. She has allotments as well as a garden and Kathryn and Olly enjoy the results of her labours. We had to visit the sewing shop to get some oiled cloth to make them. Such a hardship! I took the opportunity to buy the sashing and backing for the baby quilt plus some fabric for a couple of backings.

There wasn't a big choice of oiled cloth so Kathryn chose these two. Before she went home she had made two kneelers but I forgot to take a photo.

Over the last week I've been enjoying stitching the Christmas tree cross stitch. My only complaint with cross stitch is that it doesn't grow very fast, oh and I forgot it is also quite tiring on the eyes especially when working on the bits where you have to keep checking the pattern and counting the thread to get the stitch in the right place. Still it does look different to last week.

I  hooped up the first pattern for the cat quilt I'm going to make next year. The cat is Brutus and they are free patterns from Red Brolly My main problem with getting started on the stitching is I've put my embroidery thread boxes somewhere and I can't find them. I remember thinking 'It would be more logical to keep these with..' but it isn't at all logical now. Also moving something to a new storage place after many years is only encouraging disaster. I could lay my hands on them in seconds before. I know I'll find them soon so till then I work on the Christmas tree.

I hope you are all ready for the holidays, presents bought, food organised and some hand stitching or a good book for those quiet moments. I need to browse the TV listings to see if there is anything worth watching  and some tidying and a little cleaning is needed before I'm all ready.

Wishing you and your families a very Happy Christmas. My thoughts and prayers are with all of you facing the bad weather.  Stay safe and take extra care if travelling.

Love and hugs

Lyndsey