The final walk of the year.

This morning was bright and sunny but colder than the weather has been this month so we decided to end the year by walking on Wimbledon common. Scamp thought this was a great idea and couldn't get himself and us ready fast enough. We headed for the windmill car park and then down through the trees to the lake - Queensmere.

The lake was a busy venue for birds with 4 cormorants, mallards, tufted ducks, coots, moorhens and lots of black headed gulls

We like to follow the bridlepath that circles the common. This gives us a walk of about 4 miles which today was very muddy.  Scamp was trying really hard to catch a squirrel but he just isn't fast enough. He also looked very small as he run through the mud and puddles. I thought a puddle might swallow him up but  fortunately he managed to jump clean over most of them.

When Lucy had visited last night she had told us she gathered holly for Christmas whilst walking her dog over the common. This had lead to a discussion of 'what would happen if everyone did that?' So today I was laughing when we reached an area where the undergrowth had been cleared. A notice told us that they had been clearing out the holly which was encroaching all over the common and preventing other species from flourishing.

Scamp, like all dogs loves to run ahead, and then stops for us to catch up.

Once home and with clean dry paws Scamp settled down for a nap. I totted up the miles I've walked this year. Last year John and I took part in the challenge to walk 1000 miles in a year. We achieved that and decided to try to walk 1500 miles this year. I didn't manage that but did manage 1245 miles.

I got the sewing machine out and pieced the back for my 9 patch quilt. I used this fabric and some solid white. The machine was a bit grumbly having not been used for a while but I gave her a gentle stroke and cleaned all the fluff from around the feed dogs and she started to purr along beautifully

I also made the orange and lime blocks for the rainbow scrap challenge. I didn't really have any lime fabric so I just used the green I had.

I think I've nearly caught up but I need to check as I'm not sure I made the brown blocks.

I was given a book on quilting history for Christmas. I'm looking forward to reading this. So far I've only browsed through the pictures. The book was published to support a major exhibition at the V and A museum in London in 2010. I didn't get to the exhibition but I'm planning on visiting their textile collections this year. I also want to visit the current exhibition 'The fabric of India' as it looks really interesting and the fabrics are so beautiful. I need to get a wriggle on as it ends on the 10th January.

Several bloggers I follow keep track of their stash. I decided to let that look after itself so long as it fitted into the space I had to store it. However Sharon at Vroomans Quilt totals her thread usage each year and I thought this would be fun. Here is this years usage.

The two large spools hold 876 yards and the smaller grey spools hold 328 yards making a total of 5,032 yards used. I have used more as I'm only counting the completed spool and quite  a few of my quilting thread are quite low. . Not a great distance compared to many quilters but I'm happy with it  I wonder if I'll travel further in 2016?

Are you staying up to let the new year in? We usually do but I might go to bed as I'm feeling very tired. Richard is working and probably won't be in until 3 or 4 am and it's very quiet here with just me and John. Tomorrow we have Kathryn and Olly coming over for a New Year's dinner which will be fun and if the weather's good we'll take Scamp for a walk.

Hope you enjoy your celebrations.

Lyndsey