Happy New Year

As well as sewing I also like to doddle so the page above is the start of my 2017 doddle pad. I don't usually let anyone look in my pad as it's just for me but my favourite doddle from last year was this one. It's based on a photo I took of a log pile.

So did you stay up to enjoy the festivities or slope of to bed? Richard was working so it would just have been the two of us but Lucy and her boyfriend Richard came round for dinner. They'd been visiting Richard's relatives outside London and were both tired so left early. We switched on the last part of Harry Potter that we were recording and that took us up to midnight and the London fireworks display. The only problem is fireworks are never as good on TV as when you see them live. There weren't too many big bangs from fireworks around where we live this year and Scamp stayed nice and calm. Then bed without ringing any relatives, I'll do that today. We nearly always stay up to see the New Year in but I'm not sure if my brothers still do.

We decided to walk this morning as the weather forcast predicted rain later in the day.The route around Wandsworth Common is about 4 miles and it was warmish and dry when we set off but by half way it was raining. It hasn't stopped since then. Once home and having dried Scamp's fur I settled down to some sewing. Well what else do you do on a wet and miserable day?

I was working on the Bear Paw quilt and yesterday I cut the fabric for 6 more blocks. When I made the first few blocks I used grey as the central piece . Here's my original test block.

I wasn't happy with the grey as it made the block look a bit dull so I switched grey for red and I feel much happier with the blocks.

Now all I have to do is change the grey piece for red on all the blocks I've already made. Not to panic too much as I haven't made that many. In making these blocks I'm using a solid brown throughout but a range of different background fabrics but all the same colour, some from my scraps and some I bought to make up the amount of fabric I needed. 

After that I did some more work on my secret project. I also spent quite a bit of time sorting out my emails. I had a ridiculous number that I hadn't read and lots I'd read but not deleted or filed. Still a long way to go with this sorting out but a few a day will see it off in a couple of weeks. I've also unsubscribed from quite a few things so that will reduce the influx of emails.

Finally this evening I settled down to watch Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes in the new episode. During this I did some slow knitting. Well very slow knitting as I found the plot needed more concentration than usual. Still slow stitches counts towards a finished project. The knitting is growing slowly. The wool is beautiful to knit with.

How did you spend the first day of the new year? I'm linking with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Lyndsey