Slow Sunday Stitching

Here we are once again at Sunday. The weeks have gone quite quickly since the UK went into lockdown 2 and on December 2nd that will be all over (for now) We will go back to a tier system and London has been placed in tier 2 which means we can't meet up with people in our house or theirs but we can meet up outside so long as there are no more than 6 people. The weather is getting a little cold for lengthy meet ups outside unless you are walking as well. That's OK for us as we all love walking. We can also go to visit art galleries and museums so today Lucy booked tickets for an exhibition next weekend at the Imperial War Museum. This is one we had hoped to be able to visit. Close to Christmas the restrictions are being relaxed for a few days, so we can meet up with Katy and Olly for a meal at our or their home. I'm not sure how the relaxation of restrictions will work out. It will probably mean lockdown 3 in the New Year. This week are my last face to face teaching sessions as all university classes have to go online from 7th December. That's OK as there are then only 2 weeks until the Christmas break.

Katy rang us to arrange a meet up on Zoom or Teams or something on Tuesday 1st December to put our trees up for the holiday period. We don't usually decorate until after my birthday on the 8th but it's not a normal year and it should be fun. Today I've moved things around in preparation for the tree. It always takes a while to rearrange everything but it's the safest thing to do as it means there are no trailing wires for the tree lights.

Sewing was on the agenda today but before I got started I was going to revisit cleaning the machine. When I used it yesterday a piece of fluff appeared on the bobbin side of my fabric so I must have missed it before. I set up the machine and turned it on but nothing would work. I tried everything I could think of and then went through the manual. This suggested disconnecting the foot pedal as a last resort. The machine came alive as soon as I did it. It was then I realised I was using the wrong pedal! I made sure there was no more fluff lurking in the innards of the machine before getting on with the stitching I'd planned. 

We'd been making some more prem baby quilts at guides just before the March lockdown. I picked up the tops on my way home but needed to order the backing fabric. It arrived back in June but I hadn't made time to finish them off. The lady who takes them to the hospital hasn't been around so there isn't a rush but I wanted to use the box they were in for another project.

This evening I'll hand stitch the opening used to turn then right side out. That shouldn't take too long. It will be good to finish another job. If I have time I'll also do some more work on the millennium sampler. Finishing Luna Lapin has meant I haven't touched it all week.

I did some baking today but I'll tell you about that on Wednesday, my day on the virtual cookie blog hop.

I'm linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching.

Take care

Lyndsey

That was fun.

On Thursday Lucy and Richard cooked a fabulous Thanksgiving meal. As a family we have a lot to be thankful for. We have got to the end of November with only minor illnesses during a global pandemic, by being careful and meeting outside we have stayed in touch with each other, we are all still in employment and our mental health seems to be OK. We are also very lucky because 4 of us live together and even during the two lockdowns in the UK we have all got on well and without any major disagreements or arguments. Having shared with each other our own things we were thankful for, we shared our meal. We had roast chicken instead of  turkey. We will be having turkey at Christmas. We had sweet potato casserole with a brown sugar crumble topping, apple and blue cheese stuffing

Green bean casserole, made fresh, no soup used.

Creamed corn, creamy leeks and braised cabbage and roast potatoes.

We didn't have a dessert but we didn't need one with all of that. After a day at work with a long drive each way it was lovely to come home and be sat down with a glass of wine while dinner finished cooking. 

Yesterday I was working and so no sewing got done until the evening at which point I got out Luna Lapin to finish. I had to sew on her arms, add her eyes and nose and bob tail. I found sewing the arms on a little tricky but got it done eventually and soon she was complete.

In places my stitches aren't the neatest but I'm still very happy with her appearance. Today I made her a dress. If sewing the arms on was tricky then I found stitching the collar 10 times trickier. She does look cute in her dress so it was worth the trouble. I have her coat and scarf to make yet but the coat will have to wait until I get someone to get my felt box from the loft.

So now we have Christmas to look forward to and to plan for. As part of my plan I bought a wine advent calendar for John and Richard to share. It looks rather grand sat on the bookcase. They are small bottles except for number 24 which is a bottle of bubbly.

Meanwhile Richard had order an advent calendar for me. This one has small jars of jam in each window. I can enjoy that with fresh bread or toast at breakfast.

He also bought Lucy a fitness advent calendar. This has challenges to do. During lockdown Lucy took up running and completed a 10K run to raise money for the British Legion poppy appeal which helps ex service men and women. She is now working up to a half marathon and has booked a place on a race in March.

So this month I finish my one monthly challenge but I forgot to link my post with Patty so I'm celebrating alone. I already know what I want to finish next month but I'll tell when we get to December. 

I still have a little time left this evening so I'm going to curl up with my book and Scamp will no doubt come and curl up on my lap.

Take care

Lyndsey

Happy Thanksgiving.

 

In these strange time I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving. I hope you all are able to have some contact with your family, be it in person or online.

Take care

Lyndsey

Musings

 I've been doing a lot of sewing related activities this week but I haven't got a lot to show for it. You know the activities I mean. First up was cleaning the sewing machine of all the fluff it had managed to collect since the last time I did it. Unfortunately I can't remember the last time I cleaned it. This year has played havoc with my memory for this routine but oh so important maintenance task. It took a little time but the machine is now feeling pampered and happy. I also changed the needle. After that I used up the rest of the cut pieces to put together a few more bear paw blocks. These ones are the same as those already made. On Friday I will cut some more blocks but the background fabric will be slightly different.  This pile has now grown but I didn't take a new photo.

I've been working on Luna Lapin and I've made both her arms. This evening I will attach them and also add her button eyes. I'll need to embroider her nose as well. To move this project forward I spent some time today cutting out the pattern pieces for her dress. I was going to cut out her coat as well but my box of felt must have been put up in the loft. I'll have to hunt for that another day. I did cut out a second rabbit, this time using white felt which will be another Christmas present.

The boring sewing for the day was several items that needed mending, a seam on a sweatshirt that had been caught and pulled undone a little, several buttons to be replaced and a small hole in a jumper where Picasso had caught one of his claws. Mending is not one of my favourite activities and I tend to leave it until I have several items needing attention. I know it would be better to do any mending as soon as the problem is identified. 

Tomorrow, Thursday is Thanksgiving in the United States and we will also be celebrating it. Lucy usually meets up with 11 friends to celebrate Thanksgiving. They started the tradition whilst students at university and they spend the year planning and looking forward to the event. They hire a cottage that is big enough for all of them, share the cooking and eat and drink too much. This year was always going to be a problem and Lucy decided she would not be taking part a few months ago. Several other members of the group couldn't understand the need to cancel but in the end it was agreed to share an online Thanksgiving on Friday. It can't happen tomorrow because Lucy had already decided we'd celebrate as a family. John and I are teaching face to face tomorrow so Lucy and Richard are doing the cooking. Meanwhile John and I are under strict instructions not to be late home. Both Richard and Lucy are good cooks so I know the food will be delicious and I'm really looking forward to the event. I do feel very lucky that I have two of our children living with us during these strange times.

Next week Carol from Just let me Quilt is hosting the Virtual Cookie blog hop. This is always a fun event and I usually pick up some new recipes. Here is the schedule.

December 1

Creatin' in the Sticks

Doreen – Just Let Me Quilt Guest

Bumbleberry Stitches

Home Sewn By Us

Quilt Schmilt

Food for Thought

Life in the Scrapatch

Ms P Designs USA

Just Sew Quilter

Cathie's Craftworks

Cynthia's Creating Ark

 December 2

MooseStashQuilting

Karen's Korner

Sew Many Yarns

Selina Quilts

Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life

Days Filled With Joy

Words & Stitches

Just Because Quilts

Beaquilter

December 3

Quiltscapes

Websterquilt

DayBrook Designs

Karrin’s Crazy World

Samelia's Mum

Songbird Designs

For The Love Of Geese

Stitchin At Home

Dreamworthy Quilts

That Fabric Feeling

 December 4

Just Let Me Quilt

Quilt Fabrication

DesertSky Quilting

Seams To Be Sew

Happy Cottage Quilter

Pumpkin Patch Patterns & Quilting

The Darling Dogwood

Kathleen McMusing

Scrapdash

Don't forget pop over to see what everyone has come up with. Now I need to finish Luna Lapin. I'll post a photo on Friday.

Take care

Lyndsey

...and breathe, it's Sunday

This week has been very busy with work, trying to catch up with the ironing, trying to continue the decluttering, remembering to exercise and to spend a little time with my family. Work went into overdrive since the government announced that from the 9th December all teaching was to be online so that students could get home for Christmas and not put their families at risk. It sounds easy to do but I needed to rejig the timetable as I had some sessions that involved role play. It just doesn't work as well online. As a result very little sewing got done this week but I did
manage some.

Having finished the Austen Family Album blocks I had to order some fabric for the sashing and borders which hasn't yet arrived. I needed to fill the void by picking up another ongoing project.  Back in December 2016 I printed off the pattern for the Bear's Paw QAL. In early 2017 I'd made a few bear paw blocks and had pieces cut for some more and at that point I put it away. By this time I was having chemotherapy and my brain could not deal with putting the blocks together. When I opened the project bag I found several half sewn pieces and had to unpick all of them as they had been stitched together incorrectly. I sorted it all and set about making up blocks with the cut pieces. As I worked I found a lot of the pieces had been very inaccurately cut. I carried on with them as they are part of the quilts story and by the end of the morning I had made 10 blocks. I will be able to dot these blocks around the quilt so they won't be so noticeable. 

Wherever I moved to take the photo Picasso followed and made sure his tail was part of the picture. As soon as I pointed the camera at him he made himself small and wouldn't let me take a photo of him. Cats! they really do like to rule the house.

Having made the blocks I headed to the kitchen. Today is 'Stir up Sunday' traditionally the day you make your Christmas pudding. I was told recently that it is a name used in the Anglican church and it get its name from the collect for the day. I didn't know this so had to ask Mr Google who with the help of Wikipedia  told me the collect begins with the words "Stir up, we beseech thee O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people" Any way I made my pudding today and everyone took turns to stir (clockwise only) and made a wish. Why stir clockwise? I've been given several reasons with one being its the way the sun goes through the day and another saying it's the way the 3 wise men travelled to see the baby in Bethlehem. I just tell people to stir clockwise or otherwise the wish won't work

I covered it in greaseproof paper and once fully cooled added a layer of foil. It will be cooked again on Christmas day. Christmas pudding, plum pudding and figgy pudding are all used to describe a pudding made with lots of dried fruit. In the days before Christmas I'll make some brandy butter to go with it and on the day we will light the pudding. Well light the heated brandy that we pour over it. It does look pretty and always reminds me of my Dad.

This week I made Luna rabbits second ear and head. This has now been attached to her body. I still have to do her eyes and nose.

Tonight I'll continue work on her arms. I've already started one and should finish it this evening. Hopefully by Tuesday Luna rabbit will be fully made.

I've done an over sew stitch to put her together but I wish I'd done a button hole stitch as I find it easier to keep neat and even sized.

Earlier in the week I started connecting the crocheted granny squares together. I using a double crochet stitch for this. This is a project I'm making to use up scraps of yarn. It also gives my eyes a rest from close work on embroidery, especially after a day on the computer.

I've now completed 3 of the four cornerstones on the millennium sampler. This project is edging nearer the finish line. Once I've finish Luna Lapin I'll spend my stitching time working on the sampler this week.

I'm linking this post with Kathy from Katy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching Usually on a Monday morning I sit and read some of the posts with my morning tea before getting down to some work. 

I'm hoping this week will be quieter and I can get some more sewing done. I have a couple of things I need to finish as they are Christmas presents. I have 4 more weeks of work before my 2 week Christmas break. We are supposed to be away for my birthday the second weekend in December but I don't know if that will happen. I've got my fingers crossed. We are now at LD 2.18. It's supposed to end on the 2nd December but we'll have to wait and see what happens next.

Take care

Lyndsey

A rainy Sunday is perfect for stitching

LD 2.11 broke into a wet and very overcast day in London. During the night the wind had been strong. We were woken at 2.30 by the banging of the back door. The rain has made the door swell and so it is difficult to shut properly and even when shut, currently I can't get the lock to work. As I headed up to bed I reminded John he needed to check and lock the door but he forgot and so we were woken by it banging as the wind blew it open and closed. Fortunately we live in a safe area of town. Yesterday we managed to complete our 4 mile walk without getting too wet. The rain started as we were already heading home. It's annoying when it rains at the weekend and is dry on a work day but working from home does give some ability to move work load around so we can go out for our daily exercise during the light. The clocks went back at the end of October and it's still fairly dark when the alarm goes off at 6 and all the parks and the cemetery where we walk close at 4. It does get difficult to fit in a walk during a week day so planning my diary is really important. Oddly the lockdown is helping here. On December 2nd when it is due to end (possibly, maybe) it will only be 19 days before we reach the shortest day of the year and during this time all our teaching is online. This is to allow students to be tested for covid 19 and if needed isolate before heading home for Christmas. Over Christmas and New Year I don't really notice the short days and by the time you go back to work in January the days are already starting to draw out.

Yesterday the sewing machine stayed silent. I had meant to make the lavender bags but I wanted to finish reading my book so I curled up in a chair with Scamp on my lap and read  a hundred plus pages. That put me in the mood for hand stitching. Over the week I've been stitching the millennium sampler and I've made it down to the bottom right corner of the border. The spitfire at the top still has to be finished.

Later today I'll work on the bottom border, parts of which have already been done

I have also made a start on the cornerstones. I completed one ages ago and decided I'd complete the top and bottom right cornerstones before moving on to complete the border. I've folded the fabric so you can see the completed cornerstone and the one from the top right of the sampler that I started work on last night

I picked up Luna Lapin to work on yesterday. I had made the legs and the body was stitched in part so that I could add the legs and the base. Here's what I had at the start of yesterday.

I attached the legs and the base of the body, which meant I could stitch up the main body leaving an opening for the stuffing. Having stuffed it I then closed the opening. I also made an ear. The second one will be made today. I need the ears completed before I can make the head as they have to be stitched into the seams. The pointed part of the body goes into the head.

The rabbit comes with clothes patterns and of course I will be making the clothes. You can't gift a naked rabbit when it's supposed to be a fashionable young lady rabbit about town.  

I have a deep purple piece of felt for her coat, and need to decide on fabric for her dress and underwear. I'm also looking forward to making her scarf from some of my quilting scraps.

I might be turning my machine on briefly this afternoon as Richard has asked me to make a dust cover for his new computer he's built. It's huge, is water cooled and operates at an amazing speed. I measured the case last evening and have found the fabric. It's all straight seams  and should sew up very quickly.

Picasso has been very helpful and decided he needed to help me out with my tea drinking. He loves tea and will almost have his nose in my cup before I start to drink. I used to worry he'd burn himself but he hasn't come to any harm yet

Later this evening I will continue working on the sampler for the main part but I will make Luna's second ear and stitch the head pieces together. All of Luna Lapin is hand stitched.

I'm linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching link up. I'm going to make more tea and see what everyone has been stitching this week.

Take care

Lyndsey

Blocks all finished

Yesterday being Friday the day started with a link up on Teams with some of my work colleagues. I set up Breakfast club just prior to the UK lockdown in March and we have carried it on every week since. It's not surprising since we used to meet up at work on a Friday for breakfast club in the refectory. As a group we didn't want to miss out on our chats about films, food and drink and the fun activities we had planned or had done since our last meeting. Since March it has become a support group as well as a social event. Michelle, one of the group, bought a sewing machine during the first lockdown but she has only taken it out of the box to check that it was all in order and no problems. Although very busy she is going to get it out of the box and try to at least make a mask before next Friday. At times our link ups are a bit like school show and tell.

Friday has become my non working day but yesterday I had a meeting online with two of my colleagues which didn't finish until nearly noon so my day got off to a slow start. My aim for the day was to complete the 3 remaining blocks for the Austen Family Album quilt. This was put out in 2014 as a block of the week. I decided to make the blocks some time later. I had a problem with one of the blocks as the measurements were wrong and so I put it away for a while. I spent the afternoon making the 3 blocks.  Cutting the fabric was a little difficult  and caused slight pain as my finger is still very bruised and sore.  I'm still not sure how I managed to injure myself just shutting a gate.

The first block was all half square triangles. This went together very quickly and easily.

The second block caused the problems as I kept on sewing the half square triangle to the solid squares the wrong way. I think I unpicked some pieces several times and with some having unpicked them, I realised I'd stitched them correctly in the first place. Never mind the block got made and I like the end result.

The third block had a correction on the pattern but it still came up a little small but I can correct that when I do the sashing. 

Here are all the 36 completed blocks.

 

Although they don't look it because of the angle of the photos all the blocks are the same size within a very small margin except the one identified earlier. Next job is to trim all the blocks but I'll leave that a day or two. These blocks were all made from fat quarters or scraps left over from other projects. I don't have any space for storing yardage so now I need to decide on the fabric I want for the sashing and order it online. I'll think about the border and the backing once the sashing is all done.  Overall I'm very pleased with the blocks. There are a lot of half square triangles and the points are mostly looking good. The ones that aren't can be camouflaged by the quilting.

Last evening I did some stitching on my millennium sampler and got to the end of the right border. I'll show you photos tomorrow. For now I'm linking this post with Sarah from Confessions of a fabric addict for Can I get a whoop whoop? link up. Do pop over and visit. Her finished reindeer quilt is adorable.

The rain has stopped for a little while so John and I are going out for our daily exercise before it restarts. There is a brief window before the forecast suggests that for the rest of the day there is 90% chance of rain. Typical, just when I wanted to get out and do some tidying in the garden.

Take care

Lyndsey

A walk at the wetlands

On Tuesday evening, I sat and watched TV whilst stitching my millennium sampler. I'm almost at the bottom of the right side border. I'm not stitching tonight (Thursday) as I caught one of my fingers in the gate catch whilst we were out yesterday morning and it's rather painful. Stitching will be a little difficult for the next couple of days.

Wednesday morning I took a couple of hours off work to enjoy some time with John at Barnes. I've felt my concentration at work dropping over the last few days and I not getting so much done so it was time to take some mental health time. We didn't want to travel too far because of the current situation (LD 2.7) so we decided to visit the wetland centre at Barnes. None of the hides were open but it gave us room to walk somewhere different, the chance of a bit of bird watching, decent coffee and John the chance to try out a new lens he'd bought for his camera.

As we walked from the car park to the entrance I stopped to get a picture.

With the hides shut we followed the path that snaked around the site. You end up walking several miles but you're never that far from the centre.  Here's a map of the site which is formed from 4 disused Victorian reservoirs in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.

This is a lovely setting to walk around.  It gives you the feeling of being out in the country when you're still in the city. With less air traffic the illusion is even better and our walk was very peaceful. There were quite a few visitors, mostly older couples or parents with young children. The school aged children are all at school and there are no school trips at present. The coffee kiosk was serving so we started with a coffee. There are a lot of small pools and this Tufted duck was determined to attract our attention. I didn't tell him I was more interested in the reflections

While John was bird watching and testing out his new camera lens I was interested in getting inspiration for some art work. I was particularly interested in textures and colours. The bark on this tree was amazing.

This one got on my list for colour as well as texture

The reed beds were a good colour and full of movement and small birds. The birds were all busy singing but refused to show themselves. Most frustrating!

This stand of silver birch caught my eye. They tend to grow tall and slender. The ground under the trees was littered with twigs that had been blown off the trees recently.

The whole wetland centre occupies 100 acres or 40 hectares so really isn't that big but this view along one of the channels gives the impression it goes on a long way.

There were a couple of plants in bloom. I'm not sure what this is but it is pretty and the leaves are interesting.

There were a lot of berries and hips around the site. 

The site has several buildings that would normally house exhibitions or education displays for schools visits. I loved the colours in this area.

This is looking the opposite way.

Finally, at the end of the walk I saw this glorious splash of colour.

We didn't see many ducks or geese since all the hides were closed but there were loads of small birds milling around the feeders. We had a good trip out which helped charge the batteries to go home and work for the rest of the day. There was no stitching yesterday due to my injured finger.

Today Thursday (LD 2.8) I was teaching face to face. It's was a fun day with a small group of students. I am very tired and bending my finger to sew is still painful so tonight will be watching TV. Tomorrow I have a work commitment in the morning and then plan on finishing the last three blocks for the Austen family album quilt. I'm looking forward to laying all the blocks out. I hope they look good together.

Take care

Lyndsey

 

A wet Monday

The start of a new week, a journey into work and Lockdown 2.5. I hope you don't mind me counting the days of lockdown. Oddly it keeps it all in perspective. Several of my friends found the spring lockdown but it didn't really cause us many problems. There were difficulties getting flour and one or two other items early on but once that was resolved life went on pretty much as normal but without the commute and with teaching on line. One person told me it wasn't normal to enjoy your own company and that of your family but I disagree. I spent some time thinking back to when we were children and life was much calmer. My parents enjoyed going out but that didn't happen every week, it was something they looked forward to and really enjoyed when it happened but otherwise they enjoyed the simpler things of life such as reading, gardening, playing with their children, DIY and their hobbies. My mother liked to stitch in the evening and I remember winter evenings with my father sitting in his armchair by the fire reading me and my brother a story such as Alice in Wonderland or Black Beauty whilst mom sat and stitched or did some knitting. My mother taught me to sew, knit, crochet and cook and we enjoyed our time together doing them. I find my days are filled with lots of things and not being able to go to a restaurant or out shopping when I want isn't a big deal. I'm lucky that two of our grown up children live with us but we keep in contact with older daughter and her partner by phone and video calls. So day 2.5 of lockdown and the world is still spinning, I'm still stitching my millennium sampler and trying to fit too many things into the available time and more importantly enjoying life and feeling happy. My advice to anyone is to try and create your own happy place, be in the moment, be mindful, enjoy the bird song, the smell of rain, the feel of sun on your skin. Do simple things that give you pleasure such as making bread, sliding down the bannister, cuddling a cat, kicking up the leaves, jumping in puddles or when it snows making a snow angel.  

I went into work today for the morning but didn't get much work done. I really am more productive working at home. When we got home I decided I was going to take some time out and do some sewing. I still have some blocks to make for the Austen family album quilt so I set about cutting the pieces. In the end I managed to get two blocks made. The first block was a lot of fun to make and it went together very quickly

I always forget the fun you can have with half square triangles. By stitching them together in different ways you can create a huge variety of patterns. I love the deep red batik I used on this block, it's such a rich colour and so in your face.

The second block was much trickier to make. It had more pieces in it for starters and I also kept on getting the triangles in the wrong configuration with the squares. I had all the pieces laid out on my cutting board but it still took me a little time to get them the right way round.

I now have 3 blocks left to make. All of the blocks will need trimming before I can stitch them into a quilt top. Tomorrow I have a mountain of work I need to get done so I'm not sure there will be any sewing, but I'll try and make space. I also want to get the lavender bags made. I need to hunt in my sewing box for lace to use as embellishment. I'm sure I have some but it may be too wide.

This evening I've been doing some more stitching on the millennium sampler. I'm not posting a photo as i haven't got the much further . I'll show you when I get to the corner.  Tomorrow I hope to have more to share with you.

Take care

Lyndsey

Slow Sunday Stitching.

Yesterday, LD 2.3. was bright sunny and fairly cold. One of those autumnal days that call to you and encourage you to go for a walk. Lucy, John and I should have been in Suffolk this weekend to finish off our walk along the Stour and Orwell rivers. We are still  able to travel for work, essential journeys or exercise but this is a fair distance from home and we couldn't justify the journey, so we canceled our room bookings. In the event it turned to our advantage as John has injured his foot so walking would have been slow and painful for him.  Since the weather was so bright we took our exercise around the cemetery, completing 3 circuits That's almost a 4 mile walk by the time we get home. John's foot was sore at the end but he enjoyed the exercise. The cemetery has a lot of old graves, war graves and also an abundance of birds and wild flowers. There are still a few trees with autumnal leaves but most have fallen and in some places make the ground very slippery. The cemetery also has bee hives and there is now honey available for sale. It's slightly more expensive than the honey from the supermarket but we know where it has been produced and have watched the bees busy at work whilst on our walks.

At the weekend I always make a cake and this week Lucy asked for mince pies. She likes them but finds the shop bought ones have too much pastry on them for her tastes. I tend either to leave them without a lid or just add a small shaped piece on top. The pastry is shortcrust made with 50% plain flour and 50% wholemeal plain flour. Having used up all the mincemeat I filled the last few cases with lemon curd.

I also baked a white loaf using a new bag of flour and new yeast. It just kept on rising and produced a magnificent loaf. Richard wouldn't wait for me to take a photo. You can see where the top of the bread tin reached. I had a slice of bread with my soup at lunch time and it was delicious.

I'm continuing making a block a day for the Austen quilt. I used some of the same fabrics from the last block and added a couple of different pieces. I altered the block a little as the two light corner squares should have been made up of 4 small squares but I felt it made the block too busy.

Today being Sunday is all about the weekly link up of slow stitching. Yesterday evening I did some stitching on the border of my sampler. I've almost completed the border alongside the William Shakespeare square and today will move the hoop so I can work on the next section. Two more repeats of the border pattern brings me to the bottom corner. Some of the border on the bottom is already done.

John and I need to go for a short walk to get our exercise so that's next on the agenda. I'll walk Scamp later in the evening. Hopefully there won't be any more fireworks tonight but they will be back next weekend as it's Diwali. The celebrations for that will be severely curtailed this year due to lockdown which is a shame since it is an important religious celebration.

I'm linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching. Once we've had our walk and I've done a couple of little chores I will have a good length of time for slow stitching. 

Take care

Lyndsey