Apologies and a round up of 2024

I hope you all had a great Christmas. Our Christmas was very peaceful with the four of us and our two dogs. We shared a traditional turkey dinner and as always didn't get to the dessert course until much later in the evening. Missy and Twiglet enjoyed a good walk and the rest of our day was spent at home. It was a perfect day.

Before I look back at the year I must apologise to people who have left comments. For some reason Blogger has not been pushing comments through to my email. I have tried to remember to check the post for comments but I've not been very efficient. This has meant I haven't always responded. I have now managed (again) to get blogger to feed the comments to my email and will endeavour to respond. Thank you for all your comments, I love reading them.

This year I have done well with my projects. I made  several baby quilts.

I can't find the photo of the finished quilt but this was the second baby quilt.

In the third baby quilt I used two panels with aliens and the backing fabric had space motifs on it.

I also completed this hexi quilt. I liked the fabrics when I started making it but fell out of love with it so pushed it to the back of the cupboard.  When I finally pulled it out again I decided I liked it and completed it. John claimed it as his quilt.

I made a tumbling block quilt which is now used by Twiglet. All our pets have had their own quilts.

I also completed the dinosaur quilt top.

I'm hoping to start quilting this in January. My sewing machine is currently at the spa and I can't wait to get it back.  

I also tried sashiko embroidery. It was very soothing to do.

I'm going to use sashiko when I make my Japanese quilt in 2025. I knitted a cardigan, something I hadn't done for several years. I should finish my green jumper in January 25. I'm enjoying knitting again.

I've enjoyed working on my numerous projects over this year. In total this year I completed 20 of them. That still leaves a lot that need to be worked on. That's without the new ones I'll start in 2025.

Talking of 2025 I need to plan the projects I'll work on for the Chookshed Challenge next year. I love the new logo.

Tomorrow I'll share the projects I'll be working on next year.

Take Care

Lyndsey

 Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you have a happy and peaceful day wherever you are. Missy and Twiglet have had their Christmas walk and are now ready to open presents with the family

Busy getting ready for Christmas

The last two weeks have been busy trying to finish everything I needed to do at work so that on the evening of 19th December I could completely concentrate on enjoying my two week holiday. No work until the 6th January! During the last two weeks I've been working on projects, but very slowly. I decided to use up my left over red and green yarn to make a pom pom Christmas wreathe. I already had the wreathe form and just had to decide how to attach the pom poms. I added some ribbon and candy canes. I'm quite pleased with the result. |When the photo was taken I still had a few last bits to fix.

Most evenings I do a little knitting. I can't knit for very long as my right arm gets pins and needles after a while. This means it takes me several months to knit a jumper but the effort is worth it. I finished the first sleeve last week and started on sleeve two.  I'm nearly on the home straight. I love the colour and the yarn is so soft. 

I'm excited to finish this jumper as I have two other knitting projects waiting to be started, a cardigan and a long cardigan. 

I have also started on the orange round of the Grandmother's garden quilt. This is the last full round before I square up the quilt. I have a fair range of orange fabrics to work with but I might need to purchase a few more.

I like being able to prep the hexagons whilst watching TV or chatting with the family. Knitting takes more concentration than working on the hexies. They are also very portable and so a perfect project to take when we go away for the weekend. I working on this project tonight. I'm linking this post with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching. It's always interesting to see what everyone has been working on this week.

Take care

Lyndsey

 

A red storm alert!

On Friday morning John and I left London for a weekend away at our favourite hotel in Somerset. Our drive from London was good but I was rather concerned that there was a red warning for high winds and rain in the area on Friday night and Saturday. Two years ago when on this trip we got stuck on the side of a hill for a while due to unexpected snow. When I say unexpected I mean there was no mention of snow on any weather forecast and we had travelled in our small sports car. Being a small, soft top, two seater car it is very light and so not great in snow. A weather forecast warning of high winds and heavy rain is different and so we used the big saloon car. We also bought things to do as we knew we wouldn't be venturing out on Saturday. The journey to the hotel was good and it didn't start raining until we were at the hotel. We stopped off at Stourhead as I'd bought tickets to their Christmas lights. We enjoyed the walk through the grounds and the way the lights had been set up. Here are some of my favourite photos from it.

Before we left Stourhead we purchased 5 cyclamen plants for the garden at home. By now it was very dark and the wind was also increasing, so the drive to the hotel along narrow country roads wasn't very pleasant. Whilst we were getting ourselves organised to go down for dinner John's phone went off very loudly and it was an emergency alert for very high winds in the area. My phone went off slightly later as we are on different providers. As the evening progressed the wind became louder. Lying in bed trying to sleep was very difficult and so everyone was very tired the next morning. The wind was still very strong and we decided a relaxing day at the hotel was in order. We read, chatted and I got quite a bit of knitting done. Having had a really relaxing day I have to question why we don't do it more often.

On Sunday morning we headed for my favourite quilt shop. I needed some thread and I was also looking for some fat quarters. They had their exhibition of 12 inch quilts running. The theme this year was 'bucket list'. Some of the quilts are for sale and will be auctioned with the proceeds going to the local hospice. About 5- quilts were on display.

These last two are my favourites, especially the green woodpecker

This parrot is such a happy, cheerful bird. 

The journey home on Sunday was very slow due to incidents on the motorway and the poor weather conditions. I was pleased to be home.

The next three days at work are going to be busy but hopefully I will have some time for stitching. Next weekend I want to start the quilting on the dinosaur quilt.

Take care

Lyndsey

Virtual Christmas Cookie exchange

 

Time for Carol's Virtual Christmas Cookie exchange blog hop. Thanks to Carol from Just Let Me Quilt for organising this hop and all the others I've taken part in over the years. 

I love Christmas, decorating the tree, setting up the family advent calendar, planning the menu, baking and decorating the cake. At the weekend I pulled out my Christmas quilts. I made the first one early in my quilting journey having won a jelly roll of these gorgeous Christmas fabrics from Happy Quilting. I was very pleased with this quilt and it is still one of my favourite.

I made a second Christmas quilt using a pattern called Scrappy Friends from Phoebe Moon designs. The pattern originally was for a quilt of 6 blocks finishing at 53 x 73 inches. I added another column to the quilt to make it into a square. There is always an argument as to who has this quilt. I really must make a third Christmas quilt, a task for 2025 maybe.

Snacks are always very welcome when decorating for Christmas . In 2019 I made these spicy raisin bars for the first time. We all liked them and they have become a firm favourite for anytime of year. They really are delicious and a gooey like chocolate brownies. I made a batch at the weekend and they disappeared very quickly! Unfortunately they are quite calorific so I don't cook them very often.

The recipe is by Martha Day from her book Baking

Makes 30
110 g plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground all spice
215 g raisins
115 g butter or margarine at room temperature
100 g sugar
2 eggs
165 g molasses
55 g walnuts, chopped.


1. Preheat a 350 F/180 C / Gas 4 oven.
    Line a 13 x 9 in (33 x 23 cm) tin with grease proof paper and grease

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and spices.

3. Place the raisins in another bowl and toss with a few teaspoons of the flour mixture

4. With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, then the molasses. Stir in the flour mixture, raisins and walnuts.

5. Spread evenly in the tin. Bake until just set, 15 - 18 minutes. Let it cool in the tin before cutting into bars

I made this Christmas pillow for a blog hop several years ago and we still use it . My grandson was very taken with it. He wanted to take it home and have in his bedroom. I will add making a Christmas pillow for him to my 2025 to do list.

Do go and visit the other blogs taking part. Here is the schedule. I can't wait for Thursday evening, when I finish work for the week and I'll have time to visit everyone,

                                                                   December 2

Just Let Me Quilt

Beaquilter

Quilt Doodle Designs

Songbird Designs

Quilted Delights

 December 3

Quilting Gail

Ms P Designs USA

Just Sew Quilter

Words & Stitches

Selina Quilts

 December 4

A Quiltery

Karrin’s Crazy World

Inflorescence

Homespun Hannah's Blog

Quilt Schmilt

December 5

MooseStashQuilting

Bumbleberry Stitches

Sew Many Yarns

Days Filled With Joy

Take care 

Lyndsey

Computer issues and getting ready for Christmas

In the middle of last week my computer had a funny turn and kept on powering off and then stopped working. Unfortunately my IT guy (son) was working so I had to cope without it for a few days. Fortunately, yesterday evening he had space to look at it and he soon had it back to full health. As it was late I decided to leave posting until today. I am so pleased it's working again as using a different computer is a pain, no finger print recognition so having to dredge the depths of my memory for my log in. 

Last week was also quite busy with sorting and getting rid of some clutter. John and I have been slowly trying to rationalise our belongings and sort out paperwork. It's a slow process but very satisfying. I managed to get a fair amount of knitting done so that I am now shaping the top of sleeve 1. Kitting doesn't really look like much until you sew it all together.

I did some of my cross stitch. It still doesn't look like I've done much at the moment. This is being made for my son who has been a Star Trek fan since he was a young child. At first I found working on a black background very difficult but I've now got the light set up so I can see what I'm doing. I'm also feeling more comfortable with the pattern. Whether it is quilting , knitting  crochet or embroidery, it takes a while to get into the pattern, either the way it is written or the image. The background of the pattern is black and I can't always make out the individual squares when I need to count to be able to move to a new area.

Over the weekend I did some Christmas shopping. Husband, older daughter and son had all helpfully given hints of presents they would like. We give each other small gifts as it's fun to have something to open. I also planned out the menu so I know what shopping I need nearer the time. The Christmas tree will be put up on the 9 December, the day after my birthday.

Back in March I went to the Stitch festival with a friend and we both bought a kit to make 3 Christmas angels. I started one of them in June but I decided to leave them until December. These will be my hand stitching this month.  I love the one holding the sewing machine.

This week Carol from Just Let Me Quilt is running her,

This will be the last blog hop she hosts so thanks go to Carol for the past hops. Here is the schedule.

December 2

Just Let Me Quilt

Beaquilter

Quilt Doodle Designs

Songbird Designs

Quilted Delights

 December 3

Quilting Gail

Ms P Designs USA

Just Sew Quilter

Words & Stitches

Selina Quilts

 December 4

A Quiltery

Karrin’s Crazy World

Inflorescence

Homespun Hannah's Blog

Quilt Schmilt

December 5

MooseStashQuilting

Bumbleberry Stitches

Sew Many Yarns

Days Filled With Joy

I was going to write more but our two dogs are eager to go for their late before bed. Why didn't we get two cats as the can be so much easier than dogs!

Take care

Lyndsey