A coffee morning and stitching.

Yesterday, 22 September was the Autumn equinox and so in astrological terms we are now in Autumn, which will last until 21 December. In our travels on Saturday there was evidence of autumn starting to show. Leaves are turning orange and in some cases red and leaves are starting to fall. Under the horse chestnut trees there are lots of conkers waiting to be collected up by children. I have happy memories of playing conkers in the school playground but I don't think schools allow it any more in case of injuries. I love all the seasons but I start to get excited as the cooler weather begins. I love thick tasty soups served with fresh homemade bread. Yummy stews and casseroles are especially delicious after a day out walking. Closing the curtains on the dark outside and curling up to watch a film, read a book or get on with knitting and stitching. I always knit more as the weather cools, it's difficult to knit in the heat of summer.

Yesterday we went on an outing to a Macmillan coffee morning. It was organised by Ash Creative Stitchers but they refer to themselves as Soup Dragons. The members do anything involving needles and thread of any type. There was some beautiful embroidery on display. The only piece where I know who stitched it is this beautiful rhino. He was stitched by my sister in law Hazel and currently she is working on an elephant. You should be able to click on the photo to enlarge it to see the stitching better.

Here are some of the other pieces on display.

We enjoyed a cup of coffee and a delicious slice of cake and I bought some fat quarters of African fabric.

The fabric has to be washed before use to remove the potato starch. I'll do that before I go trawling through my quilting magazines for the pattern I want. I've been meaning to pull the patterns I want to keep as I have too many magazines taking up valuable space. My son has offered to scan any patterns for me and catalogue them on the computer. I also want to make the last block of the Christmas quilt and finish the half square triangles. If I have time I want to run through my various projects and check how far along they are. That way I can prioritise those close to completion so I have more time to spend on the rest. It's a shame I only have one week annual leave, two would be much better.

Take care

Lyndsey