I wish the year would slow down! October seems to have rushed by and now it's November. I realised I needed to start thinking about Christmas. There's a Christmas cake to make and presents to think about. When I opened my work emails this morning I had a flurry of invitations to Christmas events. No I'm not rushing my life away worrying about Christmas. I have a weekend away this month with my younger daughter Lucy and that will be fun. I'm hoping to do some walks with John and of course there are always the various projects I'm working on. So I'm changing down a gear and slowing the pace of my life down this month so I can enjoy my free time with my family and try to get everyone fit to enjoy the festive season. All family members seemed to have been unwell during October.
Over the last weekend of October, John and I had a weekend away in Dorset and we visited the tank museum and also spent a lovely day walking at Arne nature reserve. I tell you about our weekend in my next post. I would do it now but I haven't downloaded the photos from my camera. Instead I'll tell you about this last weekend.
On Saturday we spent the day with older daughter and our grandson. We had a great time. When we arrived he was doing some painting so we both joined in. I managed to avoid getting paint all over my clothes. We then moved on to making pizza dough in preparation for lunch and then the fun of deciding what topping we wanted. In between grandson and I played hide and seek. After lunch John took over and played board games and memory games with him. and we ended the afternoon with stories. As we drove home I was very tired. Three year olds have endless energy and he kept going all day.
Over last week I didn't get much time for any sewing or knitting. Yesterday I was determined to get the quilting on the happy quilt finished. That got done first. I'd kept the quilting simple with diagonals across the quilt in both directions. I like how it looks.
Next I went hunting for some fabric for the binding. I finally found a piece that was big enough and looked good with the quilt.
Once the binding had been stitched on it was time to move on to the Christmas quilt. The binding will now be stitched down to the back over several evenings. I could have a finish by the end of the week.
The first of the borders on the Christmas quilt had already been added but this meant the stars on the border were incomplete.
I added the second white borders so that the stars were complete and then added a slightly wider red border. I had washed the red fabric a few days earlier as I was worried the colour would run the first time it was washed. I already knew that all the other fabrics in the quilt were colour fast.
The quilt top is now ready to be sandwiched and quilted. So far I have no idea how I'm going to quilt it. I have a little time to get this quilt finished but I want to gift it at the beginning of December. Now I need to check that I've got enough wadding and if I have any fabric suitable for the backing.
It's a good job these two quilts are almost finished. John has asked me to make a lap quilt for a lady that he organises walks for, in the local area. She is disabled and uses an electric wheel chair. I have fabric that I can use but I'm not sure I can make the quilt in time for Christmas. I've also promised my brother a new quilt.
Having finished knitting my grandson a scarf I am part way though making him a beanie hat which will have a large pompom. It should be finished this week. Older daughter has also asked me to knit a baby blanket for their second baby who is due in January. I had started another cardigan for me when she asked me if I would knit the scarf. I'm not sure when the cardigan will get finished.
This week is much calmer so tomorrow I'll share the photos from our trip to Dorset.
Take care
Lyndsey
