Stitching and things.

The last seven days has been exhausting at work and at home. I need to get work back into the time slots it's allocated and so have some more free time. Away from work I've been spending more time with older daughter. She has been struggling a bit with the last weeks of pregnancy as she has been unwell. Fortunately she gave birth to their second son yesterday afternoon. Both mother and baby are doing well and are back home. My son in law sent us a photo of the baby and we will visit later next week. They need to get into their new routine before too many visitors descend on them.

My sewing machine still needs to go in for a service so there has been no machine sewing recently. As a result I made a decision to change my Chookshed challenge for the month. Challenge 3, was to start a quilt for my brother and I have swapped this with number 10, working on the stitcheries for the frog quilt.

I've already finished several of the stitcheries and they are fun to stitch. These are the finished pieces.

The one on the bottom left I finished on Wednesday night. since then I've started this one.

Once this piece is finished there are two larger pieces to stitch before I make the blocks.

I've sorted my green fabrics ready for making the blocks once the stitching is completed. I wonder how much I can get done before the end of the month?

Earlier this month I started knitting a cardigan for the new grandson. It isn't quite finished as I have to stitch up the arm holes and add the front bands. I'm not sure if I have any small buttons so I must look in my button box. This is the first time I'd knitted using double ended needles and the first time I joined the sleeves into a cardigan in this way. It's always fun when you do new techniques for the first time. The cardigan will be finished in the next few days.

I have also promised my older grandson that I will knit him a Thomas the tank engine cardigan. I needed to find the pattern and I think I have enough yarn to make this from my stash. I also have some knitting I want to do for myself, so I need to plan a little carefully to make sure I can get everything done.

John and I had planned to be away this weekend but we cancelled as the weather wasn't looking so good. The temperature here in London UK has dropped again and there is a lot of rain forecast. On a positive note I am already noticing the difference in light in the morning. Whilst it is still dark when I get up, by the time I'm driving to work the sky is getting lighter. I can't wait for the lighter morning as I'm bored with walking the two dogs in the dark. 

Tomorrow I don't need to get up too early and I'm looking forward to being able to take my morning tea upstairs to enjoy in bed while I read a chapter (or two) of my book. If I'm lucky I may get half an hour of peace before the dogs are ready for their walk.

Take care

Lyndsey