Sunday, December 31, 2017

Binding on!


Got binding on both of the baby quilts; now it's just a matter of stitching it down. One of them, I'd like to get finished before I go back to work on Wednesday, the other can wait a little longer.

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Baby Quilt - Triangles


And here's the other quilt I need for a January baby - this one is for my work colleague. I've had this top a long time, but I really love it, so I've been saving it for someone who I knew would appreciate the colours and pattern in it. This one I quilted with a simple loop meander.

Friday, December 29, 2017

ATC Friday


Here are two sets of cards which were part of my round robin group. In both instances, I made the starter set and then two other people added to the card.




Thursday, December 28, 2017

Baby quilt - purple, etc


A couple of friends are due to have babies in January - one from work and one our neighbours - so I thought I'd better get a couple of tops quilted up. Luckily, I still have a small stash of tops in hand, so I don't have to make something from scratch - given my free time this month, that's probably a good thing.  This one is for the neighbours, and I just quilted it with a simple meander. Now to get the binding on!

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Advent Calendar, Day 24: Stockings by the Fire





We always put this up on Christmas Eve: stockings by the fire. For obvious reasons.



Saturday, December 23, 2017

Friday, December 22, 2017

ATC Friday: Bird Deck (Hearts)


And finally, here are the hearts in the deck. I wondered last week how many different artists I had cards by, and it seems to be about 30. I wasn't too precise in my counting, I confess. That's pretty good variety, and to be fair, even those who I have the most by (5 in one case, 4 in another) have made quite different cards, so it really doesn't matter...

Advent Calendar, Day 22: Angel


This is one of my favourite pictures - it's so sweet!  Some of the Christmas decorations up in London (we went up for our annual Viewing of Christmas Lights and Windows today) were big angels, so it seemed like a nice link...


Thursday, December 21, 2017

Cross Stitch Update


Haven't had much time for stitching this week, as we've been out in the evening for lots of evenings. I did make a little progress on the red border outlining where the lettering goes. To the extent that you can now actually make out the word "glory" pretty well. It's getting there. Gotta save something for next year anyway, lol. 


Advent Calendar, Day 21: Candy Cane


On to the last row now - can't believe how close we are to the actual day...


Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Advent Calendar, Day 20: Christmas Crackers


This is one of the little squares where the pattern wasn't included in the original advent calendar pattern - the pattern is Canadian, and I'm not sure crackers are a big thing there. However, they are big here and I decided it would be easy enough to do a pattern myself. I can't remember which other ones I made up the pattern for (perhaps the sled, which we haven't used yet this year), but I think there were a couple. Anyway, the crackers weren't chosen for any particular reason, but just because.


Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Advent Calendar, Day 19: Heart


No particular reason for the heart today, but then again, what day isn't a good day for a heart?


Monday, December 18, 2017

Advent Calendar, Day 18: Bell


Alex chose this one today, linking it (tenuously, perhaps) to the fact that their band (parts of it) played Christmas carols at a local train station this evening. 


Sunday, December 17, 2017

Advent Calendar, Day 17: Christmas Tree


A bit of a dilemma today; usually we put the Christmas tree picture up on the day we decorate the tree and the Gingerbread Man picture up on the day we do Christmas baking. In a move created of desperation and necessity, we did BOTH of those things today (it was a long day). So, which picture to put up? As you can see, the Christmas tree won..



Saturday, December 16, 2017

Advent Calendar, Day 16: House


Sarah chose this one today because she came home from uni for the holidays. So a house seemed like the right choice.


Friday, December 15, 2017

ATC Friday: Bird Deck (Spades)


I've been showing my bird deck; these are the spades. Next week, hearts - and that'll be the end of the deck.  I wonder how many different artists I have cards by? Might try to work it out - I'm sure it's not 52, but I bet it's a lot!

Advent Calendar, Day 15: Rudolph


Reindeer time. Coincidentally, I also wore some reindeer earrings and a black scarf with gold reindeer on it today. I didn't choose the reindeer, though - Olivia did.


Thursday, December 14, 2017

Advent Calendar, Day 14: Present


Grandma's choice today - again, no particular reason for it, just chose it for the look.


Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Cross Stitch Update: Christmas Angel Nemesis


Been working on the border this week - not a huge amount done, but you can begin to see the shapes of the letters in the bottom left corner. There are a lot of half stitches, which takes a while to do. But it's getting there...



Advent Calendar, Day 13: Christmas Lights


Another choice - this one Alex's - with no particular motivation. 


Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Advent Calendar, Day 12: Candles


No particular reason for this choice today, just liked this picture.


Monday, December 11, 2017

Advent Calendar, Day 11: Father Christmas


About time for a Father Christmas, doncha think? Alex chose this square this morning, and coincidentally, Father Christmas visited my classroom today, so it was a good choice, as it happens.


Beginning to look a bit fuller now...

Sunday, December 10, 2017

Advent Calendar, Day 10: Snowman


Well, we got a little snow this morning - and I mean just that - a little. Then it got a little warmer and the snow turned to drizzle, and most of the white is gone now. However, being London, this may well be all the snow we get, so it's worth putting up my little snowman. Should we get a big dumping of snow between now and Christmas, there's always a sledge square I could put up!


Saturday, December 09, 2017

Advent Calendar, Day 9: Christmas Bauble


Alex and I were up in town today due to his Maths Masterclass and a little Christmas shopping. We didn't go look at all the windows - saving that for our annual trip - but there were decorations everywhere, so the bauble is in honour of that...


Friday, December 08, 2017

ATC Friday: APC Deck - Clubs


Last week I showed the diamonds cards from my bird themed deck of Altered Playing Cards; this week is the clubs cards. Nice variety!

Advent Calendar, Day 8: Star


Olivia chose this one this morning with the proviso that she could change it if it snowed today - it didn't. I didn't really expect it to, though it's plenty cold out there. The colour is truer in the shot below - and look!  we are nearly at the end of the second row, already. Where does the time go?