Sewing and cooking!

Just before I drive up to Nottingham tomorrow I thought I would write a quick update.  I realised that I have not shown any finished quilts (apart from baby ones) for some time - so here is the quilt I made from the fantastic Debbie Mumm fabric which I purchased at the FOQ last summer - it was a design I had never seen before and I just loved it:  it is warm and cosy as it is flannel and perfect for cold winter nights:

I have found it difficult deciding what to give my Mother for her birthday this year - I sewed her a gorgeous sampler for Christmas:

but this time have chosen a book all about our Queen's 60 years on the throne - lots of pictures and easy for her to pick up and put down!
I have been excited about finding started but unfinished Noah's Ark samplers, and have already completed one of them which can go off to be framed when I return next week:  it is lovely and I had such fun sewing the animals:

Meanwhile we have played much Scrabble by the fire these past days - I am ahead on the scores so far! - and have been enjoying the new issues of Vogue, with some lovely photos taken at Elizabeth Taylor's childhood home which my eldest daughter Fran was involed with, and also the new French magazine Simply Vintage - although my French is poor it is really quite easy to understand the projects - I want to make almost everything, it is just lovely!

 I hope to be able to share some photos of my trip next time, plus I will take some pictures of the quilts I have made for my Mother over the years.  This morning I have made some delicious and nutrious soups to take with me plus some yummy lemon drizzle cake and a fruit cake, I hope these will tempt her small appetite.
Have a good week everyone.................

Log Fires and Marmalade!

As it has been very cold and damp this week I decided to sort through my cross-stitch patterns and projects, and I found several half finished pieces - why did I not complete them?!  There are two Noah's Arks and a gorgeous half finished Quaker design - so I have promised myself not to start anything new until these are finished!  I have also had a major sort through of all my threads - DMC, WDW, GA etc. and now have them sorted by number and/or make - so finding my colours will be so easy - I should have done this a long time ago.
I have this week finished a sweet little Noah's Ark - this is for William:

and I also have sewn the bonus pattern from BBD Loose Feathers Winter, and made this into a small memorial sampler - a neighbour from my years in West Horsley Surrey died last year on his 85th birthday, so when I next go to Surrey I shall visit his wife and take this - it will last longer than flowers and I know she will love it:



So no new starts now until my half-finished finds are done and with the framer!
As it has been so bleak I decided to make Marmalade - the Sevill oranges are not in season long so I need to make the most of them, although I always freeze some each winter in case we run out before next January:  the smell is always so good and the larder shelves look happier full than empty:

I was watching BBC1 Breakfast this morning, and Don McLean (American Pie) was on:  he made me smile as he was commenting on the fact that we in the UK make so much fuss about the "small" amount of snow we have had - compared to Maine USA - he apparantly has a snow plough on the front of his vehicle so he can get out and about - horses for courses as they say!  We have had no snow down in our part of West Devon, but we did have minus 10 degrees on our front porch the other morning:

I am off up to Nottingham next week for my Mother's 92nd birthday, so this weekend I will do some baking and make some nutrious soups for her:  hopefully it will be a chance to catch up with my sister and her husband and also some long-standing family friends - and I will be able to do much sewing too as she is not able to get out these days. 
I will now go and light our log fire, and maybe a game a Scrabble this afternoon?  Sounds good to me!

2012 Projects

I am determined not to slow down this year, and already have two completed projects to show you.
I have finished Loose Feathers from Blackbird Designs and picked it up from the framers yesterday - very pleased with the end result, and maybe will put some small handles on the sides of the frame so it can be used as a tray as we are running out of wall space! - meanwhile it is propped up in the window looking lovely until I decide:

Some time ago I decided that a patchwork door curtain would look good over our kitchen door, so I had fun picking out novelty fabrics from my stash and making it - however, it has sat in my studio since before Christmas as I am no good at putting it altogether with the lining, inter-lining etc., so I found a lovely lady in Tavistock who was happy to do this bit for me - and I picked that up yesterday too. We found a curtain rod with finials in the workshop so Rod put that up, and now we have a door curtain, just in time for this bitterly cold weather - it looks fantastic - should have done it years ago!

So a good start to 2012 - have taken "Gingerbread Cottage" (Country Cottage Needleworks) to be framed, and I am now busy cross-stitching a sweet Noah's Ark sampler for one of the new babies - plus have two baby quilts to make for expected babies, and then I will move on to one of several UFO's which are lurking in my Studio - I am determined to finish these off before I start something new - I wonder how long that resolution will last?  Watch this space!