Well I have had a lovely few days away, seeing Fran, Robbie and Dot - my three London based children, and Lise - one of my dearest friends who I lived next door to when I lived in Cobham: I always stay with her when I go up, and then I went onto Nottingham seeing my dear old Mum of course and my sister Helena and brother-in-law Dennis: so so good to catch up with everyone.
Lise and I went up to London and met with Dot (youngest daughter): we walked from Waterloo to Covent Garden on a glorious sunny Friday morning - the views of London from the bridge are great:
Here you can see The Shard, which I believe is now the tallest building in Europe.
And this is my beautiful Dot outside "Opening Ceremony" - the lovely shop in Covent garden which she manages. The shop is full of stunning clothes - it has a terrific atmosphere - full of surprises. Well worth a visit if you are in that area of London. I love Covent Garden - very buzzy!
On Friday evening Fran came down to Cobham and stayed the night - so we had a good catch-up. Her life is so hectic and full on- so it was just wonderful to have this time together albeit short.
Then on Saturday evening Robbie came down and he stayed over and then came up to Nottingham with me on the Sunday morning so he could spend a few hours with his "Granny". She was thrilled, such a lovely surprise for her.
Here he is with Granny and my sister Helena. My dear Mum appeared brighter than on my previous visit which was a huge relief - she is really looking much better. Fingers crossed she stays like this over the coming winter months. I am aiming for another visit before Christmas weather permitting, you never can tell.On route to Surrey I went to Butterfly Quilters and collected this lovely bright fun quilt which Carole had long-arm quilted for me: I then sewed on the binding whilst staying with Lise so that I could hand over on arrival in Nottingham:
This quilt is for Helena and Dennis's 3 year old grandson Warwick who adores Thomas the Tank Engine: I actually found it quite difficult to find Thomas fabric, but after an extensive search on the internet I found some: I then backed it with this gorgeous panel of Bob the Builder which I got at the FOQ - unknowingly this is also one of his favourite charaters, so I did well!:
They loved it as you can see! Just hope Warwick will like too.....!
So it was a good fun trip away catching up with those that are dear to me.
I am now home, and back into serious Christmas sewing: the weeks are passing by too quickly. And it always takes me a few days to reorientate, catch up on the washing, destroy the cobwebs etc.! But I am back into it all again now.
Today it is grey, cold and damp - so I will now go and fill the log basket and light the fire, then I will do some baking. Sounds good!
Having read the comments on my last post, I will put up some pictures of more of my antique samplers in due course - they are all so lovely and are an inspiration to many of us.
I hope you are all keeping well and busy - have a great weekend.
This is just a quick and easy fun xmas tree runner:
And I am still continuing with my cross-stitch xmas stockings, I am on number 8 - so doing well.
I met Christine from The Sea Garden in Portscatho near Truro - she writes a wonderful blog "A Mermaid's Tail" - she had the most gorgeous stall in the upstairs barn, It was difficult to take pictures as it was so so busy.
