Planning Ahead?

Is it planning ahead when you doodle on paper and think of new ideas. Or is it avoiding cleaning the loos? You tell me.

Anyway, whatever it was, I printed off some hexagon graph paper and grabbed the nearest colouring pencil and doodled. Over the Christmas holidays the sewing machine will go away and stay away for at least a week. Family and friends will be around. Piles of fabric placed willy nilly about the sewing dining room will not be happening.

With this in mind I thought it best that I start thinking about what sort of hand project I would like to start. As I am notoriously good at starting English paper piecing projects but not finishing them I thought it would be really nice to plan a huge epp project. A quilt size one. Silly not to.

Apologies for the fact that the nearest colouring pencil was gold.

I'm thinking an LV background and an undecided (but obviously strong) colour for the pattern. I am also thinking I favour a version of the pattern I've doodled on the right. Maybe there is a little more colouring time required while I tweak my idea. What do you think?

Meanwhile, my other constructive activity for today was to do a little bit of shopping. I have had to resist - out of the fact that I spent my money in London last weekend - most of the Black Friday sales. (Sob!) There are some good ones out there. But I did succumb to one, the 20% off of everything in the shop at Fluffy Sheep Quilting. Just use the code BlackSheep when you checkout. Cindy has the best Aurifil prices and with an additional 20% off I had to stock up. There may have been a number of other items that inadvertantly slipped into my basket while I was there. I've only got so much willpower after all. And they were really pretty fabrics!

Susan

Psychadelic Bird

Last night I sat and finished off my bird embroidery. When I first saw this pattern I wasn't sure that it appealed to me at all, but now with all the colours thrown in randomly (sort of the same way I quilt) I love it.

I used a smaller hoop to do the embroidery, and now need to go purchase a slightly larger hoop for finishing it off. Moving the small hoop around kind of bashed the hell out of my French knots but they still look okay(ish) if you don't look too close.

As said in an earlier post, I picked up this pattern at the FQ Retreat in the summer time. It did not come with a stitch guide so I just randomly chose stitches as I went along. I used French knots, backstitch, chain stitch, split stitch, stem stitch, lazy daisy, satin stitch and who knows what else. Mostly I used floss, but there are a couple of bits of Perle thrown in when I wanted a different colour. The majority of the time I used two strands, though I did do some single strand chain stitching, and all the French knots were single strand to keep them small.

I do find embroidery surprisingly relaxing and quick to do. I will have to have a poke around and see what else I can find in the way of patterns just hanging about waiting for me to pick them up.

Susan

Refocusing

One of the benefits of having a million and one projects on the go is you never have to do the same thing two days in a row. You do, eventually, have to start finishing things though. Today was the day that my bunny embroidery needed to be turned into something useful.

One cushion, done. I used white linen for the borders and the backing. Wanted to keep it simple as the bunny is the star of the show. I debated about closures as I didn't have any long zips left, and my supply of aqua blue ones would have been entirely inappropriate for this project. As I debated internally, my eyes fell upon the ribbon I bought for the lavender bags and I instantly knew it was perfect for this.

I was also pleased with how my mitred corners came out in the white linen. It just seemed the right thing to do as there was not going to be any heavy stitching to hide seams, etc. All I did was top stitch around the white piecing.

The hardest bit was getting half decent photos. Everywhere is too damp and nasty to put something this pretty down on it, or lean it against. The trampoline surface was the only available thing that didn't make me cringe. Then there was the sun, welcome most of the time, but the shadows it cast when it was out were phenomenal. Though it did make the embroidery glow.

Yet another project I wish was on the FAL list. Surely someone somewhere has thought of a way of fudging that list by now!

Susan

A Different Kind of Sewing?

I rediscovered my sewing machine today. It seems like ages since I sewed with it. Hand stitching has predominated around here. But I am determined to have my Christmas quilt finished in time for the holidays so I planted more trees at my Christmas Tree Farm.

And while I stitched I decicded on what I should do once all these triangles are together. Sashing? Borders? Or something completely different? You'll find out soon enough.

Susan

Starting To Feel Like Christmas To Me

It's starting to feel like Christmas not because there is only one month to go, but because I spent my weekend being carefree and fun, and filling myself with that Christmas feeling in London. I went down to the city for a couple of nights with my mum and we crammed in as much as we possibly could. We stayed out in the Docklands, a place neither of us had ever been but which is far more accessible than thought, and I would happily return.

Once we had checked in we hopped on the river bus to return to the city centre as it was a beautiful day and a great way to see London from a different perspective. From there we wandered about leisurely, checking out the Christmas decorations.

I particularly loved that Eros in Piccadilly Circus was turned into a snow globe. And preferred Oxford Street's glittering globes to Regent Street's more commercial lighting.

Then we inadvertantly stumbled upon Liberty's Christmas shop. How did that happen? Bliss!

Saturday morning we headed off to check out various department store windows. My favourites were Hamley's (left), Harrod's (middle), and Fortnum & Mason (left).

We squeezed in some good food, surprise surprise, and some nice coffee breaks too (though I am more of a hot chocolate girl). And we went to see Dirty Dancing. OMG! It's been a long time since I've seen a man move his hips like that! (Enough said!)

Fortnum & Mason get the prize for the oddest stocking stuffers.

Yes, if you look closely, scorpians are included in two of those.

But Fortnum & Mason also had the nicest of Christmas-y things too. I succumbed to the musical biscuit tin, because doesn't everyone need a Christmas tin that plays Christmas music?

All too soon I had to return home, but we did our best to fill every minute that we were there, and it really did get me in the proper holiday spirit. Hope you all had fabulous weekends too.

Susan