Well That's Shalott

I knuckled down over the past week and finished the Lady of Shalott quilt.  As you know I have a love hate relationship with this one mainly due to the poor quality of the fabric sent.  (The white line is a lightpull cord).

It has grown on me a little but I think I'm just about done with stipple quilting for a few years!  Finished size 40 inches. 

Evenings were taken up with two summer cardies for Olivia.  Honestly, knitting for a little one is quite addictive! This is a pale lilac cotton but it looks a bit washed out in the bad light.  The cloth it's on is bright white!!

And another cotton in eye watering pink.  Both a little large for her at the moment but they are for summer and she can always have long sleeves under them for next Autumn!

I've been having a few thoughts towards next years Art Weeks, yes already, you know how long textiles take! I think I have a few bit's brewing but need to have a rummage around first.

A couple of weeks ago I made some notebook covers for the GSP Rescue and sold them on our Facebook group page.  They all sold in an hour and made a nice little sum for the charity. The fabric is called Happy Pointers and it's by Print Me Pretty.

I have started another bead embroidered collar.  The focal in this one is Fern Agate.  Nice and easy to be working on while I think!

Can you believe we are still waiting for Natural England to sort our bat licence out even though it was promised on the 6th January at the latest after previous delays in November!  I'm sure Andy our builder has bitten all his nails away by now.  We're not even allowed to touch the building in any way without it!  February was the last expected date.  Well at least the weather will hopefully be getting better.

I hope you are staying warm and safe in the snowy weather.  We've yet to actually see any even though it has been quite bitter, I hope those are not famous last words! The dogs are ready for the cold in their fleece jumpers at any rate!

Have a great week!

A UFO Finish!

Finally, after a long time of dragging it out and putting it away again I have finished the hexi quilt. Of course now it's done I do actually like it.  It's a nice little size 42 x 35 inches, and all done by hand.  I tied the centres of the diamonds and quilted down the centre of the joining strips.  It shouldn't shift too much as it has a poly wadding that also gives the little hexagons a nice poof.

I finished the edges off with extra hexagons, in no particular order, turned to the back and stitched down.

The list is growing much shorter!

1) Olivia's knitting

2) Mystery No 4. Still waiting.

3) The Travellers Blanket 

4) My Tweets

5) Lady of Shalott

6) Aunt Sukey

On to the next thing.

Surgery on a penguin.

It was supposed to be a Tuffy but it lasted all of 5 minutes.

Have a great week.

Now What Do You Suppose...

Happy New Year!

One of my best, in fact probably the best, present I received for Christmas was these.

I had been looking for some kind of swivel turntable base for the compendium tower and was becoming quite frustrated.  Elsa and Mike were visiting and Mike wondered if some old bearings would work.  I thought they might but I had to wait a while.  They appeared just before Christmas and they are perfect!

I made the casing for them.

Inserted the bearing...

and after a lick of paint it works beautifully!  I bet there's not many compendiums out there who can boast of Gazelle tail rotor bearings in their bases! Recycling extreme!

I'm still gradually adding to the spaces and I made up a whole load of small pages for one section.

 Turned them into little books.

And they fit just about perfectly. 

I'm off to drool over my Christmas present to myself.

I hope you've all recovered from whatever celebrations you've had and are now settling back into reality!