Oh and we had some more

Hope you're all well and have had a good Christmas. 

I thought you might like to see what greeted me when I left for work last Wednesday morning.

Mmmmm - it was snowing. Lots.

Some of you may have seen our village on the BBC 24 hour news or the BBC One O'Clock news. I did shout at the TV a bit as they kept saying it was the first snow we'd seen. But why let facts get in the way of a good story.

I did get to work - despite a bit of slipping - but then we all got sent home due to the continued heavy snow and worsening road conditions.

I'm very happy to say at long last the snow has now melted and we can all get out and about.

I hope you've all had a good Christmas. I had some great pressies - very nice books that I'll share with you soon.

I've also almost managed to get rid of my sticking cold - was a little rough but am feeling better as each day goes by.

Anyway - I'll leave you there now and hope to hear from you all soon.

It's back

 Well if you have a look at my last posting with the beautiful sunrise - you can see it looks a bit different today.  Yep - the snows back - and boy is it back.

I'm very bored of it now and would much prefer to be able to get out and about as normal. The trouble in the UK is because it's not cold enough we get rain that turns to ice and then we get snow - whereas in the Scandinavian countries it's so cold it just gets snow - with no rain to turn to ice.

The picture below is what my budlia looked like after the freezing fog lingered for a few days.

I've been lucky that all the items I ordered on line have arrived - and I've only got fresh stuff to get in for Christmas dinner now.

I do realise that we've been much more fortunate than many.

How are things with you all? 

Keep warm and hope to hear from you soon.

Brrrrrr.......

 Hello all,

Apologies for my tardiness at posting. No excuses - I'm rubbish.

 I thought I'd start by sharing a scene from my bedroom window this morning. Spotted by DH.

 And here's a cake I've baked this afternoon for Christmas. It's getting packed onto the freezer very quickly otherwise we'll end up eating it now. It's a pear and ginger one from the BC Good Food magazine.

And here are the 'yellow squares' that members from the Leamington Embroiderers' Guild have made. Mine is is second in from the right on the second row from the bottom. very simple - but I like it.

The variety and skill were great to see.

Anyway I left the weather until last. I'm sooooo bored of it now. It's become very slippery underfoot and I'm such a coward as I'm terrified of falling over. I have managed to get to work every day last week and do appreciate there are lots and lots of people much worse off than me - but I'm ready for it being cold and dry now.

Take care everyone and keep warm.

Class

Hello all,

I hope you're well and enjoying the beautiful autumn weather at the mo. Today it's a beautiful fresh sunny day. The leaves are spectacular.

The flowers don't seem to know what to do. Here's a photo of a poppy that's decided to flower.

I attended a Leamington Embroiderers' Guild lecture on Friday. It was really interesting. It was given by Jane Davies and her trip to south west China. She very generously shared all her purchases with the group and explained how traditional dress was reflected in modern dress. She gave a really good lecture.

So on Saturday there was a class run by the same group at the same venue. Unfortunately no one turned up to open the hall. Bit of a problem. But being a resourceful lot another hall was found nearby and we managed to run the class only starting an hour later than planned.

I've included photos and brief descriptions of the techniques below.

 This illustrates 3 techniques. The one on the left is wax crayon shavings that are then attached by using an iron and baking parchment.

The next one top right is again using a texture plate with water soluble crayons this time.

The bottom right is using the shavings obtained from using fine sandpaper and water soluble pencils. You can either use damp fabric or dampen the fabric and shavings.

You can combine these techniques with using stencils.

 So the first one above is using both a texture plate (From Hobbycraft) and soluble watercolour pencils. The different effects are achieved by the fabric being wet or dry before you start rubbing the texture plate

This is my favourite one. The fabric was sprayed with a number of Crafty Notions sprays and then, using the texture plate again (but only small specific parts, use Markel sticks and a metallic one to lift the design.

So in spite of a bit of a of a rocky start the class was very good. They were a very friendly group and I'm certainly looking forward to more classes.

See you all soon.

Hello all

So - here's what I've been up to. I'm not sure what it's going to be either - but hopefully after my class with Bren next month the pile of fabrics for a mystery quilt will indeed look more like a quilt. I'm about halfway through the cutting - there is rather alot.

And below is the tin for the class to. the idea is that we fill a tin and at the class we each take a tin - obviously not your own. I won't way that's in mine until they've been handed over.

I had a lovely evening on Thursday at my first Lutterworth Embroiderer's Guild meeting. A really friendly group of ladies. When I've finished what I've made I'll post a photo.

I hope you're all enjoying the sunshine - but don't forget the clocks go back tomorrow - oh - an extra hour in bed. Hmmmm

Last weeks crafting

Well - just to prove I did make something last week - here's the broach I made for a very special friend's birthday. I hope it arrived on time otherwise she'll see it here for the  first time. 

I really enjoyed making it - based on an article in this months Stitch magazine.

It was so nice to sit and stitch and finish something within a couple of hours. I'm really pleased with the finish - it's got a very tidy back with a nice broach pin.

What have you made recently?

Hello all

 So, I've been doing a bit of cooking. A Blackberry and Yogurt cake. I was really pleased I found a recipe I can use my frozen blackberries in. The fruit looked really pretty in the cake - and tasted good too.

 And then a bit of batch cooking. It's amazing how far a kilo of minced beef can go. So from the top:

Chilli

Cottage pie

Spag bol

All for the freezer.

 I had a very nice trip out to the Garden Barn. It has some great things for the garden - all very reasonably priced. And they have a great coffee shop with fantastic cake. Well worth a trip out.

 And finally this is the view from our church spire. DH and I walked up the narrow, steep, spiral staircase and got a great view. It was a shame it wasn't a little clearer - but we still had a great view.

I have been sewing - but can't show you the results until next week as it's a pressie for someone...

Take care and have a great week.

Guess where I've been?

 To the seaside on holiday - back to Southwold in Suffolk.

 Yay.

 And there was sunshine - well for 2 days anyway. We were very brave and went for a paddle - it was rather warm.

 So here's a photo of the sun reflecting on the sea. It was really good.

 Here's a view from the pier to our flat - just to the left of the lighthouse.

I may have had a glass of rose in my hand at this time LOL

Some cheeky seagulls.

I saw some great art too.

Some interesting mixed media art in the Buckingham Gallery.

And some very funny characters by Samantha Bryan. They make me smile soooo much.

So much fun.

I also managed to get out last night to the Leamington Spa Embroiderers Group meeting. A really friendly bunch of ladies. The thing I'm finding so appealing about embroidery is the variety of work produced.

The speaker was Kathleen Danswan - she gave a great talk on the influence Venice has had on her work. Her work was very interesting - but seeing her sketchbooks and hearing her speak about how the city had influenced her was fantastic. She was very generous and encouraged us all to come and have a look and feel of her work.

And finally - a huge thank you to you all for keeping with me as I blog - I promise I'll try and blog more often. Thanks for all the lovely kind words and messages - it's great to know you're all out there.

Take care and I'll be back very soon.

How exciting

Hello all.

I had a very nice e-mail yesterday telling me I was in October's British Patchwork & Quilting magazine as their featured blog of the month. And yes I'm there on page 68. A very nice surprise as I had no idea my little old blog would make a national publication.

So if any of you are looking at my blog for the first time please do leave a comment - I'd love to hear from you.

Baking

Hello all.

Hope you're well.

Aplologies for taking so long to blog. Thought I'd show you what I've been up to. Well one thing is baking. I treated myself to the new Nigella book, 'Kitchen' and I tried a new recipe - a Banana and Cherry cake. Hmmm nice. What do you think?

Have you cooked anything new recently?

FoQ

Thought I'd show you a piece made by Alicia Merrett who I took the class with at FoQ. I really love this one- it's so detailed.

I also fell in love with one of the student's work - Sheena Hughes. Here are some photos of her work

I loved looking at the mini studios. I just love looking at a sketchbook.

For those of you who were lucky enough to go - what did you like best?

See you soon.