Half way there

Well what a productive day!

After stitching quite a bit last night I managed to get loads and loads done on the coach - it made a very pleasant change not to have to drive - especially as the journey took the best part of two hours each way. I finally finished the last bits on the second border piece this evening

The rugby this afternoon was awesome! Both the under 14s and Sarah's team, the under 17s, played today.

Both their opposition teams from Cirencester were young inexperienced teams but they put up a credible fight. However as is often the case there's no match for experience and Taunton were hugely victorious in both games.

The under 14s won 75 - 15 and the under 17s won 73 - 7 with 11 tries and 9 conversions. Sarah put a whopping 33 points on the board with three tries at 5 points each and NINE conversions at 2 points each.

They all played well with some superb handling and passing but Sarah surpassed herself and was delighted to be back on kicking form.

This photo shows her passing out the ball from the scrum to the winger (No 14) who also scored four tries in total

And this one shows one of Sarah's conversions.

Finally here's Jack - the son of the team coach - their unofficial mascot - complete with the Taunton colours quilt I made him when he was born in October - wonderful to see it getting plenty of use. He was so impressed he slept through most of the match and both coach journeys. Just the sort of baby you need :o)

And most wonderfully when we got back home after 6pm we came in to find that my lovely lovely husband had roasted a chicken complete with roasted root veg, jacket potatoes, sage and onion stuffing and garden peas - what more could any woman want - I've truly found a treasure :o)

One done, three to go!

Well I stitched away like a little demon for every spare moment I had yesterday finally putting the last stitch into my first applique border about 15 minutes past midnight. Here we are - the first of the four borders completed and ready to stitch onto the centre. Sorry the photos are a bit smeary - not sure why - probably due to the tiredness of the photographer and the lateness of the hour!

Today will not necessarily give me as much opportunity to stitch as it is twelfth night - the day by which traditionally all Christmas decorations should be taken down here in the UK. Usually I take ours down as soon as possible after New Year, but this year I was somewhat distracted by the construction of a scrappy quilt so I left it. However now I can't leave it any longer so down will come everything today.

This morning Nick should have had a football match against the main competition in his league but the pitches are all completely waterlogged so it's been postponed. We've had a lot of rain over the past month or so and everywhere is very soggy and it's raining very heavily again this morning. The weather men tell us we're due quite a lot more this coming week with dangerous gale force winds around Wednesday so it seems like a good time to batten down the hatches and stay indoors and stitch - what a good thing the house is full of fabric :o)

No such luck tomorrow - Sarah has a rugby match in Cirencester, not that far from Siobhan these days, and the club have provided coach travel as it is a good 170-180 mile round trip. They estimate 2.5 hours each way - I don't think it should take that long as a lot of the journey is motorway but I shall take some hand applique to do on the coach - well never one to waste time just sitting! Mental note: must get that all prepared today so I can just stitch and stitch away as we travel. Hopefully the weather won't be too vile as the club we're visiting is pretty exposed on the top of a hill and we could get rather damp on the sidelines and not have the benefit of a hot shower afterwards like the players.

Right off I go - I do have a tree to take down you know :o)

Let the applique begin!

Well I've made a start on my outer dark borders.

Yesterday morning before work I cut out the four long strips and made lots of bias tubing in a pale green fabric - I did think about doing the tubing in all random greens but decided that it would look just too contrived so plumped for the same fabric for the bias and then I'll do the rest of the applique scrappy.

Last night life just kept getting in the way of the stitching!

DD1 has started her first paid job working at the local swimming pool as a Swim Assistant helping in the water with all the little learners. She did 5 til 6.30 yesterday so needed the services of 'Mum's Taxis'. Also before she headed off for work I had to help her fill in all her accompanying forms.

Then once she'd returned from work and we'd had tea, DH and I headed off to the supermarket - why do my children perpetually insist on emptying the food cupboards? What do they think it's there for - to eat!!!

Of course Nigel and I always go on the most romantic outings - an evening run to the supermarket - we might not have much money but we do see life :o)

So as a result of all this I didn't actually start to stitch until around 9pm and managed one long vine, a flower and two leaves which echo the heart shape again.

Hopefully tonight I'll get a good deal more done!

Wooohooo - onto the borders!

Just a quickie before bedtime........

Here it is - the centre completed and the first border round!

I decided this morning, instead of stitching the sashings to the first row of three as planned, that I would cut out all the sashings and cornerstones I needed. I really don't particularly like cutting out especially lots of fiddly individual bits so I had to steel myself to do this and got them all done just in time to go to work - funny that eh?

However it paid off as I've merrily stitched away during the late afternoon and evening in between feeding the brood etc and here we are.

Now it needs the wider 4" dark borders - I've selected the four very different red/brown fabrics but not cut them out yet and the major progress stumbling block will be persuading DH to get my light/bright green box from the loft as I want to stitch pale green bias tube stems along them before adding them to the quilt centre - maybe I can con DD1 into a foray into the loft in the morning for me - we'll see.

I then plan to stitch pale leaves and flowers along the length of each vine so I shan't complete the next stage quite so quickly :o)

Each final corner will then have a light 4" square with a random dark heart to match those in the centre and we'll be done ready to sandwich - the really fun bit :o(

Back to work tomorrow!

The two youngest and I return to school tomorrow - this marks the start of the hardest term of the year - winter but without the excitement of Christmas. For me it will also be another very steep learning curve as the new budgets for the next financial year will be put in place for April and with my Area Finance Officer's help this will be a totally new experience for me - I've never done anything quite like this before. However once they are set at least the next financial year will be less of a fog for me as I will know which pot things are to be paid from and when - no more muddling through treacle at least.

Sarah has another two days off for teacher training so returns on Friday - a very odd day to start back but she has quite a bit of coursework to get through first - that will keep her busy.

I've been in 'This is my last full day of stitching for a while' mode today and have stitched all of the other 18 blocks for my hearts and stars scrappy quilt. Here they are all laid out on the carpet with the completed half.

Next bit is all the sashing which is my least favourite especially as none of them are cut out yet but I'm going to set myself the task of sashing and joining at least one downward row of three blocks a day before I go to work - at least that way I will get them done over the next week or so and if I decide to do a little bit more each time then I'll get it done all the quicker in readiness for the borders.

I've decided to quilt it by close stippling the light areas leaving the dark star points, hearts and dark sashings standing proud. This will be great until I come to the borders as I can't really leave the 4" dark outer border unquilted, it will make the whole quilt totally unbalanced.

So I think I'll do free hand feathers along the 2" inner borders and close stipple round them and maybe applique scrappy floral vines along the dark outer borders and close stipple around them leaving them standing up and puffy

Mind you I do still have all that sashing to do first - running before I've even really got off the starting blocks here.

Right off to get some shut eye before work tomorrow.

Lots more stars and hearts progress

What a party - the knees, hips and back bear witness to the exuberant dancing and my age! DD1 danced the night away lots more than me and even managed to get her boyfriend up to dance with her - I'm not sure he knew what had hit him, as he's never seen her in a party situation before and boy can she ever dance but he was round again this evening so it's not put him off!

Sarah woke us this morning just before 11am (well we didn't get to bed until almost 2am) with a cup of tea and once breakfasted we decided to pop into town to feed DH's habit. Apart from loving vintage preserved railways he's a real glutton for old buses, lorries and cars. The cattle market in town was to be the starting point for a vintage vehicle rally - apparently it starts from here each New Year's Day but we knew nothing about it last year. So we took him to feed his own particular addiction :o)

Here are a handful of the beautiful vehicles on show so he's had his fix for a wee while. Believe me there were other colours than green!

The rest of the day was a general veg for all of us in the house watching the tv and stitching for me.

From this photo you can see I've been speeding along at a fair lick! This is now the top half of the quilt centre - woohooo! I've surprised myself at how much I'm enjoying this. Once I've completed the centre I shall put on a 2" border in random lights with dark cornerstones followed by a 4" outer border in random darks with light cornerstones complete with a heart in each corner and a light binding. I'm a great lover of square quilts the way the amish made them so they could be turned round and get equal wear on each side.

Finally we got round to our Christmas pudding after our dinner tonight - in true Christmas fashion Nigel drowned it in brandy and set light to it - I've never managed to capture this on film before - the kids love him to do this even though only he and I actually like the pudding. The two younger ones will down copious bowls of the accompanying white sauce and Sarah usually bows out with ice cream instead.

All the more for those who like it!!!

A good walk and a new project

After stitching that red and white star block with the heart in the centre it set my creative juices flowing and as I have a heap of all different fabrics cluttering up my sewing area from all the different things I've been stitching lately I thought I'd go for it and do a scrappy quilt using this block design.

Here is the initial block complete with hand appliqued heart - one down, 35 more to go! However I did make a start on the gross of geese blocks I will need and as of last night I'd stitched all 144 in completely random fabrics - lots of the muddy country style that I'd got out for my ongoing ostrich, but mixed in there are some red and whites, some Christmassy ones and also the odd bit of blue and white and pink, grey and purple from the two quillows - a real scrappy mix

It was a bit difficult at first not to plan what went next to what but I gritted my teeth and ploughed on - in fact occasionally if two neighbours were too similar I actually substituted one of them.

Yesterday we spent the day with friends - the first family we made friends with here in Taunton. Nikki is a great friend and thinks alike to me on so many things - the only difference being she's not a quilter but I may work on that in the future, her husband Alan is a quiet soul when you first meet him and is naturally reticent but like Nigel has a wicked sense of humour once you get past the reserved initial impression. Their two boys are the same age as Nick and a year younger than Louise and the whole family love to walk and camp like we do so we designated yesterday as our Christmas get-together day and whereas last year they invited us to theirs for lunch after a walk in the country we returned the favour this year.

Because they are both Taunton born and bred they know the area all around very well and have introduced us to lots of lovely walks in the vicinity.

Yesterday's was no exception - a walk round a couple of lakes in the Blackdown Hills to the south of the town. Tucked away with very sparse signage we'd never have found them on our own. The weather wasn't perfect but luckily kept dry until the final dash back to the car park.

Back home I'd had some mulled wine simmering away in the slow cooker so that made a welcome reception on our return.

A lunch of chicken casserole, jacket potatoes, roasted root veg which were absolutely scrummy and cauli and peas was a real warmer. This we followed with Eton Mess which is an inelegant but delicious mix of whipped cream, crumbled meringue and raspberries and an afternoon of lots of laughter, impromptu quizzes, the odd glass of something alcoholic and liberal quantities of chocolates made up for the low key days we had over Christmas itself.

Yesterday evening after their departure saw me back at the sewing machine putting together a few more of the blocks - what fun!

Tonight we shall spend the evening with this same family at a party held by the parents of another of Nick's friends. They hire a small local hall which is usually used for a youth club, bring in a disco and invite all their family and friends from nought to ninety odd years. Each family puts in a nominal sum of £10 to cover the hall and the disco and then everyone takes their own food and drink. Kids are all included so the problem of babysitters doesn't arise and everyone has a brilliant time at minimal expense to see the New Year in amongst friends in a party atmosphere akin to a family wedding or similar within walking distance of home.

Maybe this afternoon before we head off up there I'll get a few more blocks put together.

However let me take this opportunity to wish all of you a happy, prosperous, healthy and most of all peace-filled 2007.

See you all next year!

Leukaemia Blocks all done

Here are the rest of the blocks I've made to send to Clare for her Leukaemia quilts.
This makes nine in total and that'll be it for now because I'm bored of red and white - time to have a play with something different.

I quite fancy a totally scrap quilt - apart from my first bullseye I've never actually done one and the concept of just picking up and stitching the next piece in the pile regardless of colour or pattern is quite alien to me so it will be a bit of a challenge.

I've never been a great fan of piecing - struggle with triangles big time - but the flying geese that I've done for bits and pieces lately have been less tricky as I have a set of clever rulers to make them with so I think I might go for a star quilt using the block you see above on the RH side of the centre row with the heart in the middle of the star and go for totally in scraps just using darks and lights as the differential.

I shall make the points (the backgrounds of the geese bits) in the dark and the hearts in dark too with light backgrounds and then dark sashing with light cornerstones. Probably a 6" or 8" block with 1" or 2" sashings.

Mind you don't hold your breath I may well get bored before I've done enough geese to give it sufficient variety - we'll see!

As for Emergency Ward 10 in the Bebbs household, we're all improving, some quicker than others. The doc decided that Sarah was the victim of a very nasty tummy bug and thankfully nothing worse like say her appendix so that's a blessing but she's only returning to normal very slowly and feeling pretty washed out which is not surprising as she's had little of real sustinence for several days now. Still we are all on the mend which is the main thing.

Looking forward to the New Year now!

Blocks for Leukaemia

Well here's a little bit of stitching I've been doing over the last couple of days in and amongst watching some of the Christmas tv and generally chilling out.

Clare in the Dordogne (well she is usually, if not strictly at present as she's Christmassing back in the UK) has asked for red and white 8.5" blocks for her leukaemia quilts

Here are four that I've put together and will post them off to her in the next few days - who knows they might even get the odd mate or two to join them.

We've had a very mixed up unusual Christmas as a nasty tummy bug has been rampaging through the family over the past week to ten days.

Nick started it the weekend we went to my brother's by vomitting all over their downstairs loo floor - lino thank goodness!

Then Lou had a session on the Thursday evening before Christmas.

Fortunately both of these happened late evening and the respective child went straight to bed with the appropriate bucket and seemed to sleep off the ill-effects and woke up the next morning tired but relatively unscathed

Unfortunately for her Sarah got off a lot less lightly and started in the early hours of Christmas Eve morning - she still isn't right now and I shall take her to the GP later this afternoon as I feel four solid days is a bit too long for just a simple d&v bug.

Nigel was also pretty grotty but thankfully no explosions from the upper end - he's big enough and ugly enough to deal with the other end thank goodness but he has returned to work this morning still feeling pretty grotty if a little better - having felt like he'd been run over by a steam engine that is.

I also had a day like I'd been acting as Muhammed Ali's punchbag on Thursday so all in all most of us felt pretty much unlike any of the Christmas fare that's been on offer. In fact we were still deciding as we prepared for bed on Christmas Eve whether to cook the Christmas lunch the next day or save it for Boxing Day. Christmas Day won by a very short head.

Of course this year I just happened to buy the largest turkey we've ever had - in error I might add! and of course catered for the 5000 as usual so we have loads of leftovers loitering in the fridge. We've not bothered to touch the Christmas Cake, mince pies, sausage rolls etc and I didn't even bother to warm up the Christmas pudding after Christmas lunch - it's still in the packet. We shall save it and enjoy it when we all feel 100% again - probably on New Year's day when Nigel has another bank holiday off work.

The two younger kids have made inroads into the chocolates around the place but the three older members of the family really don't have much heart for them.

Still despite the lurgy we had a quiet but pleasant Christmas day trying out Lou's new scrabble game and watching the offerings on the tv - and to be honest because no-one's been 100% it's probably a good job we weren't planning any visitors or house guests.

Hopefully the doc will sort Sarah out over the next day or so and we can then look forward to the New Year's celebrations with a little more relish.

Compliments of the Season

I'm taking the opportunity of that haitus of time between setting the turkey off and opening the presents and then continuing with cooking the lunch to wish all my fellow bloggers out there and very Merry Christmas and a pieceful 2007

I participated in a made and a purchased Secret Santa with an online group I belong to and as always it was a delight to open my surprises this morning

The purchased present was a lovely set of fridge magnets in a pretty little tin which are way too nice to slum it with the kids ones on the fridge in the kitchen so I've commandeered DH1's redundant metal notice board which I shall persuade DH to put on the wall next to my sewing area so I can enjoy and use them on there - they came with a sweet little emery board with a quilting design on it - just the thing for getting rid of those snags on your nails that catch on all that lovely fabric when you're playing :o)

The made present was a set of 6 placemats in a lovely line of fabric which will go with my dining room - a real treat

Thank you to both my secret santas - have a lovely day everyone!

Christmas Preparations

Preparations are almost complete for Christmas - presents wrapped, shopping completed, tree up courtesy of the kids mainly, which only leaves the turkey to stuff and the veg to prepare today.

This tends to be a whole family affair now the children are a little older with sprout peeling, carrot chopping and yards of bacon being wrapped round the lovely farm shop sausages all around the table together. Christmas carols or Handel's Messiah in the background and a little glass of sherry at the elbow (this last one only for the adults you understand!) - what could be more festive?

We will have a quiet close family day as we're way too far out geographically for the rest of the family to travel to in the short window of holiday they have from work. But it actually suits us like that - it's very relaxing, the kids are free to play with their presents all day if they wish and there's little pressure as far as the cooking goes as it's just another roast dinner for the cook albeit with a few more trimmings but no pressure to feed the five thousand.

On a stitching note - this is the rear of the cushion front with the feathers I showed you the other day. Up to now, while I admire the beauty of the handiwork on wholecloth quilts, I could never quite understand the fascination. However having done this cushion front and then looked at the back of it I can quite imagine why someone would enjoy making a bed sized version - probably not me though :o)

The little tree in the turquoise and sand you see here (if you can get past the blinding flash in the mirror - with Sarah on the stepladder behind me fastening something to the light fitting) is one I made for last Christmas to match the colour scheme in my (then) new lounge. That's one of the nicest things about decorating the house for Christmas - bringing those boxes down from the loft and reacquainting yourself with all those friends, old and new. While the children were putting all the decorations on the tree there were repeated cries of 'Look Mum I've found the ...........' or 'I remember this .........'

All part of the special Christmas preparations.

And finally here's my newest Christmas baby - first of all I must apologise profusely for not acknowledging the source of the original idea. I spotted the cross stitch design earlier in the year on someone's blog and saved the photo for future reference but naughtily omitted to record the source - if it was from your blog I apologise. I loved the cross-stitch design for it's simplicity but changed the little white doves beneath the tree on the original design for our traditional British Christmas bird, the good old Robin Redbreast. I then surrounded the aida panel with some random plaids and added bigger buttons in the corners to echo the salvaged tiny shirt collar buttons I've used for the tree decorations. It will be just as delightful to uncover this one next year when we get those boxes down again.

But hey I must go - there's a turkey to stuff!

A foggy old day

Today was a foggy dank dark dismal day - the sort of day that turns cobwebs into crystal necklaces strung amongst the bushes as if by magic. The sort of day that once you've walked the children to school and back makes you wonder why you bothered to wash and blow dry your hair - especially if it's prone to crinkling like mine. The fog didn't lift at all today and it was quite chilly, becoming even more so this evening as you can see from the ice that's accumulated on the car aerial on the short round trip to the supermarket for the heavy non-perishable Christmas foodstuffs - the fruit and veg will mean another visit at the weekend :o(

Today was also the last day of term for both the kids and I which this year feels a little close to the wire although I do believe some counties aren't breaking for Christmas until Friday - now that is leaving things a bit late.

The cold dampness today also came as quite a shock for a lot of the garden plants - I have an early spring clematis in full bloom - it's about to get a rude awakening I think

This morning before I went to work at 10.30 the stitching bug still had a serious hold on me and having virtually finished all the Christmas sewing I decided that, having been in the house over 15 months, it was time I made some cushion covers for my lounge to match the aqua, sand and cream decor rather than the scruffy ancient red and dark green ones that matched the old house.

I've never been a great fan of piecing, always preferring applique but I've really enjoyed the flying geese I've made in certain Christmas presents so set to and stitched my first cushion front. And that was all before heading off to work.

When we returned this evening I decided I'd quite like some texture so merrily sandwiched it and stitched away thoughout the evening between more boring tasks like fixing tea and a romantic trip for two without the kids with DH to, of all places, the supermarket!!!

I've never tried a feather design before or for that matter any micro-stippling but I just decided to leave the coloured sections unquilted and puffy and to stitch away on the cream areas. The feather was totally freehand and isn't totally even but I'm delighted with the result and with a quick back and some fasteners it will be able to replace the first of those tatty red and green numbers.

Christmas is creeping in

Yesterday was my day off but also the Secret Santa lunch at work so it was a very nice feeling to drag myself away from the stitching and the housework and go into work without having to actually do any work for the buffet lunch and pressie exchange

This little chap was my secret santa present - he's a little wooden carved santa sitting on a painted tin box - and best of all when you take off the lid he's filled with Green and Black's organic chocolate - Heaven!!!

The stitching took the form of using up some orphan flying geese from my brother's table runner. My dearest friend from Taunton has just inherited her mum's dining table and sideboard and I thought a short runner would look just great on the sideboard.

As it is only 4 blocks long I decided to quilt it in the pattern rather than allover holly leaves and so I've left it with the green star points and the red border standing up puffy - I will get it bound tonight and give it to her at end of school tomorrow when all the children break up for Christmas

"It'll be ready by Christmas.................."

he said...................

"I'm just not saying which Christmas!!!"

Well two more false starts for completing the conservatory this week.

The guys turned up on Tuesday with the end roof window panes

For technical reasons that I won't even begin to bore you with the glass panel has to have a join in it, however the pieces they brought with them had the join in the middle of the length rather than to one end to match the adjoining panes. Oooops!

So we refused to accept this - not to surveyors initial drawings. The fact that the plasterer was hot on their heels ready to start finishing the internal walls was a bit of a sickener.

After much discussion we agreed with the firm that the fitters could complete as much as possible and the plasterer could crack on with the walls on the understanding that, when the roof panels were finally replaced with the correct ones, if the plastering got wet the company would pay for its replacement.

Ok - all fine and dandy - the plasterer worked like a demon for Tuesday and right up to 8.15pm on the Wednesday and completed the walls.

Saturday morning, a beautiful thankfully DRY sunny morning, was then scheduled for the fitters to come and replace the glass and fit skirtings etc for the final fix

Simple! ............. wouldn't you think???

Nope, sadly on this job nothing has been that straightforward!

New glass fitted - join still doesn't line up with it's neighbouring pieces of glass - unhappy customer - totally cheesed off fitters - no answer from the company - it's Saturday of course!!!!!

So here we are again still waiting for the roof glass to be completed, it will probably be in the New Year now - hence the comment about which Christmas.

However, in a bid to try and advance the job in another direction, Nigel decided after they'd left that he would put some paint on the plaster to seal it and the first coat is complete. Another coat of paint needed, the electric sockets and light switches to be connected up and two radiators fitted will complete the interior

I was toying with the idea of painting it the same pale aqua as the adjoining dining room but as he's painted it white first of all to cover the plaster I actually quite like it white - it blends in with all that uPVC - it'll probably stay white I think - after all once we've put the allocated furniture in there you won't see much of the walls anyway.

We've had a whistlestop weekend including a 500 mile round trip to Yorkshire to play Santa

Nick had football on Saturday morning and then a friend's birthday party in the afternoon. So, as Sarah's county match for the Sunday had been postponed, we took advantage of a relatively free weekend and set off for my parents at about 5.40pm

Luckily we had a speedy uneventful journey which took three and a half hours with one loo stop.

Initially we dropped into my parents' house for a drink and to collect my brother's spare house key as they were in Sheffield at a concert so we were to let ourselves in.

Late night for all of us once we'd caught up on the news with them too.

Next morning saw a beautiful sunny crisp start to the day, so we made the effort to walk down to the village pond and feed the ducks - sadly I didn't have the camera to hand. Tickhill (the village my brother and his pregnant wife live in) is one of loveliest and most desirable in the area and it was a pleasant interlude in an otherwise 90 miles an hour trip.

Then quickly back to my parents to hand over their presents and have a snack before heading back off down the road at about 12.45 pm in a bid to avoid the usual late Sunday afternoon/evening exodus that plagues English motorways.

I think we must have timed it just right as with three loo stops this time we made it back in almost exactly 4 hours with the only aggravation being the low winter sun in our eyes.

We have now said though that it's a trip we won't be repeating except in an emergency - just too far and too tiring for such a short stopover even with two drivers to share the load.

However it was great to see two thirds of my close family and reassure myself that my dad is well on the way to recovery - he was doing lots of his usual grumbling so he must be getting better :o)

After that trip last night and an easy tea of chicken casserole (previously taken from the freezer and left to defrost in the fridge) jacket potatoes and frozen veg all I wanted to do was something a bit brainless.

Stitching, in one form or another, always fits the bill and here is the result

I spotted a similar design a few years ago for an advent calendar with numbered squares all round the outside so adapted the idea for a Christmas wallhanging to try and capture the real meaning of Christmas.

It's been sitting on the back burner for easily three or four years and I only unearthed it a few weeks ago from a box of ufo's hiding in the loft.

So once the hand applique of the buildings and the star was complete I decided to do some 'Tonya' style hand quilting for the lettering which says 'Oh little town of Bethlehem how still we see thee lie' taking the first verse from that lovely Christmas carol. Then I added a couple of little music notes at the start and finish and machine quilted the rest very simply completing the picture with a cream and gold starry binding.

Done and in time for this Christmas .......... unlike the blessed conservatory!!!

Christmas Stitching done in the nick of time

All done and dusted - well the ones to be transported up country that is anyway.

I put the last stitches in at about 9.15 this evening and then got them all wrapped up.

Here are the two quillows both opened out and in cushion format - hope they like them :o)

Louise said as I was converting the purple one into the cushion 'Mmmm I like that, can i have one?'

My retort was 'Yes, but not this side of Christmas!!!'

Tim's Quillow Top ready for sandwiching

A bit more progress on the Christmas gift front.

I bound the table runner this morning at our final quilt meeting before the Christmas break and then we all had a lovely ham salad lunch together where we meet. Not particularly Christmassy fare but actually rather refreshing for all that. One of the ladies lives near a wonderful old fashioned butcher who does fabulous cooked meats - that's where the ham came from and it was the nicest ham I've ever tasted without exception, simply melted in your mouth - yummeeeee!!!

Once I returned this afternoon, in between ferrying kids to and fro I've got the borders onto the quilt part of my nephew Tim's quillow. You can see the fabric design a little more clearly in the close up photo. The sailors are possibly a little bit young for him but I like the overall effect of the crisp navy and white design - very masculine.

Now to sandwich and quilt but that will have to wait for tomorrow as I'm out tonight on a get-together of the secretaries of most of the local primary schools. A nice meal out in a renowned pub south of Taunton. I have volunteered to drive as I seldom drink. Any suggestion for a collective name for a group of school secretaries?

Tomorrow I have a day off in lieu of a previous governor's meeting - Nigel will also be home as (I'm saying this with everything crossed and holding my breath) the conservatory fitters are due back to put in the correct roof panels and then the plasterer should be able to finish off the walls. On recent performance I'll believe it when I see it :o)

How to 'Holly' for Fiona and anyone else who might be curious

Fiona asked about the free motion holly leaves on the table runner in my last post.

I vaguely remember from my own school days in the dim and distant past (Jacob Marley speaking here folks) a teacher showing me how to draw lifelike holly leaves.

You start off with a curved line for the spine of the leaf and then draw a series of curves along each of the two sides to make the points. Don't worry about having the same number of points on each side, apparently holly leaves are seldom symmetrical and of course having the initial 'spine line' curved gives the leaf much more fluidity.

Well the holly leaf free motion stitching is exactly the same principle - if you look at the diagram you start at the bottom in the red and stitch a curved line in the rough area you wish to fill with your leaf - then once you've reached the far end of the leaf change direction (the line turns to blue) and stitch a series of curves back to the start of your leaf. Once you've joined up with your spine at the start of your leaf change direction again (this time into green on the diagram) and work the corresponding set of curves to join up at the end of the leaf (matching up with where the red turned to blue).

That's your leaf completed - now all you need to do is continue with another curved line for the next spine and repeat the process. The leaves all continue along from each other in a little garland really, so just keep stitching and filling those spaces with leaves as large or small as you like til your area is full.

So go on then - deck the halls with boughs of holly girls!!!

Oh Pooh!!! Eeyore for the high jump :o(

Well I've definitely been a busy little bunny - stitching my fingers to the bone.

My niece's quilt is bordered, sandwiched and quilted. However as is often the case with best laid plans the microfibre cloth for the backing was less than successful. Too stretchy and way too heavy. Had it been light weight and stretchy I could have coped but the weight of all that fabric just pulled every which way but loose and so I gave up very rapidly having to spend part of Friday evening unpicking - yeeuuuuchhhh!!!

Saturday was pretty busy with shopping and football so most of the work had to be done today.

Never mind I reverted to the good old wadding and backing fabric and ploughed on with the quilting today in a very large meander.

Whilst on the quilting run I sandwiched and then quilted my brother and sister-in-law's table runner in 'bottom line' thread all over with holly leaves. Had I had more time I might have done something that fitted more with the actual piecing but I don't think they'll mind and the leaves are seasonal.

So then onto the quilt for my nephew - something blue my sister said - I have half the world's supply of blue fabric in my stash - how difficult could that be I asked myself - but no, virtually everything I touched had flowers on it - definitely not right for a 16 yr old boy.

So I settled for some crisp navy and white fabrics which have little sailors and anchors - a bit young but definitely better than flowers.

You can see the blues in the right hand star block.

I'm afraid there was one casualty today - the reality of how quickly I have to get these things finished finally hit me this afternoon and Eeyore was the casualty - even as quickly as I can hand applique there's no way on this little earth that I could get him done and everything finished for Friday. So I took the chicken's way out and plumped for a star to match her brothers in Eeyoreish colours like the quilt.

Never mind maybe I'll get round to doing a proper Eeyore cushion (minus the quillow bit) for her for next Christmas.