what a blogging small world!

Back in November I was pleased to find out that I had won a fellow bloggers give away. 

The occasion was to celebrate the 50th post that Mags (from Mags Creative Meanderings) had made, and when getting in touch with her we realised that we actually lived reasonably close to each other so I suggested it might be nice to meet up. With the run up to Christmas and with me hurting my back, and then the snow, we only managed to get together this last weekend.

We decided to meet at Farfield Mill as the Mill is hosting a Quilt Festival from now until April 7th. (more about this in a later post as I forgot to use my camera) It was the first time Mags had visited the Mill, and with the quilt festival running it gave us a common interest - however as we went around the exhibits chatting away we slowly realised that we had a lot more in common. We had actually met before .... in fact we had worked together in the past when we were both much younger!

It was just so strange, we had not recognised each other and I guess had not been looking for connections at all - apart from our crafting interests, but once we realised we had a common past things just fell into place.  Also, I guess we had both changed a little over the years :-) and at that time Mags hadn't shortened her name, and I use my middle name on my blog.  So over a pot of tea - and huge piece of cake - we chatted away about people we had both known and generally bought each other up to date about of lives.

Mags thinks she may have a photo of us at her leaving do when she moved to a new job away from the area - that will be interesting if she can find it!

I would also like to thanks Mags for her very generous give away gifts - it was just like Christmas opening the package and I now have a beautiful shawl and loads of lovely goodies to play with.

On the crafting front - I have now made all my blocks (all 36) for the scrappy round the world quilt. The tutorial I have been using is here and I also picked up some good tips from here. I have been laying the blocks out and moving them around to get the scrappy look!

 I now need to sew all the blocks together. I have the backing and the wadding ready, so it it may actually be finished quite soon now.

I've also finished my screen printed Tea Towel experiment - it has been a good learning curve, and I will now be moving on and starting a new project.

While I still had the screen available I printed an elephant onto one of the dip dyed bags I made earlier. I rather like this, I may make a few more as the screen has not been cleaned yet!

and my Amaryllis is now flowering! Beautiful.

Scrappy Trip Along Quilt

...well, I thought I would join in and have a go at making this quilt. I have seen so many lovely scrappy trip quilts out there in blog land, all looking so very different and all using very different fabric. It looked fun to try and would be a bit different from my usual large squares.

I had a good look through my fabric and found that I had lots of green fabric of differing shades that would go with some yellows and orange and some brown. Quite a fresh spring like combination to help brighten up the drab days we have been having.

So I have been busy cutting out the strips...

...and have made 16 blocks so far, with a further 8 blocks that are at the stage of just having the strips sewn together. I'm quite enjoying seeing the random pattern that is emerging when I lay the blocks out. I think I am aiming for 36 blocks in total - but making the blocks is quite addictive so it could become a big quilt! It will take me a while to complete, but I'm in no rush.

I've also been working on my socks and am now just at the toe decreasing stage. For this pair I have used a very small circular needle, normally I use double ended needles. I have found the circular needle great for the long stretches from the cuff to the heel and on the foot - but I had to swap to the double end needles when turning the heel and I will change again for the toe. So the first foot is nearly finished!

I'm also so looking forward to my Amaryllis flowering - it's almost there!  The bulb was a gift last Christmas and it had two beautiful blooms last year. I've looked after it all year and have watched it shoot up again this year - hopefully tomorrow it will flower again.

I'm out tonight at my screen printing course - so looking forward to it.

Snow

Well, there was a covering of snow this morning when we woke up, but I think most will disappear as the day goes on. The ponies in the field behind the house didn't seem to be too impressed with the weather, but just see how they have grown from the spring when they were born and now have their winter coats.

I think more snow is forecast for next weekend, we seem to be in a cold spell at the moment - makes a lovely change from rain :)

Knitting and stitching in the gloom

The house is feeling a little empty again. M has gone back to University today and C went back last weekend. I drove down with C and spent a couple of days in Exeter, which was a nice little new year break. The weather, although mild, was so overcast and dull that the street lights were on most of the time!
I travelled back home on the train, which gave me time to start knitting a new pair of socks.

 I have also been experimenting making purses with clip frames. I've made quite a few now and it seems to be getting a little easier - and I don't seem to get as much glue everywhere trying to fix the frame to the material! I bought the frames and I've been using the tutorial from here - which is really clear. I made another for my friends birthday, but forgot to take a photo of it before giving it to her.

With the turquoise one, I hand printed the pattern onto a linen cotton mix fabric using a wooden printing block and then lined it with an Indian inspired fabric called Bollywood!

The weather really has been so dull, that all my photos are quite poor, but never mind, it keeps a record of what I have been up to.

Outside has been very gloomy, misty, grey and very wet. The little stream has overflowed and the field is so saturated that it is really boggy. We have to wash the dog down after every walk as he comes back so muddy.

I have decided that I will keep a record of this view from my kitchen window over the coming year, so I can mark the seasonal changes. I really love this view looking out onto the fell behind the house. I look forward to the leaves coming again on the trees, the bluebells, the bracken etc as the year goes on. In the past have just taken ad hoc photos - but now I will take monthly photos (plus any exceptional days) and keep a record for the year.

We have snow forecast for today and tomorrow - hoping you have a good weekend!

Happy New Year

We spent new years eve at home celebrating with friends. It was lovely, everyone bought food so we had a wonderful feast, mulled wine, champagne, lots of chat and lots of laughter - all bodes well for a good 2013!

Today has been spent quietly at home. I have been altering some clothes for M to take on holiday tomorrow and J took the dog for a long walk and then did a bit of dry stone walling - fixing the wall in the garden which had fallen. A lovely relaxing day.

Hope you have had a good day.