Red work heart

I don't have a great deal to show since my last post. Working three days a week in the café at the Garden Centre leaves me feeling incredibly tired! This weekend Father Christmas arrived, accompanied by a marching band, which means the shop has been heaving with excited children clutching gifts from Santa and being given treats in the form of very sugary cakes and pop (which obviously adds to the hyperactivity of the young ones!)  Don't get me wrong I love Christmas, but (and I'm sorry there is a but) it's too early. What's wrong with starting Christmas in December?  Give it another week and I will be ready..... honest!

What this all means is I've had little energy for sewing and because I was working this Sunday I had no time for relaxing for Slow Sunday Stitching.  I am however working on a small red work heart from Dandelion Designs and the wonderful designer Mandy Shore.  This is the third one I've made and they make a lovely addition to my Christmas decorations.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I LOVE Sunday's, I always have, even as a child! I would cross the road to my best friends house and spend some time with her before returning home for lunch and then snuggle up on the sofa and watch an old film or musical. Fifty years on I'm lucky enough to still see my three best friends and today we are meeting up for lunch and knowing us it will be a noisy affair! But I also know what I will do when I get home......yes snuggle up on the sofa and watch an old film, the difference being from when I was a child is I will also be doing some hand sewing!

Over the last week or so I have been basting my Grandmothers Garden quilt and I finished doing that yesterday which means today I will have my first taste of hand quilting. I've thought a lot about the pattern I am going to use and I think I'm going to keep it simple and just quilt around the flowers and leaves, but who know by the time I get the hoop on I might have changed my mind!

I also finished my little Robin Wreath.  I loved making him, there is something really nice about working with felt.

I will link up with Kathy's blog for Slow Sunday Stitching so you can see what other people are stitching today!

Robin Wreath

I'm feeling a bit Christmassy today! So I thought I would post a photo of progress so far on my little Robin Wreath.  He's rather cute! I've a bit more work to do on him (must give him some eyes, poor little chap and make him a branch to sit on).  But I rather like him!

Have a good day.

Creative Embroidery

Dull November brings the blast,

Then the leaves are falling fast.

The above line comes from the poem The Months of the Year by Sara Coleridge and its the basis of the Creative Embroidery classes I will attend for the next year!

This piece was layered using wadding, purple fleece, organza and of course the different fabrics and textures for the leaves. It was then machine quilted randomly and then I cut away the organza on most of the leaves to leave a lovely puffy square of fabric that I will probably turn into a cushion.  Great fun!

Catch Up!

Wow, how fast is time galloping by? We're in November already! I seem to have little to show, although I have nearly finished my canvas work, which I hope to complete either this evening or if I get a chance to do some Slow Sunday Stitching, tomorrow!

I also got a chance to prep some felt for a Christmas Wreath.  Eventually there will be a little Robin to hang in the middle. I might even work on that tomorrow. Which ever I do I recommend you pop over to Kathy's Blog on Sunday to see what other people are inspired to sew at the moment!

I visited a quilt shop earlier this week and picked up some wadding, more fabric to piece a back and some Aurifil thread for my Grandmothers Garden hexi quilt. That means I now have all the components to start hand quilting. I just need to find time to piece the back, layer it up and of course baste it!  What I need is a week off to get started!

Here is a photo from Kingston Lacy in Dorset of the Japanese garden that I took earlier this week. Aren't those colours glorious!

Have a good day!