Still hooking....

 After my huge finish last week, I wasn't sure what would be happening next. And pulled out three different projects! In the end it was my own big blanket that I settled on. I have finally added a few extra inces to the bottom, straightened out the waves across the bottom only and added a three round border, to only three sides!

And here it is, on our bed again. It isn't that much bigger, but at least now it hangs a little farther off the bottom of the bed and will keep my feet warm.

Then, on Thursday I made a start on this wee pink treasure.

A colleague is going to have a baby girl soon, so I thought I'd make a little blanket to go on a car seat or a buggy as she will be born mid winter. 

That's all my news, now time to go and read what you have been up to.

A Huge Crochet Finish.

I'll have to find something else to keep me warm in the evenings as last night I finished my brothers BIG blanket. After a quick measure over our bed on Sunday, just to ensure it is long enough, I started to add setting triangles into the tops of the zigzags.

I finished those yesterday then set about adding a very simple and narrow border.

 Just before going to bed last night I rolled it up and left it to rest.

I'm in love with it, it is quite heavy and drapes beautifully. I know for a fact that it is very cosy, it even looks warm in those lovely natural tones. I want to keep on going with it.... 

The ladies in the store where I have been buying the wool have asked to see it, so it will get an outing today.

The question I ask myself now is, what next? I didn't finish our own blanket yet. I thought it was finished, and we have been using it on our bed, but I keep saying I need to make it bigger, add a border, do more..... LOL

You can see it way back here!

On the other hand, look what the postie brought yesterday.

A beautiful squishy package of Attic 24 colours.

This is Lucy's Cottage Colours collection. I'm very tempted to start using them today...

She uses these colours in one of her ripple blankets. I think however I'll be using them for a cosy stripe. 

But first, I have to be domestic. I didn't do a thing yesterday, so I had better make up for that today. 

A Month Off

It wasn't a conscious decision, but at some point my mind decided that I wasn't going to make block four of Down in the Garden this month. Instead I have been hooking away on the big blanket.

So not really a month off at all!

I spent all day yesterday curled up under it and plan to make some time for more of the same today.

But first I need to go buy some more yarn. 

An old one...

But I love it.

With ANZAC Day just around the corner, poppy sellers will be out in NZ today.

Time to show off this beauty again. I've always loved poppies and couldn't resist making this one last year. .

Claire and Debbie bought me a kit at a sale they attended. Love those girls.

Another busy Sunday.

Once again very little crafting took place in my house on Sunday.

As has become habit I started the day in the kitchen. I made chicken soup with left overs from Saturday evening. While that was bubbling away I also made two rather large fish pies. As I always work until 8 pm on a Friday evening, it is up to Tony to cook our Fishy Friday meal. While he makes a great pan fried fish and oven chips, I do like to vary things a little. He has tried out a couple of recipes successfully but didn't want to try my fish pie recipe. There are now two resting in the freezer awaiting their turn, all I have to do is defrost them, all he has to do is reheat them. Yum.

Once I was done there and the menfolks war games had come to a conclusion, we headed out into the garden. We had our first frost yesterday! It's very early this year. By the time we went out there things had warmed up beautifully and we set to work, clearing out four of the veg beds, the only thing left in one corner of one is some spring onions. I may have to pull and freeze them, I'll see how they go. In the long bed alongside the house the beans are still producing a good handful every day, the butternut squash has not done so well, with six ripe fruit and three still green on the vine, I've been researching what to do about that and was happy to find I could bring them indoors and ripen them in a sunny room. A job for this morning, or maybe tomorrow, perhaps next week we will finish clearing that bed out and mulch the garden for the winter months.

After lunch things slowed down a little. We went out to collect a book case I won in an online auction. I tucked it in under the kitchen bar and filled it with recipe books.

I had books in the kitchen, books in the hall cupboard and books in the big book case in the hall too. Now they are all together, and I have room for more! 

There was one more job to do before we sat down for a rest. I spread my latest crochet blanket out over our bed so that I could see how much progress I've made and get an idea of how much more yarn I might need. I think I'm about half way there.

Of course it grew a little after this picture was taken. I'll be off to the shop tomorrow for more yarn.

Of course with the end of this one on the horizon, I have been planning another crochet project, something not quite so huge.

I've been a reader of Lucy at Attic 24 for a while now and have recently spent quite a bit of time browsing her many patterns and tutorials. I'm fairly certain my next project will be one of hers, but there are so many to choose from and so many different colour combinations too. 

Decisions, decisions.

No progress has been made on Spring Queen or block 4 of Down in the Garden, maybe on my days off.

And there's more!

 Remember Sleepy?

I first introduced her to you back in August of 2014. I promised not to bore you with her as she is a large piece.  A few days later I showed the very first progress shot.  

Then I must have kept my promise as I have only about 18 progress images in my records here on the PC, but she wasn't completed until 25th January 2016.

On Wednesday, after hanging in the cupboard for three years, I finally mounted her onto an acid free canvas.

I added a trim of pretty flesh pink tape that looks sew much better in real life than it does here.

and now she is hanging on the wall in our hall way, in a position of Tonys choosing!

I was going for the bedroom, well, she is asleep, but Tony insisted on the hall.

So here is in, slumbering in her bower.

Flash photography, sorry it's rather overcast and dark today.

At 19 x 17 inches she is the largest piece I have ever cross stitched. Would I do it again?

Probably. Small pieces are fun and, as you know I've stitched plenty of them, but I love a challenge.

Speaking of larger projects, I have an hour before I have to think about getting ready for work, so I'm off to play with my latest stitchy challenge. Spring Queen here I come. She is progressing v.e.r.y. slowly.

Picture this.

No crafting took place on Sunday sadly. In the morning while Tony and my brother played war games on the play station, (They do this every weekend, one here and one on the Isle of Man) I was busy else where as usual. First I made a bacon and egg pie and then moved on to having a sort out in the big hall cupboard. There are boxes of pictures and photos in there and someone was bugging me and saying I needed to make some additions to the rogues gallery in my hall way. 

After much sorting I discovered and added four new pictures to the wall.

I came across some other treasures while I was in there, and some of them now have new homes.

 I cross stitched these two pieces a long time ago! I'm not certain of the date except to say pre 2000! I had done a pretty amateurish job of framing them back then, so before they went onto a wall, I opened them up and did a better job of it. They are now hanging in the WC.  

 Mr Fisher Mouse, like the previous two is not dated, but I do have a record of him on the PC in a file named pre 2004.  That sadly is the best I can do. He also needs some attention and will be reframed sometime soon. Meanwhile he is hanging in the hall. 

This next piece is dated. I stitched and signed it in 2004!

 However, I have no record of it anywhere on the PC, which is a surprise.

It was professionally framed and I remember gifting it to mum it hung in the corner of her lounge. Now it's in my hallway. 

I know that this next piece has popped up on  my blog more than once.

 I stitched it for Tony for Christmas 2013. It has been up on the wall in this house, but was taken down to make room for a quilt. Said quilt now has a new home and the black kitty cat is back where he should be outside Tony's cave. 

 Obviously this next piece was stitched in 1997. LOL  For my daughter Kay, who was born in 1988!

Why then do I have it?  It's not the only one, I have another piece I stitched for Kay here with me too!

I'll send them back to her one day. But for now, they are both hanging in my quilting room.

Along with a collection of Mothers day and birthday cards that I had stitched over the years and given to my Mum.

I found another one on Sunday, this piece is dated inside, it says Mothers Day 1997. 

And 1996. This one has been professionally framed.

Next up, another piece with no date. But there are two names!

 I have no record of this piece anywhere on the PC, not even in the pre 2004 file! So I'm really not sure how old it is. I do remember that my youngest sister wanted to stitch something for mum. 

I helped her find a pattern in one of my magazines and provided aida fabric and threads. I really don't recall how far she got before she ran out of steam, or maybe school work became more important, but eventually it came back to me, I finished it and signed both our names. 

Mum loved it and it hung in her homes for many years. 

This was another amateur framing job which I repaired it before adding it to the growing gallery in my quilting room.

And Finally another piece that has featured on this blog previously. I found these pretty poppies in an op shop and couldn't leave them there.

They didn't find a home on a wall yet. They have been professionally framed, but for some reason I can't figure, they do not hang nicely. I may take them to a framers and see what can be done, the frame itself is pretty beaten up and tired, so I may get it replaced. I wish I knew who had stitched them. Maybe there is something hidden inside the frame.

That's it!

The only cross stitch pieces left hiding in the big hall cupboard are the Christmas pieces.

They will all get a turn in December.

As you know however, there are several finished pieces waiting to be framed all hanging out in the cupboard in my sewing room. 

Their day will come.

I haven't yet decided what to do with myself over my two days off.

Maybe....

Start block 4 of Down in the Garden.

Do some cross stitch on M'Lady.

Quilt a quilt!

Take Claire out for her birthday lunch.

?????

I'll let you know soon.