Look! Look what I got!!

Some of you may know, I recently send a few small pieces of rose fabric to Karol Ann for use in her hexagon quilt. I also sent her a little Santa whom I had stitched. Just because she seemed to like him so much and well because I wanted to. I read her blog and sometimes it's like sitting down with a friend for a chat. So it was nice to do something nice for her.
She has repaid my little kindness threefold, look at the beautiful fabrics she sent to me. Some batiks and also some of her wonderful African Amafu fabrics, just look at these colours.

I was in such a hurry to share them that I didn't even bother to iron them. These photos are not the greatest either, the colours are so rich and vibrant, they look even better in real life. These are no mere scraps either, they are about fat eighth size and the batiks are quarters. Thank you Karol Ann, I love them and you. ((Hugs))

I have to say, I love Blogland, I have some very dark and low days, my crafts help me through those times and also the people I have 'met' here in blogland help a great deal too. There is so much kindness, generosity, compassion and understanding. I've found a wealth of knowledge, advice and inspiration. I'm proud to call such wonderful folks 'My Friends'.

Thank you all for being you.

Gratitude's

1) Wonderful People.

2) Generosity.

3) An unexpected day off work.

My stitchy corner.

When I'm doing my cross stitch or indeed any embroidery or stitchery I sit up in the study with Hunney. I have a great wee cabinet, which you can't see here! Cause I have it covered in clutter. When I got it, it was a wreck, filthy dirty and had asbestos on it! Hunney cleaned it all up, stripped off the old varnish and years of accumulated dirt and grime. It was then given a few coats of varnish and is beautiful, it's made of oak. It was on rather large wooden wheels, but we decided not to put those back on. I might like to put some feet of some sort on it, but I'm not sure what, so at the moment it remains footless.
It has little extra 'wings' which pull out at either side of the top, to create extra surfaces. There are three drawers and a small cupboard at the bottom.
That box down there on the floor is my foot stool. LOL My legs are too short to reach the floor when I sit in Grandads chair. That little Dresden quilt just stops any draft getting around my back.
As you can see I have a Lowrey work stand and a daylight lamp with a magnifier. I pop my chart onto a magnetic board on a book rest. I use a photo copy of the original chart and use a high lighter pen to mark my progress.
That little heater on the wall there is never switched on. We have a little portable heater which we use if I'm in there, but Hunney doesn't bother, he says he doesn't feel the cold.

As promised yesterday, I took a picture of my cross stitch progress.
Not as much as I would have liked, I ended up doing other things and getting a bit side tracked, but the Clematis has grown a little. Hopefully I'll get that flower finished today, we'll see.

Maybe I need to create myself a nice play list on the Big Puter again. I may add Yulia Townsend and perhaps some Hayley Westenra or Karen Matheson to my Enya play list, just for a bit of variety.
Gratitude's
1) Beautiful voices.
2) Another day off.
3) A morning kiss from Hunney.

Snow!

Look what I woke up to yesterday morning! This is not my picture. This one was taken in the south of the island where the snow lay on the lower areas as well as the tops.
I live up north and although I had my camera with me all day never actually got a chance to take a photo.
The snow was not so low down up north, but the tops certainly had a good covering.
Sometimes it amazes people how different the two ends of this island can be. We're known as the sunny north up here in Ramsey and typically we will have better weather that the south. I remember going out one day to visit with one of my sisters who lives in the south, here in Ramsey it was Beautiful, beaming sunshine and not a vesper of a breeze. 30 miles away in Port Erin there was quite a strong cold wind blowing, I had to borrow a cardigan from Kirsty cause I was cold.
I've known Hunney come home from work in Douglas, which is only 16 miles away and complain of a dull wet day, awful weather, but we in Ramsey had lovely sunshine. See, sometimes it pays to be up North.

I sat with Hunney in the study last night and did a little cross stitch, I think I'll be doing more today so I'll take a picture tomorrow.

Gratitude's
1) The snow is gone.
2) Two days off.
3) My beautiful Island home.

New Book!

As you may have realised my creative muse has been drawn to Cathedral Windows lately. So much so, that I went out and bought a book. It contains not only the usual delightful Cathedral Window quilts but also some very beautiful artistic interpretations. Lynne Edwards has played about with the basic shapes and come up with some wonderful variations. One of which you see here on the cover.
She has also show cased some wonderfully artistic wall hangings made by other contributors. There is lots to keep me inspired, though I think I'm better off just going with the basics for now. She did suggest starting with a simple pin cushion.

I have to say, I'm unimpressed with my first efforts! I will be practising a little more before I get stuck in to make a bed size quilt! Lynn like all good teachers does warn of this, and urges patience and practice.

I think I'll also have a bash at following this tutorial before I start on anything huge and decide which one works best for me.

I'm planning to use whites for my background folds and scraps of Batiks for the windows. I do have some fat quarters and two half yards of batiks and will include those, but really would prefer to use as many different batiks as possible. I may be scrounging and begging scraps from you kind folks if this goes according to plan.

Gratitude's
1) All your comments and advice on my butterflies.

2) I'm onto the final essay for my NVQ. Yippie!!

3) A book full of inspiration.

Mum I'm bored.

Can you tell?

I wanted to ask your opinion, with or without antennae? But DS got involved. If you click on the pictures you should get a larger image.

I finished the applique on these yesterday afternoon, but I'm really not sure about those antennae.

I'm hoping to get an hour or two upstairs this afternoon and get some cross stitch done. That's if Mr Bored finds something to occupy himself.

Gratitude's

1) My Hunney.

2) My Boys.

3) My girl.

ALL home for dinner last night.