My sewing room feels a bit like the calm at the centre of a storm as we are being battered by the second storm within a matter of days. I’ve just been out and done the quickest prune ever of my two standard roses as they were in danger of breaking off the trunks! There’s already several trees down on the back lane, so my OH is happy collecting firewood for our log burner!

Back to my sewing room, three weeks ago I was almost up to date having nearly finished stitching Septembers page of my Foragers Stitch journal, a monthly SAL from Pretty Fabrics and Trims…

I cracked straight on and finished it a few days later with three more blackberries and a fly stitch border. I think I rounded off a couple of the blackberries too, as they were looking a little square, although looking at it again, maybe the top blackberry could do with a bit of rounding off too!. I like this page, the colours a nice and soft somehow.

This months didn’t arrive until Thursday, it’s usually about this time as we pay each month on the 20th. I was wondering what October’s would be and I was pleased to see it was chestnuts, when I was young we used to roast them on the fire and dip them in salt. One of the signs of winter when I was training in London used to be when the chestnut sellers arrived on Oxford Street with their roasters. You can still buy chestnuts on the markets, I remember it being hard work stabbing through the shell before roasting them.

I’ve started the stitching, having done all the back-stitched letters and I’ve stitched the tree trunk and branches with split stitch. I’m now doing leaves with French knots.

Once the embroidery is done I can stitch the two pages together and quilt and bind them. Then I just need to wait for the next instalment, which I think will be the front cover.

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Deb, Sharon, Margaret , and Daisy