January Smalls

Posted on January 6, 2019 by craftycreeky

I rather like the idea of having a seasonal display of cross-stitch smalls. Now I’ve finally put the Christmas decorations away I decided it was a good time to start, hopefully this will become a regular monthly post.

We’ve been sorting out our ‘under the eaves’ storage, it’s a bit like a loft or an attic, i.e. a general dumping ground for things you haven’t quite decided whether they can go or stay! In amongst the old pictures, letters and baby clothes I found a lovely burr elm bowl, I love wooden things and burr elm is particularly beautiful. The bowl has two shallow ‘bowls’ and I thought I’d try it to display smalls on. It works pretty well!

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So, for January I’ve of course got the Joyful world monthly small with it’s cute fox. I have included a Lizzie Kate three words pillow which seemed apt for New Year. A little blackwork sheep was added as the fields near us have lots of sheep in at the moment as they’ve all been brought down from higher pasture for lambing. Finally I have a snowdrop cross-stitch which is one I stitched years ago and finally made into a pretty pillow last year. The snowdrops are just pushing up their shoots, hopefully it won’t be long before we get some flowers.

I’m half way through another cross-stitch too, it’s a bit big to call a small but it’s my stitching on the go piece at the moment. It’s a nice simple design by Natalie Cichon of Jardin Privee called Jardin de Bobines  

I bought it at the Knitting & Stitching show, it nicely mixes my love of stitching and gardening and I like the strong colours too. I’ve stitched a few designs by Natalie over the years, including a sampler a few years ago called Samplers Bouquet, again it was the colours that first drew me to the design.

It’s stitching up pretty quickly, I’ve just to do the flower stems either side and a border along the bottom. I haven’t quite decided what to do with it yet, either frame it for my sewing room or make it into a cushion for the chair in my sewing room. I’ll see how I feel when I finish it.

I’m linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, why not follow the link to see lots more hand-stitching.

Posted in embroidery, Smalls of the Month | Tagged , | 6 Comments

A Spring Wreath

Posted on January 3, 2019 by craftycreeky

On New Year’s Day I decided to concentrate on my Spring Wreath quilt. This is a BOM from Andrea of Raggedy Ruff Designs. It’s a beautiful quilt of woodland animals, stitched with free motion machine embroidery. This is very new to me, which is one reason why I chose to do the BOM, apart from the fact that the quilt is just gorgeous!!

I made the first block in the autumn. I was really nervous about the embroidery bit but I was really pleased with how it came out…

Spring Wreath BOM

With the run up to Christmas I then got a bit behind with another two waiting to be stitched. Just before Christmas I decided to make a start on the second one, a lovely block of a very pretty deer. The background went together pretty easily, though I did make one mistake which caused a moments panic, as I realised the green and purple diamonds should have been diagonally the other way. I sent a quick message to Andrea on facebook, she reassured me that they were just spots of colour, not linked to a pattern on another block.

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With that reassurance I could cut out the various pieces and lay them in place. Andrea doesn’t use anything to keep them in place, she just holds them as she’s stitching. I’m not that brave, I used a tiny dab of fabric glue on each piece, this was also a good thing as it was another couple of weeks before I got round to the embroidery bit.

The free motion machine embroidery does still terrify me somewhat, though I was slightly less apprehensive as the rabbits had turned out pretty well. The first job is to go round the edge of every piece twice in a soft brown, get everything secure. I did have a little bit of puckering on the deer’s back but I managed to press it out. One thing Andrea does stress is the importance of pressing frequently to try and keep it flat. I did have a fair bit of wrinkling around the blossom branch at first but I seem to have managed to press most of it out. It doesn’t take as long as I thought it would either, I managed to embroider this one in an evening.

I’m really pleased with how these are turning out, they’re not perfect, but they are the type of embroidery that imperfections really don’t matter. As Andrea says, you really do just have to take a deep breath and go for it! Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I’ll stitch the third block, two cute foxes.

Posted in embroidery, Quilting | Tagged , , | 15 Comments

New Year Stitching

Posted on January 2, 2019 by craftycreeky

New Year’s Eve has never held any great excitement for me, I love Christmas, but over the years I often volunteered to work New Years Eve as I really wasn’t enthralled with the idea of going out. My OH and I now have a nice routine of a special meal at home and an evening together, if we’re lucky we might still be awake at midnight! This year we watched Les Miserables, which meant I could do a bit of sewing too…

I’ve a few projects I want to get on top of before the next Sarah Fielke BOM starts on 31st January, my Etui box needs finishing, I’ve two blocks to do for my Spring Wreath quilt, and I want to do a few more Splendid Sampler blocks. Top of my list however was some quilt blocks for Kate Chiconi. Kate is making a beautiful quilt to be sold to raise money for an Ovarian Cancer charity. It’s a rather special quilt as it is in memory of a particular lady so the design includes her favourite things. It’s to be made on a very tight deadline so Kate asked the blogging community to help…

I’m making a cornerstone with a scallop shell and a couple of background blocks. I decided on New Year’s Eve to tackle the scallop shell. Kate suggested applique which sounded the best way forward. I searched on Pinterest for some ideas, but in the end I drew a shell by hand and made a basic wedge pattern. I cut seven wedges out from a pretty batik in greens, blues and teals. It would have been nice to have them all from the same stretch of pattern but the remnant I had left was long and thin the wrong way, so I managed to cut them from two areas.

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Having stitched the wedges together I trimmed them to a scallop shape and added the two ‘wings’ on the bottom. I realised that at the centre, not only was it bulky, there was also a bit of a gap! I cut a short wedge to applique over the top. It works really well as it meant I could reduce the bulk in the middle and it enhances the design. All I had to do then was to applique the shell to a batik background.

I’d also volunteered to make a couple of background blocks, the central ones were to be in the palest, muted shades of teal, blue and cream, the border blocks were in brighter, jewel like tones. I decided on a simple nine square bock for both blocks. The border one was fairly easy to choose fabrics for, I used the same stripy batik as the shell for a bit of continuity, together with a gorgeous spotty batik. The centre block was more tricky, just because how pale is pale! In the end I fussy cut from another batik, picking out the most muted areas. If it doesn’t look right it can always go behind the central design 🙂

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These will be winging their way to Australia at the weekend, I’m looking forward to seeing this quilt come together as I think it’s going to be pretty special.

Posted in Quilting | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

January Windows

Posted on January 1, 2019 by craftycreeky

Last year Wild Daffodil organised a photo challenge with a different theme each month. I rather enjoyed putting together a selection of images, however slight the link may have been to the theme! This year the photo challenge is still running but with a difference, the theme all year is windows. At first I wasn’t sure, I love looking at architecture but I haven’t got that many photos. Then I started thinking around the subject a bit more…

This is my stained glass window quilt, I made it about 15 years ago before I had any quilting equipment or experience, those strips of black bias cover a multitude of sins! The design is based on a stained glass window we had made for our home.

I was trying to avoid Christmas photos, but I couldn’t resist this one, it’s the central hall in Castle Howard, I love the different arches and the circle of windows in the cupula.

Paper pieced windows in my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt.

Last summer I visited Blackwell, and arts & crafts house near Windermere. It has some beautiful stained glass windows.

I’m not particularly keen on flying, but once I get over the fact that there’s 30,000 feet of nothing beneath us, I do enjoy looking out of the window at the scenery below. This was taken flying across Australia last March.

So that’s my first collection of windows, do follow the link to Wild Daffodil to see what everyone else is sharing.

Posted in Photo Challenge | Tagged | 4 Comments

Eighteen for 18; How Did I Do!

Posted on January 1, 2019 by craftycreeky

Last January I set myself eighteen challenges to do in 2018, they were a mixture of sewing, quilting, embroidery and general lifestyle ones. I really enjoyed having something to aim for, especially as I didn’t stress or beat myself up if a challenge clearly wasn’t going to happen! I achieved a lot of my aims and it does help to visualise my progress over the year. I achieved quite a lot!…

  • 1 Etsy Store Opened; This hasn’t quite materialised but it is still on my to do list! I’ve spent most of the year hovering between a self hosted site and Etsy, there is so much conflicting advice out there! I think I’m settling on starting with an Etsy store, see what sells and what doesn’t, I can always move to my own site at a later date. Just got to get myself organised!
  • 2 Tutorials written; This hasn’t happened either, although I do have one half written, it’s not as easy as it looks! I’ve had a few requests for instructions on how I made my stitch sampler, so hopefully I’ll write that up soon.
  • 3 Sessions a Week in the Garden; Success! This was one of my most successful challenges, not necessarily because I stuck to it rigidly all year, I have drifted a bit in the last couple of months, but because it worked so well. Particularly for the first few months of the year just getting out for a short spell three times a week gave me a head start as well as some fresh air. Even if it was only 10 minutes, that’s half an hour a week I wouldn’t otherwise have done. I going to keep this challenge ongoing!
  • Rose Arbour
  • English Summer Garden
  • Iris
  • English summer garden
  • Scottish rose
  • 4 Quilts; Completed! I’m including my Down the Rabbit hole quilt in this as the top was such a major undertaking, it can be another finish when I finally quilt it! Feel the Sunshine was the first quilt of the year, it now lives in sunny Australia. The peacock was a practice piece for free-motion quilting and my hummingbird quilt was a present for my niece.7
  • Hummingbird quilt; www.thecraftycreek
  • Peacock Quilt
  • Down the Rabbit Hole
  • Radiant Quilt in Kaffe Fassett Fabrics
    Feel the Sunshine
  • 5 Craftsy Classes; complete! I just managed to watch five, finishing the last one over Christmas. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and length of the classes, several hours of instructions. I still have an embroidery one to watch. I found when Craftsy had their free sessions it made nice ‘background’ listening when I was sewing, rather than having to sit and concentrate on the computer.
  • 6 New Patterns; complete; I actually managed to sew seven new patterns this year, including the two dresses I made over Christmas, I still have quite a few unused patterns in my stash though!
  • 7 Kits Stitched; complete! I made two more kits up in December, with my little chamomile cross-stitch and the scissor fob, making nine kits altogether, I still seem to have a rather large box of kits waiting to be made up though!
  • Chamomile cross-stitch by the Crafty Creek
  • Sue Hawkins Scissor Keep kit
  • Lizzie Kate Cross-stitch
  • Sewing Room Clock, Springwood House designs kit.
  • Craft by Rovaris
  • Embroidered filed of flowers
  • Butterfly Dance
  • 8 Pages for my Stitch Sampler; Complete! This has got to be one of my favourite finishes of the year, I stitched eight double page spreads and made it up into a little book, I’m pretty proud of this one!

  • Stitch Sampler; www.thecraftycreek
  • Stitch Sampler; www.thecraftycreek
  • Stitch Sampler
  • Beyond TAST Running Stitch
  • Stitch Sampler; www.thecraftycreek
  • 9 Pounds Lost; Well this is another one that went by the wayside!
  • 10 Mini Embroideries; Complete! I like doing these little embroideries, it helps to push my design skills as most of them are my own creations.
  • Embroidered Snowflake by The Crafty Creek
  • Phoenix Embroidery
  • Carto embroidery
  • Field of Flowers Embroidery
  • William Morris Embroidery
  • 11 Letters to friends; No letter writing this month, so my tally remains at five, not as many as I hoped, but five more than I would have otherwise written!
  • 12 Boxes or Drawers sorted in my Sewing Room; Complete! I’ve had a few good sort outs this year, though my sewing room doesn’t necessarily look any tidier!
  • 13 New Recipes; I tried ten new ones over the year, not bad!
  • 14 less lengths in my stash! Complete – I think! I’ve used another four lengths this month with two cardigans and two dresses…and I only bought one length! I’ve lost count on this one a bit, I also can’t remember if it was meant to be 14 lengths used, or 14 less off the total number! My stash has definately reduced so I’m calling this a success!
  • 15 Posts a month complete! ; I managed 23 posts in December, I’ve just checked my stats and I published 264 posts over the year, so a good average of around 20 a month!
  • 16 cross-stitch smalls; Complete! I’ve really enjoyed making these. There’s 19 photos here and at least two or three more I couldn’t quickly find a photo of!

  • Chamomile cross-stitch by the Crafty Creek
  • Faby Reilly Christie SAL
  • Faby Reilly Christie SAL
  • Christie SAL Faby Reilly
  • Lizzie Kate Cross-stitch
  • Forget-me-not cross-stitch
  • June; Joyful World SAL
  • Blackwork Sheep
  • Cross-stitch smalls
  • Clover cross-stitch small
  • Needlepoint cat pillow
  • Faby Reilly Poppy Humbug
  • Butterfly Dance
  • Joyful World February cross-stitch
  • Joyfulworld January from Snowflake Diaries
  • Cross-stitch snowdrop
  • 17 Items of Clothing; success! I didn’t quite make 17 but with the dresses and cardigan I made this month I did make 14 new things for my wardrobe over the year. That’s over one a month so I’m happy with that and calling it a success if not completed!
  • Making a Chanel Jacket
  • Coatigan
  • 18 walks; complete! My walk from Melrose to Lindisfarne tipped me over the target and I’ve done a couple of walks since. Next year we’re walking part of the Cleveland Way in June, so I need to get some practice walks in again soon!
  • St Cuthberts Way

So that’s my final tally for 2018, I completed ten challenges, another four I counted as a success, so there’s only four I didn’t manage. I’m happy with that! There’s a few things I made which didn’t fit into any challenge, I’ve just done a quick tally and I made a total of sixty items! Yes, even I’m surprised, no wonder the house never looks tidy!

Another tally I did was the amount of thread I used over the year, this is very much a guestimate as I started and finished with various half reels of thread, but counting the empties I’ve used 5150m of thread, it will be interesting to compare with another year.

  • Signed Tealed & Delivered quilt block
  • Batik Painting in Bali
  • Australia by Granny Maud's Girl
  • To Serve cross-stitch
  • Catbells
  • Embroidered Red Admiral

I haven’t quite worked out my challenges for 2019 yet, but in the meantime I wish everyone a Happy New Year 🙂

Posted in Crafts, Dressmaking, Eighteen for 18, embroidery, Garden, Quilting, Sewing, Textile Books | Tagged | 23 Comments

Final Small of the Year!

Posted on December 31, 2018 by craftycreeky

A couple of years ago I was given a little cross-stitch kit, a pretty little chamomile flower, I felt it had quite a vintage feel to it with the general style of the design. When I opened it last week it had clearly been in someone’s stash an awfully long time as not only was the copyright 1990 but the needle was so rusted into the fabric that I couldn’t actually remove it!! I had to cut it off, luckily it was right on the edge so I didn’t lose much of the fabric. It was also lucky that neither the fabric nor the threads were affected by the rust.

The evenweave fabric is a lovely oatmeal sort of colour and the design didn’t take long to stitch up at all.

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I decided to make it into a mini pillow, I found a co-ordinating fabric in my stash and some soft green lace which contrasted nicely, picking out the green of the leaves. I looked for a suitable green in my embroidery silk box to make a cord, typically the one that matched perfectly wasn’t long enough! I ended up using one length of that one, mixed with another two greens. I couched it round and used it to make a bow at one corner.

Chamomile Cross-stitch

I enjoy making these little cross-stitch smalls, they’re quick and easy to do, a bit of fun!

Posted in Crafts, embroidery | Tagged , , | 16 Comments

Just a little bit further…

Posted on December 30, 2018 by craftycreeky

I’m just a little bit further down the Rabbit Hole. I’ve not done a lot but I thought I can’t have three HQAL’s on the trot with nothing to show!

Last time I showed you my DTRH quilt I’d just started quilting the houses…

Well I’m still quilting the houses but I’m about three quarters round. My quilting here isn’t the neatest as I’m finding all the layers involved with foundation paper piecing a bit tricky to get through. I’m stitching a quarter inch out from the roofs and also a zig-zag sort of line through the row of houses, going up and down round some of the windows. It doesn’t look much but even this border is nearly a metre square. I’m thinking of stitching rays of sunshine from the sunflower and then this border will be finished.

At the moment I’m concentrating on my Tall Year Square Etui when I have hand-stitching time, once it is finished I will concentrate on my quilt and hopefully make quicker progress!

Hand Quilt Along Links

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, Lori, Margaret, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, and Gretchen

I’m linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, follow the link for even more hand-stitching.

Posted in Down The Rabbit Hole, Quilt-a-long, Quilting | Tagged , , | 24 Comments

Take Two!

Posted on December 29, 2018 by craftycreeky

At the Leeds Sewing meet-up in the autumn there was a big swop as usual, you could take any patterns or fabric you didn’t want, pop them on the table and help yourself to someone else’s donation. I was very good and resisted fabric, but I did fall for a couple of patterns. One was Vogue 2412 which is now unfortunately out of print.

I think it’s going to be a very versatile pattern, altogether there are nine different views, three necklines, four sleeve options, never mind choice of length! It’s a size 14-18, whereas I would have preferred 12-14, but I decided to just cut out the 14 and see how it goes!

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I’m wanting to make up a length of beautiful charcoal grey wool cashmere fabric into a simple dress and I think this could be perfect. First though I wanted to try it out on a cheaper length of fabric…

A couple of years ago at the Leeds meet-up I bought two lengths of lovely boiled wool from B&M fabrics, I seem to remember it was only about £5 a metre, but it feels lovely and soft, drapes nicely and a bonus, it’s machine washable! I bought it in a dark navy blue and a beautiful peacock blue/ teal colour.

Just before Christmas I decided to make the navy fabric in Vogue 2412. I wanted the longer length, with a collar and long sleeves. The fabric was lovely to sew with, though I didn’t realise until I was at least half way through just how much stretch it had one way! As my overlocker is friends with me at the moment I overlocked all the edges, though they didn’t look like they would fray at all, it just gives a neater finish.

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The pattern calls for a narrow hem just top-stitched and edge-stitched. I overlocked the hem and then just stitched with a double row. It looks pretty neat. The edge stitching then continues right round the front edge and the collar of the dress. The only thing I would change with this pattern and fabric is I would use a lining fabric or a cotton for the under collar, as the double layer of wool makes it quite chunky.

Everything went swimmingly until it came to the buttonholes!My sewing machine decided it didn’t like the wool, it just refused to move it under the buttonhole maker. I thought it might be because of the stretch. In the end I decided to make them the ‘old-fashioned’ way with the zig-zag stitch. They looked OK until I came to cut them and the stitches just pinged open as the two bars were too close to each other! I ended up hand stitching over the edge of the top four buttonholes before deciding I could get the dress on and off with just those four, so the rest are sham buttonholes, with the buttons stitched through all layers!

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I still wore it on Christmas Day – I found a pretty scarf which just nicely covered up my buttonholes! It was lovely to wear, comfortable and I think it looks quite elegant!

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On Boxing Day I decided to cut out the peacock blue fabric, it’s a lovely shade of deep, rich blue. This time I decided to make the V neckline. This did involve a slight pattern hack as the V neck is on the sleeveless version, which has narrower shoulders. I still wanted sleeves, so I used the neckline of one and lined it up so I could work out a shoulder and arm pattern from the other.

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Again it went together nicely. I had a bit more of a play with the buttonhole attachment this time, I interfaced a scrap to test under the same conditions, I found that by increasing the stitch length on the zig-zag my machine coped much better. So this one actually has working buttons all the way down!

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This pattern seems great for an everyday sort of dress, comfortable and easy to wear, but it can be dressed up or down. I also think it will be lovely in summer, sleeveless in linen. I think I might be ready to cut out my cashmere now!

Posted in Dressmaking | 16 Comments

Final Friday Photo Challenge

Posted on December 28, 2018 by craftycreeky

It’s the last Friday of the year, so it’s the final Friday Photo Challenge set by Postcard from Gibraltar. Today’s theme is winter, I’ve tried to find non-Christmassy ones…

These snow drops were in Austwick in North Yorkshire, a village well known for it’s snowdrops. My friend and I had been walking round to Norbers Erratics, a glacial stone formation, we returned via Austwick and saw a lovely bank of snowdrops. It had clearly been a bit of a damp walk! I love the droplets of rain hanging from the petals.

I rather like a good frost, it’s good for the garden, breaking up heavy soil and killing pests, and it looks rather beautiful. These little guinea fowl chicks get moved around the garden regularly.

A Snowy Garden

Snow looks very pretty when it first comes down, when it settles on every little twig, so long as you don’t need to go out in it, in which case it loses it’s appeal very quickly!

Cross-stitch snowdrop

I’m trying to put together a seasonal display of cross-stitch smalls. This little snowdrop cross-stitch was one I stitched many, many years ago and it sat in my workbox waiting to be made into something. I finally got round to it this year, it’s made a very pretty mini pillow.

Frosty morning

As you can see I have had my ducks for quite a while too as their backs are covered in moss.

Frosty morning

A sharp hoar frost can look beautiful, highlighting every leaf and blade of grass.

This little chap was quite happy in the cold weather, he lives at Harewood House in the bird garden.

Final photo goes to Rosie and Lucy, enjoying a walk in the snow up the garden and out onto the back lane. Lucy has clearly decided it’s worth eating!

For more winter photos follow the link to Postcard from Gibraltar.

Posted in Photo Challenge, Serendipity | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Giving and Receiving

Posted on December 27, 2018 by craftycreeky

From being very young I always tried to instill into my children the idea that handmade gifts were treasured, they always made presents for Grandparents and aunts etc, it might be a tray of mince pies, or a decorated matchbox. I loved the paintings they turned into calendars and I still use a pinsafe Helen made me when she was about six.

I try and make them presents each year, even if it’s just a little something. A few weeks before Christmas I happened by chance to find the Peacock & Fig website and their ‘Lest we forget’ collection. In amongst the poppies was a lovely design just called ‘To Serve’. It was perfect for my daughter Helen, she’s training to be a nurse in the Army. Now I’ve given it to her I can share it with you.

To Serve is described as ” a typographic art representation of what it takes to serve one’s country. These words are used constantly in unit and training mottos, and are at the very core of the military ethos. To serve your country and your community is a position of great honour, and also of great sacrifice.” 

I love the simplicity of the design, the colours are based on the desert camouflage colours, blending gradually from ivory to dark brown. I adapted the pattern a little to personalise it. I changed the spellings to the English way with the addition of a couple of ‘u’s, I left out ‘airman’ and ‘sailor’ and added nurse and qaranc. Yes that’s the word you were all wondering what it said! Queen Alexander’s Royal Army Nursing Corps.

I took it down to Artworks in Otley and they framed it in a soft grey/brown frame which works perfectly. I was really pleased with it and Helen loves it, it’s already hung on her bedroom wall!

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When it came to opening my presents I had a lovely surprise. Helen had made me a patchwork cushion! It’s gorgeous! I was so impressed as she hasn’t got any quilting equipment down at Uni, in fact I don’t think she’s ever done patchwork before, just watched me occasionally!

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She cut out the triangles using scissors and a homemade paper template! She made a different design for the front and the back and just worked it out as she went along, learning from her mistakes and unpicking it and restitching it until it worked! It’s beautiful and I love it, it looks great on my favourite chair.

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When we went round to my son’s house for Christmas dinner, I found he was also making me a present, it’s not yet finished but it hopefully won’t be long. He’s in the middle of making an oak dining room table with a ‘river of blue resin’ running down the middle. From the pictures I’ve seen it’s going to be stunning. With two of the smaller pieces he’s making me a chopping board, though it will probably be too precious and beautiful to chop veg on, it might become my special cheese board.

I felt a very lucky mum on Christmas Day!

Posted in Christmas, Crafts, embroidery, Quilting, Serendipity | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments