Christmas Stitching

Argh, time has been flying past at great speed, and I've had far too much to do - work, social life, stitching commitments - which means my little corner of the net has been a tad neglected of late, for which I am very sorry - I do hope I still have readers! I'm also extremely behind my blog reading - I doubt I'll be able to catch up with all of your lovely posts, but my stitchy friends are often in my mind, if not on the computer screen.

I won't bore you with the work, socially I've been up and down the country visiting friends and relatives, out for fabulous meals on FAR too many occasions, to some very fabulous parties and sat and ate a lot at home and with family. The post-Christmas weight watchers meeting will NOT be fun!!! But the eating and drinking was, and I like to think I have sensible priorities here...bring on the port and cheese ;) I'm currently at my parents, and looking forward to a lovely New Years party with my school friends.

As for stitching - as usual I over committed myself... I signed up for the TWCOE again, and got everything stitched and posted in time (just)... then failed miserably to post the photos on the TWBB. I'm posting here first, as now webshots has changed I'm not sure how to post pics on a BB. Hopefully a link to here will help.  I did take photos of both of the ornies I made, but one of them must have been taken with my camera (which has had a dead battery for 6 weeks, so I used my photo card in a work camera, and switched it back, then didn't bring my camera with me as I couldn't remember where the charger was... and that's how stupidly busy I've been - no time to charge a camera up!). I did remember to take photos of the ornies I received as I was dashing out of the house to come to my parents on the 27th, thankfully.

So here they are - 3/4 of my TWCOE experience this year:

Unicorn from Fantasy Sampler, which I sent to Jen.

Colour variation of the corner motif from Peacock Tapestry, from Measi. I love the blues in this one.

I'm not sure who the designer is, but I also received this wonderful ornie. And I'm really forgetful, so I can't remember who sent it to me [edited to add that this came from Natty].  The ornie is on my tree and the card is up at home... both of which are 90 miles away. Grrrr, must ask Santa for more brain cells next year.

Thank you both for sending me such wonderful ornaments. I also sent A Partridge in a Pear Tree from the JCS ornie magazine to Natty - photo to follow when I get back home ;)

Edited to say that the photograph is now here: http://www.astitchintime-jo.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/2013-year-of-happy-dance.html.

So why all the chaos? During the Olympics I did a lot of quilting (we had 2 weeks off work, a staycation, and the second week coincided with the first week of the Olympics. As well as watching the TV non stop all week, I finished a lap quilt, and picked up the purple sampler quilt I started years ago. I decided I'd finish it for my sister's Christmas present. I also decided to trial quilt as you go, as I have a small machine and a small table, so manhandling a large quilt is tricky. Of course none of this went to plan... We went away on the 16th Dec to Nottingham ( had tickets to see Kate Rusby, and I could work from Eddy's office for my last 3 days of work before Christmas), then to Birmingham to see his family. At that point I'd JUST started to stitch the ready quilted blocks together. And I'd not bought the fabric for the borders yet. QAYG involves A LOT of hand stitching, so I took what needed hand stitching with me, and got that done fine. We returned to Leeds to find that my local quilting shop had closed for the Christmas vacation - so we lost an afternoon driving round trying to find suitable fabric. And then I found that although the initial hand stitching was quick, the long seams were not. On Christmas eve I'd not quite got the main quilt top together, never mind the borders and the binding! Christmas day I didn't touch the quilt... it didn't seem like a Christmassy thing to do, would have been rude to ignore Eddy, we needed the table to eat dinner and I had 2 days to get it done, what was there to worry a out???? Boxing day I started quilting at 9.30 am and finished at 12.45 am... with short breaks to eat. And I still had one long seam to hand stitch and the binding to do... We weren't leaving until 4pm on the 27th.. Plenty of time??? Hmmm, maybe not! I still had to hand stitch the back of the binding - that's another 4 long seams, as well as all the machine sewing for the binding. In  finished the quilt at 5 pm, packed in 20 mins flat (leaving camera at home), and spend down the motorway. My sister was a bit annoyed we were late as she was cooking dinner and was very hungry when we turned up at 7.05 pm... but forgave all when she opened her present. Good job too!

I took this photo with my phone, standing on my mum's bed, just before 'lil sis left to stay at her boyfriends for New Year.... I love the final thing, and yes, she was worth the effort!

And for the next few days I'm barely touching a needle. Hopefully when I get home the hole in my finger will have healed. Maybe I should invest in a thimble??? And next year, if it's not finished by the end of November, I'm going to BUY presents instead of make them. Yeah, I believe me too.....

Happy Stitching!!!