Oh My, It's a Long One! (With LOTS Of Photos

It seems like an age ago, but our short break to the Cotswolds last weekend was amazing – the weather didn’t do much, but the village we stayed in was so peaceful and small, we couldn’t help but relax. H mastered the woodstove, and I got to be toasty warm for 4 days (this is a bonus, as my hands and feet are usually like blocks of ice, regardless of the season).

Our cottage (above), below, a view across the fields to the village

Below: looking up the only street in the village

And, of course because I had 4 days at my leisure, I found lots of time for stitching – I managed to finish three, yes THREE ornaments for the mini-SAL that Leena and I have together:

Heart in Hand - Winter Forest

Sam Sarah: Winter Love

Prairie Schooler: Blackwork Angel (with trumpet)

The holiday does seem like a while ago because I’ve been so hideously busy at work, but I was cheered up immensely by finding a mystery package on the doorstep this evening on my way in from work – Suzanne sent me this adorable bourse as a Crazy Exchange, so now I have 30 days to send her back something nice. I will get my needle to the ready! Here is the bourse, and also the extra goodies she put into the parcel for me – thank you so much Suzanne!







I heard from Becky K that she received the giveaway treat that she won about a month ago – sadly, her father passed on this week, so she has not been posting much. My thoughts are with you Becky at this difficult time. But she did find time to send me a very nice email to thank me for the floss tag I made her (but really, it’s me should be thanking her for reading my blog, LOL!). It’s a C Mon Monde design from Boite a Tresors, and the B on the reverse is from an A Mon Ami Pierre alphabet. I think purple is a big favourite of Becky’s, so I changed the pattern to suit.





I also heard that Melissa received the Fair & Square Round 6 squares that I posted her – these are one of the extra little pillow designs from one of the LHN Dear Diary series.


Oh, and I had a wonderful email from Heather letting me know that she got her birthday parcel from me – she was my partner for the Stitching Bloggers’ Birthday Club this year. It was a real delight getting to know her on her blog, and following her quilting and stitching exploits. Check out her blog for an extremely cute photo of her daughter burrowing into some of the extras I put in the parcel for her :) I stitched her the In My Garden needleroll by Shepherd’s Bush.


And, speaking of Heather and quilting, I managed to find some time to quilt this weekend, and finished off my first 6 blocks – whoop whoop! So now I have just to square them up, add sashing and corner blocks, and 3 borders. It’s a snap, eh?!

Last week I managed to find time to stitch a bit on both Awake the Dawning Day and Spanish Wine – my two long term projects (along with Paradigm Lost) which really aren’t that big, but which sadly I don’t seem to be able to find much time for. I seem to be always stitching for exchanges or other people, so stuff for me tends to quickly make it to the bottom of the pile!

And, lastly (sorry, I did say it was going to be a long one!) here is the progress from my last session with Paradigm Lost, which was actually now nearly 10 days ago as I was working late this past Thursday night and didn’t have time to haul it out.


Thanks for bearing with me for this long – it’s difficult to find time to stitch, blog, clean house, work full time, commute, bake, cook, quilt and have 3-hour conversations on the phone with my sister – I don’t know how we all manage!! :)

Happy stitching!