The Snow Family Christmas stockings are coming on apace. Three of the stockings are on display at High Street Quilting, advertising a workshop on 7th December.
The fourth stocking is still in production, although if I drop off to sleep while I'm sewing again I'll never get them finished. One minute I was sewing, half an hour later I woke up with that sore nose feeling you get when you have been snoring, how attractive I must have looked!
This particular one is destined for Stitchin Heaven, hopefully arriving before this Saturday. I'm just putting the finishing touches to the instructions. I decided to ask David to cut a wood pattern for me. Then I thought it would be a good idea to protect it with a layer of paint. Do you think it looks very plain? Are you getting my drift? It's just crying out to have the Snow Family painted on it isn't it?
Alison and I spent a happy morning on the Hill where I finished my little reindeer which is Sandra's Shape of the Month. How cute?
I don't know how Sandra manages to come up with all these cute shapes, month after month but I love them. Check out the little line of reindeer outside her shop.
Mavis and Gladys were in action again last Thursday but the class was a little depleted - a couple on holiday and some at the Lumiere in Durham. It was lovely to be able to give much more individual help to the ladies that were there though. We still managed to polish off most of the cake.....
Toffee Pecan Cupcakes and Smartie Cookies. They were supposed to be stem ginger cookies but I couldn't get the lid off the jar of ginger and there were no strong boys to help at the time.
I decided to run a class after school for adults, expecting half a dozen to come but fourteen were there last week. I'm just running it until Christmas because work is so very busy. It takes a long time to prep everything for classes. I'm so looking forward to a time when stitching is my only work.
A wafting of roast pork has just come from the open kitchen door. I better go and put the vegetables on. I made the yorkshire pudding mix this morning so that I could settle down for a good stitch this afternoon. Lucky I did really, considering the unplanned nap.
So tonight I'll be finishing the blanket stitching on the stocking whilst watching the Texas Grand Prix, happy in the knowledge that I did all the ironing this morning. It makes a pleasant change to feel a bit smug on a Sunday night rather than wondering where on earth the weekend went. Have a good week.
1) I had all the ingredients;
2) I comfort eat;
3) It will last me all day;
4) It's smaller than it looks....
A stack of waffles with maple syrup and 2 rashers of smoky bacon. Mmm. It really will last me all day, partly because there's not much else in the fridge of course. Do you love my plate? It's one of the last few pieces that I got for a wedding present. I have one bowl, some cups, two side plates and a gravy boat - how old-fashioned does that sound?. I got married in 1982 and it was our everyday china. Sadly I saw a cookery programme a little while ago where the chef used this as 'vintage' china. Cheek.
I've had three days off work this week (it's half term), so I have been doing more sewing than usual. A quick trip to the dentist and the hairdresser was squeezed in. I have been making some stockings for a workshop (and patterns for sale). I have a book with sketches in for different ideas I have. It also has lots of loose pieces where I have picked up a scrap of paper when an idea occurs. The stockings are a conversion of the ideas on to fabric. Trouble is once you start you just want to keep going. I'll put the pix on next week because they are not quite finished.
One of my favourite excuses for baking is Halloween. Steph bought me a biscuit cutter the shape a pumpkin last year. These are vanilla crisp biscuits covered with orange flavoured candy melt and decorated with some black icing. I also made some little chocolate and vanilla cupcakes.
These were destined for the ladies at the quilt class but I saved some for the family too. When I got home from the class I had a little bit of grown up Halloween celebration-
Actually it was a bit bitter even for me so I put a splash of lemonade in. Lush.
With the housework crying out to be done, I sat down to make some little Halloween bags.
I have a very useful roll of brown paper. I stamped some letters,
traced some shapes on to fusible web and used a block of wood to shape the bags. I added some ribbon handles to match and filled them with a tiny oranges (which looked like a pumpkin) some little chocolates and a recipe for pumpkin soup.
I finished them off with some labels I had painted at the Crafts House a couple of weeks ago. These are just ordinary little white tags, painted with Antique White and aged with a greeny-brown Tim Holtz stamp brushed lightly round the edges.
The recipe for the soup was one my mother used to make for the boys with the pumpkin flesh left from the carving. The first time she made it the top came off the salt cellar and dumped about a tablespoon of salt in to the soup. She scooped out as much as she could before it dissolved. It was lovely in the end, despite being really salty!
I have been making cinnamon buttons for one of my projects. I bought the little cutters ages ago at a show but this is the first time I have made them. They need to dry for 48 hours so I will report on how they are faring.
Strange ingredients - apples, glue and cinnamon
Mixed like scones
rolled out and stamped
Drying on waxed paper.
Last thing on the agenda this weekend was a firework party - I walked down to John's house - fell over a paving stone, twisted my shoulder and bruised my knee. I thought I had broken the camera but it still works! here are some sparkler displays.
I had to scrape the first frost of the year from my windscreen on Saturday. Hey ho. Whatever the weather I hope your week ahead is a good one.
