Tag: xmas ornies

Christmas crafting catch up

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As promised here is all of the things I made over this year for the festive season. I do these posts as much for myself, to keep a track of all the ornaments I have made over the years for friends and family, but hope you enjoy them as well.

I have recently gone through every single ornament tagged post since I began the blog in 2007, to make a list of what I have given people, so that they don’t get the same one twice! I am now working on the ornaments for 2026, to get ahead of myself before I start work again, and have an idea for 2027, more on that later.

First up is the fundraiser for the local food bank charity here in La Marina. I actually started this in May, before I left Spain, as I knew that I wouldn’t have much time when I got back at the end of October. Also I already had a couple of dresses made, and knew that I could do the knitted ones over the summer. This year’s choice was a Luna Lapin, I think that this is my fourth ever Luna, only the second one for a fund raiser.

The fabric dresses all come from the various Luna pattern books, I have tried to use as much recycled fabric as possible from my charity shop stash, and was very pleased with my use of this beautiful edged soft denim fabric for the tie shoulder dress.

The French knickers were another use of fabric from the reuse stash, I managed to cut the edging lace from an old sun top. I am very pleased with the fit of these, much better than my first pair.

The broderie anglaise fabric was gifted to me, and I layered that with some pink cotton. All other fabric was new, from some of mine and Ellen’s many shopping trips over the years.

All of the knitted items come from the Little Cotton Rabbits patterns, all from the Textured Dresses pattern. I just knitted them on slightly bigger needles, and lengthened the dresses. the lace edged design is one of my favourite patterns to knit.

I am really pleased with the little cardigan, as I wasn’t sure about the sizing, but it fits perfectly.

The fundraiser did well, another 60 euros for the pot, and was won by one of our newest craft group members, which was nice. My craft groups are always very supportive, and buy most of the, ‘guess the name squares’, so they quite often win.

I completely forgot to take photos of my finished ornaments for this year, as I was in a rush to get them all packed up for postage, so you will have to make do with just the stitched part.

These are a mixture of designs, the snowflake and flower come from some of my ages old Quaker designs, and the rest are all JBW designs. I love the mittens, and have done so many of them. These went to the six friends in Yorkshire, plus my cousins and aunt in the UK.

I chose to go back to a lovely set of designs for my Mum, unfortunately I can’t find them listed anywhere now. They are by a designer called Helga Mandl and they are a series of trees that when turned sideways spell out Christmas words. I stitched a Joy one in three different colours of red for my little tree, and did Merry in green variegated thread for her.

I also stitched a version of one I have done many times, another JBW design, for another friend here in Spain, and I am currently doing one for me as well. This is from Christmas Keepsakes II by JBW Designs.

As well as the last few ornaments I have been improving my crochet skills with some hats for my Mum. She wears a lot of these little soft beanie hats since she lost some of her hair due to skin cancer, and had asked me to make her one in grey.

It was very successful as you can see, so I made her three more for Christmas. The first two, the grey and variegated wool one below were using this Drops Design pattern.

The others are adaptations of a Summer Cloche Hat that I found on Ravelry. As I can only do a few limited stitched at the moment, I varied the design by doing some rows of treble, then double rows for the border and the brim on the beige one.

I am going to make some more of these to donate as well, as they are very quick and easy to do. I have ordered some crochet books which are waiting for me in the UK, so 2026 will be the year that I hopefully get really good at crochet.

I am also planning to learn tatting. I keep seeing the most wonderful Christmas designs like these on Pinterest. Look at this beautiful snowflake, photo from here.

I tried tatting last weekend and it went well, I do need some thinner needles, which I shall order when I am back in the UK, but thought that some trees and snowflakes, beaded and backed with nice silk or satin would make a change from the cross stitched ones. Watch this space!

I hope that you have all had a good festive season, I am enjoying a quiet week after lots of socialising over the last few, and work is progressing on my little cross stitch Christmas tree. I might have it finished before it is time to put all of the ornaments away on the 5th Jan!

Hope everything looks good for you for the start of 2026, and that it is a very good year for you all going forward. Thanks so much for visiting and for all the likes and comments, it is much appreciated.

A pink palace with painted ceilings

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Technically Crathes is a castle, not a palace, however it reminded me so much of all the amazing painted ceilings that I have seen in palaces in Europe, that I definitely think it deserves palatial status. I was lucky enough to visit on a gloriously sunny day as well, which was brilliant as they also have gorgeous gardens and grounds.

This is such a beautiful part of Scotland, a lot quieter than others, but Deeside is just lovely, and the drive to Crathes was beautiful as well. I hope that I get to return sometime soon.

The painted ceilings are amazing, they are themed and there is very good interpretation to tell you about the symbolism, and also some very interesting, for me anyway, textile interpretation.

The Nine Nobles ceiling is self explanatory, representing kings and nobles from different times in history.

The Muses and Virtues ceiling was of particular interest to me, as at Hardwick Hall there are a number of hangings that Bess had commissioned with same themes, and they would have been created at around the same time.

There was a cushion on one of the seats that had used elements from the ceiling as its inspiration, clearly a modern one, and on enquiry at the main desk I found out that it had been stitched by some of the castle volunteers. Just beautiful, and what a great way to add to the furnishings in the castle.

The historic needlework was also in abundance, with a lot of crewel work.

It was very good to see some written interpretation about its date and conservation.

There were also some later dated things of interest, including these lovely Victorian crazy patchwork nursery chairs. I love imagining the gowns that these bits of fabric were offcuts from.

The main living area also had some interesting soft furnishings, and this beautiful manuscript inspired lamp.

I mentioned in the last post that I was getting very inspired by all of the needlepoint I have seen this summer. I didn’t find a suitable kit, but I did remember that I used to have some great needlepoint books and managed to find this one on Amazon. This is Needlepoint Cats, by Julie Hasler, and I have a copy waiting for me in the UK!

I am almost certain that I used to own this book, but due to having small children never got around to making anything from it. I am planning a cushion for the caravan as a summer season project, but will have a hard time choosing as there are so many lovely designs. I am aiming to have specific UK and Spain projects, to stop me having to transfer stash and tools from one country to another all the time!

I have completed the very busy week of Christmas trips and dos, and done all of my Christmas gift making, will post about that after Christmas for obvious reasons! I am now working on a couple of projects just for me, versions of cross stitched ornaments that I have given others in the past, to fill up my tiny tree here, and a kit which has been languishing in my stash for more than 10 years.

I started it yesterday, and immediately remembered the joys of stitching on dark fabric, luckily I have a good spotlight, as we lose the light here about 4pm. However today is the start of lighter and brighter days, not that it is bad in Spain compared to the UK, but I am looking forward to my very long summer evenings in Scotland.

I hope that you are all having a good pre-Christmas week if you celebrate, and have a lovely time ahead. I will see you all on the other side, hopefully there will be time for a last post before 2026! Take care and thanks for visiting.

Some peaceful time in the sewing space

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After all my summer adventures it was lovely to spend time at home, and in particular to have lots of time in my little sewing space. I have previously blogged about the Barbie clothes for the Christmas fundraiser, and after I had finished those at the end of November I just kept going. I have had a group of Barbies with no outfits on the shelf in my craft space for a couple of years, and had promised them all new outfits before I left again.

I had so much fun doing this, not only do I feel that I have developed my sewing skills, but also I love just sitting with all my fabrics, beads and shiny jewels, and playing with colour combinations. I have re-organised my fabric storage to make it easier to find things and just enjoyed myself spending hours each week creating.

I have been inspired by various things, often it is the fabric or the beads that spark an idea. This first one was experimenting with the organza from the bags I bought. Although they are only small pieces they are perfect for little adornments like these ruffles. The red fabric is a stock of small silk pieces that have been in my stash for at least ten years.

I have been using the same pattern, but adapting it with different fabrics and skirt shapes. This is one of my favourite designs and I love beading the bodices. The bodice fabric on the black and bronze dress comes from the same old silk stash. It is nice to finally be using up things 😉

I did some experimenting with layers of tulle. This is some I bought in New York when Ellen and I went, and I added sewn on beads and stick on daisies.

I love the way that this ribbon from stash goes perfectly with the daisies.

My most complex project was inspired by all the wonderful Instagram cosplay makes from the Wicked movie. I didn’t have enough fabric to make a full Glinda bubble dress, but this is one inspired by it. There was a lot of geometrical pondering to get the skirt petals done. Each petal is a double layered circle of fabric, with another layer of tulle folded over it as well.

I am very pleased with the way the beading worked. I did the bodice and the petals separately as I thought it would be easier to bead the petals while they were flat, and then added beads at the waist to make it look as if they were continuous.

This ensemble was made from some raw silk, I love working with this fabric and was keen to experiment with beading. With hindsight it would have been easier to bead the dress before I made it up, but I like the colour graduations on the beads.

I have been buying a few different doll’s heads, from Aliexpress. This Mulan one inspired me to use a piece of Chinese silk that has been around for about fifteen years.

As well as all the Barbie clothes I did a bit of Christmas knitting and crochet. First was a hat for a children’s gift box for the local orphanage. Then I made some wrist warmers for my aunt, from my favourite Emerald Wristwarmer pattern, free from Ravelry. I love the variegations in this wool.

With my new found crochet skills I made some soft baskets from a skein of variegated macramé thread. These were for my brother and his wife, for their cave house. They were an adaptation of various free patterns from Ravelry.

Then there were the usual cross stitched ornaments. These were the ones for friends, a selection of Quaker snowflakes and JBW designs.

These were the family ones, again from the same mixed sources.

I had a bit of emergency knitting to do in between the cross stitching. You may remember last Christmas the fundraiser was a little knitted mouse. Debbie, from our knitting group won it and gave it to her granddaughter in the USA. Sadly she left it on a plane and was very upset. Luckily I had most of a mouse in bits in my stash, and some spare dresses, so she had a replacement to give her on Christmas Day.

I also got around to tackling the WIP pile. I have a lot of embroideries, mainly of designs from Jenny of Elefantz, that I have been meaning to make up into something. This one got as far as being given one of my favourite Churn Dash block surrounds, but has been languishing in the pile for at least six years.

I am always in need of new project bags for travelling so it didn’t take long to make this one up. I also made up this design for my Mum to keep her embroideries in. I originally intended it to be a Christmas gift for her about five years ago, but better late than never. I loved stitching this one, again another of Jenny’s designs.

I also got some lovely Christmas presents. My Mum wanted to buy me something, rather than just give me money, and in following some of the wonderful Instagram Barbie designers I have found a whole new world of jewellery and crowns. I was lucky enough to get these for Christmas. My Glinda Barbie looks gorgeous in her tiara, and I am planning a very extravagant dress to go with the crown, although that will have to wait until autumn now.

It was a hugely productive three months, I did more in those weeks than I have all year, and am very pleased with the progress on the WIPs pile and in using some of the long buried stash. I have already started on the Christmas cross stitching for 2025, have completed two hats for donations, sent the premature baby hats that I knitted earlier last year off, and started my charity knitting for 2025. As I shall be on the road again for the next two months, and then having a very busy spring and summer, I am choosing small portable projects.

I will return in a couple of weeks, Wifi permitting to update you on what I have been doing. Until then, have fun, take care, stay safe, and thanks for visiting.

Repeating myself

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I have found that the last few months of crafting have been very much about making the same sorts of things that I’ve done before, so much so that almost a year to the day that I was putting together some knitted reindeers for a friend, Facebook reminded me that I had made the same things in 2023.

There is a certain comfort in doing the same types of things, and some of it is utility. This year’s Christmas fundraiser was another knitted animal, as I knew that I had some mouse parts in stash that I had knitted a while ago, so thought a knitted ‘Chrismouse’ would be good for the ‘guess the name’ at our craft fair. Turns out that although that I had most of a mouse knitted, there was no head, and I hadn’t got any of the same wool! So all except the ears and tail were knitted again.

She turned out very well though, and with a Christmas dress, and a selection of pretty dresses, spare shoes and a bag, raised 100 euros for our food bank charity in Spain.

She was won by one of our sewing group members who has an eighteen month old grand daughter, so Christina, as I called her, has gone off to live in the USA where she has been made very welcome.

I have also just finished the unicorns, for babies that friends are having, meet Alexander and George.

These are my first unicorns, and they were great to do, the horns were a little tricky as they are a twisted i-cord, and I had to re-do them twice in better yarn, but got them finished over the weekend.

Both of these patterns are by the wonderfully talented Julie of Little Cotton Rabbits. Not only is she a knitting genius but very generous as well. She has just upgraded her removable shoes pattern to include three new styles of boots. That will be brilliant for future knits. The shoes for Christina are the first pairs of removable ones that I have made, even though I bought the pattern some years ago.

I wanted to do some different knitting while here at Ellen’s, so have made myself a hat and wrist warmers. Both are free patterns from Ravelry. The hat yarn is left over from the rabbit I knitted last year for my great niece, Willow, and is from The Range. It is so soft and comfy to wear.

I have really enjoyed this knitting, and they make great travelling and van projects, so have decided to make more for this year’s charity craft fair. Although I have lots of plain toy yarn, I have little of other types, but found a great wool shop in Chesterfield where I bought this beautiful yarn. I love knitting with variegated yarn so am looking forward to casting this on and seeing how it knits up.

I want to develop my skills at using circular needles as well so have got some new ones, as all my old ones went in the great de stash of 2021!

I have also stitched lots of Christmas ornaments, as in previous years, and again these have all been from JBW designs. There were a total of 10 this year, all from the same JBW design booklet that I mentioned in this post. I made these for friends in Yorkshire. They thankfully arrived in time this year, last year they were affected by postal strikes, so I finished them all by September and left them with Ellen to post.

These were the ones for my aunt and cousins.

This cute little mitten was for my Mum, and I’m planning to do more of these, and some snowflakes for the Yorkshire ones this year. I’ve already stitched two.

We had an embroidery workshop part two at sewing group, where I taught people how to use applique before embroidering. These are all patterns by the very creative Jenny of Elefantz.

I love her work, and need to find more things to do with the finished products, sadly Katy now has all the hanging hoops she has space for!

Gale did a workshop the following week and taught us all macramé. I was very pleased with the two little key rings that I made, and have plans to make a hanging tray for Katy that I saw on someone’s Instagram, when I get back in April.

In terms of quilting I extended one of the log cabin blocks that I made in 2020 to make a new cushion for Katy, which I absolutely love.

The applique cushion that I made last year got a bit damaged, so I’ve repurposed it. It will be a craft storage bag once it’s completed, which I’ll keep in the van.

As well as the new small van I showed you a few posts ago, I also got another storage tin for Katy, this was from Aldi and came with free biscuits so that was a win!

I have wanted to try and improve my crochet skills for a while. I have a great book, 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet by Lesley Stanfield that I’ve owned for years. I took it away with me this summer in the van, but just spent the time staring miserably at the instructions, and being baffled by the diagrams.

Luckily when Ellen came to stay in Spain we had a masterclass, and I very pleased to be able to to learn to make all these on the left below, as well as a few more of the large lilac design. Ellen made all the ones on the right and now I have enough for some bunting for Katy!

I finally found a frame for the black work I did last year, based on a tile at the Alhambra in Granada. I had been hunting for ages, but needed a 3 inch square one, and remembered I’d given Ellen some from my old stash. She was very kind and gave it back to me, and it is perfect for the design. I think my next design I need to find the frame first!

In terms of other projects for 2024 I will be mainly looking for small portable ones. I am travelling for nearly 8 months this year, so will be away from the sewing machine, and the stash, for most of the time.

I want to do some different things as well, so will be looking for things that extend my skills. It is lovely to stay in your comfort zone, but I am looking forward to more crochet, and possibly some English Paper Piecing. I love that, but haven’t done any for so long, and that is a great small project as well.

I also have some possible cross stitch patterns that I want to do, there are so many cute caravan designs available! This is one of my favourite, by the same designer as the original caravan hoops I did, Flamingo Toes.

If you have any ideas of good small useful things I can crochet, please let me know. I also need somewhere for things to go, so any suggestions of charities that need things please let me know.

I’ll be packing up ready to leave Ellen’s tomorrow, so will see you all again as soon as I can from my next adventure. This trip will definitely be an exercise in self restraint, as I’m going somewhere with amazing textiles. I am planning to take a very small bag with me, to avoid temptation, but will take lots of pictures!

See you all soon. Until then have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Happy Christmas, from me and a special tree!

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This will be my last post before Christmas so I thought that it would be a good time to share some of my most recent, and older ornament makes with you, all displayed on the tiniest tree that I have ever owned!

I bought this tree last year, as you may know I love making and displaying Christmas ornaments, but due to packing everything I own into only three 20 kg bags last year for the move to Spain, there was not much room for anything, so most of the ornaments had to go to other homes. This tree is only 12 inches tall but it does have some pretty lights as well.

What survived were the ones that I most loved out of my previous stitching and I had plans to make some more tiny ones just for me. I have spent this week making two very special ones, both from one of my favourite designers, JBW Designs. I bought a new book last year from Create Nostalgia, with 20 of her designs in, but the site also sells individual designs.

I am very pleased with the two new ones, both are designs that I have stitched for other people in the past. This one is called Tree Wreath and comes from the Wreath Ornaments Collection as well as being in the booklet above.

The other is called Tiny Motifs Tree and it is from the following leaflet Christmas Keepsakes 3. I can’t find this exact pattern on the Create Nostalgia website but there are many similar trees on there. This was my gift ornament to Yorkshire friends this year.

The other very special thing about these ornaments is the backing fabric. Two years ago I was lucky enough to be able to come to Spain for Christmas during the pandemic era, so made a mask to wear on Christmas Day.

I promised myself that I was going to use the fabric for ornaments one day as a reminder of that period, and to always be grateful for being able to be with family and friends at special times. Even though we still wear masks here in health care and on public transport I have sacrificed this one for the decorations.

The older ornaments are a mix of JBW designs, such as this lovely stocking, and other designs that I have done over the years. The stockings can be found in the booklets available from Create Nostalgia.

I no longer have the Joy design, that came from a cross stitch magazine a very long time ago. This was a complex stitch but I did do another version for my Mum later on.

I have found a site with some of the Helga Mandel trees on, this is the Noel tree and if you look carefully the design spells the word, Noel, vertically.

There seems to be an error with the purchase link on that site at the moment so I don’t know how you can buy them, but they are very pretty and innovative. I still have some others of these to stitch that I got years ago so am planning to do two of those for next year as well.

I already have four stockings stitched for next year, thanks to some intensive stitching while camping this summer. My plan is to spend the week between Christmas and New Year stitching and watching Christmas movies, including all of the Die Hard series and probably most of the X Men ones for a bit of fun 😉

I hope that you all have a lovely Christmas and New Year, the forecast for us is 20-22 degrees so we will be having a picnic on the beach and a BBQ on Christmas Day. Whatever you are doing I hope that you all have an excellent time.

Thank you for all your support and friendship over the years, I have had this little old blog for 15 years now and love meeting new people from all over the world through it. I am thrilled to now have over 400 subscribers 🙂 As always have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks so much for visiting, subscribing, liking and commenting.

Tis the season …..

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To hold Christmas ornament workshops again! Well in my world we can do it at any point and as long- time readers know I have held workshops in July before now 😉

However this week was the workshop at my lovely sewing group. Last year the group did baubles with folded ribbon and some of them brought theirs from last year to show me, more of that later.

This year it was mainly trees with folded ribbon that people were doing, although one member did an egg, and another a bauble using the cutting into the ball technique. It was, as always, a lovely morning full of activity and sparkly ribbon.

The folded ribbon baubles that Isla and Teresa made last year were just stunning. I love the colour combinations and all of the different patterns that you can achieve with quite a simple process.

I did think that I had given up on the bauble making, partly as anything I make for friends now has to be easily posted, however after I got back from the session I got a message from a local sewing shop asking if I would do a workshop for them next October 🙂

That gives me a great reason to restock on all my pretty embellishments when I get back to the UK and make some more samples next year doesn’t it?

All of the Christmas makings are now finished so I am getting on with rest of the to-do list that I have set myself, with a few extras thrown in. I am having a quiet pre-Christmas week and have nothing planned for the week between Christmas and New Year, so will be happily ensconced in my sewing space.

I am making some more Barbie outfits, using the same pattern that I have made many times before. I spent the first few weeks of lockdown in 2020 making these gowns, and love the flexibility of the design in that it looks so good with different types of fabric and beads . There will be an evening coat of velvet to go with the dress.

These patterns are reproductions of vintage ones and can be found on Etsy at GailsDollEPatterns. They are instant downloads and very easy to use.

I am also making good progress with my Liberty log cabin squares using some vintage tablecloth material for the centre pieces. This is the bit I love the most about making these squares, deciding which of my Liberty stash I will use 😉 It also gives me chance to catch up on some sewing vlogs.

I will share progress with the Rainbow Rascals knitted dolls at some point in the future as I need to do a proper photo shoot. I am really enjoying knitting them as they are so quick and easy and I am planning two dolls and a lot of wardrobe changes for them.

I hope that you are all happy and busy whatever you are doing and are looking forward to Christmas if you celebrate it. I will be back before then with seasonal greetings, until next time have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

A rabbit, a quilt, some reindeer and many baubles!

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Now that I am settled back into my Spanish life I thought that I would set a few targets for this visit here in terms of crafting that I want to get completed. I have a mix of things that I have to finish, and ones that I want to do, some of which have been on the WIP pile for a couple of years. I do also have WIPs that have been around for far longer but we won’t discuss those just yet 😉

The first thing that has to be completed is another fundraising ‘name the animal’ for the local foodbank charity. You may remember that earlier this year I made a Luna Rabbit complete with changes of clothes for the Jubilee Fundraiser.

For this next ‘name the animal’ I have chosen to make this adorable pair of reindeer from Little Cotton Rabbits. I have not made the reindeer before but they are the same pattern as the fox, which I made two of last year, with modifications to the head.

I will be giving the two animals with a Christmas outfit and a change of clothes.

I already have the Christmas jumper for the boy and a pretty textured dress so just need to make a Christmas dress and a jumper and trousers set. I have a month for this so there needs to be knitting happening every day!

I am determined to sew up as I go along, I made this jumper some years ago and look at the mess that is left to sort out with all the ends to work in!

The second thing that has to happen is that I got a commission for a Luna from someone who didn’t win in June. I am going to make them a boy rabbit with a change of clothes.

The plan is to make the rabbit out of the top linen in this photo above then use the paler linen for the short and the grey flannel for trousers. The grey is an old scarf of Jacob’s and the paler linen is a charity shop shirt.

I am also using these charity shop finds for this other shirt and trousers. Hopefully these will be very quick to do as I can make a couple of outfits in a day.

We are having a few workshops at sewing group so there will be WIPs from that. We had the first one this week, learning how to make purses. I have looked at this type before for Steampunk but never done one.

This week’s workshop was just talking us through the make and sewing the clasp on a ready prepared purse but next week we are going to learn how to make the purse. I think these would make lovely gifts.

I am going to be running a workshop in December to make my beloved Christmas decorations. Over the years I have made so many different kinds of things using polystyrene shapes. This year we are going to be doing either trees, cones or baubles at the workshop.

Of course I stupidly gave all my previous ornament stash away before moving here, convinced that I wouldn’t be doing anything like this again. It all went to good homes, to various charity craft projects, but luckily the local Chinese markets have stash and I found a Christmas shop locally with the lovely ribbons in the picture below so all is good!

Lastly, if I have time after all of this activity, I would like to make a lap quilt for Katy. During lockdown I participated in a block challenge and I made lots of lovely things including these Liberty log cabin blocks.

I would love to make some more using motifs from my vintage tablecloths.

Many years ago I made a bag out of four, using one of Jacob’s old shirts for the outer fabric.

The plan is to use these 6 flower motifs above, and the 4 existing log cabins blocks and some sashing to make a little lap quilt for when I am sitting reading and it is not warm enough for the fleece blankets. I have until July to do this so that should be plenty of time lol!

So that should keep me out of mischief for a while. I also plan to stitch the first of my own Blackwork designs, that I showed you in this post. Fingers crossed I can find the time to do the other goldwork design I mentioned in that post as well, though that will not be done until next year.

What about you, what are your plans for this season? I always feel that autumn is a very good time to start thinking about new projects. Normally I am hastily putting together Christmas ornaments this season but those have all been done already.

I think it is the 35 years as a teacher that means that I always see autumn, rather than spring, as the start of things. Although there are no visible signs of autumn here really I still feel a sense of renewal of possibilities. Outdoor swimming is coming to an end, and I am looking forward to more cycling. I did 27km this Thursday with a friend, which I was very impressed about, my longest ride for about 14 years!

I hope whatever your plans you are having a lovely time. Have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

A long awaited visit

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During my last week in the Peak District I visited the Silk Museum in Macclesfield. I have been planning to visit for around 15 years but somehow it never got factored into the plans. A wet day at the campsite seemed like a perfect opportunity.

The museum is housed in the former school of art, a wonderful Victorian building where many of the designers who worked in the local silk mills learnt their art. This means that they have a fascinating collection of artefacts such as the Jacquard punch cards and the samples that the students had to make for their assessments.

They have an amazing array of weaving looms and it was brilliant to talk to some of the volunteers who are restoring these. This one below is a jacquard loom and you can see the punch cards on the right and moving over the top of the loom.

This machine made narrow ribbons and there were samples of the sorts of things they wove.

I had a go with the tassel making machine as the volunteers had just mended it, it wound the silk around the wooden bead perfectly.

This loom makes knitted stockings which we still wear for re-enactment, although mine are wool and tied at the knee with a leather thong.

In a separate section was a display of silk printing from the Langley Printworks, some wonderful blocks including my favourite Paisley designs. The blocks were all carved in house to the designer’s specifications a very painstaking job as you can imagine.

Also very interesting were the manufacturer’s sample books, still so vibrant even though they are 100 years old. There were also a few garments, the Macclesfield stripe was particularly renowned as it was woven rather than being printed. A really lovely museum and I am so glad that I managed to visit.

I was busy decorating for Ellen last week, and did a day volunteering for the food bank. I am now back in sunny Spain so will be able to catch up on all of the other blog posts from my summer adventures as there are some other museums and historic house visits that I have done as stops on the way between campsites. Who knows I might even do some crafting 😉 so that this can go back to being a craft blog!

The last 3 months have gone so quickly, I have had a brilliant time but am looking forward to spending a lot more time at my sewing machine and having a few months in the same place before I start travelling again. I did mange to finish all of the Christmas ornaments for friends before I left the UK, backing them with stash that I gave Ellen before I left the UK.

Until next time, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Amazing lights, beautiful city

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Edinburgh was so beautiful, as expected. We have both been before, but to be there at Christmas was just magical. We stayed in a very central location, just near the castle so it was within walking distance of everything. The apartment was beautiful, here it is on Air bnb , if you are ever interested in visiting Edinburgh. Last two pictures are from the listing.

We spent most of the first day we were there just wandering around admiring the buildings and looking in some nice shops.

We were stunned by the amount of beautiful Christmas lights on all the shops and hotels. There were some absolutely gorgeous displays, including some very innovative light displays on the buildings.

We had tickets for the Botanical Gardens light event on Boxing Day which was also wonderful, a trail through with all different lights shows and music, the photos so not do it justice really as most of the light installations changed colour as well.

One of the best things was the number of gorgeous places to eat, so many stunning architectural gems as well as the food and drink being great. We had delicious gluten free pancakes in the old Assembly Rooms, a company called Stack and Sill, and Bailey’s hot chocolate in a lovely café called Tiles which was the previously the reception area for the Prudential insurance company.

We also visited the gorgeous Café Adaluz for a tapas lunch and had an evening meal in a restaurant, Angel’s Share, that I did chose for its amazing tin tile ceiling and chandeliers. Luckily the food and cocktails were nice as well!

We had a ride on the big wheel and a lovely couple of tours on the big red tour bus which is always a great way to get around a city and find out lots about it.

Another highlight was a visit to a cat café, Maison de Moggy. We had been planning to visit one of these in Japan, so spent a lovely hour having some very delicious Turkish Delight hot chocolate and cake. The visit was a chance to pet the ten cats they have there, including a beautiful Maine Coon, Pauline, that had the most amazing lion like face. This photo at the bottom of her is from the web site as I couldn’t get a good picture while we were there.

I am enjoying my time at my sister’s, I have bought a new sewing machine, with 99 stitches so am looking forward to using that and am knitting my first Little Cotton Rabbits fox.

I am enjoying cuddling up with her lovely cat as well, Scully, she is my sofa companion when I do my studying for my writing courses.

Jacky and I have also been to the gym a few times and I have done my first aquarobics session which was fun. We are having a quiet weekend at home as the weather is a bit rough. My sister is a primary school teacher and has had a busy first week back at work so it is nice to have some quiet time.

I hope that you have all had a nice week, and have a good week ahead. I will be back with the first of my museum series of posts, as I have lots to share with you from all the lovely costume and textiles things I have seen since August. Until then have fun, take care, stay safe, and thanks for visiting.

We interrupt this travel blog to bring you some Christmas stitching!

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I have been frantically stitching ten ornaments in the last few weeks and last night put the final stitches in the ribbons and breathed a sigh of relief. Two of them only needed a little finishing and making up but the others were done from scratch.

I did post a while ago about using some of Jenni of Elefantz’s bird designs with some new Scandi fabric but it was difficult to stitch them neatly enough on the felt I had so I decided to go with my tried and trusted JBW Designs.

I forgot to take pictures of the first two as I have left them in Spain for my aunt and mum but this one above that I did for them is one of my favourite designs and I will have to stitch it for my little tree in Spain. I kept a few of my ornaments to take with me and bought a tiny tree so I did have that up for a few days there before I came back. The picture is of my cute children when they were very small!

I love this design, most of the JBW Designs have these little motifs in them which are so cute. Some of the others I have stitched are similar to this, such as the tree one below.

This comes from another JBW Design set, I stitched all three of these this year, each one twice.

The last ornaments I completed were from a new book that I got from Create Nostalgia. They have the best selection of Judy’s designs in the UK and I was able to get this brilliant compilation from them. It is great value at only £19 including postage, as individual design cards retail for about £5 each.

I am planning to stitch more of the cute stockings and little mittens for next year’s ornaments and might find time to do some more of these for me.

As I mentioned previously I did not save any of my Christmas fabric when I was having my sort out of what to take to Spain so I needed to order some more when I got here. I found a great selection packs on Ebay at Fabric 4 Craft . The best thing was that they sell packs of small squares which are perfect for ornaments or little patchwork projects. I particularly love the fabric with all the little motifs on below.

I have been volunteering at the foodbank with Ellen for the last few days. It has again been a very interesting time and nice to do something very useful and worthwhile. They have been doing some more social media recently so here is a photo they did with my lovely daughter on the left.

I am off on a little UK tour tomorrow, mainly in Huddersfield but I will be having a mini break in Manchester and visiting a few museums there.

Until next time have a good week and weekend, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.