Archie The Wonder Dog

I haven't looked to see how I've done on my winter stitching list since I wrote my half term report but I'm desperately hoping I've made progress!  Let's face it, I could hardly have got worse...at least I hope I haven't!  I'm linking up with the lovely Sarah@Fairyface Designs so after you've read my report please go and see what other (more successful) people have done.  1 & 2 .  Add backs (cord?  Velvet?) to my knitted and crocheted squares to turn them into cushion   covers. I haven't done this as I changed my mind about making them into cushions.  I'd also forgotten that I would be getting cushions from the Brit Pillow Fight and my swap with Nicky (as well as winning a cushion from Fiona !) so I don't really need any new cushions now.  (Which is a good job as I've used the fabric I bought to back the crochet square in my hexies!) 3 .  Finish sorting my scraps.    Sorted! 4 .  Make my  B...

On a cold day towards the end of February I went on a snowdrop walk and workshop with my friend Beryl at Knot (where I regularly go for classes/workshops).  The town where she has her studio (and where I went to college) has the remains of a priory (dissolved in 1540 and partially demolished sometime between then and 1709).  The east gable was kept as a feature and it's very striking and instantly recognisable to people who know the area. The remaining gable of Gisborough Priory The grounds of the priory are owned by English Heritage so we weren't allowed to go past/through this hedge on the left - this was the best photo of the priory I could get but there are lots more here and there's a tour of it here if you're interested in seeing more. Our walk centred on the Monks' Walk which is in the photo at the end of my last post and which was established by 1773. Monks' Walk - a double avenue of lime trees It's hard to tell in the photos ...

I've been absent from blogland for the past few weeks - it wasn't intentional but I got lost in hexyland and I've prepared and stitched a fair few hexies since I last blogged.  (I haven't finished all the preparing though as I ran out of energy partway through so I have a line of templates and little stacks of pieces along the mantelpiece - it's beginning to look like an art installation!)  I'm really enjoying seeing each hexy take shape but some of them have needed rescuing so I've been doing the equivalent of dangling out of a helicopter on the end of a rope to rescue a hexy stuck on a ledge, abseiling down cliffs to scoop up a distressed hexy, talking one off the edge of a bridge, etc.  A hexy in distress is really very demanding!  If you listen carefully enough you can hear them crying in the night because they're so ugly...(I think this is what's known as an over-active imagination!!) I'll show you a couple of the rescued hexies in a momen...

I've been tigged (tagged?!) a couple of times this week so I thought I'd pick 11 out of the 22 questions Rachel and Susan have asked me... If you could live in any country in the world, which would you choose, and why? To be perfectly honest I love living in the UK so wouldn't change it!  Of course some things could be improved (no, not the weather, I'm not one to spend time in the sun.  In fact, it frequently gets far too hot for me here on the NE coast, the last thing I would want to do is live somewhere warmer!  I was mainly thinking of fabric and petrol prices!) but I have my family and many of my friends here on Teesside and I love living at the seaside! What started you sewing? My mam used to sew when I was little and I used to long to stay when we dropped her off at dressmaking/tailoring classes.  (She made my First Holy Communion dress and I was the only one with a hand made dress.  I was really proud as I thought, and still think(!), it was...

I'm finally linking up to Think Tank Thursday with Rebecca Lynne !  Oops, just realised it's actually Thursday Think Tank - I've been reading that wrong for months!!   And I'm not sure there is a TTT to link up to this week but it's taken me so long to have a post to link up that I'm leaving the button where it is! This week I've been thinking about a few things which, to be honest, is hard when you're as tired as I am at the moment.  I currently have the concentration span of a gnat and can't seem to keep hold of a thought long enough to actually think about it.  I tend to just notice it as it passes through my brain and say to myself 'That looks interesting, I hope it's still there when I come back.' and sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't.  After writing some of this post it appears I've thought more than I realised this week (well, over several weeks, if I'm being truthful!) so you may as well make yourself a...