The Beast!

Sam's Christmas jigsaw has been tackled and tamed! 1500 pieces of mostly black, peppered with tiny dots and writing too small to be read in dark blue and purple print - give me a nice white snow scene anytime.

Here's the daily progress, ending with a massive effort on Thursday morning, just to I could have my table back.

A Little Quilt

Probably the smallest quilt (and the most carefully sewn) that I have made. It's been sent off to Jo's in good time for the arrival!

But of course, there must always be a quilt in progress, so Sam's orange quilt (his choice), is occupying space on the settee while it is being pieced.

The coffee table is reserved for this beast of a jigsaw, soon to be started. I will keep you posted on progress ...

Durham

As we won't be seeing each other for a while I thought I'd put some of my photos from our recent trip to Durham on here.  

They were mainly taken in the cathedral which was magnificent.

The Millenium Window representing the local community.

A modern stained glass window.

Sarah & I spent a lot of time looking at this fascinating window which is made up of pieces of broken medieval stained glass.  

A modern embroidered piece representing the life of St Cuthbert.  The blue is the sea and the other colours, including those on the back wall panels, are the land.  The motifs sewn on are animals he would have seen and some of his belongings, like a quill and ink.  

A close up of the sea and beach motifs.

A close up of the land motifs.

A view of the castle and the hills beyond, from the top of the cathedral tower.

We also had an interesting tour of the castle.  

In the castle courtyard.

The square drainpipes decorated with the Prince Bishop's shield and other motifs caught my eye.  This was the earliest one I saw.  

We had a really good trip but next time we go anywhere in February we won't be leaving  our hats, gloves and scarves at home!

A walk in the woods

I took my new camera on a walk in the woods and spotted two deer on a stubble field.  I quickly got the girls on their leads before they had time to think about running onto the field.  Then I crouched down into a gap in the hedge with the dogs in tow on their leads!  Luckily the deer stayed put and I was able to take some photos on full zoom.  

Unfortunately there was a pesky stalk stuck up between me and this deer.

Later we came across a blue tit which sat still long enough for a photo.  

Goole Swans and Ships

The Goole piece is looking good (even if I say so myself) with the coloured filling.

An update

The Goole swans and ships piece is coming along nicely so I thought I'd put a photo on here.  

I am trying to define the different areas by using contrasting tones and so far it seems to be working. 

I also have an experimental piece on the go.  I have recently seen some youtube videos of fabric journals and thought it would be fun to have a go.  The video showed how to put finished pieces together to make a fabric book.  I thought it would be an idea to try and make 12 pieces, 1 for each month, and put them together at the end of the year.  I know, this sounds like another challenge which could result in a busy December but I'll give it a go.  

The first piece will be inspired by a recent trip to Cleethorpes.  I picked up some shells to use for inspiration and decided I wanted some grey cloth for the background - representing the cloudy sky and grey sea.  I didn't have any grey material but did have some acrylics so have painted some calico.  My background is 9 inches square and represents the pale sun in a cloudy sky.  Watch this space for the next part of the experiment!  

The end of 2019 and start of 2020

Here are my last 2 projects of 2019

and the design for my Goole swans and ships.