Sailor Girl.

Woohoo!  Miss Maisie finally has her new sweater. I hate sewing up knitting but was fairly pleased that this went together well. The pattern is Sirdar no. 6021 and named Sailing Sweater. It is knitted in baby cashmere merino silk dk. Extravagant for a baby but it feels beautiful, soft and warm. I changed the pattern a little bit as the sleeves and cuffs are meant to roll up but I like something more firm. Would love a big girl version, lipstick pink.

 

Little miss has had her first taste of baby rusk. Listening to her approving noises made us all laugh.  No problem feeding this baby. Here she is modelling her new sweater. Poor little lovie is teething so don't be fooled by that sweet face because she will bite your face off if she gets close enough.

Sewing progress. Piles of hexagons in readiness for filling in around the Anna Levens quilt. 

This star block has been paper pieced and is my contribution to our group raffle quilt. This year we are supporting Alzheimer's UK. 

My husband bought me a huge bunch of tulips and the colours are beautiful and are a welcome pop of colour against the greyness of our continuing awful weather. I know many of you have seen it on the news worldwide and it has been as bad as it looks. Thankfully where I live we have not been affected but it is very sad for those who have. It seems Mother Nature is getting her wires crossed with the weather or she is very cross with us. 

Stay safe wherever you are and whatever your weather is doing, retreat indoors and stitch, watch the winter Olympics. Worth it for the glimpses of quilts everywhere.

Happy Stitching.

Shirley.x

Surprise Package

Early last week a surprise package arrived all the way from Sweden from my lovely blogging friend Stina. We are going to meet up in August at The Festival of Quilts and we are two excited little bunnies.

The contents of the box brought tears to my eyes.  A beautiful stitched and framed picture, a box of Swedish chocolates immediately hidden away and scoffed by me. I might have shared a few. I am that generous. The pink mug is beautiful and came with a pack of Stina's favourite tea for me to try out and, AND, it came with the most beautiful mini quilt cum mug mat.

I adore the little quilt and have plans to use it somewhere at my daughter Sarah's wedding later this year. It is far too beautiful to use as a mug mat and I want to put it where I can see it. Love the quilting too and for a non machine quilter like me it has me itching to try it out. I feel very lucky and privileged to receive such beautiful and thoughtful gifts and to be called a friend. It means a lot. Thank you Stina. 

You can see more at Stina's blog.

The 10 stitch blanket is finished. Three balls of yarn used and it measures roughly 27 inches or 68 cms. The wrong side has the ribbed join and the side I prefer. I finished it off with a crochet picot edge. I really enjoyed knitting this and think I may have to knit a bigger one. It is big enough to wrap around the shoulders or for covering a little person and I am sure it will in the future cover dollies and teddies and even Humphrey the tapestry cat.

 

 I dug out another knitting project half done to occupy my fingers in the evenings. I started this little sweater for Maisie last year knowing that we were having a granddaughter but at the time my shoulder was so painful and any knitting was done a row a day and far too slow a progress. Abandoned as a hopeless cause. Anyway, on digging it out I had done more than I realised and just needed to knit a sleeve and the little collar. All I need to do now is sew it up. Lucky I started the second size as it will fit her now. She is not a big baby so it may fit her for a while.

Are you wondering how I did with the list for January? I managed a respectable  61.5% and if taking the rest of the projects out of their hiding places and looking at them counts then I consider myself to be doing very well. Having a list does help me to concentrate and gives me a bit of a deadline but it is meant to be a bit of fun. I have compiled February's list and it is under way.

Quality Control checking that I have stitched those hexagons properly.

Sewing at Kate's has been cancelled today because we are still being battered by strong wind and heavy rain and some roads are under water including Kate's driveway. Better to stay home safe and dry. The ground is so sodden and our rivers full to capacity and according to the weathermen it is going to continue. Crazy weather.

Stay safe wherever you are and keep on stitching.

Love Shirley.