The owl has landed.

A few weeks ago my beautiful daughter and I were shopping and we saw a cushion in the shape of an owl. Beth loves owls and really wanted the cushion but it was soooooo expensive I persuaded her we could make one instead. This weekend we sorted through our "bit-bag" and started work.
It wasn't easy teaching her to use the machine as she is somewhat heavy footed but eventually we produced this ......

..... She is absolutely thrilled with it and it now has pride of place on her bed.

I have also made a little progress on the table runner and I will photograph that later to show you.
Thanks for reading my blog today and welcome to my new followers.
Bye for now.

Tusal - Jan 23rd

Here is my TUSAL.

As you can see, there is not much in it just some of the perle thread from the hardanger table runner.
Hopefully my next update will be a bit fuller.
Bye for now.

Picture as promised.

I did a few more blocks last night and here is a pic of how far I got.

The instructions say to work all the Kloster blocks first so I shall be busy for a while.
I'll be back soon with another update.

Where does the time go?

Hi, sorry I haven't been around but we have had the lurgy! All of us have been suffering with sore throats, coughs and general malaise. Anyway, we are all on the mend now.
The peacock and pheasants have been sidelined as the confetti is driving me crackers and I want something I can get stuck into. Have I picked up one of my many UFO's? No I haven't! I have decided to start a hardanger table runner that I bought over a year ago. I got it out of the packet and it is huge. So far I have marked the fabric (top right as I always do) and done the first set of Kloster blocks. I have never done this on such a large scale before - although it is a repeating pattern - and I am finding it quite testing with the evenweave fabric and thick (perle no5) thread. There is nothing worth showing at the moment but when there is you will have pics.
My healthy eating has gone a bit astray whilst we have had this bug but luckily I haven't gained weight. I am now back on it and meeting my friend for a one hour power walk before we collect the children from school.
Mr Midge is indulging in a ski trip this weekend and I am thinking up activities for the children to do. So far we are going to bake and maybe - weather permitting go for a picnic. I thought if we were all wrapped up the fresh air would do us good plus food is lovely when eaten outdoors and my daughter has no appetite whatsoever.
Hopefully I'll be back with an update soon.
Bye for now.

Happy New Year

Hi everyone and may I wish you all the happiest and healthiest year possible.
I have not stitched for over two weeks as we have had familly staying with us and the constant rounds of food, clearing away and conversation have kept me away from my projects.
I am just retrieving my Peacock and Pheasant project from the depths of my stitching cupboard and plan to have a few hours on it this afternoon.
Here is where I left off.

I want to get a good start on this before the new SAL from Papillon Creations starts sometime in January.
I have so many UFO's and unstarted projects in my stash that I have promised myself I will not buy anything new to start this year. I even have enough fabric and threads to make a start on the Papillon SAL. The only thing I have decided to allow myself to buy is stranded floss that I run out of during the course of the year.

As for other New Year Resolutions, I really need to lose some weight (oh hear she goes I hear you say) my last check up with our practice nurse (I went for a smear test) showed my blood pressure was up - not dangerously - and as we all know dropping weight and doing more excercise really help so that combined with a holiday in Spain looming at Easter has given me some serious motivation. I am aiming for a stone (14lbs) by 2nd April. I have another appointment with the nurse on the 9th Jan so I'll let you know how I get on.

As most of my regular followers will know I am a keen gardener and I have been going through my seed packets and trying to decide what to grow this year. I am waiting for a nice day and then I will get my greenhouse scrubbed out and ready for the seed trays to go onto the stageing.

Well I had better make a start or my afternoon will have disappeared.
Bye for now.