Please excuse the crummy photo with my flash in the middle - but I love this picture with all those people on it!! and the sentiment...it says it all. It's nearly one year since I started this blog and it has been such a worthwhile and enjoyable experience - and I've 'met' in this blogasphere such lovely people willing to share their knowledge, encourage and support and offer great insights and friendship. Truely wonderful. Thank you to all that stop by and read this blog .Enjoy this first Sunday in advent everyone.

Advent Felting

Tomorrow sees the first Sunday in Advent arrive and to mark this occasion, I held a felting workshop in the local Parish Hall for folk to come and felt something with an Advent theme. One did a stocking in readiness for Santa, a couple made table mats to place a candle or a plant on..and three made wall hangings with little pockets hidden within to contain advent treats or the like. As always, it was a lovely day, full of chatter and laughter... but at times quiet with concentration, getting lost in the moment, in a world of colourful merino wools.

Ornela's tree with hidden pockets

Freya's kiwi inspired hanging with hidden pockets

Sarah's stocking drying on the radiator

Bec's lovely poinsettia inspired table decoration

Sian holding her ivy patterned table decoration

June uncovering the little hidden pockets ready to pop little phials in, to hold tiny flowers!

Felting is a wonderful process, that brings creativity out in a person, sometimes quite by surprise. It never fails to inspire people and it gives them confidence and a well-earned pat on the back for achievement. It's a beautiful medium, that it seems almost all can enjoy, across all ages. AND a trifle addictive! so enter this soft and colourful world at your peril!!!

The 'Hug' of a Quilt that warms your heart...

Having spoken to my aunt last week, I came off the phone knowing that my quilt to her had to be sent sooner rather than later. She's having a tough old time, having fallen some 14 or more weeks ago - she's a bit down in the mouth, fed up with looking at the same 4 walls, and desperate to get out and about and back to normal. I live some hundred and fifty miles away and really wanted to cheer her up in some way. The quilt was supposed to be a Christmas pressie but sometimes needs must.  So I parcelled it up and sent it on Monday. Well, the joy in her voice when she rang was wonderful - she knows that she's in my thoughts and that there is love stitched into every seam. I didn't realise until then, that a quilt really can GIVE that hug that you so want to share - and make someone feel that warm, fuzzy, loved feeling - knowing that someone has taken the time and the effort to show that they care. And we all need that at times don't we?

The Quilt that is making itself...

Have you ever made a quilt, that appears to have a life, a will and an unfoldingness of its own? This is what I'm experiencing now,,,and enjoying every second,
I'm a collector, a hoarder, a magpie...my house is full of clutter and in a previous life I was probably some sort of furtler, come bag lady who rummaged through bins. Consequently, my fabric stash is enormous and I have unconsciously been storing materials since... I could.
Very recently, I have been reunited with my great aunt who I haven't seen for forty years. No excuses, no good reason for the unearthly amount of time that has lapsed but nevertheless I'm thrilled as I have fond memories of this lady and after all this time, this tiny fiesty lady has opened her heart to a part of her family that over the years has become a distant memory. As she has been quite poorly for a few weeks, I thought I could make a small quilt to cover and warm her lap and legs in the forthcoming winters. Well, fabrics have unearthed themselves as if by magic as I searched my stash and have come together as symbols of the passed decades that we have been estanged. I have made squares from 1970's pillow cases, '80's dresses and scraps from the last 20 years - not to mention some 1950's apron..It will be called 'the forty year quilt' and as it grows , and as I sew and think of my aunt, this quilt and its variety of fabrics makes my heart sing..
There is nothing quite like making something for someone in mind.

Spot the big daisies? They're from the pillow case

The blue flowers on the left are from an apron

The 2 flowery squares the same, were a vintage dress

Kaffe sits side by side with Laura Ashley vintage frock and a Michael Miller favourite green floral on the right. The solid colours are french napkins....all favourites!!