this and that, roses and a thimble

Christmas is just a memory now. For those less fortunate here in UK, the memory will not be so nice; the high winds and rain managed to spoil it for many; if not flooded, then no electricity over Christmas certainly wasn't any fun.
Most of us down here in the South West were more fortunate; yes wind and rain, some damage in the garden, but that was all. We even had some really nice sunny days over Christmas, although the horrid weather is back now, and it seems, for a while yet.
Before Christmas DH started to work on a new rose bad in the front of the house. Not ideal time to play out, but good time to plant roses; well, so we thought.

By the time the roses arrived, what is going to be a rose bed, was a muddy patch.

Well, they just had to be planted, and hopefully by the summer they will look beautiful!

DH, the decorator, was working hard before Christmas, to transform

this

into this

The floor is yet to be done, but we had a living room for Christmas!

The stairs are also finished, my contribution being the painted mirrors, a charity shop find, to optically widen the very narrow staircase.

And the quilt at the top, of course.

Yesterday, the last of the nice days, we ventured out, up to Beacon Hill. The walk turned out to be a very muddy one, but fresh air was very much needed.

Some interesting shapes,

and a misty view over the Somerset Levels, parts of it flooded over Christmas, with the Glastonbury Tor

in the centre.

And the thimble?

A sweet present from Secret Santa on Christmas Day.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2013

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!

 to all of you, my wonderful blogging friends

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk

Scandinavian Rose 7

embroidery part no 7 of the Scandinavian Rose quilt - finished

Did you think that I wasn't doing anything?

In fact, I have even started on the next part:

Have a wonderful weekend!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2013

second West Country Quilt Show

You came with me to the first ever West Country Quilt Show a year ago, doesn't a year fly by!

 It was relatively very quiet then, in a half empty exhibition hall at the Bath and West showground.

Last Thursday was a start of this year' show and so I was curious if it would be any different.

I went early on Thursday, so I could take clear pictures of quilts on show.

It was nice to see that there was more exhibitors taking part and the hall looked more full this time, but as you can see, still very quiet at that time of the day.

Too many stall holders have put up a sign "No Photographs", which is a shame of course, so I can't show you who was there.

The Tentmakers of Cairo did not mind.

Very early I came across Jan Tillett's small stall, with beautiful examples of her work.

As you know, I am very much a hand stitcher, very rarely I drop the feet of my sewing machine!

That morning I was lucky, I got the last place on Jan's first workshop "Shimmer and Wrinkle", using shrink polyester and machine embroidery. It involved wadding, net, angelina fibres and shrink polyester, of course.

Don't look at my stitching, concentrate on the result, LOL!

Thank you, Jan, it was fun!

You can see Jan's instruction video on youtube here .

Of course, there was some replenishing of my stash going on also:

And now my favourites from the quilt show:

Happy stitching!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2013