We're in the wrong guidebook

 We are starting to wonder if our garden features in some sort of travel guidebook for pigeons, as we have hosted no fewer than three non-flying pigeons in the last couple of weeks.  DH has suggested the book must be called 'Places to go and die'.  The first visitor was an incredibly bloated bird, who landed on our bird feeder then sort of fell off into the garden.  He couldn't fly and spent the rest of the day creeping around before finally crawling into a drain pit under the downpipe where he died overnight.  The second one may have hit a window as DH heard a bang. We found it in the same alley down the side of the house, shuffling around.  It seemed pretty perky but couldn't fly and when it lifted its wing, it appeared something had taken a chomp out of its side, perhaps while unconscious?  Curiously enough our cat won't go anywhere near any of these birds.  The second one wandered around for a few days and started making forays out into the garden and we haven't seen him for a while.  The third one arrived (or was noticed) a few days ago.  A much bigger bird than Chompy, it seems quite perky and active but can't fly, so it is spending its time wandering around the garden and is currently sitting on the lawn in the sun. It's like having a pet pigeon. Either that or Chompy has grown a lot bigger in a few days. I don't know what is causing this strange phenomenon. I wondered if someone in the area has put out some kind of poison but I don't know what would make a bird unable to fly but otherwise apparently fine.

I finished off the London hexagons top this week complete with borders, and sewed up the backing and cut binding strips before moving it to the queue corner to await future quilting.  This was the first time I had really used the built in dual feed on my new Janome MC8200QCP, having been a bit scared of it to begin with.  It's a bit fiddly to get the special foot onto the machine and engaged with the drive unit, but once on it worked brilliantly. I sewed multiple long strips for the triple border, with absolutely no movement of the layers, so I was quite pleased with that.  DH is pleased with how the quilt has turned out.  It's actually come out bigger than I expected, somewhat drowning this double-sized bed. It feels satisfying to complete a relatively 'quick' quilt.

I used up some leave this week by taking an extra day off. I used some of my extra time to sew a zip-up tray pouch using the fabric I bought in St Ives last weekend.  I reverse engineered this by looking at pictures of a larger version online which is a commercial pattern by Aneela Hoey. I worked out my own smaller version which I am going to use to hold my hand quilting supplies for my frame quilting.  Mine isn't perfect but fairly close to the original and it pops out into a useful tray just like it's meant to.  You can see a working version of her original pattern in this video.

I finished stitching  my Christmas house cross-stitch!  Just need to tidy it up and get it into the frame now.  In the original Bucilla kit, they just paint the house frame a solid red which I've always felt detracted from the cross stitch.  I had a rummage in my dollshouse supply stash and found some excellent brick and roof tile paper which I think my friend Anita gave me when she was de-stashing.  It took a bit of careful cutting to fit around all the uprights but I'm pleased with the end result and I think it will make the stitching pop more.

I also finished the all-in-one knitted teddy bear this week.  He's come out fairly well, just a bit of a counting error on his nose which resulted in a line of decreases being slightly to one side but it doesn't affect the shape of the nose and isn't obvious to a non knitter.  I used safety eyes and knit him a little green scarf to set him off.  I shall take him to machine knitting club next month to show to the woman who gave me the pattern.  As you can see, our cat is absolutely thrilled with it (not).

This weekend I went to a Quilters' Guild Area Day here in Northamptonshire, a first for me.  I  picked up the Northamptonshire leaflet at the Festival of Quilts and noticed there was an Area Day so decided to give it a try. My experience of the Guild a few decades ago was not positive but I've been told that there is a younger friendlier generation running it now.  I wasn't sure what to expect but I think subconsciously I was expecting it to be like a Lace Day, however the uncomfortable seats were laid out theatre-style and the emphasis was very much on listening to the two speakers and not on doing handwork or making conversation.  Poppy Patch were there as traders, there was a bring & buy and a raffle, and the ticket included tea and cake.  I took along a fat bag of fabric for the bring and buy, mostly inherited panels and home dec fabric that I was never going to use, so hopefully they found good new homes.

The speakers were Greta Fitchett in the morning, an artist who scrapbooks and journal quilts her way around multiple travel destinations every year, and draws on those inspirations to make larger art quilts. And in the afternoon it was Julia Gahagan who specialises in miniature quilts and in particular on a type of glued on applique covered in soft tulle then machine quilted. While neither were brilliant speakers, they were both interesting and it's always intriguing to hear about someone else's artistic process.  Julia had some cute designs and also some finished work for sale.  I bought this miniature crazy quilt from her because I really liked the Victorian styling and colours. I plan to hang it in the bedroom.

I bought some Halloween fabric off the bring and buy table and won a bag pattern in the raffle.

In the morning I was stitching together a felt doll after making an impulse buy of this cute book from The Works a few weeks ago.  In the afternoon I was knitting.

In the lunch break I walked over to the nearby Poppy Patch quilt shop to peruse their offerings, and came away with this Lynette Anderson pattern.  I've been tempted by their Japanese aesthetic before but never bought one as the patterns are so expensive, but I decided to take the plunge on a small item to see if  I like it. I didn't actually realise the beehive was punchneedle until I read the instructions, I shall substitute applique.

I've picked most of the apples off our tree now and have started making pies and applesauce.  It hasn't done very well this year, having a bad case of apple scab and a lot of the apples never grew very big.  Hopefully it won't rain tomorrow as I need to do a fair bit of hacking back and tidying up out in the garden.