Look how big the living room is!

I had to dismantle the quilting frame (a plastic Q-snap type floor frame) for the weekend because DS was having friends to stay and they were planning to watch movies in the living room.  Once that was all moved out, and my crate full of yarn for the Granny square crocheted afghan, and my various other ongoing projects hidden away, we were marveling about how much bigger the living room looks without all the clutter. Sigh.  I think I need two living rooms: one for show and one where I make my nest.

So the 25 block applique quilt has been put away, probably until January.  We'll put the christmas tree and decorations up during this coming week (the tree is purchased but currently living in the porch until DS's friends depart) and there just won't be room for the floor frame.  I don't get on with a hand quilting hoop, I need both hands free for the way I quilt.

I did get a few more blocks done for the Let's Bake quilt this week.

 I did the donuts with fusible applique for a neater result, but it means they aren't as 3-D as using the interfacing technique.

The mixing bowl set still needs to be stitched down.

This is the table cloth block. On the original quilt, the designer stitched this block with chicken scratch embroidery. But I didn't want to do that, so I looked through my vintage doiley collection to find one the right size that would stand up to washing.  I have hand stitched the doiley to the block, and I think it adds a nice vintage touch.

One of the projects I removed from the living room is a cross-stitch Christmas card kit I am stitching for my m-i-l. Due to my inability to count, this is more of an interpretation of the chart than a faithful reproduction.  I will finish it in the next few days hopefully and get it into the post.

We've been away this weekend as a seasonal treat. We drove down to Hertfordshire and stayed near Bishops Stortford for one night.  Quite by chance, we were there for the day of their big Christmas market so we enjoyed having a wander through that (once we got a parking space) and picked up a few christmas gifts. Then we drove a few miles down the road to Sawbridgeworth to visit The Maltings on Station Road, a rambling old industrial building which is now home to no fewer than five big antiques shops.  They run the gamut from posh to tat, but we enjoyed wandering around all the floors and were even provided with free hot mulled wine in one shop.  I bought a few pieces of 1920s pottery and a modern metal squirrel silhouette for the garden.  That night we walked from our hotel to a pub for supper, and came across a little close of modern houses where almost every one was fully decorated with loads of lights.  It was quite a show and there was even  a button to press to play christmas music at one house. This probably seems nothing out of the ordinary to my American readers but in the UK it's not nearly as common for houses to put up a lot of lights (particularly a large group of houses like this street), so we enjoyed the show.  Today we drove back via a few more big antiques centres, including this one in an old textiles mill in Halstead in Essex. It's fun to see these old industrial buildings, and it was full of dealers of varying quality.  I got a few 1930s plates here.

While we were away I was knitting on the second Cumbria mini-skeins fingerless mitt which is almost finished except for the thumb.  I was wearing my Rainy Day fingerless Mitts all weekend, which I knit a couple of years ago from Doulton Flock Border Leicester wool.  They were perfect for the c.10 degree C weather and the generally unheated antiques warehouses, so my hands could be warm yet I could still pick things up to look at them.

A couple more weeks and I will be on holiday for Christmas - yay!!