Winter go slow

 I'm hitting that time of year now where winter hibernation is setting in. It's getting harder to make myself go outside for some exercise because it's cold and rainy. I'm not going down into the basement as much (dollshouse and sewing) because it's cold down there too. I seem to be spending a lot of time wrapped up in front of the TV. Nevertheless, I have got a few things done.

The Japanese tea cup wallhanging is finished now, with the embroidered rims and all bound.  I like it even though some of the embroidery is a bit wobbly.  And I love the blues.

I also got the binding sewn onto the Envelopes quilt which is now ready to donate - Project Linus are picking it up in a few days and I hope someone might enjoy getting it for Christmas.  I like the 'train track' effect of the binding and border strip in the same colour.

The Christmas tree is now up and decorated.  We have always had a live tree, because that's what I grew up with.  But I was surprised to find a (very expensive) artificial tree in B&Q that looks real until you get up close.  We are actually contemplating buying it if it's in the sales.  It feels like selling out but would make life a lot easier and we're not getting any younger.  I used to feel that I wanted the real one because of the lovely smell of a real tree, but for several years now it seems our trees don't smell of anything unless you stick your head right into the branches.  Maybe it's been bred out of them?

I'm getting on well with the Christmas Kep hat.  This has a deep double brim, you can see the purl row which will be the fold line, so everything beneath the fold line will be tucked up inside. It's a very Christmassy knit.

This week I finally got around to this year's free Cartonnage project from Colorway Arts, which is a box with a hinged lid closed with a magnetic catch.  If desired, you could cut an opening in the top to make it a tissue box, but I didn't.  Boxmaking is such a great way to use up feature fabrics such as this charming English countryside print.

My Christmas shopping is done, I don't have a very big list so it's not a huge job.  DS is coming home for Christmas next weekend.  I hope all your preparations are in hand for the seasonal break.

Christmas cheer

 This week seems to have gone by in a flash, I feel like last weekend's blog post was about two days ago. Christmas cheer has arrived. As well as bringing down the decorations from the attic (much slimmed down after my big clear out last year, I am now feeling sad about a few of the things I gave away) and starting to put them up, we had DH's model club christmas do and awards night at a pub.  Nice food and DH came home with four first place awards (in the boxes) as well as some 2nd and 3rd place medals.  These are his award winning models which he builds from kits and paints from scratch.  Well done DH!

I also had my bobbin lace friends around for our annual present exchange - this year I sewed pen holders on elastic that they can use on notebooks, address books etc.  I warmed up the first mince pies of the season: gluten free but still pretty good.

For the rest of my crafting this week, it has been continuing the same projects I have been working on:  the dollshouse, longarm quilting the embroidered blocks quilt, cross stitch on the christmas ornament, sewing binding on the Japanese tea cup wallhanging, knitting on the Christmas kep hat, and I finished sewing embellishments on the Australian BOM quilt.

 The latter is now completely done - I signed up to the BOM with the Australian shop 'Faeries in my Garden' in March 2021 when we were still locked down for COVID here in the UK. It wasn't cheap, but the packets arriving every month were such a treat and kept me very occupied for months during lockdown learning how to embroider and then crafting the intricate applique blocks. So altogether the quilt took three years and nine months.  It may be one of the best things I've ever made. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what to do with it now.  It's too fragile and precious to be used as a bed quilt, but being bedquilt size, it is too big to hang on the wall in this house.  Our last house had a great stairwell where I could hang pretty large quilts, but this house only has a large-wallhanging-sized gap between door openings in the hallway.

We are currently being battered by Storm Darragh - it's not too bad where we live, just strong gusts of wind roaring around the house and lots of leaves and small twigs down in the garden, and a fair bit of rain.  It sounds like many people are having a terrible time though, especially in Wales and along that western coastline.

Suddenly December

 The first of December today, and suddenly Christmas is looming.  We put up some outdoor lights on our porch yesterday, I've hung up my Petite Properties Advent Calendar (of 25 x 1:48 scale lasercut dollhouse furniture kits), got out my Christmas quilt for my bed and hung the first Christmas wall quilt.  The rest of the decorations will probably wait until next weekend.

I thought I would be finished my dollshouse build by now but no, the displaced dollshouses are still in the dining room.  DS is coming home forChristmas so I think I will probably move the houses back downstairs to the dollshouse room and perch them on the end of my building table so they are out of the way.  The house is in the final stages but still lots of finishing touches  I don't need as much room now that the wallpapering is done and all the house assembled.

Speaking of finishing touches, I sewed the binding on my Australian BOM quilt so now I can start sewing on the hard embellishments to finish off several blocks.  I left them off knowing that I would be quilting the quilt on my frame, and I didn't want to crush the embellishments or have them make the quilt roll unbalanced.  Things like a scissors charm, buttons etc.  I sewed the scissors on with invisible thread and found I am officially too old for the invisible thread because it is now completely invisible.  I had to get out the super reader glasses to even thread the needle.  Then when I briefly set down the threaded needle to get the charm ready, it just completely vanished into thin air.  I had to get a torch to shine light onto the shiny thread before I could finally spot the threaded needle on the ironing board.  Yeesh.  These are the first three blocks, there are several more that have additional embellishments to be sewn on.

The American concept of Black Friday sales, previously unknown in the UK, has now become quite a big thing here.  Did you succumb to anything? I ended up ordering several things that I wanted to get anyway, and a few other items that came up in videos - including a cheap set of Forstner drill bits which I hope to use to create a stronger hanging system for my current dollshouse build which is supposed to hang on the wall.  Forstner bits drill holes in wood but the holes have a flat bottom - without the central hole that results from using a spade bit.  I also came across a FB post flagging these hemming clips. It's hard to photograph them but each clip is marked with quarter inch marks to help you turn up an even hem on larger items like a skirt. They looked like they would be useful.

I've made a good start on this year's Christmas cross stitch project which is a free kit to make a hanging bauble that came with CrossStitcher magazine.  I've had to grid the aida because there are so many colours in the design, far too many for my limited counting ability.  This way I only have to stitch a 10x10 grid at a time.

I gave up on the video game my son recommended: Baldur's Gate 3.  It's based on the Dungeons and Dragons methodology and was far too complicated for me.  I just want to run around and explore and bash things with a single button - not have to worry about D20 rolls and skill tables etc.  I've started playing another older game that I bought several years ago, Fable Anniversary, which is able to be played on a much simpler level, more my speed.  I am having one big problem which is that the button used to bash opponents in all the games I've played for the last several years, in this game it unsheathes your weapon or stows the weapon away.  So I spend the first few seconds of each combat sequence taking my weapon out and putting it away while I run around shrieking like a little girl, taking heavy damage as I frantically mash buttons.  Old dog, new tricks.