The Star of Christmas

Our little Christmas Elf on his first Christmas - he had a lovely day although the whole experience passed over his head!  But he loved all the company, attention and most of all the new toys to feel and play with.

Look at me!!

 Caroline and Nic did us absolutely proud - their first Christmas Dinner was a total success and there were ten very replete folks.  So a big thank you goes to them and we look forward to next year!!

Poppy has found a nice resting place at home and will miss the tree when we finally take it down.

So Happy new Year to you all - let us hope the weather improves and 2013 is alot drier and all those folks that have suffered so terribly with floods this year can recoup and get their homes back in order.

 Happy Christmas to everyone that reads my blog - I know I am not very good at keeping my blog updated and I could mutter a News years Resolution to be better in 2013 but you probably will all realise that that would not happen!   Anyway for all of you that have persisted in reading my missives - thank you so much - and all the best for 2013 (it would appear that the predicted End of the World did not occur - phew!)  So I wish everyone a lovely Christmas and will update again in 2013.

Our adorable cat is so spoilt she has her own chair and quilt and as hers was in the wash I let her have my radient star - she thought she looked particularly attractive and decorative on it!

 Rob has been busy in his workshop making money boxes - these three are for three very special little girls as part of their christmas presents - but he is very pleased with them and has been requested by a lady at work to do some for her early next year.  He also has to make a box for Barbara so I think he will be kept out of mischief in the workshop for a while.

Poppy was totally exhausted watching me wrap Christmas Pressies - honestly I had taken up too much space and only left her the corner of the spare bed!

It has been busy at work and Angela, Dawn and I did a jelly Roll Race quilt last weekend - Dawn is yet to finish hers, but Angela and I have got our orders on now - you can see the photos of them on our www.facebook/artandstitch.co.uk page.  Anyway yesterday whilst Angela was teaching the Christmas Club Group I decided that our teacosy at home was a total disgrace and we needed a new one - so I threw this one together as quickly as possible and have to say I am well pleased with the results.

Well best show willing and see if there is any jobs that need looking at in the shop.  Happy Christmas to one and all.

last weekend was The Christmas Quilting Retreat at Debden with Anne Stacey - Hilary joined me and she thoroughly enjoyed her first trip to Debden house.   We woke up to a beautiful frosty morning on Saturday and this was the view from our bedroom window.  I started three different projects  and have finished none!!!!!  It was a superb weekend great fun from start to finish with great company and Anne leading us as always.  Hilary did loads of her Christmas tree and tried some new projects too and was well pleased.

As and when I get some of my projects into an acceptable state I will take some photos.

This is my project at home at the moment - I fell in love at the festival of Quilts with Ans Schipper's display of quilts and purchased a kit - one just had to !!  Anyway subsequently I ordered her book from her in Holland and it is a lovely book

 Anyway this is where I am now with all my hexagons.  I started doing hexagons on the flight to and from Canada and at odd times when I was sitting with a spare moment - though there were not many of them.   It is such fun and putting them together is just like a jigsaw puzzle - my son Mark was fascinated when he came for his tea.

I have used  scrap fabric all the way through - bits and bobs found in my sewing room - so I am rather pleased with myself for that.

Then I just had to share this - on Monday Leo who now has found he adores yoghurt - also loves making a mess too!!!

Update

At Aston Quilters we have just finished our Mystery Quilt and decided to start a new project - we all like the idea of New |York Beauty so here are my first blocks - the colours are so vibrant and oh I love foundation piecing.  All the ladies have chosen great colours or are using up some scrap fabrics and I think they will all look super.

Well my clever husband - ooh I like saying that!!1  Had a stall with some of his wooden boxes that he makes in his workshop - he is amazingly good even if I say so myself and he virtually sold out.  It was just a taster to see if they sold and they did so now he knows what sort of items to make and what will go well.  The money boxes were a real favorite

This little gorgeous girl is the latest member of our family - Ericha got Paul a kitten for an early christmas present - Cleo she is so cute only eight weeks old but so cheeky.

Over due post

 I hadn't realised how long it was since I put a post on my blog - I have to confess to having been somewhat dispondent recently - felt that I have so many UFO's to complete and let it all get somewhat on top of me.  Fortunately I have a wonderful husband - and he listened to my woes - poor Rob!!  So I am going to make a concerted effort to get on top of the unfinished items and try to relax and enjoy sewing without feeling pressured.

Well I have been working on this quilt since before my wedding - but it is finally together - I have done it as quilt as you go - which has enabled me to quilt each block seperately and I made a template and enjoyed myself doing them.

We had a visitor to the shop on Wednesday - and of course I am not at all biased !!  Leo was not interested in the fabric - but the bowls were great to chew on - then he gave Dawn a lesson in how to use our ruler - although his idea is everying in his mouth at present!!

Then I just am so pleased with these - Angela had designed these stockings and was persuaded to do a course here last week - well I kept listening to all the instructions and hey presto I have made four of them.  Dawn has made one and is going to do another.  So these will be nice for Leo and our three little girls this Christmas.

So hopefully I will not leave blogging for so long - I love reading other blogs and find them all so interesting and then feel that I really have very little to say so I procrastinate and do not blog!!

Wimpole Hall

 The way to spend a lovely Sunday, - we met up with some good friends - we all met on holiday and we have been meeting up regularly to keep in touch.  It was a lovely day - a bit grey and overcast but - we had so much catching up to do we didn't really notice that!!

Wimpole Hall is fabulous - the house is lovely and everytime you visit these stately homes you learn something different. 

The National Trust did us proud in the restaurant the roast was gorgeous and the afternoon cream tea yummy - all along with lots of chatting - who could want more!!

I had to take these photos of the dahlias in the wall garden - okay I know they are not all dahlias - but the colours were so beautiful for the time of year - lovely to see them on a grey day.

Whilst we were in the walled garden there was an enormous flight of canadian geese flying over - the noise was deafening - I did try to take a photo but on the phone it was not successful but it was a magnificant sight.  We didn't venture too far into the grounds as it was all so wet underfoot and you would have needed wellies or walking boots and none of us has come equipped - so of course coffee, food and more food were all the order of the day.  Looking forward to our next planned meeting at Anglesey Abbey in February to see the snowdrops.

I really just had to share this with you - my clever husband - oh doesn't that sound good!!  Has been busy making a Toy Box for Liz & Tom (Rob's daughter) to have in the conservatory for when the three little girls visit.    Tom has three lovely daughter's aged 4 and 6 - but toys take up such a space and they do not have lots of space at present.

But isn't this just marvellous - Rob has been making it - started before we went away - but now it is finished and ready to go to its new home.  I got the easy job to make the seat cushion, but I made it reversible as the girls love pink and lilac - but Rob wanted nice tonal colours so - good old William Morris came to the rescue and we have the creams and beige one side and the girlie colour on the other.

The seat lifts up and hey presto the toys are tidy - well that is the plan.

Caroline  (my daughter)has now put an order in for one for them as Leo only has a plastic box for his toys and Anthony (Angela's son) would like one for Ellie's toys as well - so it should keep him out of mischief for a while.

We had a great class last week making pumpkins and here are my three - it was good fun and we all enjoyed ourselves.

 Well I have spoken to lots of ladies who have been looking at my blog - so here are the last photos of the potted version of our honeymoon in Canada.

We went to Grouse Mountain on our way way across to Vancouver - it  had a wonderful view across to Vancouver and back to Whistler - the cable car was quite high!

It is a very popular weekend location for folks from Vancouver to visit and they do lots and lots of different events to attact the tourists.   This was a lumberjack show which was so funny - they really knew how to play to an audience but it was not tacky as these things can be sometimes.

My one sadness of the whole trip was I had seen no bears - we had numerous sitings of bears allegedly whilst on the Rocky Mountaineer - but as the train was travelling at considerable speed it was always very difficult to be sure if what we had seen was a bear.  One lady was crying bear at what was most certainly a Cow - so I honestly think we were all so desperate anything would have done!!!

Anyway on Grouse Mountain there were two bears in captivity, they had both been orphaned and hand raised so could not be returned to the wild - but we saw two bears!!! 

Next was Vancouver by this time it was early evening, and we headed for Stanley Park first.   It is an area of Vancouver, the same size as Yorkshire, designated as a Park.  It is again frequented by all residents of Vancouver, as they all live in large apartment blocks without their own gardens (if they are central Vancouver) they jog through it, ride bikes through and stroll.  The photo above was looking back towards Whistler and we could see the cloud coming down, quite dramatic.

This old fella lives in Stanley Park, there were a group of several and they disappeared as soon as they saw humans, but this old boy was not so quick and we managed to get a photo.  Apparently they are quite a pest in the park, scrounging off picnics and at the food stalls.  But they are quite vicious as well.

The sunset from our hotel balcony, on the 30th floor overlooking the ocean. 

We really wanted to visit Granville Island (not technically an island - but known as an island)  We had read of the wonderful market and the diverse shops and stalls over there.   It was absolutely fantastic, the fruit and veg were all so enormous and beautiful, the meat stalls well the size of the steaks would have fed a whole family not just one person!!

The stalls and other shops were absolutely fascinating and we meandered our way round for several hours in seventh heaven. We found a shop selling so many dyes and indian printing stamps - oh the buttons, oh it was absolutely to die for.  The Patchwork shop was fabulous as well - then the woodworking shop had Rob in absolute seventh heaven.

The little ferry that took us over to Granville Island - very cute.

We had trip from Vancouver to Victoria, it was on an island a little away from Vancouver and was really interesting - these gardens were  started many years ago by a local family and they are maintained so beautifully - not a weed or leaf out of place.

Well that is the potted version, as you can imagine we took many many more photos - and all too quickly the trip of a lifetime came to an end.  But we have some wonderful memories to recall.

So now back to normal life and back to the family.   Which in itself is fabulous and we are so very lucky.

I hope those that read this blog have enjoyed sharing this with me - I have enjoyed writing it as by doing so it has bought back some lovely memories fro me.

Honeymoon Part II

 The Honeymoon Part II - well I promised more pictures - you will all be wishing you hadn't asked about it!!

The Rocky Mountains were absolutely fabulous - everyone moment was a wow moment - the First Nations (politically correct name for the Native Indians)  called it a Yo Ho moment - all of the Waterfalls were so spectaculer and in September they are about at their lowest - so obviously in the spring when they are in full flow after the thaw what would they look like.

We went on a Boat trip on Maligne Lake to Spirit island - it was a superb trip and the scenery fantastic - the island was named by the Native Indians 

Now this Moose is superb - they are very private animals and stay away from folks totally, the guide on the boat trip said this was the first one she had seen this year and our tour guide has not seen a moose for about five years - so we felt very privileged to see the two of them.

Long Horned sheep - they are really parochiel and feel the roads are theirs - and they saunter along in no hurry at all!!

When we got to Jasper we went white water rafting it was the most spectacular afternoon - we all got totally soaked and the guy organising us - well rowing - was determined to get us as wet as possible and headed for the most turbulent stretches of water.

Then from Jasper to the Rocky Mountaineer - it was everything I had dreamed off, spectacular scenerey.  we were lucky it was not fully booked and we had a whole carriage to six of us so - we could move about freely and enjoy the scenery.

When we got to Whistler - we were staying in the  Olympic Village which was very modern and lovely - the hotel room was more like an apartment and was great.  Anyway we took ourselves off on an off roading excursion into the surrounding countryside - great scenery and places you just could not imagine.   These are the falls with No name - great title!  

From Whistler we headed towards Vancouver via Capilano - this is a beautiful canyon with a suspension bridge that swung all over the place.  And the modern skywalk which was right out over the canyon - it was fantastic.

Well this is a very potted version of the tour but suffice to say it was actually fantastic.  From Capilano we went onto Grouse Mountain - but unfortunately Blogger has now decided not to upload anymore photos so this is the end of this section.  From Grouse Mountain to Vancouver then we went to Victoria Island.  I shall try to put the last few photos on at a later date!!