January 2026

 I have had a furtle through the phone photos for January and thought these might be mildly interesting!

I made a-some vinyl pouches with the Chertsey ladies a few months ago (the blue ones) but didn't like that the studs were on the vinyl as that seems likely to break, so I adapted the design a bit and added another section of fabric: these (the yellow ones) now work much better

I finished this hug quilt (yes I have done the binding since the photo was taken)

One I-Spy for a new baby, just need to do a second one for baby's cousin (honestly some friends are very greedy about grandchildren LOL)

Travelling to see *my* grandson means at least 75 minutes in the car.  If Brian drives I like to have something to do - my collection of EPP balls is growing!

I have finally finished my 2022 Easy Stack quilt from a Paula Doyle class.  I have rather fallen out of love with it, hence the crazy long time it took to make

I don't usually add labels  but the fleece backing moved a bit and ended up a bit small so I had to Frankenjoin a bit and it all looked a terrible mess, so the label is a sticking plaster to hide the booboo

We had a lovely late Christmas family gathering at mum's

A few new Gingers made an appearance: this one for Pie Appreciation day

This one for the RSPB bird spotting weekend

And this one for the RNLI SOS day

Brian made this for Jack - his dad made one for Lisa 34 odd years ago 

I'm teaching Paula's easy Stack at Chertsey on Friday, so though I'd show them the original idea and how much more complicated a Stack and Whack block was - and forgot to make the white  tall enough - doh!

More furtling this time next month.  For now, pictures of gorgeous boy!

December 2025

 Hi.  Hope you had a great Christmas, and wish you all the very best for 2026

Chertsey Ladies made angel and bell tree decorations in December (instructions here)

In November we had made vinyl pouches (see the blue ones below).  But I found that if the poppers / snaps weren't 100% perfect we had to pull against the vinyl to open the pouch and that was a definite weak point.   The yellow versions are the next evolution: a fabric band at the top of the vinyl rather than just bias binding, so the popper goes through fabric not just vinyl

I got a lovely dove kit for Christmas (thank you Plum)

And a Christmassy dish set that probably thought it was for foods but was perfect for the threads, sequins and beads etc for the dove!!!

A lot of Christmas Pudding Gingers were made and distributed

And of course one joined the other Gingers on my tree

We had a lovely evening making Christingles - 12 people, 6kg sweets and 56 minutes to make 106 Christingles!

   

This jumper was bought 18 months ago, with a black Peace sign knitted into it.  Removing the sign was more complicated than it should have been, and left a lot of dropped stitches so I ironed stabiliser on and tried to match the colours thinking some EPP might cover the mess.  I still don't like it!  It was threatened with textile recycling bin but Tara has taken it to give it some love - lets see what she does with it!!!

We had a lovely Studio session making candle and foliage centre pieces, thank you Lucy

Jackie send me a photo of her and the 3 older grandchildren last summer: with the help of ChatGPT I managed to create a recognisable likeness in embroidery so I made her this.  

I had a go at making a wedding image for her youngest who got married just before Christmas, but this doesn't look like them at all

So I gave up and sent them this instead with Ginger bride and groom

I've done some work on the Mandelightful quilt.  Each line takes about 20 minutes, and there are 134 lines left to go (please don't tell me how many hours that equals!!!)

So far I've done the section below the snips (on the right)!  It'll take a while!

I have also hand quilted this brick i-Spy quilt

And now we are in 2026!

Gorgeous Boy has been using his quilt and has been growing!

November 2025

 so . . . the bestest creation this year, or even this decade, is this young man!  Created by Niki and George, this is Jack!

I am in love!!!

We didn't know whether we were getting a Poppy or a Jack, so I made bunting for both names just in case

and an i-Spy quilt completed just waiting for the name at this stage

Other life went on as well: the Chertsey ladies made hessian pots

And I completed a model kit while waiting for the updates from George at the hospital

then this happened ❤❤❤

We put the bunting up - and George managed to avoid being decapitated!

Jack's first book and quiltlet

Jack at 1 week old

Other people had babies too!  This one went to my cousin in Norway's daughter and new granddaughter

And I went to a wreath making session

October 2025

 Well goodbye to October: the year really is picking up speed isn't it! 

I finished this topper for the lady chapel altar: we get the occasional bird or squirrel in the church so like to cover the altar cloth: we are currently using an old duvet cover so I made this

I

 also made a new altar cloth.  I don't have anywhere to lay out 2.5m so I moved into the village hall: we have a desk top ironing board so I could move the iron along rather than moving the cloth!

The embroidery is faint but there

I embroidered a few customer labels

And made a few taggies for some babies that have arrived recently (so many girls!) 

 

I did some hand sewing and made this bunny

Jackie visited and brought this fab nappy clutch for the baby

Nik has been working on two projects:  Obviously the 40 week body building project (less than 2 weeks to go!) and also a pathwork for her husband using the Southampton FC club shirts his dad bought him over the years: Not bad for her first patchwork quilt!!!

I started piecing a general i-Spy quilt then remembered I'd made a flimsy for the baby a while go but hadn't finished it (so that's what I'm now working on, no photos yet)

Niki and George's kitchen looked like this a few weeks ago . . .

And has now morphed into a real kitchen!  Well done Brian and George!

And because this post has been a lot about Niki and the baby, to finish here is the current position on Lisa's needle turn applique QAYG blocks - aren't they awesome