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!

2024 September

 Hello again, I hope you are well

At Chertsey we made papoose pouches: I called them this as they made me think of a papoose for a Native American baby.  These are based on a design I saw on Facebook but it bugged me that it wasn't symmetrical so I redrafted it.  If you want the instruction PDF click here

My crochet project has been restarted a number of times, but I'm finally really pleased with the result, except I don't have enough wool!  Mr Amazon has been dispatched to get me some more, but for now I have to wait 

However the red to go with this bright rainbow yarn has arrived so I have started this.  However I doubt my ability to maintain the slight offsetedness each line so this needs to be frogged and restarted!

I haven't done much making myself, but friends and I made willow stars and lavender pouches

and generally had a great time on a girly weekend away (we worked out we've known each other for over 35 years!)

Back to the papoose pouches: I gave Plum the instructions on Monday and by Tuesday she's made this!

Hopefully more making next month!

2024 August

 Hello again from my corner of the blogiverse

The ladies at Chertsey museum took the idea of mini dwellings as pin cushions and really went for it - aren't these great!

This month we did some crayoned pictures: trace a picture, then crayon to your heart's content, on the back of the picture onto kitchen paper, until the kitchen paper doesn't show any colour, then stitch 

 

 

 

Jackie, Lisa and I went to Festival of quilts for the day: we saw Plums gorgeous Megan's forest mini quilt

And may have done some shopping!

We had a family day out to "scatter mum's ashes".  She had a lovely day!  For anyone who doesn't know, she wants her ashes scattered at sea when she goes, and we thought it would be a shame she wouldn't be there, so we have a picnic and a trial run!

Huge thanks to Rhona and Martin (and their boat) who made it a fabulous day

Blackberries from the village and apples from the garden

So I started this blanket is Texas.  I love the colours but I don't love the shape.  I was quite convinced I needed a chain between each shell, but apparently (and clearly) not.  I fell out of love with the shells too

So with Deb's help at coffee morning it all got frogged and I've started again

This time I managed a chainless foundation (yay, go me)

and I'm much happier with how it's going

I'm trying to get more into the habit or regular haircuts - so this

minus this

became this

I did a few patches for my friends at Windsor Baptist's church's community bakery

I cut a whole load of houses for a QYG village

and then we went on holiday: not too shabby eh?

We met up with family

 

saw beautiful scenery

and wildlife

and wool shops!

(six of these ladies in the public lounge were knitting!)

and we saw the northern lights!

and one off the bucket list: we travelled the Atlantic road

And finally an update: the quilt I made Niki and George for the wedding: totally appreciated by the youngest member of their family!!!!

(if you want more photos from our holiday there are here: https://hickleysonholiday.blogspot.com/2024/09/2024-hurtigruten-norway.html)