January!! (Photo heavy)

As well as the excitement of a brand new year, with goal setting and aspiring to keep resolutions, I think the beginning of January can also be a little sad. All the colourful decorations are taken down, the tree is bereft (see above) and suddenly the house looks bare! The decorations have to be carefully packed away, but I promised you I would show you some of my ornaments, some hand-made by me or by special friends, or some really special ones, tied forever to loving memories. We were supposed to be going down to see my grandchildren, to give them their presents this week, but the snow is so bad in the whole of Britain, (the worst winter for 50 years, according to the News tonight) we have had to cancel our plans. I was going to show these photos on the blog, when I was away, but it looks as if we won't get down for some time, so Christmas ornaments in February would look a bit strange!! A lot of my ornaments are a little 'tired', but they will never be thrown out!

I think I have mentioned Santa below. He is my all time favourite. My Mum got him out a Cornflake packet during the war (before I was born, I hasten to add), painted him red, somewhat faded now, and he has been on the tree ever since.

The next eight photographs are of ornaments I made for a workshop I used to run. Every summer I used to hold a 'Christmas in July' workshop. In the morning the ladies would make a lot of small items in a variety of crafts. They would then be given a Christmas lunch, with turkey and all the trimmings, sherry trifle and cream, tea and mince pies, and in the afternoon they were given the choice between two patchwork wallhangings. It was great fun, and so I have a lot of Christmas ornaments I made for the class.

Very simple wreath wrapped with ribbon

Cross stitch, wrapped over thick card, with either cord on its own, or cord and lace. (above and below)

Mini patchwork squares (about 3" - above and below) and material scraps pushed into a polystyrene ball. I also used 3D paint to edge the sledge - yuck!!

Lace gathered into a wreath and then stiffened.

Paper mache heads made into Santas.

A bad example of Suffolk puffs.

I am really proud of these. I made these with the ladies, but years later, I got my pupils with special needs to make these for Valentines Day. Every one of them managed it, even the boy with cerebral palsy, and he gave it to his Mum!

A crochet stocking. You start off with a Granny square, but on the last row you do some extra stitches, fold it over, sew together and you have a mini stocking!

I also have had some lovely ornaments from friends. This was a gentleman, who knew I loved beading, as much as he did, so he gave me these for my tree.
These ornaments were made by my Mum, who died over 22 years ago. She got a lot of mini milk cartons (the one you get in a cafe for your coffee). She emptied them, washed them carefully, and then got my son and daughter to help her decorate them. I love them!

I got my son to wrap up a lot of matchboxes when he was wee. This is the only survivor!
Thankful Thoughts

The weather in Britain has been dreadful. Snow, snow and more snow! We have had some hail and a little furry here and there, but mainly it has just been cold. I went out into the middle of the bay this morning with our dog. You can see the water is slowly coming back into the bay, and in the other photo, you can see the sun shining on our house. Aren't we lucky? Thank You.

tich

A Happy New Year!!

I want to wish all my bloggie friends ' A Guid New Year and lang may yer lum reek!" (translation = a good New Year and hope you have warmth for a long time) We had a very quiet time and were in our beds at 1.30 am. We stayed up to see the New year in and watched the celebrations on TV. On the stroke of midnight the big cannon (Mons Meg) at Edinburgh castle is fired and then the celebrations take off. There was a huge firework display, not only there but at most cities, and everybody wishes everybody else a "Happy New Year'. Inverness had to cancel the street celebration party, on the advice of the police, as it was snowing so badly. In Scotland, if you are celebrating at home, you can stay in like us, or go 'first footing'. Traditionally, a first footer took a bottle (whisky), something to eat (shortbread or cake) and a piece of coal. When they arrived at a friend's house, they would hand over the food and the coal, and everybody would have a drink from their bottle. In return, they would be given something to eat and drink. This meant that the house would never want for food, drink or warmth throughout the coming year. It was thought that, if the first footer had dark hair, the house would have extra luck. Fair-haired people were not so lucky, so the brunettes were always pushed in first.

Nowadays, most people do not have coal fires, and the old traditions are dying out. It is a shame.

Thankful Thoughts

Our house is lovely and warm, despite it being really cold outside. I have had a lovely turkey dinner, a nice glass of wine, and I will be having a big plate of trifle, a little later on, when I can manage it! I leave you with a picture of the turkey, almost ready to go into the oven. We cooked it last night, and I ate the bacon, just before New Year!

Till next time.

tich

Christmas and New Year

There is not much sewing going on around here, only a little by hand, so nothing really to show. I thought I would let you see some of my Christmas decorations, that I have made over the years. I usually put up a lot of wall hangings, but for some reason, I did not do that this year. I only put up the one shown above, which is my husband's favourite.

I have also included two pictures of us enjoying Christmas with our daft dog, Penny. I have on my hat, which I made for the Women's Institute Christmas hat competition. I got second prize.

We had our own turkey this year. We raised seven, and we will be having another for New Year.

I do hope you have a wonderful New Year and that all your dreams are fulfilled.

Thankful Thoughts

Turkey with streaky bacon roasted on top tastes wonderful!!

Merry Christmas (when it comes)

I got both trees up last night, one in the lounge and a smaller one in the conservatory. I adjusted the colour of the above picture and the next two below, but they don't look right. I decided this year to leave the tinsel off the tree. I usually smother it with tinsel, but then you cannot see the decorations. I have some decorations going back to wartime, and I have made a lot of them myself, as well. My favourite one is an old Santa in the front of the tree, near the red bell. Seemingly during the war (I wasn't born yet!) there were no decorations to be had. My Mum got the Santa out of a Kellogg's cornflake box and painted him red. He always goes on the front of the tree, and my sister and I used to fight, to put him on it. The tree looks very pretty and makes the room look as if Christmas is coming.

I found these two beaded necklaces, which were almost completed, so I finished them quickly in case I needed an extra present for someone. If I don't use them I will have two new necklaces. The top baggie is knitted, the bottom one is a brick stitch amulet. I decided I did not want a fringe on the bottom one. The colours are much nicer in real life.

Thankful Thoughts

I am so thankful I am not living on Mainland Scotland just now. They have had so much snow. They have had the worst weather conditions for the last twenty years. All transport has been disrupted. Roads and airports have been closed, and yesterday the Automobile Association was dealing with 1200 breakdowns per hour! We had a light fall of snow a few days ago, as you can see below - just like icing sugar on the grass, and the next picture shows what is left! It has been very icy, which is really unusual, but beautiful.

This was yesterday's sunrise -

and the bay today-

I do hope you have a wonderful Christmas and that Santa is good to you all! You deserve it!

Till next time!

tich

A Christmas Card for you!

I know, I know, I haven't blogged for nearly a month, but suddenly Christmas appeared on the horizon, and I started running from one activity to another, and did not accomplish much. To add to the complications, the building work is still on-going. The lounge had to be cleared, as the old fireplace was going, so I have had excess furniture in all the other rooms. We were getting a shed built and a porch added to the back of the house, so that mud and dirt would not be trailed through the house, as most people use the back door. The work has been gong on for months. The new fireplace is almost done, with only a wooden surround to be fitted round the hearth, the shed is complete, but needs to be modified, as it is letting in water and the porch is ongoing. Soon everything will be back in place, hopefully.

My machine has been red hot recently. I always make my own Christmas cards, and have done for as long as I can remember. I started out early, this year, with great intentions. I bought some designs from Emblibrary, and thought this would be a good way to learn how to use my embroidery module for my Bernina Artista 630E. The designs were fabulous, and I am delighted with the results. I learned how to resize, use multiple copies and change the positions of the design in the hoop (see below)

These are only some of the angels I made -

I also make my headers and inserts

The insert reads -

This little lacy angel

Brings you lots of Christmas cheer

And hopes you will have joyous times,

Throughout the coming year.

She’s made of thread and lots of love

That’s sent to you from me,

And next year, if you take her off,

She’ll hang upon your tree.

And this is what the card looks like -

I had great fun, but as usual, needed a lot more cards than I thought. It really is nice to hear from friends far away, and I always look forward to seeing or hearing what they have been up to. I also made Christmas stockings for the girls - but that is another story!

So ... I want to send this Christmas angel to all my bloggy friends. I don't have your addresses, but all my (and my husband's) best wishes are sent to you, for all the enjoyment you have given me throughout the year. Thank you so much!! (Please read on!)

Thankful Thoughts

As well as thanking you for all the great blogs, and the ideas I get from the blogs, I want to keep up the thankful thoughts. Who could not be thankful, waking up to a sight like this? This is the bay in front of my house, a few days ago. It was just after 9am, the sun had just risen (remember we have very short days just now) and the bay was empty. The picture is a little blurry, but you can just see someone on a tractor. Glorious, isn't it?

Till next time.

tich

Thanksgiving and Being Thankful

I was contacted by SewCalGal to let me know about another Giveaway, which looks absolutely wonderful. Go here to see the rules. She is dong this for Thanksgiving and it got me thinking. We do not have Thanksgiving here in Scotland, and I think it is a great pity that we do not. We (I) have so many things, for which to be thankful, and we (I) take so many things for granted. So, at the end of my posts, I am going to put a little thank you, for something that I see or that has happened recently. You can ignore it, if you want, but it is just my way of paying back and to say I am grateful. So today ...

Thankful Thought - There are an awful lot of things I am really thankful for today, but the one uppermost is that all the teddies for the Mercy Ships are finished (said with a BIG grin ). I have heard from the Mercy Ships, and the boxes should have arrived in Holland and from there they will go onto Togo, to be distributed to the patients. I also want to thank all the people in the island who made this possible. A grand job!! Thank you.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!

Till next time.

tich

UFO and Another Giveaway

My Bernina sewing machine embroidery module is working its socks off at the moment. No pictures yet, but I will take some soon, to show you what I am making. I pulled out a couple of UFOs to finish off, recently. I have a lot of these Shoofly blocks lying about. I used to teach Patchwork for Beginners, when I lived on Mainland Scotland. This was one of the first blocks I used, to show how to sew shapes together. I sewed on a border and stipple quilted the block. I am more used to very close stipple/vermicelli quilting, but I made it much further apart this time, to see what it looked like. I like it. I am going to make it into a cushion, but will have to wait till Monday or Tuesday to finish it, as I want to put some cording round the edge. I might be lucky and get some in Kirkwall, when I go over on Monday.

One of my favourite blogs is Nebraska Views. Lynn is such a talented lady, and she passes on what she knows in a great blog. Recently she blogged about the sites Quilter Blogs and Quilting Bloggers. I went across to these sites and spent ages looking at loads of wonderful blogs. I joined both sites, and the hits on my site have increased significantly. They are great sites and I thoroughly recommend them. Thanks, Lynn.

Have a look at Bejeweledquilts. This is the last week for the Inch Worm fabric giveaway. It is fabulous! Fabric to make the jars for the quilt below, and there is still time to win the quilt as well. It would look so nice in my hall! I want it! (See below)

Must go and have a cup of tea.

tich