Stitch, Stitchin Away

I may have been away from my blog for a week or so

but not my stitching.

Far from it.

My hexagon quilt has taken over.

Every spare moment is taken up with hand sewing

the hexagons together.

The diamonds are all stitched together

as can be seen from the photo above.

I held it while Mike took the photo

just to show you that they are indeed all stitched together.

The photo was taken last week

and a dark green border of hexagons completely surround the diamonds now.

Next I will start filling in the gaps with rosettes.

It keeps me occupied while Mike is away.

He's been away in the UK for a week now.

So I am the sole looker afterer

of the Hounds!

In return for keeping me company.

In fact we have just come back from a walk.

We went by car first of all out of the village.

But everywhere is a bit muddy

and when they got back in the car

it was with muddy paws.

Oooops!

I then decided to have a short drive along the river.

Once again the river has flooded over it's banks.

It's done this a few times already this winter.

The photos below were taken on Boxing Day.

It's similiar to that now but without the sunshine.

Yesterday, I got a lovely surprise when I visited the Quilt Along blog of which I'm a member.

I discovered that I was the winner of a giveaway

a lovely book

on quilting of course.

So I am anticipating it's arrival.

Something to look forward to.

With a bit of luck

I may be as lucky with Noelle's giveaway.

She makes the loveliest of felt houses.

Do take a look.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

20 Minutes a Day

Yesterday I was due to fly to Dublin,
then from there fly to Newcastle,
and then travel by rail to Carlisle,
where my sister would have collected me,
by doing a 40 mile round journey.
I would have had to have set off from home at 5 am.
arriving at her home round about 19.30.
A long day,
and with so many legs to the journey,
a bit risky in the current situation with the weather as it has been in the UK.
There was no guarantee that I could have completed the journey.
As it happened, we had more snow fall here overnight
making the roads risky at this end.
To get to the airport
meant driving up hairpin bends in order to get out of the valley.
So the decision to stay was made.
I'm really pleased that I visited the UK before Christmas.

I haven't been out very much for the last week or so.

My foot is swollen and I don't know what's caused it.

So I've tried resting it to see if it makes any difference.

But it hasn't.

So I went on a walk today.

We crossed the river by car,

then followed the path that we have often taken.

We were able to look across over to our village.

You can see it in the first two photos.

The photo below looks down one of the vineyards.

They look very stark in the snow.

Yesterday, I finally got out some crafting bits and pieces.

It was about time I did something,

and I wanted to send a little something to my grandson

with his birthday card.

Yes, I was going to the UK to see my Grandson for his 5th birthday.

So it was good to make something after weeks of not making anything
I can't show you what I made as I didn't take a photo.

But I made something with paper.

It was nice faffing around.

It's something I'm good at.

So in order to keep the momentum going,

I've joined in with Fi

to do just 20 minutes of crafting a day.

It can be anything,

sewing,

crochet,

even some hexing.

Yes, I'll be doing some of each of them

and I'll endeavour to show them here.

Just to keep me going.

I feel so much better for creating a little every day.

Keeping Busy

Mike has been away these past 2 weeks or more.

So I have kept myself busy.

He's also got the camera with him so it's not possible to show any photos of what I've been up to while he's been away.

But I take so many photos anyway that I've usually got photos to hand for most eventuality.

So what have I been up to?

Well these chaps and chapess keep me on my toes.

Though you would never think it to see them in these pictures here!

Paddy has an internal clock that tells him,

(so therefore me),

when it is time for him to eat,

and when it is time to go for a walk.

He is very insistent,

if I don't respond straight away.

And once Paddy is up

then Rufus gets up

and together they vie for my attention.

Like jealous little children

If it was just Jewel and I on our own we could just cuddle up together.

She is very quiet in the house.

As can be seen from the above photos

they are typical greyhounds.

They like to spend a lot of time sleeping.

They are known as 45 mile an hour couch potatoes.

So when they are sleeping,

and all is quiet,

apart from a snore,

or two,

I have been sewing.

I have joined the Great Hexagon Quilt Along,

(I really must find out how to put logos on my side bar),

which is an attempt to complete my hexagon quilt.

Perhaps this year sometime!

Man vet aldrig.

What a useful Swedish saying that is,

(you never know).

I have also been doing some other sewing similiar to the ATC's,

(artist trading cards),

shown here.

I said in a previous post (Catching Up), that I would show these.

Today has been lovely and sunny,

a bit like the UK I believe,

so I thought I would add a suitable photo.

Blue skies!

Please forgive me for not adding links.

My computer just doesn't want to play ball.

Or is it just Blogger that won't let me?

Is anyone else having similiar trouble?

Another problem is the spacing just doesn't stay as I type it.

It re-configures when it gets posted!

Most frustrating.