This lovely block was waiting for me when I returned from my holiday.  It is the 6th block I've received since joining the Block Swap Adventure group.  I asked for the same pattern each month and said i liked bright colours but was not too fussed about what colour the maker chose to use.  Each block has been beautiful and  it will make a lovely quilt eventually.  I'm planning that it will look like a scrap quilt and the borders I use on it will pull all the different colours and designs together.

I've linked this post to

Patchwork Times  Design Wall Monday

I decided to give the cabled scarf a try.  The pattern is called Irish Hiking Scarf and the pattern can be found here

The cables stand out better than I expected.  It is a really easy pattern to knit and with this bulky yarn the scarf grows really quickly.  The hat and scarf will make a nice set and hopefully will keep me toasty warm during winter. 

Once again it's time to show what I've been knitting this week.

I have well and truly caught the linky party bug.  I've found a Wednesday party to join and I'm all excited about it.  Well here goes.....

Earlier this year I joined  the West Country Embroiderers and have thoroughly enjoyed every meeting I have attended.  The skills of some of the people in the local group are amazing and the range of work done stretches from traditional embroidery through patchwork and quilting to weaving and just about everything else that can be done with needle and thread.  Our next meeting will be our Christmas party and we have been asked to bring along a Secret Santa gift.  As I'll be on holiday for the week before the meeting I thought I had better get myself organised and sort out a gift now rather than be up till midnight trying to make something the day before the meeting.  I decided to make a pincushion as it should be useful for anybody regardless of what type of embroidery they like to do.  We all use pins don't we.  I used the instructions from the book Cathedral Window Quilts by Lynne Edwards and this little pincushion came together without any problems at all.  I plan to include a packet of pins as well just in case it's not obvious what it is supposed to be but I do hope the recipient likes it.

I'm also supposed to provide a raffle prize and if I have the time I will try and make a mug rug in some Christmasy fabric, well that's the plan anyway.

Went and had a look at Judy's blog again today and saw she hosts a Monday linky party as well as the Friday knitting one.  How am I supposed to resist?  Please go and look at everybody else's links, there is some beautiful, inspirational work being done out there.

I was recently given a new sewing machine to replace the one I dropped (don't ask memories are still too painful) and I thought the best way to get to know the new machine was to simply spend a few hours doing nothing but basic sewing on it.  But I also wanted to have something to show for it at the end of the day.  Out came my Accuquilt Go! and the 2.5" square die and I cut enough squares to make 14  large squares.  I used a 0.25" foot on the sewing machine and as far as possible strip pieced everything so that I had the longest uninterrupted sewing time I could manage.  Once finished I measured up using a 12.5" square ruler and these turned out to be the squarest, most accurate blocks I can remember making in a long time.  I've kept two back for cushion covers and the remaining 12 I'll make into a lap quilt.  I've just signed up to a Craftsy class called Sewing Big Quilts on a Small Machine and one of the chapters explains about quilting individual blocks and then joining them together.  I'm planning on trying this technique for this lap quilt.  It will be interesting to see how this new, very basic Janome copes with quilting.  I hope it does as well as it has with piecing.

I'm super organised for once, instead of leaving everything to the last minute and then running around like a headless chicken I've posted out my parcel out today.  It should arrive with this month's pen-pal before I fly off to Portugal so if there are any problems I have a chance to rectify them.  Carry on like this and come the end of the month I might actually do a proper blog post about who I sent too and what I got from my pen-pal.

While wandering around blogland, as I tend to do occassionally I came across Patchwork Times, a blog by Judy Laquidara.  She has a weekly feature called "On the Needles" that shows what knitting she has done that week.  She invites all other knitters to link to her post and show what they have been knitting.  Sounds like fun I thought and so I decided to join in.  Here is what is on my knitting needles at the moment.

There's not much I miss about going to work everyday but the office where I used to work was next door to a sports-club/ gym and I do miss the easy access I used to have to a variety of classes and being able to fit in a daily swim.  My fitness regime recently has consisted of a lot of walking and not much else so when I saw a Pilates class advertised locally I decided to join.  I thought I would try it for 6 weeks and see what I thought and how I felt about it.  Well, 6 weeks passed, a rest over half-term and the class started back today.  There I was with my mat and my exercise band raring to go.  I know tomorrow morning I'm going to ache in places  I didn't even know had muscles but its fun its social and its good for me.  What else could I ask for really.

The last time I visited my mum she mentioned that even with the central heating on and the gas fire alight she still sometimes felt cold around her knees.  As she was kind enough to buy a replacement sewing machine for the one I dropped and I wanted to spend some time getting to know its idiosyncratic ways I thought Mum deserved to have the first thing made on this machine. So I've made her a lap quilt, something to wrap around her legs and keep the chills away. The pattern is a variation of one called Chinese Coins, each coloured strip is 2" x 6" and the white panels are  6" x 44"   It is quilted very simply, in the ditch for the rolls of coins and some straight lines for the panels.  This has left it nice and soft with a lovely drape which is perfect for a quilt made to be used rather than displayed.  The only thing left to do is attach a label.  I've always been very bad at labelling my quilts but have resolved to be better as I have reached the point where I can't remember when a piece was made.

I'm still using the phone for taking pics so once again apologies for the quality of the photo.  Maybe Santa will treat me to a new camera.

A couple of months ago I joined the local branch of the West Country Embroideriers and each time we meet I find myself enjoying it more and more. It's fun to spend time with other people who share my obsession with all things fabric related, who understand that buying yarn and thread and fabric just because they look pretty is not a strange or unusual thing to do. The group meets on the first Tuesday of the month and usually has a tutor to teach a new technique. Yesterday the afternoon session was all about making Machine Embroidered Jewellery and the information provided beforehand said to bring sewing machine, lots of thread, some felt and a basic sewing kit. After my recent disaster with my sewing machine (both it and I took a tumble down some steps but I seem to have made a much better recovery than the machine) it was with some trepredation that I carried the new machine out to the car and then from the car park into the hall. Got it there safely and then nearly dropped it in surprise. I hadn't really taken any notice of the name of the tutor and so it was a lovely surprise when it turned out to be the lecturer who had been in charge of the City & Guilds courses when I studied them all those years ago. As well as having fun all afternoon and a couple of new fabric brooches to wear I had a chance to catch up with an old friend and find out what my classmates are doing these days. I can't think of many better ways to spend an afternoon.

Next month is Christmas party time and all I have to do by then is make a secret santa gift, make something for the raffle, make something for the buffett and take something for the show and tell. And this is supposed to be a nice relaxing hobby!