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Final post for 2025 (I think. I mean, unless anything amazingly wonderful happens that I can't keep to myself any longer ...)

  The days are marching by at record speed, and I've finally - possibly - bought all the presents I need to buy and written all the Christmas cards I need to send.   I decided not to put up a full-sized tree this year as I'm convinced Badger the cat would simply view it as a climbing frame, and I'd find it toppled on a daily basis.  Instead, there's a small green tree, and a simple white twiggy one that has lots of vintage baubles dangling from it.  To be honest, I prefer the twiggy one, so the green tree might be permanently retired from now on.  I've not gone crazy with the decorations, but there are various strings of fairy lights that look so pretty when they're lit.   I have - between internet shopping and baking mince pies - made a little fishy pin cushion, decorated with seed stitches, French knots, chain stitch and stem stitch.  I'm on the look-out for grey tweedy material to make another fish as I think that'd look better than plain ...
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Stitching plants and a new exhibition to wander around ...

Hello from a grey, rainy-sky Yorkshire.  I'm sat on the sofa, waiting for the parcel man to deliver one of the few Christmas gifts I've actually got around to buying.  I really need to get a move on with deciding what to buy people.  I did venture into a few actual shops yesterday, but the impatient crowds, queues at tills and endless jaunty Christmas themed songs being played wasn't my idea of fun.  Online shopping's the way to go!   Right, on to crafty matters.  I was in Leeds yesterday for the last Stitch Art session of 2025.  It was themed around a new exhibition, ' Plant Dreaming '.  It's a beautiful display of paintings, photographs and textiles, plus some fabulous ceramics that I really coveted.   I think these ceramics are by Aliyah Hussain.   Hopefully you can see enough, despite my poor photography.  I also loved these massive wall hangings that were pretty much floor to ceiling.   They make me wan...
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Shetland wool and messing about with felt

I haven't been posting much on this blog lately, apologies for that.  I'm easily side-tracked and forget how quickly the days speed by.  I've treated myself to a couple of books, so no change there!  The 'Stitch, Fibre, Metal & Mixed Media' is a book I'd borrowed from the library, and liked so much I wanted my own.  It's secondhand, as is the 'Modern Folk Embroidery' which I picked up for a bargain price and I've had on my list of books-to-buy for ages.   I love these fabric baubles from the 'Stitch, Fibre' book, and had a go at making something along these lines.  I'd had the idea about three years ago that I wanted to learn needle felting, thinking I'd make lots of cute little animals and dazzle everyone with my needle felting skills.  I acquired a boxful of supplies and - guess what? - I didn't get anywhere with that craft.  My enthusiasm fizzled out.   Anyway, literally years later, when I decided to make a version of ...
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Badger!

  Here's Badger, looking like the little cutie-pie he is.  He's settled in so well, is absurdly affectionate and eats anything and everything I put in his food bowl.  The only fault I can find is that he likes to sharpen his claws on the side of my sofa.  This is despite having two scratching posts, one of which is part of a cat tower that's taller than I am!  I may have to try trimming his claws, but I don't know how Badger will react to that.  Anyway, expect to see more photos of him, so sorry in advance for any of you who aren't feline fans.    Apart from gazing in admiration at the cat I've continued to experiment with embroidery.  I really can't decide whether this mainly pink piece of stitching is something I like or just a dog's dinner of a mess.   This is another embroidery I've been stitching.  Frankly, at the moment it looks like it should be lobbed straight into the bin.  I'd painted with a mix of watercolour pa...
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Badger's not a badger, he's a cat ...

  (this is a crazy looking piece of embroidery I've been messing about with.  It's not exactly subtle & minimalist, is it?!!) I'm about to become a cat owner again.  Or should I say a cat caretaker as we don't really own the creatures, but merely act as their willing servants and admirers.  I visited the local Cat Protection Homing Centre earlier this week as they'd shown a kitty on their website that suited me nicely.   He's called Badger, and he's an indoor only cat as he's got FIV.  It's a virus that weakens a cat's immune system.  He can't infect people, but if he scratched or bit another cat he could pass it on to them.  So I can adopt Badger and not feel guilty about never letting him outdoors.   I've been thinking about adopting another cat for ages, ever since my Emma became seriously ill and had to be put to sleep.  But my neighbours had two cats hit by cars, so I decided it was safer to have an indoor only pet....
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Inspired by tyres? Maybe not as weird as it sounds ...

  This photo will make sense in a while ... but before I get around to that I'll show you my latest charity shop finds.  It'll probably come as no surprise that I've bought yet more books.   The Quilting Arts Idea Book in particular is a fab bargain.  Full of inspiring photos and techniques to experiment with.  Someone once paid twenty seven U.S. dollars for it, which makes me wonder how it ended up in a West Yorkshire charity shop. Another two novels can be added to my To-Be-Read pile.   All four books for a mere £2.50.  I also picked up these bottles of drawing ink, which I've not tried using before, taking my total bill to £4.49.  I left the shop with a smile on my face and change from a fiver.   Now, to explain that photo at the beginning of this blog post.  Wednesday was the day for my monthly stitching group at Leeds Art Gallery.  This month we were looking at ...... tyres.  Yup, tyres.  Burst car tyre...
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