Flowers, a tortoise and a hare!

Okay, before I explain the above image, I'll witter on for a while about what I've been up to. Yesterday was a beautiful spring day, so I headed to the allotment. The wallflowers and spring bulbs are blooming, and the plum tree has plenty of blossom on it. Last year a late frost meant sudden death for the blossom and consequently not a single plum to be harvested. Fingers crossed this year will be better.

I took a couple of photos of the quilt I mentioned yesterday, the grid pattern improv quilt that's still awaiting its binding.

On to today, I had a walk into town to buy groceries, and decided I'd nip into a couple of charity shops too. Now, this is where the image of the Brian Wildsmith book comes in. I absolutely love the illustrations. They're so vibrant, and cry out to be interpreted in fabric, wool or embroidery. Ages ago I'd had a try at capturing the hare in a small piece of needlepoint.

I stitched it, thinking vaguely it might end up being a pin cushion, but it eventually got incorporated as part of a large needlepoint floor cushion. Anyway, I decided to try making something in patchwork that was based on another page of the book. This one with a mainly bright red background. I'd already got some reds and pinks, but could do with some more. Hence the intention to rummage around in charity shops.

Hmmm ... I came back with a cream coloured fleecey blanket, two paperbacks and two bags of mainly blue fabric scraps. Oh well ...

This is the image I want to - not exactly recreate - but do my version of, however abstract that eventually becomes.

I started playing about with the material I already have, including a vivid red Monsoon skirt I'd never worn so it ended up being cut up for my fabric stash. It featured a lovely embroidery of flowers and leaves. I've made good progress today, so will carry on tomorrow, and see where this latest quilting adventure takes me.

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Taking a blog break ...

Hello! And goodbye, at least for now. The blog's on hold for a little while as I'm easing myself into 2026 gradually. I'm still stitching and reading and enjoying life with Badger the cat. Even though he treats my sofa like a giant scratching post!

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...

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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