Scrappy patchwork on a cold but beautifully sunny day

It's been a glorious autumn day. Chilly to wake up to, then the sun came out & shone brightly, so it was off to the allotment where the earth's softened up after recent rainfall. I was able to weed and tidy, trying to make the plot look respectable before the cold weather sets in and we slide inevitably into winter. At home I fitted in some sewing. The patchwork bug's bitten me again, after having a break and spending time lately with gell printing. I've been gathering up lots of tiny scraps and joining them together, going for a haphazard look. Nothing matchy-matchy or colour coordinated. There's something very satisfying about finding a use for the smallest strips or triangles of cotton, little pieces that might otherwise be destined to end up as cushion filling.

Speaking of gell printing, I've been using prints to turn into seed packets for flower seeds gathered from my garden. Hollyhocks, scabious, catananche. No calendula as hardly any of those flowered this year despite having masses of them last summer.

I'm thinking of taking a stack of these filled seed packets to my local library and asking if it's okay to leave them on a side table with a note saying 'help yourself'. Anything to encourage people to grow flowers and provide more desperately needed food sources for our under-threat pollinators.

I've been sewing more tags to go into the fabric book I'm making at my Saturday class, the second of which is being held tomorrow afternoon. This pair are decorated with motifs from a piece of shiny braid, and I thought they fitted in with my 'Winter Jewels' theme. I've also dug out a few of the boho style beads I made a while back, and can maybe add those to my fabric book, perhaps as part of the closure.

As you can see, I'm not exactly going for an understated minimalist look! Hope your week's going well, and thanks for stopping by my blog.

P.S. Just finished Richard Osman's latest Thursday Murder Club novel, 'The last one to die'. Brilliant storytelling. Highly recommended if you're a fan of the 'cosy crime' genre, and so refreshing to have older characters featured positively in novels.

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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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