Embroidery and yet another named storm

It's mid-afternoon on a Saturday when storm Darragh is doing its thing. Thankfully it's not my part of the country where it's at its fiercest, but even so there are very blustery winds and constant rain, and the daylight's already poor enough that I need the overhead light on. Actually I might put the twinkly fairy lights on too, just to make it extra pretty in here. The photo above is of my 'doodle cloth' - inspired by Jessie Chorley and her book 'Journal with Thread'.

I've also been working on an embroidered heart. Not sure yet if I'll turn it into a pin cushion or applique it on to a page of a fabric book.

The tiny seed stitches give a lovely texture, and I've mainly used that and overcast stitching. I've added buttons upcycled from clothing - which mainly came from charity shops - and added a butterfly which came from a broken piece of jewellery. There'll be sequins and seed beads to represent colourful glass pin heads, and I might add a silver coloured charm too. Maybe a tiny pair of scissors or a reel of thread.

Maybe you're also hunkering down indoors to avoid the worst of storm Darragh? If so, what else can we do but crack on with something crafty? I'm stitching away while keeping half an eye on a Christmas episode of 'Poirot'. Nothing like a good murder-mystery to while away the time. I'll leave you with twinkly lights, now turned on and strung over my fireplace. Sadly, it's not a working fireplace any more and houses an ugly gas fire that's hidden behind the pot plants. But the fairy lights still add that magical touch.

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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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