Alphabet Quilt.

I've been working on this alphabet quilt all year, and I was just about to post about it 'in progress'  during the summer when the person it's for put a comment on my blog, eek I didn't realise they were reading it, so I had to save up posting about it until after Christmas!
 I  took some of the squares along on the boat on our summer trip to do embroidery on them, it was  a great way of relaxing in the evenings.

My original layout

 B is for boat, O is for owl, and C is for cat.... of course!

I had a vague plan it would be a summer birthday present, but  I realised there was no way it would be finished by then. However, I did get it finished for Christmas.

Terrible picture, but you get the idea, I was in a rush to get it in the post..

Finished quilt, backed and edged

I'd better start on next years sewing project now ...

Christmassy pictures

I know there are lots of pictures of peoples Christmas trees and decorations out there, but I've got a new computer and I wanted to have a play with it. I also wanted to show off my sweet table decorations, my tree that was a 'potted tabletop tree' from several years ago that has grown to quite a respectable size, and a really sweet home made present from a lovely neighbour

Tiny flowerpot with a potato stuffed into it
decorated with cake candles,lichen
and garden prunings

Handmade sweetie filled cones.
The sweets will be devoured
and the cones kept to decorate the tree next year

Well this has taken me ages, but I'll get faster with practice.
Off to drink more mulled wine and start (or is that finish?) eating chocolates...

I won a book.. and some shoes.

I've only entered a few blog 'giveaways' (in brackets because I'm not comfortable with the word). I only enter them on blogs I follow anyway or have recently discovered and plan to keep looking at, so I was really shocked when I won this book. It's a great book, and is really relevant to stuff I'm doing at the moment, and workshops I'm thinking of running. So a huge thank you to Sue. This is her image, and hopefully (if I have the hang of the technology!) if you click on the image you can go to her post about the book (or click on the link below)


http://suebulmer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/book-review-alternative-art-journals-by.html

Also a huge and belated thank you to my friend up the hill who made these for my birthday. This is her picture as I've become very lazy about taking photos.

My husband ordered them for me and there was some complicated and amusing shenanigans to find out what style and colours I wanted!The final result is that I have The MOST WONDERFUL and MOST COMFY shoes ever.
I can't tell you how much I love them.
Click on the image for her blog, and I love the tiddley poms (tho they wouldn't be at all practical for a country girl like me) and I think I want some merryweathers for Christmas, or is that just being greedy?!!