The First Week of December

The first week of the month has flown by in the blank of an eye.

I haven’t done a great deal of crafting, but that is OK.

Firstly, I finished the secret stitching, which didn’t take long.

Next, I removed all the papers from the Wensleydale Quilt blocks.  It was a good, mindless task to work on at my Wednesday patchwork group.

However, while doing so, I discovered an “Oops”.  Can you see it?  Yes, I had accidentally trimmed one block on the stitching line instead of the cutting line.  Just as well I had made 61 blocks and that this one was not one of my favourites.

For my Friday stitching group I was at a bit of a loss as to what to take along.  My first choice was to start my oatmeal coloured knitted beanie.  I had attempted to make a start the previous week at my Wednesday group, but do you think I could count on the casting on row? Not on your Nellie.  I put it aside for another day.  Well, Friday was the day.  Before I headed off, I cast on, putting stitch counters along the way and then was very careful not to twist the work when I joined in the round.  Then, I knitted the first round of rib, only to discover that I had in fact twisted it.  I put it down in disgust, as I was running out of time before I had to head in to the group.  

In its place, I quickly grabbed a cross stitch bookmark kit that I had bought in Wales back in 2018.  Surely I could at least make a start on that, and it would match my pretty tin.

I stitched the first colour and then started the second, only to discover I had missed a row of the pattern.  Blast!  Don’t you hate that !  I really should learn not to take cross stitch to my stitching days.  I will undo what I have done and start again, but that is a job for another day.  However, now that I have got it out I would like to complete it fairly soon.

After I returned home I picked up my knitting and had another look at it.  Guess what?  I hadn’t twisted my join after all.  It was just the way it was sitting.  Believe me, I was one very happy cookie to see that.  I was ready for a win.

This afternoon, while watching the cricket I made a little bit of a start on the ribbing.  I won’t do much more, as that will be good to work on this coming Wednesday, which will be our last for the year.

Speaking of my stitching groups, my Friday U3A group had their final day on Friday, which was followed by a lovely lunch.  We will catch up for lunch at some stage during January, but don’t return to our usual Fridays until February.  The Wednesday group also had a lovely lunch on Wednesday.  All very social.  We will continue to get together except for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

One of my December wishes was to extend the length of my linen knitted top.  Well, today I finally bit the bullet to get things started.  Firstly, I stitched up the side splits, before trying it on to see how much more length I want to add.  Well, you know what?  It didn’t look too bad once the splits were stitched up. I can get away with it….just, so I have decided to leave it as it is.  It will be fine for wearing around home and for very casual outings.  I wouldn’t mind knitting another version of the pattern, but a tad longer with no side splits, as it didn’t turn out too bad otherwise. We’ll see.  Good intentions often don’t get to be realised.

In the background, the inside of the house now has the decorations up.  Mick has been really busy at the bowling club, as they had their annual tournament this weekend.  He has been helping prepare the greens and grounds over the last couple of weeks and they received lots of positive comments, which was nice.  The plan for tomorrow is to get the outdoor lights up.  We are running a bit late, but better late than never, as they say.

We have continued to have rather variable weather.  Fortunately, the frost failed to eventuate, but we are glad we covered the veges, just in case.  Since then, we have had a maximum of 36C yesterday, with wind gusts of 85 kph.  Today, was much better, being calmer and cooler.

In the garden, the flowers have moved on from spring with the hydrangeas now flowering.

The fiejoa is just starting to flower, which will attract lots of little birds and hopefully provide a nice crop of fruit in the autumn.

In the vege garden, I picked the first zucchini yesterday.  For tea tonight I made Garlic Zucchini Bites.  Another new to me recipe that sounded rather nice.  The recipe calls for, among other things, zucchini, garlic, parsley, oregano, basil and chives, all of which I have been able to pick from our garden.  The egg is from our mate’s chooks.

They were definitely a success.  The recipe called them an appertiser, but they were nice for an easy Sunday tea.  The dipping sauce was also our homemade tomato sauce.  It was nice to be able to use so much of our own produce in the recipe.

Now, to go back and watch the end of the cricket test in Brisbane.

My December Wishes

December, the final month of the year.  I can’t quite believe it.

On the stitching front I don’t have a great deal planned.  

The main priority is to remove all the foundation papers from the Wensleydale Quilt blocks and get them stitched together into a flimsy.  I’m rather looking forward to playing with this one.

I have a little secret stitching to still complete, but that won’t take too long.

The blue and cream linen top needs to have its extension created, so I can actually wear it, once the weather finally decides to become summery.  I do hope it works out.

On the non stitching front, who knows?

We do have to get our Christmas decorations up very soon.  They should be up by now, but we have both been a bit otherwise occupied.

We would like to sneak in a couple of Christmassy outings.  If they happen they do, but if they don’t it doesn’t matter.

I bought a few Christmas themed novels at the recent Lifeline Book Fair, so would like to read at least one.

While I’m at it, check out their beautiful Christmas tree.  This was used for Santa photos, which would be so much nicer than some of the ones you see.

Christmas Day will be rather low key.  It will be a very different day, being the first one in 60 years without seeing my Mum.  Obviously, Mick will miss his Mum too.

In that rather strange few days between Christmas and New Year Mick will be glued to the tele, watching the Boxing Day Test of cricket.

I will keep up my new tradition of completing a jigsaw puzzle.  I came across another quilt themed one earlier in the year, so it has been placed at the top of the queue.

Oh, and I am receiving a nice Christmas gift.  I’m a tad excited.  More on that as the time arrives.

And Now for November’s Weather and Our Backyard

Oh boy!  What a crazy month it has been.  I know it is spring and you get changeable weather, but this year has been a little crazy.

Traditionally, November is the month where the weather starts to warm up and we are done and dusted with frosts for the year.  The rule of thumb is that you are safe to plant your tomatoes and other frost tender veges after Melbourne Cup Day, which is the first Tuesday of the month.  We plant ours well in advance, but are always watching the weather forecast and are ready to cover the plants if needed…..You can see where this is going, can’t you.

Welcome to the ghosts in our garden.  We tend to cover our veges if the forecast is for 5 degrees C or less, as our yard seems to be colder than the official temperature.  We had a light frost two days after the Melbourne Cup.  Then, can you believe it, we had another, much heavier frost on the 12th.  That burnt some of our plants despite being covered.  Fortunately, they all bounced back.  Lots of people lost their veges that morning.  There was another light frost the following morning as well, but no damage, as we had everything covered.  Our dahlias weren’t covered, so took a beating, but they too have come back.

Now, we are currently officially in summer……. 

This was our temperature yesterday, 1st December.  That was at 2pm.  We did reach the lofty height of 17C very briefly.  The wind was up to 59 kph and we had a late shower of 4mm.  Welcome to summer.

It got down to 4.7 degrees C this morning and they are forecasting a minimum of 3 degrees C tomorrow morning, so everything was covered last night and will be covered again tonight…just in case.  That’s crazy…but not unprecedented, as Mick had snow on Christmas Day once when he was a kid living not too far from here.

To the other extreme, we have had a high of 34 and later this week they are forecasting 36. Some areas have already been up to the 40s.

The other main feature of November’s weather has been the wind.  It has blown and blown and blown.  A week or so ago we had a wild storm with our highest gust reported as 89 kph.  Other towns in the area had winds up to 120 kph, with lots of damage.  There were several large trees down here with some damage to buildings and cars.

There hasn’t been much rain and the benefit of any rain had been depleted by the wind.  We have had a few Extreme Fire Danger days with total fire bans.  Fortunately, no major blazes have broken out.

Despite all that, our garden has been flourishing.  

We have picked our first strawberries and raspberries.

The beds of berries and silver beet have been netted to keep the birds off.

We will definitely have tomatoes for Christmas and there are several zucchinis that will be ready to pick in the next few days.  The garlic is ready to harvest and the onions aren’t far off.

Our little cactus flowered on the weekend.

Mick has been doing some DIY in the backyard too.  The paving under the seats in our raised vege beds were looking a bit rough.

He decided to spruce things up a bit.  That looks much better.

I’ll finish with some random flower photos, just to show that it isn’t all doom and gloom.

And to finish, a posy of flowers from our garden for you to enjoy.

Stitching Update for November

As you can guess, with my obsession with the Wensleydale Quilt, not a lot else had taken place on the stitching front.

Having said that, there is a little to report.

Firstly, my linen knitted top.  I had wished to have it completed.  That happened…..sort of.  You see, when I tried it on, the top section fitted beautifully and the knitted fabric had a lovely drape and I don’t need to wear a camisole, as feared…but…… it is way too short.  It has side splits that now end up half way up to my armpits.

Not to worry….I have a plan…..

I will simply stitch up the side splits and then comes the big experiment….

The plan is to pick up the cast on stitches and knit more of the garter stitch, the same as the bottom band and work another three or so inches to the length.  Fingers crossed it will work.  Regardless, it will be a nice comfy, cool top to wear at home, if nothing else. 

Remember, it was just yarn I picked up at an op shop, so not great financial loss.

Next, I needed some hand stitching to work on at my stitching days.

I worked on the free Anni Downs Christmas stitcheries that she has released over the last few years.  (You can find them on her website and Instagram sites.)

Firstly, I completed the 2023 release that I had started in October.

Then, I traced and stitched the one from 2024.  I do hope she releases another this year and then, hopefully, I will make a Christmas quilt incorporating them and a collection of other Christmas redwork stitcheries that I completed during Covid that were released by “Love and Hugs Australia”.  It will be nice to get them out of their box.

And, that’s all I did.  Everything else will still be there for another time.

How did I go with my 15 minutes a day?  Pretty good.

November = 28/30

Year to date = 259/334 = 77.49%

Wensleydale Blocks All Done and Cleaning Up

I did it!!!  I managed to get all the 60 blocks (plus one extra) completed by my self imposed deadline of 30  November.

Here are the last 21 blocks.

And a quick collage of the completed blocks. This is not the final layout.  

My next job is to remove all the foundation papers and then I will play with the layout on my “design curtain”.  

I’m really enjoying making this quilt.  I hope to have the top finished by the end of the year, if not earlier.

Of course, after such a sewing marathon, there is the mess to clean up.  I have already put all the main fabrics away and also tidied them up, which was needed.  All the scraps are colour sorted in bags, but need to be put somewhere.  A job for another day.

Today it was clean the sewing space.  Firstly, my machine. I had cleaned it before I started, but thought it would be a fluffy mess after this. However, I was pleasantly surprised.  As you can see, it still needed a clean, but not nearly as much as I had feared.

My sewing table was a different story.  It hadn’t been cleaned for some time and was a real mess.  As in get the vacuum cleaner to dust it.  It looks so much better now after a good deep clean and polish.

Next, for the cutting table.  The right hand side was piled with “Stuff”.  It has now been removed and the table and shelf above given a good clean.  It looks so very much better and makes me want to start doing something new.  I’ve hardly done any machine stitching this year and now have a renewed enthusiasm.  (The “Stuff” is all in a bag to be dealt with later.  Not sure what to do with some of it.)

Last week I gave the top of my cupboard a good dust.  Now, that was like an archaeologist dig through the dust.  Definitely another vacuum job.  I know it is cluttered, but I do like all my little bits and bobs.

The dresser top also got a good dust.

It feels so much better to have them clean.  There is much more to do to get my happy place back to being “happy”.  It will happen over the next few days.

By the way, after a few months I have my empty bobbins to add to the yearly total.  Not a lot, but there was quite a bit of thread on those cardboard spools.  I’ll share my dismal yearly total at the end of next month.

Now, to get back to playing.