MERRY CHRISTMAS

and a Happy New Year to all!!!!
I had an unexpected visit from my GS and eldest DS last weekend,, cheered me up to see them.

I am on no;29 of 31,, of my redwork blocks,, I do hope to get them finished very soon.
That's it for this year,,,,, have a great time with family and friends over the next few days!!!
                                                       XxX

Needles,,,,

How many of my lovely readers has packets of needles,,embroidery, chenille, beading, quilting,, just laying around??? I finally had the mojo to make something to keep them all together. It was a rush job so don't look to closely at the pictures.

 I decided to embroider NEEDLES on the case,,

I'm pleased with it,,, it does what it is supposed to!!!
A week or two ago, we woke up to a very cold, frosty, foggy morning.

I had to take a picture of this dog. Take a closer look,,,,,

I had put this stuffed toy dog out for the rubbish men to take away,, but one of my neighbours rescued it and put it out in our bin store. Looks real, eh!!!
                                                    XxX

I've been creating,,,

A challenge was set back in May, by a member of my quilt group, to make a quillow. Easy enough,, got the fabrics, got the idea, but no oomph to make it. And as the deadline for this is the first week of December I thought I'd better start. I kept to the KISS principle,,, Keep It Simple, Stupid!!

 Made from 6 fat quarters and a panel for the cushion cover. Plus some fleece for the back. It's for my Grandson,, once I have been to the quilt group show and tell. I was thinking of doing triangles, but I liked the fabric too much to cut it any more than I did.
DH and I popped into Dorchester the other day and visited the Dorchester Curio Centre,, antiques and things. I saw this lovely Jones sewing machine,,,, I was very tempted to buy it. Only £25!!!

Here's a closer view,,,

It was in a lovely condition,,,,
                                                         XxX

Pictures!

Once again,, not much creating,, but I did make Patch for a friend.

I just love that fabric.
I went to the Malvern quilt show last Sunday. The weather was awful,,, but I had fun at the show. I was very good and bought what was needed,, but I did have one impulse buy,,,

lovely stuff! Nothing in mind for what it will be used for!!
I have recently made a little more progress on my hexie quilt. I have been working on it for nearly four years,, but I only normally work on it when I go to my quilt group, which is twice a month.

It looks very creased doesn't it? I will want to quilt it by hand, once it is finished. I am having thoughts on how to do that at the moment. I reckon it will be a small single or lap size when it is done.

 This book was 99p from a charity shop,,,, it needed a new home!!
                                             XxX

Creations!

I have been creating,,,first up is

A Chocolate Loaf,, I have recently bought my first breadmaker and I am making the recipes out of the little booklet. I like chocolate, but this is a little too much,,, even for me!
Next creation,,,

A 3 zipper project pouch. This was quite fun to make,, I forgot that I was using a directional fabric,, which meant I had to cut it at the bottom and put a seam in, where the pattern didn't have one.
On the Popular Patchwork forum I am in a row by row swap. Each month we make a row for some one else. This is the one I made for Kerstin

It is 36 inches long and 6 inches wide. Don't look too close at the stitching.
I have progressing on my redwork quilt,, on number 22 out of 31,, so nearly there.

And I made a bag for my friend,, out of tea-towels,,,,

and lastly,, some wool for a shawl that I should have started today,, but haven't...........

                                                                               XxX

Blogaversary!

Well,,I have been blogging for a year today. Thank you to all of you that read this and leave comments. I was thinking that I should change my blog title. 'Creations By Caz' just ain't working,, not much creating going on at all!!
Over the last two weekends,, not the one just gone,, I have seen all 3 of my sons, and grandson. The first weekend I had no.1 son and GS,, and we went to see no.3 at Portland Harbour, down near Weymouth. He works on a cruise ship,,

The one facing the camera is no.3 son. He is still growing,,, he is a full head and shoulders taller than me now. We were allowed on board to have a look around. This ship is fairly small compared with other ones,, but it does have up to 1800 passengers I think!
The following weekend DH and I drove up to Grimsby, to see son no.2. He is in the Forces, and will be going away soon. It was his idea to visit him, so we could meet the GF properly and meet her parents. No pictures of Grimsby,, but here is,, a picture of me and son no.2,,,, I have warned you,, I don't normally do photos,,,,

Handsome pair, eh!!!!
When my GS was visiting we went to Trago Mills near Newton Abbott,, they have a fantastic garden centre. No,, I don't have a garden, but if I did,,,

My son no.1 and GS,, sitting on the Italian garden display. Brilliant displays throughout the whole of the place.
I am up to no 18 on the redwork blocks for my quilt,, slow progress. My son no.2 has asked me to make him a wedding quilt,,, in the colours of tangerine, navy and cream!!! Just those,,,, I am thinking of Dimples or Spraytime,, or maybe Kazoo (?) fabrics,, and this quilt,,,

I will have to make it bigger than the size in the book.
                                                             XxX

Bank Holiday!!

As everyone knows,, a Bank Holiday in the UK usually means rain, rain and more rain,, and yesterday was no exception!! DH and I both had the day off so decided to go out whatever the weather.
Neither of us had ever been to Woolacombe in North Devon,, so off we went. On the way we stopped in Tiverton, a nice little town.

Clock Tower

As you can see,, it was a grey day!! The clock tower was gifted to the town by Thomas Ford.

And as you can see,, this is Edward The Peacemaker,, he became King when Queen Victoria died!  We had a cup of tea in a little tea-room called Mallards,, recommended should you visit Tiverton!!
We headed off for Woolacombe,, in the never ending rain. If we all waited for nice weather in this country (UK), we would never go out!!

The people in the sea were mainly youngsters with their wetsuits on and their bodyboards! No,, I didn't dip a toe in the water,, it looked cold!! We then headed over to Ilfracombe and had some fish and chips in the Ilfracombe Fryer! By which time we had had enough of the rain,, so decided to take a slow drive home!
I have been working on my redwork patches, but no pictures, I am up to number 16, out of 31. I usually work on them when sat in front of the TV.
I went to the car boot sale on Sunday and picked up,,,,,,,,,

70 skeins of DMC and some large pieces of stitchery fabric for £10,, bargain! And a couple of other bits. A DMC skein can cost anywhere between 70p and 95p, depending on where you go!
The other day, I had a glass of water and put it on the floor for a moment,, it must of had a wet bottom,, because when I went to pick it up I saw this,,,,,,,,,,

                                                                   XxX
and as I am writing this, the sun is shining!!!

New Post

What better word for a blog post,,, but this week I did get some lovely post from the postie too!! First up is a bag that was made,, for me!! I call it my M T bag at the moment, until I fill it!!

It was made by Marian and is a one-off!! Visit her blog to see more of the same,, but very different!!! Marian called my bag 'Check out the flowers',  cos of the fabric!
My next parcel was from Liz,, and as I don't do E-bay,, Liz very kindly got me a generous yard of some fabric,,

that I love. Absolutely no idea what it is going to be used for,,, but it is brilliant. It is by Timeless Treasures.
DH and I had a day out to Sherborne, in Dorset, the other day. It was a scorcher of a day, I didn't expect it to be that hot!!

The gold post box is outside the post office and it celebrates the gold won in the Olympics by local Peter Wilson. And if you can see the name of the cafe, The Bakery Cafe,, we went in there for a cuppa,, and a slice of cake!

 This place has been here for 3 years or so,, and we have never been,,, we will be going again!! And a nice picture of the Abbey to finish with,,,

                                                                       XxX