Market Day

Normally when travelling back from a holiday, I usually feel a bit flat, wondering about the next time I'll be getting away.  However, I didn't have time for that after Cornwall - Finn and I drove back on the Friday, I spent Friday night unpacking one load of holiday clothes to do the washing, and then packing another (smaller) bag with weekend non-dog related clothes for a weekend in London with Andy.  Phew!  On the Saturday morning, I said goodbye to Finn who was having a weekend with his Nan and Grandad!  And headed for the train station to get myself down to the big smoke.  It was bitterly cold so I was wearing a LOT of clothes that day!  

Andy was working for part of the weekend, so had booked us rooms in the Ibis hotel on the Whitechapel Road, which is a ten minute walk from Liverpool Street Station - so handy.   He met me at the hotel for check in but had to get back to work - I spent a leisurely couple of hours reading, getting ready to go out and watching Strictly.  I'm so rock'n'roll!  

Andy didn't have to work on the Sunday though and so we had a fab day wandering around the markets of East London - Petticoat Lane, Spitalfields and Brick Lane.  It was loads of fun and I loved it!

I took Andy to the fabric shop on Petticoat Lane which is the cut through from station to hotel - every time I'm down, I stand outside and gawp in at all the gorgeous materials. I think they were a bit lary for Andy though, so I'm still not sure I'll ever be making a purchase or, indeed, a dress from these.

Next stop was Spitalfields where Andy bought me a new hat .....

I really needed it as it was so cold.  Tres chic, oui?!  (Andy said that, although I could get away with wearing it in London where anything goes, I might look a bit of a knob wearing it back in Norwich.  Charming!)  This photo was taken in a very nice pub in Shoreditch, where, sadly, I hadn't spotted the big rumtopf of hot mulled wine on the bar before putting in my order of a white wine.  

And talking of cold, Andy bought a coat too, but tried on at least one other!

This is the Belstaff which he tried on - the one he actually purchased was a very smart Barbour.  He's such a country gent!

Beer bottle top man.

After another saunter, I made amends with mulled wine in another hostelry in Brick Lane.

I could quite cheerfully have sat here all afternoon, but it was soon time to wander up and down the length of Brick Lane again.

We bought some glasses in the market to have our prosecco back at the hotel room - we didn't fancy using the plastic tooth mugs again!

The day went really quickly, and we soon headed back to the hotel to try and warm up and get ready to go to Tayyabs for dinner.

Such a lovely day - really enjoyed just mooching without aim - must try harder to do more of that!

Tada! "Animal Crackers" Quilt

This quilt is a triumph!  It started off originally when I chanced upon a really wacky piece of fabric on ebay.

I loved this!   So I checked out what other bits of fabric this seller had and discovered a treasure trove of bonkers animals wearing human clothes!

There were eleven of these animals in total so I designed a quilt where the central panels would be made up of the eleven animals, and Shannon advised on the colour scheme for the main blocks of colour - of supposedly red and grey, but, once purchased, looked more pink and beige!  Hey ho, you can't win them all!

This was the original hand drawn design which I soon set up on an excel spreadsheet - I bloody love Excel!

Colours too!

We lost all our power at work one day so couldn't do any work - shame.  So, instead, I had printed this sheet off in advance which had the measurements on, so I cut out my templates for the main blocks using some old yellow card I found in the stationery cupboard.

I took the size of the biggest animal panel as my basis for the (nearly) squares - the animal fabric was so very thin that I needed to back it so I bought another contrasting colour fabric - aqua - to sew the animals to, so they were thick enough to work with.  The boxer dog was slightly smaller than the other animals, so his square is the only one with the aqua fabric showing - shame really, but there was nothing much I could do about it.  I did stick him in the middle though so there was some symmetry going on!

I started off by sewing stripes of the design - so I had big long strips of fabric to work with.  As each strip was done, I needed to press open the seams and then use my ironing board to pin the below strip to the one above.

This is a strange photo - freshly sewn and pressed strips on the ironing board and Finn laying in the background - perspective all a bit skewed in this!

The ironing board was up for days!   (Not that I used it for any other ironing of course!)

This was in it its roughest form - with no wadding or backing fabric.   The wadding was lovely and thin and came from Taverham craft centre.  The backing fabric was sourced for me by Mo from Knitters with Attitude - and in fact we spent one of our meetings (when Amanda, the eventual recipient, didn't attend) checking out "stitching in the ditch" on Mo's internet!

All that was left then was to find some contrast bias binding and edge the quilt.

This was the most painful job of all as I had to pin through four layers of fabric and one layer of wadding - my fingers were shredded to bits.

Still, it was completely worth it and I'm thrilled with the end result.  So thrilled and excited in fact, that I totally forgot to take any photos of the completed article!   (I'm hoping if Amanda reads this that she might send me some photos so I can edit this post.  Hint, hint ...)

Odds and Sods - December 2015

December is busy every year - there's always so much going on.  But this year we had the added bonus of Mum and Dad's 50th anniversary celebrations (post to follow) and also a trip to Coulsdon to see Mary and Jim to drop Christmas presents off.

The weather was incredibly mild (although as I type this in early January, we have a severe cold snap forecast - oh good).

This was my first Christmas present - opened in the office early December on my last shared working day with Tracy, my room mate.  So thoughtful - I've never had a hamper before and was quite overcome!

I managed to get everything done in time this Christmas - with no IOUs to hand out on Christmas Day.   I felt a little smug, I have to admit, but also a little flat in that I'd run out of things to do mid December so was constantly thinking I must have forgotten something!  I hadn't!

Sid spent some time with us - and the boys tolerated each other just long enough for me to get a snap before Finn escaped upstairs to bed.

I discovered a new cushion pattern and I love this - I knitted it with a random chunky yarn, but with silver thread knitted alongside it.  And finished off with silver buttons.   Love this pattern - will definitely be making more.

Finn and I spent a lot of time snuggling up on the sofa - as always.

And this is me and Mum visiting Mary before Christmas, where I appear to be sporting a rather fancy head dress!