Hobbiton double wedding ring. I may be nuts.

One of the things I do when I'm a bit sad or overwhelmed is disappear into Peter Jackson's films of Tolkein, so recently I've been watching a LOT of the Hobbit.  It's not hard to explain why it's a comfort (provided you don't watch quite to the end).  It's got magic, and swordfights, and several outrageously hot sons of Durin, plus a Bowman, and beautiful scenery, and cosy hobbit smials.

I dunno about you, but I certainly would.

And while I was thinking about Bag End something struck me.  Hobbit architecture is mostly based on circles - rings, if you will.  I've never attempted a Double Wedding Ring quilt but it's been on my bucket list for a while, as I suspect it is for most Quilters.  It's one of those things You Should Do.

What better quilt for snuggling under in my own pseudo-smial than a nice hobbitish double wedding ring?  I dug out all my green and yellow scraps, those being the preferred colours of hobbits according to J.R.R, and got stuck in.  Paper piecing is a very soothing pastime so it's doubly perfect for me right now.



...I am vaguely thinking of piecing in one plain gold ring in the bottom right hand corner.  Is that too geeky?  Oh, who am I kidding.  As if there were any such thing.

LADDER STITCHED HEXAGONS. Invisibly tidy! A revelation! Who knew??

S'nice where we live.

Trainboy is off school sick (as you can see - they have a rule that you have to keep them off school for 48 hours if they puke, even if they are right as rain the very next morning) so we put on our sunhats and walked down the canal from Marsden to Slaithwaite.

And very lovely it was too.

Cheerful cotton zipped pouches with spotty linings! On sale tomorrow at the Marsden Mechanics Craft Fair.

That's the etsy shop stocked, time for a new project!

Padded hangers for bridesmaid's dresses

A commission for a friend of mine.  I tell you what, she's going to have the most outrageously stylish wedding, she's got phenomenally good taste.  :D

HAA HA HAAaaaa aaaahh omg this is killing me...

...I do so hate the quilting bit.  Ah well.

Hurrah!

on Saturday I bought this book, and when I got home I looked at it and thought "I'm an idiot, I'm never going to find time to knit those slippers". And then today, I got a surprise parcel in the post from a wonderful friend... with these slippers in. I even love the colour! :D

This year's version! (I have to make a new one for Trainboy every time he grows out of the previous T-shirt) #blog #magpiecat

Scrappy hearts!

These are turning out relatively quickly and are a rather fun last-ditch attempt to use up some stash before my Year of Scraps ends.  I like them especially because
a) they use up whites as well, and
b) they use up HSTs.  Ohhh how nice to use up HSTs!  I have stacks, due to my dreadful inability to sew them without also sewing up the little corners before I cut them off and saving them.

I'm being utterly undiscriminating with the scraps I put in, so there's bits of absolutely everything in 'em, and hopefully the white background will maintain some order.  It's really very refreshing, and they don't look too awful so far, do they?  Once I get enough for a quilt top I think I may sash them and turn them into something for Siblings Together or Soy Amado.  

TOO MUCH FUN ALREADY, MUST GO TO BED.

Playing around with some of my winnings from the Simply Solids raffle & scrap bins!

I'M A WINNER

And the winner of our raffle tonight was @themagpiecat! We raised £40 for @hdssg Yay!!!

A photo posted by Justine & Lisa (@simplysolids) on Dec 12, 2014 at 1:12pm PST

I had a bloody ace time this evening at the Simply Solids launch for Priory Square, by Katy Jones - bought lots of gorgeous new fabric and had a lovely rootle in the new scraps bin, too.  I do love scraps, for all I'm trying to reduce my stash...

Plus, there was a raffle, and I only went and won it, didn't I?  How's that for Christmas cheer!

Aaand finished.

My last bit of Christmas crafting done - a pair of stockings for my brother-in-law and his wife, commissioned by my lovely Mother-in-law, who has always been my best customer, bless her!

I forget where I found the pattern but you can find variations of it all over the internet, such as this one from Diary of a Quilter.  And now it is time for me to pack away the Christmas fabric 'till next year, and maybe get on with some Christmas Eating.

Tree's up!

Thursday was a smashing Crafternoon with Alison (there's a truly gorgeous photo of me in the link, be warned), whose stash of Christmas fabrics appears to have been dented Not One Whit by the enormous quantity of stuff she'd given to me!  We did some lovely hand-stitching and ate fab soup and pigs in blankets, which are frankly my favourite part of Christmas.  And at the end of it I had these lovely little ornaments.  Hurrah!

Look at this. Seriously, if this doesn't charm the pants off you then you're probably just dead inside.

Eye pillow and two lavender bags, commission.

Piles of neatly-starched 4.5" squares waiting for corner triangles + wicked, muddy hell-cat = GAHHHH

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Rather enjoying how these hexies co-ordinate with my cutting mat...

Fantastic birthday card designed by Trainboy for his cousin!

...there's even the right number of knobbles on each brick for both rows to fit together.  Genius boy. 

Happiness is a perfectly-nested seam...

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