Finished square

I finished the square for the Lifeways project.  This is depicting the Midsummer parties we have there each year.  

Each of the family is now stitched down along with the bunting.  In the bottom left corner is a squirrel and at the bottom right are two little hedgehogs - they all live in the garden.

One of the joys of sitting in the garden in the summer is the sight of the swifts (top right) zooming across to access the loft spaces in the houses along the road.  Sadly we don't get them but I love to hear them screeching as they head at full speed towards their nests.

In the evening the bats come out to feed over the garden (top left) and they're a joy to watch too.  I wanted to put in more but when I did it started to look too cluttered.  Knowing when to stop is always difficult!  With me it's usually knowing when to stop talking!!!

Finished leaves

I did start to put beads down the centre of one of the leaves but then decided it was 'overkill' and took them off!!!  

As they are able to twist and turn I thought it was daft to have them just down the one side so they're going to stay naked - except for the edges.  

This is one pattern where the reverse join is invaluable when turning around.  Here's a link on how to do that.

I'm not sure whether I'm happy with the placement of the leaves on the inner three but maybe I need to move the chain up a bit at the sides.  I'll wear it (probably) and see. 

Two giveaway dangles

I realised that I didn't have many dingle dangles left to give to people so decided that now would be a good time to put that right!!

I don't make Christmassy ones as I've realise that people like to hang them up in all sorts of places round the house and then like to leave them up all year.  Or am I just speaking for myself?!?!  Probably it's just me being lazy that I tend not to take things down to replace them.

So, which pattern to use?  In the end I thought I'd use this one.  Here are the first two.

There's a mouse in the house!

As it's getting towards the silly season I thought that the mouse pattern would be appropriate.  

I remembered this poem " T'was the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse." so that got BC3 thinking it would be a good idea to add her first to the pattern pages.  I've put a link to the whole poem on the first line with the explanation.  

This is Miss Anonymous and she can be found here.

Monday moan

Today it's all about Covid and it's long reaching affects.

I had planned to put in my application to teach at Palmetto next year and all the patterns were ready to send.  All I had to do was get the application form done (it all has to be in by December 1st) and send it off with the patterns but before I did that I thought I'd better check with my travel agent about flights.

My dear friend, who I spend the last week of my trip with, has moved house and is now nearer to another airport so I thought I'd check if I could do the return flight from there.  That's when things went down the pan.  

The lass at the travel agent couldn't help at all.  She said they'd no idea how flights were going to be next year (looking at August) and couldn't give me any advice at all.  It seems that the airlines aren't going to be getting back to 'normal' anytime soon.  

This means that I'm not going to try to 'fly the pond' next year as I don't want to be put in the predicament where flights are  suddenly cancelled or changed or even more transfer problems too.  I think old age is creeping up and I'm not prepared to give myself the worry of taking the trip.  

I'm just so sad.  

The final leaf!