November furtle

 Gosh, so what has been happening in November? It’s been a funny old month, with some amazing highs, below is the temperature embroidery for October, you can see the cold coming in. This embroidery has been a great highlight of 2021. Seeing the seasons progress and move through their natural cycle is comforting in such a wild and wacky year.

We went on holiday!! We had a lovely 5 days away in Applecross, totally off grid! I managed to get a full mandala done, i do love a paisley pattern. I managed to embroider this on the wrong side! I embroidered this on the interfacing side not the linen side, but it doesn’t make a huge difference so i am leaving it as it is.

We haz a finish!!! Scoops doing his usual sterling stuff. This was the love and kisses pattern from the quilting with Liberty book by Jenni Smith. I loved making this but i think i took on a bit too much with 54 of these blocks to a tight deadline, but i loved making it and it is on its way with the Kels quilt i made to the Alice Caroline quilt SOS.

This was a definite high of the month, I had a weekend away quilting with chums!!! The lovely Ruth arranged a weekend away in a holiday cottage in Tyndrum. It was utterly fabulous, we all made the emmaline retreat bag, mine is the one in the middle. Just a super fab weekend, i think my main take away from this year is to fully appreciate what i do have and i have a lot, good good chums. 

This was the emmaline bag I made, a librarian chum was retiring so i used some of the last of my favourite library fabric, she loved it.

and thats about it for November, another funny old month in what has been 2 years of funny old months, my take away? Appreciate what you have while you have it.

Love and kisses - Alice Caroline SOS 2021

 And thats a wrap!!! Phew, squeaking in at the last minute is my second quilt for the 2021 Alice Caroline this year. This is the love and kisses quilt from the Liberty book by Jenni Smith, gorgeous book which Mark gave me for Christmas last year.

I made 54 of the 8.5 inch love and kisses blocks, great way to use up bigger scraps. A grey Louden was used for the background. This is some of the remainder of the fabric from one of my foraging journeys to Standfast and Barracks when they sold liberty seconds. So many happy memories of those trips.

You know me, organisation is key 😂

Lots of opportunity for funky fabric combinations.

At times it was a slog, I wont lie, I shouldnt have picked such a big project for the last SOS quilt, I think the fact that the KELs quilt was so quick gave me a false sense of security.

I gave myself some goals and deadlines to meet, this helped.

I love the quilt, and hopefully the recipient will too.

Real life sewing!

 What a view! Wouldn’t you love to meet up with real life chums, laugh and drink and sew and all with a lovely view like this?

Well thats just what i got to do! OMG just incredible, what an experience. After 2 years of zooms and mostly solitary sewing it was just amazing to get away with two lovely chums, to Ruths holiday home up in the highlands.

We had gin 😊 and this type required a pea garnish 😂 so we obliged, please note the snax in the background!

We decided to make the emmaline retreat bag, Sheena has never made one so we decided to talk her though it and its a nice small achievable project. So how is this for a gorgeous trio! So much fun, my bag is in the middle, I made a leaving present for a librarian chum.

Ruth went the extra mile and re created the Gartmore experience with mints in our rooms! There were a lot more in the dish but reader? I ate them 😂

Not content with that Ruth recreated our favourite sandwiches from the Guild area days, chicken tikka and coronation chicken! And they were awesome!

Beautiful sashiko placemats, I got the Mount Fuji one as befitting my Japan trip! I supplied the tunnocks 😊

Such a lovely cosy cottage, I love a wally dug.

Three very very happy amigos! OMG just the best weekend ever!

Applecross 2021

 Ahhhh Applecross, this holiday has been a long long long time coming 😊 but so worth it. We booked this way back in January. Self catering cottages in Scotland were filling up fast and we needed to get something in the bag. We saw there were cottages available in Applecross so booked up this wee gem, its the Jam Factory on the Applecross estate

One of the draws was the wood burning fire, it lived up to expectations! 

Toasty comfy feetsies 

Lovely kitchen

Hmmmm probably my least favourite part was the bed, memory foam …. Big ridge in the middle with slopes down the side. Not terrible but not great either. 

So cute, and a lovely location!

Sunday was the first full day and we tried to orient ourselves. The walled garden cafe was closed but we could still walk around the gardens. Still absolutely beautiful.

There  was so much reindeer moss on the estate.

We went to visit the graveyard, so interesting, the story of Malruhba who landed in 673 and is buried in this graveyard intrigued me so much.

Loved this one!

Above is the grave of Mahlruba

Monday was another lovely day, further exploring around Applecross estate and the villages along the peninsula.

How cute is this!!!

Love this man❤️

Tuesday was mostly a nice day so we walked to Sand! Great 11 mile walk, over 25k steps! which was brilliant. Not too much rain but a bit, amazing skies!

Us on the sand 😍

Wednesday was torrential rain, it just chucked it down, so we stayed mostly indoors and chilled, which was just right!

Utterly fabulous holiday and Applecross we will be back!