UFO Challenge

I'm rather excited. I've just joined my very first quilting UFO Challenge.

Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts has started a facebook group for people who have multiple UnFinished Objects and want to do something about it. Over the last few months I've been trying to work on a schedule of finish two projects, and then I can start a new, little one.

Hopefully this will mean my stack of UFOs will decrease!

Today, I've been working on my Muppet Babies quilt.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, David and Ben.

This year's cake has two tiers. The pink top one is luscious lemon, and the white bottom layer is a rich, dark fruitcake. The lemon layer has lemon cream cheese icing, and the fruitcake has been marzipan-ed. Both have been covered in fondant, and the cake decorated with licorice allsorts.

Lemon Cream Cheese Icing

150g butter 150g cream cheese
600g icing sugar
zest of 1 lemon

Beat the butter, cream cheese, lemon zest and half of the icing sugar in a bowl. Reduce the speed of the mixer, and then incorporate 1 tablespoon of icing sugar at a time until the correct consistency has been reached.

Use the icing to decorate cakes.

The icing can be frozen for up to 3 months.

Christmas Stockings

They are finished! For a second time!

I had not realised when I made them last year there was to be a flap with names embroidered on. But, it's not a problem, and they are truly finished.

Mini Christmas Stockings

Two mini Christmas stockings have been made for work, and I've been asked to teach a workshop on how to make them.

A pattern will follow in due time.

Sugaridoo QAL

I'm in. I'm going to take part in my very first Quiltalong!

It doesn't start until later in November, but by that point I will have finished the Christmas Tree for Refugees. The QAL is broken into monthly parts, and will run for a year. There will be new techniques and methods of piecing. I'm so looking forward to it.

Cat's Kitty Socks

Yarn: King Cole Merino Blend 4ply
Composition: 100% Wool
Colour: Black
Yarn: King Cole Merino Blend 4ply
Composition: 100% Wool
Colour: Pale Grey
Yarn: King Cole Merino Blend 4ply
Composition: 100% Wool
Colour: Pink
Pattern: Cat's Kitty Socks
Size: adult
Needles: 2.5mm
Amount used: 100g
Started: 29th Aug 2019
Finished: 2019

This is a reworking of YinYang Kitty Ankle Socks by Inorgaknit. 

Using 2.5mm needles, cast on 64sts. Join.

Work in 2x2 rib for 20 rounds.

Declutter The Understairs Cupboard

It's time once again to declutter the understairs cupboard. It was done earlier this year, but quite a number of items were put back in the cupboard to be donated to a charity shop in good time for Christmas. This feels like a good time.

I've recently decluttered the sitting room again, and there's a pile of games we no longer play waiting to go to a charity shop. It would be good for this collection of stuff to leave the house tomorrow.

I love the feeling of space that's generated when things leave. Last week I was feeding a friend's cats. Her house is physically the mirror image of mine. She is also a maximalist. It was fun seeing so many interesting things in her kitchen, but I could not live with that much stuff. I greatly prefer a tranquil space.

Breast Cancer Screening

I don't want to do it. I don't want to go. However, it's one of these things that is necessary.

A few years ago, a friend was asked to be part of a pre-50 breast screening trial. In her screening, cancer was found. It was far too small to have been detected by monthly self-examination. If it had been left until she was 50 her treatment would have been far more invasive, and her prognosis nowhere near as good.

I still don't want to go, but I will go. Partly it is out of respect for my friend. 

----

Done! That's it over for another two years. 

Cry Me A RIver

And the rain fell. It surely fell!

At the weekend, there had been some heavy rain, and with a major rainfall (two weeks rain in 1 hour), the water was not able to soak into the hills, or flow into the drains. It ran off into rivers, and along roads.

Laxey was originally a little fishing village at the bottom of a glen. As the population grew, houses were built up the sides of the valley. The roads to the houses often proved to be the path of least resistance, and the rain falling on the hills very quickly drained into the river. There was just too much water for the river and drains to cope.

In the picture above, there's a digger in the river, and what appears to be a second river flowing alongside the original. The Department of Infrastructure had breached the wall by the river, and placed the digger in the river. The intention was to excavate some of the river bed to make flooding less likely. However, the timing was such that the digger became part of the problem. The water was not able to flow as quickly as it had to navigate around the blockage of the digger. Also, the breach in the wall meant water was able to escape the river at a higher point than it would have done if there had been a whole wall, and no digger.

The Beloved was on-call and was out in Laxey helping people. He set up a rest station in the local church, and also deployed sand bag to help divert water.

October Goals

1. finish Christmas stockings
2. write and publish the 'Simply' patterns
3. sweep the kitchen floor every day
4. blog every day