My angel:


I can't remember exactly which year I made this, probably about ten years ago.

My new Christmas present/blogging tool:


Yes, its a gorillapod, as seen on Rosamundi's blog.

Happy Christmas for tomorrow

Happy Christmas!!!

If I get round to it later, I will edit in a photo of the angel from the top of our tree. I made her a few years ago, two or three years after we got married. She is from plastic canvas (this is the ideal use for it), and sits in the top of the tree.

I know lots of bloggers seem to make every decoration they have out. This is one of the few homemade ones we have.

My tastes this days seem to veer more towards sparkly glass. This gorgeous little Swaroski Christmas tree would fit right in. No, I don't have one, but isn't it gorgeous? Maybe it'll be in the sales...

I succumbed

To Ravelry, that is.

Look at my place on the list:

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Sad, isn't it?

Failure to Crochet

Two days running, I have taken my crochet with me in the hope that I'll be able to make some progress on my "Learn to crochet blanket", whilst filling in waiting time.

Day 1: deliver child to school hall approximately 50 minutes before the concert is due to begin. Spend 5 minutes in the car, then go to hall. The mother of Kiddo's friend is the only person queuing at the "Box Office" (aka table outside hall). Go in to hall together, sit down together. Feel guilty as we discuss the book she is holding (Northern Lights), in case she really wanted to read it during the wait (she has many children under 12yo, who all seem to do at least two after-school activities each). Don't get out my crochet.

Day 2: I sit in the car near the teacher's house while t'other Kiddo has their guitar lesson. Normally the lesson is 4.30pm - 5pm, so it is usually cold and dark in the car. Today the lesson was 4.00-4.30, meaning it was still light. I made sure the ball of wool is in my handbag, then drove to the lesson. Get ball out of bag. Look for hook. Continue to look for hook. Empty out bag, look for hook. Conclude hook is not in bag. Wonder how I can fill in the next 30 minutes with no reading matter available. Copy infrmation from old diary to new diary. Mess round with phone, entering ICE number, where ICE is this idea rather then the Institution of Civil Engineers.

I took my Patchwork to Patchwork Corner

A very long time ago, I posted pictures of my leaf quilt. (Then I managed to delete all the photos I uploaded, so don't go expecting pictures.)

This is it yesterday.



After I had finished the top, I started piecing the back: the inspiration came from old brick walls, where the bricks are varied in colour: each brick is 25cm by 5.25 inches. That size got the maximum number of bricks from each metric fat quarter.



Unfortunately, what with one thing and another, progress completely halted. My sewing machine stayed put away, the quilt was in its bag.

Finally I got back to the bricks a few weeks ago. Originally I spent a lot of time rearranging the layout. This time I just sewed them together without worrying too much about optimal placement. Every so often, I layed them out and occasionally would unpick one seam and resew a different set.

Earlier this year, I'd seen Ferret's list of services. One thing she does is to baste quilts using her long-arm quilter. This would save me a massive amount of time on the next step. So I took it down to Patchwork Corner, for her to collect.

Then I had an even better idea. Rather then basting, could she do some, but not all, of the quilting? The answer was "yes", she could. So we agreed that she would baste leaf motifs over the background - the earth colours - and leave the main leaves for me. So that is what she did.



Yesterday I went and picked it up. Patchwork Corner has some well-designed quilt hanging displays: you can pin your quilt to a beam which is raised and lowered using a pulley. I took these pictures while I was there.

Who ikes old books?

You know the wallpaper you can get, the one which looks like shelves of old books.

The new British Library at Kings Cross doesn't have it in their cafe.

The cafe at the new British Library building (opened 1998) has a very modern glass wall.

The other side of the glass wall is a wall the size of the building, extending above the ceiling of the cafe and below its' floor.

It's not a brick wall though: this building-sized wall is an expanse of real, old books. Really old books. Real, really old books.

(And what's more anyone[1] can walk in to the British Library and go to their cafe.)

([1] Assuming you don't mind queuing for a while to have your bag searched, and being prepared to explain that in the small bag in your bag is a knitting needle and some new fabric bought in Libertys, and that other object is just a crochet hook... )