A Stitch in Time

The last three weeks have been pretty hectic, both at home and at work. We've had guests to stay, had a wonderful bit of decorating done (thank you RJ for our beautiful new staircase), and been out and about a fair bit too. I feel like I haven't had much time for knitting and stitching so this weekend has been a very welcome craft-fest!

The weekend kicked off on a high note when the door knocker heralded the post man who was carrying a divine parcel of happiness from the fabulous folk at Fabric Rehab. The photo on the left shows the material which I'm hoping will turn into a Beach Hut pattern quilt from Jane Brocket's Gentle Art of Quilt-Making. I bought a super-duper quilt ruler on Saturday morning (and the most gorgeous muffin cases ever seen - thank you Dinghams!) and I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in, cutting out a trillion 2" x 8" strips! 

In the meantime, my first patchwork project is coming along quite nicely. I've machine-stitched all of the pieces into strips and pressed them all nicely, so I just need to sew the strips together, buy some wadding and backing fabric and put it all together. I think that the part I'm most looking forward to is the actual quilting part - hand stitching each of the squares through all of the various layers. I'll report back when it's progressed a little further. 

On the needles, the navy aran from my mum is now in its third incarnation! It started off as an asymmetric cardigan, then it was going to be a capelet, but now I'm rather hoping it will be comfortable as a Danica. Fingers crossed that third time will be a charm. (Didn't I say something like that about the my afghan blanket? Hope I'm not spotting a pattern...)

I've not fallen out of love with Instagram yet and have been snapping away at every opportunity! Here are some edited highlights from February:

 

I've read a couple of pretty good, albeit completely different, books in the last couple of weeks, Trespass by Rose Tremain and The Radleys by Matt Haig. I've just started Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor which has a slightly odd start, but I have high hopes that it'll be every bit as good as If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things and So Many Ways to Begin. I've also watched a couple of movies, The Social Network, which was really good and surprisingly moving and Black Swan which I enjoyed less, but mostly because I was expecting something beautiful and art-house not the horror movie it really is. (The costumes and the dancing were incredible, though!) To end this post on a hight point, I heartily recommend the new album, 21 by Adele. I've had it pretty much on repeat since I bought it - hope you'll like it too.