Nimble Thimble stitching meet-up

It's that time of year again when a few of us get together at the Nimble Thimble for a day of stitching, chatting and to enjoy the lovely food that Chris puts on for us, in fact I think it's fair to say that we all look forward to the buffet just as much as the day's stitching and stashing.

Although the Nimble Thimble is only about an hour away I decided to make a weekend of it this time and booked into a lovely little B&B 20 minutes away in Oswestry on the Friday afternoon.

This place looked good on line, but it was such a treat I've already decided that if I stay over again this is where I will stay.

My room for the weekend

And once I'd got my bags in I was bought a lovely cuppa and a home made ginger biscuit.

The fridge had complementary treats

And breakfast was bought to my room by way of a hamper.

This was such a lovely treat! I was even bought a pot of tea as well.  Just look at all the goodies,

the granola was homemade and was delicious.

So after my lovely breakfast I set off for the Nimble Thimble, the scenery in this part of the country is lovely and I have to make frequent stops just to enjoy it, even in the rain it is stunning, and although the day started and ended rather wet, in between we did have some lovely sunshine.

Here we are in the studio above the shop, looking very intent on stitching

There is Hazel (of the blog Quietly Stitching)  sitting at the back sitting on the left concentrating on her work

And Michelle, AKA Mouse, (tales of a stitching mouse blog), on the right, showing us her birthday quilt which some bloggers kindly stitched her some pieces for.

Pat (no blog) is on the left, she was trying to hide behind the quilt, I think they are laughing because I said something like "Pat come out from behind the quilt!"

As I said, Chris, (the shop owner) always puts on some lovely food for us, and this time was just as good.

We finish the afternoon off with more cake which we are usually too full to eat so we take it home to enjoy later.

In between stitching, chatting and eating we all visited the shop downstairs to put by our purchases to pay for later, I was very good and only bought 3 charts :-)  

To be honest I didn't intend to buy any because I haven't stitched the ones I bought on our last trip in November, but when you are in the shop it is very hard not to give in to temptation!  

After a lovely day that went by far too quickly we all set off on our various journeys home, or in my case to my little B&B, because my weekend treat wasn't over just yet.

When I got back Jo, (the B&B owner) had been in and left me a little cupcake, how sweet and such a surprise :-)

The little mat under the plate is what I made up on the Friday night.

I've wanted to make a Mandala for a while and I saw this little booklet on Amazon last week

I used Rico cotton and chose one of the easier patterns and I'm really pleased with how it came out for a first attempt.

Next time I'll show you what new charts I bought and what I did on my Sunday travels.

Until then

-X-

Mums blanket and cake!

I managed to finish the blanket I was making mum for Mother's Day and I'm happy to say that it was well received, hopefully it will come in useful for her keeping the chills off.

I can't remember if I mentioned that the yarn was James C Brett Marble Chunky, which worked up really quickly and was really lovely and soft after a quick wash and a soak in fabric softener and I love how the variegated yarn looks in the V stitch too.

It was Mother's Day here in the UK on Sunday, I had some lovely gifts from the girls and a treat of afternoon tea, (which was part of Joanne's present to me) although all the girls came too.

It was at somewhere we hadn't been before, Stanbrook Abbey in Malvern.  Such a beautiful place, inside and out, and the sandwiches and cakes were delicious, we all came away feeling stuffed!

The selection for 2 people

I hope that you too were well and truly spoiled on Mother Day.

Until next time
-X-

A change is as good as a rest, so they say

As Mark had to work this weekend I was able to have a change of scene too and a trip up to Derby.

The town has plenty of shopping opportunities and a lovely shopping centre, (and a soon to be new bowling ally, when Mark and his crew finish, lol)

I did have a walk round the town and saw the Derby Ram

And discovered the bird man of Derby.

Twice I can across him feeding the pigeons by the river, I imagine this is a regular occurrence as he only called as he waked down the path and all of a sudden the pigeons descended.

Walking around shops is not something I particularly  like doing, so on Saturday while Mark was at work I took myself off to Hardwick Hall, If you want to find out more about Hardwick Hall and 'Bess' of Hardwick you can, here, and here.

There are actually 2 houses, the Old Hall, which is in ruins and the newer hall which houses the most amazing tapestries in huge rooms.

You can hire audio commentary, worth doing as you get to find out more about the family and this once beautiful house.

Old bread ovens in the kitchen

The rooms once had ornate plaster-work around the rooms, you can just imagine how grand it was.

The views that the family had of the surrounding country side.

The new Hardwick Hall viewed from the old Hardwick Hall

Harwick Hall from the front, the newer one that is.

And the back, yes, it's almost exactly the same

Some of the amazing tapestries

One of the huge fireplaces

There are some lovely walks too but as it was still rather muddy and I didn't have sensible walking footwear on I stuck to the main grounds, there were still some colourful spring flowers to see though

And a cheeky statue, lol

I was able to use my National Trust membership for my day out, we made good use of our NT membership last year, although this is the first time I've used it so far this year hopefully we will find time to visit more places during the year.

Until next time

-X-

Storm Doris and the blanket

Well February whizzed by pretty quickly didn't it, and here we are 6 days into March already.  I feel like I've been doing plenty but at the same time not achieving a lot, if that makes sense.

I'm working on trying to get this blanket done for Mother's Day.

I bought the yarn a while ago on a trip to Hobby Craft and i did start this blanket almost straight away and then thought that although I really love the colours they don't really 'go' anywhere in our house, so put it to one side.  

Then I thought seeing as i'd already worked quite a bit on it I would carry on and it could be a picnic blanket.  

But then it changed its purpose once again when my daughter, Joanne was visiting my mum and she said to her that she wished I would make her a lap blanket for when she is sitting at night.

I immediately thought, yes, a home for the blanket, Mothers Day present sorted :-)

I've been working on it almost every night for an hour or so, any longer and my hands ache because of the large hook, and being chunky, it's growing quite nicely though, and all being well it should be finished and ready to give mum on March 26th.

I love how the colours look with the V stitch.

Storm Doris swept into Midlands couple of weeks ago and she took the fence on the left hand side of our garden with her.   Everything from the fence post you can see in the photo,  right to the top of the garden, gone!

It's the side that belongs to our neighbour so we won't have to stand the cost, and to be honest the fence wasn't in great condition, he had mentioned last year that he would have to get it replaced.

We wanted to dig up that scrap of grass and make the path a little wider this year so i'm sort of hoping that he will leave the fencing a little longer because it will make working that side a little easier.

For now we have an open plan garden.

Some days have been lovely since, like today, I was able to hang washing on the line this afternoon, and it all but dried too.  Its lovely to see the garden slowly coming to life again.

And today's beautiful sunshine bought a little visitor out to sun himself.

He sat there for ages enjoying the weather on our neighbours tree. 

I think he had just spotted the cats in the garden here, he looks like he's peeking

I did remember to change my mantle for March and have just gone with a Spring theme as I didn't have anything stitched March related.

Still love this little freebie from Snowflower Diaries

But I forgot to show you my monster Amaryllis, it just kept growing and growing.

It finally reach 3 feet tall!!

It looks rather silly in that small pot lol

And I ended up having to tie the two stems together for support.

It is past it's best now but I think I will try the bulb again next year to see if it will come back, If it does at least i'll be prepared for how big it will be.

When I started this post I didn't think I had much to share with you, but it looks like I did after all.

Have a good week

Until next time

-X-