Christmas is on it's way

We seem to have more or less got over the rain, although I appreciate some people are still experiencing problems after the flooding.  The weather here has got much colder, and several mornings we have had to scrape ice off the car. I would far rather have crisp cold days than grey days with rain, I just end up looking like the michelan man with all the layers I am wearing!

We are now in full Christmas mode in the shop.  Debby and I have lost count of the number of advent calendars we have made.  We are now on the Christmas stockings!  As fast as we have been putting items in the window people are coming in and buying them, which is what is supposed to happen when you have a shop but then there is the dilema of what to replace it with, and have we got the time to make a couple more cushions or stockings!  Believe it or not we had a rep in today, and he was showing us fabrics for Christmas 2013, and guess what we actually ordered some,  not much but a little.

Still talking of Christmas, we will be open Sunday 9th December, and Sunday 16th December from 10.00am - 3.00pm.  There will be 10% off all fabric, but not gifts, gift vouchers or haberdashery, so if you fancy a nice civilised bit of Christmas shopping Wellington is the place to come. We will also have a late night on Wednesday, we will be open until 8.00pm.

Debby ran a scrap workshop yesterday.  She used quite tiny pieces, 1 1/2" squares.  A couple of the students were out of their comfort zone (their words) but  they produced some great pieces of work, and they all said they enjoyed themselves.  Two of them came to my class this morning, and brought the pieces in that they had completed.  Both introduced colours they wouldn't normally use but were very pleased with the results.  Below is Debby's sample.

The finished tiny squares in the middle are 1".  Debbys work is always very precise, unlike mine.  She hasn`t quilted it yet, but I am sure that will happen soon.

We had the last meeting of the year last night at our quilt group. and I actually remembered to take my camera, so below are a couple of photographs.

This lovely piece of work is by another Debby, it was made from a jelly roll so the pieces are quite small.  Her points were really neat, and the colours looked fantastic.  She layered it up last night ready to quilt.

This quilt was made by Jacqui and I love it.  It was made from a layer cake, the sashing is a ticking like fabric, and the back which I didn't photograph was a fantastic black and white print with little houses and cars.  She made the quilt for her campervan.  I love the colours and the way that the ticking frames the other pieces making the colours stand out. 

I was going to show you some more photographs, but it has taken half an hour to download these three and I can stand it no more!  Debby and I really look forward to meeting everyone on a Wednesday evening.  It is alway fascinating to see what everyone is doing, and I alway go away feeling inspired.  Last night there were quite a lot of Christmas things going on.  Marie had been to a Christmas weekend at Cowslip in Cornwall and had lots of bits and pieces and patterns to show us.  She was concentrating last night on completing a Christmas Tree, but had a little box in the shape of a house and a fairy to show us.

I don't know how other people are getting on with their Christmas shopping, but I am not doing so well.  I always get off to a good start, but then reach the difficult ones, mostly the men like my husband and son, and come to a grinding halt.  I was wondering around Taunton on Monday when I bumped into Shirley from Stitcherydo, so needless to say we went for a cup of tea, and no more shopping was done.  We met in a lovely shop Laing and Lewis which belongs to a friend of mine, in St James' Courtyard.  Sue and Annie who own it have a really good eye and it is full of wonderful goodies.  I bought a lovely scented candle, but was sorely tempted by a fantastic cake stand, but couldn't think of anyone to buy it for apart from myself, and actually I have two already!  If you get a chance go and have a look.  The next day I had to go to the hairdressers and thought well I will go earlier, and try a bit harder today, but didn't have any more luck.  My husband and I decided to set a limit this year, but as I pointed out to him if the limit was a £1,000 I would still struggle.  My problem is that I have a husband who buys me very nice presents, so it makes it even more difficult.  I will let you know how I get on in my next post.  I'm off to make some more stockings now!