When did it get to be November?

This year seems to have gone really fast - I can't believe that it is already November and Christmas is just around the corner.  Time to start thinking about posting dates, where did I put the Christmas card list and what does the family want in the way of presents?

I am however doing some extreme forward planning.  Next year two members of the Patchwork Group have birthdays with noughts in them.  As both ladies have an abundance of quilts already, we are making them 12 inch bound squares, one for each month of the year.  I have April for one lady and November for the other.  In my last post, I was wittering about fabric for the April piece.  Well, that problem is now sorted - I'm using 28 count Zweigert Cashel linen in Sand.

This is a scan of the magazine picture of the piece that I am going to be stitching.  The text reads "Let Heaven & Nature Sing".  I am going to take this out and stitch "April" instead.  It is a piece designed by Sandy Orton of Kooler Design Studios.  V, the lady who is going to receive this piece, likes American folk art, so I hope that she will like this.  Her birthday is in August, so I shall start this tomorrow now that I have fabric and threads sorted out.

The other lady, whose birthday is in September, tends to be quite quiet and doesn't say much about her likes and dislikes, so I am having more difficulty working out what I am going to stitch for her.  However, between working on these two pieces and trying to get the Guardian Angels done for Mum, I am not sure when I am going to get back to work on Carnation, which is a shame.

The only piece that I have stitched on this week is Train of Dreams, with another three blocks completed on this column.  The moon now has two eyes, a nose and the beginnings of a mouth.  Both with this piece and with Carnation, it always amazes me how such complex pictures can be created using only needle and thread.

In other news, I put on 1lb last week, which I put down to the close proximity of birthday cake during a time of stress at work.  This is unfortunate, but not the end of the world.

Short and sweet this week, but work looms tomorrow so I shall finish here, and wish all the best to you and yours, and may the frog stay well clear of your stitching!