Flashback to Lavenham, England

We head out of Rome today to Tuscany. Haven't any photos to share for yesterday downloaded so thought I would share these images from a gorgeous little town called Lavenham (Hope I have the name right this time). Penny and John took us there and it was delightful. This was one of the windows in the church.

Check out the delightful houses. I looked high and low for some wooden little houses to bring home for my collection but they didn't have any!

We went inside a wonderful hall that was once used by one of the Guild churches way back in the 1400s or so. Can't remember all the details now. It had a fabulous museum upstairs recording the building's history as well as the area's history too. Please note the jacket...it was chilly and raining.

Inside there was a wonderful collection of objects used in the daily life of the community over the centuries. They did lots of spinning and weaving. Brings back memories of spinning wool in the 70s!

Here is some dyed and spun wool.

This is one of the looms used and some lovely soft fabric.

There was a room for one of the well known families in the area and this little sampler was stitched by a 7 year old! One of the other daughters had written the nursery rhyme "Twinkle Twinkle little star". It was a very special place to visit.

Stitching progress and Canvas work

Just thought I'd share my stitching progress on the other version of the sampler. I've made the one using the wooden button but thought I would make a cushion with a smaller stitched version.It is still a work in progress. Here is the stitched tree.

I chose to fuse the house on this time and stitch it with whip stitch.

I forgot to show you Paddy's, canvas, scissor keeper last week. This pattern is one of my favourites.

Some rainy day/weekend stitching

I have been busy over the last week working on my sampler that will have "Up in Annie's room"'s wooden tree button as the main feature. The button, below, will be.....

next to this house. It has rained and rained till this afternoon so it has been good stitching weather. 

As it is now March, I needed to get the next Crazy Christmas block ready and couldn't resist starting it while I watched the new series on ABC 1 called "Desperate Romantics". It was an excellent program.

I also had time to trace another block of the "Gardener's Journal" quilt by Anni Downs.

But mostly, I have been reading and reading. I am now up the third book in Stieg Larssen's Millenium series and it is very hard to put down.

Christmas club with Marg Low

The mailman brought me this lovely pattern by Marg Low last week. I have signed up to get Marg's Christmas club patterns every 2 months. These runners would be lovely to have ready next Christmas. I wonder if I can get one made before the next pattern comes! Some lucky ladies get to go and make the club projects together in a class with Marg.

I have been busy stitching my sampler using the beautiful tree button from "Up in Annies Room". Might show you a peek tomorrow.