I Love a Man in Uniform

“What’s this?”, I wondered, as I parked the car outside Stonestead Tea House.  A bright red fire engine was just along the road.   I hoped that Kevin hadn’t had a fire in the kitchen as he cooked up a batch of scones for his Devonshire Teas.

Fire engine at the ready

It wasn’t the Tea House on fire, but a car which had caught fire.  I don’t know the full story, but when I came along the firemen were busy peering underneath the car.  It looked like the fire had been extinguished by this stage, and the firemen were no doubt checking for any smoulders, or maybe leaking fuel lines.  An ambulance arrived shortly afterwards, so presumably one of the passengers was in need of medical attention.  What a fright it must be to have your car catch fire as you drive merrily along.

Checking under the car

After all this excitement I left the men in uniform behind and joined the other members of the Stonestead Stitchers upstairs in the Tea House.  Everyone was quite busy with their various projects.  Therese had brought along an Advent Calendar quilt which she had just finished.

Therese’s Advent quilt

There was a bit of a production line going on with this pattern, as Amanda had brought her sewing machine along and was busy finishing up  her version.  Amanda is a keen new quilter, with a couple of projects already completed so far.

Amanda working on her Advent Calendar

I had taken a unwanted items along (after yet another tidy up) to see if any of the ladies were interested.  Ruth put her hand up for my little basket, and put it to use straight away, storing her embroidered Christmas decoration project inside. 

Ruth and her Christmas decoration

Carol had just started stitching her cross stitch Poppy, a lovely little design from The Country Diary Cross Stitch book.   This lovely little book has lots of very pretty botanical designs.  And Liz was another who was also working diligently away, on her Indian Garden tapestry.

Just started – Carol’s poppy

I just love Bridget’s pretty little stitcheries from Chickadee Hollow Designs.  These came pre-printed and colour shaded to add depth to the stitcheries.  She is contemplating how best to put them together, or perhaps just make them separate little hangings.

Bridget’s stitcheries

Cheryl is always busy and had two things to show us.  She had completed her lovely Christmas stitchery wall hanging, complete with three different Santas.

Cheryl’s Christmas wall hanging

Her other project took us by surprise – it looked a bit scary, rather like a version of ET.  I had a look at the pattern, and it will be a pretty doll called Amelia Pippin when completed.

Amelia Pippin and her green legs

Yvonne, from the adjacent Sawmillers shop came upstairs to show us a lovely hexagon quilt, You can just see her fingers holding up the quilt top.  This design will be offered as a class in the New Year.  Whirligig blocks made from diamond pieces with a hexagon centre are appliquéd in the centre of each large hexagon.

  

  Yvonne holding a new class sample

And what about me?  I did a little stitching on a cushion cover, and all the ladies were very interested to hear about our impending move to Levin.  It was great to catch up with everyone again, then I had to hurry home as I had a very busy afternoon planned with yet more cleaning.   I’m well pleased with my afternoon’s work – I’ve cleaned out the cupboards under the bathroom vanity unit.  Lots of old medicines and such like got tossed in the bin, the remainder has been sorted and tidied, and the shelves have been washed clean.  That’s another job crossed off the long list.