Liz's visit

I had a lovely weekend with my best friend Liz. She came up from London on the train on Friday afternoon and we headed straight for the haberdashery department in John Lewis!
Liz has had a terrible year fighting off breast cancer (successfully, I am very happy to say).

She started this beautiful blanket made of knitted squares back in January at the same time as she began her chemo. Liz hasn't been particularly 'crafty' in the past so it is a real achievement for her to have finished something so big (and done such a great job!). And having something creative to do really helped her get through the difficult 8 months of treatment. I think it is amazing how knitting/sewing/making things is so therapeutic - they really should have crafting on the NHS!


Here is Liz with the blanket in John Lewis.

I had in mind a' fleecey' type backing but we just couldn't find anything in the right colour. So we put the blanket away and bought wools and embroidery silks (well I did).

We eventually found a heavy interlining for curtains which was just the right colour and lovely and soft.
I do have a slight concern that it might prove a bit 'fluffy' but Liz said it would just sit on the bed and be fine (she really wanted to get on with this!).

So we took it home and on Saturday morning I machined the backing on to the blanket and we then used spare wool (which Liz had thoughtfully left hanging on the back of the blanket!) to 'tie' through from the front to the back to hold the layers together.



It worked really well and for a finishing touch we blanket stitched round the edge with a complimentary dark green wool while watching the X factor!
Job done and Liz really pleased with it -"the back's nicer than the front!" - I'm not sure what wool she used but it must have some silk in as it was so soft and luxurious.
She also managed to buy one of the Cleopatra's needle tapestry kits that I blogged about here (not one of my designs unfortunately). There is just no stopping her now!

Liz very kindly brought me up 3 packs of beautiful fabric that she got at the Country Living Fair. I hear a lot of chat about these designer fabric labels on other blogs so I'm really chuffed to have some myself. Also featured are 3 balls of Rowan glace wool for my ever growing collection of crochet corsages.

You will have to wait a couple of weeks to see those because something very exciting is happening to me on Saturday - I am going to NEW YORK!!!!!
Jonathan and I are having a 5 day holiday on our own to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary! I have always longed to go to New York so it is a real 'holiday of a lifetime'! And I have a big list of fabric/wool shops to visit there, so I should have lots of exciting stuff to share with you on my return.