Autumn has blown in here for sure!!!

It has been rather chilly here, in fact husband is talking about ordering in some more oil and calor gas (for the living room fire) in.  In Kent we always tried to wait until October if we could , until putting the heating on but not here !  We looked at getting a real log burner but the man said it would be such a shame to rip the fireplace we have which has very old Victorian type tiles ,  out and with the price of logs we were better off sticking with what we have.  I must admit I love the fire place so I wasn't,t too sad.  We have a Raeburn that also heats the water so the kitchen is always cosy especially for sweet Dextie who has his bed nearby.   Considering our house was built in 1920 it is quiet warm,
But oh last night taking Dextie for a tiddle it was chilly and blowing quite hard.  My poor old runner beans look a bit withered , not the crop I was hoping for in fact.  I chose 3 varieties this year and as usual my scarlet emperor have cropped better than the others.
The apples are still coming, in fact husband wants to have a go at chutney making!!!!! (Dawn what have you done lol!!)  and I have been rather lapsed on the biscuit and cake front in recent months, so today I have a very comprehensive ingredient list and when I can be bothered to get off my bottom I will go shopping!! My children don,t like cake or biscuits much but their dad makes up for what they don't want.  The dining room is now done and being used for  dining and Little Miss has been doing her art therapy in there and husband has been  model making so everyone is happy I have removed all my clutter.  The annex is looking a bit worse for wear as the boxes of stuff from the dining room are now in there waiting for me to sort.  It shouldn't,t be a big job as now (within reason) everything has it's place and it should just be a case of  putting things away.  The schools were very pleased with the donations too .  I cannot believe how long my craft room has taken...I think I have already spent  over  100 hours in there...  Definitely a labour of love, but I get a happy feeling when I go in there now, I still have patterns to sort and some tidying to do but my vision is nearly there.

In between the showers I aired the rag rug I found and it is now in the playroom.  It seems to have
gone quite curly on the edges ......I am hope that once the kids and Dextie have sat on it a bit it will
flatten it out. The blue one is still a work in progress...look at that size of crotchet hook, it does make
my hands tired using it for too long, it is one of those things I do for an hour at a time.  I know there are various ways to make rag rugs..I do this.  I use old duvet covers and long strips of scraps, nothing fancy I tie the strips together with 2 knots and get a big ball like this and this is a 12mm crotchet hook
I use , I put a pen beside it so you can see how big it is

then I do double crotchet in a mandala shape or oval shape and just keep going until I get the size I want or run out of strips.  Apart from the very end that needs to be sewn in there is no sewing involved.  Some people then back them , I don,t bother, I love the randomness of  the colours and if I don,t back them I have a reversible rug. The rugs do get really heavy when they are big and I would not recommend washing them in a normal size washing machine because when wet I think they could do serious damage  to the average domestic washing machine.   To launder them I either take them to a launderette or if it is a warm day (they take ages to dry otherwise) I soak them in a huge bucket
Rinse them with a hose pipe then get my big strong man to ring wring the water out for me and then
drap them over the garden furniture to dry.  Obviously small ones that are not too dense can be normally washed and they do make very good bath mats.

This is about 3ft x 3ft

This is a close up of the stitches 

This is much smaller 

And will have a few more rows and be a bath mat

This is is how the rags look before I trim 

Any excess near the knots.

Some,people leave them

I think they look neater trimmed.

After such a busy week , I am hoping to catch up on some sewing .  I have finished the Halloween cross stitching bit and now to create the finish which I'm looking forward to.  I have already received
My swap from Lynda Ruth  over at
twododo.blogspot.com
Wow she is one organised lady.  She knows I have received it but I have promised not to open it until
The big day, I hadn,t planned to anyway because I am one big kid!!! The parcels was due to be posted
On or by 30th September so as you can imagine I was so very happy and surprised to receive it so early.

I have decided on my Season's Swap, I have had fun deciding and meeting Ellie over cyberspace and hope I can put something together just right for her.

I have heard of 2 yes 2 more swaps ....if anyone is interested post me a comment and I'll post the details.  One involves a teacup and saucer the other one a Christmas ornament made or bought and both are international.

Wishing you a happy and lovely weekend

                    See you soon xxxx