After the children’s school carol service it started snowing, making everyone feel very festive. I hope it doesn’t peak too soon and melt before the end of next week. I flew around doing last minute gift shopping until the school phoned to let me know that Freya had hurt her thumb and I ought to have a look at it. She was horrified when I turned up in my second-hand Drizabone waxed jacket and Doc Martens at the school party to inspect it. She was worried that I would take her away for an x-ray and miss the rest of the party. Far from it, I still had shopping to do! I decided to tackle the wrapping so I don’t have to do it at the last minute when I should be drinking sherry. It seemed to go on forever but I am not buying anything else – apart from groceries!

One thing I won’t be wearing over the Festive Season is the diabolical skirt that arrived in a plastic bag, shoved in the door by the dress-maker who made the unbelievably awful waistcoat. I had completely forgotten that I had asked her to make me a matching skirt in August. Maybe I can enhance it with the addition of some buttons or some clever quilting but I doubt that will do much to improve it. I imagined a panelled tweed skirt, cut on the bias but what I have is a tartan and tweed elasticated sack of wide strips… It will look great with my latest haircut. When I was at the hairdresser a short, trendy crop seemed like a good idea. Now that I am at home it looks like I may be considering becoming a nun or a convict. Still, it’ll grow back eventually.

At least I won the bidding on a retro Kenwood Chefette on Ebay. The postage was twice the cost of the mixer. I just hope it arrives before I have to whip any cream. I should look for knee-pads on Ebay. I have been constructing another enormous bedspread but my workshop is lacking tables and a carpet so I had to crawl on the freezing concrete floor to pin the borders and cut the backing. Putting it together will have taken longer than I intend to spend on quilting it. I am simply doing wobbly lines of quilting horizontally and will turn the whole quilt and go back the other way to get very lazy but contemporary cross-hatching. I think this is what I will do for my yurt roof on the whole.

I spent a few evenings watching Jamie Oliver cook up easy-looking festive dishes. With imagination, you could just pretend that a stale mince pie and custard is one of his recipes. I decided that I will roast a proper free-range turkey this year. It was a little eerie to drive past their empty field this week after watching them grow up since the summer so I will try to do it proud and keep an eye on it on Christmas Day so I don’t burn it.

I quilted at supersonic speed and got the Bloody Big Xmas Bargello finished and bound! I was quilting so fast that I think I have loosened the bolts on my quilting table – the whole thing feels decidedly wobbly so it could all do with a check-up.

I declared Friday a yurt day and night as I felt that it was all a bit neglected and there was a bit of mould on some of the rugs due to all the damp weather. I lit the stove in the morning and enjoyed coffee and sherry with friends. My Uncle paid a surprise visit for afternoon tea and as the fire was so toasty, Tania and I shared a bottle of fizz in the evening as snow fell outside. I think the yurt is perfect for Christmas entertaining so I gave it a Solstice Clean and filled up the baskets of logs and peat ready for the holidays. All I have to do now is finish the enormous bedspread, get annoyed in the supermarket, not let the children eat any of the Christmas food, start the workshop painting, run over the butcher if I can’t get Ginger back and decide whether to poison my friends with curried venison.

I hope everyone who reads this blog has a great Christmas week – eat, drink and be merry. Enjoy a bit of Christmas telly and sneak off into your sewing rooms when you get a chance… Merry Christmas!!