We spent the New Year with the Mosedales down in Yorkshire (I’ve heard them talk about moving “North” when they moved from Bedford to Shipley but it’s still almost 6 hours south of here). It was a brilliant special visit to give the kids a chance to play together – the boys love Marisca and she’s grown up so much since our last visit in July 2011. Tim’s lovely camera has once again snapped a fabulous picture of the kids and has posted links to the walk, ice cream playbarn and diner, and our fab New Year’s supper.

Tim was exceedingly brave and made mince pies with all three kids as soon as we walked in the door. They were lovely and well appreciated by the adults! (Bottom picture).

But the really special thing was meeting Thomas, who at six weeks old was absolutely gorgeous. I probably stole him a bit too often to get a cuddle – especially from Tim who’s back at work now and probably missing having a good snuggle with his wee boy.

Thomas is lying on his new quilt here – whipped up from a lovely batch of organic cotton fabric that I found at M is for Make. Unlike some of the quilts I’ve made lately, the fabrics are from multiple designers – meaning the colours aren’t a perfect fit. I wish I did this more often as patchwork that’s too matchy-matchy defeats a bit of the magic. It’s hard to do this though without seeing the fabric in person and our local quilt store isn’t exactly carrying the ranges I’d prefer (but then I’m not the typical client so that’s reasonable). What I’d love to have is a local shop carrying liberty fabrics and organic goodness… but fortunately there’s the internet…