June 2026

Hello and welcome to the June furtle 😊

I have been away (Croatia, lovely, hot, but a swimming pool just *there* made it so much more comfortable than being in the blistering UK heat!) and, of course, took hand sewing with me.  The Rainbow Kitchen sink blocks have multiplied:

The Chertsey Museum ladies made reversible cutting / pressing boards

I reduced an *enormous* pile of unused prepared binding and joined it into a single piece that felt it could reach to the moon and back

and then joined it end to end and made a jelly roll race quilt top.  Not finished yet but a fairly quick fix if a need an adult / teenanger quilt

I have been making Gingers based on National Days: in June we had a Yoga Day (21st)

Blood donor Day (14th) 

and Cycle awareness (18th)

#Craftivism 😊

I helped one of my favourite teenagers prepare her school shirt for Leavers Day: she designed this and stitched it on the embroidery machine and then used fabric pens and paint to add the other details: didn't she do well!!!!

 

I've prepared some samples for a class I'm teaching in a few weeks time . . .

and ChatGPT created a lovely poster for the class  

2024 February

Hi, here is this month's summary!

I finished my Christmas wool crochet blanket, I love the colours.  I ended up deconstructing the variegated wool as I wanted 123454321  rather than 1234512345 (if that makes any sense at all!)

I started a new one, from an old unloved one that I frogged, but I have since fallen out of love with this version too, I think it just wasn't destined to be a success 

I bought some new cutlery, with wooden handles.  The packaging said dishwasher safe but after I'd opened the packaging we realised the dishwasher proofing was 50 degrees or below, and ours doesn't go that cold.  We mixed up some resin and dunked the cutlery in the resin then left it to drip dry

There was some resin left over, so I coated some clay "toadstools" and hopefully they'll survive for a while in the garden

Jackie and I made these bags when she was here: I was delighted when I saw the same style in a shop window in Regents Street! Fancy us being trendy!

At Crafty Church I laid out my Paula Doyle blocks - I will get round to stitching them eventually!

At Stitch we had a fab production line packing kits - 53 packed and as soon as we can get them into big enough boxes we can send them off

These were made at February's Fun With Fabric - It was a bit of a challenge to attach the fabric to the plastic frame, but they persevered! 

And that was it for February - see you next month!

2024 January

 Not much to show for the start of the year

I made two panels at a workshop some years ago but I don't have room to hang them and the girls' don't want them.  I am *trying* to declutter so they were going to go but then I needed a bag for crochet, so I joined them and voila! 

We have finally done some work on our village hall:

The stage hasn't been used for years (decades?) so became a dumping ground

so we removed the stage and put up curtains to turn it into storage

and the library units and the (nice) chairs have moved to behind the curtain

Leaving a huge hall for people to use

I'm really delighted with it!

I've been bulk making I-spy quilts for a few months - too boring to have included in many blog posts.  I finally added the binding so I had 8 ready, then checked my lust and found I needed 11😳.

These have been named and mostly distributed and I'm back making the last 3!

Then my body decided I needed a break from work and sewing, well at least my appendix did, it decided we weren't friends any more so I kind of lost a week or two!  All better now!

It was lovely to come home to mini daffs sprouting in the garden: I wasn't sure they were planted deep enough in these colourful pots but they obviously are

I have done some crochet - this is the wool Lisa got me for Christmas - the colours seem very Northern Lights: I love it!

Hope you are keeping well, and I can show a bit more crafting next month!

2023 July

 If you asked my I think I'd say I've hardly done any crafting in July, but when I look at the photo album and chose photos for the blog I'm clearly lying!

So here we go . . .

The needle felted puffins  went from this . . . 

. . . to this

and there is SO much roving left, I might have to make some more!

Jackie came over for a flying visit.  We made a coupe of these

and some of these (two vinyl zipped pockets for projects)

and some more retreat bags thanks to amazing Kathy who found us some frames

I found a patchwork book in a charity shop.  23 of the 24 projects seemed easy, but I really fancied making this hexi / pentagon ball. I bought the book, photographed the page, and the donated the book back to the charity shop!!

And made these!

Lizzie did some embroidery for a customer

Some friends and I went to see another friend in Minehead.  We had a great few days and I snapped a few pics: 

We all had a great time

I found a stream flowing over stones - and couldn't resist!

Sadly getting home wasn't a much fun but at least we were safe and together

We mums all worked together at the village primary school, but our girls have also been best friends since they were 5.  I Love this pic of Niki and the 3 bonus daughters, and the lovely words!

I skived off work for a few days and attended a "Summer School"  I learned lino printing

 

And the beginners MahJong!  I loved it!