May 2026

 The time is whizzing past again and we find ourselves in June.  The heat has been a *little* out of my comfort zone, but I did do some making:

The Chertsey ladies made these woven bowls (thanks Plum)

Two lovely lads did a great job on the last chunk of garden finishing my courtyard

We added new garden furniture and a recycled shed for the cushions.

The Tula Pink giant hexie flimsy was finally finished, and has gone to Sharon to be layered and quilted . . .

. . . which meant I could start on a batik FQ pack she gave me last year.  This is going to be a hand-sewing-on-holiday patchwork, and luckily I was away first with colleagues from over 30 years ago

Half square triangles, 

Flying geese

and 1/4 circle of flying geese

I also took along a sewing project for them to make a vinyl pouch - all completed

A few Gingers for various National days: nurses

bee keepers,

and National Smile month

One of my bonus daughters had a baby boy, so James needed a quilt

Then I went away on holiday again!  I went to Croatia with friends from the girls' primary school.  We all had children in the same 3 or 3 school years, and we all worked as teaching assistants at the school.  It was hot outside, but cool in the house so I had time for sewing alongside the chatting!

Mixed EPP hexies

New York Beauty block

EPP plus blocks

and beach huts

No holidays now until September, so there might be some at-home-in-front-of-the-TV sewing.  I'm not really sure where it's going, but I'm loving the colours!

Keep cool

2019 Wk 34 - Stuff!

I'm teaching Dresden plates next week so thought it was about time I had a go!  I'm really pleased with this one

But it took a lot of work getting the right angles on the segments!

Husband has been working on some different angles - the bathroom-floor-to-garden-table project is progressing well - and I can hear him sanding the edges as I type so hopefully they will be another photo soon.

Start

and nearly all glued in place . . .

Watch this space!

My sewing room is a right tip at the moment.

Amongst other things I am trying to make cooling summer scarves.  According to several people on Pinterest these water absorbing beads are the thing to use, but I can tell you they aren't :-(

So I moved on to a new dress for me.  I have fully lined it - so it's maybe a little thick for this weather (32 degrees as I type this!) but it means it is reversible.  I've wanted to try reversible for a while and the batik was so flimsy I thought this was maybe the time to try it.   Pockets and hems and then it's ready

I just love the batik pattern and the colour

Back to work tomorrow

The holiday is over and I'm back to work in 12 hours, so the sewing room has been put away for a while :-(

I did manage to assemble and quilt my warm triangles quilt

 

And I've stitched down the binding on the white zigzag quilt

 

Now I can plan and shop for the next projects!!!!

 

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The one where Lisa crocheted a Dragon

For years Lisa has been crocheting flower squares, but suddenly she got the urge to follow instructions (maybe she's not really my daughter!)

And this is the result (so sorry about the awful light and the abundance of feet in the background!)

Isn't he cute!

Meanwhile I have done *some* sewing - the white zigzag quilt is now ready to be finished - the binding has been machined to the front and will be hand stitched as soon as the weather cools down a bit - it's far too hot for me to sit with a quilt on my lap while I stitch down the binding!

 

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The one where I zigged and zagged

A beautiful bundle of cotton batik type fabrics has sat maturing in my sewing room for at least 2½ years:

I made a decision back in May, and cut and pieced rain fence type blocks and back in July I got them laid out

but hadn't progressed much further until today

They have now started to be joined together onto a fleece and are looking like this:

And I have to say I am rather in love!

Maybe I can get the piecing finished tomorrow

The One where I made the Crafty Church Ladies Crochet!

I advertised this month's Crafty Church as a crochet special - suggesting that we use some of the donated wool to make 12 inch granny squares, then stitch them together and make charity blankets. This pic from Pinterest  was my inspiration:

We had a dozen ladies at Crafty Church and they all got crocheting - these were the ones I managed to get photos of

Here they are all hard at work 

 

As for me - I started laying out my zigzag quilt

and pinning the blocks together

4 more days at school and then I'll have plenty of time to sew the blocks

Beautiful Batiks

Lisa gave me this fabric bundle for Christmas 2013.

As sometimes happens I had to wait a while for them to speak to me; to tell me what they should become.

But today they have been cut and stitched and cut again: the inspiration from Pinterest is with them.

I'm now off school for a week, but I'm off to Ireland for some of the days, then back to a Thursday with family, a Friday with a smocking class at Chertsey Museum and a Bunting class at church, a Saturday with a Race For Life 5 kilometres AND Kids Crafty Church, a Sunday at my mum's . . .  and there endeth my holiday! 

'Ello Ely

Ely now has a quilt with his name on - thank goodness!

I've also had a bit of a play with the remainder of the blue Elmer's glue, sort of "batik meets zentangles".  The glue takes a while to dry ...

And then I started to paint it, I'm rather liking this, I think it will make a decent infinity scarf