2025 June

June started with a lovely afternoon at Chertsey Museum: ladies brought in their slough bags for show and tell . . . 

and we made Quilt As You Go blocks for the June session

 

I finally decided it was time to replace this birthday chart: it's complicated to add extra dates, and I've always wished it had Birthdays or Congratulations on the top rather than Friends

So I had a fun afternoon with a calk board and liquid chalk pens (I managed to miss a few dates so this needs a bit more work)

I've made some EPP hexies towards covering the peace sign, although I have also removed all the black yarn now.  I need to stabilise the knitting then decide what I'm doing with the EPPs.  It can wait until colder weather!!!

A lovely week in Spain

And a hand sewing project, mostly completed in Spain

I popped over to Lisa's to feed her cats: I just had to take this pic which showcases patchworks and a cat basket that Lisa made

I volunteer with our local Repair Café, and was asked to repair this Platypus (Plucky).  Plucky is clearly very loved but is a bit too damaged to be within my comfort zone.

I have a friend, Heather, who is a bit of a whizz at mending cuddly toys, so I am hoping she can help with advice  or support

  🤞

  

Our Stitch group (www.WraysburyStitch.blogspot.com/) has decided to support local women: We've made up these boxes for the toilets in the local churches and village halls

In my best Bugs Bunny voice, 

2023 September

It's been a lovely month!  It started with me *attending* the Chertsey Museum class, not teaching it!  One of the regulars is a spinner, so she brought in a sleeping beauty spinning wheel, and had made us all drop spindles so we could do our own spinning.  I really enjoyed the session, thanks Kate

The painted beads from last month were made into necklaces and paired with two dresses:

I started adding 'grass' to my EPP flowers - they will tesselate when they lay flat

I finished one of many quilts on my to-do pile!  In fact I finished two - both for baby girls called Freya!

One of the Freyas with her cousin Amelia

I made by "blue whale" cousin a new zippy pouch: the old one had finally worn out!

Like me she's a bag lady 😂 

I had been trying to ignore that fact that time was galloping towards my 60th, but the lovely ladies at Coffee Morning were not going to let me !  I felt very spoiled!

 

It was also Plum's birthday, so there was a mixture of EPP, gingers, needle felting and zippy pouch that went in the post to her . . .

and in the post FROM her was a lot of awesome Puffin themed stuff plus a lovely necklace and a pouch with a miniature house: she's so good at the tiny blocks!

To be honest, I was spoiled by a lot of people!  Jackie sent the most amazing set of sashiko inspirational instructions (watch this space).

Hayley sent me a painted card of stacked stones, and also made a necklace of stacked pebbles - she and her husband actually drilled through these pebbles!!!

There were also a lot of garden themed gifts!  These and more from the girls and their boys

The Acer tree in the blue pot

These lovely gardening tools,

And over the weekend Niki, George and Brian make huge inroads into uncovering the back half of the garden which had been covered with blackberries and weeds for the last 25 years: my new garden area will be a lovely place to sit and relax!

Lisa made me two crocheted baskets which are perfect for the stuff that can be hidden in the bathroom

We had a lovely family weekend in the Cotswolds for my birthday

I really wanted to stay near a stony stream ... I got it!

Then I had another fab weekend away with girlfriends: a really chilled time at Center Parcs, and our favourite new activity is willow weaving!

 

We also did some needle felting onto calico bags,  and Santa making!

 

2022 March

Gingers are usually cheerul and happy, but  that was totally inappropriate for the shocking events that have happened this month, so I made this sad Ginger holding a Ukraine sunflower.  I'm not making them for sale but I have made a donation to the Red Cross appeal

On a more cheerful nore, the very talented Janine blogged about keeping a Book of Days - projects that grab your attention.  They are entered in the book as a safe place to keep ideas, they may never be made but they have been recorded.  My art skills are not up to hers and I tend to use Pinterest for ideas I want to keep, but she did inspire me to make a log of everything I have started to make and really should finish one day!

Be kind about my drawings - they are rubbish, but they are enough to remind me of each project, and that's all I need.  As I type this I realised there are still more to go in the book, but this gives you an idea!

I really do need to finish something before I start something else!  My plan is to cut off the top right corner if each project as I finish it so I can have a visual pat on the back for actually finishing something!!!

Not in the book, because it's crochet not sewing, is the Fall Shawl V2.  By mid March I got back to the size when I'd had to frog it 

And now, it's 99% finished (about 6 ends to sew in).  It's about 2m wide on the longest side so very difficult to photograph

It's lovely to wear, and I'm loving the "picot triangles" on the edge: I totally failed to grasp the instructions but with long distance help from Jackie and Amo I bodged a wiggly edge and am more than happy!

I went and set up the village hall early for Stitch and Crafty Church this month so I could speed date these 'covered corner' blocks in peace and privacy.  My thought was that I could do it at Crafty Church but I needed 8 tables which is all we have, and it's Lisa's birthday pressie so it's better if she doesn't see it!

Talking of birthdays - this glass panel was Brian's birthday pressie from the girls and I, I love it!

I made this Ginger for a friend,

And lots of these for Mothering Sunday at Church

However life then changed based on one of these (well two actually as husband had a matching one!)

So - jobs that had been put off for years no longer had any excuse to be put off any longer!  New kitchen cupboard doors and worksurfaces are due in April to transform this

So cupboards came down and walls and ceilings were painted

Cupboards cleaned

Patio tidied

And the fabric matched and cut

And half way to being a Chemo Comforter requested by a colleague of Niki's

But an opps!  

Do not proceed if you have any affilliation with the Quilt Police!

I cant believe when planning this block  I never considered seam allowance

How stupid is this!!!  How many years have I been patchworking????

It's simply too late to do anything about this - I think've used ten packs of FQ!!! I can't start again -  All I can say is I hope Lisa loves it despite the gaps!  (Plum I need to re-write the instructions!!!!!)

PS - and blogger spell checks seems to have gone on holiday, so aplogies for any spelling mistakes!