December 2025

 Hi.  Hope you had a great Christmas, and wish you all the very best for 2026

Chertsey Ladies made angel and bell tree decorations in December (instructions here)

In November we had made vinyl pouches (see the blue ones below).  But I found that if the poppers / snaps weren't 100% perfect we had to pull against the vinyl to open the pouch and that was a definite weak point.   The yellow versions are the next evolution: a fabric band at the top of the vinyl rather than just bias binding, so the popper goes through fabric not just vinyl

I got a lovely dove kit for Christmas (thank you Plum)

And a Christmassy dish set that probably thought it was for foods but was perfect for the threads, sequins and beads etc for the dove!!!

A lot of Christmas Pudding Gingers were made and distributed

And of course one joined the other Gingers on my tree

We had a lovely evening making Christingles - 12 people, 6kg sweets and 56 minutes to make 106 Christingles!

   

This jumper was bought 18 months ago, with a black Peace sign knitted into it.  Removing the sign was more complicated than it should have been, and left a lot of dropped stitches so I ironed stabiliser on and tried to match the colours thinking some EPP might cover the mess.  I still don't like it!  It was threatened with textile recycling bin but Tara has taken it to give it some love - lets see what she does with it!!!

We had a lovely Studio session making candle and foliage centre pieces, thank you Lucy

Jackie send me a photo of her and the 3 older grandchildren last summer: with the help of ChatGPT I managed to create a recognisable likeness in embroidery so I made her this.  

I had a go at making a wedding image for her youngest who got married just before Christmas, but this doesn't look like them at all

So I gave up and sent them this instead with Ginger bride and groom

I've done some work on the Mandelightful quilt.  Each line takes about 20 minutes, and there are 134 lines left to go (please don't tell me how many hours that equals!!!)

So far I've done the section below the snips (on the right)!  It'll take a while!

I have also hand quilted this brick i-Spy quilt

And now we are in 2026!

Gorgeous Boy has been using his quilt and has been growing!

All Caught Up

Sorry - two lots of agendas, two virtual meetings and then two lots of minutes to write up, and audit documents to sort out rather took over the last two weeks, but now I'm back!

Several more Gingers have joined the Thank You window

And in close up they are:

(for more details on any of them visit my Coping With Covid Facebook photo album or message me)

I made a time lapse video of how they are made - it's not brilliant but quite fun

I've been hand quilting this in the evenings - I bought the fabrics in Australia in 201, so it is a a long term project.  Unfortunately both the dark red fabric and the fleece below are thicker than is ideal so my fingers are suffering a bit (I need to find a thimble) but I''m plodding through doing a few lines a night

Niki and I did a (socially distanced) art class last week.  This was the image I chose

Niki's came out well

Mine???  Not so much!  Each time I'd mix a colour I'd use it all then need some more and of course couldn't make the same colour again!  Also we were painting outside so the paint dried long before we could blend it in!

I shortened the potato-sack dress and now have a top that I rather like.  As this fab weather looks set to continue I might try a sleeveless version too

I tried speed dating the PFP blocks, but someone else claimed priority on the bed so that hasn't happened yet

I had a fab Crafty Catch up with Sharon, Lynne and Tara - show and tell and a cuppa and a lot of talking!  Great to see them all

And I am hoping I am coming to a natural end of masks: 91 made and delivered and a final 22 on the sewing table and I've used up all the t-shirts and shirt fabric that was prepared for the masks, and have delivered all that have been asked for

2020 Wk 15 - playing around and a round up

It's lovely to receive REAL post - it does wonders to stave off the wobbles!  I got two miracle cures this morning - Lisa sent us a crochet rainbow and Plum sent a stitched Easter Card - Even husband was impressed!!!  Thank you both!

The two villages have set up a Safari Park Trail - people are encouraged to put out an animal and facts about it, so kids can look for them on their walks.  Mine:

And next door's

In other news there has been some hand quilting

And some finishing (only one side so far, I'd forgotten what a flaff this method was!)

 

I also have to confess: Following our Resin craft afternoon a few months ago, I *may* have popped some resin craft stuff into my Amazon basket!

I found a collection of postage stamps dating back to I don't know when (but some of the values have half pence on them!!!) so I made these

And then I did some more with some pretty rainbow buttons

I have also (clearly not much else to do at the moment!) made the Hexi flowers for the Facebook swap for April as well as March

 and completed some more FPP blocks 43 made, 90 needed!!!

I have been keeping a UFO spreadsheet (thanks for the idea Amo) to show me what needs doing next.  Unfortunately it's a bit two-steps-forward-one-step-back as I keep finding more projects to add to this list

As if this wasn't bad enough I've just realised the Spotty Circles quilt isn't even on it!!!!

2019 Wk 41 - Working with Jackie

Working (ie sewing) with Jackie . . . and shopping with Jackie at the Alexandra Palace Knitting and Stitching show makes for a pretty fab weekend!

We made a couple of 'Fold Up Sewing Folio's from Aneela Hoey's Stitched Sewing Organisers book (we had to put an elastic strap on as we didn't have enough fabric for the fastening strap)

And these Stash and Go drawstring bags

(the mint zippie was a repair for oldest daughter)

The lovely Kathy sent us instructions on how to make her Japanese Eco market tote bag and we made these

These pouches came from this blog and although they took more than the promised ten minutes, they were really quick to make

These Handy Fold-up pouches also came from Aneela's book

and prompted this larger i-pad sized version

And finally we made Emmaline's retreat bag (just one got photographed!)

Not bag for really just a day and a half of sewing as we also spent a day at the Knitting and Stitching show!

I bought some great iron on plastic from Happy Fabric (this is my first test piece)

and some felted sheets to line some tube mittens

Some additional shades of pearle quilting threads, and some Advent calendar ribbons, together with some felt that is a bit more 'gingerbread man' coloured

And a skein of sari scraps with should allow me to make a scarf like this one