2024 November

I'm working on a great project with Chertsey Museum: they have been collecting memories of Chertsey Hospital, including inviting people to decorate a square of fabric ready to be made into a wall hanging:  the squares are all still mounted on backing paper at the moment but they are looking great!

We had a lovely Willow Weaving session at the hall:

Lizzy made some quilt labels for a customer:

and I did some trial embroidery on a boot (I think I see more of this happening!)

Lisa and I are making a patchwork for Niki and George: mostly bee themed fabrics as Grandma Eileen donated the fabrics (she keeps bees) so we thought we'd make a new home quilt for when they (hopefully) move in the spring.  Difficult to see yet but it will say New Hive!

All the fabric has been cut so it will be as big as it will be!

Meanwhile Lizzie has been busy - Gingers in the uniform of the local senior girls school for their PTFA

Gingers holding Christingles for the volunteers who have offered to help make the Christingles just before Christmas Eve

And gingers holding traditional Norwegian Christmas hearts for friends and customers

And finally a very belated house warming for Lisa and Jim (Google maps don't show quite the same angle, and the roof over the front door has now been painted!!)

2024 April

 I have a few customers who make patchwork quilts and are very organised about wanting labels for them, so I've been doing some designing and stitching

I made some fabric bowls as a sample for a class, now I just need to get some fabric that can be suitably fussy cut

We had made pincushions-in-glass-jars at Chertsey museum, and some came back for show and tell

as did a finished purse

And for April we all made felt rabbits thanks to Stephanie who led the class

A future class (I hope you are impressed how organised I am!) involves crayon pictures which then have the wax iron out of them and are then over stitched

These are my samples

The top one is based on a stained glass window in my grandmother's house which is now at my aunt's  It isn't a typically Norwegian scene but I though it would be easy to copy.

My favourite is Hamish!

One of my favourite girls in the village is representing England in the World Cheer Leading championships.  Its a bit demeaning to call it cheer leading - its more like synchronised gymnastics if you want to watch their GOLD MEDAL performance it's here.  I am beyond delighted for her!  The training and dedication from all the girls is incredible.  Me?  I just embroidered on t-shirts for mum and dad!

I bought a tray / table from Ikea, in the as-seen section.  It was all black and a bit scratched.  The lovely Hayley drew on some flowers and we did some painting together

And I finished it off and poured resin over to seal the paint

Talking of Hayley, as well as being a fab artist, she is also the queen of charity shops!  She bought a half square triangle bed sized quilt (if you're not a patchworker it's made up of squared made up of two triangles)

She bought a fleece blanket and a gilet (to get the zip) and made this fab jacket for less than £15!

Lisa has been making too - this hexi flimsy was 90% finished but she wanted to move on to something else (husband is the same - 90% is good enough?) so I added the final row of not-hexies to give a straight edge

This is another one she has been working on since she her own sewing machine at Christmas - this got layered for quilting and she tells me she's done half the echo quilting (and is finding it boring!)

Niki is happier creating with food that with fabric - she and George have bought a pizza oven so we had a lovely afternoon trailing different bases, tomato sauces, cheeses etc.

Although I'm really please with the kitchen since we got the new doors and work surfaces, it's not big enough for the stuff I've got, so a while ago (during that year when we couldn't go anywhere or see anyone) we put up some cupboards on top of existing cupboards to make more storage

 It was never lovely, the various layers of cupboards came from different ranges to suit our plans and everything was off set for a variety of reasons, but it did make a LOT of storage.

So a few weeks ago, the washing machine came out of the downstairs loo (that space is needed for something else), the spare larder unit that came from Lisa's kitchen and the assortment of white units came down and went up in a new configuration

 

Once the larder unit door is replaced with white it'll look OK, I just needed to find homes for all this stuff 😳

That's my April in a nutshell, I'm hoping for sunshine and blue skies in May - what do you reckon????

2023 October

 So we now wave goodbye to October: I cant believe how quickly this year is going!

At the beginning of the month the Chertsey Museum group did some needle felting, but I only got a few photos

Jackie came over for a quick visit: we went to the Knitting & Stitching show, and managed to get a bit of sewing done: vinyl pouches,

and little zipped bags.

I got some puffin fabric at K&S S, and had a play with some self-cover buttons

Towards the end of the month Mum, Niki and I had 24 hours in Norway, sadly for my uncle's funeral.  It was a lovely service, and we re-connected with family we haven't seen for ages - we also saw snow!

I managed a few finishes sewing in front of the TV: this EPP hug finally got a binding

These tapestries (done by mum) got changed into zippy pouches

and this shirt quilt got finished and delivered to a customer

2023 August

 Well this is another month where I have been astonished by the number of photos I have to show you!

I have been painting flat wooden beads to match two colourful dresses

There was a great variety of show and tell at Chertsey as the ladies brought in projects they had finished

I finished two EPP (hexies and pentagons) balls

These are made in two halves: 10 hexies and 6 pentagons in each half, sewn together like this

I then experimented with other alternatives: One central hexi surrounded by pantagons (x2) makes a flattened ball

but a pentagon surrounded by pentagons (x2) makes a very satisfying little ball (I think these were 1/2 inch sides)

that with the help of a wooden base and a hot glue gun becomes a sweet little pin cushion

I managed to get to Jackie's for a few days.  We had a go at making pouches with an internal pocket, 

but I think I must have not been concentrating as I was handing her stuff to sew that had been assembled incorrectly so some handles were on the inside

We also mode some bags that would hold projects but I maganed to pin the zipwrong on one of them too😱

These two vinyl zippy pouches weren't too bad

I'm making a quilt for a friend from her B-i-L's shirts.  I don't have space to spread the blocks out at home so take advantage for the village hall. All laid out

and the rows all stitched.

My Tula Pink EPP just about fits on the sitting room floor, but not much longer!  I've got some purple to go in the triangles

And I have been working on a smaller EPP travel project.  I've been making the flowers on and off this year and have now decided it's going to be a flower garden (my first).  I found some 'grass' fabric and have started  preparing grass hexies to be added to the flowers

Once they all have the grass I can lay them out and speed date them

Still on the subject of Hexies - I received the August swap flowers, and got mine posted just before the end of the month