August 2026

 At last the crazy heat seems to be behind us, and now we head into September

But first here is photo furtle evidence of my August

Jackie and I had a lovely weekend making Liberty twisted zippy pouches 

I did some more Kitchen Sink blocks

I made a Hoose Wif (well that's how its pronounced) based on a soldiers WW1 sewing kit

And replanted one of my Sallix plants in a lovely (but huge) pot from Niki

Chertsey ladies made chickens

and my sewing machine  graunched to a stop so had a major overhaul

yuck!

We had a weekend in Tavistock and did lots of walking

and I spent the car time starting this i-Spy quilt

Gorgeous grandson in now 9 months old, and is more fun every day

Our monthly craft group, previously known as Crafty Church hasn't been based in the church since before COVID so we though it might be time for a more appropriate name: Ladies and Gentlemen may I introduce you to Mingle and Make

A photo of a baby who received his i-Spy quilt a few months ago . . .

and another of two quilts being delivered this afternoon

And that's a wrap!

April 2026

 Welcome to my April furtle

My orange car was replaced by a seafoam green car: our first brand new car, and our first all electric car: quite a learning curve but I think we are getting the hang of it!

I bought this fabric when I visited Jackie: I love it but I wasn't concentrating and bought jersey rather than patchwork cotton.

It made a lovely sun hat for Jack!

I did some customer embroidery

and made some Gingers: Annual different limb day

And annual Puffin day 😂

The collection of giant pin cushions has grown

And a friend has become a grandma again

Gorgeous munchkin is a happy boy: this was taken at 5 months

This EPP patchwork has been under construction for a few years, but I've now started the plan to finish it

An evening class at Chertsey went well: kawandi as applique on tote bags

Not much else this month

Keep safe and stay happy

January 2026

 I have had a furtle through the phone photos for January and thought these might be mildly interesting!

I made a-some vinyl pouches with the Chertsey ladies a few months ago (the blue ones) but didn't like that the studs were on the vinyl as that seems likely to break, so I adapted the design a bit and added another section of fabric: these (the yellow ones) now work much better

I finished this hug quilt (yes I have done the binding since the photo was taken)

One I-Spy for a new baby, just need to do a second one for baby's cousin (honestly some friends are very greedy about grandchildren LOL)

Travelling to see *my* grandson means at least 75 minutes in the car.  If Brian drives I like to have something to do - my collection of EPP balls is growing!

I have finally finished my 2022 Easy Stack quilt from a Paula Doyle class.  I have rather fallen out of love with it, hence the crazy long time it took to make

I don't usually add labels  but the fleece backing moved a bit and ended up a bit small so I had to Frankenjoin a bit and it all looked a terrible mess, so the label is a sticking plaster to hide the booboo

We had a lovely late Christmas family gathering at mum's

A few new Gingers made an appearance: this one for Pie Appreciation day

This one for the RSPB bird spotting weekend

And this one for the RNLI SOS day

Brian made this for Jack - his dad made one for Lisa 34 odd years ago 

I'm teaching Paula's easy Stack at Chertsey on Friday, so though I'd show them the original idea and how much more complicated a Stack and Whack block was - and forgot to make the white  tall enough - doh!

More furtling this time next month.  For now, pictures of gorgeous boy!

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!