October 2025

 Well goodbye to October: the year really is picking up speed isn't it! 

I finished this topper for the lady chapel altar: we get the occasional bird or squirrel in the church so like to cover the altar cloth: we are currently using an old duvet cover so I made this

I

 also made a new altar cloth.  I don't have anywhere to lay out 2.5m so I moved into the village hall: we have a desk top ironing board so I could move the iron along rather than moving the cloth!

The embroidery is faint but there

I embroidered a few customer labels

And made a few taggies for some babies that have arrived recently (so many girls!) 

 

I did some hand sewing and made this bunny

Jackie visited and brought this fab nappy clutch for the baby

Nik has been working on two projects:  Obviously the 40 week body building project (less than 2 weeks to go!) and also a pathwork for her husband using the Southampton FC club shirts his dad bought him over the years: Not bad for her first patchwork quilt!!!

I started piecing a general i-Spy quilt then remembered I'd made a flimsy for the baby a while go but hadn't finished it (so that's what I'm now working on, no photos yet)

Niki and George's kitchen looked like this a few weeks ago . . .

And has now morphed into a real kitchen!  Well done Brian and George!

And because this post has been a lot about Niki and the baby, to finish here is the current position on Lisa's needle turn applique QAYG blocks - aren't they awesome

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????

2022 June

 Hello - how did June look for you?  Mine was pretty good!  We had the Queen' Platinum Jubilee, so of course I needed a new Ginger, window banner and t-shirt

And what felt like a few miles of bunting (recycled fabric and now put away to be reused)  

Neighbours out in force for a street party

I have started a, um, not sure what to call it, rectangular poncho?  I could get enough cheap wool in one colour so I have a greens and blues and browns, and a browns and beige: I managed to do a chain free casting on method (this method I think) and I'm pleased with the colours

And here it is on holiday with me!!!  

We had an amazing 9 days in Iceland!  Just a few pics here but loads more here if you need to see a few billion puffins!!!  This was our home for the 9 days

And these pics were taken at a remote museum where I snapped some of the caafty exhibits

Oh look, the poncho is growing!

My fave puffin, but apparently I was not allowed to take him home!

The Icelandic people believe (or want to believe) in elves and 'hidden people' - and these hidden peopel were being sold at the airport

Home to a decent crop of raspberries and redcurrents (yum)

And some aprons to embroider for a customer

And a small bit of upheaval as this . . . 

became this . . . 

then this . . . 

and finally this ()rian's job is to box in all the wires and pipes to the left of the door)

Meanwhile three Eton School Boys were created by Lizzie for a customer

And under the banner of Repair Cafe I mended some jeans

And finally, fed up with the shawl edged curling, 

I added a border and now it lays flat :-)