2022 April first half

I felt as if I had spent most of the last few weeks copying blog posts from the old blog onto this one, but as I look throuigh the photos on my phone I realsie there has been a fair amount of making too

I have ticked off some of tyhe projects in the Book of Days:

Labels for cloths store at church

Scissor labels for Kandy and her grand children

Gingers with Daisys for Mothering Sunday (do excuse the art work!)

Gingers with Ukrainian Sunflowers, and sunflowers

And red white and blue bunting for the Diamond Jubilee coming up in a few months

  

I then mutilated a quit!!!

I made this one quite a while ago, and I'd missed the faric in quite a few seams

  

As it's a size that isn't very useful, and there are lots in the same size (a single fleece blanket size)

At Richamond and Kew Quilters a month or so ago we looked at making jackets from a really simple pattern of rectangles.  It fitted by quilt perfectly - and became a no-waste pattern (coincidentally Plum and I have been looking at these) 

The construction is such that you dont have to inset the sleeves: you add the sleeves to the middle of the sides then sew two seams: from side/bottom of the jacket, up to the junction with the sleeve, then out to the sleeve cuff.

Luckily I was able to keep the quilt binding as the binding on the bottom of the jacket and as the cuffs of the sleeves.  AND I found the box of left over fabric so I can bind the centre front and the neck in the same fabric.  The photos are poor but I'll take better ones when it is ready to be shown off!

 

I made April's crocuses for the Facebook Hexie swap group I'm part of

And I finally got round to teaching screen printing at Chertsey Museum: it was put off from a few weeks previoulsy when I had COVID.  The ladies have printed onto tote bags (after lots of test prints on paper and waste fabric).  In a few weeks time we will embelish these

As I was buying some paint and some screens ready for the class I also ordered one I designed myself:

To design a pattern with a repeat you start off with a few parts of the design on a piece of paper the right size.  You then cut the paper into quarters and rearrange them so the newly cut pieces are the edges and the blank bits are in the centre - this enable you to add more designs

By leaving a small clear section around the pattern I can print it again and again so I get a repeating pattern.  This will now be sashiko stitched with red embroidery thread

Lisa specifically asked for a patchwork for her birthday: it needed to be bir enough to go over the top of the beds and to cover the sides!  Either for her and Jim to sleep under with blankets added for each of the according to preference, or to go on the spare bed to keep it free of cat hairs.  She chose these colours and was happy with the design.  It isn't actually finished but I wanted to be sure it was big enough before I added the binding.  I think the 225 squares represent 10 m of fabric!!!!  Anyway they like it and are delighted with the size - phew!!

A friend of Niki's asked if I could make a chemo quilt, so I did.  

There were some scraps of the fabric left over  so I added a matching tote bag

And finally a few more Gingers - This lovely couple from church gor married this week: I had made a gebneric bride abd groom but once they posted wedding photos on FB I realsied I could match their colours 

  

And these two from our church gor confirmed in February.  Due to work and other uissues they havent both been in chgurch since then so this weekend we were able to gift them a bible.  I made covers for them both, plus (of course) a ginger bookmark!

2020 Wk 34 Another random post

I washed the new summer quilt I made for our bed - not really an event worth blogging about - but annoyingly what started off like this ...

ended up like this!  Will I never learn that red runs?  What I don't understand is why some cream turned pink and some stayed cream!

Following on from my embroidery of the pharmacy in the village, Lisa asked if I would do one of here soon-to-be house, to thank the owners!  This is just a draft but it's heading in the right direction.

The flower tub hasnb't photographed too well but looks great in real life ... 

until you look at the back and see how dense the stitches are - LOL

I then wondered if I could do one of the bungalow that been Jim's home for the last ten years: 

I need to cut back the greenery on the left and move things around a tiny bit so the window to the left of the door is visible, but otherwise it's not too bad

We've been doing some work in our house too:  The bottom row of cabinets has been there for a long time but the work surface just collected junk - so a first row of additional cupboards has been added and some shallower ones are on their way

A friend has become a Grandma, so obviously the baby needs a quilt!  The mum and dad live in Canada so I wont have the opportunity to explain what an i-spy quilt is ...

So I embroidered the poem on the quilt so hopefully they will realise!

This photo appeared on FB: I love seeing little munchkins using their quilts!!

I have been working - admin work and embroidery for a friend / customer who runs this pre-school.  60 down, 20 to go before school starts back in September!

I had a socially distanced play-date with Tara and Lynne yesterday - lots of chat, lots of yummy food, lots of admiring Tara's crafty bits, and her crafty / office, and her (and Mat's) awesome Lego collection and we even managed some making!

And finally I have a new grand kitty - Niki picked up this ball of fluff yesterday - no name yet but rater cute isn't she!!!

2020 Wk 20 - still out of routine!

I still don't feel in the rhythm of this new-normal, so blogging doesn't occur to me very often - I do refer to this a lot when I need to remind myself about things that I have made so it annoys me when I haven't blogged!!

So here is an update for the last few weeks!

We have been making a "Caring Snake" ... painting stones and adding them to the body of a snake!  Afterwards its going to be set into concrete and treated as a permanent reminder of how we coped with the pandemic.  I did a Ginger (of course) and a mandala sort of design, then two to represent Stitch and Crafty Church.  Sammi Snake is getting longer every day!

I've been asked to design this an an embroidery - gulp!

This is the screen shot of the draft design - more details need to be added now!

We planted some rhubarb earlier in the year :the one stalk made probably the world's smallest crumble, but it was delicious!!!

I usually make I-spy quilts with a plain square to embroider a name on, but completely forgot with this one.  It will go to Linus quilts, but just in case it doesn't make any sense to them I embroidered "I spy with my little eye something beginning with ..." on it!

The Ginger Auction has finished - phew!  There was a LOT of Facebook admin involved!  But worth it as they raised well over £1000 pounds!!!

I thought I'd finished with them for a while, but this hexi flower ginger was waiting to be designed!!!

Aswas this sailor!

Another I Spy quilt has been finished, embroidered and delivered to Grandma: Hello baby Kyron

And this summer quilt (coverlet) has been finished and has received the kitty seal of approval!