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!

2024 June

 Welcome my monthly furtle: "Noun. furtle (plural furtles) (chiefly UK) A cursory examination of the contents or details of something."

(Every day is a school day!)

Here comes lots of photos and a few words (do you remember when  you took a photo, waited until you'd taken 24, walked to the chemists, waited a few weeks and then got real photos, in your hand?)

No on that here - a few snaps from my phone to (probably) your phone just like that!

I'm not sure when you last saw my garden?  The unwanted grassy patch has been dug up and replaced with shingle

The plats grew like triffids while we were away

And the raspberries are delicious!

The bit between Brian's grass garden and my bonus garden is still looking a bit sad though

So lets just look at it from the far end, at dusk - so pretty!

I've been crocheting, and the ball was annoying, so Brian came up with a bodge.  I'm trying to make a jumper, so far I have a back and a front, watch this space

I bought a fluffy big jumper in the sale, reckoning I could unpick the peace sign

but bizarrely the peace sign is knitted into the front, despite there being more knitting behind it so in unpicking it I'm left with live stitches.  Drat, another project in the to-be-sorted pile!

However, this was in the "to-be-sorted" pile and has now gone.  It was possibly going to a charity, or to be made into bookends, but has now been swapped (along with some crisp twenties) with a metal worker in the next village . . . 

. . . as he had made this 

Isn't it fabulous!!!!  You understand that I HAD to have it!

2022 Week 5

 A bit of a round up of what I've been doing!!

A tiny hand sewing project for on the train the other day: this will go on a second version of "my Small World" that Jackie is making and that I get to contribute to (only fair as I have the original!!!!

This is the tiny hexies on the original.  I'm hoping she'll let me make the New York Beauty and the Dresden plate too!

At Richmond and Kew Quilters this month we are making clothing out of patchworked pieces.  It's quite an 'in' thing (you wouldn't expect us ladies for a certain age to be on trend but there you go!).  It reminded me that mum made me a patchwork jacket years ago. I never really got on with the rounded neck so cut the binding off with an intention to change it, but it then sat in the stuff-to-be-done pile for (I have to confess), years if not decades!!!

Here is an idea of the before

And now the after

A friend of mine directed the village pantomime: The Pied Piper.  I was asked to make a Ginger of the Pied Piper himself: you can just see him in the centere of this cast photo

And here is my version

I also made a cyclist Ginger for a customer

and a World Cancer Day a few days ago and a Story Telling Day next month

 

Inspired by another member of Richmond and Kew quilters' Magic Starts quilt I started cutting up fabric.  Debbie's version used 10" squares and had light on dark and dark on light - whilst lovely it wasn't quite what I wanted, so Plum helped me find another method and evertually all of these . . .

. . .  will become a quilt of this!

I have finished a granny squares crochet blanket, and have come to realise that I do not like sewing in the ends!!!!

We were asked tpo see if a sewing machine was fixable.  The stitch width is shot but the stitch length works fine, but there was a problem threading it, one of the early guides was broken.  This paperclip now identifies as a thread guide and all is well in the world

Chertsey Museum Fun With Fabric class met yesterday: Susan brought in these for Show and Tell from December's session - what a cute family!!

February's session was a 'wrap necklace'.  This is the start of mine: I'm using embroidery threads (amout a metre gives me about 5cm of colour!  

I also took my fabric wrapped necklace as another sample and brought some magnets so people could choose to make bracelets.  They did well but the necklaces are a long project!

I have received all my January pink (carnation) hexie flowers)

And have posted out all the ones I made for the swap

2020 Wk 15 - a finish

The t-shirt quilt has been finished, delivered (a 2 mile walk - permitted exercise), decontaminated, and received with delight,

I spread it out on the drive before I set off: the front

And the back

I have also been cutting more masks: no huge production plans but they all have homes to go to so I’ll keep making them while they are required

However the sewing machine started making a strange noise so production stopped for a while.

Luckily I have an engineer on hand, so while he did this

I did this

And this !!!!