2024 January

 Not much to show for the start of the year

I made two panels at a workshop some years ago but I don't have room to hang them and the girls' don't want them.  I am *trying* to declutter so they were going to go but then I needed a bag for crochet, so I joined them and voila! 

We have finally done some work on our village hall:

The stage hasn't been used for years (decades?) so became a dumping ground

so we removed the stage and put up curtains to turn it into storage

and the library units and the (nice) chairs have moved to behind the curtain

Leaving a huge hall for people to use

I'm really delighted with it!

I've been bulk making I-spy quilts for a few months - too boring to have included in many blog posts.  I finally added the binding so I had 8 ready, then checked my lust and found I needed 11😳.

These have been named and mostly distributed and I'm back making the last 3!

Then my body decided I needed a break from work and sewing, well at least my appendix did, it decided we weren't friends any more so I kind of lost a week or two!  All better now!

It was lovely to come home to mini daffs sprouting in the garden: I wasn't sure they were planted deep enough in these colourful pots but they obviously are

I have done some crochet - this is the wool Lisa got me for Christmas - the colours seem very Northern Lights: I love it!

Hope you are keeping well, and I can show a bit more crafting next month!

2021 Week 37

I seem to be in a Necklace State of Mind!  

Carrying on from the shwe shwe necklace I made a few weeks ago there was rope left over so  . . . I made another

And there was some more left over, and I saw the box of embroidery threads, and I wondered if that would work (and it did!)  There is more rope left over - what next???

(to join the two ends I butted them together, and stitched long stitches about an inch from each raw end so they wouldn't separate and then wrapped the final fabric on yarn over the join)

I have been lucky to have some really great managers / bosses in my working life.  Having sadly lost one a few months ago it seems like a double blessing that another has welcomed a baby into his world!  James and Tanya, congratulations on the safe arrival of Lila

I haven't done much other making in the last few weeks but I have been tidying the sewing room, and I spent a whole afternoon working in the shed: I have got rid of loads of magazines and lesson plans, 5 big bags of donated fabric that I cant see I will ever use and have even labeled some of my boxes.  I clearly hadn't improved my photography skills but these two sections of the shed are much improved (just another dozen or so to go!)

2021 Week 22

As mentioned in my last post: a long time ago a lovely lady called Iris,  from the Chertsey Museum class, asked me to be executor of her craft room when she passed.  Sadly she passed early this year and I was called by her neighbour to come and help empty the room.  To be honest it was not so much a craft room as a craft 4 bedroomed house!  There was every craft imaginable in every room of the house! 

So not much making to report this week - mostly sorting the goodies from Iris's, and categorising them as to where they go next: To give you an idea, I filled my car three times and Emma from the museum filled hers once (she took a lot of beads in case they can be used on the replica costumes and most of the paper based craft stuff as her sister Claire teaches that kind of craft there) 

So far the list of crafts I now have kits and / or resources for (or have passed them on to someone else) are at least:

Macrame

Needle punch 

Glass painting 

clay

leatherwork

beads

wire craft

EPP, 

cricut, 

leather 

scrap booking 

sizzix 

card making 

weaving 

painting 

stamping 

embroidery 

rug making 

Viking knitting 

tie dying 

patchwork 

dress making 

jewellery making 

crochet 

French knitting

circle cutting

ordinary knitting

Please, much as I loved her, DONT be like Iris - some of the resources she has two or three unopened packets of, some where bought from Woolworths or even pre-decimalisation (50+ years ago).  So there are now bags and boxes of craft stuff all over the house as I sort out the final bags of stuff from hers and at least have all the associated stuff together.

What I have done in breaks is finish piecing this little EPP hexi rainbow trip around the world

Made this for my God Daughters who works for the ambulance service as a 999 ambulance handler and recently delivers her first baby by phone

And I'm rather chuffed with myself in that (with Lisa's help) I actually cast one for a crochet poncho

And I made this - in anticipation of the day, surely coming soon, that we can all hug!!!

2019 Wk 44 - what I've been doing (and should have been doing)

I'm teaching a class today at Chertsey Museum - and planned to teach a sewing caddy in a glass jar with a pincushion lid.  As I started to prep for the class I realised this would take no more that ten minutes so was NOT a good idea.  Instead I made this (just for fun, we wont be making these at the museum until December 2020!!!)

Then I had to get back on track: I have a couple of dozen polystyrene balls planned for the sewing caddies so I had to find something that I could do with them.  Thank you Pinterest: two ideas!

I treated myself to a new storage organising thingy so spent the best part of a day sorting lots of little bits and pieces into this - I think everything little is now easy to find except a box of bells that are still hiding somewhere

I did some machine embroidery for a customer

And I love it when I get pics of things I've made being used

And that pic wasn't the only one this week: I got this from the Windsor Homeless Project showing Chris with his hat

And this from Lily's granny - what a cutie!

The hexi rounds flimsy has grown, and hopefully the dark rings and the light rings are obvious.  I can go two more light and half a dark with prepared hexies, and then oh dear what a pity never mind I'll have to do some more!

I'm almost up to date on the temperature project

And I am up-to-date on the European-trips-with-friends patches.  Do I sew them onto a bag as originally planned or would a zippy or a scarf be better?

2019 Wk 35 - Dresden Plates and other stuff

In my last post I showed a "blades" Dresden plate made using this method

I thought I ought to be able to teach petal edges using the EPP method as well, (gathering the curved bit separately to tacking the fabric to the template) so I made this one

I had real problems finding on-line templates that actually fitted to make a circle, so many attempts later made my own templates.

Also this week I've made cushions for the lovely ladies at Windsor Baptist Church (I wasn't going to do hidden zips so I went colourful instead!)

And I had a stall at the Church fair - which was attended by a real unicorn!!!

I sold a few things at the fair but the bigger success was  the baby embroidery machine embroidering names on flannels.  I sold at least 4 to girls who are now at university (and one is a new mum) but still have the named flannels they bought from me a dozen years ago - and were delighted to get fresh versions (but still wanted to come and type in their own name and press the 'go' button!)

And I have been tacking hexies (just for a change)

and loving seeing them sorted in a Tupperware box

 And finally a friend, Hayley, and I have been silk screen printing.  A few disasters, but this cut from a Tescos brown paper bag worked really well.

We are meeting again next week to twist the stencil and turn the 4 leafed flower into an 8 leafed flower

2019 Wk 6 - A surprising amount!

I'm not quite sure how I've managed to achieve all this, but

I've made a Brick I-Spy quilt

I've finished my storage pod

And I've finished my enormous fabric bowl (the cat keeps eyeing it up as a potential bed!)

And I've stolen a idea from Janine (Rainbow Hare) - she added circles to her clam shells and it looked fab so I'm doing the same!

I probably ought to do some work work though!

2019 Wk 5 - Off to Ireland

Chertsey Museum class was on last Friday and we made triangular purses.  Mostly these were made from leather, pleather / faux leather and fleece so no sewing although some ladies did use fabric.  We used Kam poppers which are really sturdy, and we had fun!

The next day I was up at 3:30am!!!  And off to the airport for the first flight to Ireland.  By the time I would normally be waking up I had been driven to Heathrow, flown to Dublin, been picked up and delivered to Jackie's and we were in the sewing room deciding what to make first!!!

These were the winners - pink penguin's cover lunch bag aka a very useful bag

We then made the first of 4 pay-it-forward gifts I have committed to on facebook.  This is for a niece who had sent a link to an infinity scarf with a zipped pocket for phone or keys.  I took the sent link to be a subtle hint so we made one and it will go in the post tomorrow

 We then made a pair of hobo / project bags fussy cutting some bold Ikea flowers (thank you Sharon)

Jackie has made a few Sew Together pouches, and this time we thought we'd have a go at the mini one.  It was a bit fiddly as were had to use the original instructions with the 'mini' adjustments but we got there in the end

 We made (started!) some storage pods

 and some larger-than-we-expected bowls

And then we went to have cuddles with little Miss Gorgeous

And the slightly boisterous big brothers (I am sooo jealous - isn't Jackie greedy having 3 grandchildren while I have none!  I am lucky that she shares though!!!)

we did our usual gift exchange but most of the goodies I brought home have been put into use (love the mug!) or put away before being photographed, but this has stayed on my wrist - so far it's decorative but who knows when I will need to measure something and will be able to!!!