Hope you had a good one!

I am having a fab Christmas! Just about to start day 3, but thought I'd share a quick pic of all the crafty goodies I got over the last few days

Four (!) bundles of fabric, buttons, threads (thank you Avril) and wonder clips, a useful dish (thank you Plum, sorry, the chocs didn't want to be photographed, you can guess where they hid), a heat resistant mug rug (thank you Jackie) and a pyrography set. I'm a very happy bunny!!!

Hope you are well and happy, and that yours was great too xxx

 

Posted with Blogsy

Christmas Crafts

It's been a choice of crafting or blogging- and the crafting has won! Picture heavy round up follows:
A zippy pencil case for the daughter of a work colleague (in progress so you can see both sides, then finished)

And Zippy pouches for the receptionists in my serviced office
The Crafty Church Community Crochet project (#1) was finished and delivered - to a very delighted Mrs C
And sticking with the crochet theme . . . Lisas's blanket has been progressing and is looking amazing

Thank you to all friends who visit here - real and virtual - I love each and every one of you - and wish you all the very best for the season and for the new year

**Merry Christmas**

And All the best for

2017

xxxxxxxxxxx

Posted with Blogsy

Bread basket

I've had a lovely few evenings working with my transatlantic washing line! I'm really pleased with the shape of this one

 

 
There was some rope left, and I made another disc, and then finished off with fabric wrapping which I hadn't tried - and also added two "handles"

So now I have a lid: I think it will work well for warm bread rolls?  Although I am temped to undo the last few rounds and turn then through 90 degrees so It's a fitted lid

Or a mat!

Happy me!!!!!

Posted with Blogsy

A Squishy and a Belly Laugh

I have a virtual friend that has been mentioned several times on this blog: Kathy. She blogs at Running with Rocket and she sells at Running with Handmade. She has been my main inspiration for these spiral cotton baskets and bowls. Do click on her ETSY shop and have a look - they are fabulous!

She works for the post office in America and sends great care packages - being very mindful to take full advantage of the permitted weight paid for.

A few weeks go I got an email to say a package was on its way from her, and I could track it - it was great fun: the whole family tuned in to daily updates as to where the package was! (why it needed to sit at Heathrow, just five miles away, for nearly a week is anybody's guess!)


In the past she has added hand made envelopes to use the weight allowance, while this year I got an envelope without a card as the card would have tipped the package into the next postage cost!

So the package arrived and I opened it with great excitement - the family looked confused, but I nearly wet myself laughing - Kathy I love you! After all the problems sewing with the wrong sort of cotton rope I was delighted to receive . . . .

By the time I had time to go to my sewing room it was too late to start on a bowl, so I made a little pouch for Lisa - isn't it lovely when your children *ask* for something? All her loyalty type cards were taking up too much space in her purse, could I . . .

Yep, I can!

Today I shall mostly be planning my rope bowl!!!!!!

Posted with Blogsy

Rope Rounds

Armed with a newly serviced sewing machine and some soft rope (none of that sash cording I used before that broke my needles) I had a go at making some cotton rope baskets.

The red is a bit bland on the outside (but pretty on the inside), but I reckon the green is fab from both sides. It's a belated birthday pressie for a friend with a green themed kitchen. I varied the step (?) of the zigzag stitches to vary the density of the colour.

 

 

Lovely to be back creating!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Bonus Bliss

What Bliss ... my sewing machine came home . . . and the rest of the family didn't!!!!

Well they did eventually, but they all went Christmas shopping straight after work so I had a couple of hours to myself!

I'm not showing you what I made though - Christmas is toooo close!

Retreat Roundup

I can't believe I've only been back home for 24 hours - the weekend seems to have been ages ago!
We managed some more making- and a few gifts were exchanged. By virtue of working full time and also not having a sewing machine at the moment, mine were mostly bought - but my "retreat goodie bag" was awesome!!

Do look at that hexie needle case - and the other side is blue in the centre, yellow outside!

We got the embroidery machine running and made these for the boys for Christmas. We ran out of time so Jackie has to finish them off!

Hand sewing over a cuppa created these

And a lovely lady from my church knitted a panda for A - It went fine very well!!!!! Thank you aunty Janet!

*** STOP PRESS ***
Jackie has just sent pics of the finished sacks!

Looking good!

Posted with Blogsy

One to one sewing retreat

So at home there seems to be no time to see, and anyway my machine is still out with the engineer, so I had a great solution this weekend - I attended a very very exclusive 1-2-1 sewing retreat - at Jackie's !!!!

Only a 48 hour trip this time so we've had to cram lots of sewing in!

 

Some nesting boxy pouches from Sara's website

 

A lovely Christmas tree decoration

And a load more warm diamond blocks have been stitched

 

And we still have another day!

 

Posted with Blogsy

The Old School One

You may remember Lisa, mum and I started making a dress for Lisa a few weeks ago - well she wants to wear it to a wedding - on Tuesday! Needless to say we had done nothing further since the initial work, but this weekend it had to be finished!

My main sewing machine is still away being serviced, and the one I bought when I was teaching weekly has been playing silly games - so I dragged out an ancient Singer hand crank machine for the top stitching

 

And I hand stitched the hem and am rather chuffed that it's pretty invisible!

 

Not all old school this weekend though. The embroidery machine has been earning its keep with this pile of tshirts done

 

And a last minute present made a birthday girl very happy

 

And I've pinned a whole load more warm diamond blocks - I've even stitched a few on the Singer but my arm is starting to ache! I think I'll be back to hexies for a while until I get a machine back!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Beautiful, and Boring

No fabric time during the week but I managed to spend a few hours this afternoon.

Cutting 6" squares from dark grey spraytime, and small triangles from the warm FQs I I bought last week, then sewing them together, pressing them, trimming them and then p

Laying them out like this

 

I know lots of people don't like spraytime, but I do, and I knew I didn't want a flat grey - I'm really pleased with the way this is going!

Meanwhile, after being taken apart and put back together last weekend, the embroidery machine was back at work on about 30 polo shirts for the preschool, boring, but a nice little earner!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Key ring class

This was today's class at Chertsey Museum - making key rings! I got the clamps from Amazon (search ribbon clamp) and we stitched pretty ribbons onto black webbing, then clamped the ends in a loop. These can now be worn on the wrist so you don't drop your keys

 

And some show & tell from last month

 

Posted with Blogsy