2023 May

 Pinch Punch first day of the month!

Here are a whole load of photos about my May!

We celebrated the Coronation with a lovely afternoon tea in the village hall . . .

and two gingers from Sue's Memories in thread collection

I finished an order of 100 dogs for a customer

and a dozen of the blue and gold patches to go with the previous name patches for a group of friends off to Le Mons 24 hour race

And two completed borough banners for the new Mayor or Ruinnymede

A busy Stitch morning

Jackie's son Paul captained a winning county team in the hurling championships

so a Ginger was necessary!

And Lisa's lovely Boris (a Berber Skink) passed away, (he's under the shell, his favourite shell!)

so another Ginger . . .

Our bed is quite high as there otherwise wouldn't be room for the chests of drawers in the bedroom.  We needed a new mattress and ordered one without having measured the old one.😱  The new one is 10cm/4" *higher*!!  There is no chance I can get in 😂

So off to Ikea to get new, lower, drawer units: guess what we'll be doing at the weekend!

Do you remember Basil?  A friend's very loved 40+ year old teddy.  I mended him during lockdown and make him a onesie to protect him.  He's come back to me while she goes on holiday for week - this time his earls are falling apart!

Lisa got me this kit for Christmas and I finally found what I was looking for as a stab board (not the right word, LOL)

So I have started creating the sea and the sky and a few rocks.  The kits is stuffed with different colours of wool - a really generous quantity!  Lots of fun stabbing!!

And talking of generous . . . I "met" Kathy many years ago when blogging was a place to appreciate other crafters creations.  She blogged at www.runningwithrocket.blogspot.com.  She now runs an Etsy shop with pre-loved sewing stuff (Running with Needles) and posts some of her finds on facebook and instagram.  I have made a few "Retreat" pouches using these fab frames, but the daughters seem to have appropriated the pouches, and I cant get the frames in the UK . . .just look what arrived in the post today!  Thank you Kathy, I cant wait to get started!!!

2023 April

Hello lovely people inside my phone: happy May

Here is a photo heavy roundup of my April!

Little hexie flowers sewn on holiday (half inch sides)

   

Not many holiday photos!  Dad and Eileen's keep bees, and I love that they have painted all the hives a different colour!

I ran out of fabric for the mini hexies, but I had felt with me on holiday - this is prep for next month's Fun With Fabric class: the idea is that you can have several needles threaded onto the thead tail, and stored in the lid.  Take the end one and it's already threaded ready for you to start sewing

And then I decorated this (it was a kit but will also become a class)

Annnnnd . . . stitched this lama

Lizzie has been busy since we got back - we've made King Charles, and a coronation ginger

and I'm making 100 of these for a customer

(just 28 to go)

I made a cushion for the Coronation picnic

  

to go on the throne!

and made a load of name badges for a friend and his friends to put on their boiler suits

  

I finished this lovely balloon nail art kit that the girls got me for Mothering Sunday

And finished two i-spy quilts for two bonus daughters who have just had babies

 

and here are Freddie and Amelia

And loving the blankets Niki made for them

And I made bonus quilts for the Grandmas: I've embroidered "These grandparents belong to" and added the babies' names: as more babies come along they can bring the quilts back to me and get Lizzie to add more names (Jane is expecting the next one next month!)

Lisa helped me run a Crown making workshop in the village: not as many children as we'd hope for, but they all had a great time

  

In other news: Our lovely God Daughter got engaged last week . . . 

and then . . . .Niki and George did too!!!!

Huge congratulations to both couples!!

Niki and George are planning on next year, not sure when Alice and Liam's will be, but very exciting!!!

(of course there had to be a ginger to commemorate the occassion!)

And finally, I managed to put my back out and couldn't drive or even walk when I was supposed to do the April Fun with Fabric so the lovely Rhona came over, collect the stuff, had a very quick lesson in what to do to make Japanese Rice Bags and then took the class for me: Well done all expecially Rhona, and thank you so much!!!

 

2023 March

I think back on the bloggers I used to follow, and many have stopped blogging: I guess some have gone to Instagram, or Tiktok or whatever else is 'hip' these days but I am in my comfort zone here and find this is a great place to be able to find photos of things I have made if I want to show someone an example of a technique or something I have made.

So here is March's roundup even if it's just for me and maybe a few lovely followers!

Chertsey Museum class made Japanese Rice bags, but I forgot to take photos until nearly everyone had left, so we just have one pic for evidence!

I got a thank you card from a little munchkin who received this quilt

And I am making for for this little munchkin who arrived a month early so I wasn't ready! (yes that's my daughter cuddling her, but not it's not her baby :-(

But this *is* part of her crochet: she is making two, one of for this baby and one is for another one due in April

I managed to get the Chertsey Meads wall hanging commission finished, and it is now up in the Museum (although this pic is from our Centre Parcs villa where I finally finished it!)

My lovely S-i-L got me some Tula Pink Parisville fabric: I stroked and loved it for a while then went shopping for some suitable solids . . . watch this space: I have a cunning EPP plan that should showcase the fabrics, fingers crossed

I have been commissioned by the Mayor of Runnymede to make a banner that she can gift to the towns Runnymede is twinned with around the world - this is the first draft and I have been given the approval to make a final version

I was gifted a whole load of kite fabric and didn't really have a plan for it so took it to Crafty Church: we cut loads of red, orange and yellow into triangles and have been making bunting with it

These are Twist and Go pots that I have created for Chertsey Museum for April's lesson - they are big enough to hold a project and thread and twist down to about 1.5" high

Then we went to Texas to see dad and Eileen.  While we were there we went to Eileen's great grandson's 4th Birthday party: he's into bugs!  I couldn't find anything suitable in WalMart but picked up a plain t-shirt and fabric pens. and was able to gift him this buggy t-shirt

Luckily it was a success!