Photo a Day

16 July; We took the Guides to the swimming pool at the school where I work. It may not be very deep but the girls had it all to themselves and then a BBQ afterwards!

17th July; A really hot day here in the south east.

18th July; I began sewing on all those little houses...going to take me a while I think!

19th July; today we took the children up to the local church for part of their RE. It was a very plain church but it did have these rather nice windows....and it was lovely and cool in there!

20th July; I thought it was a good idea to make a quilt for a gift in a week. What a foolish idea! Today I spent ages trying to get the top finished and here I am adding the sashing. Not my usual colours I know AND triangles.....

21st July; I have been pestering Jess for ages to cover my diary that begins in Sept. FINALLY she did it today and it only took her about an hour! Isn't it cute? And what's more, the cover comes off so I can re-use it next year too!

A Scrappy Quilt

Remember the scrappy quilt we made for charity? Well we were so inspired by how it all came together that we decided to pool our scraps and each make our own scrappy quilt....but to keep this time!

We took our scraps to The Cabin where Burnice and I cut them up and shared them out into three piles; one each

They ended up all slightly different and were cut different widths and lengths.

Once I got mine all home I sorted them all out into colours. The quilt I had decided to make needed the colours all separated so for the colours where I had a large pile, I was able to further sub-divide into light and dark.

The pattern I chose came from a book I have called "Sunday Morning Quilts" and begins with a piece of cream fabric, pretty much whatever size you like....

....I began with a red slab so sorted out all my reds into dark, middle and light.

It is a bit like a log cabin pattern except you start with a piece the same size as your cream piece and then just add strips of different widths and lengths around it. Whenever my strip wasn't quite long enough I joined bits together until it fitted.

Gradually I built up the slab until it was a square of roughly 15". I really tried not to get my cream bit in the middle and to keep the outside strips looking random and unplanned! Then I trimmed it to exactly 15" before sewing around the block just to support it until I actually get it all sewn together.

I made several more slabs....here is the bright greens...different sized starter piece this time.

As you can see I just made up all the slabs using all the scraps; I managed light and dark blue, 2 pink squares as well as several others. Once I got to this point I decided I needed to make it bigger. Therefore more scraps were needed so I asked Linda and Burn for more and raided my Mums scanty supplies to get enough for the last few slabs!
Now it is 4x4 and tomorrow I am off to buy backing. I will show you the finished top and the backing I chose tomorrow. Not sure how to bind it yet!

More photos....

9th July; Ok so this looks a bit revolting but last week at Guides we practised survival skills. As well as building shelters we had a go at collecting water in a couple of different ways. This method involves putting a bag over a branch and as the leaves do their thing, condensation forms in the bag and collects at the bottom. Obviously you would harvest this collected water daily but ours had been there for a week and we think it went a bit yellow because some leaves were actually in the water, starting to decompose.

 10th July; my fruit and veg are really beginning to grow like mad now! I love, love, LOVE  the huge showy flowers on courgettes....look at that amazing centre!

11th July; On Monday I went to Burnice's cabin and she and Linda had bought me all sorts of goodies when they went to Sandown! They had also bought several co-ordinating "stitchy" related fabric to make needle cases which we started on Monday. Tonight I got it all out again to add the binding and "do" the inside. Still not quite finished....

12th July; at last my 5 girlies are laying like good'uns, well all except Miss Berta who was the broody one! I love the way they all look, sitting together in their different colours!

13th July; Rushed to Tunbridge Wells to buy fabric for an end of year present for my class teacher. As you can see it is going to be  a quilt; the first one I have "designed" from scratch. It features a nine patch square alternated with a friendship star. Yes......that IS triangles Burn and Linda!!!!

14th July; today was the Horam Fun Day. The school run a little stand and this year we decided to make a map of the village where the school is. Children (and adults) came and made their own house in felt and then it was added to the map. If their house was off the area covered then they could choose something else to make! My holiday job.....to stitch it all on! 

Photo a Day continues

Another month, another set of pictures...

1st July; Forest School and today we made boats by splitting small logs and drilling a hole for a mast. Then we added leaf sails before testing them on the stream. I just loved the way the children were all poking their boats with sticks!

2nd July; Pet Day at school and this fantastic tortoise called Freddie came to visit. He is 45 years old and was given to the mother of a child in our class when she was just 4! He was gorgeous and a fascinating animal to be able to see close to.

3rd July; Come on, be a bit jealous....these are my radishes! Impressed? You should be!!

4th July; do you remember in the spring I took a photo of us ripping out all the plants that had grown through the fence from next door? Well just look at this cheeky rose poking through again!

5th July; looks like a good year for blackcurrants. We had about 8 last year but it looks like we might be in for a few more this year. Not quite ripe yet however.

6th July; another Uni Open Day but to Southampton this time. We had to change at Three Bridges and I was struck by this fab building on the opposite platform. So different from the steel or concrete structures that stations are these days.

7th July; we are having a mini heatwave...or is it just summer at last? Well whatever it is, Ken and Jasper cleaned and filled the hot tub AND put up the gazebo whilst we were out yesterday. So the children were in it as soon as it had heated up! Now we just need to buy a new cover...

8th July; the last Forest School session. Whatever am I going to photograph on a Monday now? We made a fire and cooked mini pancakes for this session. All the children got to light a sparky and put a stick on the fire too and they were just so sensible and even a few had to be a bit brave!
I have just loved forest school and the children seem to have done too. Lets hope we can do something similiar next year too.