Granny Stripe Throw

I am trying hard to finish projects off. I find January is a good time for this as I am always too broke to buy new wool/fabric/ pretty things! I started this throw from some wool I was given out of a friends' mothers' loft and some of it was a bit moth eaten. However I rescued it, Eliza wound it off the cones and into balls and off I went.

Linda gave me a lovely dark purple and I seemed to have twice as much jade as the other colours so I decided to alternate the burgundy and purple with the jade. It was so relaxing to just go up and down, up and down, up and down and before I knew it I had almost run out of wool!

Oooo quick border needed so I went round in dc in purple, then jade. But I ran out of jade about 6" from the end so out it all came and we had to make do with a row of burgundy. It is proper wool so I find it itchy against my skin but it is headed for Jess's bed where it won't be against anybodys skin.

I have to say it was super warm and has a great weight to it that acrylic just doesn't have. Still I am not converted to wool even so......working with it was just about bearable but otherwise just too scratchy!
Another UFO bites the dust!

1/52 Weeks of Happy

So my very first week of happy things. Rather a skinny week, what with the awful rainy weather, the end of the holidays and going back to school. Still, I am pleased to be back and running and yes.....it DOES make me happy!

American quilt

Remember these squares....?

Today I carried on with this gorgeous kit that I had as a birthday present from America when we went in the summer. Next job was to make the rooves for my little houses but first I had to cut up a huge piece of background fabric to get the base for the applique squares and the triangles for the border.

Then I finally got to the sqaures that go onto the roof strips.

12 little rooves, all different. After that it was time for the doors. Now I was into new territory as I had to applique these on. My machine does a rather nice blanket stitch so I have decided to go with that, rather than doing it all by hand.

After a few hairy moments and tangles and chomping of the fabric (eek!) it did actually stitch them on quite nicely. (Just don't look too closely!)

And voila! 12 little houses (well you can only see 8 but I have done 4 more!)......got windows to do next!

My new project

New Year so time for a new project. I have done several different things over the years; a Shimelle one where you take photos once a month, some where you take a photo each day and scrapbook them and last years Photo a Day where I just blogged them. I saw this a few months ago and quite fancied it but when I revisited the idea I decided I would end up with a load of random photos of odd things. I also really like this idea so I have decided to combine the two and try to get back into a bit of scrapbooking again. I have come up with.....
52 Weeks of Happy!
Each week I will do a page, usually including a photo, of what has made me happy that week. My weeks will run Wednesday to Wednesday.

So to set me off I need a book to put it all in! I got the pattern for this easel book from here. Nice and easy but I had forgotten just how long making paper things takes!

This morning I just did the binding and the words on the front and just those few bits took me well over an hour!!! Hmmmm I'm out of practise  think.
Now my little book is all ready to receive my lots of happy things!

Last Photo a Day!

Hurrah! I made it! And here are the last entries for the year...

26th December; Boxing Day at Mums for 11 people. The main focus of this day is to eat....

27th December; Albert is getting very used to coming in each evening for a run about in the lounge. Tonight we left the dogs in too....Max was very interested but Albert remained completely laid back and ignored him!

28th December; another cute bunny shot.......

29th December; turkey soup time! Lots of veggie chopping.

30th December; I had a totally indulgent day and started my American Quilt. First of all I had to cut the fabric into 1" strips and then sew them all together again. This will make the houses.

31st December; New Years Eve! Ken was working so Mum came up and we had a quietish time, playing games. Then we all had fizz with cassis to toast in the New Year.

So that was a whole year in photos. I think I only missed 1 or 2 days. It has been quite fun but now I need to think of a new project for 2014. I have a couple in mind that I might merge.....