Photo a Day

Let's hope that this week's pictures are a bit more interesting as I have been on holiday from work!

April 8th; I desperately needed new glasses and contact lenses so today was the day I went to do the deed. It is sooooo hard to choose specs to suit and I tried lots on. I really wanted purple ones but the children said they didn't suit me so I went for these instead. Are they a bit funky? I just didn't want boring glasses!

April 9th; you have already seen what I got up to today so todays pic HAS to be Burnice ironing!

April 10th; I think you have met Minnie before. My children don't like her, or so they say, and they much prefer to make a fuss of the Lab, Max. She is quite fizzy but only when they give her attention because she never gets any! Well last week she had a haircut and for some reason the children, especially Jasper, are all over her like a rash! Apparently she looks "cute" now. Jasper has even let her sit on his lap but I think she was more interested in what was going on outside than cuddles

April 11th; my tea cosy that I have already shown.

April 12th; a shopping trip to Tunbridge Wells to buy some loveliness. Can you guess what it is yet? I will show you soon...

April 13th; I spent a lovely day relaxing and crocheting at Gillys. Sharon, one of the lovely girls who goes there too, has been having a clear out and she had some wool to re-disperse. I laid claim to a rather lovely emerald green (as well as some magenta) but it was all on a cone and needed rolling into balls. Eliza spent about 2 1/2 hours winding it into balls for me bless her! Now what to knit? And it smells a bit musty; any ideas how to get it smelling fresh again?

Sewing Bug?

I don't know about the Sewing Bee, I think I have been bitten by the sewing bug!
I was given a small cushion some weeks ago by a reception teacher at school and she asked if I would mind making a cover for it. I think she was thinking nursey print, maybe toys or fluffiness. Well I don't have anything remotely like that at home so I found some rather jazzy, BRIGHT fabric instead...

Bit more bobbliness....

Quick whizz round,

an iron,

pop it in and stitch it up, job done! I love it, but I think she may not ask me again! I think the children will love the colours and the bobbles too.

Gorgeous bit of fun!

A tale of a tea pot...

Have you ever started one of those projects that you think will only take an hour or two but actually ends up taking a whole day? Well let me tell you the tale of just one of those projects...
We drink lots of tea in our house and we have always had a LARGE teapot.

The current one is a lovely red, to match my kitchen, but we have never, ever been able to find a tea-cosy big enough, so made do with an old tea towel wrapped around it. So I decided to make my own pattern and run one up in a couple of hours.

I started by cutting up lots of red, brown and cream fabric and then joining it together to make a piece big enough to cut out the two sides.

I had to re-jiggle it a bit as I decided to make an opening for the handle and spout because it was rather and odd shape. Once I had made the lining and tested it on the pot I cut out the wadding, again from my scrap drawer.

Next came my first favourite bit; bobble trim! Gotta love the bobbles as I pinned them around the edge!

I machined it all together and then put the lining in. Then I came across a problem; it wouldn't turn round the correct way because of the spout and handle spaces I had left so there was now a bit of unpicking needed.

Now I could turn it through! Quick bit of re-stitching and then I was able to re-join the bottom edges by hand.

It was looking pretty good but some quilting was needed. Out came the trusty button jars, full of all my delicious vintage and modern, plastic and mother of pearl buttons. It needed lots before finally....
Ta  Dah....

...finally my huge pot has a super smart cosy!
Would you like a different view?

Look at the perky little spout emerging from the bobbles!

And just lovely vintage buttoness close-up. Mmmmm!
All made from scraps I had and my only spend was £1.29 on the bobbles.
But my two hour project has taken me a whole day!

"Posh" Quilt...

Now for the second instalment of yesterday's industry; the "posh" quilt. Linda had some gorgeous bright fat quarters that she cut up according to a pattern she had called "yellow brick road".

I wasn't involved in this quilt so I didn't quite work out how it all went!! Somehow the strips went into blocks...

..all stitched by Linda on her brand new shiny machine!

Burnice once again was doing stirling work with the iron. She does love to iron!

And another Ta-dah.....for this super bright quilt that we are going to give to the hospice to raffle.

We want to add sashing before we back, quilt and bind it. I think black sashing would look good but we are a bit unsure if that might not be appropriate? Should we go with purple instead?

Quilting Day

I had a completely self indulgent day today. I wasn't eating chocolate but the next best thing.....a whole day just sewing at Linda's house. A little while ago Burnice, Linda and I decided we wanted to make a quilt for a local charity. Burnice approached a local children's hospice and so our project began. We decided to make 2 quilts; one completely scrappy and another, better one, to raffle.
I will tell you about the scrappy one first....

We collected lots of our scraps together and sorted them into "white-based" colours that Burn cut into 2 1/2" squares which she then stitched into pairs. My job today was to sew them all together into blocks of 4...

...then to join 4 small squares into larger squares. I sat and sewed and Burn ironed like mad until finally we joined all the squares into strips and then the strips into the top. Meanwhile Linda was working on our "posh" quilt and providing refreshments! 

I did all the stitching by eye, no trimming and most of it is square.....enough! And we only got two squares the same next to each other once.
Ta dah!!

One quilt top, entirely made from a random assortment of our scraps ready for a fleece backing and a royal blue binding. I love the way it turned out and it has re-ignited my desire to patchwork.
Pop back tomorrow to see our "posh" quilt take shape....

Photo a Day

Back on track again and off we go with another week.

April 1st; Easter Monday and we had to take Jess back to Uni. She had her 2 weeks off before we broke up for Easter so we only got to spend 3 days with her. It is just over 2 hours down there and so I used the opportunity to crochet some squares for a cushion cover.

April 2nd; I ran out of wool after a very lazy day crocheting and watching Doris Day films that I got for Easter!

April 3rd; Still having grotty, cold, snowy weather which just is so un-spring-like that I want to hibernate. This is my poor garden, covered again with snow.

April 4th; Ken's birthday and for once I managed to make him a birthday cake!

April 5th; Still not really great weather so Eliza decided to make some rice crispie cakes.....she made 60!

April 6th; Katy tripped as she went out the back door and stubbed her big toe. She made SUCH a fuss that Ken decided he ought to bandage it as she MUST have broken it at the very least!!!!

April 7th; My usual Sunday morning routine is to settle down with a cup of coffee to do my online food shop at about 11am. I nearly always use this mug (thank you Linda) and today I got a crispy cake too!

Catch up time!

Phew! Where has the time gone? I have NO excuses because I have been off work on Easter Hols but still I appear to have achieved NOTHING! I forgot to take a photo on the day before Easter....the first day I have forgotten. In my defense I was shopping in Tunbridge Wells as we had 2 birthdays AND Easter over Easter week. Having been poorly and at work I had to get ALL the shopping done that day....so I forgot the photo.
Well I managed to arrive at Easter Sunday and we had 10 for dinner

I cooked the most delicious lamb shanks with celeriac mash and cabbage followed by cranachie...which is whisky cream, toasted oats, almonds toasted in honey, stewed fruit and fresh raspberries. Basically you just build it yourself, according to what you fancy! Thank you Jamie Oliver!
Well we ate and drank far too much but it was lovely to have everybody here as Jess had to go back to Uni on Monday. She was 20 on the Wednesday so we celebrated her birthday too, before she had to go back.
Lots of writing today but I will catch up with pics tomorrow...maybe. I have to go bra shopping with 2 of the girls first. Tranquillise me now!!!!