2020 Wk 34 - an assortment

 A batch of assorted photos in today's post.. A friend became a grandma a few weeks ago - very early: mum and dad had hardly even told anyone she was pregnant when baby Millie arrived at 23 weeks!!!!

I just have some binding to sew and this quilt can be delivered - it will be absolutely enormous next to here and it will be a long time before she is out on an incubator and needing this but I enjoyed making it

Repeat after me "the correct response to repair requests is "I'd love to but I'm afraid I cant""!  Sigh - I wish I could remember that at the right time!  Anyway they are done now and can be delivered soon.

(They really did need new backs!)

Another repair was for Niki (I don't mind so much for a daughter - and I got to do some applique too!)

I've been back making Gingers: some duplicates to order

 

  

and one special request

And one for me: our final village trail is going to be a scarecrow trail: most people who are joining in are making life size scarecrows - I though it would be much easier to make a ginger sized, um, "ginger" scarecrow!!!

I could imagine the hair perfectly, but had to go long to cut it to size: this stage was a bit scary!

But I think it worked out fine ... the button eyes made it a bit creepy

So this is the end result!

Niki's kitty finally has a name - Penny (as in "see a penny, pick it up ...")  I though she needed a quilt too!  I found this is the 'orphans' drawer (left over from the La Pass quilt).  I rounded the edge, quilted it and backed it

And little miss Penny seems to rather like it!

2020 Wk 34 Another random post

I washed the new summer quilt I made for our bed - not really an event worth blogging about - but annoyingly what started off like this ...

ended up like this!  Will I never learn that red runs?  What I don't understand is why some cream turned pink and some stayed cream!

Following on from my embroidery of the pharmacy in the village, Lisa asked if I would do one of here soon-to-be house, to thank the owners!  This is just a draft but it's heading in the right direction.

The flower tub hasnb't photographed too well but looks great in real life ... 

until you look at the back and see how dense the stitches are - LOL

I then wondered if I could do one of the bungalow that been Jim's home for the last ten years: 

I need to cut back the greenery on the left and move things around a tiny bit so the window to the left of the door is visible, but otherwise it's not too bad

We've been doing some work in our house too:  The bottom row of cabinets has been there for a long time but the work surface just collected junk - so a first row of additional cupboards has been added and some shallower ones are on their way

A friend has become a Grandma, so obviously the baby needs a quilt!  The mum and dad live in Canada so I wont have the opportunity to explain what an i-spy quilt is ...

So I embroidered the poem on the quilt so hopefully they will realise!

This photo appeared on FB: I love seeing little munchkins using their quilts!!

I have been working - admin work and embroidery for a friend / customer who runs this pre-school.  60 down, 20 to go before school starts back in September!

I had a socially distanced play-date with Tara and Lynne yesterday - lots of chat, lots of yummy food, lots of admiring Tara's crafty bits, and her crafty / office, and her (and Mat's) awesome Lego collection and we even managed some making!

And finally I have a new grand kitty - Niki picked up this ball of fluff yesterday - no name yet but rater cute isn't she!!!

2020 Wk 31 - another two weeks gone!

Where on earth does the time go???

I finished the design for the village pharmacy and stitched it - the boss was delighted!

This Ginger was designed and stitched for this village character's 85th birthday

 

Duplicates of the 48 Key Worker and Local Hero gingers were finished and delivered to Wraysbury Parish Council.  These will go into a display cabinet, and I wondered if people, in a few years time, will wonder why some of them are there, so I've created a new blog:  "Covid19Gingers" which discusses them all, and also, on the 'technical' page, has links to videos showing a bit of design work and a ginger being stitched out

Two air hostesses were designed and stitched

and 

You may remember that I go away with a group of girlfriends every year and somehow got talked into making a patch for each trip

Well of course we aren't going away this year . . .  but they still wanted a patch LOL

And now I'm out of ginger felt so I can legitimately take a bit of a break!

I did some tie dying with a friend and her kids - we had great fun!

There was a little bit of paint left - and there was a 5 year old!!!  I've wanted to add colour to my hair for 40 years, and she was desperate to - so I did and she did!!!! (weirdly the blue and green washed out, but I'm loving the flash of pink!!!)

2020 Wk 20 - still out of routine!

I still don't feel in the rhythm of this new-normal, so blogging doesn't occur to me very often - I do refer to this a lot when I need to remind myself about things that I have made so it annoys me when I haven't blogged!!

So here is an update for the last few weeks!

We have been making a "Caring Snake" ... painting stones and adding them to the body of a snake!  Afterwards its going to be set into concrete and treated as a permanent reminder of how we coped with the pandemic.  I did a Ginger (of course) and a mandala sort of design, then two to represent Stitch and Crafty Church.  Sammi Snake is getting longer every day!

I've been asked to design this an an embroidery - gulp!

This is the screen shot of the draft design - more details need to be added now!

We planted some rhubarb earlier in the year :the one stalk made probably the world's smallest crumble, but it was delicious!!!

I usually make I-spy quilts with a plain square to embroider a name on, but completely forgot with this one.  It will go to Linus quilts, but just in case it doesn't make any sense to them I embroidered "I spy with my little eye something beginning with ..." on it!

The Ginger Auction has finished - phew!  There was a LOT of Facebook admin involved!  But worth it as they raised well over £1000 pounds!!!

I thought I'd finished with them for a while, but this hexi flower ginger was waiting to be designed!!!

Aswas this sailor!

Another I Spy quilt has been finished, embroidered and delivered to Grandma: Hello baby Kyron

And this summer quilt (coverlet) has been finished and has received the kitty seal of approval!

2020 Wk 26 - the last few weeks

I finished the centre panel of this crochet and planned to crochet borders around it top make it bigger, 

but I think I started with too many border stitches so it's becoming wiggly at the edges

So I asked my quality control assistant and she declared it finished - so there is a whole other ball of pinky orangy wool if anyone can think of a use for it

I bought a ball of very bright colour change wool and (because I am definitely running before I can walk) bullied both Tara and Lisa into starting me off on this spiral (A pattern?? What's that?)  I'm totally guessing where to do two stitches on one hole, and although I've got further than this its too lose on some places and too tight in others - Lisa is coming over today so I'll get her to help me again!

I had a fab care package from Plum a few weeks ago and very rudely didn't post it here: lovely goodies, thank you Plum xxx

The purple fabric was immediately put to good use to eek out the purple I had, to make two sets of bunting for two sisters

Finally the last of the posted quilts has arrived at its destination!  Hello Theia - I hope you like it!!!

The Facebook Hexi swap has started up again, so we are swapping the back log: lovely to be getting hexies in the post - I have quite a stack of them so need to start thinking about what to do with them!

I've been doing some organising: felt scraps into baskets by size so I can have a chance of using up the smallest bits rather than keep cutting into large sheets

And the ribbons got sorted too (there are two card disks and a key ring split ring between each spool of ribbon so as I pull one only that one moves!

And I have been sewing squares together!  The corners where the blocks meet are thicker than they should be - I'm not too great at trimming away excess fabric, and I'm cross with myself for not making another ten blocks to even up the pattern, but there isn't enough of that black left and I've fallen out of love with it so it can be finished and then go to Project Linus

Hope you are all keeping safe xxx