2018 Wk 27 Beads, EPP and Inchies

I've been wanted to make a rain necklace out of coloured wooden beads . . .but couldn't find what I wanted, so I bought plain wooden beads and attacked them with sharpie pens.

The colour wash didn't come out quite as I envisaged so once they were stacked by colour on these sticks shoved into corrugated card I did some speed dating and these are the ones that made the grade.

I made three strands and the gave them a bit of a twist, using a stick and circle thingy as a fastener

And I'm rather chuffed with the result!

 I'm coming near to the end of the hexi and triangle EPP that I'm making at M-i-L's . .

just these last 31 triangles to be added then it can be backed and quilted

The templates will be glad to call it a day!  I only go through the template on the first and last stitch so you can see how often these have been used

I was at Chertsey Museum on Friday: a few ladies had finished their patchwork baskets and brought them for show and tell

And Friday's class was inchies: As usual, a huge variety of gorgeous creativeness - Well done ladies

  

2018 Wk 26 - a bit of a catch up

 I've been having problems getting photos from my phone to the computer, so I haven't blogged for a few weeks, but today it worked - so here is a quick catch up

Niki's colleague's colleagues all attacked her chemo quilt with fabric pens- and my concern that it was too white has been blown away - doesn't it look great!

I went to Ireland for a few days this last week.  Officially it was to see Jackie, but (shhhhh) there was another person I was eager to meet - this little beauty, Leah, my honorary granddaughter!  We spent lots of time with her big brothers too - D in the pic and A who was at school - my gosh . . .  boys are exhausting!

We made a few bits for Leah (or possibly her mum!): this changing clutch

 and changing mat (it did get finished before being handed over)

And her I-spy quilt was finished and handed over too (pic to follow).  Jackie had been on a course and made this fab elephant pic for Leah's room

We made ourselves some great project trays too, by coincidence we had instructions for two: different sizes, different designers and different methods but very similar result.  They have Peltex 72F (I think) in them which makes them really firm, and the closure action from tray to storage is really satisfying

A friend decided to join in the Untangled Threads art installation to commemorate WW1 - I am totally in love with her heart - she needle felted these poppies in a field and it's beyond awesome!

And Jackie and I bought some pickling jars.  For pickling you ask?  No - of course not - for beautiful buttons!!!!

2018 Wk 22 Old Men and New Babies

I'm taking part in the Untangled Thread art project commemorating the end of WW1.  The pin cushions are based on an original design which was used at occupational therapy for wounded solders and they made something they could send to their mum or their sweetheart. 

We don't know much about Brian's granddad, but we know a Henry Channer was enlisted in 1916, and we know Granddad was known as Harry.  He married Rose in 1923, so it may have been him, so I (with help from Lisa and Niki) stuck a couple of hundred pins through the same number of beads to make this

We have had a spate of babies amongst neighbours and friends: A neighbour who used to babysit our girls when they were little has moved back in a few doors away from her mum and dad, and had baby William

Another neighbour has become a Grandmother to baby Amelia Rose.  I just need to finish the binding on these and I can deliver them

And Jackie has become a Granny again with baby Leah (but her quilt is being delivered in ten days so I'm not showing it here yet!)

My old boss and friend Dalwyn starts his new career as a Methodist minister in the autumn and I was delighted to be asked to make a stole for him.  Just in the draft stage at the moment but the stained glass rainbows have been posted to him to look at - does he want near solid or solid colours

And does he prefer hand stitched binding or twin needle stitched on the sewing machine?

My step mum sent me a memory box from my father's belongings:

I remember the hat - or one like it - he always wore one when he was sailing

Brian was really happy with the plane (bottom right)

A whole set of nautical flags will look great as bunting in the garden - really cheerful!

 Some photos of him, and of me from childhood

And my favourite of all - lots of photos of the girls that I have sent him over the years - all had been propped up on book shelves or stuck on walls!

2018 Wk 21 A Triathlon Finish

Proud mum alert!

Niki completed a triathlon today!  She says she will NEVER do another one but here is the photographic evidence that she was there!

WELL DONE NIKI!  And raised nearly £400 for blood cancer research too!  (Her JustGiving page is here if you want to donate!)

Far less strenuous was Friday's Chertsey Museum class making a patchwork basket block from the Farmer's Wife book (thank you Plum) using the template method.

And looking really colourful:  Niki's colleagues have started to add graffiti to the Chemo Quilt

2018 Wk 20 A finish and a visit

I have finished a Chemo quilt that Niki requested for a colleague at work.  There is a LOT of white at the moment but she is taking it to work with a handful of fabric pens so that people can write in the white squares - I'll hopefully be able to post another pic when it's been  decorated!

We had our monthly (!!!) Days For Girls meeting this weekend.  We were aware that some ladies were being put off by the high quality expectations from the charity, so we added a new project - boomerang bags.  These can be made to roughly the suggested size, can be overlocked OR zigzagged, can be made of the donated fabrics we would otherwise have to reject as they aren't ok for D4G and are the simplest construction imaginable

We got one finished and several more are close to being finished.  We were going to give them away but decided we would sell them to people in the churches which would raise money for the D4G fabrics!

We also found we were spending loads for time each month sorting through and seeing what needs what doing next - so with the help of loads of zip lock bags we now have bags of items all at the same stage and we feel much more organised!

Mum and I went to see the poppies at last.  We missed them at the Tower on London, but two sections of the display are now doing a road trip and one is just a short drive from her at Fort Nelson, Royal Armouries Museum, near Portsmouth

They looked amazing!.

And Brian and I spend all of yesterday at the girls' house.  They had hired a sanding machine and wanted to do all the upstairs floors in the one weekend.  I wish I had filmed them using the machine.  It was an industrial one, and was stronger than them.  They switched it on at one end of the room, they then ran with it, trying to slow it down, and trying to turn it off in time that it would stop before it hit the opposite wall, then they would drag it back and repeat.  Dad showed them how to master the beast, and 12 hours (!) later the whole of upstairs has been sanded - despite all three bedrooms having the usual amount of furniture - much of the time was taken moving it from one room to another, do you remember these puzzles?

It was a bit like doing one of those, but worth it in the end.

Today they are varnishing - today I am staying at home!

2018 Wk 20 - What happened to the blog?

Sandra recently messaged me to tell me "Your blog seems glitchy - or is it my computer".  She went to to explain " I've noticed some weird glitchy things involving your blog.  Your posts list in my blog reader, but when I click on them, it just opens another copy of the blog reader page.  That's been happening for a while, and I assumed it was a bug with the blog reader.  However, when I actually GO to your blog, to the homepage, your first/latest post isn't clickable - it's viewable at the top of the page, but it isn't clickable so I can't go to the first post.  Also, if I click on Comments to post a comment, it goes nowhere.  If I scroll down the page though, and go to a different, older post - I can get the post page up and I can comment."

I have no idea what the problem is, but if I create a blog post on the iPad and then try and edit on the PC I get this message

Eh?

Anyway, apologies if it misbehaves, and if you have ANY idea how to correct it please let me know!

I am creating this post on the PC so it might behave better!