The one where I remember a daughter can bake

Tomorrow is the Macmillan coffee morning. They were very good with my uncle Geoff when he had prostrate cancer some I'm always happy to support them.

The office is in a serviced building, and our lovely reception ladies are organising a coffee morning for all 20 companies. I'd donated a packet of biscuits and plan to buy *plenty* of cakes . . . But Niki came home with ingredients and told me we were making cheesecakes!

And we did - two large (one each for work tomorrow) and six little ones for pudding tonight! The fridge is full of cheesecakes!!!!

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The one where I had a birthday in Ireland

Yesterday was bittersweet! I felt very loved and spoiled but it was the last full day before leaving Jackie's at silly o'clock to start the 12 hour hourney home!
We had pancakes for breakfast and a lovely meal out for lunch followed by cake in the afternoon (only the cake got photographed - the rest vanished too quickly!)

I got cards, flowers and chocolates from the family there, and Jackie and I got to sew in the afternoon!
I take my La Pass EPP as a travel project, but there are lots of different templates and cut fabric to bring along and they get muddled in my Sew Together pouch.
So (and we are very pleased with ourselves) we designed and made these 4 zip pouch to store the different pieces

It fits in the Sew Together and keeps everything together but separated!!!
We made some little buckets

And some felted buttoned pouches (felt from FOQ and buttons from Poland)

What else did we do? We went for a walk to St Mullins (beautiful - we walk there every visit unless it's chucking it down) and introduced Brian to its charms and visited the Blessed Well

We had a visit from, and cuddles with this honarary grandson

And his baby brother

And my loom knitting is growing significantly

We are now on the ferry on the way home: as always the Irish hospitality has been awesome, Brian now has faces to all the names I blather on about, Jackie has a cupboard ("press") with shelves, a working vacuum system (although the wood burning stove needs a bit of reassembly - sorry!), assorted cables have been tidied, and Brian and Dan have a new friend! And the best news of all - it looks as if Jackie is cancer free (final biopsy results this week) she's off the pain killers and the scar is healing beautifully and we've sorted my next visit: life's looking good!

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The one where we finished our mini trees

The husbands have moved on from the vacuum system, and are fixing shelves and hooks . . . And even finishing each other's sentences "this is bent, I think we need ... " " oh yes, I've got a [insert hardware implement] that'll fix that"

 

We finished cutting and cutting and sewing and sewing

 

And finally finished our mini tree tops

 

Next post - vinyl zippy pouches!

 

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The one where we decided 3/4inch strips are too small!

I'm in Ireland, with Jackie, and having been given this pattern at Hever castle we decided to have a go

Cute eh?

3/4" strips, stitched together, cut with a 60 degree ruler, then sides added, then a bottom added ...

Just a bit fiddly!

However it's raining outside, and the husbands are bonding over a broken central vacuum system

So we shall preserve!!!

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The one where we were tourists in Waterford

Husband and I arrived at Jackie's late on Thursday and were her chauffeur to an an appointment on Friday so we took advantage on being in Waterford to be tourists

 

But the call of fabric and the sewing machine was too strong!!!

 

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The one where two dozen ladies did some sewing!

I went to the baby shower yesterday thinking I was going to one of lots of women sewing squares together, and we were going to play games and decorate babygros (onsies) and t-shirts for the girls . . .  but the stuff that had been ordered on line hadn't arrived in time: I was greeted with "thank goodness you are here - can you lead the quilt craft as it's the only activity we've got" . . . so with no warning I found myself going into teaching-a-bunch-of-non-sewers mode!  Luckily my teaching sewing stuff lives in the back of my car so I had everything I needed.

I rotary cut what felt like hundreds of 8" squares while ladies got the hang of threading needles, putting fabric right sides together, knotting, just stitching along one side - all the usual problems!

One lady even asked me if I did these classes often - she thought I was paid entertainer for the party!

Anyway, they all did well,

And when I left it was looking like this:  (It will probably end up long and narrow: just right for mum and dad and three to snuggle under watching TV or reading stories!

Mum to be was delighted with the three quilts for the girls

And this quilt was delivered (slightly late) to another house group mum and her little munchkin

Delivering them has made a bit of space at my house, at least until the baby shower squares come back to me next week!

Can't see that I'll get much sewing done at home for the next week or two: We're off to Ireland to see Jackie for a long weekend, so I may get some hand sewing done on the drive, but she's not up to much at the moment.

The job is going well, thanks to those who have asked.loads to learn but I'm asking less each day so something is obviously getting into this old brain on mine!

The one where I knitted on a loom

Do you remember the french knitting gadgets we had as kids, or knitting Nancys?

I bought a 21st century version of it as a gadget for Kids' Crafty church . . . but thought I ought to learn how to drive it before I introduced it to the kids

Rather addictive!!!!  (especially for someone who cant knit!), it grows quite quickly

My monster family has grown too!

I'm now off to a baby shower - mum-to-be wants to decorate baby clothes with fabric pens, and wants guests to make a baby quilt; she doesn't know that I've made three already (they are adopting three sisters, age 1, 2 and 3) but I'm more than happy to help cut and sew another one this afternoon!

The one where I thought I could sew

After two weeks full time work, learning a new job, AND being away for the weekend in between I got very excited at the prospect of turning the sewing machine on again.

However - by the time I'd cleared the mess dumped on every horizontal surface, I saw two big bags of uniforms that  a customer dropped off three weeks ago!  So I switched on the embroidering machine rather than the sewing machine!

I also had an email in the week asking if I could teach a family class one Saturday at the end of October, so I did cut some felt while babysitting the embroidery machine and I have done some hand sewing over a cuppa or two:  We are going to be Making Monsters!

I've got at least one more on the go too: its fun making samples!

The first lot of embroidery has now finished - six French Bulldogs!

 

Now to start on more Pumpkins:

The one where Jackie got a crocheted gift

My oldest, Lisa, was taught to crochet by a lady at church. But like me she only got the hang of the actual stitches, not the starting. *Many* years ago she came to the knitting and stitching show with Jackie and I and bought bought some wool, and came home determined to learn to start the flower square that she's done ever since.

I have fond memories of the drive home : Lisa sat in the back with hook and wool and Jackie sat in the front giving instructions "put the hook through the loop, no, not that loop, the next one, no the other way..." It all meant nothing to me but Lisa somehow grasped it!

When she made the dragon last week we sent a picture to Jackie, but Lisa decided that Jackie needed physical proof of her now advanced skills. I couldn't post earlier as it was on its way to Ireland, but it arrived today:

Lisa made a boob!

And I think it was well received!

 

Thinking of you for tomorrow Jackie, love you xxxx

 

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The one where I made some stuff

I'm starting a new job tomorrow and decided I needed a new pencil case, so I made myself this

 

I also designed and test stitched a logo for a customer's towels,

 

And I worked on some HSTs sewn by the ladies in my church house group. One of them is about to adopt three young siblings so I thought they should have a quilt each - this one just needs the binding finishing, two more to go!

 

And quilted!!!!! Get me!

 

Now time for an early night ready for work tomorrow!!!

 

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The one where we went to Hever Castle

Himself and I had a lovely day out today, Richmond & Kew Quilters arranged a trip to Hever Castle. The childhood home of Anne Boleyn, it was rebuilt in early 1900 by William Waldorf Astor at a cost of £10 million.

Our interest today was a quilt show: "Members of The Quilters’ Guild from across Kent, Surrey and Sussex will showcase their talents with an impressive display of patchwork quilt creations from kingsize bedspreads to miniature wall hangings."

I don't have consent to show pictures of the quilts, so I will add those individuals pics to my "private use" page, (and if anyone would like the montage removed please let me know) but I took lots of other photos too

The castle was beautiful, and I really loved the leaded light Windows - so many ideas for quilts!

 

And they had some beautiful dolls houses (or "miniature houses")

Difficult to see, but the governess has a sewing machine on her table

And a stash of fabric in the cupboard!

If you aren't bored with my photos you can look at a few topiary bushes, and the gardens

Do click on the Private Use tab and look at the quilts

 

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