2020 Week 38

Going away for a short break means packing hand sewing stuff!!! 

I tacked a whole load of EPP triangles and managed to join some together

I've started a cross stitch (a bit boring so far but it will grow)

We did a family jigsaw - none of us really enjoyed it!!

And admired Lisa's Persian tiles crochet as she added the cream border

Whe we got home again Lisa and Jim had finally exchanged contracts!  So in a few weeks the kitties will be goinmg to live with them - I made them each a little quilt to take with them!

They seem to have been approved!

Also receiving a feline seal of approval is the Plus Quilt which I though was there waiting for the biding to be stitched down in front of the TV - but clearly it was there for a different reason!!!

There has been some embracing of one's inner Hippy!

Hair might have been dyed

And clothes might have been tie dyed (not so much of the tying though)  Double Dye isn't too much is it????

And finally for today - *another* friend has become a granny!  So another quilt has gone int the post!  This one is from Jackie and me to a lovely friend of ours

2020 Wk 36

 I seem to be better at taking photos that I am at blogging - so to create a blog post I look at the photos I took recently: and here they are

I sent a niece in America a quilt when she had number 1, but a year later when number 2 arrived I didn't even think of it!  Anyway I got my act together during lock down and made and posted off the second one - she sent me this lovely pic of they have a fort movie night!

The embroidery of Lisa' new house has been finished - she wanted it as a gift for the vendors!

This plus quilt has finally been fully quilted in spirals on alternate plus blocks.  The lovely Karen from Richmond and Kew quilters occassionally works in a quilt shop so she is going to find me some fabric suitable for binding

I hand quilted a Mickey Mouse block quilt . . .

. . . and appear to have quality control approval for it

I did some babygro / onesie embroidery for a customer (and about 100 Pumpkins t shirts but that's too boring to photograph!!!)

My spiral crochet is growing - I still haven't found the optimum count for increasing so it alternates between being too many (a bit wavy) and too few (the edges curl up) but I'm hoping that when I've finished / got fed up blocking will make it lay perfectly

This insipid quilt got pieced and quilted - it's almost impossible to see the different fabrics but if you look closely there is a round-the-world effect around where the button mirror is placed.  It's been quilted to show the ever increasing diamonds and will be bound and sent off to Linus Quilts sometime.  I really don't love it but it used up some unwanted stash

I got two amazing cards in the post yesterday: This one which even husband and daughters could immediate name show three work colleagues

And this one which arrived just 24 hours after a quilt for baby Oliver arrived in Canada - aint progress wonderful!!!!

2019 Wk 52 - Merry Christmas and happy New Year

I thought 'd finished work!

I added some more hexies to my Hexie Rounds

I made myself a rope bowl

I made some German Christmas stars

One of the Stitch ladies brought some thick aluminium foil from Germany.  Cut eight circles, and snip in 3/4 to the middle 8 times

Twist the outer arcs around a pencil to make a point (well, 8 points)

Like this, then snip two small squares from an elastic band.  Thread a needle, and sew through elastic square, 8 pointy circles and then a final square of rubber, and pull tight!

 I embroidered some initials onto linen napkins for a customer

 I machined the binding onto the Kaffe Fassett quilt

I embroidered a name onto an already made brick I-spy quilt for a friend who has just become a grandma

and then I discovered these two have wondered off somewhere - and I was planning on gifting them tomorrow!!!

And wouldn't you believe I have no white felt left!

2019 Wk 32 - fun and finishes

I've been working on a random selection of stuff this week, as well as teaching 5 children's classes (separate blog post coming up)

Mt temperature embroidery is now over 2 metres long, and has already outgrown its wooden bobbin so I'm going to have to rethink its "home"!

I can only show it in a loose coil, so here are 5 lengths

and here are the alternate lengths

For quite a while now I've only been using the "hot" colours - lovely!!!!

I have finished the binding on this brick wall I-spy quilt,

And on this Mickey Mouse one.  names can be added as appropriate

Thanks to Sharon who gifted me some rainbow cork I made a cork travel bag - room for change in the front pocket, passport, glasses and phone in the main pocket, and boarding pass in the real vinyl pocket, plus a front zipped pocket under the flap, and a rear zipped.  I didn't line it, and I constructed it wrong sides together - just zigzagging over the sides and the edge of the flap with a rainbow variegated thread,  I'm in love!

We made a crazy patch at the last Richmond and Kew Quilters meeting, with the idea we would decorate it at September's meeting.  I'm going to be away for Septembers, and Avril was away for the last weeting so I handed my block over to her.  In fact she might have to miss September's meeting too so she's already started decorating her / my / our  patch: looking good Avril!

And Lizzy has been helping me make some coffee wraps: We've been having fun ready for the Church summer fair next Saturday

2019 Wk 30 - Catch up

We had a good turn out at the last Crafty Church: with people crocheting, cross stitching, sewing and a fair bit of chatting!  The red dress (middle top) and the gingham skirt (middle bottom) are the finished items from a month ago - can I remind you that the girls that created these are 10 and 8!!!!!

One of my Chertsey Museum ladies sent me this pic of her finished coffee cosy - now I wish I'd lined mine in the same fabric as the binding - it looks great!

In preparation for a few babies that are currently 'under construction' I have managed to finish two i-spy brick quilts: one purple and one grey

 And my senior citizen's class last week had 16 people concentrating very hard on mixing flour and water and birdseed!

 Lots of bird seed cakes got finished

and are looking good!

And totally NOT craft related, we went away for a weekend with friends for her 60th birthday: all 4 of us (she is their Godmother) and the three of them (we are their daughter's Godparents) and her boyfriend.  We had a really great time - these two (and the other 2 'children' and the two husbands, but I didn't get a pic of all of them) happily scaled trees and zoomed up cargo nets and down zip wires - me and Carol??  We held their bags and jackets at ground level!!!!