Advent Fun

For years I have used an embroidered Advent Calendar that I made before Lisa was born - I carefully wrapped small toys or sweets, and hung them from it: the girls took it in turns to open a package each day.

Now they are older they aren't as interested, and Lisa isn't here for half the month anyway, so I haven't got it out of the loft this year.

But

An Advent Calendar still feels like the start of the build up to Christmas!  I went to a website to buy some wool tops, and saw they had Advent Calendar Buttons (badges) - somehow they jumped into my shopping basket, and arrived a few days ago.

Today I managed to create an advent calendar that uses the buttons (and was inspired by Hadley's Countdown Quilt) and will do just fine :-)

Menopausal Memory and Craft it Forward

A long time ago, the lovely Hadley took part in a Craft it Forward event and apparently I was one of the lucky chosen few in the next link.

Unfortunately, due to having no memory (I'm blaming it on my age) I have absolutely *no* memory of this at all (although I can see our discussion on her post) and therefore had no anticipation of anything, but the upside is that I got a fab surprise when this arrived:

(complete with Hello Kitty tape)

As if the outside wasn't lovely enough, the inside was even better

Thank you, thank you, thank you my lovely friend!

But, of course, there is no such thing as a free lunch needle case - there is a responsibility attached to eating that chocolate, and accepting the needle case - I now have to "Craft it Forward" - which means I have to send a little something to five people!

In Hadley's words:
 I am sure you are waiting to see how you can be in on the Craft It Forward action!
The rules are simple...
The first 5 interested people with blogs to comment below, will receive something handmade from me in the next 12 months.  Simple.
When those 5 receive their goodies, they must blog about it and then repeat the offer, ad infinitum.

So you can get commenting, and I can get thinking and making!

Straight Line Quilting (Hadley Style)

I have been pondering how to quilt the Stained Down Under (sorry, I still haven't thought of a better name) quilt.

I really like Hadley's approach, but didn't want to start in case it was too hard work.  I decided to use the technique on the Racing Green quilt, and see how I got on with it.  My machine doesn't seem to pull the fabric through at an even rate, so I was pulling it through to help, but it's really made one of my hands ache.

Well, Hadley, I love the effect, and thanks for showing what you did, but it's not for me!!!  (Hadley did 119 lines of quilting - I've done 32, and that was certainly enough for me!)

Hadley, I am in awe!

Real Life Vs Virtual Life!

What a great day!

Hadley and I 'met' in the virtual world towards the end of last year thanks to Annabel Serendipity (how are you sweetie?) but finally met today in real life.  Despite the pouring rain, we had a great time: we explored a county house-cum-museum, loved the embroidery and textile exhibition that was on there, and (surprise surprise) managed to do our bit to help the British economy by buying a few bits and pieces!

We both totally forgot to use our camera's while we were there, so I have no photographic evidence, bt we did meet and we did have fun!

Hadley made me (and beautifully wrapped)  a lovely felt brouch that perfectly matched my top

and I bought some felted, um, things, and some dyed silk (sooo soft) and some silk thread which I will use to do some hand quilting on the textures quilt (as I think mum has the DMC thread that I bought on Friday at the wool shop!)

For the sake of those of you who regularly read both our blogs, I shall try not to duplicate too much, as you can (and should) read about the day here from Hadley's point of view, but I must share the most amazing coincidence . . .

(Hello Sem, if you have come to visit)

Last Wednesday I went to Greenwich - Lisa and I mooched around the market and the independent arty and crafty shops that border it, and got drawn into an art shop by a drunkard's path quilt that was hanging there.  It was a lovely quilt made of lots of different fabrics, mostly in shades of subtle yellows, all sewn together by hand, with lots of curved seams.  

Now fast forward to today

Hadley and I got ourselves a cuppa and a slice of (very yummy) cake, and asked to join a lady at a table with spare seats.  She asked if we were patchworkers, as she was a weaver, but had ventured into patchworking recently.  (Hello, Sem, hope I got the name right) 

We had a lovely long chat, during which time it transpired that she was from Greenwich.  I started to tell her about the lovely yellow quilt Lisa and I had seen there, when I realised that her recent venture into patchwork . . .[yes I know, you are already there, but I was a bit slower,] was THE drunkard's path that we'd seen.  

After that realisation I went into talk-and-talk-and-talk mode to prevent my brain making too many connections - Lisa and I have a terrible tendancy to be critical of other people's work, but we had come away with ony one negative thought last week - The quilt was for sale, but what were the chances of anyone who had just the right room for it, and the right money for it,  actually seeing it in this tiny little art shop?  We felt sorry for the quilter who had made it.  It really was a lovely quilt, and the curves were all perfect, and the pattern was subtle . . . and our sympathy was misplaced as Sem has sold it!

Sem I hope you do get in touch, I'd love to meet up again next time I'm in Greenwich!

And a final apology to anyone who can spell . . . I cant, and spell check is ignoring me, so sorry for any errors!