2022 Week 5

 A bit of a round up of what I've been doing!!

A tiny hand sewing project for on the train the other day: this will go on a second version of "my Small World" that Jackie is making and that I get to contribute to (only fair as I have the original!!!!

This is the tiny hexies on the original.  I'm hoping she'll let me make the New York Beauty and the Dresden plate too!

At Richmond and Kew Quilters this month we are making clothing out of patchworked pieces.  It's quite an 'in' thing (you wouldn't expect us ladies for a certain age to be on trend but there you go!).  It reminded me that mum made me a patchwork jacket years ago. I never really got on with the rounded neck so cut the binding off with an intention to change it, but it then sat in the stuff-to-be-done pile for (I have to confess), years if not decades!!!

Here is an idea of the before

And now the after

A friend of mine directed the village pantomime: The Pied Piper.  I was asked to make a Ginger of the Pied Piper himself: you can just see him in the centere of this cast photo

And here is my version

I also made a cyclist Ginger for a customer

and a World Cancer Day a few days ago and a Story Telling Day next month

 

Inspired by another member of Richmond and Kew quilters' Magic Starts quilt I started cutting up fabric.  Debbie's version used 10" squares and had light on dark and dark on light - whilst lovely it wasn't quite what I wanted, so Plum helped me find another method and evertually all of these . . .

. . .  will become a quilt of this!

I have finished a granny squares crochet blanket, and have come to realise that I do not like sewing in the ends!!!!

We were asked tpo see if a sewing machine was fixable.  The stitch width is shot but the stitch length works fine, but there was a problem threading it, one of the early guides was broken.  This paperclip now identifies as a thread guide and all is well in the world

Chertsey Museum Fun With Fabric class met yesterday: Susan brought in these for Show and Tell from December's session - what a cute family!!

February's session was a 'wrap necklace'.  This is the start of mine: I'm using embroidery threads (amout a metre gives me about 5cm of colour!  

I also took my fabric wrapped necklace as another sample and brought some magnets so people could choose to make bracelets.  They did well but the necklaces are a long project!

I have received all my January pink (carnation) hexie flowers)

And have posted out all the ones I made for the swap

2022 Week 2

So we start a new year with a new blog post - and some actual finishes!!!!

None were quite as smooth as they should have been though!

The Janet Claire sludge fabrics got added to a fleece backing with a lot of flaffing and measuring: I like clams but I dont see loads of them in my future!

I decided to use the sewing machine to blanket stitch them down: sometimes she was very happy, 

Other times she was a right pain in the neck!

Anyway: quilt got joined and bound, and was delivered on Wednesday - juts two weeks late, and she's very happy with it!

Another finish has been posted to Norway for a cousin's newish grandson.  His name, Sverre, is an old Viking king's name.  His mum is cousin to Theia and Saga's mum, so although I made a different type of I-spy quilt I wrote his names in the same style

Annoyingly I managed to trap some loose fabric on the back when I embroidered one of the names, but I added a strip of the blue spraytime to the back to match the front and the binding and that hid the problem!!!

I stitched badges for the scouts and other uniform groups that delivered the village Christmas cards

And I got to the hairdressers for a trim and a bit of colour!!!!

With a bit of help from Lisa my stack of granny squares . . . 

Is starting to become a bloanket

I have completed the January Hexi flower swap hexies

And received all the December ones

Lisa's Jim got me a fabric pack for Christmas: mostly mustards and teal.  He is colour blind so I know he sometime struggles to choose colours but he said he bought these because they must go together as they came in a pack, and I overheard him say that he chose a pack he liked in case I made him something from it.  This is the problem with having daughters - it honestly never occurred to me that Jim might want something patchwork!!!!  Also he lives in a house with a number of quilts I have made for Lisa over the years and a fair number of blankets that she has crocheted, so I don't know that making him one would have occurred to me . . . well now it has!  He has the box room as his 'play room' where he plays computer games, and there is a small mustard sofa bed in it

This was the pack he got for me

I ordered a few more mustards and a replacement teal, cut them into 2.5" strips

And now I have a flimsy round-the-world in mustard and teal!

I need to find the right colour fleece for the backing but I rather like it - hope he does too!

2021 Week 47 (part 2)

 We had a lovely session at Richmond and Kew quilters . . . . fusion crochet!  Starting with a fabric square (with a substantial seam allowance): add blanket stitch and then crochet onto the blanket stitch.  I need to sort out 'stepping up' but this way I dont need help starting!!!

A whole load of ginger gnomes / tomte / Julenissen tree decorations have been made

and some stuffed versions with bells on their hats too

I was asked to make this digital design into a patch

and I'm quite pleased with the result - waiting to hear from the customer!

We had a day trip to "The making of Harry Potter"  - it was great . . .

. . . I hope it's not too sad that my favourite picture is this floor mosaic!

And finally a pic of me!  I don't often like pics of me, but I did like this one!

2021 Week 47

 Hmmm, no post for a month 😱

My excuse has been that I've been busy, busy and ill, ill, too ill to care about being busy and now busy again, with a hint of being ill!  At least I haven't had Covid - *just* a horrible cough and cold and then (without being guilty of TMI) a burning sensation that is being sorted by antibiotics!!!

So a review of the last month (broken down into two parts)

The Gingers have decided to start a countdown to Christmas!  I made a few of these to sell at a village Christmas Fayre, and a few others which will go to the half dozen or so lovely Ginger fans in the villages!  I'm just finishing them off so they can be delivered by Tuesday

A young friend in the village is an amazing cheerleader and trampolinist.  One of the groups she trains with have these sparkly backpacks with their names on in gold - she was gifted one but it had someone else's name on - so a gold patch was created and hand stitched onto the bag over the previous name

My girly trips (see under LSA labels) to Europe have all had a badge made for them.  It started with a backpack for the ones that went to Norway in 2007, with a norwegain flag on it, but they suggested that all the trips should have a design, so they got created and added to the bag.    Since then I have been making them as a patch - I've managed to lose my bag so have re-done them on a fleece shawl: it looks as if the other bags are getting rather full!!!

  

I have made and posted the November Hexie flowers for the FB swap

And taught a class on Sashiko embroidery.  I bought pre-printed panels but as we stitched in white it doesn't show very well 

A bit of grand-kitty spam, sorry, but aren't they cute!!!  Penny is sat in the pouch Jackie and I made Niki for her work stuff

And Thor is sat in a cat cave that (based on the receipt date) he and his sister have totally ignored for 367 days, but NOW its a cozy place to sleep!!!

At the start of the horrid cold I had a few days away with girls that I worked with about 30 years ago: so lovely to be together

And finally for this post - I had fun sorting out all the keys for the village hall - now I only need the few keys to get in and then can access all the other stuff from this key cabinet - I love that it's colour co-ordinated and all labeled - is it very sad that this makes me so happy???