2019 Wk 40 - assorted stuff

It's been a busy and crafty week

I made luggage tags for a group of friends, with name and mobile phone number on them

I gave a talk at a local corporate office: I talked about Stitch and Days for Girls and then taught the team how to make basic tote bags - actually I taught the teams how to use a sewing machine too: some had never used one and others hadn't done so since leaving school

They did a great job

At Chertsey Museum we made t-shirt and velvet necklaces

 And admired the Show and Tell from last month's Dresden Plates

On Saturday the family treated me to a chocolate experience!  We all went to a lady who has a great workshop with liquid chocolates and all sorts of goodies to get creative with (and unlimited pecking whilst we worked!!!)

 And we all come home with a bag of hand made goodies!!!

 I did some more work on the paper foundation pieced spotty circles

And I worked with a friend at another church to talk about the concept of weaving prayers into everyday life.  We used a tall clothes rail and warped it

then wrote prayers on colourful paper and wove them - doesn't it look great!

2018 Wk 36 - bits and pieces

Last weekend was the Church's 'Garden Party' (a village fair really but arranged by the church) in the sister village.  The Vicar's wife and I manned the Stitch stall - selling boomerang bags and talking to people about Stitch (and Days for Girls) and showing the kits.  We sold lots of bags while dressed as Vikings (this year's theme).  We listened to Abba music all afternoon, enjoyed the end of summer sunshine, and took donations of £85 - pretty much a perfect afternoon!

In other news - I treated myself to a EPP template organiser (Amazon think it's a jewellery organiser but what do they know?) and have sorted all my templates

Some of the templates were then used at Chertsey Museum on Friday - we did Quilt As You Go hexies - looking good ladies!

As for me, Lizzie and I have been working on a dozen or so babygros (onesies) and vests - just a little bit fiddly to hoop!

And husband has repainited two walls in our bedroom  . . .

and assembled a corner unit for me as a kind of dressing table

And finally a pic from the lady who one my Black & White & Bits of Bright quilt in a WI raffle - she used it as a picnic blanket!

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!