Birthday Baking

Ok, not quite baking, but I did make a cake

Confused?

You won't be when you see this cake that I made for my colleague at school, Sarah

(hum, I must have taken the photo before I hand embroidered the candle wicks - you'll have to imagine them)

I usually make the cup of first coffee, as I get in about 10 minutes before her, so I put her coffee on it, then started work.  Funnily enough, she knew straight away it was from me :-)

I am the luckiest swapee, EVER!

I want to start here by saying that I love both of my mug rugs from the recent swap. I loved both of them when I first saw their pictures, but I didnt think either was for me. I did however think (hope) another one WAS for me, and it was only when my two lovely mug rugs arrived that i knew the other one obviously wasnt.

So imagine my surprise when I opened a squishy tonight to find this . . . The mug rug I lusted after

It seems that Susan's original partner didnt respond to the invitation, and the mugrug couldnt go to the replacement, so she sent it to me - Susan, I love you!!!!

Lucky lucky me

I was so caught up in making things for my Goodie Swap partners, I'd sort of forgotten that I would also receive two packages.  Well one has arrived . . .

Beautifully wrapped (but not for long . . .

Just look at the yummy goodies my partner Caroline sent me: as well as the Mug Rug, she made a lovely little pin cushion (much needed) and the sweetest little pouch with . . .  a zip!!!  I am so in awe of anyone who can do zips!

Here is a close up of the Mug Rug - I love the rainbow circles, and the spotty binding, and the quilting is great

Thank you Caroline, thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I love it all

I haven't been at the computer or the sewing machine much - I was offered permanent work at  the school I've been temping at, but it includes earlier mornings and learning a new computer system, so my brain has been reeling this week, and I've mostly just crashed in front of the TV of an evening.

 I have a growing pile of strips waiting to be basted, but I loved the brown flowers (to be called Flower to the Power of 9, or

             9

 Flower

(not easy to do on Blogger, but mathematical minds will understand the pun!) Thanks to Katy at the littlest thistle who came up with the name, so I started another version of it:

 

Brief Post - lots of photos!

We've just got back from a  great weekend in Paris - Versailles in fact.

Not much sight seeing, but we get to see Notra Dame (this was a favourite movie when the girls were younger!)

And the Palace of Versailles, although we didn't have time to go inside

The priority was to attend this girl's graduation! 

Our lovely Slavka (see her for the Romantic Story and how she was brought back into our family) was there for her Graduation: receiving her Open University Masters Degree

The weather was fantastic (29c, blue skies and sunshine) what we saw of the Palace of Versailles was amazing, and the ceremony was perfect: fun, but acknowledging the hard work all the students had put in, and long enough to feel it wasn't rushed, and short enough not to get boring.

Slavka and Scott

After the ceremony we gave her the quilt I'd made her, and then we went for a lovely meal

Slavka with Petra, and her Mum, Anna

Slavka, Anna and Lucia (who came to our friends as an Au Pair 16 years ago, when Slavka came to us)

Terri (Brian's sister), Scott and I

Most of today was spent travelling - four separate train journeys - but I managed to get the quilting finished on the Mug Rug, and now I'm ready for bed!!!

The hand quilting on the mug rug

And a photo of me and him, in our Sunday Best!!!!

10 minutes here, 15 minutes there. . .

10 minutes here, 15 minutes there . . . does add up to some sewing and embroidery!

I did these embroideries for a customer, for her son and his fiance's wedding.

I made these scissor tags for the Mug Rug swap goodies

And this is the starting of a mug rug for a partner who likes autumn shades: hope she likes it

And a lovely Thursday

Today I went shopping with Niki.

We started with a Starbucks - hot chocolate with LOTS of cream!

We bought far too much staff (daren't show it here in case 'he' pops in to have a look!) but tops, trousers, shoes, bras . . . in our defence, mostly from Primark, so negligible costs!

We then came home to find Mr Postie had delivered these great storage boxes: ideal for lesson planning, so I know all the samples and printed sheets are together for the next group

And these from Jaycotts - brother embroidery threads, a new hoop, a stitch ripper (where do they go?) and a cant-leave-the-blade-out rotary cutter for classes

I also got the first Goodie swap mug rug finished, including hand quilting and binding.  One more mug rug and two 'goodies' to go, but I've got three weeks, so even I should be OK!

Bedtime Blogging again!

I have got all the sashing quilted on the Texture Quilt, and the binding machine stitched on the front, and have started the hand sewing onto the back.  the sashing and binding fabric is quite thick, so I have had to resort to a thimble to protect my finger, but I'm not used to using one, so it's a bit slow going. 

I have also found two blocks that need a bit of TLC, so they will need to be done before it is finished.

Sewing time is sadly starting to run out:

• visiting Lisa in Greenwich tomorrow,
• shopping with Niki on Thursday to get ready for the new term, 
• Mum coming up on Friday, 
• village Garden Party (fair) on Saturday,
• a day out with Hadley on Sunday (wish I could remember where we are going, but hopefully Hadley will let me know - needless to say it had something to do with textiles, or fabrics!), 
• and then (cover your ears eyes as I utter write a four letter word), and then, I have to go to work!!!  :-(  

I got very used to not working over the last six weeks!

As well as working on the texture quilt, I made one of the Mug Rugs for Fluffy Sheep's swap.  My partner said she liked rainbows, spots and stripes . . . I think this covers it!

Mug Rug Swap

There are lots of swaps happening in Blogland, and I don't normally join in.  Certainly when it comes to quilts, if I make one that I am pleased with i like to give it to someone I know, and if I'm not so please with it I couldn't give it to a stranger in a swap, so I figured swaps were not for me. 

However, you may notice a new button on the right side bar - yes I have caved in and joined Cindy (Fluffy Sheep Quilting) for a Mug Rug and goodie swap.  I have all of September to decide and make my partner's mug rug and goodie, and that should be enough time even for me.  It's not a direct swap so i wont necessarily be making for the person who is making for me, and I wont know who is making for me.

There is a Flickr group so we can see what each other likes, so I guess I'd better go off and learn how to play Flickr!

(and I wonder why I don't have any time?)

Meanwhile, I have been embroidering more school jumpers today, so while I (ie the machine) am doing each one, I (ie me) have been doing some hand sewing:

Hand quilting the Flying Geese

And hand sewing some embellishments onto some machine embroidered cards for a swap coming up.  I seem to have rather overdone the quantity, so if anyone would like one of these, let me have your snail mail address (by email, Benta@SLIKstitches.co.uk, not as a comment)  and I'll send you one!

Some finished projects, and a new skill

I have saved a number of photos of quilts and other things I'd like to try, but haven't found a way to go back to the website or blog that the photo originated from.  Whilst I am under no illusions that people will be flocking to my blog for inspiration, it did occur to me that watermarking photos wasn't a bad idea.

So I asked my friend Mr Google to help, and he directed me to this site and I can now get my photos watermarked ... for free.

So here, multitasking as a watermark example, is a photo of projects finished in the last 24 hours ... a skinny quilt for the BQL swap (that is NOT the required size, oops), two rug mugs that kind of go with the skinny quilt, and the completed rugby logo designed and stitched out for customer approval