Wonderful Weekend (part 3)

Sunday saw a change from the fabric related fun of the previous few days

In fact on Sunday Jackie and I, together with Brian and Lisa, spent the day under a garage roof with a man called Duncan and a pear-eating dog called Gerald!

 (Gerald first :-)

Do you know what Lisa is doing?

Or what Jackie is doing?

If you haven't guessed, this should be a bit more helpful (Lisa's first project):

Yes we spent the day with a stained glass craftsman

After we'd made our first pieces (coasters?) we had a scrummy lunch of homemade tomato or squash soup, followed by apple crumble, the we started on a second piece - with curves, gulp!

Jackie's

Brian's

Jackie's again

 And here are all our creations together

A lovely day :-)

Wonderful Weekend (part 2)

On Saturday Jackie and I managed to visit 2 fabric shops!  The first one was a bit of a gamble - in a village called Cowley there used to be an underground fabric shop (in a basement unit in an industrial estate): a real cave of dressmaking and upholstery fabrics with some other random items thrown in.  I had been told that it had moved to a ground floor unit, so I thought I was worth a try.

The new shop is real Aladdin's Cave - the same strange mix but with patchwork and bag fabrics, including vinyl, added.  Upstairs there are two classroom (one with a gazebo set up in one half with jaunty gingham curtains!) and classes held quite regularly.

We (obviously) had to support the shop in its move: Jackie bought the makings of a Christmas garland, and I'm going to make a Christmas quilt from these lovely fabrics (sorry Hadley, normally I'm with you on brown, but this one really appealed to me)

 

We also popped into my friend Helen's log cabin / workshop / fabric shop and Jackie bought the makings of this Christmassy wall hanging

Later we looked at this EPP project that Jackie is working on (I L.O.V.E. the fabric choices) and arranged all the hexies, squares and triangles into this arrangement

And there may have been some chatting and some *more* baking (buttermilk scones if you want to know, and yes, they were yummy)

Wonderful Weekend (part 1)

Jackie arrived safely on Thursday night.  I had to abandon her on Friday morning to go to work (while she baked break and cake - can you imagine?  I do love that girl) but by lunchtime the the weekend could begin!

She brought me lovely pressies (although she shouldn't!)

We started with a class at Chertsey Museum, where the ladies made button pictures in embroidery hoops:

Then spent the evening chatting and planning projects

Bliss

Marvellous Mosaics

As well as the great patchwork designs on the floors at the Vatican (see yesterday's post), there were some lovely mosaics that resembled quilt designs:

There was also some, um, *interesting* parking

And these four ladies that I travelled with

sporting these bags, made by moi :-)

We did of course do all the touristy locations (tip: book ahead then walk smugly past all the saps joining five hour queues!)

but I dont think I need to see another Roman ruin, ever!

Got to go now, as I'm picking Jackie up from the airport soon - three whole days of sewing and chatting and making and fun :-)

Fantastic Floors

Quite a few of my recent posts have been scheduled: when I get a chance I write a few and then schedule them for every few days if I think I wont have much time to write any.  Part of the reason for the last few being scheduled was that I was going to Rome on a girly weekend.

5 of us went: we all have children (cough, young adults) that went to the same school from the age of 5, and are now aged 19 to 26.  We also all worked as classroom assistants at the same school.  For the last dozen years we have tried to go to a different European city each autumn.

We had a great time, visiting the Vatican, and the Colosseum, and that Parthenon, and a whole bunch of other ruins, but I want to share with you some photos from the Vatican.

Yes the walls and the ceilings were amazing, but I was looking down, not up!

I wasn't sure how well the photos would come out so I sketched them too:

I think someone should do a patchwork book based on these floors!  There are plenty of other designs too, I got more photos, but haven't yet sketched them. 

 

 

 

 
These were all in this room:

There were more in the Sistine Chapel, but no cameras were allowed :-(

Trousers Too

When mum had completed my tunic to a level that I could be trusted with, we then looked at a pair of summer trousers I'd started about the same time.  I can usually cope with a pair of simple pull-on trousers, but I'd managed to cut them to the size I would use for my top half, not for my bottom half (no numbers being mentioned here, other than to say I buy tops at least 4 numbers bigger than I buy trousers)  No, I have no idea what I was thinking, but needless to say, these looked like clown trousers.


My lovely mummy has waved her magic wand, and now they fit, so I just need to do the waist and hem the legs

Thank you mummy xxxx

The fabric was pre-patchworked, and I love it.  I had some solid in a similar colour so make a matching tote bag - I'll use it this way if I'm wearing the trousers,

But have the option of reversing it if I'm wearing something else

Dressmaking Day

A few days ago mum came up for the afternoon and evening, and I got her to help with some UFO dressmaking projects.  I'm not one to following instructions very well, and I'm not very impressed with the pattern instructions, but I love the look of the top so started it a year (or maybe two) ago

I did the grunt work (stitching and ironing) while mum did the matching and pinning and the understanding which bits go where, and which bits I hadn't cut enough of

So now she's left me with the finishing off that I can be trusted with

(I sent Jackie a copy of that first pic, and she was very complimentary about the state of the table - this is the rest of it, we only cleared enough to work on!!!)

Sizzix Shopping

Well done to all who guessed that I couldn't possibly wait until middle of November before I used my Sizzix machine.  I just happened to be passing Hobby Craft a fe days ago, and somehow this cute owl die happened to fall into my basket

I have to do some learning with these things: I guessed he would need a charm square, but he needed a bit more, so some bits got missed off. 

I cut four initially, thinking I could then swap the body parts around to get multi coloured owls, but I'm a bit confused as to why a "cut" makes dents for two eyes, but only cuts one eye, and only cuts one wing

I did sacrifice the pink body to get more arms and eyes, but it seems a strange design decisions  - can any of you seasoned Sizzixers explain?

Handful of Hexie Quilts

Do you remember the Huge Hexi flimsy?

 

I blogged about it here.  The 3m square flimsy was given to one of the ladies at Chertsey Museum, but no one had a use for it.  Finally we chopped it into six pieces, all 1m x 1.5m, and various people took them home to quilt and finish

Well a few hours chatting to the family and watching TV over the last week or so, and I have a handful of them ready to go to charity

Tuesday's Toy

I bought myself a new toy - Hobby Craft were advertising the Sizzix Big Shot reduced to £50 (usual price £74 I think).  I couldn't get to the store before the end date, but when I looked on the website I could get it for the same price, with free P&P, and if I signed up for the newsletter I could get a further 15% off, so for just £42.50 . . .

My new toy

The *slight* drawback is that I don't have any dies - until now I have been sharing with Jackie, so she has a machine and all our dies.  I have had two sent to dad in Florida, and am waiting for Niki to visit him next month, but until then I have to look and plan

Random Roundup, and a Reminder

Just a few random thoughts, and pictures.

First a reminder that the voting for Fiona's Holiday Memories Mini Quilt Competition is now open.  Just click here and you can vote for your favourite mini quilt in each category - just click on the heart above the one you like best
 
As well as celebrating my birthday over several days, pressies carried on arriving too - I was so spoilt!  Jackie sent me this fab notebook, and a hexi necklace,

and I got a voucher to visit the Shard, and to have afternoon tea at Tower Bridge, lucky me

And as our church harvest festival is today it seems appropriate that the field behind my house was being harvested yesterday:  I heard the combine harvester and took a pic before it got into sight, it was taking a while, so I went and put the kettle on

Before coffee

After coffee!