Woolly progress

I kept stitching into my woolly blankets last night and this is how far I've got (still no beads sewn on though). I think they are going to be made into a bag. Although it doesn't look like it in the photos both pieces have the same purple blanket in them.

Workshop Day

This weekend my LQG had a talk and workshop by Madeleine Millington. She drove all the way from Exeter to Lincolnshire to give us a fantastic time. It was so great to have a day to forget about C&G and do lovely woolly hand stitching. Everyone was working on something different, using Madeleine's work as inspiration. She uses recycled wool blankets which have been dyed and lots of discussion started  about charity shop prices.



At the end of the day we had a show and tell, Sweetiepie was there in the stripey t-shirt. I'll show you what I did once I have sewn on some beads.

At the end of the day Mary showed me her Shibori quilt using fabrics that she dyed on a workshop with me earlier this year. It's fantastic, the photo (with Mary hiding behind) doesn't do it justice. She used lots of embroidery stitches with hand dyed thread and which I should have taken a close up photo of. Well done Mary.

Pinwheel progress

Just finished the blocks for this "quick" quilt. I now need to press the blocks, stitch together, quilt and bind. The blocks are a bright white with white flowers and a yellow which has roses all over, it looks dark on the shade of my rug but you can see more detail below.

Frustrating Friday

Friday was a potential supply teaching day. I'm available and I wait for the call, by 8.30am I am fairly sure that the day is my own and I will not have to go into school. As I have a large "TO DO" list I prioritised and made another list which included -

• Washing some clothes (or throw clothes into the machine and leave)
• Sewing my half square units together into blocks
• Sewing samples into my sketchbook
• Sewing some binding onto class samples
• Continue updating my website
• Replay to about 12 e-mails
• Send out some workshop requirement lists

Think what all these things have in common, have you guessed?? Try electricity and I'm sure you will figure out what happened next. 

Feeling very smug and organised I set to not expecting the electricity to go off at 9.30am (didn't plan for this). By lunchtime still no electricity, by 2pm still no electricity. I can access e-mails via my phone but can't open attachments nor send e-mails with attachments. Feeling very frustrated I dug out the singer hand machine to at least sew the bindings on. The electricity finally came on at 5pm. I was taking DS over to see his cousin so then a mad rush to eat, leaving DH and DS2 at home. This blog post was all planned so I leave you with a collage of my C&G bag.

Blast from the past

A few weeks ago my parents had to clear out their loft as they are getting free insulation. Lots of "treasures" and junk emerged, some that must have been up there for 35+ years. Lots of stuff appeared to be mine which I had to bring home including this evidence that I have always liked to do crafty things. DS2 has claimed the weaving looms and has already started to do some..

This was found in an old box and I completed this at Junior School so I was probably about 9 or 10. Interestingly my favourite colour scheme doesn't seem to have changed in about 30 years! I have no recollection of doing this piece though.

These things brought back lots of memories and DH and I got onto the subject of our favourite TV programmes. We were brought up on opposite sides of the country but DH never saw my favourite programme which was called "White Horses". Thanks to YouTube I can bring you the theme tune (hopefully you should be able to click below and hear the theme tune) If you remember this, please let me know as I can't find anyone who does.

Good news/bad news + half square triangles

Today on the east coast of England we had a sunny day. The predicted heavy rain has arrived tonight though. DS2 started back school today and went off fairly happily when his taxi came at 7.30am. DS doesn't start back until Wednesday so we decided to continue with our efforts to do some major pruning. DS is a very accomplished scout and loves a good bonfire. I have to admit that he is very sensible (even though I still want to treat him a like a small boy). He got the bonfire going and started burning prickly stuff whilst I continued pruning. I decided to speed things up a little and went to fetch the electric hedge trimmer. It is much lighter than the petrol so feeling positive I started cutting, DS collecting the fallen branches/leaves for the bonfire. I cleared about a 6 metre stretch when it stopped working,. After realising what the problem was I phoned DH and asked which news he wanted -

Good news - I am still alive
Bad news - (have you guessed?) I cut through the electric cable.

DH was very understanding and  is now preparing to fix the join safely so hopefully if the weather improves by this weekend I can finish the job.

On a more calm note I am resurrecting my love affair with half square triangle blocks. I have been asked to make a small quilt for my Aunt and Uncle's Golden wedding anniversary. The theory was that this would be completed after my City & Guilds course, the reality is a little different. I have started to make these though. more progress soon...

Show and Tell

Well, despite travelling around the country this Summer I have been able to do some stitchy/crafty things as well as my City and Guilds work and making jams, chutneys from our various garden produce. This post is a bit photo heavy so sit back and enjoy. This little angel was made for a friend who has moved down to North London as she and her husband are Territorial Officers in the Salvation Army.

Way back at the start of the summer holidays Emma over at A little bit of everything was invited people to celebrate her 50th birthday with her, she sent out 50 postcards and you just had to send one in return. I was lucky enough to get place number 50. Above is the postcard Emma sent me and below the postcard made for her (I think you can click to enlarge them).

Below some of the City and Guilds stuff I have been working on over the holidays, pages and samples from my sketchbooks.

This small quilt wasn't anything to do with my City & Guilds. It was called "Daisy Chain" and was initially juried into the Quilters Guild Exhibition at Rufford Country Park. Unfortunately it didn't actually make it to the exhibition as it was felt it was a bit on the small side. It is made of all recycled things, a recycled sheet which was monoprinted and plastic bags were used to make the actual flowers.