Winter Machine Embroidery Swap

Sixteen people have signed up for a swap I am in to make a 9 inch block on the embroidery machine entitled Winter.
I wanted to make as many as I could before going away and with luck all sixteen will be finished this afternoon.
I'm not sure where the snowflake pattern came from, I'm afraid I'm not very good at labelling my discs when I buy patterns. At school my report always said "Diana could do better!".

Agh!!

What is the worst thing that can happen a day before you are going on holiday?

OK maybe it's not the worst... but my washing machine packed up with a load of very wet soggy washing in it!

Luckily Chris will have a go at anything and has it in bits all over the kitchen, which means I can hardly move in there to get it sorted out before leaving the house in a friends capable hands.

Success he has managed to at least get the machine working enough to get the load finished, but dare I risk more?

Funny how we often come home from holiday with a suitcase full of dirty washing but I have never gone away with dirty washing... but hey there is a washing machine in the Spanish Villa we are renting..

Grandma to the rescue

Arriving home last night I was asked to have the granddaughters from 8.30 this morning, and then take them to Summer School for 1pm and collect them at 5pm.

"Oh and by the way" Abigail needs a necktie in shocking pink for a performance this afternoon, she is a biker.

OK a necktie is not to hard to throw together.

The girls arrive and Abigail said she really needed a leather jacket as well ! A quick search of my cupboards and I found some black leather, goodness knows why I had it! cut out a waistcoat and hoped my sewing machine would sew it.

To make it look more "biker" the girls sorted out sticky sequins and had fun sticking them on the leather in a V shape.

I think she looks great.. but then maybe I'm biased..

Sue Sewell workshop

Thursday was spent in Bedford with Sue Sewell's group and Annette Valentine teaching us many little projects. It was a lovely day with and I came away with lots of ideas and two completed bags.

12 of us enjoyed the day

My two bags

The Frog

Have you noticed the frog on my side panel?
If you move your mouse around on the green square he follows it.
Sometimes it's the little things in life that amuse me!

Postcards

Today has been busy, firstly a trip to the gym. Then after recovery time [these old bones ache] Chris and I tackled the front garden.. it was desperately in need of weeding and pruning.
A quick lunch then caught up with the ironing [ luckily there was not too much].
I felt I then deserved a sit down so worked on some postcards I had started to make.
Many of the postcards I make go for swaps with a postcard group, but I also like to make them for friends and my granddaughters.
I use Sticky both sides Rufflette pelmet vilene, which is not very good for my machine needle, so always replace it after sewing postcards.

Re-cycling fun ideas

Last night we had a meeting at church and as one of the organisers we decided on the theme of fun re-cycling.

Penny showed how to make fabric softener and displayed earrings on a cheese grater. She also planted a geranium in a pair of kids jeans for a fun outside feature.

Katie explained about fixing jars to the underside of shelves for storage, punching holes in cans and using with a tea-light for outdoor decoration and a few other useful tips.

Katherine showed recycled fabric made into quilt blocks and two great bags made from old jeans.

I made a bird feeder from two wooden spoons and an old pop bottle, a pretty rag wreath for decoration, planting in old margarine tubs, some quilting ideas and using a skirt hanger to hold your recipe book while cooking.

It was a great evening and topped off with lots of goodies to eat.

Katherine and Katies display



Penny's display




My display



A quilt for a new baby

A friend at church is expecting a baby in a few weeks, so I made her quilt suitable for either a boy or a girl. It is backed with fleece to be cuddly and warm, or nice on the floor to lay on.


Close up of the design




Baby Cooksley's new quilt



Bump Bump Bump

Another day of Green laning in the Land Rover.

The September edition of the magazine Total Off-Road has a series of Tulip Maps for an off road course in Northamptonshire, so we decided to make the most of the nice sunny day and follow the route.

I like reading the Tulip maps now I have worked out how to read them!

The route stared in Newton Bromswold and ended 58 miles later near a pub somewhere [ not sure of the villages name!] It was a very bumpy route with huge ruts, but the ground was very dry and so no mud.

reading the tulip maps

Trees heavy with Sloes

Rutland Water from the Byway

Fields now harvested for the winter

New trainers just for Off roading.. guess they will not stay clean long!

Raspberries

Everyday I am picking lots of raspberries from the plants my sister gave me last year.
We love raspberries with ice cream, in a jelly and crumble.. yummy

This pretty parcel of Ric Rac that I bought on Ebay looks to nice to use.

How often do we say that?

I have a number of FQ's that are too nice to use.. is it a ploy by traders to buy more that we can use?

These two sets of sewing aids, needle case, pin cushion and scissor holder are for sewing friends later in the year. I really enjoy making these sets.

September Postcards

Time to prepare the postcards for the BQLPC postcard group birthdays.. luckily I have already made them.



for Helen Pearson




for Plum Cox



The Knee

Here is a strange photo... it's the little plaster over the injection into my knee yesterday. How can such a small thing be giving me so much pain and a very sleepless night? I thought it was suppose to help with my knee pain! As soon as I get back from holiday I'll be going into hospital for a knee replacement.. something I am not looking forward to.

The BAG ladies

Christine & Pauline

Pretty bags

A very enjoyable day with three friends making bags in my Happy Room.

Pauline and Christine in the photo as Penny had to leave early.

The buttonholes on the black and green bags were made on the Embroidery machine... such an easy way to make buttonholes... just need to find someone selling a design for a larger one. If you know of a ME design for a larger than 2 inch plain button hole please let me know.

Summer Tree of Stitches Part 7

Summer Tree of Stitches Part 7

I am so enjoying this SAL and part sevens stitch is called Sorbello Stitch.

Getting ready for the holiday

Having made a bag for my holiday I thought I would add to it and now have a nice matching set. Bag, coin purse, creditcard holder and wallet for all those Euros!

Day FIVE of the granddaughters visit



Sizzix cut flowers



Sorting the bead boxes

Eleanor said she was concentrating

Abigail took off her shoes to sew



Eleanor's left, Abigail's right

 Friday and the last day of the granddaughters visit so what to do... someone should write a Grandma list to help with this. Also we awoke to rain, so another day in the Happy Room..

The girls started by cutting green fabric that I had backed with Heat-n-Bond to look like grass and flower stems.

Next more Heat-n-Bonded fabric was cut on the Sizzix, how they love using that! into flower shapes for mix and match.. they then ironed them on themselves under my watchful eye.

Next came the "lets empty Grandma's button boxes" to find centers for the flowers and some decorative beads for added interest along the grass.

I am now exhausted and too tired to fix up the Featherweight they usually use so let them use my Brother Innovis 350 to sew wadding and backing onto their creations.

Well done girls the pictures are A+

Machine Embroidery day

Thursday is a day at home spent mostly in my Happy Room.
Having bought small picture frames at Ikea Abigail machine embroidered a gorilla and Eleanor a Panda.

Next they decided to make gifts for their Aunties, Abigail a lion cub and Eleanor a giraffe.

We also managed to pick a tub of raspberries from the garden.

Abigail

Eleanor

Rookery Open Farm

Wednesday 7th, after a visit to Ikea and lunch, we all went to Rookery Open Farm at Stoke Bruerne.
The girls really enjoyed stroking the animals in pets corner, and then after a walk around the animals outside it was fun on the ropes and bouncy castle. A wonderful sunny happy day.

In the tunnel

Petting the goats

Eleanor with friend

Abigail with friend

Balancing act



fun fun fun



Emmaus & Carlton Country Park

Tuesday.. and a visit to Emmaus for the girls to spend some money! Usually they have one toy shop within the complex but for the summer school holidays they have two!
Emmaus is a Charity run Village that enables homeless people to stay, learn a trade and move on, all in a family enviroment.

Frisbie throwing

bread for the ducks



lots of smiles



Outside Emmaus Village

The next stop was the Carlton Country park, playing on the slides etc, eating ice cream and feeding the ducks. The Frisbies bought for 40p at Emmaus were a source of fun, especially when Grandad nearly wizzed it into the lake!

Sizzix fun

Abigail and Eleanor have come to stay for the week, and todays fun was making up stories and cutting out Sizzix shapes. It['s now time for a DVD and bed!

Another summer bag

Managed today to complete another Summer Bag.

Where did the week go?

It was not a good week last week, which is I guess why I have not blogged. My knees have been very painful and I now await the results of a series of Xrays. Doctor thinks I will need replacement knees. A lot of people have been asking about the "I love Sewing" hanger that I often use to show off my bags when I photograph them, sorry I do not know where it came from as it was a gift. I think I have seen them at Quilt and Craft shows. Thursday was a very nice day as it was our regular IAM meeting at my house, when 8 of us sewed, knitted, machined, crochets, embroidered etc.. ate lovely desserts and did a lot of chatting! I have at last decided to sell my Dolls House / Miniaturist items on Ebay, and it took a whole day [ at least I was sitting down] to sort them out... take a look if you are interested, I sell under the name of flip-floplace. Here are a few of the items I'm selling...