Whiling away the hours

Whiling away the hours while feeling B minus, yes the cold lurgy still has its grip on me .

I decided to update my Crochet Project Bible.  Twelve months ago I started on my crochet addiction when one of my IAM group of ladies, Shirley, said she would teach us all how to crochet. We had so admired her crochet creations but started off with just a simple granny square.
I was hooked [ yes pun intended!] Here are some of the photos I have added to my project book of items I have made in the past year. Unless stated all wool used is Stylecraft Special DK.
WIP [work in progress]

Made in Spain with local wool, will be a bag

Hangs smiling at me in my Happy Room

Lily Pond blanket was a real challenge
Used Stylecraft Life wool... too itchy for me!

Spice of Life blanket

As we go stripey blanket 

Sophie's Universe WIP

Grey granny squares with flowers
My first crochet attempt

Persian Tile with Around the Bases CAL

Granny head rest for my chair

Attic 24 Spring wreath

Attic 24 Winter wreath WIP

Spanish wool bunting WIP

Book containing the names of the wool colours, start dates and pattern details

Shirley has a lot to answer for, but I thank her anyway.

Where has the week gone?

Where has the week gone? Well mostly in bed or taking paracetamol, yes, I've had the lurgy. Unfortunately Chris has had it worse than me but I think we are both on the mend now.
Just ventured out side the house for a short walk to the post box for the first time since Thursday.

I have never watched so much TV, but it was nice catching up with Homeland, I think we managed 12 episodes and are now up to date with the series. In fact the plot becomes so hard to follow it was nice watching the episodes back to back.

Spring must be around the corner as the frogs have started spawning in the pond, always a welcome sight.

Looks like tapioca pudding my Mum used to make!

Hamtune Quilters

Last night we were treated to a talk by Jenni Dobson.
The talk was entitled "In the Praise of Scraps"

She was a most entertaining speaker and with a large suitcase on the table. The quilts just appeared as if by magic. Her first quilt was one purchased as a top in the USA for $14.

                               

Normally I am not a scrap quilter and usually end up giving my scraps away, maybe I should start saving them and like Jenni start filling jars, boxes, cartons, bags etc with tiny different coloured pieces! Chances are they would be forever in the containers and never get used but I'll still save my scraps, even if I end up giving them away again.

Twas on a Monday morning the gas man came to call

No I am not going to burst into song, but Flanders and Swann sang the story of the gas man calling and then the electrician etc etc...

During the floods and torrential rain last week some of the houses near here lost their gas supply, including my good friend's home. The gas board pumped out 100 litres of water from the gas pipe. My theory is if that much water can get IN the pipe how much gas is getting OUT?

Yesterday the gas board arrived and today more men came and more diggers and more trucks, the noise is awful as they try to find the leak. At this rate they will have all our neighbours drives dug up!
Plus as the song goes after the gas men the electric went out, and true to form our electricity went out a couple of times on Sunday.

Always something happening around here.

View from the bedroom window its too cold to go out for a photo!

Saturday sewing

A couple of weeks ago the local quilt group organised a roll a dice challenge. My throw of the dice turned out to be Courthouse Steps and red.
The completed item will be a quilt for the charity Linus.

Having fought with my printer to print out the size of pattern I have chosen [ it kept jamming up the thin paper I like to use] and found red fabric with a matching white and red print from my stash I am ready to start. The centre squares are fleece.

My challenge to myself this week is to up my walking steps, so after each block I walk around my Happy Room. So far I have 12 blocks made and walked 435 steps!

Eight more blocks to make, then I will add borders, back it and quilt it. Hope to complete it before Easter but my diary is rather full and time will be short in my Happy Room.

Cheap pad of thin paper [ I cut the join off ] I find works well for foundation piecing.
Easy to see through it for placement of fabric and easy to tear away when the blocks are complete.

Joseph's Coat Table runner

Another completed item for this year.
Having decided to hand sew the little circles as I did not like the look of them being machined, I spend the evening with a needle in my hand to sew them down. The table runner was started at Coleman's Warehouse Rushden.
To complete the runner I 'berthed' it to white fabric cutting the circles on the outside edge to made a rounded shape.

Love the carnations and iris flowers on my new table runner.

Out and About

Today started out as a "clear the clutter" day. In fact we had both been having a clear out, mostly of clothes. My criteria was 'If it does not fit, do not like it, have not worn it in the past two years' out it goes. Chris also sorted out his wardrobe, this all resulted in a Land Rover boot full of items for the charity shop!
While having this massive clear out I came across a load of photos that I had sorted out in 2003 when my Dad died. They were all in envelopes / jiffy bags with peoples names on. Sadly two of the ladies have since died but one old friend of my parents, Di, that has known me since I was born was still with us so today was the day to visit her. She is almost 94 years young and was so pleased to see us. Hopefully the old photos will bring back some happy memories for her.

Di age 93 and still fun to be with

From here we went to Emmaus at East Carlton Bedfordshire to drop off the charity bags and empty the car boot. Naturally we had a look around, it is one of our favourite places to visit. I was pretty good and only bought two new tops, they look brand new and at £2 each will be great for the summer. Chris bought an old AA map book for £1.50, he loves old maps.

It was time for a cuppa and who can drink hot chocolate without a slice of their delicious Victoria sandwich ?

Visiting the boutique and Coffee shop

Time to walk off the cake, so went for a very nice walk in Carlton Country Park. They have made it an interesting place to visit with a cafe, which we did not visit and different wood carvings along the tracks.

After yesterdays torrential rain the road to Harrold was marked "flooded" hey! we are in the Land Rover lets go for it. It was like driving through a river so Chris had to do it twice !

Flowers and the rain

Richard and family bought me a lovely bunch of flowers for Mother's Day. They are so bright and cheerful on this awful wet day. Even the pond in the garden is full to overflowing, I have a feeling we will see the fish swimming around on the lawn soon if it does not stop.

Every time I see them it makes me smile.

I decided this week to make a really concerted effort to complete 2500 + steps using my FitBit everyday. Wet day what to do... shopping is the answer so we are off to a large indoor shopping centre. I do not need to buy very much but need to walk in the dry!

Get together workshop

Four of us have decided to get together and teach each other sewing and quilting items. Christine offered to start the ball rolling with a bag workshop.
It has been a really nice no pressure day and all four made really nice bags in different colourways.
Using Bosal foam stabilizer the bags had a great shape and although it is quite expensive certainly made for a nice finish.
I decided to use up some oddments of red Japanese fabrics. The bag itself has four pockets on the inside and two on the outside.

Penny, Christine and Pauline in my Happy Room

Christine demo, Pauline, Mine, Christine original, and Penny's bags

Happy Mothering Sunday

Today is full of memories of my own Mum who sadly passed away in 2012 she is greatly missed.
Always full of fun she loved being a Mum to my sister and me, Nana to Richard, Sally and Jessie and Great grandma to Abigail, Eleanor, Tess and Mabel.

Mum and me 1944

I in turn loved becoming a Mum to Richard 36 years ago. He has brought so much into my life and I am very proud of his choices for career and family. Granddaughters Abigail and Eleanor are the icing on the cake.

Richard in the suit I made him for my cousins wedding.

The new toy

My iPad was getting slower and slower and some of the apps would no longer work, time for a new one. Chris bought me this iPad Air2 64GB as an anniversary present.
After a lot of aggravation I am now completely in love, I had no idea how slow etc my old one was. I'm also in love with Chris for buying me it.

The owl case is so cute and I had my nails done after five weeks away they were in dire need of it.

IAM March 3rd

Eight of us met for a great day, where everything from medical facts, embroidery, quilting, crochet, knitting to politics was discussed.  In fact it was a very noisy day with great friends.
Show and tell was brilliant, the fact we missed last month as I was away meant there were lots of goodies to ooh and aah over.

we all loved these lace knitted flowers by Jenny

Easter is around the corner, made by Penny

SNAP! both Dorn and Penny had made the same crochet blanket

Dorn completed her French General top

Clare's lovely bag

Clare has been bust making Linus quilts

2nd of Clare's Linus quilts

3rd of Clare's Linus quilts

Shirley's latest crochet creation

Crochet hearts started by Shirley for her granddaughters

Sewing projects finished

I have been busy finishing things I started some time ago. Some have been on my blog but they were never actually completed, most needed binding hand sewing down, not my favorite job.

Binding sewn and lap quilt completed, love this and will make it again for Linus

I also made two new cushions that I am really pleased with.  I did not want them to be to puffy with bought cushion pads, plus they are not square which always presents a problem, I sewed layers of polyester wadding together to get the thickness I like.

Matching cushions machine embroidery pattern

One of the on-line groups I belong to have a machine embroidery swap that has to include a zipped item made in the hoop. Having really struggled with a pattern [ seemed like bits were missing and only half the zip was sewn in using the hoop,] I fiddled with it and made the little purse that will be going in the post on Monday to my secret sister in the USA. Not sure I will be using the pattern again.

Made in the hoop with a zip for a swap

Lap jelly roll quilt binding sewn to finish it

Hand sewn blocks made a couple of years ago in machine sashing made last year
finally completed the sewing down of the binding this week