Bit's and Pieces week

I have been a bit busy this week, but not really with sewing.  I did go to Highampiecemakers, my Monday sewing group, and spent a bit of my time helping with paper piecing, well, I thought I was helping, not sure the ladies would agree, but had a bit of a laugh.  I don't think I got my sewing out of my bag, but I did catch up chat wise.

Not sure what happened to Tuesday. Oh yes I do, I baked.  Made two chicken and mushroom pies, and two bacon quiches.  Do you remember way back when we used to eat egg and bacon pie????? looked very much like a quiche to me.  Wednesday a friend and I went in search of a new quilt shop that has opened.  Now, Wednesday was the most awful day with rain and winds, we hardly had to walk anywhere, but both my friend and I were wet through, so wet in fact that once home we both had to change our trousers they were dripping.  Our little trip wasn't really worth it as the new shop seems to be selling the same fabrics as the shop I use all the time, but, perhaps give her a few more months, and she may bring in some different 'stuff'.  The other thing we did on Wednesday was to play some more with 'Sculpey'  clay.  Lynda went home with a little array of teapots roses and a great big chunk of (clay) cake.  I made two tea pots.

More work needed, but not bad for a first attempt.

Thursday was my visit with the physio.  and she seemed quite pleased with my progress, but like all physio's she has now given me tougher exercises.  Also hair cut day, so no time to sew.......... again.

Friday, is my day at playing teacher.  I go to my (now not so local) quilt shop, and give a few ladies a lesson on smocking.  I enjoy playing teacher, but most of all I love the idea of keeping old crafts alive.  So many of our crafts are becoming a dying art.  Phew!! lets move on before this gets a bit heavy.

Forget Saturday, but Sunday was my day back at the machine.  Remember I was given a challenge here well, I have n't made any more until today.  As it was raining and blowing a gale. Mr D and I  both decided that it was a stay at home play day, and this is how I play (he's much more tidy).

Look at my scrap stash.  Lots of friend have contributed.

What did I do with this lot....... yes you guessed it, lots of New York Beauties.

I do enjoy making these, and love the fact that its all scrap fabric, so actually these will have cost me nothing. Yeah!!!  Be assured my room is now reasonably tidy, all scraps away and ready for another week.

Must tell you, I am getting quite excited about our holiday this year.  We are going to see our son, daughter-in-law (my third daughter) and our two grandchildren who live in Canada.  We did go to see them in 2008 and had a wonderful time exploring Vancouver, but this time they have planned a trip to Seattle, and we are planning a 3 day trip to Victoria.  Its been fun trying to work out the best way to travel, and get the most from the 3 days and tie it in with Seattle.  So far, we are thinking of taking the sea plane to Victoria...how exciting is that?  We will then look at getting the ferry from Sidney Victoria to Anacortes U.S. where the family can pick us up and we can carry on to Seattle.  Goodness, such a lot to look at and plan.

Bit of R and R

Well, I knew that for a few days I was going to have to try to keep my feet up, so had to plan what I could do while reclining on the sofa.  I had a couple of hand sewn things to finish off, so taking a note from lynz  I planned to get a few things done and out of the way.

If you remember I had been making this.

Almost there

Well, just look at it now......  

 I love it, and it has a place on my sewing room wall ...what an honour!! (usually only swaps received go on the wall).

The other little bit that kept me quiet for a while was this little block

Some of us at the Monday group are making a Christmas wall hanging and this is Ellen's wreath block.  Its will end up a 6" block, Ellen decided to use 'Yo Yo's so this was another small project for me to sit and play at.   

NOW talk about play....... I have been looking at flickr to see what is going on and there is a pincushion swap just beginning. However, I am not joining any swaps for a bit but I love to follow them, and someone put up a picture of some 'pin toppers'.......  do I need an invitation to do research on these beauties OH NO!!!!..... After reading what the ladies had to say about different clays I started scouring Amazon to see what they had to offer, and 'lo and behold' they sold a sample pack of 12 different pastel colours. So no time was spent thinking about it, I ordered and yesterday my pack turned up.  Yeah!!!  I was so excited and started to follow this tut. but in my haste I did not check the oven temperature correctly (I didn't think anyone used Fahrenheit anymore) so instead of 230 deg F I put the oven on at 230 deg,C.  The smell in the kitchen told me something was not quite right, and this is my sorry lot that emerged.

Should have been 130 deg. C

Will I be beaten....... this is my second attempt 

Cute aren't they.  Goodness knows how many will be made and what I will do with them, but once again I will be kept out of mischief for a few more hours.

  

Ta Dahhhh

.Well, I worked hard and finished my part in Nichol's quilt.  I decided to add a bit of yellow to tie it in with the rest of the quilt....looked a bit too blue otherwise.  Would you like to see it ...well, I am going to show you anyway.

Nichol's quilt

It was quite nice on Saturday so I took the opportunity to take this photo in the garden with it hanging on the washing line.  I am happy with it, and now it will get packed up and sent on to Jo in Scotland.  

We had been invited to a 50th birthday bash with the invite stating 'Mad Hatters Tea Party', so I had to tart up some hats that we had.  Mr. D is not that happy in fancy stuff so I found a cute little ladybird and added that to the brim of his hat,

The Ladybird is on a leaf rowing around the rim..toooo cute

For my hat I found some thin wooded flowers with frogs and ladybirds on, so I attached them to a Facinator

Bit of fun

And because we had our hats on, we were allowed to eat ....good job we had made the effort as there was lots of lovely food and tons of cup cakes Yummy!!!

The gift

Loved this idea for a gift, well, it was a tea party so what better than a tea cup saucer and plate.  The local florist did the flowers and I loved it.

While I had my 'old' tea/coffee cups out, I decided to make another pin cushion from one of them.  I am out tomorrow, and some of the ladies I meet have asked to see the last one I made, unfortunately that one is now in its new home, so I quickly made another.  Want to see it ????

Sweet aren't they??

As you see my friends birthdays come and go I think you will see more of these.

Do you know its just gone 10 past 12 midday and I am still in my P.J.'s  what a slob, but very cosy.

April Showers

Since we have been back from our Easter trip, it certainly has been April Showers.  One minute you look out of the window and the sun is shining, next the black skies arrive and we have a short sharp shower.  I decided to take a photo of these before they get battered by the rain.

Pretty arn't they 

The garden is full of colour, and such a beautiful site. I am never sure which season I prefer, but after the long dark winter the Spring flowers certainly make your heart sing.

I am still coughing and spluttering so have not really felt like doing very much, this cold seems to be hanging around just a bit toooo long for my liking, but in the big scheme of things it is just a cold.  So, for the last couple of days I have been on a mission to finish these........

4" New York Beauties

Do you remember me saying I had received this quilt top ready for me to add the next round???  Well, I decided to make my border quite plain and go back to the blue that Nichol had started with. When I say plain, I do have to  add  a bit of interest, so I have made these New York Beauties to add in.  Its taken me longer than usual to make these, but feel I have enough now to make a bit of a statement.  So, tomorrow I hope to get this border 90% finished........ but we will see.

Easter 2012

We started on our journey to Yorkshire nice and early on Friday morning.  At first the journey seemed nice and quiet, but as we got close to Nottingham the cars began to slow to a walking pace.  We had heard nothing on the road reports to say there was a problem, but eventually we saw the signs to say that the A1 was closed..... bother and damn.  Eventually we got to the M1, the journey continued at a normal pace but we had been delayed for at least 1 1/2hrs. Our usual 3 1/2  hour journey turned into almost 5 hours.  I suppose you have to be grateful for small mercies, firstly we were not involved in the accident on the A1 (I believe it was a lorry and a bike), and secondly the weather was not so wonderful and therefore every man and his dog was not on the road chasing the sun.
Its lovely up in the Dales no matter what the weather, and this holiday the weather has certainly been against us.  We girls managed a shopping trip to Harrogate on Saturday, while the boys went off to the movies, and Sunday was spent searching out Garden Centres that might be open (none were).  Monday unfortunately has been raining most of the day, so not even a walk into the village, just a totally relaxing time.  

While I have been sitting here, I have played and added some finishing touches to a block that I am going to enter into a competition.  Now I have never entered a competition before, so I have no allusions of winning.  I am not even sure I should be showing you the block, so I will just give you a sneak peak.

Sneak Peak

The theme of the block had to be Summer and as you can see I have gone for a summery scene.  So, wish me luck, it will go in the post on Wednesday. 

The other thing that has kept me out of trouble is this...

Ages ago I started this blanket which was featured in Country Homes and Interiors, and every now and again I get it out and play a bit more.  Its easy to bring something like this away with me, but this time I didn't bring enough of the white, hence only some of the blocks are finished.  Mind you had the weather been better here   I don't think I would have even got this many made.        

Off home tomorrow, hope you all had a good Easter, and the Easter Bunny was kind to you.

                    

    

What a difference a week makes!!!!

I had quite a lot planned for the past week, but unfortunately my plans were scuppered.  At the  beginning of the week I had a bit of a sore throat, so swimming was off the agenda, but coffee with friends went ahead on Wednesday. In fact we made the most of the beautiful weather on Wednesday, and had coffee and chats outside lapping up the sunshine, really makes me feel that winter is behind us now.  The rest of the week went a bit downhill for me, my 'cold' turned into a chest infection, and nothing, and I mean NOTHING creative got done, even moving from one room to another was sometimes a bit of a task.  Luckily, emergency Doctors were available over the weekend, so with antibiotics on board, surely recovery was just around the corner!

While I was feeling sorry for myself over the weekend, Mr D was busy finishing off the guttering on the shed, and fixing up the water butt. This seems well timed, as today (Tuesday) we have some rain falling.  As I say in the title of this blog 'what a difference a week makes', last week we were all enjoying the sun and temperatures up to 20 deg., and today we have rain and temps. nearer to 10 deg.  Up to 6 " of snow has already  fallen in Scotland, and the snow could possibly make its way down as far as here in the next day or two....... Do you all know the saying about March -  'In like a Lion, out like a Lamb',  that's  a bit wrong this time, but April showers might be on there way, and its just what we need.

I have n't felt like any sewing, but today the next part of my 'round robin' swap arrived in the post, so I have to get my thinking cap on.  This is what arrived today........ now this doesn't look so big in the picture does it.....but its massive especially when you consider I am only the third person to add to this one, and there are 4 more rounds after me.  Not sure what I am going to do, but you can bet I will be scouring the books and the internet for some ideas.  I hope I can get to my LQS on Thursday to look for some fabrics that I can use on this, and if I can't find what I need there, I can visit my daughters LQS in Yorkshire when we go to see her at the weekend.

Yes, the weekend is holiday time....Easter Yeah!!! Last year we were up in Yorkshire for Easter, and it was such lovely weather we spent most of our time in the garden.  I wonder what this Easter will bring???? Will the Easter Bunny be able to hide all the Eggs in the garden, or will he have to sneak into the house and hide them inside.  All I do know is I have my collection basket ready, and big elbows to swipe those children out of the way.  Ha Ha Ha.