So, Sew Jo: January 2014

Thursday, 23 January 2014

High's and Lows of one week

What do you do the week leading up to your hols....you get all the goodies together that you are taking over as gifts, that's what you do. Then once that is all collected together you see if there is room left in the suitcase for some clothes.....

will there be room for clothes????

Next you finish up some knitting that will possibly be a Christmas pressie for someone next year...YES - you hear correctly NEXT year.... Definitely starting early.

Made this one with chunky yarn,

I then had to sort out some handwork that will fit into my hand luggage (just in case we get held up anywhere) and keep me amused on those quiet days we might have. I showed you in the last post the way I cut my Hexagon papers, and now I have spent some time cutting all the bits of scrap fabric.... should keep me out of mischief especially as I have been told in no uncertain terms that we will NOT be jumping off table mountain this holiday. Got to whisper....I have looked at paragliding off 'Signal Hill' (the big mountain almost next door to Table mountain) Shhhh! don't tell my family.

90 little squares cut and ready to sew.

I played with some more pom poms, and strung them together as another gift/room deco. for the 'littlies'.

Then my happy pre packing week came to a big crash.......firstly my dear sewing machine has been playing up a bit lately, so I took it to my local dealer and when I started to explain what was happening I saw the sinking look on his face! He thinks he knows what is wrong but isn't sure he can get a replacement part! He had to get the same part for someone last year and the supplier told him it was the last one he had....Oh goodness what will I do! Andy, (the wonderful mechanic) said he could try Switzerland as they might just have some, and if that fails I will try to see if anyone in S.A. has the part. I am awaiting the call to tell me if I need to get my "begging" face on when I visit Bernina friends in S.A

How sad is that empty space???

As if that wasn't enough, this morning I switched on my trusty laptop and the 'log in profile' had been erased. Some stupid virus had got in and I couldn't open anything. So off to Paul this time, with laptop in hand begging him to wave his magic wand to fix it.

Another empty space.......shame!

I hope I can keep in touch over the next few weeks, but if my blog is very quiet you will know why.....off to catch some sun.

Sunday, 19 January 2014

For Christmas (along with all my other goodies) I got a 'Rotating Cutting Mat'.......have you got one? I couldn't wait to use mine, but what to make?....that was the question.... I then came across this and this. I loved the little quilt, but if I made a table centre I could give it to a friend as a small gift when I visit her in South Africa..
So I began.

How much easier this is!!

I decided on my fabrics and off I went, the pinwheels were finished in no time at all and then I sorted out some of those 2.5" squares I have been collecting ready to make some Prairie Points ....another first for me.

Ready to go

Next step get them sewn...

Mmmmmm! I like

And another 'first' was to 'self bind' a quilt. I wish I had spent some time with Mr Google (didn't even think about him helping) but I managed it, even the mitred corners....Yeah!

Looks O.K. doesn't it?

I am also in 'Placemat Mode'. Yep making more with my scraps and on one lot I again used 'self binding' and on the other I just turned them and sewed around the edge..... oh goodness so many new things in one week....

Practice makes perfect....well almost

One lot done....

Second lot

They all look quite different

Well, that was a few gifts to take overseas with me. Now I have to take something to keep me quiet while I sit on the plane for hours on end....so I have decided the easiest thing to take is hexagons,and I have been busy cutting my papers. I got the idea of cutting like this from Geta's blog it really is (as far as I am concerned) the very best way of getting hexagon papers, and if you haven't had a play at these you really should try them.

These will be 1/2" hexagons

Till next time x x

Saturday, 11 January 2014

Caring and Sharing....

Yep ! this is the season for caring and sharing........ and the first thing that Mr D shared with me this year was a sore throat, cough, runny nose and generally feeling 'Pooh'!. Hence there has not been a lot going on in this house, but I have decided that tomorrow I am going to get shot of all of these germs and be back to my normal self (I'll let you know how positive thinking goes!).

Would you like to see some of the things that Santa brought me...... do you remember that odd parcel that I was hoping was not a walking stick? Well, it was this....

Tea for the birds....cute or what!

I also got a gift of yarn and a pattern to boot...actually I saw it at the Yarndale Festival. I did start it over the Christmas holiday and have to say it grew very quickly. I think this will come in very handy. It can be worn in doors on those extra chilly days, and in Spring and Autumn it would be great to wear instead of a coat. Using this yarn, my 'poncho' (or what ever you call it) took 8 balls, but each ball had 83 mts. of yarn in each ball......

Do you like the colour??

I love it.

I got so many lovely gifts that you would be so ~~jealous~~ envious looking at them, but let me tell you Santa must have thought me a very good girl.

Do you remember me saying that I had finished decorating the cloakroom, well there were a few finishing touches to be added, one of which was a mirror. I looked around, but couldn't see what I wanted, so I decided to spray paint the old frame , unfortunately for me the old frame had been decoupaged and once I sprayed some silver paint on it all of the minor lumps and bumps showed up like great chunks, so I had to strip the decoupaged section right back to the wood before I could paint. I liked the idea of having silver on the edges, so I masked the edges off and slapped emulsion on the rest. Voilà! Can't say it saved me a fortune because mirrors are not THAT expensive, but it gave me pleasure to once again get something for nothing. True "up-cycling".

Bit of a mess at the moment.

Could call it 'Shabby Chic' or a 'mess'

But just look at it now.....

Smart don't you think..

I am not saying I was hungry over the Christmas holiday, but my son-in-law shared his snack with me....

Bit too much salt for me.

Happy Sewing x x

Thursday, 2 January 2014

Memory Lane

I thought I would try to recapture some of 2013 with a photo from each month....... this was easier said than done. For a start some months nothing much happened and others there were lots of pics, to choose from, so I had to be very hard on myself and only choose ones that I thought you might like to see again. Hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane.

January brought snow......