Giveaway Result!!

Thank you all so much for your comments to enter my giveaway. I'm glad you liked the look of what I was offering enough to enter. I had 10 comments in total and made the draw by myself with no witnesses (but you can trust me because I'm as honest as the day is long - and believe me, today was LONG!!).


I wrote out the names, folded them up and put them in an empty tissue box that I keep on my desk at work (because it's too pretty to throw away). Then mixed them around a bit and gently shook the box over the desk hoping that only one name would fall out - and it did!

And the name was Vintage Girl from Cristali Designs who said:

"hello: I like the crocheted bag.

Great giveaway, thanks,

hugs"

Woo hoo... my bag is going all the way to Texas. Many congratulations to Vintage Girl. Please let me have your address so I can get it off to you as soon as I can. I will also email you or comment on your blog to inform you incase you don't pop in for a while.

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I'm sorry you couldn't all win but I am very grateful to every one of you for entering.

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In other news:

I'm holding my Shed Warming Party on Sunday but it looks like it's going to be the worst day of the week weather-wise. I'm not going to postpone again though - we'll just have to make the best of it!

Plus I should have the diamond-patch pincushion finished for my next post, and another cushion too, if I get organised.

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Bye for now

Teresa x

Uphill Climbing.

On Friday evening my OH announced that the following morning we were going to go to Monmmouth and climb The Kymin. I had a coffee morning to go to but I didn't protest too much because I knew I had to get some practice/training in for the BBMC on May 15th which is fast approaching.
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We set off from the car park in town and walked to the base of the hill where the climb starts on this wooded path.
Then out onto the road for a little while (sorry about the dark photos, I was taking them into the sun and don't know how to adjust for this. If you look at them from above or tilt your screen forward they are a little clearer.)

More paths through the woods.

Waiting for my OH to catch up.....ha ha, the other way around more likely!!

Up a hilly field.

Then through a couple more fields and another wood to the top. It was a gorgeous day but the view was a bit hazy.

This is the roundhouse on the summit.

And this is the older temple.

Which has unfortunately been damaged by the snow and frost over the winter.

On the journey back down I took more notice of the plants and flowers that were in abundance .

A carpet of wild garlic.

I had wild garlic in my veg delivery this week and there it was spread out over the hill, but we're not allowed to pick wild plants!

There were many different woodland flowers but I'm afraid I'm not that hot on identifying them.

Celendines (I think).

Bluebells amongst the ivy.

Primroses

Wood anemones (I think)

And another purple one I don't know the name of. I didn't get a photo of my favourites - the forget-me-nots.

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I did get to the coffee morning, by the way, which was held to raise money for the flower festival the church is organising later in the year. I arrived just in time for the raffle which they postponed for a few minutes to allow me to buy tickets, while someone went to the kitchen to make me a very welcome coffee. And, what do you know, I won a prize (I chose a Body Shop gift set which I've given to my DD to use for her parties).

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No stitching progress worth showing, I'm afraid. I have, however, decided to give the pincushion I've started to my mother for her birthday in May if it turns out ok, so I'll have to make another one for myself now!!

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Oh, and I nearly forgot. I managed to get half an hour on Saturday to get a tune out of my clarinet. Maybe I haven't got the technique right yet, but it takes an awful lot of puff and I can't manage many notes in a row before having to breathe. But it's a start, and I learned 4 notes!!

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Bye for now

Teresa x

A Pre-Party Party!

Since her pet care business has not yet built up enough to give a decent income, my daughter has taken on a Body Shop home party business too. Yesterday, I hosted her first party in 'The Shed', which happens to have more room to sit people than our sitting room!! Everyone arrived and sat in the house chatting but were a little curious as to why there was no evidence of a party in sight. I then explained that they were going to be priviliged to be the first people to make use of 'The Shed' (which, once they saw it, they insisted on calling The Chalet!). My other group of friends who will be attending the Shed Warming Party on 2nd May are a bit miffed that they've been beaten to it!

The light wasn't brilliant for photos but here are a couple to give an idea. I covered my materials (junk) with table cloths and added a few more cushions (after taking this photo - duh!) to make it comfortable and put up a few quilt block to brighten up the walls (they won't be staying there). DD did really well and I was very proud of the way she presented herself. I don't often get to see her interact with people she doesn't know very well on a professional basis and she came across as confident and knowledgeable. We got enough orders for me to have £25 of free products but I let DD choose some to add to her stock of demo products or raffle prizes instead.

Half way through the party we paused for tea and cakes. Oaty, chocolate cookies and vanilla, fudge muffins (the muffins made only half an hour before people arrived).

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It was a fun and successful first party with one friend asking to host one at her house too.

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I hope to have some stitching news next time and my giveaway is still running until the end of the month.

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Bye for now

Teresa x

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P.S. I've been challenged by a friend at work to learn a simple tune on the clarinet by next Tuesday (when she's next in the office) so watch this space!!! Gulp!

Preparation

Just a quick post today. Here are a couple of pics of some preparation.

This is my progress so far for the ladybird I'm going to add to this months quilt block. Next stage will be to cut out iron-on interfacing and then iron him in place before stitching (I know ladybirds aren't brown and green but I didn't want him to be a completely different colour from the rest!). The inspiration for his design came from a single element of a cushion designed by Don't look now. I can't find the particular one but the lovely designs are well worth a look none-the-less.


And here we have the preparation for a pin cushion from diamond shaped patches. I've only sewn hexagons in papers before so this will be a learning curve. I seem to differ greatly from most other quilters in that I have only one small pin cushion (about 2 and half inches square) so this is my attempt to remedy the situation. Not sure how big this one will be when finished though!
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Bye for now
Teresa x
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P.S. There's still plenty of time to enter my giveaway in the previous post if you want to take a look!!

It's Giveaway Time.

As promised in my last post, here is my 2nd blogging anniversary giveaway. It would be great if there were a good number of entries to make it an exciting draw, so if you normally just pop in for a look, why not leave a comment as well and introduce yourself. I'm never sure how many people actually do visit. The only indication I have is the number of photo views in Picasa.
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Here's what I'm offering as one package:
1. Crocheted Bag. I made this bag a while ago out of curiousity to see how the pattern would come out. I don't really need another bag so it's just hanging around and it seems only right to give it away and hope someone will get some good use from it.


2 & 3. Tree friendly choccie and a bar of glycerine soap. Just because it's nice to have a treat once in a while!

4. A handmade brooch. I made this brooch especially for the giveaway out of felted wool and thrifted buttons. I've got a feeling the clasp on the back is up-side-down and back-to-front (because I'm left-handed) but it still works perfectly well. It has some craft-weight interfacing inside for a bit of stability.

Dresden Plate block partially finished with the correct centre replacing the brooch.
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All you need to do is leave a comment on this post about anything you like. I will pick a winner at random in a couple of weeks (I know I won't have time next week!) on the 30th April then contact the winner and announce it in a post as soon as I can after that. I'll post to anywhere seeing as I have such lovely readers in faraway places. Good luck!! :-)

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And while we're on the subject of giveaways, Steel Kitten is running one for this interesting looking book. I'm mentioning here to get a second entry so I'm off now to leave a comment to qualify!!

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Bye for now

Teresa x

Present and Past.

The Present

Saturday was the day of this months quilting club so, as much as I enjoy it, it was a shame to have to spend such a lovely sunny day indoors. I spent some of the time preparing last months block which will be a Dresden Plate design.

We were also given the idea for the final block we'll be doing for this project. There was no particular design suggested (it's up to us) but whatever it is has to incorporate a ladybird(bug) in some way (our group is called Ladybugs). Since I've not yet completed the previous month I might combine the two to save time. Next month we are to take all our blocks to lay out and then help eachother with arrangement suggestions. We'll then be shown a choice of methods to join them together.

A ladybird taking the sun on a newly sprouting rose bush in the garden last week.

We had butternut squash soup for dinner on Friday (for speed, as my OH had arranged to meet friends) and as my OH cut up the squash for me (I was tidying up and putting away grocery shopping) I asked him to save the seeds. While at the Maunday Thursday supper recently one of my singing friends asked me if I'd ever tried roasting the seeds. I decided to give it a go, so put them on a tray in the oven with a little rock salt and olive oil while I was baking/cooking on Sunday and this was the result. They're delicious - taste like savoury popcorn but nicer and, of course, very good for you so a satisfying result all round. (Btw - the soup was also delicous).

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The Past.

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You may remember me mentioning a few weeks ago about the launch of a local book about our village. It was a lovely dose of nostalgia reading through it recognising many of the people in the photos - some still with us but many not. The photo below shows a classroom in the village school in 1930/31 and is the school in which I started my school life (although the desks etc were different). The boy in the front row, second from the left, was my dad's oldest brother, Uncle Jack and the boy to the right of him in the row behind is an old family friend, Bob, who I knew and lived next door to for most of my life.

The reason I'm mentioning it now is because I only recently found out that I know someone in the picture below too. There were no names in the book for this photo so I only found out yesterday that the girl on the left on top of the cart is my Auntie Phoebe who is still alive and is the widow of Uncle Jack in the school photo. My dad's youngest sister, Mary, sent a copy of the book to Phoebe (she lives near London) and she was delighted. I think it's lovely that they are both in the book because they, and the rest of the family, have been a big part of the village for a long time!

These women were working as Land Girls (scroll down to the section on women for info) and is how Phoebe came to be in our area and met Uncle Jack.

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Let's get back to the present day now with a heads-up that the next post I make will be my 2nd Anniversary Giveaway. I've almost got it ready so this will be the impetus for me to get it finished.

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Bye for now

Teresa x

A Cushion and a Clarinet

I've finished a project tra la la....la la....la!! I'm so happy now that the felted pieces are off the table and have been turned into this cushion. I think I was procrastinating a bit before because I wasn't sure it would be successful, but I'm very pleased with how it's turned out. I can't imagine how I'm going to feel when I've finished a whole quilt!! I stitched all the pieces butted up together with a wide, close zig-zag onto a piece of backing fabric for stability.

It's edged and backed with a flowery curtain-weight fabric I bought from a charity shop a while ago.

I find envelope backs are the easiest to make (and to take off for washing) so long as the overlap is big enough not to gape open.

I was browsing ebay a couple of weeks ago to see what vintage bits and pieces were around and put a bid in for this little pile of goodies. The whole lot, including postage, came to just over £10. There are over 20 zips, good long lengths of braid, lovely big buttons for bag fastenings and the seller added a cute piece of fabric as a extra bonus. I like to have lots of stash available to browse through when the creative urge takes over.

I also had another (accidental) win around the same time!! How, you may ask, do you win something on ebay accidentally? Well.............you know how sometimes you have a dream that maybe one day you could learn to play a musical instrument or something similar? No!!! It can't be just me!! Anyway, after chatting to a friend who plays the saxaphone, I had a browse at the clarinets available. There were new ones and used ones and vintage ones and they were mostly selling for around £60 unless very special. I saw one that was not used, but ex-shop display, on offer starting at £40 (with an option to 'buy now' for £150). I put a bid on for the £40 thinking someone is bound to out-bid me (apparently it's worth £250 new). But no-one did!!! So here it is!!!

In all its glory!!!

I've bought a beginners book to learn how to play and have so far managed to put it together in the correct order. There's no reed with it so I can't attempt to play it yet. If I can't get a note out of it or don't get on with it, the friend who plays sax has already expressed an interest in buying it from me.

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I know!! I know!! I don't have the time to start something new but if I don't try it now, I don't think I ever will (and it was just....sort of.....meant to be!!). I'll let you know how I get on (one way or the other) :-)

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Bye for now

Teresa x

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P.S. The Shed Warming Party was postponed due to bad weather. The holiday-viewing gathering went ahead though on Sunday evening and 15 of us had loads of fun re-living 2 holidays with a break for some delicious food put on by our friend.
Bye for now
Teresa x