Blankets and Bunting!

Hubby and I are recently back from lovely week in Cornwall; specifically, Charlestown. This is the third time we've been to Cornwall, and the second time we've stayed in Charlestown. It's a great base for exploring the area. I'm glad we revisited the Lost Gardens of Heligan because the amazing new Poppy Field of Remembrance was in full bloom.

We were having a lovely time right up until the Thursday..............when hubby managed to catch a 12hr bug (or a touch of food poisoning) and I fell (into the road, in front of a car)! Luckily the car wasn't going very fast, but it stopped with a dramatic screech making everyone in the vicinity turn to look. The result was a skinned right knee with ripped trousers, and a lovely big bruise on my left knee. We had only just stepped out of our accommodation because I was determined to get an ice cream from just down the street. I still made sure I got my ice cream, though, before we went back to dress my wound. 

In crafty news, I finished this wavy design baby quilt before the holiday and started the next one (below) ready to take with me.

I always take a craft project on holiday but rarely get a chance to do any of it. This time I managed quite a bit. I also picked up a pretty bundle of pink fabrics and a couple of doilies at a wonderful craft/vintage emporium in Mavagissey. I've already used the doilies to decorate a baby quilt, which I'll show next time.

The stitching group I go to on a Monday evening seems to have ground to a halt. Nobody seems to have the time to go, and as we meet in a pub no one wants to walk in if they think no one else is coming. Before it fizzled out we were knitting bunting for decorating our village fun day. I've put mine together and will get it to the fun day committee soon. As for the stitching group - I hope it's just a blip and it gets going again. I still go to my Tuesday afternoon group, and it's going strong. We meet in the local scout hall and average around 8+ members per week. We're in the process of arranging a meal out together and we're going to continue right through August, when most groups have a break.

I'm waiting for a customer to come and pick up this order of bunting that she requested for a party in August.
There are three strands of 10 flags each here, to decorate a marquee entrance.

I had a stall booked at a craft fair this week that was cancelled, but I've got a few more booked later this year. So I'm going to be optimistic that they will be successful and try to make plenty of stock.

First, I have to finish:
the stripy, crocheted blanket above (lots of ends to sew in!)
2 quilts that need quilting and binding
another baby quilt - that I haven't started yet.

Bye for now
Teresa x

Change is in the Air!

Hello everyone - I've been away from here for much longer than I expected to, but time seems to be speeding by so fast and there's been lots happening.

I don't think I've mentioned yet that I started a little part-time job about 6 weeks ago. Every week-day morning I help a local, partially-disabled, young mother to pack the parcels for her jewellery-making supplies business. It's quite unpredictable because it could take anything from an hour to 3 hours, so I'm never able to plan exactly what I want to do for the rest of the day, but it gets me out and about every day and motivates me.

Me at Laugharne Castle

OH and I had a last-minute mid-week break at Laugharne a few weeks ago (the last resting place of Dylan Thomas). It was a lovely few days of relaxation among a whirlwind of activity, to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary and OH's 60th birthday.

I've held craft stalls at a couple of local events at which I did quite well, and since then I've been asked to run stalls at 4 further events and give a talk at a local group (all before Christmas!). In other crafty news - I entered one of my quilts into the patchwork class at a local show and won first prize.

I also won second prizes for my lemon drizzle cake (above) and boiled fruit cake (below) in the novice classes, for people who hadn't entered cakes before.

I'm struggling to find time to make more things to stock my stalls, and the fact that I've had to empty all my materials out of my shed, ready for it to be moved out for the house-building, is not helping. It's already being dismantled and the garden is almost bare now, after 2 weekends of clearing out by son and friends, including: OH, son-in-law, son's girlfriend, son's girlfriend's father/mother/brother and son's friend. It's looking pretty bare, and it's going to get worse before it gets better.

I made a larger zipped bag for my last stall, which turned out well. It sold quite quickly and I plan to make more soon.

This little purse above was requested by a friend as a present for her niece, so this has also gone to a good home.

The big surprise, and another thing that has taken up quite a bit of time, was when daughter and SIL had the opportunity to move from a town 20 minutes away from us to this little country cottage 5 minutes away. It is on the country estate that my OH works for and needed lots of TLC. It looks very different now; especially inside. They moved in a couple of weeks ago.

Bye for now
Teresa x

Wedding Photos!!!!!

At last I've managed to get hold of some wedding photos in a form I can post on here. I hope you like them.

This is me and the bridesmaids, taken by son K, crossing the bridge to the Pavilion where the wedding took place. 

 The  Happy Couple under a confetti shower.

 The bride and groom on their way to the reception (or, they will be after they've sat down)

 At a special photo shoot in Magic Kingdom.

The whole group, except for the bridesmaids.

Disney Did Us Proud!

We had an amazing time at Disney World!!! The wedding day itself was the best day of all, including perfect weather. I have to say it is not a holiday destination OH and I would have chosen for ourselves, but we enjoyed it very much and are very glad we experienced it. I was afraid the wedding would be too impersonal or, alternatively, "over-the-top", but everyone was so lovely and ensured the day went smoothly. The wedding was also streamed live via the internet so friends and family back home were able to be part of it.

Disney princess cup cakes that I made for J's hen party

Some of the credit has to go to J too, for the hours and hours of planning and preparation she put in. Her and A's previous experience was also a great help to us 'First Timers' at Disney, so that we were able to make the most of the time we had and do as much as possible.

We haven't had the official photos back yet but have seen one on the photographer's website and it's amazing. Someone said to me, "I bet you would go back tomorrow if you could!" I wouldn't go that far, but I would be happy to go again in the future with grandchildren, to watch them experience it.

Back to reality now, and here are a couple of recent 'finishes'.  I've knitted this baby blanket for a friend who's baby is due in May using some of my stash of recycled yarn. Underneath it is another project that is on the brink of being finished after a looooong time.

This little bag was knitted from some yarn donated to our stitching group to make things for raising money. It's lined in fabric I cut up from a charity shop shirt. It's not clear from the photo, but the yarn has a silvery thread running through it. When I took it along to the group one of them wanted to buy it for herself, but they decided to raffle it at our upcoming Craft Cafe event because they thought it was too nice for the stall! They are nice ladies!!!!

Bye for now
Teresa x

Bad News and Good News!

Bad News:  My auntie (who's house is attached to ours) was burgled last week, while we were sitting next door. It was late afternoon and she was out for less than an hour! Not much was taken but the house was a mess.

Good News: I joined a newly-formed stitching group just before Christmas, and we made it into the local paper this week as a result of our collaboration with the Church to help raise funds towards their 'Raise the Roof' Campaign. I'm sitting down, far left.

Good News: It's not much longer now until J's wedding. It seemed such a long time in the future when we started making arrangements. It's been amazing how much work J has put into the organisation, and I have helped where I can......

..... but as J and A are the experts on the venue it's mostly fallen on them.  I don't know if any of my previous mentions gave away the wedding location but the close-up of the invitation should make it clearer. J made the invitations herself, completely from scratch (I know because I asked if she bought the base card - It was that good!).

Bad News: The back boiler 'went' on our wood burner recently and we had to get a new one.
Good News: It could have 'gone' while we were away on holiday the week before and ruined the carpet and floor as well, but we were at home and able to catch the water as it emptied out (Bad News: It was 7.15 am!)

Bye for now
Teresa x

Another New Hat and a Challenge!

Hi all!
OH and I got back from a week in Austria on Saturday: a skiing holiday, on which (as usual) I did not ski. I was joined in my week-long apres-ski by J who was not skiing due to the fact she is expecting her first baby. During the week we celebrated, amongst our group of 6, a 50th birthday and an engagement. We knew about the birthday and went prepared, but the engagement was a complete surprise.

In previous years I've made myself a new hat to take away, so decided to do the same again.  This time it was knitted in a cable design. It was supposed to be knitted on a circular needle, but I didn't have one the right size so I adapted the pattern to knit it on a pair of needles. It's also supposed to be more like a beret but, due to my tendency to knit too tightly, it's more like a beanie (The pattern is called Saffron but I don't remember where I got it from I'm afraid. I have a pdf if anyone is interested.)

On the last day of the holiday, J and I bought tickets to join the rest of the group at the top of the ski lift for lunch. I was really pleased we did, because the other time I went up it was too foggy to see the amazing view.

Another day we watched the men ski, from the bar half-way up the mountain. We managed to pick them out with the help of M's rabbit ears.

Back to normal now, and to the 'challenge' I decided to set myself for this year - or however long I decide to continue. I felt that I hadn't got my money's worth out of the crafty books and magazines I've bought over the years. When I thought about it in more detail, though, I realised I've taken inspiration from my books for a few of my projects, but the only item I've made from scratch and word-for-word is the knitting needle roll (above), the pattern for which I followed from The Crafters' Companion

Because it's my challenge I'm not going to put any pressure on myself, such as a time limit or amount of projects. The only rule is that there are no rules. As you know by now, I don't plan much when I start a project. It just sort of evolves. But this challenge means I'll occasionally have to plan a little. And it doesn't mean following patterns exactly - I might just use them for inspiration. As I said before - My Challenge. My rules!!

Bye for now

Teresa x

France, June 2013

Our base for the week - Moulin de Garreau

 Hello all!  We got back from a lovely week in France in the middle of the night, the Sunday before last.  Our car came back the following Friday!!! But I don't want to start on a negative note, because we did enjoy ourselves, so I'll leave that until later.

The lake we walked around or fished in.

 There was so much to do at the house we could have amused ourselves there for the entire week, but we did take time out on a few days.

The Green Room (ours!)

 The weather picked up nicely after the drizzly drive down from St Malo and we didn't have another bad day until the day we left, which meant it was more comfortable to drive in.

 This is the first of four evening meals we ate at the house.  I think I enjoyed these meals more than when we ate out. It was quite a rural area where the locals didn't speak much English, so choosing from a French menu without much help was a bit hit and miss.  Who knew that 'gesiers' were gizzards!! Apparently they were quite nice.

 This is our communal sitting/dining area with the table set for dinner.  That shoe dumping area became quite messy by the end of the week!

 We dined alfresco a couple of times, making good use of the brick BBQ in the garden.

A couple of glasses of Pimms went down well while the BBQ was cooking.

A day on the beach at Isle de Re was just the thing on the hottest day of the week.

The 15 minute walk to the pizzeria was through the beautiful French countryside (You can't see the brick and tile factory on the other side of the road from this angle :-) We met an ex-pat at the pizzeria who works at the factory. He helped translate a little for us and arranged for us to go with the owner of the pizzeria to one of his wine suppliers, after we'd asked if there were any vineyards we could visit.  We met them one evening at 4pm and they led the way.  We would never have found one without their help because they don't seem to advertise for tourists.

There seemed to be a take-it-or-leave-it attitude, in general, towards tourists in the area, and sites of interest were tucked away down side streets with no signage until you were right there.  We followed a town map of Fontenay le Compte, that was in the house, in order to find a couple of gardens and a castle to look around.

This was the fate of our car after filling it up, following the day on the beach.  To cut a long story short, the steering 'went' when we were 45 minutes from the house. The following days involved 3 taxi journeys, 3 different hire cars (one with a crack nearly all the way across the windscreen) and many phone calls.  In total, we probably lost about 8 hours to-ing and fro-ing but, luckily, we had taken out extra European cover with the AA. The car couldn't be fixed in France so we still have that cost (and we haven't had the phone bill yet either), but it could have been so much worse.

Incidentally, in attempting to converse with the first taxi driver we told him we were from Wales (Pays de Galles).  OH told him, more specifically, 'Raglan' which he repeated like he knew it, which I thought was odd.  He must have been trying to think of the right words for the rest of the journey, because, when we got to the house, he turned to us and said, "My - girl (daughter we presume)  - work - Raglan - Arms"!!! We managed to communicate to him that our son worked there too and he said, "Small - world!"  

Small world, indeed!

-------

I haven't heard anything, yet,  from Penny who won my giveaway before I went away. I've joined Google+ but have yet to find a way to get in touch.  If I don't have any luck soon there's a chance I'll be re-drawing the winner.

Bye for now

Teresa x

Oh Blow!

I'd like to show you pictures of my costumes for Anything Goes, like I did last year for Me and My Girl but, although the show is in a few weeks, I don't know what I'm wearing yet.  I got a few items together when told what I needed, but apparently they weren't "sexy enough", whatever that means.  One dress that the Society lent me to try on was a bit too revealing and I had to decline the offer. After all, I didn't want to suffer a serious costume malfunction in the middle of Blow, Gabriel, Blow!!  Finally, I was told last week that they've hired all my costumes, so goodness knows what I'll end up with!!

 In the absence of show costumes I've got more crafting photos.  After booking tables at a couple of craft fairs I need to produce a bit more stock, so I got myself into gear and made a few zipped purses.You can just see, at the back, a glimpse of black, patterned fabric, which I intended to be another purse. Sadly, things went irretrievably wrong and it was not to be.

 I tried something different here.  The design is a combination of the purses above, the zip closure of the laptop bag (that I made before Christmas) and tote bag handles.  It also needed a little extra something, so I tried out my machine's blanket stitch to attach the 3 hearts.

 Hexie crocheting was my holiday project.  I managed about 6 when I was away and the rest since we got back.  The pile on the left has been blocked so looks a bit neater.  They're made from an un-run charity shop jumper but I don't know what I will make from them all yet.  Probably a baby blanket.  I'm nearly at the end of the yarn and it won't make anything much bigger than that.

The last time I used a paper dressmaking pattern was probably about 20 years ago, when I made a few things for my children.  Guided by the measurements on this pattern, I'm cutting it out as a size 18!!!  I think I'm erring on the side of caution but it should be possible to make it smaller if necessary.  It seems that dressmaking patterns are made in 'real' sizes. It's an old, second-hand pattern I've had for a while but can't remember where from.

Progress since last time:

4 Zipped Purses
Lots of crochet hexagons
Mini zipped heart bag
Top cut out and marked
Cut out lots more diamonds for tumbling blocks

Bye for now
Teresa x

Chalet Antics and Cheating!

Goodness me, I didn't realise it's been over a month since I last posted.  I intended popping in before we went away but time ran out.  I haven't any holiday snaps, without people in,  that are worth viewing so here are a few from before I went away. First though, a few comments on the holiday:

Clean beds
Good chalet staff (except for psycho host who broke his collarbone snowboarding and had to be replaced, and finally got sacked after getting drunk and going berserk, resulting in door entry code being changed to keep him out)
No hot water for 36 hrs
Good food (mostly - psycho host wasn't a very good baker)
Good skiing (apparently - I don't ski)
Good walking
Nice people sharing chalet (mother and daughter)
Coming back after a walk to find our chalet's French door wide open and no one inside, the day after having the door code changed due to psycho host's snowboard being stolen (or was it?).

Could have been worse - one of us could have come home with a broken leg and we're definitely going to dine out on this for quite a few years.

Now, back to reality, or so it seems.  OH loves apple pie but I don't make it very often because I don't like making pastry.  The only times we've had any recently is when my auntie makes it for us, from the apples we give her from our tree.  Due to a shortage of apples last autumn, apple pie was also in short supply and OH was beginning to suffer withdrawal symptoms.  What could I do but cheat?  Yes, I gave in and bought ready-made pastry.  And do you know what?  It was very good.  Easy to use, not too expensive and very tasty.

There was plenty in two blocks to make the apple pie, a spinach and mushroom quiche and a dozen jam tart cases.  It was pretty foolproof and I can see it making an appearance in my kitchen in the future. But perhaps I shouldn't leave it until the apple pie craving starts to re-surface.

Anyone who wondered about the tumbling block patchwork should be able to see from this photo why it's called that. The overall effect should be like cubes.  I tried to keep the darker fabric of each set of 3 to the right to continue the effect, but managed to sew one set on the wrong way around.

Just before I went away I revamped this bag that I had lying around.  I won it in a giveaway but didn't use it because it was like a back-pack and wasn't really practical.  I took off the straps, added the decorative ruffles and a matching lining, made the bottom corners 'square' then re-added the straps and fastening tab like a tote bag.

Progress since last time:

More tumbling blocks
Revamped bag
Prepared more un-run yarn 
Started crocheting hexagons from un-run jumper yarn (on holiday)

Bye for now
Teresa x

Two Memorable Occasions!

What do you do if you go to Disney World on holiday and you don't get proposed to?  Well, you go again 2 months later, that's what!  DD and her boyfriend A are now engaged!!  Not exactly a complete surprise to her (or us) but we're thrilled for them and I'm looking forward to helping with all the wedding arrangements (probably 2014).

 They came around one evening shortly after they got back from America to make the official announcement and we immediately went out for a meal to celebrate. We went to the restaurant where son K works on Sundays and had a lovely meal. As we were deciding whether or not to have dessert, this lovely selection was brought out from the kitchen along with glasses of dessert wine, with the compliments of the house!! How lucky were we!!!!

My parents were away on holiday at the International Music Eisteddfod in Llangollen at the time and despite many attempts I was unable to contact them to let them know about the engagement. They haven't succumbed to the lure of modern technology so, although they had a mobile phone with them, they hardly ever turned it on! It wasn't vital that we contact them, but we would have liked to tell them before the rest of the village heard the news.  But it wasn't too many days later that the need to contact them became more urgent.

We've heard on the news about many areas in the UK having had a months worth of rain in 24 hours.  Well, on Sunday, I'm pretty sure we had our months worth in an hour and a half.   My parents house, being the lowest in the street, bore the brunt when a stream overflowed. It was surrounded by water as it ran through their garden like a river and unfortunately found its way into the house.

  We could see the water through the window but didn't have a key. To cut a long story short - we contacted my parents by phoning the Eisteddfod office and asking them the make an announcement.  My parents subsequently called and it turned out there was a key hidden near the house all the time, that we didn't know about.  So, we got in, mopped up as best we could and carried out the rugs.  I persuaded my parents not to drive back straight away because there was nothing more they could do that night. 

They're back home now, after cutting their holiday short by a week, but the insurance company has been very helpful so far which is good.

Progress since last time:

Bag no 2 - almost finished. I was on a roll and well on the way to finishing bag no 2 when the flood struck, so that's been delayed AGAIN.
Quilt-as-you-go block - started quilting a block at club on Saturday.  Only 2 more left after this one!!

Bye for now
Teresa x