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

Wacky Weekend Weather!

Normal autumn weather conditions have resumed after the blazing blip of glory we enjoyed last weekend. I've probably mentioned the weather before (once or twice!) but it seems to be getting more and more erratic so this, undoubtedly, won't be the last time.

This year, the rose bush in our small front flower-bed has bloomed beautifully -  twice.  Once when we had summer weather in spring and again more recently.

October is traditionally chilly and wet and even when it's sunny it's still wooly jumper weather.  But just look at what we enjoyed last weekend.  Our sunny street above and crowds at a car boot sale on Sunday below.  Everyone in short sleeves (and some a lot less than that!!)

I went along to help DD take advantage of the good weather to get rid of a few more things.  I picked up a few cushions to recover the pads, a M&S hand bag and a book (none of which is pictured!).

This little lot I got elsewhere.  The pile of fabric is from my Saturday quilting group (someone had a clear-out so I got this lot for £2).  The bag and books are from the Church fete. I was surprised no one else had snapped up the bag with it being the day that charges were introduced for carrier bags. I've taken my own bags for grocery shopping for years but this week I left them in the supermarket cafe after having lunch there!! Luckily, when I realised and went back they were left at Customer Services - I'd have been annoyed with myself if I'd have had to pay for bags after all this time!

What's this? At last some evidence of stitching!  Actually the block above is one I received from Karen as part of the Tag Square Bee on flickr.  Look how the autumn colours perfectly match the postcard she included.  There was also a very useful book of postcards in the parcel.  The set of wooden nesting dolls is another bargain from the church fete - they've taken up residence in my shed for the moment.

Ta da!  Here IS something I made at last.  It's my bee block for September and will be winging its way to Julianna as soon as I get the little signature block made to go with it. I struggled to find aqua, white and brown fabrics for this one.  I hope my interpretation of 'aqua' is the same as hers!

Stitching progress since last time:

Knitted cardigan:       Left front finished, one sleeve half done (1 1/2 sleeves and finishing remaining)

Bee block:                   September block made, fabrics chosen and cut for October block

QAYG Quilt:               3/4 of a block quilted.

This may seem a lot (for me) but I've been a bad blogger and this is a couple of weeks worth.

Bye for now

Teresa x

Blue and Bargains!

My Tag Square Bee blue and white block for March is done and sent off.  As I said to Ali of Very Berry Handmade, when I commented on her lastest post, blue is not a colour I have much affinity with in general.  But one of my favourite flowers is/are forget-me-nots and I'd love to make a whole quilt using blue and white.  There's something about the combination that is so fresh and clean looking.  My block for April is to be 'rainbow' coloured so I'll be able to get rid off  use up some of the brighter scraps I have in my supply.

Following the lead of my DD, and since he's almost finished his college course, my DS has decided to start his own business: Gardening! We bought him a strimmer and hedge-cutter to start him off, then he got himself a second-hand mower.  He already has a chainsaw because he needed one for his course.  To solve the problem of transporting the equipment to his jobs, DS got a tow-hitch put on his car and we got him a second-hand, almost new trailer from Ebay.  After putting up 1 poster in the village Post Office and taking a few flyers around our locality, he's already completed 2 jobs that will be regulars and has another 4 in his diary. By the way - he's still working a day a week for another contract landscaper and doing part-time chefing at the local hotel.  One thing he's not afraid of is hard work!!

 DS's first job with the trailer was for me.  I found an Ikea cupboard in an antique/junk shop that is perfect for storing my supplies in my shed, so he was able to collect it for me.

 See!! It's a perfect fit and it doesn't stick out into the room more than 13" so doesn't overwhelm it. It has shelves the whole height, a couple of which you can just see, which is ideal for stacking fabrics etc.  Hopefully, I will get in there over the Easter holidays and sort it out.

My paper-cuts made it into the shed too and Pam P was correct in her comment when she suggested Rip Van Winkle for the green one.  I emailed the seller to satisfy my curiousity!

I came across this piece of farmyard fabric in a charity shop on the same trip into town as when I got the cupboard.  It's quite a large piece and cost only £1. 

Whoever owned it had cut out a few of the animals around the edge and then got rid of it.  DS, his girlfriend and I worked out which animals had been used by looking at the pattern repeat. A set of 3 little pigs and a couple of chickens we think!  I can't think off-hand what I would use it for but couldn't leave it there! 

On another crafty note, I gave a few woollen jumpers a hot wash to felt them over the weekend.  Most of them worked out fine but 2 of the jumpers shrunk to about a quarter of the original size and are as stiff as boards.  I don't know what to do with these either!!

Bye for now

Teresa x

Doing my Bit for the P.O.!

Due to the fact that I was camera-less last week, I should have twice as much to show today. Wrong!!  The photos of the zipped bag I made for DS's girlfriend were lost somewhere during the changeover, but you'll just have to believe me when I say it was very pretty!

I've been on a sending/receiving spree and made good use of the postal service this week!

This is the lovely Tuscan themed block I received from Jo of Bear Paw for The Tag Square Bee for February.  I've been very punctual about getting my blocks sent out so far but this month I am delayed due to a serious shortage (complete lack) of black fabric. 

 I've been better organised for the Scrap Swap organised by Ali of Very Berry Handmade which had to be sent by 28th Feb.  This is the little parcel of goodies that is winging it's way to Jenny of Gingerbread House, if it's not arrived already!

 It's not diffucult to find recycled/rescued fabric to add to my stash but old reels of thread are another matter.  I've, very rarely, picked up the odd reel in charity shops but Ali (see above) came up trumps with her recommendation for the site Rag Rescue, which is where I got these beauties!  I was a bit worried that, if they were very old, they would be weak and unusable but they seem to be fine and they're exactly the sort of colours I use quite often.

 Brightly coloured buttons are also not easy to come by so I supplemented my collection with a couple of 'lots' from ebay. (Wonder how that rogue purple got into the yellows?)

I finally got the red thread, from my auntie, that I needed to finish this cushion and, would you believe it, the reel was so big it wouldn't fit on my little domestic machine!  So, instead of satin-stitching the little linen hearts on, I blanket-stitched by hand.  Here it is reclining on a kitchen chair................

.............and here posing on a comfy chair.

Here's the obligatory close-up - pores and all!!

Next week I will have swapped my car (and some money!) for a newer one.  OH tells me I need a car that is more economical on longer journeys so it'll have a slightly bigger engine.  Don't ask me anything about cars because they don't interest me one bit.  So long as they get me from A to B I'm satisifed, although I did want a green one (it's blue!!).  I'll show you next time.

Bye for now

Teresa x

Brooches and Beans!

Sunday afternoon was lovely and sunny, although still cold.  It put a smile on people's faces and allowed us bloggers to take some reasonable pictures.  My OH had come home Saturday evening from a week of skiing in France (just in time to refill the screen-wash in my car :-) and took over fire stoking duties once again.  Though I had managed to keep it going since he left.  It was good to have him back!

While he was away I was able to get on with my projects and not worry too much about having meals ready at certain times or even cooking at all!  I finished these 4 brooches, which I showed the makings of last time.  They're not quite how I pictured but I'm reasonably pleased with them.  I now have an idea to improve the design and have picked out the fabrics ready.

As you can see from the top pic, I made 2 small and 2 large (The small ones are a bit too small really).  All the fabrics/buttons etc are recycled or thrifted except the felt at the back which is wool felt that I bought a while ago.

I tried out the blanket stitch on my machine for the edge of this one.  It doesn't have quite the same rustic look of hand stitching that I like. 

All in all, the weekend was quite busy.  My Saturday Singing group met for the first time since December and started on some new material.  We haven't any events lined up after missing out on singing the Welsh songs we learned when the Welsh Evening was cancelled due to the snow! 

On Friday evening I remembered to put these haricot beans to soak.  I should have used a bigger bowl.  My DS told me I needed to add more water so, when I did, it was almost running over (that's why it's on the draining board!)

Saturday lunchtime I drained the beans, boiled them for 10-15 mins, drained again, then threw them in my slow cooker with a little of this and a little of that (see above).  I also added a large chopped onion, a large tin of tomatoes, some vegetable stock and some brown sugar (sorry, no measurement - I just threw it in).

Following the guidelines in my slow cooker book, I put it on low and then left it for about 7 hours (stirring once or twice, just out of curiosity).  I'm very satisfied with how they turned out.  Eminently recognisable, in both appearance and taste to the tinned sort, but better! Not sure if they work out cheaper though.  I'll have to check the prices.  I got about 8 portions out of this, some of which is in the freezer, but probably should have stretched to 10. I will definitely make them again!!

Sunday evening I popped up the road to my aunt's to cadge some red thread for the cushion cover I'm working on and to see if she has any fabric I could use as a border for my half-square-triangle quilt.  My aunt used to make a lot of curtains and soft furnishing for people but doesn't do it much now.  Consequently, she has lots of fabric remnants and bits and pieces which she keeps telling me to use.  I'm waiting impatiently to see what she digs out.  Come to mention it, I'm still waiting for my January block for the Tag Square Bee too. Nanabanana send it over 2 weeks ago and it still hasn't arrived yet.

It's my DDs 25th birthday today - Happy B'day Bessie!!! - and she reminded me I realised the other day that, although I've got her a couple of 'sensible' gifts, I don't have any nice little pressies that are fun.  I hastily ordered a couple of things online yesterday, in the hope that they will be delivered before we go out for a meal on Wednesday, (latest is they have been dispatched so fingers crossed) and yesterday evening stitched up another little something which I can't say any more about because she will quite possibly read this before then.  Besides which, it needs a bit of tweaking and finishing off tonight. I never make 2 things exactly the same, but have to make some kind of modification which is not always successful!! 

With all this expectation and things in progress there should be plenty to show next week, including my second Recycled Ripple Scarf.  That's the first time I've ever said that with any confidence.

Bye for now
Teresa x

One Thing at a Time!

My decision to concentrate on one project at a time has paid off!  I've finished the scrappy, embroidered wall-hanging that has been on-the-go for a while.  I originally started this because I wanted to do some single-colour embroidery and use up some small scraps at the same time.  I like how it's turned out. :-)

As I've mentioned before, the embroidery transfers came from a 1965 women's magazine.  Most of the fabric and embroidery thread is 2nd hand/thrifted except the border and binding. I haven't measured it but, to give you a rough idea of scale, I'd guess it's about 18" x 10".

I remembered at the last minute to sew one of my labels into the binding.

I also embroiderd a little spider near one back corner (I know it looks like a beetle but it's my first one and hopefully I will improve!).  I think longer legs and a smaller body the next time.  I plan to put a spider somewhere on all my projects (if I remember) as an indication that they came from 'The Thread Shed' and, as we all know, there are lots of spiders in every shed!

I know you won't believe it but that wasn't the only stitching that was done this weekend!  It was the November meeting of my quilting club and the project of the month was a Christmas wall hanging.  There were a couple to choose from and I chose the smallest design which will be like a bell-pull when finished.  This is it so far with the gold iron-on binding stitched into place for double security.  I've cut it out and pinned it together with wadding and backing since then so it's now ready to quilt.

And double gasp - that's not all!!!  I've had in mind to make coasters (or mug rugs as I've seen them called in blogland) as Christmas presents and I finally got around to trying one out.  It came together quite quickly and is another great way to use up scraps.

I'm happy to have got so much done but I'm afraid I've made quite a lot more mess as a result!! 

Next weekend I'm taking part in a local sponsored event to raise money for Children in Need.  (I can't believe the things I get myself into sometimes!!!! :-)  More news next time - and maybe photos (unless I'm too emarrassed to show them).

Bye for now

Teresa x

Making the Best of What We Have!

In a continuing effort to leave as small a 'footprint' as possible on the planet as I can, whenever we need or want something we look amongst the things we already own for a solution.  Therefore, needing more storage for the 'shed' we unearthed these 2 grotty-looking specimens (as shown in an earlier post).   

 

Here they are almost finished and ready for use.  There's not much of a difference, I grant you. We stripped off the old fabric from the tops and gave them a coat of paint (with the remains of a half-used tin in OH's shed).  Then I chose some fabric from my stash that I'd previously thrifted (yes it is different although it may not seem so at first glance) and covered the tops using upholstery tacks also from OH's shed (I'm amazed at what he's got stashed away in there!).  They're usable now although I intend to replace the handle and line them with paper at some point.

I'm ashamed to say that it's taken me 10 months to get around to making up this handy shopping bag from the fabric I was sent after winning one of 100 'green' bags from Green Bag Lady during Sew Mama Sew's giveaway day last year.  Now I have to find someone who will appreciate and use it, to give to.  It's just a simple tote bag but is a good size and will fold up quite small to tuck into a handbag.

I'm trying to think of more ways to reduce my waste of paper and water. With that in mind I bought these napkins a few weeks ago to take to work (or anywhere else I take food) to use instead of paper serviettes.  It'll only make a miniscule difference but it all helps.  On the subject of water, I need to cut the length of my morning showers and stop running the tap to rinse dishes while washing up.

Here are some napkins I bought from a charity shop a few weeks ago. I'm beginning to remember to take them every day with my lunch, altough it took a while.

Talking of using what we've got, my mother gave me some apples from her tree a week or so ago and as most of them had little holes (the evidence of unwanted occupation), I didn't put them in the fruit bowl but chopped them up with other fruits to make this Autumn Relish from a recipe in my slow cooker book.  We haven't tried it yet so the jury's still out on the result but I hope the fact that my OH had all the windows in the house open the next morning to get rid of the lingering smell isn't an indication of the taste!

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Bye for now

Teresa x

Lovely Books!

There's been a bit of book buying around here recently.  Mainly for presents.  I thought I may as well get them while I think about it in case I forget until it's too late to order them.

This Smallholder's Manual is for my DD's boyfriend who's birthday is in November.  He'd love to have his own place with a bit of land and is very experienced in working with animals.  I just hope this isn't too basic for him because I don't know too much about it. 

 This one is for my DS for Christmas.  He saw it while we were visiting The Lost Gardens of Heligan on holiday and showed an interest in it, so I said I'd get it for him.  While searching for this image I saw that there's also a blog associated with it (which coincidentally has The Woodland House in its reading list) so I'll tell him about that too.

 Any fan of Grand Designs on Channel 4 will have seen the episode featuring Ben Law and his woodland house.  We recently saw a follow-up episode which showed that he's now married with 2 children (and has extended the house accordingly) and they are all happily living an idyllic existence from the land. It reminded me that I was intending to get it  for my OH for Christmas.

 Finally, I have been looking out for A Thousand Splendid Suns in charity shops since I read The Kite Runner by the same author, and managed to find a copy a couple of weeks ago.  It's now on my 'to-read' pile.

No photos to show from the weekend I'm afraid and it was very similar to last week with heavy rain on the Saturday and better on Sunday.  However, the rain didn't spoil my enjoyment of a lovely, long, leisurely lunch out with a friend.  She's been busy setting up a new Life Coaching business so it was good to catch up and find out all about it.  Her flat is on the market and she's hoping to move back to our village, nearer to her parents, which will also make it easier to meet up.

Sunday included church in the morning and curtain sewing in the evening with a bit of housework in between.  I'll definitely get some pictures taken when they're done.

Bye for now
Teresa x

A Random Selection of Weekend Photos

A thrifted tunic bought for £3.50 and worn a couple of times over jeans.

Another longer tunic also £3.50 that I've worn over leggings as it's a bit longer. This one still had the shop tag hanging from it!

A double poly/cotton sheet (£3.25) that I am going to use to make curtains for my Shed.

DD came for the weekend and we saw the advertising she's had put on her van. Hopefully this will generate some more business. She's also going to have a stall at an animal rescue centre's open day in July and I am going to miss my monthly quilting group to go along and help her.

We popped to the village Sunday afternoon and I took DD and her boyfriend to the church to see this! It's a model (of the church) in the church made out of ICING, with rice paper windows!!!! It's up for auction during the Flower Festival in July but, lovely though it is, I can't really see that it would be suitable for anywhere else other than in the church.

And lastly, here's a picture of the view from inside the choir vestry. (I'm afraid it's a bit dark because I didn't turn on the lights in the church when we went in). The window you can see through the door is above the altar at the far end of the church. The window above the door is actually a reflection of the window behind where I'm standing and was an unexpected surprise feature that was produced when this glass screen was installed a few years ago.

Well, that's the end of the weekend round-up. Hopefully some stitchy progress of some kind next time.

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Bye for now.

Teresa x