Weekend Walking in the Woods

We looked after my daughter's dogs again last weekend while she went to T4 on the beach in Western-Super-Mare with her boyfriend & my son. They had a fantastic time and, because they set off early and got there around 6am, they had a good position in the crowd not far from the stage catwalk. I don't know how they can bear being pushed and shoved and trodden on while standing up for hours on end in the middle of a 45,000 strong crowd, but we watched some of it on TV and everyone was having a brilliant time.

In complete contrast, my OH and I took their dogs to a place where there were no other people at all! We began taking a National Trust path through some woodland.................



...........then out into a wheat field................



........where the crop looked almost ready to harvest.
We walked around the wheat field and into a field of curious cattle. At this point, we put the dogs on their leads in case they decided to chase the cattle or vice versa. During a brief rain shower we sheltered under a large spreading tree with an audience. From here we had one more field to cross and we were back where we started. It was a lovely afternoon which, despite being a bit wet and windy, was warm and fresh. We live surrounded by some beautiful countryside but, not having dogs ourselves, tend not to go out amongst it 'just because'.... , so it's good to have these opportunities to appreciate our local area.


When we got home I spotted a couple of bags of fabric that I was given by a very generous lady at work so, as I had the camera still with me, I pulled it all out to see what there was and took a picture. There was a lovely variety of upholstery and curtain fabric which I started sorting and washing straight away ready to iron and tidy up.
There was a bit of a hiccough while washing the first load when the washing maching stopped and showed an error message on the screen, but we soon realised it was because there was a problem with the water pressure and by time we phoned the council it had already been fixed.
We're now starting to reap the benefits of planting the garden earlier in the year. Yesterday, we had some beetroot, carrots and runner beans. When they get to be too many to eat, I'll pickle the beetrot and freeze the beans. The carrots will keep well in a container of peat. It also won't be long before we have some tomatoes ready to eat so I'm looking forward to those.
Bye for now
Teresa x

Sewing and Singing

Another busy weekend has ended with more singing and sewing. I managed to finish this drawsting bag and pouch for a friend who's birthday was this week and who I met up with for a lovely meal out and a catch-up on Saturday evening. I just wish I could remember where I got the pattern from for the bag to credit them. The instructions for the little zipped pouch came from here. I modified it only a little, in that I took smaller triangles while shapng the corners so it was not so tall.


The singing this weekend took the form of a church service Sunday morning and another performance of The Witness at a church about 25 miles away. A few more dates are still to go but we've got a break now until September. Also taking a break for the summer are choir practice, singing lessons and ladies group so hopefully that will leave more time for sewing!



The meal I had out with my friend on Saturday was the second time in a week that I'd had a meal at the same place (my OH suggested we go there after our run/jog on Thursday and I'd already booked a table for Saturday). Our son came jogging with us and then to the meal along with our daughter and her OH, so it turned into a nice family occasion. I have a work meal out on Wednesday at a Thai restaurant and the last ladies group meeting before the break on Thursday which will be a BBQ. It sometimes happens like that and several functions crop up all at the same time!

I mentioned to my daugher a while ago that I forgot to photograph the bag I made for her to show here so she kindly took a photo and emailed it to me. The pattern is the same one I used for my own bag in a previous post but with less taken on the corners so it is not so boxy. She chose a couple of the fabrics and then I added to them with co-ordinating colours from my stash and patched it all together. It's basically a split 9 patch with extras added around the edge to make the full size.

When I made my list of aims for simple living, I also started a list of things I wanted to do. Not fancy or impossible-to-achieve things - just things I'd like to do one day, with a bit of thought and planning in some cases. I then immediately forgot about it until I checked the list so I think I'd better record it here too - to give me a bit of motivation.

- Visit Scotland
- Take a holiday in a Yurt
- Reduce the amount of hours I’m out at work.
- Sell my craft work
- Finish my quilts
- Run 5k in under 30 mins & 10k in under an hour

I was hoping to finish the Race for Life in under 30 mins this year but health issues slowed me down a bit so I was pleased with 34 mins. I've entered a 10k run for Sept so we must step up the training now.

In an update on "The Shed" - OH has begun painting the outside with a wood stain and cladding the inside with tongue and groove. More progress soon, hopefully with pictures!

Bye for now

Teresa x

The Shed Has Arrived!!

I was excited on the way home from work yesterday because I knew that our new shed/summerhouse would have been delivered and I wasn't disappointed. It's a good size but not too overpowering which I was a bit concerned about. This is the view of it from our front door and below that the view from in the garden.

I'm looking forward to collecting all my sewing equipment and clutter from all the places it's currently piling up around the house and having it in one place. Before that though it needs to be stained on the outside to protect from the weather. Inside, we plan to clad the walls for insulation, line the ceiling between the beams and add a floor covering. I'll then make curtains and get some shelves put up. I'm considering 2-tier curtains as it might be useful to have them so that the top can be opened independently of the bottom.

Watch this space! But progress may be slow..............

Bye for now
Teresa x

A Simple Living/Aim Update and a Bit of Thrifting

On Saturday I went to my monthly quilting club day where we were given the kind opportunity to benefit from the sad death of one of the former members by buying fabric from her stash that had been donated to the club. I didn't know the lady but I'm grateful to the family for thinking of us. I was lucky enough to acquire the pile above for £1.

This pile was vey kindly given to me by my daughter's boyfriend's mother after she heard that I was trying to quilt without buying new fabric and I'm very grateful to her too. I was also fortunate to find a very large piece of plain cream fabric (not pictured) in a charity shop for £3 that will be useful for backing/sashing etc. The browns and beiges will be added to the pile for my quilt-as you-go quilt and the rest will go to good use.

I've had a few lucky finds in charity shops over the last couple of weeks. This lovely skirt with appliqued flowers cost me £4. One of the leaves needs a bit of mending but apart from that it's perfect. I don't know where it was from originally because the label was cut out but could have been M&S.

This colourful dress which is from BHS was also £4 and will be ideal for taking on holiday. The shoes that can just be seen were £4.25 and are from Next. They'll also get plenty of use on holiday and through the summer.

Over the month of June I've been quite good in keeping my spending record up to date. I'm afraid it was a month with some unusual one-offs which made it much higher than it would normally be (that's what I'm hoping anyway). It was difficult to tell with it being my first go.

General summary of monthly efforts at simple living

- Grocery shopping. Generally 20% down on previous costs on average over the month

- Eating out. Ate out 3 times this month which is a bit more than average

- Lunches bought instead of making own - 1 (pretty good effort)

- Magazines bought. 1 (on top of 1 subscription)

- Home grown produce. Froze quite a lot of strawberries (may make jam with them). Used salad leaves a few times (unfortunately going to seed now - could have made better use of them)

- Baking/food from scratch. Potato salad, coleslaw and scones to take to daughters for BBQ.

- Throwing away less. Stopped using kitchen roll and started making recycled cloths to use instead.

Non-spending earnings
I've been trying to find ways of earning a little extra without spending much. This month I joined 'yougov' which is a site which collects statistics for various markets. You register your details and they send you surveys to complete now and then which you could earn money from. At the moment I've only accrued £1 for joining and entered one competition.

- Credit card cashback. £3.95 (I never pay any interest, only pay off balance each month)

- Competiion win. £50 voucher for clothes.

This has been a useful exercise for me and hopefully will get more helpful as I continue. I can then compare months and eventually years.

We're getting a shed/summer house for the garden this week and hopfully it'll be where all my sewing paraphenalia will go. It will be lovely to have it in one place and de-clutter the house a bit. More news and photos on that to come.

Bye for now

Teresa x

A Time for Stitching?

I sometimes think my blog name should have a question mark after it, if not 2 or 3!! I love doing stitching of all kinds; knitting,crochet, machine and hand sewing, but only ever seem to find the odd half an hour or hour to do it and that's usually later in the evening when the light's not so good and I have to borrow my OH's glasses to thread the needles! But, saying all that, I don't always regret the things that take me away from stitching. Last weekend was a typical example. It was very busy but diverse and I enjoyed every minute of it. To top it all the weather was lovely.

On Saturday afternoon I went with my daughter and OH to Dumelm Mill for a mooch around. I bought a couple of bits and pieces incuding a pinking shears with the remainder of my birthday money from March (not an earthshattering event I know, but I very rarely go out just to browse for the sake of it).

The picture above is a singing group I belong to who performed the musical "The Witness" on Saturday evening. (I am in the middle with the black T-shirt). There IS an audience there despite the misleading photo. My dad took it and he's sitting in front of everyone. We've performed this once before and have dates for several more performances in churches around our area.

I also take singing lessons with a different group of people and we have a concert oranised for this Friday. I'm apprehensive about it because the arrangements aren't going very smoothly and I don't feel I know my songs well enough. We have one more lesson to practice tonight so we'll see how it goes.

I was hoping Sunday would be a little cooler because I'd entered the Race for Life in a nearby town. But no such luck, so the 2000 or so runners/walkers on the day competed in hot and humid conditions. Not that there was much competing going on; it was all for fun and charity. I managed to finish in 34 minutes which I was quite pleased about considering the conditions. My dad and my OH came with me for support and when the race was over we settled down for a very welcome picnic in the park where it was held before moving on to a Country Fair at Garn Lakes, where my daughter was helping to promote a local Community Farm with her boyfriend, who works there.

It was a lovely setting for an afternoon out. Luckily they had plenty of cover and shade for the animals they took with them. These were mainly rabbits and guinea pigs that the children could hold and learn about.

So all in all it was a memorable weekend and I was not sorry to have had no stitching time. If I had to spend a whole weekend doing chores and housework, then I would be sorry, very sorry!!!
Time to knucle down to a bit now though - and I have a block to quilt by hand for Saturday and want to make a present for a friend who's birthday is soon.

Bye for now

Teresa x

PS I don't know why my landscape photos are so dark. I thought I'd lightened them before I saved them and the weather was anything but dark.

Five Unimportant Things I love

MakingGoodUse wrote a post the other day called Six Unimportant Things I Love and invited readers to take part so I thought it might be fun to give it a go, although I'm afraid I could only think of 5 things and I'm not so sure that these are unimportant enough. So, in no particular order, as they say on TV (when they have really been chosen in order to have most impact) here they are:

1. Piles of Novels. I love books and to see piles of them reminds me of how much pleasure I've had and that there is yet to come from reading them. I've read most of the ones in this photo but am reluctant to get rid of a book that I have enjoyed. I am determined though to start listing the books I'm unlikely to read again and try to sell them. My main pile of unread books is on the floor but I didn't take a picture of that because of the mess that surrounds it!

2. Piles of Craft Books. These are about half of the crafting books I own. I love looking through them when they are new and then being able to dip into them for inspiration when I want ideas. (The cathedral window cushion at the top of the photo is one I made over 20 years ago.)

3. Magazines. There seems to be a theme developing here for reading material of one form or another. I've cut down on buying magazines in the last year or two but I do subscribe to Zest and occasionally buy Country Living. Zest covers such a wide range of issues and helps to keep me ispired in my effort to keep fit and healthy. CL has such beautiful photography and styling and I've recently been enjoying the series they've had about running your own business from home.

4. My Blueberry Bushes. Sorry it's not a very good photo but I haven't mastered the art of close-ups yet. I love blueberries so to avoid having to pay the expensive shop prices and throw away all the plastic containers they come in, I bought 3 bushes for the garden. They haven't produced much fruit in the previous 2 years but have plenty of green berries at the moment that will hopefully develop into tasty purple ones soon. In previous years the birds have got to the few berries we had before we could but we've got them covered this year to prevent that happening, so fingers crossed!

5. My Favourite Photo of my Children. This picture is about 18 years old but is still one of my favourites. We used to take the children to this bluebell wood every year at the same time and take photos when they were little. I love that she has her arm around his shoulders and they both look so natural. I'm not sure if you can see it, but he has a toy car in his hand - he hardly went anywhere without at least one.

Well, I enjoyed thinking about things that I love and choosing those pictures. I'll follow with a couple more that I took while practicing close-ups.

A delicious bowl of strawberris freshly picked from the garden.

A couple of plants in the sunshine. I don't know what the top one is called but the rose is called Carefree Days.
Bye for now
Teresa x

Books and Bags

I've already slipped up on one of my aims for a simple life as you can see from the books below that I've recenly bought. In my defence, they were all second hand from Amazon and are mostly to help me with another of the aims (to use less chemicals/packaging). I think you can get a bigger picture by clicking on it, then you can see that one is about uses for vinegar, one about bicarb and one is Better Basics for the Home which according to Amazon "offers over 800 simple and practical alternatives to common household toxins, covering everything from skin care to gardening. And the good news is that adopting her suggestions and formulas isn't hard at all."

I'm looking forward to reading all these but I have had a scan through the 4th book here which is Vegetarian Cooking Without. I decided to become vegetarian about a year ago and also needed to find some recipes that had no sugar in the ingredients, especially cakes and desserts. I'm looking forward to trying some of the recipes.

I managed to fit in time to make the drawstring bags for my sister and niece which I gave to them this week - a little late I must admit. They were very simple and turned out quite well. Some of the fabric was new, some left over from another project and some thrifted. Inside each I put some natural, handmade soaps and a face-cloth that I knitted. My sister looked a bit bemused by the face-cloth and I had to tell her what it was for which was quite funny.

As it's Father's Day on Sunday and my dad is diabetic, I'm thinking of trying out one of the recipes in the Vegetarian Cooking Without book for him. I'll post the results soon if they're any good.

I'm afraid the thought of Christmas presents popped into my head the other day, quite unprompted. I was looking at patchwork table runners and thought they'd be a good idea for some relatives. The first step will be to look at their dining rooms/kitchens to decide on a colour scheme. I know I'll have to start soon if I want to get them done by December and doing the same for them all will hopefully get them done quicker.

I nearly forgot to mention - These photos were taken with my new camera so I hope they are a lot better than previous ones. Still got lots of practicing to do though.

Bye for now

Teresa x

Annual Music Festival

What a brilliant weekend's weather we had for our local annual Music Festival. As usual the village was buzzing with people going from one venue to the next and music could be heard wherever we went. Almost every public building in the village was occupied with a concert, gig, workshop or performance of some kind including the hotel, 2 pubs, school, castle, golf club, church and chapel. It was an impressive work of organisation and much praise should go to the organising committee and volunteers who worked hard all week to make sure all ran smoothly.

Needless to say that each year, this particular weekend is a complete write-off as regards doing anything at home is concerned. But I wouldn't miss it for the world. We have been blessed with fantastic weather every year so far and we have always had a fantastic time.

Above is the Tredegar Orpheus Male Voice Choir performing on Sunday afternoon at the castle. An ideal setting for such an occasion, completed by a picnic.

Also on Sunday we went to the see the Abba tribute band http://www.myspace.com/originalabbagold perform at the hotel. They were brilliant and everyone had great fun dancing and singing along, with many good sports dressed in 70's costume.

I was back at work today and need to catch up on some sleep and housework (and sewing) but would do exactly the same next year!!

My new camera arrived today so hopefully the quality of my pictures will improve. It's a Fuji FinePix F60 fd. I read some good reviews for it and took the plunge and ordered it even though I don't know much about cameras. It came within 1 working day from http://www.ukdigitalcameras.co.uk which was quite impressive.

Bye for now
Teresa x

Photo Header

I decided, on impulse, to try to add a photo to head my blog and it was much easier than I expected. My first try filled the whole screen so I started again, ticked the correct boxes and here it is! Nothing to do with stitching I know but a nice scene never-the-less. I'll change it when I have a new camera and a better quality photo to post but, for now, it's nice just to have a bit of colour. Here's a random photo from our holiday in March just to add a bit of je ne sais quoi to this post. This is the path back to our chalet from the town centre. I think our chalet was the one directly above the end of the path with the lighter brown balconies. Just look at that blue, blue sky and the icing sugar snow - beautiful!!

(I don't know why the writing at the top is underlined. I moved it from under the photo and that's what happened.)

Bye for now
Teresa x

Can You Spot the Well? and Simple Living

Taking advantage of a brief burst of sunshine amidst an otherwise wet and dismal weekend, I took a picture of the Well opposite our house. It looks so quaint at this time of year with all the greenery surrounding it and the hostas filling out on the bank. Can you see the Well? It's in the dark hole to the right of the stone wall at the back of the gravel path. It doesn't look like how you would imagine a well to be. It's not very deep but always has clear, fresh water in it up to the same level and it was in use by the houses in our street in living memory. Our neighbour still uses it to water the garden. Turn completely around in the opposite direction and there's the front of my house with my tomato plants (in the pots either side of the bench surrounded by Busy Lizzies) and my lettuce leaves beginning to shoot (the taller pot in the shadow). This is part of my effort to live more simply/healthily and spend less money.

On the subject of Simple Living, I've made a list of aims that come to mind and once again will list them here as a reminder. Some of them are very simple actions but things I aim to do none the less:

- Start a spending record book in June 09 to get a picture of where our money is going.
- Grow lettuce, tomatoes, something else (maybe radish) in pots (husband plants the garden) Water and feed regularly.
- Cut down grocery/household spending (Spending on this was slowly creeping up and it wasn’t just the increase in prices. I wasn’t putting enough thought into what I was buying. I’ve already cut down by about 20% a week and hope to reduce further.)
- Pick Blueberries before they fall off or birds get them (maybe cover until ready – this should be the first year we get more than half a dozen berries)
- Don’t waste produce from garden (preserve in some way or give away surplus)
- Simple pleasures (free activities, pastimes)
- Visit library (buy fewer books/magazines)
- Read books that I already have.
- Make money from crafting (including saving by making homemade presents)
- Continue adding to £2 saver jar
- Start selling clutter/unwanted items/books on ebay/Amazon/Green Metropolis
- Downshifting in general (get into a new mindset of not needing to buy things, although I’ve never been one to want the latest gadgets or designer clothes etc)
- Try to keep up with doing more of my own ironing (I pay a friend to do it quite often as it’s the one job I never seem to have time to do)
- Cut down on the amount I eat!! Sometimes I eat when I’m not hungry and just because I like food and like eating. I don’t need to lose weight but this is still a wasteful, unnecessary habit.

I'm sure there must be more to add if I keep thinking but if I waited until I've thought of everything I'd never finish the list. I wish I knew how to add a separate page to my blog to list these and update them more easily. If anyone reads this and knows how to do that, I'd be grateful for the information.

A start has been made on some of the list as you saw from the photo. The tomatoes and lettuce are well on the way, the blueberry bushes and strawberry plants have been covered to protect from birds and I've started a spending diary. The spending diary's been a bit of an eye opener. It's surprising how much it adds up although there are a couple of out of the ordinary largish spends that are unlikely to be repeated after this month, so maybe this wasn't a good time to start this.

Anyway, I'm pleased to be on the way with these aims although I won't be able to devote as much time to it as I'd like until my work situation changes.

Wishing you a good week
Bye for now
Teresa x

Another Cushion and a "Sack Boy"

Since I haven't made enough progress on my quilts to be worth showing, here are a couple of views of a cushion I made for my 2nd sister last year. It's made from 4" patches I bought from ebay and the border/binding are also thrifted supplies. The back is envelope style with a 3 button fastening. (Note to self - must remember to take photos of back views too!)

I managed to finish the Sack Boy in time for my nephew's birthday and he was very pleased with it. I was relieved that he and his friends recognised it straight away and thought it was 'cool', because, although I had a pattern to follow, I'd never seen this character before.

Getting it to stand up was a bit tricky with him being so top heavy.

My plan now is to make drawstring toilet bags for a couple more birthdays coming up. Looking at the next few days though, I can't see when I'm going to have the time and the first one needs to be ready for the 10th.

My monthly quilting club day is tomorrow followed by a church BBQ. Hopefully, we will also fit in a run in the morning. We went for a run yesterday evening which is the first time we've managed to fit 2 into a week. We must make more effort to keep it up because I'm doing the Race for Life at the end of the month and want to try and beat my best time which is 32 mins.

Bye for now

Teresa x

Simple Living

(updated info in bold 05/05/09)

In my attempt to live more simply I've decided to put together a list of aims to remind me of what I am trying to acheive. I don't think it's enough to recycle and reuse, although that's good practice in itself, I want to produce less waste in general. This seems to be as good a place as any to put it as I'll be able to update it as I acheive/add/delete or generally change anything about it. I'm not sure exactly how to arrange the list as several of the items could appear under different headings. I think a good start would be a list to remind me of what I already do so here goes -

Things I already do
- Recycle as much as possible
- Buy organic and/or natural much of the time (especially fruit and veg)
- Became vegetarian August 08
- Exercise fairly regularly (left the gym I belonged to about 2 years ago)
- Try to use recycled supplies as much as possible for my crafting
- Take my own bags to the shops/supermarket
- Dry washing outside or under cover (I own a dryer but can’t remember when I last used it)
- Use natural cleaning / cosmetic /bathroom products as far as possible (trying to find ones with less packaging especially plastic)
- Home baking - Compost kitchen/garden waste
- Run a car with low running costs
- Walk instead of drive where possible
- Buy clothes/books/craft supplies from charity shops
- Take packed lunches to work every day in resuable containers
- Grow some of our own fruit and vegetables
Well, that's not a bad start. I'll think next about what else I want to do and make another list.


The photo at the top of this post is of my daughter's 2 dogs at the weekend chasing a stick thrown into the river. They had a whale of a time and it was a good way for them to cool off on such a glorious sunny day.

We were looking after the dogs for a few days and, not being used to dogs, it was like having a couple of toddlers around the house again.

They both had to carry the same stick back to the thrower, no matter which way they had hold if it, which led to some very funny walking positions.

And a final picture of the beautiful countryside near where we live.

Bye for now

Teresa x

Baking, Birthday & Bath

This fantastic cake was made by a friend of mine for my son's 21st birthday recently. When my children were small I used to make and decorate birthday cakes for them every year and they were quite happy with my amateur offerings. I had the time to do it in those days and when they had shop birthday cakes from other parties they never liked them. The plaque on the front with the picture of a chef, my friend painted completely by hand. It was very impressive and looked even better in 'the flesh'. We (I & my husband, son & girlfriend, daughter & boyfriend) all went out and had a lovely meal at The Butcher's Arms in Eldersfield, Gloucestershire even though it was a 45 min journey and a week night. My son, being a chef himself, has tried all the decent restaurants in our area and wanted to try somewhere new.

I also did some baking of my own at the weekend and made these biscuits from the book in the picture, which is from Reader's Digest. Inside the cover of the book I've written the date I aquired it - 1983! I have made a few recipes from it but must try to make better use of it. The biscuits are called Cornish Fairings and are much more biscuit-like and crunchy than many of the recipes I've tried.

I bought these lovely soaps recently from Behold the Bath. I came across the site while searching for some natural toiletries. The smell when I opened the box was devine. The Geranium &Vanilla bath and hair bars at the front are for myself as I'm also looking for a natural alternative to shampoo and these are much more eco-friendly in that they don't have plastic packaging. Behind those are Honey & Oatmeal bars which are for my husband to try as he has sensitive skin, and finally the bar at the back is dog shampoo which I will keep to give as a gift.

It might be a while before I get to use these as I have other bath products to use up first.

Although I may run out of shampoo sooner, so I could start using it for my hair only. I am eager to find something natural that works well and doesn't mean having to throw away plastic bottles. Hopefully, it will be better for my hair too so I can save money (and time) by not having to wash it every day.

In my mission to live a more simple, less consumerist life, I've decided to write a list of goals for the rest of the year. Some of them will be simple and maybe obvious measures, some more adventurous but I think that if I get them down in black and white it will help me to remember and stick to them. I'll start getting this together and write a post about it soon.

Bye for now

Teresa x

Home

It was lovely and sunny on the weekend so I took the opportunity to take a few photos in the sun. This is our house taken from our garden which is on the opposite side of the road and about 5' above the road level. It's a very small house but not as small as it looks here. There's an extension behind the holly tree which we added, along with practically rebuilding it, about 16 years ago. The porch was added last year. The original tiny main part of the house is where my father was born and brought up with 4 brothers and 1 sister. I don't know how my grandparents did it!

This view (above and below) is looking down the lane from the porch. On the other side of the road is next door's garden (through the white gate) in a similar arrangement to ours. I like the look of the gardens at this time of year with all the different greens starting to fill out.

Here is the latest progress on my sample quilt with 2 Grandmother's Fans partially done. I still haven't finished quilting last months blocks but once I've got a new design I have to abandon the previous one and start the new one. Any further work on the abandoned blocks only gets done when I have one of these ready for club, therefore my pile of unfinished blocks is increasing all the time.

Over the weekend I also managed to do a bit more knitting on the 'Sack Boy' (see previous post) and now have only the arms to finish before sewing up. I looked up the pattern and found it again. It seems it's from a game called Little Big Planet and came from The Sun. I don't know if this will work, but hopefully this is a link to the Sackboy. I think I'm asking for trouble by showing what it's supposed to look like. Wait until I show my effort!!

Until the next time.

Bye for now.

Teresa x

WIPs

This post is about my current Works in Progress as opposed to the Unfinished Projects I have lying around and tucked away, which I haven't even looked at in years. I took a couple of quick (poor) photos this morning of these on-going projects. Here are a few more blocks for my sample quilt. I was trying to go for rustic, muted colours but yellow and orange seem to be creeping in quite a bit. I've also got 5 blocks already quilted, 4 waiting for a border and 2 cut out to be sewn. That should make approx. 15 altogether. I'm not sure how many more I need.

This is the current progress on my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. I'm continuing with the light blue around all the 'flowers' and the darker blue in the background will surround them all in some way. I haven't decided yet whether to leave it simple and just do a single border or to try a bit of variation. I've printed some hexagon paper I found on the Internet and will colour a couple of options to get some idea of what it would look like.

I bought/won some ready-cut vintage hexagons and squares on eBay which came yesterday. There are many different patterns so they will go towards making more of the flowers and also keeps to my effort to use vintage/used fabric as far as possible.

Yesterday I gave my mother some hand-made, natural soap, a loofah and 2 hand-knitted (by me), cotton face cloths for her birthday. I got the pattern from Homespun Living (see my blog role) so thanks to Deb. Then I started knitting a 'Sack Boy' from a pattern I printed from a newspaper's website. This is a request from my sister for her son's birthday on 1st June. Apparently it's a character in a computer game but I don't know anything about that, so whether it looks anything like it should when it's done is any body's guess!! I'll try to get some pictures if I can.

Bye for now.

Teresa x

A Sample of What I've Made

I made this bag for myself from some furnishing weight facbric that I bought on Ebay. It had been used as a throw so was quite a big piece. The lining I made from left over curtain fabric and the button/binding were thrifted. I put a small double pocket inside for my phone etc. I made this nearly a year ago and have had a lot of use out of it as you can see from the squashed up handle. I got the pattern from a blog that I was reading but it's so long ago now that I'm afraid I can't remember which one. On the back of the chair is a block for my quilt-as-you-go quilt which is still in progress. I believe this one is called Card Trick.

Above is a picture of my pin cushion and needle book. I made these out of scraps left over when cutting hexagons for my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. As well as trying to use as much recycled, thrifted or used materials as possible I also like to use every scrap and I think the random method here was quite successful. I should have taken some of the pins out so it could be seen better. Not a very good picture, I know, but hopefully I will improve with practice.

This is a cushion I made for myself and was made before the one in the previous post. If I'm honest, I prefer the colours in the other cushion much more and this one was just a practice piece. It's machine pieced and hand quilted. It's a good thing it's not a very good photo because it doesn't show the poor quality of the quiliting. I use a frame and find it very slow going so I think I'll try without one to see how it goes. I should also get a bigger pad to go inside and fill it out a bit more. Most of the fabric is from a pack of small pieces from Ebay with the border fabrics from a quilting friend with a huge stash.

I must remember in the future to load photos in reverse order. Blogger didn't like me trying to move them once loaded. I don't know if that's normal or not but it won't be too much bother to do that. I also took more photos than this (of my practice blocks and hexagons in progress) but they weren't on the camera when I went to upload them?? Still, I'm pleased I've managed to load more than one photo without too much trouble.

I did, however, have a photo of the Carrot Cake Muffins I made from the book Muffin Magic by Susannah Blake so I thought I may as well add it. It'll be a the top because I added it last - doh.

As for linking to the book I haven't a clue so that will have to be my task for next time. Any tips gratefully received.

Bye for now

Teresa x

I added a photo!

Wow....I added a photo. I hope the layout is OK when I publish it. I've been delaying doing this for so long because I thought it would be much more difficult to do than it was. This is a cushion I made for a birthday present over a year ago.

Since my last post I have completed a few more blocks for my sample block quilt and added to the hexagons. I managed to knit 10 hats for the skiing holiday and some were quite well used while we were away. Hopefully, I will now be able to show some photos of these soon.

The weather has been lovely over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend. We had a lovely day out at Hay-on-Wye on the Saturday. Sunday morning I was up at 4.45am to take a trip up a small local mountain for a communion service at sunrise followed by hot coffee and breakfast snacks. We were back home by 7.30am and back in church for the normal 10am service later as I sing in the choir.

I've been catching up with a bit of sewing today but it will be back to work tomorrow. I'm already looking forward to the May Bank Holidays.

Teresa x

I'm Still Here!!

Happy New Year! I'm still here, hovering somewhere in the background. I didn't want a whole year to go by before I added another post so here's a quick update.

Thank you to anyone who has read so far and for the comments of encouragement. I am determined to get to grips with this one day. I thought Father Christmas had granted my wish for a camera but it turned out to be an iPod, which was a great present but won't get me any photos on here anytime soon. I will be holding out for my birthday in March now unless I win one in a competition before then.

As for what I have accomplished on the crafting front since the last time; well I've made a knitting needle case, a sewing needle case, a quilted patchwork bag for my daughter, a felt pin cushion, a chef's hat for a friend's son and a crocheted bath mat out of t-shirts. Quite a variety when I look at it together like that. Alongside this I have been attending my quilting club for which I have made a table mat and coaster set for the Christmas challenge, a couple of blocks towards a quilt and continued with my hexagons for another quilt. These last 2 projects are going to be very slow and ongoing.

That list doesn't sound much for 8 months does it? There must be some more that I can't remember at the moment!!! Either that or I don't have as much free time as I thought.

I'm going on a skiing holiday in March with a group of 14 and am in the process of knitting a hat each for them. I've done 5 so far and they only take a couple of evenings each so should get done in time. (BTW - I will not actually be skiing. I went once and had a bit of a 'baptism of fire' which put me off somewhat I don't feel as though I'm missing out though and will enjoy the holiday regardless as I'm not the only one who isn't skiing).

Teresa x