I've Been Featured! and A Party Update (or Disney & Roses)

 A couple of weeks ago I was surprised to be contacted by Susan from Crafty Corners blog asking if she could feature my blog in her weekly round-up post.  I was flattered to be asked and, after browsing the site to see what it was all about, jumped at the chance.  If you'd like to see the post, follow the link above; take the chance to have a browse around while you're there too. I particularly like the DIY Toothbrush Bracelet in the Jewelry section. I submitted a short piece and a photo and in no time was emailed by Susan to say the post was up. 

All the arrangements for the party went well (almost) and the evening was a great success. The gorgeous cake came from My Beautiful Cake and was picked up by J the previous day.  Inside is a delicious two-layer zingy lemon sponge!!!

Here's the banner in situ with the cake, post box and a photo of the happy couple in the Rose Garden at Disney World, where they got engaged.

The balloons, which continued the Rose theme, were due to be picked up by J and fiance on their way to decorate the marquee.  Only trouble was, because of a removal lorry parked in their street, they had to park on the grass verge to load up the disco equipment (lent by fiance's dad) and managed to get stuck fast in the mud when they tried to set off.  So, DS was despatched to collect the balloons and OH to tow them out of the mud.  Being transported in a gardener's van and getting rained on in the process meant the balloons arrived wet with grass cuttings stuck to them, but that was soon sorted and all was ready.

Fiance's mum made a picture for J & A.  I laughed when I saw this photo because it looks like they are standing behind the picture with their faces looking through holes.

It was a shame that no-one noticed J and A had timed the music perfectly to play Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast just as the buffet was served (so I pointed it out to a few people).

After the buffet A thanked everyone for coming and made a toast to the happy couple, then (as a complete surprise) J presented me with some flowers (roses of course) and OH with chocolates as a thank you for putting on the party. 

Now all that's left to do is organise the wedding... Gulp!  Did I mention before, J wants to get married at Disney World?!!! (Not for a little while though).

Progress since last time:

All sashing and corner pieces cut for QAYG quilt.
Lots of TV time hand-sewing hexagons.

Bye for now
Teresa x

Congratulations!

 The banner was finished with almost a week to spare!  Perhaps I'm not so bad with deadlines after all, or maybe it didn't take as long as I expected.  Whatever the reason - here it is, and it's a bit larger than I expected!

 At least there's no fear of it not being legible from the far side of a dimly lit marquee. 

 Although it might be a little more difficult to read close to.

That's it now.  Nothing else can be done until the day.  I'm looking forward to it in a tentative kind of way.  It's lovely to have the families getting together for the first time (and it helps that the odd few have met already) but families often have issues, the undercurrent of which can threaten to rear it's head at such occasions.  It's a good thing our gang of friends is coming!  There are occsionally 'issues' amongst them too but somehow these are more easily brushed away and overcome than with family. Now, what's that well-known saying...........?

This gorgeous brooch arrived in the post the other day from Pat's Paraphernalia on Etsy.  I was browsing her shop for buttons after clicking across from a link (I wish I could remember who's blog it was from - was it YOU?) and thought of a friend who loves sunflowers as soon as I saw this. Consequently I snapped it up for a Chr...........s present! (I'm determined not to mention that word yet).  It was difficult not to buy any number of items from Pat's because she has such great things.  And look at the pretty pansy key-ring she included in the package!

As for progress - well (see banner above) I've been hexagoning like crazy but will get going on QAYG on the weekend.

Oh, and one more thing.  It's quite possible I will be made redundant in 3 weeks!  It's not unexpected and I'm looking forward to it!!

Bye for now

Teresa x

Preparations!

I haven't any finished items to show but there's been plenty of preparation going on. While waiting for the interfacing to be delivered for the Engagement Party Banner, I got on with a few other WIPs.   

  I dug out myTag Square Bee Quilt blocks and laid them out to decide how to go about putting them together.  I've said before that I wish I'd been more specific than asking for Autumn colours but I don't think I'd have received very different blocks if I'd asked for an orange/brown/green combination either. A couple of the blocks were a little on the small side (were supposed to be 12.5").

 It would have been fiddly to increase the smaller blocks so I trimmed them all down to 12".  Next job will be to cut all the sashing pieces and start putting it together.  It'll be the first time I've tackled a 'proper', traditionally sashed quilt and, from what I understand, I have to cut the pieces to the correct size and make the blocks fit the sashing otherwise it won't be 'square'.  But this has been put aside now the interfacing has arrived for the banner, which needs to be finished by the 25th.

I also managed to get a pile of hexagons ready to add to the long-term project hexie quilt while waiting. 

Banner preparations have begun.  Thirty 6" letters printed and cut out.  The banner fabric has been hemmed and the letters have been traced onto the interfacing.  Luckily I remembered after only the first letter that I should be tracing them upsidedown, so they will be correct on the finished banner.  Now, all that's left to do is iron the letters onto the fabric, cut them out and iron onto the banner.  I say 'all' but I think it's going to be quite time-consuming arranging the letters to get them lined up. 

Talking of preparations, rehearsals are continuing with my musical theatre group for Trial by Jury.  We've got 3 more songs to learn for the first-half prequel, written by one of our members (the prequel not the songs!).  The songs, chosen from other Glbert & Sullivan works to fit the story, are VERY high-pitched but I'm beginning to get the hang of them.  We'll be taking the show to 4 local villages/towns in October to promote our group and raise money for the main show next April.

The date of the local, annual raft race is fast approaching and OH met up with the OHs of the rest of our friends to sort out what they're doing.  I believe they're still calling themselves The Raglan Wrinklies but are going to have an Olympic Games themed raft.   

Bye for now
Teresa x

Spoiling Myself!

I enjoy going to the hairdressers.  I don't always like the way I look when I come out but I don't worry because I know I only have to wash it and it's back to 'normal'.  Although there are more staff there, the atmosphere at the salon is quite like Truvy's in Steel Magnolias (a film that I LOVE btw - despite it being very 80's).  Everyone is so helpful and friendly and makes me feel very relaxed.  I sit and drink coffee, read a magazine or chat knowing there's absolutely nothing else I can, or have, to do for the next 2 hours. 

 I'd like to say the best bit is having my hair washed but I have a sort of love/hate relationship with it in reality.  Having someone massage my head is heavenly but finding a comfortable position for my neck on the basin has always flummoxed me.  Only once have I been completely comfortable but I don't know what I did so I can't repeat it! 

 The top picture is what my hair looked like when I came out of the salon the time before last;  Smooth and shiny and nothing like I can ever manage myself.  Also, it's not 'me'.  The lower picture is the next day after washing it out and letting it dry mostly naturally.  It's less trouble like this and how I like it (messy)!



Two little purses lined in orange - all materials re-purposed

I was carrying my bag around the other day and after a while it felt very heavy and uncomfortable on my shoulder. The weight was mainly caused by my purse so I decided there and then that my next project would be a little zipped purse for myself.  As I had 2 zips handy I thought I may as well make another at the same time.  This scrap of fabric I had in my shed is so sweet as it is, it didn't need any further embellishment so they came together quite quickly.  I think I may have just enough left to make 2 more like them.  Now I can take just enough money with me when I go out instead of carrying around a load of bumf that I don't need.

In further progress, I have finished hand-quilting the last 2 of my quilt-as-you-go quilt blocks - Way hay!!  There'll be a bit of delay before the next stage, until I decide how I'm going to put it together but I'm quite pleased to have got this far.

As an interim project - plans are afoot for something for the engagement party!! 

Progress since last time - all of the above!!!

Bye for now
Teresa x

3 Well-organised Events! (on different scales)

OH went out to a boxing match on Friday evening so, instead of meeting our usual gang for drinks, I took the opportunity for some 'me' time and stayed in to watch the whole 3+ hours of the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony while doing some hand-quilting.  I'm so glad I did!!  It was an amazing feat of organisation and with so much to see it was difficult to take it all in.   Highlights for me were; the REAL queen with the fictional James Bond; the fireworks; the 'forging' of the Olympic rings and, to top it all, the stunning cauldron!!

A new flight of stairs up to one of the castle towers, which had been closed off for many years due to the dangerous state of the original stairs.

OH and I popped into our local  Castle the other week during a walk.  There was a company of re-enacters showing the mediaeval way of life and demonstrating different sorts of battle-dress and weapons in simulated fights.



The view from the newly opened tower that I haven't seen for a long time.  These children are trying archery.

 I started to take pics of the action but remembered how people can be 'funny' about taking photos of children.  I became suddenly self-conscious and stopped snapping, so didn't get anything decent to show.

 This is another view from the newly opened tower across to the higher main tower that has always been open.  I've climbed that tower many, many times and also, in my childhood, climbed on and into many places where the public were not allowed. ;-)



Demonstrating how to use a coracle

The organisers of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Show must have been very grateful for the good weather they had for the week.  OH and I went on the Tuesday and it was positively sweltering!  A bit too hot for me, if I'm honest, but I shouldn't say it too loudly because it really was lovely to see the sun and a welcome break from the rain.  The last time we went to the show was about 7 years ago when OH received an award for working 30yrs in forestry with the same employer. 

I don't know how we managed it, but we spent the whole day at the show and found plenty to do without actually seeing a single farm animal or entering a single marquee!  Being a forester and owner of 2 vintage tractors OH was interested in the machinery so we spent quite a bit of time in that section, which was thankfully less crowded than the trade stalls.  The tractor above is the same as one of OHs and is the same age as me.  I hope I'm wearing as well!!

We sat on the bank of the main ring for a while to watch the Ukranian Cosacs perform their amazing horseback skills but couldn't bear the heat any longer - it seemed to be concentrated on that bank.  So we popped along to see DS's girlfriends parents, who had a stand selling stock feeders, taking them some grapes and still-warm doughnuts for some afternoon munchies, before heading for home. 

Progress since last time:

Quilt-as-you-go-quilt - I'm finally in the process of hand-quilting the last block after deciding to concentrate on finishing (if not a whole project then at least) one stage.

Bye for now

Teresa x

It's in the Bag!

It was very remiss of me not to add a link to my last post when I mentioned the International Eisteddfod so here it is, better late than never.

I've finished Bag No 2 at last!  I'm glad I persevered with it because this is the one my colleague chose to buy for is wife.  I didn't have a pattern, just an idea, and I'm pleased with how it turned out.  The tricky bit was working out how to sew the main pieces together at the bottom corners.  It's mostly stitched wrong sides together with the binding covering the exposed edges.  This is what I planned but before I got to this stage I searched online for patterns or tutorials that would give me a clue to help. 

I found nothing, despite looking at dozens of sites so had to just go for it!  I had to slighly change my idea so the bottom side seam is sewn right sides together; the corners were just too fiddly otherwise.  All the checked and striped fabric is from furnishing sample books and the flowers are scraps from various sources.  This design could be made in any size or shape without too much trouble. There's no troublesome turning because the lining is sewn in as you go.!!

These yarns arrived in the post the other day.  I couldn't resist sending for a couple of skeins to sample these interesting yarns when I saw a link to this website on a blog (I wish, for the life of me, I could remember which one).  The top skein is a hemp yarn and is quite rough and rustic.  The bottom colourful one is made from the bark of banana trees!!.  Obviously, this is dyed but you can get the natural colour too.  It's softer than I expected. I bought only the one skein of each so I'll have to think of a couple of little projects to try them out. 

Progress since last time:

Bag no 2 finished!!!

Knitted baby booty ready to sew up - (I'm not very hopeful that the result will be as nice as I hoped)

Quilt block - almost finished hand-quilting ( the last  2 of these are going to be my next task - I'm going to get these finished before moving on to anything else)

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

How Late is Late?

I got up 10 minutes late this morning. Not a momentus occurance I know, but my morning routine is so finely tuned that 10 minutes can make all the difference.  But to be more accurate (seeing as I get up 10 minutes late most days), I got up 10 minutes later than usual but 20 minutes later than I should.


Bran flakes with chopped apple. Mint tea (mint from the garden because I ran out of tea bags - should be the other way around I know!). Also in the pic -  a piece of birthday cake that I ate later, from a colleague)

 The result of this on a 'normal' day is that I'm always 10 minutes late for work.  I was still 'only' 10 minutes late today though because I took my breakfast to eat there instead of at home.  Lots of my work colleagues eat breakfast at work (they stay away from home during the week and start work at 7am).  I don't feel justified in doing this regularly (my start time is 8.30am) but I found that eating breakfast later today I didn't get hungry mid-morning. 



Comtemporary arrangement called 'Reflection'

 One of the churches in our local group had a flower festival over the weekend.  It's a small church and they'd put flowers in every place imaginable but, although the style was quite comtemporary, the subdued colour theme ensured it was in-keeping with the church building and didn't overwhelm it.



The Last Supper

I took a photo of the lovely tiled floor around the altar to keep as inspiration when quilting.



I was hoping to finish bag no 2 but here's another little peak instead.

Progress since last time:

Bag no 2 - nearly finished
Baby booties - started knitting a pair to try out a pattern.

Next project will be a little zipped purse for myself for when I need to take a little money but don't want to take my whole purse full of cards, stamps, receipts and whatnot.

Bye for now
Teresa x

Music Mayhem!

I was surprised last weekend when I heard that this is the 12th year for our village music festival.  I would have guessed at maybe 7 or 8 at the most!  We've enjoyed fantastic weather for nearly all of those years so I suppose a complete wash-out was on the cards sooner or later. 

Most of the smaller events went ahead indoors but the big concerts (already downgraded from the Castle venue and minus the headline acts due to poor ticket sales) were a big disappointment.  The photo above was taken on the Sunday afternoon and, although there were more people than you can see here, it was disappointing.  Saturday had been worse.....much worse!!!  The rain was torrential and the area you can see cordoned off had become a pond.
 

First bag choice for work colleague

 But, as per our camping trip, we and our friends had a laugh anyway. Personally, I saw performances by The Saturday Singers (that I used to belong to) the local hand bell ringers, a soul singer, a tenor horn player and various cover bands and open mic performers.

I don't know what will happen next year (if it depends on this year's takings) or even if there'll be a festival next year.  I hope they bring back what used to be a highlight for me - the Male Voice Choir performance at the Castle. 

Progress since last time:

Second bag for chap at work to give his wife - started
2 cat mouse-toys - finished (above photo, sitting on the second bag, which I just realised looks like it might be the same design as the first - but is not!)

By for now
Teresa x

"Summer" Holiday!

Despite the extremely unseasonably bad weather on our recent week in Cornwall (shortened to 5 days) we had fun, mainly due to the fact that there were 15 of us plus 2 dogs in 7 tents.  Our tents were erected in very strong winds and taken down in rain and winds verging on gale-force - quite an experience I can tell you!  Some campers (not us) didn't have to bother taking their tents down because they blew down!!  We did have a couple of dry days (and parts of days) here and there, though, and had fun making the most of it.  It'll certainly be a holiday to remember!  We came home on the Thursday after hearing Amber Weather Warnings for later!!

 The extreme weather conditions completely over-shadowed the fact that the journey there (which should normally take about 3 and a half hours) took more like 7 and a half!! Some of us headed off the main route to have lunch at Jamaica Inn (of Daphne du Maurier fame) and decided not to re-join the crawling masses.  Consequently, the Sat Nav took us down narrower and narrower lanes until our vehicles were practically scraping the hedges and banks on the sides of the road. 

 Still, we made it safely there and camp was erected.  This is our tent and DD's behind.  Can you see the small towel pegged to the rear guy-rope swaying gently in the breeze!!!!!  We also had our bunting and windmills up ready for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee weekend. 

 One reasonable day, 6 of us headed for the Eden Project as we'd not been before.  It's a thoroughly amazing place that does great social and environmental work. 

This impressive flower was within days of blooming while we were there. You can see the result on this page on a short video.

This bunch of characters is a sculpture but it struck me how it looks in this photo as though they were actually leaping and jumping about.

We held our own Jubilee celebrations on the first dry afternoon of the weekend. 

DD painted her nails for the occasion

We went prepared and soon rustled this up between us

Some 'special guests' arrived!

We couldn't leave without spending at least a little time at the beach!

Progress since last time:

One bag (ordered by chap at work for his wife) finished.
Another bag (to give said chap a choice) started
2 mice cat-toys stuffed.
15 or so hexagons prepared while on hols.

Music Festival this weekend
See you all soon
Bye for now
Teresa x

The Olympic Torch Came to Town! and A Giveaway Winner!

Most of the locations on the route of the Olympic Torch Relay were well-known towns and cities.  How it came to be going through our little village last Friday I don't know, but I'm very glad it did!

 It was a gorgous day without a cloud in the sky; the bunting and flags were up in plenty of time and council workers were around early to line the main street with barriers.  Crowds built up over the morning and school children from nearby towns were bused in as a treat.

 In the build-up to the main event the local handbell ringers entertained the gathering people, a drumming band from another town paraded along the route and Rocky the Bear (the local Music Festival mascot) amused the children.

 As the first few police out-riders drove by and a police helicopter circled overhead we all craned our necks for a better view.  The atmosphere was buzzing with anticipation.

The torch-bearer is behind the boy with the blue T-shirt.  I think you can just about see the flame above his head (I'm not very good at action shots!)

We heard the procession before we saw it. The torch-bearer was preceded by more out-riders, a few advertising floats for large multi-national companies and further support vehicles.  It was a noisy, happy procession with a carnival atmosphere and certainly got everyone waving, clapping and cheering.  Then the procession disappeared onto the next town and within minutes it was like it had never happened - apart from being left with the feeling that we'd been a part of something special; a part of history!!

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Right - now to my SMS Giveaway result.  First, I must say thank you to all 61 people who left comments.  I was stunned that so many people liked my little purse enough to enter.  As soon as I get the chance I'm going to checkout all your blogs! And a special thank you and welcome to the 3 who became new followers.  I hope you stick around.  Things can be a bit slow around here but it's definitely varied.  I chose the winner using the standard random number generator and up popped number 47 who was The Hippy Housewife.   So, many congratulations to Cynthia.  I've emailed her directly and now have an address to send the purse to.   

 

I might have mentioned before that I've been looking in charity shops for Charles Dickens books. I've only seen one and, although I can't remember which one it was, I knew I didn't want it to be my first experience of CD.  Call it luck or divine intervention but in an email from Freecycle last week someone was offering the Complete Works of Charles Dickens!!  I emailed to register my interest, crossed my fingers and, to my surprise, was contacted the next day to pick them up despite there being a lot of other interest.  This is just half of them!!!  I thought "Great! Now I can read whichever one I want to first." And THAT is my problem!! (Or rather one of them - the other being where to put them!)  So, which one do I read first?  Should it be one I've not heard of, one I know well or one I've heard of but don't much about? I was leaning towards the latter option until someone suggested that maybe I should read them in the order they were published, and that put a real spanner in the works.  Now I don't know what to do!  Help!!!

Progress since last time:

Bag for colleague's wife - nearly finished

Mouse cat-toys - still to be stuffed

Planned projects - more bag and cushion ideas

3 quilts to keep plodding away at (Quilt-as-you-go, Tag Square Bee and Hexagon Quilts)

Bye for now

Teresa x