Monday Mutterings (with a Ta Dah!!)....

Hello my lovelies!! Are you all wet and windswept?

It's very soggy indeed here in Hampshire this morning, the showers have set in and become a permanent torrential downpour. I have a little set of nested tables waiting to be sanded but its a no go this weather!!

So, what have I been up to? On Friday I stopped by the market to treat myself to some fresh flowers:

My Nanna used to buy herself flowers every Friday from Doncaster market, she'd shop the old-fashioned way going to one stall for cheese, one for bread, another for eggs - *sigh* I absolutely l-o-v-e-d staying with her and my beloved Granddad....

They began to open and revealed the daffs to be gorgeous frilly affairs:

I then made a trip to Hobbycraft as I was inspired by a lady I am following on Instagram (she has a blog - My Three Of Hearts) to buy some of these smashing markers:

They are currently half price so a bargain too!! 

I couldn't resist this Kilner type jar to hold my modest collection of vintage threads, when I got home I added the rose decal:

Friday afternoon was spent playing with my new pens, I'm rubbish at drawing but had seen someone do some lovely childlike sketches of houses so had a go doing our house:

I'd like to turn it into a free motion embroidery....

Over the weekend I finished Little E's birthday present, so this is the official Ta Dah!!:

 I painted this vintage crib for her and made the bedding....

Mum crocheted a blanket for it and I made the quilt using this pattern - although I ended up making the squares a bit bigger as I just couldn't get the tiny ones to line up!!:

The pillow is a funny square "doily" that I put a backing on and stuffed, the sheet is a vintage traycloth....

The quilt has little sleepy animals embroidered on it:

It's Little E's birthday on Wednesday - she'll be 6, so I hope she likes it....

For the first time in ages I have nothing to sew for anybody and can make something for myself - recently I've been sewing for Mother's Day, Mum's b'day and Little E's - I've cut out a pattern I have for a dress but I'm not too confident with clothes as I've too often spent ages on things only to try them on and discover they make me look like a "bag of sh*t tied up" as my lovely Yorkshire Mum would say!!

Until next time....

hugs,

S x

Quilts and Questions....

Hello my lovely ladies!! I hope you have had a nice weekend?


Before I tell you about mine, I'll start with the questions - iPad or laptop? 


My laptop (or laptopamabob as   Aleksandr the meerkat calls them - I laugh every time he says it!!) has been playing me up the last couple of days and I fear it is on it's last legs. 


I really fancy an iPad but want to make sure I don't make the wrong decision (and we Librans are not good at decisions at all!!)


I use my laptop for general surfing, shopping online, eBay, blogging and reading blogs, watching Netflix and sometimes BBC/ITV players. 


Those of you with iPads, can you do all that on it? I have an iPhone (Which I love and which I can do all that on) so I am assuming an iPad is a bigger version?


My Sis got an iPad for Christmas and she says she is not that impressed, and that several of the websites she has to go on for uni will not run. 


Mr G is wanting me to try and check as best I can that I'll be able to do all I want to on it before I sell everything on eBay that isn't nailed down to raise cash for one!!


Also, I do a lot of surfing at night laid on the sofa, is an iPad a pain if you are reclined?!! I rest my laptop on a cushion on my (not inconsiderable) tummy and the keyboard is at the perfect angle for typing and I don't have to hold the screen as I guess I will with an iPad?


Incidentally, that's why I have been a bit absent from commenting on your blogs, I am reading on my iPhone (which is a pain to add comments on as is so small) and when I can wrestle Mr G's laptopamabob off him for 5 minutes (and thus don't have time before he wants it back!!)


Now for the weekend, my Mum accompanied me on a coach trip run by my quilting group to Ardingly Spring Quilt Show. I had a few pennies saved so was looking forward to admiring all the quilts and getting a few bargains.


The quilts were amazing, but a whole different animal to what I think of when I think of a quilt, these were quilting combined with machine & hand embroidery, applique, beading and all manner of other textile art.


Here are a few of my faves (iPhone pics so apologies for quality):

Aren't they gorgeous? I'd love to have a go at doing a wallhanging like the foxgloves and the robin, which were made of tiny bits of fabric freeform machine embroidered onto the quilt. It was like painting with fabric.

There were lots of trade stands and I got a couple of bits including some lovely FQ's:

A bobbin saver because I am fed up of them being tangled in a jam jar, this donut thingy is made of rubber so holds them all nice and tightly and you can see at a glance what you have:

And a pattern for this bag, which is hand pieced, so something I can do in the evening in front of the telly:

Yesterday,  we went to stock up on paint and stopped by The Chesapeake Mill to have a look around, it is a beautiful old building on the river stuffed to the rafters with vintage, secondhand and shabby chic goodies - I bought some vintage thread and gorgeous wooden reels (which I have forgotten to photograph so will have to show you another time).

The afternoon was spent sulking in our bedroom because Mr G and I had one of our yearly huge rows - the cats are eating out of a cereal bowl because I threw their proper cat bowl in the general direction of Mr G before I flounced off to cry. 

Naturally, it's all forgotten now. We never go to bed on a row - why do that when you can stay up and fight?!!.... ;0p

hugs,

S x

My First Quilt - Ta Dah!!

Hello, my dears - have you had a good weekend? 


We did nothing much at all so I don't have a whole lot to report but my first quilt is finished!!:

I'm much happier with the red now I have the binding on....

It's a "stack & whack" quilt made up of nine blocks.

Wendy, who runs the quilt group, kindly made me a label on her fancy pants (love that phrase Ashley!!) sewing machine....

I even managed to mitre my corners....

So it took me three weeks from start to finish but a lot of that was hanging about waiting for my next class for help. I'm all fired up to make more now!! 

I want to do the boys a patriotic quilt each; a teal & pink one for our lounge; my Mum wants one; one made from 1930's style fabrics; a Dresden plate, etc, etc!!

Yesterday, I finished my first proper fairisle knitting project:

Milo, refusing to look at the camera (never work with animals or children!!)

 "I'm not looking at you..."

"No way...."

"Oh, go on then...."

It makes him look as though he is wearing it under protest, but Milo loves a jumper - he's not got a lot of hair on his undercarriage and feels the cold.

The snowflakes were a right pain and I had to frog them about ten times, I shan't be doing another any time soon - despite Mr G's requests for a Christmas jumper!!

Speaking of Mr G, we have nearly come to blows this weekend because my friend has some GORGEOUS chihuahua puppies and He Won't Let Me Have One >:0(

I mean, how could you resist?:

Nine times out of ten I get my own way, but every so often Mr G puts his foot down over something and this is one of those things....

hugs,

S x

PS Sharon - I hope you're reading, between my phone & laptop your email has disappeared so I don't have your address, please resend it honey!!

Giveaway Winner, Flowers, Fabrics and Randomness....

I hope you're all having a good week?


First of all I have the results of my little Blogiversary giveaway - I used the random number generator thingy and it came up with 11, which means Sharon has won. Now I don't have any contact details for her so I am hoping she'll check back soon and drop me a line.


My spring bulbs from Lidl have burst into bloom this week.


Narcissus:

Hyacinths (not scented though):

And I couldn't resist taking pics of this pretty little orchid:

A while ago we rescued it and two of it's companions from the discount trolley at B&Q where they looked very sorry for themselves, they were £2.50 for the three of them and so far they've all flowered.

My stepdad got me a little footstool to refurbish but I haven't had chance yet as everyone has taken a shine to it:

You see that mucky looking line on the floor? That's from rug tape, the type that stops your rugs from sliding about. The rug has now gone but we can't get the blasted tape off the floor - so far we have tried white spirit, nail varnish remover and two types of sticky stuff remover. If anyone has any ideas how to get rid if it they will be gratefully received?!!

I finished another tea trolley for Fugly-To-Fabulous yesterday:

See, more glue on the floor? I usually Photoshop it off!!

I went to my quilting group on Friday and Wendy helped me make my quilt sandwich (quilt top, wadding and backing) and over the weekend I hand tacked it. I am now ready to quilt it!! Hope fully I'll have it completed to show you next week.

In the meantime, I ordered some fabric to make quilts for our boys:

Their room has a Union Jack theme so we went patriotic with the fabric!! I now have to choose patterns....

W is off school with a cold and so I am going to curl up on the sofa with him and watch "Flight Of The Navigator"....

hugs,

S x

My First Quilt....

Hello my lovelies, I hope you are all having a nice weekend?


I am sat surrounded by the smell of slow-roasted pork shoulder, it's rubbed with a paste of coriander, fennel seeds, peppercorns, lemon and garlic and smells seriously gorgeous!!


On Friday I attended my first session of the quilting group I mentioned in my previous post. Any apprehension I had about attending on my own had been eased by the lovely welcoming emails I had had all week from Wendy, one of the founders of the group.


A warm welcome greeted me from all the ladies and they delighted in telling me I was the youngest and therefore "the baby" of the group. As someone who is approaching 40 this year, it was music to my ears!!


Wendy showed me the instructions for the quilt I was to do as my first, a simple one made from nine FQ's of fabric- I chose an assortment of Tanya Whelan fabrics with a little CK thrown in, in shades of pink, blue, red and white.


The ladies showed me how to cut accurately and I chatted, cut, drank tea, cut, ate cake, cut and made new acquaintances (hopefully soon friends).


I finished cutting my FQ's when I got home and soon had this:

Yesterday, each row was sewn up and then sewn together to make a block and when I had done them all I arranged them out on the bed to see how I wanted the completed quilt to look. As I did this I realised I somehow had 10 blocks not 9 - which meant I must have started with ten FQ's - I mean I *know* I am bad at maths but I can usually manage to count to 9!!

So, the leftover one was put to one side and I sewed up the blocks:

What looks like plain red actually has white pin spots & the "plain" white has tiny flowers....

Typically for me I am not loving the colours :0/ - I don't think I should have used the red -which looked nice when they were folded FQ's but not so much now. 

Although, looking back at the quilt I used as an example on my previous post the colours are similar:

It now needs a border (I'm going to do a 4 1/2" border in plain white) and then I have to make a "quilt sandwich" with the backing and wadding before pinning, tacking (yuck) and then machine quilting. Wendy has kindly detailed everything I have to do for that to keep it all flat and so on, but I think I am going to be a chicken and wait until the next meeting on Friday.


Next Sunday (15th) there is a Quilters & Fabrics January Sale at Farnham Maltings at which (I am told) you can get some bargains so Mr G is going to take me up there. Then at the end of the month Mum and I are going to pop along to Ardingly Spring Quilt Festival where there will be lots of fabulous quilts to admire as well as trade stands.


In other news, there maybe a little bit of change coming here to shabby chic HQ as well, will tell all when/if I know more later....


hugs,


S x