Playing catch up....again.

Goodness, it is ten days since I last did a blog. I think my motivation has gone a bit as I don't have so many readers now.  It is funny that bothers me because I never set out to have readers. This was, and is, my online diary so it really shouldn't matter.  I think I am just missing all my old friends who have scattered across the blogasphere.  Blogger doesn't seem an easy place to find new friends.

So, the last 10 days......... not sure that I can remember that far back!  Actually, I can as 10 days ago I celebrated my 46th birthday, or if you prefer, I celebrated the 7th anniversary of my 46th birthday! It was a quiet day really as Simon had a parents evening after school and wasn't home until 9.30pm.  Coralie came over with Flynn and we had a nice few hours before going out for a pub lunch.

Last Friday evening we went out to dinner as we hadn't been able to do that on my birthday.  We went to a pub in a village about a half hour drive away. We had lunch there a month or so back and it was lovely.  Once a month they do lobster night there so we booked up for it while we were there having lunch.  Unfortunately when we arrived they had no record of our booking.  They eventually fitted us in but we had to have a table in the main part of the pub rather than the restaurant.  It wasn't the best start.  The service was terrible.  We waited nearly an hour for our lobster.  It was very nice but they were much smaller than I had hoped for.  They were very expensive so I expected more.  I do like seafood. We also waited 45 minutes for our desserts.  I forget what we had now so they obviously were not memorable.  Don't think we will go back there which is a shame as it had such promise.

Last Saturday we had the family here for a birthday dinner.  However before they came I had work to do.  The dog rescue people had their stall on Peterborough market and we had collected a car full of stuff from Gyll, the owner, on Friday night which we had to get to Peterborough by 8am.  It was an early start. I had said that I would drop off the stuff but couldn't stay to help this time because of having the family coming in the afternoon.

They were desperate for help so in the end I stayed.  Simon helped unload the car and set up the stall then he went off home to get on with the garage.  I was there until 1pm and I really enjoyed it again. I do not know yet how much they raised.  Verity and Steve picked me up on their way through from Cambridge.  We got to our house just as Simon got back from collecting Saskia from the station.  We were followed shortly after by Sam,Lisa and the girls and then Joshua and Charlotte.  Coralie was away for the weekend so we didn't see her family.  It was lovely to have everyone here and they all cooked the dinner between them. Oh, and Verity had brought cheese, onion and choritzo muffins for lunch too.  She is a great cook.

Sunday was another early start as I was off to London with Denise for the knitting and stitching show at Alexandra Palace.  It is years since I have been to anything there.  We had a great time although the train journey was a bit of a nightmare.  Wrong train going and then cancelled trains coming home which meant we had to get a bus and then the tube just to get back to the mainline station.  We were home later than expected, it was a long day.  I did enjoy it though.  The exhibition of the quilts was superb.  As you entered they had a display entitled "seams of gold".  The entrants had been allowed to interpret that anyway they chose and I envy their imagination as I could not even have come up with the ideas that alone put them together.  The standard was very high.  Here are a few photos. They aren't the best as I had to take them from funny angles and some are through glass.

There were lots and lots of very interesting trade stands  but we didn't buy much.  I got a knitting pattern book and some wool as Denise has very kindly said she will knit some stuff for the new grand baby.  I also got a nice big roll of "heat and bond" which I need for my little Slice machine.  We did come away with lots of ideas though.  Denise thinks she may take up lace making.  Looks way too complicated to me!

After seeing all the lovely quilt projects, particularly the ones for the "seams of gold" we thought what a good idea it would be for us to try next year.  So although we haven't yet told Coralie, we have agreed that in the new year we will pick a theme and then each of us will have a month to do a small  piece,  interpreting the theme in out own individual way.  No discussing, no helping, just come up with our own idea  and get on with it and then when they are done we can compare them to see how we all did and how different they are.  I am quite looking forward to that, should be fun.

This week has been the normal round of house work followed by sewing time. I have finished my scrappy quilt.  However when I put it through the wash to get the frayed, frilly edge some of the squares came away a bit on the back so I had to hand stitch them.  I am reasonably pleased with it.  I wouldn't want it on a bed but that wasn't ever really my intention.  I shall use it as a picnic rug.  Guess that means it will be put away until next year.

I have also worked on a nightdress case which is a Christmas present for Ellie.  It isn't finished yet as I didn't get enough fabric and have had to order more.  From the little that I had left over I made one of those little monster Nini that I made a while back.  The nightdress case is based on that pattern too.  The other thing I have done this week is the 5th row for my row of the month quilt.  Only 7 more rows to go!  I shall do a  "show and tell blog" then you can see.

Yesterday I got the bus down to Bourne as I was doing a 2 hour shift on an information stall that the Three Counties dog rescue were doing.  They also had tin collecting and bric a brac for sale. I was there with another volunteer called Marjory who is a lovely lady.  She gave me a lift home afterwards. It was later than I had hoped as it took forever to load up her car.  As we were the last shift of the day we had to pack everything up.

Today has been a nice day.  I like Fridays.  Simon is home early and the weekend looms ahead.  This is a long weekend too as his day off next week is Monday.  Since he dropped to 4 days a week, he has Monday off one week and Tuesday the next. He has been busy working on his garage.  Mainly inside, screwing up the frame work for the insulation and the boards that will go over it.  The outside is still awaiting guttering but that was delivered today so hopefully that will be done soon. The electric goes in during half term week which is just a week away now.

Tomorrow I shall be helping out at the dog rescue kennels in the morning and then I think I may go into Peterborough in the afternoon as I want to get the fabric for the living room curtains.  I have finally found some that I like and Denise is coming for the day next Wednesday specifically to teach me how to do lined curtains as I have never done that.  We are going to make all the curtains for the kitchen too.

Well, what do you know, I did manage to remember most of  the last 10 days. I was busy!  No wonder there was no time for blogging.   Time goes so quickly.  I never seem to be able to fit in all that I want to.  Did you know that there are only 66 days until Christmas?

I shall  leave you with that thought!

Tuesday 9th October

It is 5 days since my last blogs which is better than I have been managing recently.  I don't know where the time goes. I am still attempting to keep up and read the blogs of my friends who went off to different places.  It is quite a faff  having to log in to different sites.  I have got Google reader set up now and I can  use that to go directly to a blog if I want to comment.  However......... It won't let me do that with Blogster only Ipernity.  What a pain.  Consequently I am not connecting much with the friends that went over to Blogster.  I am really missing Pam and Eileen.

Nothing much is new here. Same old, same old.  The weekend was quite pleasant.  Saturday the sun even came out.  It didn't last though and yesterday and today have been really cold.  We had the fire going in the evening on Sunday.  First time this autumn.  I think it will be a regular thing now.

With the good weather Simon was able to crack on a pace with the garage extension. He worked on it all day Saturday, most of Sunday and Monday until 2pm when we went out.  It now has a roof!  With no holes!  All the ridge pieces are in place.  No rain can get in!!  He has done the cladding on the end pieces, both front and back.  He ran out of time yesterday so there is still one last piece to go on at the front.

 Note that the cladding has not been done in this photo!

So the structure is built.  There is still work to complete on the outside. Just under the roof there is a gap of 6 inches or so which is awaiting boards to which the guttering will be fixed.  There is still some trim to go on some windows too.  Basically the outside work is done.  The next job is the electrical work which will be done by an electrician.  Simon has to dig a trench across the edge of the front garden and drive to accommodate the cables which need to be taken from the front right around to the back.  More mess.  I am still waiting for the drive to be redone.  It was wrecked when we had the skips on it. Once that is done he will add insulation and board out the whole of the inside.  At that point it will be complete and he can move his stuff over from his barn.

Then we can start work on the garden.  We still need to get the fence at the far end of the garden moved.  We are missing 6 feet of garden there as the fence has been put in the wrong place.  Given the width of the garden, that 6 foot is quite a chunk.  That area all needs clearing and rotovating as it will be my veggie patch.  We need to fence it in too so dogs cannot trample it.  Now all the building materials have been moved from the side of the house we need to pave that whole area.  We have the slabs ready and waiting.  Then there is the drive way, not to mention the fence at the front too.  There is loads to do.

Yesterday afternoon we went for a drive to Spalding where there is a factory outlet shopping place. I wanted to go to the craft place where they sell paper crafting stuff.  I needed more pages for the scrap book I am doing of my Mum's life.  I got about 20 pages which I was pleased with.  I also got some doggie themed pages too for my Rosie's scrap book.  While we were there we wandered around the other shops.  Marks and Spencer yielded some good bargains.  Three white shirts for Simon for school and a very nice silk tie, black with purple and pink flowers!  I got a pair of slouchy boots which I love because they are warm and comfy.  They are fashion boots though so no good in wet weather.  I have other boots for that.

Today I have been to Coralie's where we had a sewing session with Denise.  I went in with Simon in the car and he dropped me at Denise's house at 8am.  We had breakfast together which was nice but I really do not do being up and out that early!  Denise and I then drove over to Coralie's and Denise dropped me off at the bus stop after lunch.  I caught the bus home and got in just after 2pm.  We had a good sewing session.  We worked on our teddies.  We got the feet sewn on and then got all the joints in place and stuffed them.  The joints were fiddly and I had a struggle to bend the cotter pins.

Once I was home and had done a few quick jobs I worked on getting my teddy all sewn up. It is not that easy as you are trying not to catch in the fur.  Don't want her seams to show!  Then it was on with her ears and ......... I have made a teddy bear!!!  I am dead chuffed with myself.  If you had asked me a year and a half ago if I would ever be able to make a teddy I would have said "no way". I am really pleased, She looks good.  She is called Elsie.  I have got some fur left so I am going to have a go at making another one for Jessica's birthday.  I am keeping Elsie for myself as she is the first one I have made.

A quick "Show and Tell" for you.  Here is my finished purple wall hanging which I forgot to post last week. Simon might get round to hanging it for me soon!

It doesn't really bend in the middle, it is the way I have taken the photo!

This is a cushion, totally made from scraps.  It is for my Aunt Jean, my Dad's sister.  She saw the one that I made for my Uncle Derek and wanted to know why she hadn't got one!

I made another 23 denim squares for my scrappy quilt. That gave me a total of 96.

I laid them all out on the bedroom floor so that I could get a good arrangement of colours and patterns.  Once I was happy, I stacked them up in rows.  I have begun the process of sewing them together now.  So far I have one row done.  It takes a while as you have to clip all along each seam to achieve the frilly frayed look once it is washed.  (Hopefully)!

You will notice that I am still 9 short.... so I had to make more!

I am going to work on this tomorrow.   It is my birthday tomorrow so I intend having a housework free day!  It will be a long day as Simon has a school open evening for 6th form students which he cannot get out of as he is head of upper school.  He will not be in until about 9.45pm so I am not best happy about that.  Not just because it is my birthday but because 16 hour days are not good for him.  He will be so tired and wiped out.  Good for nothing.

Right, I think it is time for me to finish this.  I want to search for some fabric on eBay and it is getting late now.

Brooches galore!

OK here we go.  Lots more of my felt brooches.  These are selling well on eBay.

As well as the heart shaped ones I made a few new flower ones too.

I am making a good stock of brooches because I think they will sell well on a craft stall and I am hoping to do that next year at the dog show to raise funds for the dog rescue.

My sewing room and those felt brooches.

So you want to see where I sew?  It is our second bedroom but there is no bed only sewing stuff.  I have  Saskia's old desk to put my sewing machine on.  I also have  2 matching chest of drawers.  One small and one quite big.  They are ideal for storage of lots of crafting stuff.

I have her old shelves where I keep, some books, magazines, sewing patterns, fabric, boxes of ribbons and other notions etc.

I have this little shelf unit which was Joshua's but he didn't want it when he moved.  I keep my button jars and other little bits and bobs on here.

I have a  gate leg table which I can extend when I need a cutting area. At the moment it is half open , you can see it behind the ironing board.  I also have an ironing board and iron in here in addition to my ones downstairs in the utility room.  With  quilting it is important to keep pressing your seams as you go and I got fed up having to keep trotting up and down the stairs.  Those plastic tubs in the corner contain fabric and wadding.  The white roll on the table is wadding.  You can also see another cat door stop there.  He just needs his eyes to be finished.

In the corner of the room I still have a desk and my old PC. It is messy as I have been sitting there hand sewing.

This is a nice size room for a sewing room.  It has 2 windows, one looks down to the side of the house and the drive.  The other looks out to the back so I can see the back garden and the fields beyond.  I like that view and can see it whilst I sew.

Despite two windows the light is not great.  I only have a ceiling light and need to invest in a good floor standing, adjustable lamp that I can move around depending on where I am working,

At the moment the room is still as it was when we moved here 10 months ago.  It is in green and yellow with green carpet, not very attractive.  After Christmas I am going to decorate it.  I want it to be very pale to help the light situation.  I think it will be white above the dado rail and a pastel colour below. possibly pink.  I will then make new curtains for it.  The existing ones are a horrid dark green.

I am well set up in here.  I have my sewing machine, my Sizzix and my new Slice.  I have a huge fabric stash which is always growing.  I am building up stocks of notions such as zips, ribbons and buttons.  I have lots of cottons and lots of felt.  I have toy stuffing and wadding bundles. I have 2 cutting boards, several rulers and 2 rotary cutters.

I need pinking shears.  I might get myself some next weekend.  I am going to the knitting and stitching show in London at Alexandra Palace.  It is my birthday next week so I may have some birthday money to spend.  I bet that fabric stash will grow!

So there you have it.  That is my sewing room where I spend lots of happy hours.  I am very lucky to have my own space to do my own thing.  Simon will soon have his own space in that ginormous garage.

Just remembered, I was going to show you my latest brooches but this is long so once again I will leave them for another blog.  In fact I will do them in a blog on their own and then you can just ignore it if you are fed up of seeing them.