In and Out and off we go

Some times I think bloggers keep the postal service going...... and this week it's postie action again - yippee.

In
Firstly, I had a wonderful winning envelope arrive through my door (during a hideous, awful, hopefully never to be repeated day - but I won't go into that, it would definately be TMI), and so it brought some sunshine with it and cheered me up.

Look.................

This is the pouch that I won on Susan's giveaway.  She has a fab blog - so check it out here.

Her pouch is so neat, beautiful zip ends and did you see those cute chickens?  I am torn about what to use it for..... maybe all my bobbins, but I want to use it where other people will see and admire it, so maybe bits and bobs at work.  Plus..... check out the amazing scraps she put inside..... all those birds and owls and apples and ooooo I so have to do a little birdie project now!  Thank you so much Susan.

Out
Yesterday we chilled out at home in the afternoon (unusual for us because we always seem to be dashing around here there and everywhere), and I spotted this pippi longstocking tutorial for the next blessed bee quilt. Well I loved reading pippi longstocking when I was a kid...... I loved her red hair, long plaits and I seem to recall she slept the wrong way round in bed, with her feet on the pillow and head under the covers (or have I just made that up in my imagination?).  This sent me on a trip down memory lane about children's stories, anyone remember Mrs Pepperpot who would sneeze and shrink to the size of a pepperpot and then get into alsorts of bother?  No?  Just me then!

Anyway I digress.....

Here she is my pippi longstocking block....... now I know it's not perfect, but squint slightly and the body does line up with the head and legs!  Anyway she is going off to join the next bee blessed quilt. Their flickr group is here.   If you fancy having a go, it was fun and Judith would be pleased to have some more I am sure.

Off we go
OK as many of you will be fully aware today is the day to post your mouthy stitches pouch swap... mine has been wrapped up in it's brown paper for over a week now as I had to stop looking at it because it made me panic whenever I did!  It's going, and I have no idea what my partner will think.  I might even have to make Mark take it to the post office in case I chicken out of sending it.  So my first swap..... off we go.

x

A snowy week

Well it's been snow joke this week!!!  Snow has played havoc here, so what better to do than embrace it and make snowmen......  Here is our snow family.  Little Eden didn't quite know what to make of the snow and just sat really really still for ages on the snow while we made a snowman next to her!!

This was our method of travel this week...... we delivered the village notices by sledge, and Hope was pulled around everywhere by sledge (which she loved).

Not a great deal of time for sewing...........  but I made a practice run at my new pattern for the boxy bag by Judith.  I love this pattern.  However, there are a number of flaws in this prototype.  Using old jeans means the denim is very soft and floppy (so not a very sturdy bag) and if you look closely you can see where the worn out knee was!  Also, the width of a jean leg is not sufficient when making this bag..... hence the totally random and un thought out patchwork effect.  When I make it again I will consider more carefully how to patchwork the jeans.  Or find some alternative material and get some strong interfacing.  It's a great pattern though, and easy to follow, and I love the boxy edges.  So, there will definately be another attempt.

This evening my young friend Anna (13) came round for one of our sewing evenings, and we made a jean skirt out of her old pair of jeans....... well, there was a fair amount of unpicking during the evening, but we had great fun and managed it in the end.  We followed this pattern (and I'm going to have a go with an old pair of my jeans soon, so watch this space)  But mine will NOT be as short as Anna's.  I dropped her off home and quickly drove off not wanting to know yet what her Mum thought of her new rather short denim skirt!!!

Also, I am half way through my pineapple block for the stash bee..... and ran out of black material (bad planning)  so now waiting for some to arrive through the post. 

I keep checking the tutorial for this block, and I think I'm on the right lines, but I just hope it measures the right dimensions when it's finished..... It's been a great fun block to make though, and it think could be strangely addictive - I'll be making 2 this month I reckon!

Happy weekend everyone

x

Pay it Forward

Not the clearest photo, but the Cornish Air Ambulance was moving very fast when we took this, as it came in to land on the beach we were sitting on in August last year.  A woman had fallen and broken her leg on the slope down to to beach, and the ambulance was the only way to get her to the hospital.

The reason for digging out these photos is to illustrate my pay it forward (but if it has the added effect of reminding you of warm beaches on this cold snowy day then that is a bonus!). I used to have a postcard on my desk that said....



And when I saw Lynz's blog had a 'pay it forward', I wanted to get involved.  I have waited until the blog mayhem of January has passed, and also the busy 1st of the month time when blogs go mad to post about this..... so hopefully some of you will be keen to join in and feel that you have the time to do a fay it forward in addition to all the other hundreds of things you have going on!

Now here's the rules (shamelessly nicked from Lynz):

1. I’ll make something handmade for the first 3 people who comment on this post. What I make will be a surprise and will arrive to you when you least expect it. Doesn’t everyone love a surprise?

2. I have 365 days to make and deliver it to you. But there’s a little catch, to get a handmade giftie from me, you have to play too! This means you take the pledge to send something handmade to 3 of your blog readers. It doesn’t have to be a quilt, just something handmade!

3. As stated in #2 you have to have a blog.

4. Once you comment here, you have to post about Pay it Forward on your blog and keep it going

 

 

So...... Jump on board and join in!

 

 

And while I'm here I wanted to let you know I have finished my mouthy stitches pouch.... (another shout out to Lynz is needed here, as she sent me the most wonderful motivating e-mails after my despondent post about this swap..... one of her messages got a standing ovation and big cheer.... and spurred me on to have another go....) I have mixed feelings about my pouch, and am still scared that my partner will not like it, but on the up side I am quite proud of my zip ends which worked as I wanted them to, and you will see I did a tree in homage to my stash bee....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.S it's snowing a lot here now..... and we nipped to the local shop just before it shut and bought a sledge, because I think that will be tomorrow's activity......  might be my next blog post?

 

x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Freezing February

Ooooo it's cold.....

So here are my heart warming ramblings for the 1st of February!

First of all my link up with fresh sewing day at Lily's quilts

 

I have really enjoyed being in the stash bee..... and made my first tree block for Sunni - just waiting to hear what Feb's block will be.

This month the mouthy stitches swap has taken hours and hours of my time, and not always in a good way.  In my mosaic is the side of my pouch that I made which nearly everyone (and my partner) disliked.  So I have finished that up and made it in to the pouch at the end and I will have to love it myself!  I am still working hard on the actual swap item..... but no sneak previews here because I couldn't cope with any more negative comments!

The rest are birthday presents............... (shut your eyes Alice!), and Jamie's win from my giveaway.

This week my winning jelly roll from Jodi arrived this week.....

I am so so so thrilled to bits to win this prize, because I don't have much new quilting fabric, using mainly old recycled clothes and sheets etc.... so I have found this book at the library (sorry awful pictures, but I'm not here in the daylight much at the moment to take photos)

And I think there might be a simple enough quilt in there that I can have a go at..... unless anyone can recommend anywhere else to look for ideas for patterns for jelly roll quilts?

And another exciting thing happened this week..... Judith opened her etsy shop...... whoopie, you have to check it out.  And her pattern for the denim bags is there, so I bought one straight away - fingers crossed next month I can link up to show you that I have made one.

Right - I'm off to fill the hot water bottle up!

x