September's here

Well after such an amazing summer, I didn't really want September to arrive.  But it has, and routine and work and cooler nights and dewy mornings are definitely here.

So, I already blogged about our wonderful Cornwall holiday.  And since then we have had more highlights.  I took Hope to London for the first time, and we met my parents there for a real touristy day.

 
We saw the changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace.  We had a picnic in Trafalgar Square.  Went to West Minster Abbey and went round the cloisters.  Then took my parents to Fortnum and Mason for afternoon tea to celebrate their wedding anniversary.  The whole day was magical.  My Dad had researched everything so was a brilliant tour guide, and found photos of me as a girl when I used to go to London to see my grandparents. It was a bit of a trip down memory lane for me. And Hope loved seeing photos of me as a girl where she was going now.

Then we went to Shambala festival.

There are really so many fantastic experiences we all had during this weekend that it's difficult to mention them all.  I think the children expressed how much they enjoyed themselves by often saying 'I never want to go home'. 'I want to live here', 'Please can this never end'.

We danced, we ate great food, we made magic potions, walked on tightropes, did sewing workshops, drumming sessions, fancy dress most days, pirate water fights, survived the compost toilets, made friends, stayed up late, saw fireworks, saw circus acts, explored the magic forest, danced, and danced some more.  We will be going back.

And, that brought the summer holidays to an end. 

Since then the children have gone back to school and Nursery, I have been back at work (and faced the huge backlog of work that the summer has caused), and we have started to decorate the dining room.

Which brings me on to the fact that there will be no 'Stitching it Together' in September because we are upside down at the moment.  But I will do another blog post soon with new dates.

However, I had a lovely day with the East Midlands Modern Quilting Guild yesterday which has sparked my sewing mojo again!  These were my two wonky blocks for the charity quilt we are making.






There has been limited sewing this summer.  A bee block for Fiona

And two more birthday cushions........

 I hope you have all had a great Summer

 

x

 

Holiday round up

 

There will be beach holiday photos later on...... but first and most importantly the holiday sewing round up.

 

While I have been here this week I have been helping Tracy make all her entries for the local village horticultural and handicraft show.  She has made.......

 

A Quilt as You Go zippy pouch.  Thank you to Trudi for all the wonderful fabrics that have gone into making this.
 

An apron.  Thank you to Moira for the loan of the pattern

A notebook cover.......

And while she has been busy, I have not sat around.  No, I have put all the amazing scraps that various people have given me to good use and created a quilt top.

If you look closely, many of you will see fabrics that you recognise, as so many kind people have given me their off cuts and scraps.

It's not perfect, but I am loving this quilt top so far.  I am thinking of rainbow binding.
 

It's not been all sewing

 

Porthcurnick beach - and 'The Hidden Hut' (as featured in the Telegraph's 30 best restaurants by the sea) 

 

 

We come home tomorrow, after a wonderful and very, very relaxing week away.

A Weekender by the Sea

It's finished.

I started my weekender bag during a lovely sewing day with the East Midlands Modern Quilting Guild back in April (I think, so long ago now).  A lot of Quilting as You Go was done that day, but the hard graft of making all the panels and then all the assembling of the bag has been done at home since then.

 All the equipment

Panels being Quilted.

 My first attempt at making cording.....

Starting to assemble the bag.

It was really helpful to hear other people's tips from weekender bags they had made.  I liked Di's idea for some internal zippy pockets, so I did two. (One in the outer pocket, and one big one inside the bag)

 

Then I snuck in some gathered elasticated pockets - one for a water bottle

 

and another big one inside to stuff 'things' in.

I have brought it on holiday to Cornwall with me..... so here goes for lots of gratuitous photos of my weekender bag by the sea!!

I also bought my sewing machine with me this week..... so lots of sewing has been going on.  Days on the beach, evenings sewing and cream teas.  The perfect ingredients for a holiday.

x

 

Going back to basics

 I haven't felt like blogging much lately.

 

I have wanted to withdraw for a bit.

 

There have even been times when I haven't wanted to sew!!!!

 

So, I thought I would think about why I started my blog.

 

The reasons are here.  It was to keep a record of things I made, sewed, baked, grew etc.  It was about recycling, up-cycling and creating things out of not a lot!

 

So, I thought I would show you this months creations that reflect that.

 

 

We picked, washed, stewed and turned our blackcurrants into a delicious crumble all in 45 minutes.

 

I had great fun making these crazy bloomers from a pattern Moira sent me.  They look huge, they are huge, they took most of a cot duvet cover to make them!!!  But they have been fab as pyjama's during this boiling hot weather.

 

Another 5 year old girl's birthday party this morning, so Chloe had a cushion.  I had a helper making this with me, who wanted to choose the fabrics, so although it would not have been my choice to put these fabrics together, perhaps they are right for a 5 year old?

The back

Then of course there have been end of term teacher's gifts.  So three of these are for the foundation teachers, and the fourth is for my trainee who leaves in September..... I will miss her, she has been an asset, and has actually taken work off me!

Finally, the children have started to discover my fabric stash and make things out of it when my back is turned.  Hard to see in this photo but Hope has made a collage of a garden with the flowers Jackie gave me.

x

So what's been going on around here?

Mainly birthday present sewing.......

 

 A notebook cover for Carole at work, who loves lists (like me!)

And I fell in love with Moira's rose in bloom cushion that she got in a swap, so was keen to have a go myself.  I was slightly disappointed with this, because, although I loved making it, it just doesn't look like a rose to me.....  not sure whether it was my colour choices, or the shapes or what.  Anyway, it nearly hit the bin and wasn't given, but in the end I did give it to Sue, my manager and friend of many years, so I really do hope she likes it.

The back........

Then there was an apron for Tracy.....  thanks Moira for the loan of your pattern. (I will return it when I see you).  It's difficult to see the pattern of the fabric, but it's small star fish, and as Tracy lives by the sea this seemed appropriate.

Big bow (that was bow not bum!)

And it's fully reversible, with orange circles on the other side (good for days when it's tomato sauce for tea!!!)

I am hoping to help Tracy make one of these herself to enter in her local horticultural show when we have our week together in August.

Another birthday hat, for Ollie who is three. Modelled by Eden..... (some days I could almost eat her up she is soooooo cute at the moment - please could she stay like this forever, and not grow into a grumpy five year old?)

After all the present making I actually got an evening to crack on with my weekender bag....  my first attempt at cording, not too bad.  Made a hundred times easier by the fact that my 'stitching it together' mates pointed out that I do in fact own a zipper foot for my machine (all these years I've had one sitting in a drawer and didn't know).  I also made an internal zippy pocket in the outside pocket (if that makes sense)

It's definitely a slow work in progress.

I could have done with it finished this weekend, as (shock horror) I am actually going somewhere for the weekend!  Well to drop my kids off at Mum and Dad's so I can nip to Wembley Stadium to see The Killers, The Gaslight Anthem and James tomorrow night.

Wooo hoooo the excitement is mounting

BRING IT ON

xx

Getting ahead with the Bee blocks

It's been all about the bee blocks so far this month.....

I like to do them straight away, so I can feel happy doing other sewing the rest of the month without feeling the guilt of having 'commitments' to left sew.  But this month I am more organised than most (no idea why).

So here they are:-

First is this drunken log cabin for Lynz miss June for the hipbees.  I really loved making this one.

Granny square for Heather in the stash bee.  Hadn't done anything like this before, so we keen to have a go..........

And two blocks for Bee Blessed. Nice and quick and easy, and very effective blocks, this will be a lovely quilt.

Then I whipped up a zippy pouch for Danny and her TRAC charity

And popped one of Jude's daughters cute little cup cakes on the zip (helped to hide the terrible zip ends)

In other news.............  It's our town fair tomorrow.  This is THE local event, everyone will be there, and I am helping to organise the Great Bingham Bake off.  So I am up to my eyes in different coloured icing sugar, cup cakes, voting slips and more cakes!

Look at the concentration...... 

These are the children's entries for the decorate a cup cake competition.

Have a lovely weekend whatever you get up to

x