wedding - been and gone

The wedding is now over - where on earth did that day go!  We started off at the hairdressers at 9am, getting our locks curled, flicked and sprayed.

Once our hair was done, we all went up to the bridal suite (8 of us in total) and had a picnic and lots of laughs, to try and calm the nerves.  The time to get ready came round very quickly and at 2.30 we were ready to go downstairs and start the ceromony - which was lovely

Zo looks very serious here - she was very nervous!  The weather was fantastic:sunny and not too blowy, so there were lots of photos outside.  The reception meal was out of this world and the company was fabulous.

I was so proud of these two!  They mingled and chatted with everyone, and did me proud and were so helpful whenever they were called upon.  Beccy is ridiculously tall as she has some VERY tall heels on!!  Poor Jen, she is older than her sister and is being dwarfed!

and here am I being dwarfed!  But at 5.1 I am used to it!  We got to bed about 1am, with very sore feet (lots of dancing) and exhausted!  Breakfast was at 9am this morning and we all reconvened and swapped stories.
Definately having an early night tonight, I am so tired!  And then a 6 hour journey tomorrow up to the lake district - to chill out!!

Mission accomplished - and some other stuff

So, here they are: 3 wedding clutches.  I had to modify them as I didn't have much material: 8" per bag in fact!  Anyway, I love them and am really pleased with how they have turned out - and they were amazingly easy to do:

The bag fits my important stuff: my inhaler and my lippie!

And the bag closes quite nicely with these in:

On top of these I: had a spray tan at 9am with Zoe, went straight to the hairdressers and got my highlights updated, did a bit (not a lot) of housework.  Then met the girls from school and we went and got our nails painted.  And I also managed to start the binding on this quilt:

I wanted to get this started as we are going away for a few days after the wedding, so can spend the evenings finishing off the binding.  We are off up to Kendal in the Lake District to stay with my dad and stepmum.  They are always relaxing breaks, so I am looking forward to that!

 Tomorrow we are ferrying stuff to the venue, so that will be exciting. Zoe was very calm about everything today.  And then tomorrow evening, I am out with my work collegues as someone is leaving.  They are always fun evenings.

Wedding clutch

It is tim and zoes wedding this sunday - can't believe how quickly that has come around.  Anyway, I happened upon this tutorial for a wedding clutch at purlbee.  This would be a great idea, and I do have some of my bridesmaid dress from my fitting - they had to cut loads off the hem!!  I cant just make one for myself and not the other bridesmaids, so am wondering if there is enough for 3 clutches in total.  I have Thursday and Friday off this week, so would have time..........



(picture taken from tutorial on Purl Bee blog)  This is an amazing blog with loads of great ideas for sewing, stiching, knitting etc


Also, over the last 8 months or so, I have accumulated about 100 hours in overtime: I work term time only, so I was never going to be able to take any more time off!  I opted to be paid for the work, and at the weekend, I was able to book a holiday to Turkey in August for the girls and I.  I would never have been able to do it without this payment, and it makes all those veeeery long days seem worthwhile now.  I can't wait!  Hopefully there will be no active volcanoes spewing their stuff everywhere!

Any ideas?

I have started to make things with the huge stash of fabric that was left for me by the volunteers of Farleigh Hospice, hope I am making what they need!

The cushion covers were very easy to do, especially the grey one, as I rekon this material was a sample for cushion covers (and/or curtains)   

I thought I would go patchwork on the cushions as well, which I enjoyed doing, although the material is really silky and frays so easily - there were bits of thread everywhere!

I have so much of this material, that there will be a lot more cushions.  I am also thinking table runners.

This material was much easier to manange as it is a heavier cotton.

So, any other ideas as to what I can make out of all of this - all ideas gratefully recieved!

Block 2

I have completed block 2 of the mystery quilt along : take a look at the pictures of the blocks others have made

This was the first time I have done paper piecing and I really enjoyed doing it!  Now, all I can think of is all those patterns that I have seen before with 'paper piecing' written in the instructions which I avoided like the plague.  I need to try them - where on earth am I going to find these extra hours!!

It's a small world

On saturday Jenny and I visited the local flower festival and craft fair at the church.  One of stalls had a variety of sewn and knitted items and I got talking to the lady there about sewing.  Turns out the stall was for Farleigh Hospice, which has several hospices in the area.  They have a group of ladies, who meet once a month and make things for fetes and fairs etc.  Unfortunately they meet in the afternoon - no good to me as I am at work.  So, she said she had some material that had been donated, that she could drop off to me and I could see what I could make from it 

This is what was dropped off to me today!  There is masses of material

The material has all been donated by the Curtain House, in Tiptree.  A lovely little shop in the village, that makes up curtains, cushions and also sells some gorgeous 'nick nacks'

These are all swatches of curtain and cushion material that were surplus to her requirements and she has donated.

I can't wait to get started, I have so many ideas already and how fantastic will it be to sew for such a good cause instead of sewing because I have an addiction :-)

Anyway..... I am busy telling this lady where I live so she can drop it off .... and it turns out she is the daughter of my next door but one neighbour, Charlie.  I soon as she told me I could see the resemblance!  Charlie is an amazing neighbour, he is in 80's and mows the front lawn for me and my other neighbour, passes on spare plants to me and always has a chat and a wave.  The girls cook him up fudge and truffles at christmas. 

So, that is where my small world comes from!  Bet those of you with children (any age) saw my title and starting singing that Disney song in your head - he, he!

A Sunday of finishing

Woo hoo, this is finished - well finished sewing anyway! (and thanks to Jen for holding it up for me the minute she walked through the door!)  This quilt does have an ultimate destination, but I can't say yet.  However, I do have a good long while to quilt and bind it, so no pressure!

It was made from 3 charm packs - I can't remember which ones, but I thought the fabrics were very 70's, lots of bold patterns and dark greens and browns.

  The pattern came from here.  There was potentially a lot of waste, but I now have a bucket full of  these:

I made these as I went along, otherwise, I would probably never do them.  I think they will make a nice cushion to go with the quilt.

I see I wasn't the only one being busy today: flyingblindonarocketcycle also has a finish up on her blog too and it looks fantastic - take a look!

Lost post and flowers

If my blog from last night wasn't missing (aaaaagh) then you would have read that I was at flower club last night.  Once again we had a fantastic demonstrator, who also teaches 'flower arranging' at a college.  And yet, she has not passed her NAFAS demonstrators exam - what a travisty because she was excellent and I don't know how she failed!!

This was so clever, taking a variagated reed, bending about 1/3 of the way down and then winding around the leave: what an amazing idea!!

And look at the fern that she plaited in the same arrrangement

This was an amazing display - again it involved some bull reed (?? I'm rubbish at plant names)  which she kind of wove together  to get this cone effect and then placed pink roses inside.  As she was doing it, I think I got how she was doing it, but now I don't have a clue!

This was a cascade display that she put together in no time!

This was a display with gerberoas (is that how you spell it??)  I love these flowers and these were a stunning yellow - no justice done by my phone!

And this was stunning - a simple dome shaped display (well, i say simple, not something I could come up with obviously!)  and then she produced some cottonwool like 'stuff' that she put over the top, that looked like beads - but they were about as fine as spiders webs

All of these she whipped up in about 90 mins, plus one other that i forgot to get a picture of.  They are stunning and even if i had had all day, I wouldn't have done anything like these!!  At the end of the evening they were all raffled off - I didn't win :-(

rushing

Where on earth has this week gone!!  Normally I will at least check on my fave blogs to see whats happening out there, but I havn't even done that this week!

Anyway, here are my next lot of fabrics for the mystery quilt along, hosted by Sheila.  There are a good number of blocks on there already so take a look (and why can't I see mine unless I actually log in - even on someone elses computer: I've obviously done something wrong somewhere!!)

And now I am rushing out to flower club, having only got in an hour ago, had tea, got changed and managed a quick chat to my friend (Hi Kim!) who also reads my blog and made me think that I havn't done anything for a few days!  Hopefully I can get some good pics of the flowers and will post them later

More of the Same

I have been a good mum and house keeper this weekend.  Took Jenny out yesterday to view her future, so no sewing done.  Today I worked very hard in the garden which now looks much better, and then took Bex in to Colchester for her dance exam (results should be out in two weeks or so).  Then came home, did some more gardening and then started on the house!

So, after we had had tea, I decided I had to do a little bit of sewing and I am completely hooked on these bibs, so made one of those, then decided to do a 'sickie' cloth and then felt the need to finish of with a little basket.

I'm not entirely sure what to do with them.  Obvioulsy they will be great for Zoe, if she has a girl, but they are not very boyish!  The girls want me to get a table at the church summer fete and sell my wares, but I never feel comfortable selling my stuff - mostly I am terrified that I would sew loads of things, no-one would buy them and then I would be left with a lot of things I wouldn't use.

So, hopefully Zoe will have a little girl - only 11 weeks till we find out (and only 3 till the wedding!)

University

Jenny and I have been to Chelmsford today to take to take a look around Anglia Ruskin University.  She would like to study child nursing and the only way in to nursing these days is via the degree courses.  For every 20 applicants there is one place!!  Chelmsford is only about 20 miles from us and if money allows then Jen would like to live on campus (and just come home when she needs stuff to go in the washing machine!!)

The campus was really nice and modern - they have done a lot of work over the last few years here.  We have others to look at  but this was the first.  Its so scary, how can my baby be old enough to go to Uni next year!!

 Anyway, seeing as we were there, it seemed a shame not to go to the market and stock up on a few things.  (This is a really lame excuse, as whilst I don't work every day in Chelmsford, my job is based here and I am usually in town every 1 - 2 weeks!)  I picked up some nice heart material and some lovely purple dotted material, although I am not sure what colour the photo shows it as!!

And picked up a few zips as well.  Since I have made the zipper bag, and a few more since, I am no longer afraid of zips!

Tomorrow is all about Beccy - she has a dance exam in Colchester - about 20 mins the other way, so am looking forward to going to watch that.

Mystery quilt

Here is my 1st block of the mystery quilt along that Sheila is doing.  I have finished by the skin of my teeth as I have to be out of the door in 5 minutes to vote and pick up children!

It was really easy and quick to do.  My only dilemma was what fabric to use and then I remebered by sister in law bought me some for my birthday, it appears to be just made for this.  They were only fat quarters though, so what do I do for my next block - track down some more of this fabric, or, as I think I am inclined to do, stick with the colours, but find different patterns.....

Leftovers

So, today I have made a cushion cover from the left overs of Tim and Zoes quilt (this picture is upside down and I don't know how to change it, but it doesn't make any difference to the cushion!)

I got the pattern from here: quilterscache  This is a fantastic website, with zillions of block patterns.  You can search by block size or name of block - a great idea if you want a specific block.  I have used this site lots of times. In fact, I got this pattern : blue quilt from there.  Definately worth checking out.

Back to work tomorrow, I have definatelty enjoyed this extra long weekend.  Roll on half term week, I am next off then!

photos

No nice sewing pictures, just pictures of pictures (or photos!)

 This is one of those horrible jobs that has been waiting to be done, sorting through at least 18 years worth of phots to put in to albums.  There were photos everywhere.  We did manage to get some sorted and grouped together and in to albums - but this is going to be a long job.

The girls really enjoyed looking at the older photos - Beccy even took photos of some of them and put them straight on to Facebook - I darn't even look!

Its finished

Finally - it's finished!  My wedding present is finished for Zoe and Tims wedding

I am so pleased with it, and am sure Zoe will love it too, which is all that counts!

 On and off it has taken about 10 months to complete - it all started with a jelly roll, Mill House Inn by Fig Tree quilts, along with some white that I already had.  I added an extra row for this quilt, which also meant that I had to order an additional charm pack for a few odds and ends

Its all hand quilted - I quilted 'in the ditch' around the stars in red thread and then quilted in green thread through the four green squares.  I quilted a plait pattern down two of the sides

I have sewn this on the back of the quilt, to commemerate the day.

I have been quilting all weekend.  I know the wedding isn't for a month, but wanted to know that this was all complete.  And also, I knew if I finished it in time, I could put it on to Lilys Quilts, Fresh sewing day.

P.S - ignore the garden: its a work in progress: I was doing a lot of work in the garden yesterday, but at the other end!