In need of cheerfulness

it seems like forever since i have done any sewing!  Saturday was taken up with the carnival, Sunday was spent trying to catch up on my neglected studying and last night I spent the evening in A&E with Jennys friend.  I picked Jen up from her weekend away (biology field trip) and she showed me her friends ankle which had been hurt over the weekend.  Her friend only goes home at weekends - she is at this school on a sports scholarship thingy, so spends the weeks in a 'boarding house'.  Jen was really worried about Sian and Sian was in a lot of pain - so we took a trip to A&E.  Sians ankle was so swollen she couldnt feel her toes!  Luckily we only had about a 2 and half hour visit (!!!) and nothing was broken.
Anyway today I had these delivered:

Sians mum sent them to me, which was a lovely gesture.  I didn;t mind taking her: I would like to think someone would do the same for me if the tables were turned.

I got home from work relatively early today, so was able to do some studying, which meant the evening was clear to sew.  But, I didn't want to do anything I was already working on, and I was feeling down, so wanted something to cheer me up: bright colours:  so here is my work in progress:

I was kind of inspired by Jen, she loves these kind of flowers/patterns.  the middle flower template I got from an old quilting magazine and the others came off the net.

I went for big, unsubtle zig zag stich cos I wanted it to be bold.  They are not the easiest of patterns to zig zag around.

Anyway, I am on my way to what I wanted: something cheerful and bright.  Just a couple more flowers and lots of zig zagging and I will be done

Carnival

Ok, so I have to admit, when Beccy said she wanted to go for carnival queen, I had my reservations. How wrong was I.  Yesterday we had the best day.  Starting at the hairdressers:



The hairdressers were fantastic, and did their hair beautifully.

The weather wasn't so good very grey and windy but at least it was dry.  We got up to the meeting place at 12 and there were lots of photos and floats:



But the stars of the show were these gorgeous girls:

Oh yes, and these gorgeous girls:

Well, you have to embarrass your kids don't you.  With me is the mum of the two princess.

By 2.00, when we set off, the sun had come out and the weather remained fab.  As I was walking the route, collecting money and greeting friends, I felt really lucky: to be a member of such a great village (largest in England!) and to have so many friends there cheering us all on. 

It really was a great day, and hopefully we raised lots of money for local good causes.  The girls have next weekend off and then we start going to all the local carnivals, as visiting courts and being in their parades.  I can't wait!

Back in business

At last - I have a new laptop:

One that will let me download pictures, print things off my printer ie my USB's work!  And I can leave comments on other peoples blogs etc.  Luckily I thought my other computer was on its way out, so transferred most of my stuff on to the external hard drive, so it is all accessible!

So, looking forward to browsing over the weekend - and leaving comments.

We have the carnival tomorrow- here is a picture out of this evenings paper:

showing the committee along with myself and the princesses mum.  And the accompanying article:

Oh please, please don't let it be raining!  The forecast is for rain to clear up about 10am, with the rest of the day being fine.  Apart from me getting wet, I would be so dissapointed for the girls if it were raining and no one came to watch - so positive thoughts!

WOW!

I have been waiting (impatiently) all evening to get on Jennys laptop so I could blog with a photo:

Look what I received today:

My pay it forward gifts from the lovely Sheila.  They came beautifully wrapped up in this pink tissue paper too and after a really hard day at work, it was so lovely to open this up.

Look how neat and symmetrical everything is!

I love this and it will sit on my table in the front room: I just love the colours, the design and the quilting

And these came along too: a lovely book 'The Country Quilters Companion' with great pictures and designs in, some fab buttons and a Scottish Tablet - which, let me tell you, is delicious.  The girls and I just had to test some: it is lovely, just like eating solid condensed milk....yummy!
So, thank you Sheila, for your kindness, for choosing colours that I love, for the lovely scottish postcard and for wrapping it all up so beautifully.
Arn't quilters just the nicest people :-)

Stitched Sunday

I saw this over on Hugs n kisses : Helen is going to teach us to do lovely stitch working. 

Each sunday she will post a new stitch, tip or tutorial.

I think this is a fantastic idea - I enjoy needlework.  I have had a go a crewel stitching and stitched a fushia on silk, which I loved (can't show you a pick cos of my usb failure!) and I have done cross stitches etc.  But take a look through Helens blog and take a look at her stitching - lovely!

This evening we have had a trip to the hairdressers with these 3 gorgeous girls:

Beccy is Tiptree's carnival queen this year, along with the two princesses: Molly and Alice.  The hairdressers: Take Two in Kelvedon, is doing their hair for free for the carnival - and all the other local carnivals that they are involved in: how amazing is that!  So, we went down this evening, so they could see what to do with their hair.  The carnival is on Saturday, so keep everything crossed for good weather!

And here are two pics from the Bugsy Malone performances on Saturday night:
the whole cast (Beccy is a show girl and Jenny - 1st person, back row on the left, was Blousey)

And then some very splurged show girls on their curtain call on the last night:

Oh boy, did they have fun.....!

Caught up

I have finally caught up with the mystery quilt along and completed the last block, which is actually two blocks:

I ran out of my dotty fabric, which I knew I would, so moved on to the next stash.  Which I also love!

So, I have moved from dots to bubbles.  I think the orange is my favourite.

With this block I went for triangles  within triangles, ie the red triangles are on the point of a triangle, and the green also .

And here they are altogether. I would never have normally chosen these colours for anything, but I really do like their zestyness!

From last mothers day

 I have finally finished my project, made from last years mothers day present: a moda charm pack - so long ago that I can't even remember the name of it.

 Actually, to be fair to me, I did kinda finish it a while ago, but just had to finish a bit of the binding.  Now it is all done.

It is a dissapearing nine patch pattern and was very easy to make up and put together.  It was the hand quilting that took all the time.  I did spiralling squares in each square.

- which you cant really see!  I really should have tried to do it on my machine, but I like hand quilting, it gives me something to do when I am sitting down in the evenings - which probably explains why it took so long .... I don't do much sitting down!

Anyway, its all finished now and looking very lovely on my glass table in the lounge.


We had the first Bugsy Malone show last night, which went very well and the kids were amazing with their singing, dancing: and of course, splurge guns.  I must take my camera tonight.  We sold loads of tickets, programmes and refreshments, so hopefully lots of money will be made - for the next production.  We are back there at 1pm today for the matinee and stay right through to tonights performance.  It should be great fun

Better late than never

Here is block 3 of the mystery quilt along.

Block 4, which consists of two blocks is already up so I am a little behind!  Now, I am not sure if I have made an error, in not having any white in this block

When its up against the other two blocks it seems very loud, as it isn't broken up by the white.  I do like all these dotty colours next to each other though.  But I will have to move on to new orange, green and yellows as I have just about run out of dots!  I do have some more zesty fabric waiting in the wings

So, I will see what the rest of the blocks come up like and how I use the colours and it may be that I will change the yellow squares to white: we'll see.
Beccy is in London tonight with school, see Legally Blonde, so I am picking her up from school about midnight :-( I was going to crack on with block 4, but I am tired, so it would end up very messy!

Weekend, what weekend?

I have no idea what happened to the weekend!  On friday I got home and went out driving with Jenny, who has her test very, very soon.  By the time we got home, had tea etc, I was desperate to get to bed.

Saturday was bag packing at tescos for 3 hours.  There were nine of us, all raising funds for the Carnival fund.  Beccy was choosen as Carnival Queen last week, so I was helping her with the bags.  It was actually great fun, lots of chatting and a great opportunity to see what was on offer.  I did have to go and buy the new orange aero

It was on offer and everyone was buying them: I just HAD to have one!  We raised £250 to the carnival fund which was amazing, everyone was so generous.

Sunday was spent from 12 - 6 down at the school hall for the Bugsy Malone dress rehersals, where I was doing costume alterations.  I spent the whole 6 hours sewing or sorting through costumes and really enjoyed it.  Thankfully I had the forsight to cook tea (chicken pie) before I left in the morning, so just chucked it in the oven when I got in.  Not often I am that domesticated.

I did also do some more of my stained glass windows:

(here's one I made earlier, can't show you the others cos my usb ports don't work and Jenny is using her 'puter!)

The squares are now all sewn and I am putting black sashing between the squares, its starting to look great - pics to follow.

It was good to get to work today for a rest!!

Back in the saddle

This week has been a long one!  And even worse, I have had no desire to sew: well, I have wanted to sew but couldn't find the energy to do it (how pathetic does that sound!!)  I have been perusing blogs and leaving comments (using Jennys computer, not mine!) but just not mustering up anything on my machine.  Even when my new needles turned up I just couldn't be bothered.

Anyway, this evening I got back in the saddle and reacquainted myself with my machine

And I made this lovely make up bag.  I read Sheilas zip fear post a few days ago and remembered that she had put some links up so I tried flossie teacakes tutorial, with covered zip ends and it was really easy to follow

You cant see my covered zip ends, but they do look good, honest!  I have made a few zippered bags before:

And each have their own merits.  These two sit in my handbag holding lipsticks, inhalers, work passes, tissues etc etc and mean that I am not rooting around my handbag looking for stuff.

And Jenny uses this one as a pencil case - it is bigger than the others.

So, maybe I am ready now to get on with block 3 of the mystery QAL, just in time for block 4, and all the other bits and pieces I want to get on with.  Although it is a busy weekend.  Tomorrow I am helping out at Tesco, bag packing for donations to the Tiptree Carnival, of which Beccy has been picked as Carnival Queen!  Then Sunday is Bugsy Malone dress rehersal for the girls.  They belong to our local Am Dram society, which is for Kids only.  They put on some amazing shows and next weekend is Bugsy.  I am volunteering my services on Sunday to make any costume alterations (gulp...)

Nothing new to show

I went away for a week and did no machine quilting.  But - I can't do nothing for a whole week, so I sewed some more of these.  I only have one more left to do, then I can start picking out some scrappy sashing to go between the blocks.  I think I have about 16 or 20 of these blocks

It wasn't planned that there would be nothing new to show.  Yesterday, I decided that before I tackeld any sewing I HAD to tackle my conservatory (aka sewing room).  So I did that and I finally got round to hemming one of the blinds in there: and my needle broke in my machine!!!  Catastrophe, as I have no spare needles.  Anyway, the lovely people at Amazon are on the case, so hope to be back on the sewing machine soon.

On top of that, my computer is slowing dying.  I have 4 usb points.  Two of them gave up a while ago.  Now the other two have gone.  Now if I have a blog that I want pictures on I need to use Jennys laptop - which unfortunately seems to be permanantly attached to her!

Also..... how come every time i want to leave a comment on other blogs, I can;t sign in with my google account.  It's really frustrating.  I can use my name and url instead, but there is no picture attached to that and some blogs will only accept a google account.  So, sorry to those who I have left a comment with recently, only to have to abandon it because I can't leave a comment!!

I think I need chocolate and bed :-)

Bloggers dinner party

Kate, over at Needle and Spatula is having a bloggers' dinner party.  It is a chance to show case handmade placemats, table runners, napkins etc

So, I have chosen these:  I made them last summer, out of scraps and thought they would be ideal for outdoor eating.

It was also a challenge to myself:  I was beginning to think that I couldn't design and make anything myself.  So, I went ahead and proved myself wrong!!

I used them loads last summer, and a few times inside too - they just seem better suited to outside I think.  I love the teapot and teacup material.


So, head on over to Kates blog and link up to the dinner party.  It will be great to see what everyone else has made.

May recap-fresh sewing day

 So, I am away relaxing in the Lake District, when I suddenly remembered that it was the 1st today, so Lily would be doing fresh-sewing-day. 

I have decided to do a quick recap of what I have acheived this last month: altho I am not going to reveal the quilt that is sooooo nearly finished

When you put everything together you do get a great sense of achievement!

I will have to work very hard this month to achieve Mays totals I think, especially with a quilt to finish binding.  I have bought some bits away with me to try and finish off as well.

Also, I had a phone call today from the bridal shop that supplied Zoes bridesmaids dresses and wedding dresses.  Last time I was in there we got to talking about sewing and they said they have lots of off cuts off the dresses that they adjust and would I be interested!!  So, they have a large bag of material for me: am going to pick it up on Tuesday.  Can't wait!!!