Sounding techie!

With the end of the year approaching I was checking up on my progress of Rhonda finish along. I haven't done too badly and have another item to add from my list

I love how this has turned out. Its a biggie too, about 26x26". I backed it with a pale grey light coudroy type material, that was intended for the rocking chair.

I took this picture on my phone, and I am typing this post on my tablet (sounds very techie!)  I have discovered that I can email photos on my phone to my flicker account, it was really easy. Also now that I have the flicker app on my phone, I can put them straight on. I have also discovered, in writing this post, that when I am uploading a photo for my blog post on my tablet, I can upload photos from my phone: how does that work: how does this tablet know what photos are on my phone? Wow, it opens up a whole new world of blog posts!

We are off to London tomorrow, meeting my dad and step mum for lunch (it is her 70th birthday) they are then coming back home with us gorva few days. Wish us luck: London on New Years Eve :-(

Hello!

I hope that you all had a lovely Christmas, with friends and family.  Ours was lovely and relaxing

We made truffles for neighbours and decorated the cake

The table was all ready for lunch 

 and we spent the day together as family 

And there has been time for sewing: some feathers for Lucy for Bee a brit stingy

 and I made a start on a quilt for a friend who is about to start chemotherapy for breast cancer on 8th January: something for her to snuggle under when she isn't feeling so great.  I have more purple to sew around as a border to make it a little bigger

I'm sure everyone will know what I mean, when I say that I have eaten and dtunk  too much!  But I have also done some serious relaxing and that has been fantastic

Two more sleeps

So, I appear to be all done and ready for the big day. It was such a relief to finish work non Friday, especially after the last few weeks we have had at work!

I finally cut in to the jelly roll that I won at the retreat last year

I have four big eight point stars to make: everything is cut out, it's now the putting together

I have wanted to do this pattern for ages, but boy is it fiddly: matching all those points up!! 

But its going to look amazing when its done: which is what I will be doing over the : hope it is peaceful and relaxing spent with people you want to be with

Progress

I have been sewing away at my double wedding ring quilt and have got 9 rings all sewn together - I love the scrappiness of it all.  I think though, that 9 rings is going to make it a fairly small quilt, so I have decided to make another 6 and do it 4x4

I have received some fabulous scraps from the scrappy swap recently and also Emily sent me some with my secret santa basket, so it will be great to incorporate those. And I have two weeks off over Christmas, so why not!

 When I was taking the above photo I realised that I never did show the 'after' of the £15 car boot rocking chair.  It is easily the most used bit of furniture in the house



Before



After - it is sitting in a rather random place at the moment as it has been misplaced due to the Christmas tree

 We repainted it and those blue bits are the new foam pieces - which rather disheartingly cost more that the rocking chair!!!  The blue foam will be covered properly at some point but as there is always a quilt thrown over it, I have never got to doing that yet!  Probably another Christmas job

Construction Round 2



Today we had round two of the gingerbread houses, with the 19 year olds!   

 I was up early making the gingerbread: I wanted to make sure the pieces were cooked and cooled before construction. 

This time there were three succesful finishes:

And it seems luck is really on my side..... I have won Amanda's giveaway!  I got to choose two of these charm packs: I chose the two 2nd row down.  How fabulous is that! Thank you Amanda



Construction

Today has all been about building gingerbread houses.  Beccy had her two 'besties' over to create.  This is not a cheap past time!!  Loads of sweets, 3 bags of icing sugar (yes really) and a crazy amount of ingedients:  but soooo much giggling and laughter

Unfortunately only two houses were completed. Laurens house kept collapsing inwards and then the gingerbread couldn't take the strain and started to bend and crack - I have advised her not to go into structrual engineering when she is older.  I felt so bad for her, but instead she got on with these 

And these were the final creations of Beccy and Beth

Defintely an afternoon well spent.  And tomorrow I get to do it all again with Jenny and two of her friends! 

My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the dreadful events in Conneticut.

Its all over

Well, that's it: I have done my final exam (bar any re-sit!!)  It has taken 3 and half years, but I have finally got there.  I would say the exam result is 50/50, but I actually don't even care right now!!

I have had fabulous post this week too - and post that I can start to mess around with now that I have free time!!

First up I received my amazing winnings from Hadley - beautifully wrapped

This fantastic drawstring bag with the hexies: I tried so many photos to show you the colour range with the hexies, laying them on their sides, but it didn't work - take my word for it!!  There must be about 100 hexies all there waiting for me

A big thank you to Hadley x

And today I picked up some mail from the post office, one of which was this

my bee a brit stingy secret santa from Emily.  We all made each other a basket and filled it with 'things'

Emily had put all of this in for me

Thank you Emily x


So - a fantastic week for receiving amazing post from generous blogging friends, topped off with NO MORE STUDY OR REVISION!!!!

Sssshhhh : don't tell anyone but....

I got the job!!!!  It is not allowed to be common knowledge until tomorrow, but I figured I could tell my bloggy friends :-)

I don't start in an official capacity until April 1st, so that gives me plenty of time to get my new exam done and under my belt in the New Year

Now, fingers crossed for the exam and Jennys interview

I'm a winner!

I have done zero sewing this week and very little blog hopping, but I did find time to enter a few giveaways on Monday evening .....

........ and look what I won from the wonderful Hadley: her gorgeous pouch and lots of lovely little pre cut hexies, all ready for me to EPP. Lucky, lucky, lucky!!

                             


Her email telling me that I had won made my weekend.  I read it at 6am this morning: the time that I had set my alarm for, so that I could get up and revise.  Last exam on Friday.   And thank you to those of you who left such lovely comments about my win on Hadleys blog - they all gave me a warm glow.

I had my interview for the senior post yesterday and we will find out on Tuesday.  It will be close, as there were 5 of us that applied and we are all more than capable of doing the job.  I am in the enviable position of being happy for the person who gets it if I don't and also knowing that I love my current job so if I'm not successful, it really isn't the end of the world
Also this week, Jenny heard that she has an interview at Southampton (she wants to be a child nurse) The interview is Friday, which means that I can't go with her, but we have relatives who live there, so she will be well looked after.  She is so excited as this was the one uni she didn't think she would get an interview at due to the high grades they want. 
So, I would call that a good week!

Cracking on with it all

Woo hoo, I have another finish for Rhonda's FAL: my scrappy star quilt for Joan

 this is another quilt, where I didn't use any wadding or backing material and instead have used a very soft blanket that has come from Primark for a fiver.
I just need to put a label on the back and then I will package it up and send it off.  I am really pleased with this one

Also, after seeing Hadleys fabulous inifinty scarves that she has been whipping up, I wanted to have a try. Hadley used gorgeous bright colours.  I popped down to my LQS yesterday and bought some cheap voile.  I didn't want to buy anything expensive in case I was no good at these.

 I bought two 1mtr lengths - you can see both of them in the 2nd picture.  Seriously, these are so easy to do, and I have enough material left for at least another two (christmas presents!!).  This one will be perfect for work and I will make some nice bright ones for non-work

And, I finished off my little stockings last night too.  (please excuse the piece of mdf that is  a temporary measure-there's a huge hole in the wall where my back boiler used to be!)
                                   

And, I have been revising too, so am feeling very pleased with myself. 

 I know its been very cold this weekend, but hasn't it been nice to see the sunshine!

It's December!!

I am SO glad it is December - really!!  I have re-applied for my job, plus one at a higher grade, so will hear about that in 10 days time.  I will take my last (I hope) AAT exam, and after 3 and half years, will finally become qualifed: and have LOADS more sewing time

So November wasn't that great on the sewing front: mostly hand sewing in front of the tv in the evening.

I made these for Lucy's new arrival

 I got some bee and some swap things done.  The basket is for my secret santa in the Bee a brit stingy bee and the scrappy case was for the fantastic scrappy swap

 And a bit more hand sewing - these little stockings are going to become bunting, I hope I can get that finished off this evening

I am linking up to Lynnes fresh sewing day - just think, the next one of these will be in 2013!!  And I hope I will have acheived a lot more with all my free sewing time!!

                                                      

Happy Scrappy

Happy Scrappy mail arrived for me this week from Jenny It came beautifully packaged all the way from Denver, PA, USA

 This is my 'little' something handmade from scraps that Jenny sent me: isn't it fantastic (and not so little!)  Unfortunately the light doesn't show up the quilting.  Jenny tells me that this was her first ever swap - well she got everything so spot on!

 And all these gorgeous scraps.......

all just perfect for two weeks time, when I have taken my last (I hope) AAT exam and can do LOADS of sewing.
I may just have signed myself up for one last exam today - what an idiot!!  But there is method in my madness.  This one is a CIPFA qualification in Academies accounting.  It usually takes 6 - 12mths, but having looked through it 90% of the course is the same as the exam that I am currently studying for, so I figured I would be mad not to do it, but hopefully get in done in less than 6 weeks ...... so thats January and Febraury spoken for then!!   I must be mad

More Christmas sewing

My sewing activities have been woefully inadequate recently.  Not a loss of mojo, just time!

Anyway, the good news is that I have spent 6 hours of today re-applying for my job and applying for the new one.  I have sent it off to my brother for him to cast a critical eye over it, and then that's it, it's done! 

I have been sewing some of these: they are only a couple of inches.

 a bit of wadding in between and some blanket stitching and they become these

with the idea that they will turn in to this 



Picture from Punkin patterns

I used the tutorial from punkinpattern - go and have a look as its well written and really easy to follow.  I will be doing some more hand stitching tonight.

I have put in for my final (i hope) exam for the 14th december: just thinking of all that spare time is what is keeping me going at the moment.  I can really look forward to Christmas without that hanging over me!
                                           

Nice and easy

Last night I was browsing through pinterest for some inspiration for a christmas decoration - for my partner in the secret santa that we are doing over at Bee a Brit Stingy.
I was led to this fantastic tutorial at  a cuppa and a catch up.  Which led to this

 A little 1" hexie with a snowflake embroidered on to it.  This was one of the easiest Christmas decorations I have made, and took about an hour, sitting in front of the tv last night

A fairly rubbish picture of the back, but you get the idea!!

this is me on pinterest: there seems to be a lot of snow, Christmas, quilts, quotes and motorbikes: sounds like the perfect life to me!!

Time is not my friend

 I am feeling the pressure a little for a couple of swaps that I signed up for.  Now, when I signed up for them mum did not have her date to go to hospital and I was not expecting to have to be completing application forms for my job!! 

I signed up for the scrappy swap organised by Kat as well as a secret santa for the Bee a brit stingy

I have made a QAYG wide mouth pouch for the scrappy swap, but havn't started on the other swap yet!  I am more than happy with the scraps I have used for my partner...

..... but slightly less happy with the way my sewing has turned out.  I had an issue with the zip ends not matching up.  So, I had to unpick a bit, which has in turn led to a slightly wonky pouch

I can't show you the middle panel, it would give it away completely



I can't show the middle section of this side as this will give the game away.  But I am really hoping that it will make my partner smile-she will understand the story behind it  (I hope!!)  I have decided that as the pouch is on a wonk I will be sending more scraps than a FQ's worth, including some that I know she has been collecting, to make up for it-any other time, I would have started again, but at the moment I just don't have the time.  It isn't dreadful and still looks good (well, I think so!)

 I have spent today taking Beccy to a dance exam and then having to go to the hospital to pick up a prescription for my mum that they had forgotten to give her, only to find out that the doctor had not bothered to complete the prescripton which then led me to running around the hospital, finally ending up at the pharmacy, who thankfully, couldn't do enough to help me!  Yesterday was spent taking mum shopping and sorting things out at her house.  No time for sewing then!!

Yesterday was Jennys 19th birthday - where has that time gone!!  She went out with her friends last night and got in at 4am.  Needless to say she hasn't been herself today!! 

Jen, on the left, ready for her night out

Tonight, we are going to settle down and watch 'The best exotic marigold hotel'.  I have read the book and really enjoyed it, so am looking forward to watching the film and chilling out

That was the week that was..

Well, the week has whizzed passed and thank goodness: it has been a really difficult one!

Mum went in for a knee replacement op on Monday, so there have been trips to the hospital and tidying her house before she comes home (she is some sort of compulsive hoarder NOTHING gets thrown away!)

We have all been told at work that we have to re-apply for our jobs-bit of a shocker! But the silver lining is that there will be three new posts to apply for, at a higher grade, but you can only apply if you have the minimum qualification of AAT: turns out that the last 3 odd years studying havn't been in vain!! (last exam is December, so I will be as near as dam it qualified.) so I figure I won't lose anything by applying for a higher grade!

My bee blocks have started to come home.  Tanya made me a little something with the scraps

My house is full of hanging hearts, all over the place, so this is perfect



terrible picture, sorry

 It was a little ray of sunshine to receive it this week, thank you Tanya


And a quick update of the DWR quilt which is coming on nicely

Revision for me this weekend, but there WILL also be some sewing!!

The week that wasn't

I have had a few days off this week, almost a week, but I don't know where those days have gone!

Beccys birthday cake, made by her friend

There has been very little sewing as I have had my dad and stepmum staying and the days have whizzed by.  Wednesday was Beccys birthday, which we spent at Bluewater, spending birthday money and being spoiled by grandparents!

taking a picture of Jenny taking a picture of the birthday girl



birthday tea at the indian

 Yesterday we went to Cambridge to the open day at Anglia Ruskin for Jenny to have a look around.
Tomorrow it's my mums birthday, she goes in to hospital for a knee op!
And then it's Jens birthday on Saturday! 
Mine is somewhere in between that, but I have already been allowed to open my birthday present whilst my dad was here...Jen had organised everyone to give her money and then went and bought me a Nexus 7 (android) tablet: wow, I was speechless (doesn't happen often)  it is amazing and I have so much to learn with it, but I have been messing around with it today.

It did mean that I could sit at my sewing machine and follow noodlehead's wide mouth pouch tutorial picture by picture

 This is for my secret partner in the scrappy swap.  I have used the quilt as you go method, which I have been wanting to try for ages, and this is just the perfect thing

I really hope that I am getting it right for my partner!!   

Back to work tomorrow: not looking forward to that one!!