Catch up!

After the fun and games of last Saturday, we took an impromptu trip to Snape on Sunday for the vintage market. I’m always so tempted by the wares displayed on the stalls, constantly saying ‘oh look, we had one of those’ or ‘oh look how much they want for that’! I resisted though and didn’t buy, although I was sorely tempted by the lovely cake stands made, mainly, from similar but not quite matching plates. The thing is I decluttered a few years ago and now have very few decorative things on display – plus my style is more contemporary that vintage, although I love the look of vintage on other people’s blogs as I browse my way around them. We followed our browsings up with a trip to Aldeburgh where we had fish and chips on the beach – imagine that, on a Sunday! For those of you that don’t know Aldeburgh, it’s a lovely place but very popular with Londoners for holiday homes (disclaimer – I have absolutely nothing against Londoners – it’s where both our families hail from!)

Whilst we were queuing (you always have to queue) for our fish & chips there were a couple of young children in front of us whose mother had left them to keep her place whilst she wandered along the shops. They were a bit mischievous but nothing exceptional and, right on queue, when their turn came to order, Mum appeared as if by magic. I’m getting to the point now, don’t worry. Order placed, the children helped themselves to the little wooden forks on the counter. Handfuls of them. Only to be told by Mum that they didn’t need that many. So they put them back! Eeeeeewwwww! I watched so carefully, determined not to take any that they had put back! Mum didn’t bat an eyelid, just steered them out of the shop when she’d paid.

The weather wasn’t brilliant – overcast and cloudy, but I liked the look of this boat!

I suppose though, in the scheme of things, that was nothing compared to the headlines of this week – I’m not even going to begin to go there, don’t worry.

A joyful week at work was broken by a day off on Wednesday when I had to wait in for the man to come and replace the door trim on my oven – can you believe that it is not covered under warranty? As a matter of principle, John insisted that they come and fit it and not send it in the post for us to fit ourselves – it took all of two minutes! And then I waited for somebody to come to repair our front door handle – it’s not been right for a long time and sickeningly we realised too late that it would have been covered under the 10 year warranty if we’d called them out before – that took about three minutes to repair!

Yesterday saw the first home game of this year’s football season. We lost. Enough said. Before the match I did something I haven’t done for a long time – I bought some yarn from a real shop! The friend that I call Julie has put in an order for another baby blanket (she seems to work with some very fertile people!) and, as the sex is not yet known, I opted for a minty green and white – hope that’s OK Julie!!

Which brings me on to today where I spent the day joining fabric squares together – in two places – only to cut them in half!

I’m sure some of you have worked out by now I was making half square triangles!

I bought this in kit form several months ago and thought it was time to do something with it – if it works out well it will be a Christmas present for somebody who I think will like it!

I’ve decided that I’m going to add my name to some of the photo’s as I discovered a few of my pics on Google Images for all the world to use! Well, I might just as well make my claim on my own stuff, mightn’t I!!

That’s it for now – another exciting week awaits me I’m sure! Thanks for stopping by!!

Ladies who……

Earlier today I had a really catchy title in my mind for this post, however the sieve that has replaced my memory in recent months has let it leak out and it’s lost!

I hope as I’m writing I can come up with something that tells you what a great day I’ve had today! A few weeks ago I had the brainwave of inviting some likeminded ladies to spend the day being crafty and today was the day we settled on. I suppose I expected maybe two or three friends would say yes please but we ended up with eight of us – and John!

John very kindly rearranged all the furniture a few days ago so that we could open up the space available and this morning we got ourselves ready. We opened up the dining table, laid out the cutting mat and sewing machine, pulled out a box of yarn and awaited our guests. I’d said 10 o’clock for a start time but slowly messages started coming in about people being delayed. The best one has to be the text that said ‘Please tell me it’s tonight we’re sewing’! Poor Trish had got 6 on her mind not thinking that was the date and not the start time! She and her daughter arrived just in time for lunch much to the amusement of those already gathered!

So here is the day in pictures – I think we all enjoyed ourselves, Isabel sort of learnt to crochet with Janet’s help, Sian made one of Nicky’s lovely boxy bags, Julie and Steph enjoyed a bit of show & tell, Trish wasn’t having a good day – instead of bringing her dress to finish she bought the remaining fabric, John got a few photography tips from Trish & Sian and me, well I did some crochet and marked out the half square triangles for my next project.

 

The sewing end

Elevenses!

The other end!

Yes – I left the ironing board out! The sewers amongst you will know that this is an important piece of equipment!

She need a bright colour!!

Don’t show my face!!

See – Nicky used that so important piece of equipment!

I’m not looking up!!

Always happy teaching!

The final result!

Thank you all for coming – shall we do it again?

Raspberries & Cream

A new take on an afghan for a baby girl, I couldn’t get baby pink so opted for this slightly deeper pink instead. It will shortly be off for a new life with a friend of the friend that I call Julie – hope she likes it!

I’ve set up a Flickr page as well – although a lot of the pics will appear on here, I’ll add some of John’s creations as well! It’s here if you want to take a look! Although I think that just takes you to the Flickr home page – anyway, I’m easternsparkle on there as well!!

Welcome to 2011!

Happy New Year everybody! It seems that this years ‘thing’ is to have a photo montage of the past 12 months – I tried to choose one photo per month but found that was difficult as some months I’d taken more than others but here is my contribution – in no particular order!

2010 was a good year, we had three great holidays, I completed loads of crochet projects and I learnt to quilt – mostly self taught and through books but also with help from Nicola both remotely and in person! I haven’t blogged as much this year but I’m getting the impression that this is a natural progression from newbie blogger to feeling more comfortable with only the occasional update. 2010 also saw us become empty nesters as both boys left home which has taken some getting used to – as Son 2 has so recently left it’s something we’re still learning to cope with! In my mind I have a post prepared about what I miss about him – I’ll try to commit it to the keyboard in the next day or so!

Today we’re off to friends for our belated Christmas/New Year celebrations – before I go I just need to finish quilting my latest project so I can show them!

Here’s to another great year in Blogland – hope it’s a good one for all of you!

Deliveries!

I’ve had some lovely deliveries this week! Whilst I was blog hopping last Sunday evening I came across this site which has some lovely fabrics! Well, I looked at it for at least 15 minutes before I decided that I really did need some more fabric for my stash, I ummmed and aahed for a while before settling on my fabric bundle of choice, placed my order and quickly moved off before I found anything else I wanted!

True to their word on Tuesday the postman delivered an unassuming black package to my door

Which, when I opened it revealed a beautifully wrapped package

It got a bit dog eared because I kept unwrapping it before I took the photo!

Which contained this lovely stuff…

Which smells just beautiful – I love the smell of new cotton fabrics! It’s a bundle of ten ‘fat quarters’ which I will make into something – just not sure what at the moment!

And then, on Thursday, the same postman bought me this….

which I will be turning into a baby afghan blanket with some mint & white which I had already bought. Sadly the pattern that I wanted to use just won’t work for me, I’ve unpicked it twice now but still can’t make it work so I’ll give up and revert to a ripple instead!

I fear that I am turning into a real craft-aholic as all I seem to write about these days is what I’m making! When I look back over the years I can’t help but feel  I’ve wasted so much time just staring at the TV screen – I need to make amends now. One thing I have noticed about myself is that I’m more patient, which surprises even me, with sewing now. If the seam isn’t straight I will unpick whereas back in the day I would have said ‘that’s the best I can do’! Last week I mentioned the log cabin pattern quilt that I had made with Nicky and I can now reveal it in it’s almost completeness – almost because I haven’t quilted it yet. Last night I tried to had quilt it but the back was an absolute mess, this morning I started to machine quilt it but that too was a mess. I have decided that the machine I bought just isn’t up to much other than stitching the fabrics together – it doesn’t really cut it for the quilting.

So, without further ado here it is…

It’s only 15 inches square and was intended for a ‘Blanket of Love’ we even had some sunshine  this morning!

This was my first attempt at binding the seam – I didn’t do too bad!

 

Close up of one of the squares

I think I mentioned that I’d agreed to help Nicky with a blog when I wrote last week, well I don’t have to now because her sister designed her a website and a blog as a birthday present – isn’t that a lovely idea? Please have a look here at the amazing things she makes, not just quilts but bags as well. She’d love to have you visit – you can tell her I sent you!

Just in case anybody is worried that I haven’t had a holiday for a few months, we are going away to Tenerife next week with our good friends Linda & John. Just for a week, recharge the batteries before the winter really sets in – then when we get back it will be time to think about Christmas, how time flies!

Better go now, been sitting at the sewing machine most of the day working on the next project – using Christmas fabric no less, I will share when it’s finished!

Thanks for reading….

Aww – somebody missed me!

You see dear readers, when I fall outside of my fairly regular blogging pattern people start to wonder why! OK – one person wondered why – you can’t blame a gal for trying to make it sound more than it is can you?

So I’m late this week (or last week), I have no real reason, yet again, for failing to post news of scintillating life other than I couldn’t be bothered! Yes – that’s right, just couldn’t be bothered.

Last week was very busy at work, I spent Tuesday & Wednesday on a training course – all about working smarter, improving processes, adding value – hey, wake up – I haven’t finished yet! Now while all this may seem yawningly boring we did actually have quite a few laughs, not least when we played ‘Two truths and a lie’, we had to write on a post-it just that – two truths and a lie about ourselves, the results were hilarious. Mine were 1)By night I am a hooker(!), 2) I have a season ticket at Ipswich Town & 3) When I was a teenager I screamed at an Osmond’s concert! Most of you will have no trouble working out which is the lie – if you can’t I’ll tell you at the end!

After Wednesday’s training I went back to the office only to find that a huge amount of work was required by 9.45 on Thursday – and I mean a huge amount, gathering reports and other evidence for a Very Important Meeting with a Very Important Regulatory Body – by 5.45 I’d decided I had no more to contribute but instead went in early on Thursday to do a pile of photocopying, let me tell you there is no end to my talents!

I had the day off on Friday and had arranged to go to Nicky’s house for a day of quilting lessons which she had offered in exchange for help creating a blog! I have to say that I was the sole beneficiary of the exchange as we never got round to the blog! I’ve left Nicky thinking of an original name for her blog which will feature her amazing quilting exploits – don’t blush Nicky – she is amazing and you should see the bags that she makes! When the blog is up and running I’ll add a link for you all!

I’m not going to post a picture of my creation until I’ve finished it, but I can now make the log cabin pattern, ooh get me!

The day flew by and when her husband arrived home I was amazed to find that it was 5 o’clock! Time for me to wend my way home through unfamiliar roads – I’m glad it wasn’t too dark!

Saturday morning saw me making a lavender cushion for this month’s secret Blog Swap – nothing like leaving it until the last minute! This is going to wing it’s way to Germany – I hope it makes it safely!

These fabrics were in a ‘scrap’ bag – ideal for small projects like this!

I love the Michaelmas daisy print – takes me back to my childhood garden!

Apart from that I have not had a creative moment – not even picked up a hook (in fact not picked up a hook since last Wednesday). Football was awful – we lost 1-2, Saturday evening TV was OK, Sunday morning I took FDIL to the Vintage Market at the Waterfront which was nice although there was less craft stalls than usual which was a shame and Sunday afternoon passed by in a flurry of ironing type activity – you know, really exciting stuff.

And that’s about it – I need to make more of an effort this week especially as I have two parcels to look forward to – more later!

Oh – and which was the lie? Number 3 of course – I was 49 when I screamed at an Osmond concert!! What’s that? Hooker? You didn’t think? Surely not? No!!!

Hooky stuff

Bonkers busy week at work, been feeling completely shattered but, strangely, in a good way! I’ve been asked to help another department out of a bit of a sticky situation whilst still keeping my own stuff going as well, but it’s OK at the moment – probably a touch of adrenalin rush!

After revealing my ‘Blanket of Love’ last week I knuckled down to finish the blanket that I’d agreed to make for Julie – she’d seen the pink & blue baby afghans I’d already made and asked for the pink one if I didn’t need it. To be on the safe side I made another just for her! This one is a little different because I used UK double knitting (I think it’s 8-ply elsewhere but don’t hold me to that!) and a larger hook – then when I was almost finished realised that I had done too many rows of pink between each white row – should have been three but me being all clever didn’t bother too look at the pattern properly! So, to use a good old Suffolk description, it’s come out huuuwuuuggg (can’t spell check that!!) but it’s pronounced just the way it’s written, with soft ‘Gs’ at the end!!

It’s a bit difficult to square it up because of the weight!

I joined the centre blocks as I made them which I think has given a neater finish!

I’ll leave it to Julie to decide which one she wants as I know she will have to post it overseas!

So what next? I’ve got to have something lap sized to do in the evenings, all those years I spent just plonked in front of the TV now seem such a waste now that I’ve rediscovered the life of a hooker! I thought I ought to use up the odds & ends of yarn in my stash so this week have been making random 6 inch squares from Jan Eaton's 200 Crochet Blocks I’ve only used block number 117 ‘Granny in the Middle’ so far and tried to keep to the colour order but I don’t think I’ll have enough scraps to maintain that. I think the whole idea of the book is to mix and match anyway so I’ll give it a go!

A bit blurred but you get the idea!

Oh yes, almost forgot that the hoarder in me surfaced again last weekend and I did actually order more of the Kool Kotton I used in the baby afghan, this time in Mint Green which I thought would be a little different – I was actually quite surprised when I got home to find the package last night!

About time too…

It’s been a long time. So long I can’t even remember the last time. The last time I wrote just general lifey things. No reason. Plenty of excuses – such as I have nothing to say!

So what have I been up to? Well, the holiday is now a very distant memory and I’m well and truly back in the work thing – that’s another excuse, it’s been busy at work! I’ve been crocheting – another excuse, needed to get things finished! And I’m longing, yes longing to start the quilting that I mentioned in the holiday post – all will be revealed, hopefully, very soon!

A few weeks ago I left you with the promise of more about the Rod Stewart concert and I will be true to my word! We have seen Rod three times in the last five years and he never fails to please! This time we went to the O2 arena to see him, staying overnight at the nearest Travel Lodge – please do not take this as a recommendation for a night away, if you can afford it I strongly recommend paying the extra for a place that’s slightly more luxurious! We had seen this particular hotel from the road several times as we’d passed, it’s not a particularly attractive building – very block-like in construction and the inside didn’t surprise us, however the staff were very friendly and the breakfast was very good. Probably best to skim over the accommodation for the night.

Anyway, on to the O2 via the Docklands Light Railway which was very efficient. We arrived, we thought, in plenty of time for a meal before the show. Unfortunately the rest of the world also had the same thought and every restaurant had a queue a mile long. A friend at work had recommended the Thai restaurant and amazingly it had the shortest queue – but only because they were taking bookings for an hours time! We gave our name and went inside for a drink, sat ourselves at a table and were joined by another couple who asked if we minded if they ate – of course we didn’t and, as luck would have it, we managed to order food as well without having to wait for the hour!  After a delicious meal we took our seats for the concert. We had good seats, via the front of the arena and just one level up about three blocks away from the stage. Whilst we’d been waiting I was being uber-cool and Facebooking, Tweeting etc only to have some very disparaging remarks made about Rod from some of my closest friends. Let me tell you right now they were wrong – he may be 65 but boy he can still rock an entire arena. He sang all of his old classics plus some Motown and he only swore once! I think the best bit though was at the end when he thanked us all for turning out in such difficult financial times and said that we’d made the effort to get Grannies to babysit! I think he needs a reality check – most of the audience were Grannies!

So that was Rod – hopefully he’ll do more tours and we’ll get to go again. What else has been happening? Mmmm not a lot really, oh – I bought a sewing machine. As I write it sits in it’s box unopened because I haven't had the chance to start to use it yet. I had planned to spend all day yesterday ‘playing’ and making a start but I’ve not been well all week so that didn’t happen. I have though bought several books and viewed some fabulous You Tube video tutorials on quilting. I’m waiting for some very important equipment to be delivered now – cutting mat, cutter and ruler – and believe me I will be using them very soon. I am inspired. I can quilt. I think…

I mentioned crochet above and I have been very active in that department (‘cos it doesn’t take a whole lot of effort- just need to stay awake!) and I can now reveal my latest projects – ta dah!

   

My friend at work (who doesn’t read this so if you know her please don’t tell her!) is going to be a grandma in December (she does know that part) so I thought I’d make something for the baby but because I don’t know what the baby will be I thought I’d make one in each colour. The pattern was based on this here but I used a 4-ply cotton and a 3.5 mm hook which made tiny motifs so I had to modify it to make a reasonable size – I have to say I’m quite pleased with the results.

I’ve now started to use this lovely cotton yarn that I bought on holiday. The idea was a Cath Kidston-esque afghan but I’m not so sure it’s looking that way! I decided to be a little different with this one and am making big squares using every colour in every square but in a different order and only using the sage green around the edges – I bought three balls of sage but that won’t be enough to edge the whole thing :( I tried to order more online at Hobby Lobby but they don’t do international online orders so I’ll need to phone them instead!

Well, that’s about it I think. I’ve had an enforced week off work due to illness this week – started off with a gastric thing and then on Wednesday my back pinged as I was about to sit down – hence I can’t sort the sewing machine out yet! My lovely FDIL kindly drove me to the Chiropractor on Thursday afternoon and I have another appointment for Monday – hopefully by then the pain will have subsided.

Phew, this is long – if you’ve made it to the end thanks for staying with me, if you haven’t well you don’t know what you’ve missed!!

Brighty, Stripey Thing

In answer to the question a few weeks ago ‘What will Sparkle do next’ here is the reveal!
I started with the intention of making just another blanket  to stow away somewhere for a rainy cold day and then had the bright idea of making a cover for the garden swing seat – all this blog-hopping inspires me no end! I like the way that the back looks like an old-fashioned deckchair with it’s stripy brightness! There’s a slight tension problem on the back but I think once I get some foam inside it’ll pull straighter  - but then again I don’t think it matters too much anyway!
 

It would have been lovely to show this on the swing but sadly the British weather has proved true to form for our holiday weekend – rain and clouds ruled!

Chit Chat

What am I like? I’ve gone the whole weekend and haven’t blogged about last week and stuff – that’s because it’s really hard to type and crochet at the same time and I have given myself a real life project which will need to be finished for the summer – watch this space!

So what have I been up to? Let’s start back at last weekend. On Saturday I visited Janet to hand deliver her birthday present prize – if you click on her name you can see what it was! I was able to customise it because I waited to see who won before I bought it! We spent a lovely afternoon chatting and she showed me her garret where she does all of her creative stuff! She also kindly gave me a few plants that she had grown from cuttings to plant in my garden!

On Sunday I cycled to visit Son1 and FDIL – now that’s no real distance but when I say I haven’t ridden my bike for mmm, must be three years, I hope you'll be proud of me! (This is where I confess that I couldn’t ride all the way back up the hill and had to push it most of the way!!)

The work week whizzed by uneventfully and as it was my Friday off, I persuaded John that he would like to come to Cambridge with me on a yarn hunting trip! Now, Cambridge is about 60 miles away and is well served by Park & Ride buses – the ones where you park outside a city and catch the bus in. Trouble was we took the first exit which is not so well served – in fact it is not at all served. It took us almost as long to get to the centre as it had to arrive on the outskirts! Never mind, I knew where we needed to head and used Google maps on my phone for the first time to great effect. We drove into the car park and almost had a conniption when we saw the cost of parking! If we were over three hours it would be almost £10!!!!!! I wouldn’t mind but we mistakenly took the lift and it was disgustingly dirty – I’d have expected a lift attendant for that sort of money!!

And I was disappointed when I arrived at the large department store (hint - never knowingly undersold) to find that the haberdashery department was tiiiiiiny! I was so looking forward to being able to see and touch yarns that I’ve only dreamt about to discover that they had probably a smaller choice than the lovely little wool shop I found locally a few weeks ago. Before I started out I had decided that I wanted to cover the cushions in my bedroom and wanted lilac and purple shades to make up some granny squares – I was not going to be beaten and did manage to find yarn that matched what I wanted – just!

As I was leaving the store I noticed toilet bags & make up bags – not something I needed but when I saw the little beauty below I just had to have one!

Because – it’s just right for…

…storing my scissors and hooks!!

That was a little consolation to make up for the disappointment in the yarn department – well, a girls gotta have something now and again, hasn’t she!!

On Sunday there was a Vintage & Modern market at the waterfront here in Ipswich – some lovely stalls selling all sorts from crafty to antique to just plain old junk! (sorry!!) not being an antique person or a plain old junk person I opted for the craft stalls and bought this lovely cushion

to which John said ‘You could make that’ Yeah right – me and sewing don’t go together too good but I have long had a hankering to learn to quilt, so maybe just maybe…

Oh and then there was this gorgeous card holder that will be winging it’s way across the Atlantic in a few weeks to the perfect home!

Better finish now – time to get hooking for the evening but I will leave you with a taster  of what arrived today…tune in next time for more details!!

Look what the postman bought me this week!!

I’ve had a week of real deliveries this week – nothing surprising because I’d ordered  a load of stuff, but it is quite nice to have real packages to open!

Since the reawakening of my love for crochet I can often be found either searching blogs or auction sites for vintage-like crochet patterns. I found this gem on e-Bay for 99p (about 70cents now that the pound has dropped against the dollar!!) just look at the 70s-ness of it – I don’t care if I ever use it or not the  10 minutes I spent skimming through it were worth every penny I spent!

 

Please don’t all rush to place your orders!!!!!!

Then there was this yarn – remember I bought some blue last week? Well I found a pattern for a lovely baby blanket (keeping that as a surprise for the time being!!)and needed more yarn than I had, I thought maybe pink & blue together would make it more unisex. I changed my mind when I realised that it would be mainly blue anyway and there is still something that makes pink to girly for unisex! With that thought I managed to find the same brand on another auction site and ordered white to make two blankets – that’s another couple of projects planned!

And then there were these gorgeous notebooks which I ordered from my own photos through Photobox. I’m going to use them as gifts for a couple of very good friends!