Good times!

I’ve had a couple of lovely days! Friday was my day off and I had planned to go to lunch with Nicola. Normally our socialising is limited to slaving over a steaming sewing machine but I had a voucher from Groupon for a local restaurant so off we went. Now, if you read Nicola’s blog, Stitch Magic, you will know that she spent a few days at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham so of course she had lots to tell me about her adventures. I was green with envy and next year I am going to make every effort to go myself. She wisely tells me that one day just isn’t enough – even three days meant that she didn’t get to see everything – I’m just imagining the enormity of it all! Being the good friend that she is, she bought me a present to make up for me not being able to go! A beautiful bag kit – no spoilers, you’ll have to wait until it’s finished!!

We had a lovely meal but forgot about taking any pics until the dessert came – here’s mine!

Doesn’t it look huge!! Don’t worry that’s an illusion, it just looks like a huge trifle bowl, in fact it was a small bowl – meringue island, with lovely vanilla custard and strawberries – delicious!

After lunch, I inducted Nicola into the joys of Poundland – can you believe she’d never set foot in such a place before? I think she was a little overwhelmed, poor thing! I love Poundland (on a quiet day!) it’s great for all sorts of things but this time I needed bits for the grand barbecue we’re having next weekend.

And the fun continued yesterday. John has a special birthday coming up at the end of the week and he is notoriously difficult to buy for at the best of times. Son1 decided to organise a photo session as a local photographer’s studio. After agonising about what we should wear all five of us trooped along, FDIL and I both wore dresses, the boys wore more casual clothes and John wore smart trousers and shirt. The photographer took one look and said ‘you’re dressed quite formally – my style is more fun!’ We had an hours session booked and 10 minutes in I was exhausted!! We had this pose and that pose, John & I, the boys together, the boys apart, Son1 and FDIL, John & the boys, me and the boys – it seemed endless! I’m really looking forward to the results!

And of course all good things must come to an end and they did – with a bang. Ipswich Town’s match was televised yesterday and, having being thumped 5-2 at home during the week, we were hoping for a good result. We sat down to watch and were ecstatic when Town scored the first goal. Sadly the ecstasy did not last as Peterborough sent SEVEN (yes SEVEN) goals into the back of our net. There are 11 players in a team, we lost 2 to red cards and the remaining 9 seemed to think they should just stand back and watch the show. It’s hard being a Town fan, but we thought this season was going to be different – sadly that does not appear to be the case . Never mind, the next game that I will go to won’t be until October (Son2 will take my ticket next weekend) perhaps things will be sorted out by then!

So what’s next? Busy week coming up, going to view the photo’s on Wednesday, John’s birthday Friday – going out for lunch with FDIL’s Mum & brother ‘cos he’s 18 on the same day – and then on Sunday we have the barbecue as part of Son2’s ‘Going to Oz’ celebrations, this one’s for family friends (he has a compartmentalised life!).

I’ll need today to prepare myself!!

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?

Busy, busy, busy!!

What a busy few days, I hardly know where to begin!!

I’ll start with Friday, I think. I went off to Nicola’s for the day for more sewing practice – it seems that you can’t have too much practice!! I had prepared a couple of bits as I hinted at in my last post and I think I’m safe to reveal them now!

The pink one I made all by myself – it’s not quite the same as the purple one but I didn’t do too bad considering it was from memory and by almost deconstructing the one I made with her help a couple of months ago!

These have now been given as pressies to the friend that I call Julie and her lovely daughter, my goddaughter.

And then, after a quick trip to Quilters Haven (if it’s possible to have a quick trip, that is!) where we met up with a friend that Nicola had made through blogging (she can be found right here) and her friend (who can be found right here) and I bought just a little more fabric and a book – oh and we had a cup of tea – we returned to Nicola’s and I made this bag, which will probably go to my FDIL as she seemed quite attracted to it!

So after a long day sewing on Friday, I woke up on Saturday morning knowing that it would be another busy day. It was Julie’s birthday and a joint party was being held for her and her daughter in the evening. But I had nothing to wear , sure I’ve got dresses and shoes but absolutely nothing that I could wear on Saturday night. So, while I’m in the hairdressers, having had the magic worked on my head and during the next most important part the manicure, the idea was put in my head that I needed to buy a maxi dress and then I could wear flat shoes!

So suitably attired we all set off down to Colchester for a night out – the boys and FDIL came along as well! And what a party – great mix of music, the guests were of all ages and I have to say that I haven’t seen Julie looking so happy for ages!

Sadly no photos are suitable to publish exist of me from the evening but here are the birthday girls in full ‘row’ to ‘Ooops upside your head’ and no I didn’t join in as I would never have got up again!!

After a very late night for us we had a lazy morning yesterday, Son2 came for Sunday lunch and we settled into the garden for the afternoon – and then FDIL phoned and asked if we’d eaten. They had bought a turkey and when she went to put it in the oven it had gone off! Fortunately I had a lot of meat left over  so was able to feed them when Son1 finished work – they bought their own vegetables!!

And today, after a quick trip to Sainsbury’s I decided to have a lazy day, apart from making a cushion after Son2 asked yesterday if there were any cushions for the garden. I’ve been very lazy with this and just sewn some strips from a jelly roll together – my excuse is that I wanted to keep it simple!!

So that’s my weekend – just as well we only have to work three says this week – I’m exhausted!!

Confession

I don’t always tell you about all the fabric I buy. Phew – I’m so relieved to have been able to get that off of my chest. You see, I’ve developed a habit. I suppose as habits go it’s relatively safe, but nonetheless it is a habit. My wise neighbour told me this morning that I need to use before I buy anymore. Of course she is talking about starting to work through the fabric stash that I already have. And she’s probably right. The trouble is this habit of mine keeps taking me to places that I shouldn’t even dream of going to. Most of them are virtual places. And most of them are a long way from home. Most of them are way across the Atlantic. And it’s cheaper, even with post & packing, for me to order from there. Apart from excise duty. As a law abiding citizen I agree wholeheartedly with the principles of paying what’s due, however my objection lies with having to pay Royal Mail £8 for delivering me a card to tell me that I have to pay the duty.

Take the last package (only joking, please don’t take it – I waited three weeks for it to come). The lovely lady at Lola Pink indicated that the value of the packet was $43. The rule is you pay excise duty on anything over £18 (for VAT purposes) or over £40 if it is a gift. This last package cost £5.35 in duty – I don’t have any problem with paying that, however I really, really object to paying Royal Mail for the privilege of telling me. There, rant over. Onwards and upwards! I suppose the moral is to make sure that you don’t order anything worth more that £18!!

So all of this fabric – what am I going to do with it? Well, I might have a little break from quilts for a time and try my hand at bags, remember I made one a few weeks ago with Nicola? Well we’re going to have a day together again in a couple of weeks time, I’m going to be a guinea pig and test out patterns that she’s been working on herself plus I really want to make more of the boxy bags that I made last time.

Here’s a sneaky peek of some of the combinations I’ve been thinking of putting together – that’s the part I probably find the hardest, but it’s still early days so I must give myself some time.

I did plan to make a start in piecing the bags today but instead I did the housework and the ironing – time flies when you’re having fun!!

PS – this isn’t all that I bought, like I said at the beginning, I don’t tell you about all that I buy

Have a good week, enjoy the sun while it lasts!

Didn’t we have a lovely time…

…the day we spent sewing!! Sorry – that started out better than it finished (I had that stupid song about a Trip to Bangor in mind when I started typing!!)

Unusually, I had today off as part of my nine-day fortnight and I spent it sewing with Nicola (check out her handiwork here – plus her version of events!!) after I had completed the mountain of ironing that had built up over the weekend!

Nicola arrived about 10.30 and after about two hours of chatting – I haven’t seen her for ages – and lunch of soup & roll plus delicious Victoria sandwich cake (provided by Nicola) we finally got around to sewing – and this is the result…

We started with two rectangular pieces of fabric (no pattern or instructions – just Nicola’s memory) which I quilted together, bound the top and bottom, fitted a zip (never done that before!!) and then pleated the sides ending up with about four (maybe more) layers to sew through – just as well the machine is sturdy! Add a tab in to the mix, turn it inside out, give it a bit of a tug here and there and …voila!! You have this…

Lovely!!! So what’s next? Well, I had a bit of a browse after we’d finished with the thought that I needed some lovely bright solid colours and stumbled across a site here that I thought was very reasonably priced so I did myself a bit of ordering – bags could become the new quilts!!

Oh – before I forget the verdict on yesterday’s muffins – Blueberry’s were OK – not sure about the butternut squash and rosemary – they were a bit soggy for my liking – I think maybe I misjudged the quantities of squash!