Sew good

 It's been a busy few days loads of craft

Monday evening I took up two bridesmaid dresses, well I cut them to length, I could not hem them, the fabric was a stretchy nylon fabric, which in truth, I found horrible, it's OK I work with the bride and she does not know of this blog. I did what was requires of me, they did not want a hem, which would have been a nightmare on the fabric. The bride and bridesmaids are all happy. I just feel it was not a great job.

Tuesday I made my bag which was a quick finish, the bag is huge, but it is perfect for my fabric stash, these soft baby fleece blankets are bulky, but now are together and neat, plus a spare curtain and still loads of room.

 I love the colours, and the handles are double thickness, so really sturdy. 

The cold weather is a nuisance, but doing no damage to my garden, most things planted are growing again, and really hardy. Almost every thing which needs protecting is still in my greenhouse.

The capillary mat is working well in the greenhouse, I cut a piece for my big tray, I keep a couple seedling trays in with my tomato plants, the strip soaked the water from a big pot, the mat stayed wet since Monday and there is still water in the jug.

I have not done anything in the garden, just checking the greenhouse to ensure everything is warm enough inside. I do have plans this weekend to sort one small bed, our soil is almost pure clay and I have to keep adding a good compost and some grit to break it up.
The tree we planted is looking good, no signs of stress.
Hubby has purchased me a book, it was booked out for months in our local library, I am looking forward to reading The Stranger in my Home, by Adele Parks, a new author for me.  I have started reading another Sharon Bolton book, Like this forever, I do enjoy her writing.

To finish, my friend saw this and thought of me, 

can't complain because it's true. 

The sun has got it's hat on

Hip hip hip hooray

nice to see sunshine in our garden

 Both girls are enjoying the sunshine

it's sunny and warm

nice change after all the rain we have had.

 Rain outside

means stitching inside

This corner is almost finished

 The center will be a huge diamond 

and a different design

so I have edged with black for neater lines.

Once this section is finished I will get on with the knitting, but as you can see stitching will always be my first love. The next section of Carrie Rose will be released on September 10th so I have plenty of knitting time.
So we have a long Bank Holiday weekend, last one for this year, and the weather is going to be much drier, so we can plan to do things. I still have not finished the design of daughters wedding invitations, I have had to order Navy card off line, can't get the dark shade local, that should be here early next week, I have ordered, plain, sparkling and mirrored, sounds weird, but we do have a plan.
Thank you for your comments regarding hubby on my last post, it's such a huge thing for him, and with me staying at work for a couple of years, to ensure we have savings behind us. I have so many hobbies, so I can fill my days, he plays golf but only plans to go out twice a week, and of course winter in coming. His older brother is doing their family history, which was his project when he retired. Because of the long days and driving, he is not offering to help run courses after next week, if he could do local ones he would love to do a couple days each week, it's a shame to lose all his knowledge.

So for now, bring on the weekend

Plans are made

 I did manage to get some stitching done, just started the inner blocks,

 

I will sew the squares first, adding muted colours to the design, as yet I have no firm plans for the centre.  I have been looking at all the different stitches and will fill the area's with stitches other that cross stitch.

 So far these colours have been chosen, I will also try and use some of the colours already stitched, this part is still undecided.

 This is my design so far, the colours are no true, I just used them for the template, I like to have my work on my lap and pull the silks from my drawer and match them. I have designed this piece with out finding the centre of the work, I wanted it to be random.

We have had a good weekend, sad to see Wales lose their rugby semi final to France, but next weekend we will be behind New Zealand, we did want a red and black final, now we just want the All Blacks to win!!
Rest of the weekend was spent at home, all the kids came to visit on Saturday, had a great meal with a friend here on Saturday evening, loads of left overs in the fridge. Sunday was just a day at home together, me doing the pattern above, Kev just pottering.

Thinking ahead

I am feeling a bit better today, still very tired, but feeling as if I want to take part in the world again, my mum would have said "back in the land of the living"

So I have lit my favorite candle, and hope to do a bit more craft today.

I saw today that Christmas is only 86 days away, boy it's creeping up fast, so Monday I sat here and designed some Christmas cards, I always make my cards, an individual one for close friends and family, and a mass one for everyone else, I have already stitched some family cards, see here I thought this year I would make a play on our surname, and get everyone to keep up with the Jones's. I printed the card below twice on A4 card, I use 130grms for this size card, then I just cut them in half.
The printed box around the words is there as a guide line for a silver box, I use peel offs for this, just placing them on top of the lines, the box makes the task quicker and it is always in the correct place, very useful if you are making loads of cards the same.
On each card I am placing a decoupage, The decoupage comes in 5 levels, I use 1,3,4, and5 for the front of the card. Level 2 I keep and put on the inside of my card, this image is always a good one to use. I aways have a inside paper sheet, often in a pale colour. All I have to do in photo below is attach the inside liner to card.

I have also created the Union Jack required for the front of the cushion I am making for my daughter Su, here in UK we are very retro at this time, and using our flag alot, please feel free to use my pattern below if you wish, I will stitch this onto linen using waste canvas,

But before I stitch it on the linen I am doing a smaller one, this I will make into a tree decoration. I just need to see the dimensions are correct. I did this stitching on Monday/Tuesday.

I have joined a Christmas Ornament Exchange with Marsha and have to send my ornament to Laine by November 1st, This weekend I am going to "Past Times" where they sell all retro items and will find something for Laine, and probably for me as well.

The rest of my day is planned, I have to service my sewing machine it's still not working correct, so I will take it apart and have a look. I want to do some more stitching on my Union Jack and I have a recorded programme from last night to watch.

Sunday Morning

Its a sunny, cold Sunday morning, Kev is playing Golf so I am sat at my desk with a steaming mug of real coffee, I have housework to do, but that is for later. As I look out my window I see a beautiful display of daffodils, we planted them last September, they bring a blaze of colour to our garden, they are planted in a shelted spot in a boarder filled with shrubs, so the wind has not caught them.




I have been busy in the past week, I love to cross stitch and have made 1/12 scale carpets for my dolls house, I have loads of pattern books and have enjoyed hours of fun stitching. But last week I decided it was time to create my own patterns.

First I installed Jane Greenoff's "Cross stitch pattern Crater 2", I have had these disc for a while and put off using them. I then sat and produced a simple pattern, the boarders were tricky, and the centre hard to fill. But I kept it simple and it worked. That was only the start I then had to sit and do the stitching, the enjoyable part. The colours were chosen to match a bedroom. It is a simple rug, I just need to block it to make it square again and cut it out, I have not decided if I am going to add fringing at both ends.

















I want to create my own large sampler, with items relevant to my family, I have saved some some charts with items I can use, ie cats, I don't think I'm up to designing a cat chart yet.