Laughter in the rain

Three tea towels

What to do on a rainy afternoon with 3 grandsons

 Latest library book

I enjoyed The Ice Twins 

 I saw this book on Sue's blog

and thought it would make a great Christmas present

Thanks Sue for your post, as always an interesting read. 

The tea towels I purchased last month, I want to make myself a lovely Christmas shopping bag, using the red towels. The third towel I have decided to make two small child's bags, I made Will an Easter bag, which he loves, so again he will have one bag here and one at home, the bag here is full of dinky cars.
Friday was a day with hubby, we sat and read for a while in the afternoon, which we both love, and finally it's something I do without any guilty feelings, for a long time I would want to get everything done before relaxing, and we have decorating in the sitting and dining rooms to get done, but these days I am happy to slow our pace down.
Saturday hubby went off on his motorbike, it's RTTW time, I've been twice before, click on the link to see more, this time he went with his eldest son, and other riders for the Guards riding club, so weekend alone for me. I do love my hubby, but I love home alone time.
Three grandsons spent the day with me, Josh and Sam (who are the two oldest boys, brothers) and Will (our youngest), they all played together, loads of laughter, Pizza and chips for lunch. It was raining all day, very good for the garden, but we were unable to get out to our planned visit to Portchester castle, so loads of cars everywhere,  the sitting room looked like a toy shop.
Today I am meeting youngest daughter for a coffee at a local garden center, I am looking for a hellebore or another winter colour plant to put in my big pot, down by the steps to my greenhouse. 

Bags of fun

Reversible kiddies bags, with loads of different fabrics inside. 

I believe the most important part of the bags I make are the handles, so I always take time to make them as strong as I can. 

 Three bags completed

 These are roomy, strong and pretty, I have two black lined ones to finish, the inner and outer bags are complete and pinned together, I just have to make the handles, slip them into place and sew the bags together.

 Another tea towel bag (made with two tea towels), 

no lining, same design on both sides. 

 My trusty machine, years old and well loved

 Not too many functions, but everything I require, I clean and oil this machine myself, it never lets me down and is a joy to use. I had been thinking about replacing it, but I really can see any point, especially as I have not used all the functions yet.  

 Another library book

It poured down this morning, too wet to even look out the window, so again I got sewing. I spent yesterday after noon finishing the 8 children's size bags and loads of cutting out.
This morning after I had made handles, I used two layers of fabrics, black on the bottom and the same colour as the lining for the front. I iron all the folds before pining together and sewing. I then cut out 5 bases for the check bags and 5 check outers. I had cut out and sewn the inners yesterday afternoon. I used all the plain black fabric I had to hand, so I will have to find my spare black fabric to make the last two sets, no colour fronts just all black.
I did the one shopping bag, I have cut out another three shopping bags ready for sewing. I am helping my sister gather stock for her craft business, she wants to use family members to help give her the various items to create a good base for selling. I have a couple more different styles of bags to make and also some cushions. I hope to have most done by the end of the weekend. I will then make a few Christmas items, including festive bottle bags and bunting.
Hubby has started painting the hall and stairs, he has started in the stair well, it's the most difficult part. We are changing the wall colours from magnolia to a pale green, just a hint of colour. He has done the ceilings and the first coat on most of the walls. The same colour paint will be used all through the hall and into our sitting room, we are open plan and it's difficult to have different colours in different area's.
We had a super bargain yesterday morning, we popped to our local B&Q to get the paint, they did not have the big tins in our colour in silk finish, so we drove to a much bigger B&Q, got the paint and I spotted a rug which would go perfect in our decorated sitting room at £78, the last one on the shelf, when we checked it was dirty, we were offered a discount but refused, just in case we could not clean it. The lady then found us and said we have another rug, come and look. When we opened it, it was the ex display rug, clean but it has a plastic hook going through it, she offered it to us for £50, so we took it, plus hubbies Wednesday discount we got the paint and the rug for £63, should have been £98, we are both pleased, the hook has been removed and you can't see any marks.

Sewing instruction - Finish

Beautiful patchwork

 All neat and tidy

 Another cushion cover and hearts

 With an envelope pocket (no zip)

 Shopping bag from tea towels

 Lovely neat lines. 

We have had a very busy week of sewing, all the above made, ready for gifts to be taken home by our house guest.
Back in the 80's we had a Spanish student Izzy, she stayed with us for a month, and was a wonderful young woman and we loved having her to stay. She visited for many years, her desire to learn everything British has helped her in her work life as an English teacher in Spain. We have been a part of her family, watching her two young daughter grow into lovely young women. We have had wonderful holidays in Spain with the family, Izzy and both daughters visited last year, another lovely holiday together. So this last week for the first time we had her eldest daughter Alba staying, she is 14.
Alba loves to sew, so most days we had my sewing machine working. We used tea towels for the bag (a gift for her mother), Union Jack cushion cover (a gift for her sister), and we choose fabrics from my stash for the patchwork cushion, which Alba made for herself.
The patchwork being the hardest sewing Alba has done, she choose all the fabrics and then placed them to make the final design, with coaching from myself, she has done most of the stitching, I only had a tiny input. I am proud and very pleased with the improvement Alba has made, she was willing to learn and tried most things I asked from her. I hope when she returns to Spain tomorrow with her gifts, her family will see the hard work and enjoy each item. The three small hearts are for her friends.

Growing stash, growing stuff

Tea towels and half meter of lovely fabric from Dunelm.

 Two dishes and a glass pot, all below £2 each, all for plants

 Just £5 from a local fruit and veg shop

 From our local market.

 I want to try growing figs from seeds, 

and a couple of seeds from our Magnolia tree. 

I have had a good day, my daughter collected me at 10am, we went to a local village to visit the charity shop with the great craft items, nothing much caught my eye, I did get my Orchid with 4 different stems in the village.
We went to her house dropped the car off and walked to her local Dunelm, I managed to get a new super king size flat cotton sheet, which was expensive, but I am very limited to what we can use on our bed, the quality means it should last for years. I got the two glazed pots in their sale, plus the tea towels and the fabric,  I need to make our 2nd DIL a shopping bag, and both daughter and I though she would love the bird fabric.
Early this morning I walked past the market as they were setting up, I saw the Hosta's, but did not have any money on me, so late this afternoon hubby and I popped down for our fruit and veg, and he purchased this Hosta, we only have one in the garden and the slugs have chewed it right back, so we can replace it with this one, and the chewed one I will put in a pot and bring it back, ensuring the slugs are kept away from both.
I have not done anything in the garden and very little craft, I did some knitting on my socks. I do need to sort my head with everything going on, I am this week sleeping better. I have done loads of walking, it's one way to be outside.
The fruit and veg man gave me the figs, they are over ripe, I want to try and grow from seed, the two green seeds are from our Magnolia tree, I going to try and germinate them, plus I have another avocado stone balanced over water to see if it will crack and grow.
Hubby is home for the rest of the week and the weekend, we cancelled our planned BBQ on Saturday, but we have new plans for the evening. Saturday it is our local Gala, held in the castle grounds, normally we miss this event as we are often away, but we are looking forward to the parade and all the family fun.

Finish and RAK

One large holiday bag for myself

 Two; saw this and thought of you

both hubby's oldest son and DIL love Beagles

I thought DIL would love a new bag

 Three; tea towel bag, don't you just love the colours

 I made double handle, one set shoulder length and one set for carrying, they are joined at the same spot and the longer set can be tucked inside when not in use.

 I am pleased with the burst of colour

 I have a huge pocket inside

 I was going to line with white, 

but decided the black was a better contrast.

 No lining on this bag, just a nice size for shopping

 I made French seams again, it's a much simpler bag to make. 

 This was one pack of reduced teatowels

It was always my plan to use all three. 

 You will never lose it

 The lower pink section is a big handy pocket. 

 Bags of room inside

 French seams again, just so easy and they look so good. 

Will stayed until after lunch yesterday, we had so much fun together, he got all the musical toys out and we were 'singing', me out of tune, Will making noises, but it was fun.
After a bit of a rest and a huge mug of tea, I got my sewing machine out, I had cut out three bags, of which I have stitched two, the tea towel bag I decided to start later in the afternoon, hubby did not get home until after 5pm, so I had plenty of time. I have a bag I am making for Shelia our sign class mentor, she has given me two flags from Harry and Meghan's wedding, it all cut out, all I need to do is sew it together. I have another bag I am making my daughter, using two tea towels with cats on, I made myself one with bee's on, but the bag is a bit small, so I will make daughters bigger using both tea towels.
It's such fun to have an afternoon sewing, it was very hot here, so a day inside with the doors open, was a pleasure.
The tea towel bag, is surplus to my requirements, I do not need another home made shopping bag, so I'm having a giveaway, if you would like this good sized colourful bag, please leave a comment at the bottom of this post, I'm not wanting anyone to post about this, I just want to say thank you for reading my post, I am happy to post anywhere.

Sewing bee

I brought these recently from a local garden center, paying more than I normally would, but I do love the prints and the fabric is nice and thick. 

I got the first bag finished,

no lining and french seams so no raw edges inside. 

This is not too deep but nice and wide. 

Very pretty, I use all of the tea towel

A lovely new bag.

Hubby was home late on Friday evening after a day out in London, so before Monty came on TV at eight, I thought I would make this bag, I am getting very quick at cutting out and sewing together. To make french seams is really easy, you put wrong sides together and stitch the seam (totally the opposite of a normal seam), you then turn the bag so the right sides are together and stitch another seam, ensuring your stitching is just past the raw edges, so all raw edges are tucked inside. These are strong neat seams.
I have done a few more french knots on my other project (got a theme going here), nothing on my cross stitch or socks, I'm just too tired in the evenings for either.
It's May and the garden is everything, each moment you put in now, will brings loads of payback through the summer months.

Stitch, shop and stop

 This is looking good. 

Just two shades of red, the other two will be different colours. 

 I love the added texture

4 Tea towels, I have been looking for a bee print for ages.

I will make these into 4 bags, the material is thick, so I won't need to line them, I will stitch French seams, so no raw edges show. There are two cat designs as younger daughter wants one. These were more expensive than I normally pay.

 These just fell into my basket.

 Lupins from local market

All other plants and seeds from local garden center, I got the two middle plants for my greenhouse to help with bugs inside, I am going to look online ref their care.

 Last summer I purchased a small Passion fruit plant from our local charity shop, potted it on and left it in the greenhouse, now it's found it's permanent place in the Christmas tree pot, down by our back door.   

Finally for Maggie, who like me have problems with squirrels digging in her pots, I got 20 of these from here, they are for ponds made of plastic and can be cut to fit pots. I did a few pots, but in the end I did all of my pots and the squirrel has stopped digging.