WOYWW 299

LET ME TAKE YOU FAR AWAY,
YOU'D LIKE A HOLIDAY....
(The Scorpions)


You find me, mid bag making (again!)  Princess Judy fancied one and specified 'greens, blues and browns....no pastels' so I think this fabric fits the bill perfectly!  I found this fresh, apple green spotty fabric in a shop when I was away two weekends ago...it's a gorgeous colour, really springlike - which is why I was attracted to it in the first place.  After this, there'll be another bag to make for a lady who emailed me, she reads my blog and some of the other WOYWW desks but doesn't join in herself. So hello Gail * waves madly*, hope you manage to take part in the general weekly mayhem at some point!!



Two more Hooters for Zoe's fundraising, one for a neighbour of mine, the purple one is for Lynda B. I'll be posting him soon, Lynda...hope you like the colour :-)

But I haven't actually been crafting indoors that much...outdoors is a whole different matter though! We have a long hazel hedge down the side of our property, which is on top of an ancient bank/hedgeline. It grows up to 7' every year which we cut down in the autumn with the help of our boys. But I decided it was time to really hack it back and re-lay it properly. My husband is poorly with the flu at the moment, so I went out armed with a bow saw, axe, long handled loppers and secateurs.......



You can see the difference in height between the uncut/laid parts of the hedge...



It's like knitting with twigs and boughs :-)  It's tough but very satisfying!



Rhys helped with the removal of the trimmings. I really enjoyed doing this and only have a couple more yards to finish. I'm proud of my handiwork!

Right, feel free to bail out at this point as I'm going to post a couple of pics from our weekend away  :-) We were invited to go to Eastbourne by our friends in the Accordion orchestra, as a thank you for helping them out last year...it was a whole weekend of all things accordion-y, so while workshops etc were taking place, Gordon and I went sightseeing!  First we went to Bexhill-on-Sea, because I wanted to visit the De La Warr Pavilion, a beautiful Art Deco exhibition centre on the seafront...



She was like an ocean liner in a 30's poster...good cafe too!



Gordon took this amazing shot looking up the beautiful sweeping staircase. I love spirals, so this is fantastic.....










I had fun being a human sundial on the promenade....

A photo of the two of us  - the self timer on the camera did a great job, I really love this pic!

The next day, we went to Brighton on the bus. And had a wonderful time mooching around the alleys and lanes, enjoying the very trendy right-on vibe of the place.



The Royal Pavilion is just bonkers! Fun though.....



What?? It's a fabric shop, isn't it? I had to go in, just for research purposes, you know...cough....








It was stacked high with piles of wonderful fabrics...I particularly liked this selection. 

But the shop was so crammed, it was difficult to move around, so consequently I didn't buy!








We passed an amazing cake shop (NOT Choccywoccydoodah, which was cheap and tacky in my opinion...can't understand why people make such a fuss about it!) where this Steampunk cake caught my attention. 

I took this pic for research purposes for my son and his fiance :-)


And finally....Gordon made me do this! He said it would be a good blog piccy...hmmmmm. Totty maybe, but Posh? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha........ I don't think so, lol.

We had such a great time away...pity that since then, poor G has been struck down hard by flu. He's been really, properly poorly...

If you've read all the down down to the bottom, then you must be mad! But thank you :-) 
Have a great week!

WOYWW 297

AND MORE, MUCH MORE THAN THIS,
I DID IT MY WAY.........

Well, let's have a little peek at the results of last week's tidying up!! I managed to get it down to four well packed boxes....plus a cardboard one full of fat quarters and another full of ribbons/ricrac etc. not bad huh!

After I showed Julia's tote last week, I ended up making another couple for friends of her sister! It's tricky when you don't know someone's personal taste, having never met them. So I opted for the Scottie and Botanicals fabric, both of which have done really well in the past.



A hand selfie! Just placing a button before sewing on...


Et voila. Hope they've arrived by now (and the ladies like them!). 


And as much as I'm trying to have a fabric buying embargo, I saw this pretty floral fabric in the sale at my favourite local shop in Marlborough. I had to have some, it's so pretty and Springlike :-). I'm not usually a floral/pastel lover, but this just spoke to me, so a metre found its way into my bag.......Dunno what I'm going to make with it yet!

And here are the latest Hooters and Hedgies, all with good homes to go to! Another £25 for Zoe's fundraising, yay :-)  I've got one more to make and then I think I'll do some crochet for a change.......

Have a great crafting week everyone!


WOYWW 296

HELP, I NEED SOMEBODY,
HELP, NOT JUST ANYBODY,
HELP, YOU KNOW I NEED SOMEONE...HELP!
(The Beatles)

The state of my fabric stash was terrible. When I was going to put my new stuff away, I couldn't even make my way through the disaster zone of my desk. So a Grand Sort Out was definitely in order....
And that's just a small fraction of the linings and fat quarters, there's the furnishing weight fabrics to be sorted as well. It's quite ...um..'surprising' quite how much fabric I've amassed over the past four years...cough...

I've been doing a bit more stash busting as Julia lost her craft tote to her sister over Christmas and asked if I could make her a new one. So, to The Stash, James and don't spare the horses.....

I know that Julia's got this Union Jack fabric on a chair at her house, so thought I'd make her a bag that would be camouflaged when she put it down!! ( I do love her really...honest!)

And last week, I had a request from a family friend if I could have a sewing day with her as she's just bought herself a machine and hadn't sewn since school days. So I bought my sewing table downstairs and we set to.  It's hard work concentrating on keeping your seam allowance straight!
Ellen's sewing started off decidedly wobbly, but her seams were really straight and even by the end of the day!  She'd bought a load of Marvel Comics fabric which was very funky but extremely slippery nylon...we persevered though and made a cushion cover. But I thought that she should make something out of better quality fabric so helped her make a simple tote.

Ellen also learned how important ironing is to make a good product. Cos she's like me and hardly irons anything, lol!!  But you did really well, Ellen - keep practising. You'll be fab :-)

The gold hedgehog I showed last week went off to live with Queenie Jeannie in Germany!  I made another, this silver one...she's definitely a girlie, don't you think?

Anyway, a friend bought her when she visited yesterday and ordered another in red!  It's amazing how popular these patterns are, but honestly, the wool is lovely, soft and squidgy and even I, a confirmed soft toy hater, have been converted!

So, that's another £15 raised for Zoe, which takes it to £55. If anyone else would like a tote or Hooter/Hedgie, let me know, it's for a great cause :-)

Have a great week!


WOYWW 769

 WE'LL MEET AGAIN.... I'm going to take a break from blogging for a while - please don't worry, all is ok! - think I just need a...