Knitting in circles

I got a posh set of circular knitting needles for my birthday and was inspired to try something quick and easy  ..... So found a pattern for this neck warmer, it was surprisingly easy and knitting on my new needles was easier than expected, who know I might get round to finishing my shawl soon 😊

Halloween party

The kids had friends over for the day so decided they just had to do the roald Dahl Halloween menu ...... Hansel and gretel ribs with worms followed by brains with snot and blood (jelly and Apple sauce with food colouring) followed by spooky ghosts...... Yummy

Then we all got dressed up to finish the party off 😀

Wrong time of year for a spring clean ....

But that's what I ended up doing when the kids had friends over to play ..... Here is what my fabric stash now looks like ..... It has made more space in the cupboard and I can see all the different fabrics easily 😀

Lobster night

For his 40 th Glyn had a list of things he wanted to do nw he was 40 ..... One of them was cook and eat a lobster, so for my birthday this year I decided to have a lobster evening and invite a couple of chefs round to help.

The lobster was delicious but a little disappointing as it didn't scream :-)

Freehand embroidery

For Ali's bitrhday I was lucky enough yo find a freehand machine embroidery course at fleet library. We spent a fun morning learning the techniques so I went home and did a bit more practice :-)

I can see lots more things bring created ..... Watch out for Christmas presents !

Rag quilt ...... First a pillow case

Rather than jump straight in and make a full size quilt I though it best to have a try at a pillow case first. It was relatively successful so will get started on the quilt next !

Best of British

This week gas been best of British week for year 5 ..... So unsurprisingly homework was to make a British collage......

I knew the scraps from the quilt I made Markus would come in handy one day ..... Just didn't think it would be so soon

Presents for Oma

The kids decided to make some bags for Oma this year ... they came out really well, I can see a theme emerging for the next lot of birthdays ......

Markus asked for a quilt ....

It must be nearly 2 years ago that Markus asked for a quilt like the one that I made for Steffi ..... So I bought some material, and then it has been sitting in a drawer since then .... But finally he has been reminding me and I was inspired bu a quilt I saw in the local quilting shop (natures threads).

I decided to do a disappearing nine patch pattern ....

It involved cutting out lots of squares ..... Sewing them into a large 9 square ....

And cutting them all up again. Above are what they look like all placed back together again.

The next problem was that he wanted yo have his name on it ( just like Steffi) so I used some squares made from old jeans and once it was all sewn together put his name on them

The embroidary in progress .....

Now all that is left to do is quilt the top onto the fleece backing piece and bind the edges .... Hopefully it will be finished after the weekend.

It took slightly longer and I also made a pillow case but I now have a happy little Markus :-)

What do you do with the left overs ?

I had a few pieces left from making a quilt for Markus .... So I ticked another job off the list and made a keyboard case for Dave at work. I couldn't resist using my chinook applique .... Well he is ex RAF .... And he seemed pleased with it :-)

More presents ....

Steffi tried some sewing on the machine, I did the freehand embroidary but she did the decorations herself

Summer holiday sewing

Markus had a friend over to play for a day in the holidays and when they saw me sewing they decided they wanted to have a go too ..... Here is the result, 2 felt purses and 2 happy boys!

Jeans jean jeans .....

What do you do with old jeans ? Ask pintrest of course and look for things that need repairing .....

A card ?

Markus's favourite reading cushion needed fixing .... It must be over 20 years old as I'm sure Joan made it for me when I went off to university but it is good as new now with some denim patches to replace the blue fabric and a little monster is back reading in his favourite place

So what next ........

A pot holder ?

Oh and lots and lots of squares ..... I fancy making a rag quilt with them but might have to start with a cushion

Another job on the list

I was telling a friend about May machine and ended up offering to try and do her logo on a towel or tshirt ..... Finally here is th logo, now I just need yo figure out how to do the text to go with it .....

Heath and hart

9th birthday party fun

Steffi decided she was having a splash splash water party for her 9th birthday ... Luckily the weather agreed with her and the girls had fun getting wet in the garden and then making hair clips

Finally we played the old fav .... The chocolate game and roasted marshmallows on the fire before eating cake 

Then we made some Thankyou cards .... Using some of the paper from the presents :-)

Another quilt at last .....

At last I have found time to do some more work on my quilt made from a jelly roll. I think I v

Bought the jelly roll in the Easter holidays 2013 .... So it has taken a while ... But here are the bits, all I need now is some batting and some binding .... Maybe that will take another couple of years :-)

The rows made up and all ready to sew together

The front all finished

And finally the back

The results of a girls shopping trip

Steffi and I went shopping one sat afternoon ...... As a reward for not biting her nails and for getting am excellent school report ..... Here are some shots of the modelling show we got the next day

Camp blankets and painting aprons

As well as the usual painting aprons for school this year I was asked to do a couple of camp blankets, so I used the emblem I used on steffi's .... I think they cam out quite well

Presents .....

Well over the last few months I have made quite a few presents and they have all been given away I can put a post about them .....

Firstly a pillow and a box made from scraps for my cycling buddy :-)

Then a few wedding presents ......

And finally something for steffi's teacher

Birthday season

Aug is birthday season in our house ..... Markus had a mountain biking party, followed by water fight and campfire in the garden, steffi is planning a water party at the start of therm.

We are away camping for steffi's birthday so we had a family afternoon on Markus' birthday fir the two of them ..... How  much longer am I going to get away with them sharing the decoration of a cake ? .... Admittedly they also have cakes for their parties so maybe it will lags a little longer ..... Here is the result of the cake decorating ..... Choc fudge cake yum yum yum 

    

the trifle chef hard at work

 .... Decorating in progress

As M got walkie talkies as a birthday present .... They spent the day dressed as police men :-)