Swaps and Makes

Well my wonderful morning turned into a wonderful day .

The  fabric I won in a giveaway from Traci at Handmadehappiness arrived in the post.

Don't you love those colours. Thank you Traci.

Then , on my way to have coffee with my friend Loopylou, I had to pick a parcel up from the post office. It was very difficult to wait until I got to  lou's house  before  opening it hence no before pictures-too impatient.  It was my Spring swap from Ali-at Magic making hands.

Well that's just what she has(sorry bad pun)

anyway, I just love these tiny flowers as did lou.

There is nothing like buttons, I just have to play with them with lots of oh's and ha's. These were at the bottom of the pretty box it all come in along with the chocolate mini eggs which of course didn't last long enough to be photographed.

These colours are positively delicious, reminds me of sherbet space ships from when I was a kid.

This has made it to my car keys.

Lots of lovely lace, I like the way it is wrapped around the pegs, I'm going to get more pegs and do this with all my lace.

Lou and I had great fun unwrapping all this, especially Lou as she is just about to start blogging and this has given her more enthusiasm.  All this excitement was watched by Fat Cat (real name Cleo) who was totally unimpressed.  The crochet cotton in the corner of the picture is a tiny part of a job lot Lou got at an Auction in the most beautiful autumn colours, loads of  it.

Some people just have the knack don't they

I've had a busy sewing month, although I'm not very happy with one make but still---

The first thing has to be Stanley of course using the pattern from Annie at Felt Fairy.

Mr T loves him so he has a permanent place in the lounge.

This is what i'm not that happy with. It is supposed to be part of the Charlie Harper quilt along (my first ) organised by Flaming stitches but plan A went horribly wrong, so I reverted to plan b and did it by needle felting.  

This is the original, sorry about the size.

I think there might have to be a plan c.

Any way here are some of the other thing I have made this month.

My first crochet cushion.

American style lunch bags made with oilcloth. Mine is the one with the houses, the other one is for Little one when she gets home from her travels.

The pegs are from Muddy puddle crafts.

 A little zipped bag for new great Niece/ nephew. 

 and a summer shoulder bag for me.

Sorry, It's turned out to be a long post hasn't it.

Keep well all of you.

Gillx

Rats and Bats.

Look what arrived by that nice man from the post office, my Pumpkin Patch Swap from the lovely Nic at Halfpenny Home. I love getting swaps because although you know what the theme is, everyone puts a different  interpretation on it and I find it fascinating to see what people send. And of course I love surprises.

The first thing out of the box was this fantastic halloween bunting. The skull and cross bones fabric is great fun. There are felt appliqued pumpkins on the plain black fabric. This is going to be great hung in the front porch for the trick or treaters. 

 A fantastic knitted pumpkin tea cosy. I absolutely love this and so does Mr T but it gets better-

It came complete with a very elegant white tea pot. It was put into use straight away.

 Then there was chocolate eyeballs. jelly fingers and bat hair slides hiding in these little parcels.

All in all I feel a very lucky lady, it really has made my day especially as we now get to the rats part.

I've got a horrid headache that won't go away. Blah.  More tea I think.

Gillxx

No more excuses

I had a long list of things to finish before I felt justified in starting my new project of my dress and jacket and today was the day I had set aside to do them-SO.

These have been made for eldest daughter who is arriving tomorrow to collect her bottom drawer and bedroom furniture. She is setting up her own house with her boyfriend in Exeter and has a trunk full of retro stuff in her bedroom. I saw these fabrics in my favourite charity shop so thought another couple of cushions are always handy. So that's job no.1 done.



These 2 have been finished and packed up ready to send off. They are for Dolly Donations which send dolls to orphanages in Haiti and I had fun making them from one of the patterns they supply . If you want to know more then just give them a visit. Job no.2 done.



Next was finishing these great pen rolls for my 2 little nieces. The original tutorial is for crayon roll which I got from here but I tweeked it slightly so they have washable felt pens and a little note book. My little one rather fancies one as well but that will have to wait. Job no.3 done.



I love these hangers and decided I wanted one but I haven't picked up a crochet hook since I was about 10. The tutorial is Here . So first a book, "first crochet" by Lesley Stanfield, then a trip to my fav CS again for some odd balls of wool, I have all my Mums kit which has a hook of every size and make. After a fews days I got into the swing of things and voila my own hanger. I'm so pleased with myself and have found I love hooking,it's very addictive isn't it. Anyway,job 4 done.



I can't show you the next one as it was finishing my vintage swap for Sandie's Patch, but that is all now packed and ready to go. Job 5 done.

So the only thing left to do was sit in the garden with a cup of tea and a magazine admiring my lovely lillies. Tomorrow is the big day, does it show that I'm nervous about this, the fabric is so beautiful what if i mess it up? Still no more excuses.




Peterborough bloggers meet on friday, can't wait.
Speak soon

Gillxx

swaps

I have received 2 swaps this week. The first one was from Lucy/ TeteL'air (who doesn't have a blog) and was part of the fabric swap on Tina's Scratchy cats blog
I forgot to take photos of what I sent Lucy I'm afraid but here's what she sent me. All that lovely fabric. Thanks Lucy.



The next arrived this morning from Jill at love to craft as part of the boudoir swap run by Fondant Kiss.
love the pretty spot paper.



Lots of pretty things including what my husband Mr.T calls proper girly hankies.Thank you Jill it's great although I'm afraid the chocolate didn't last long. Well I didn't want it to melt in the heat.



Then just to end today, this weeks favourite flower from my garden. These Alliums are lovely when they are in flower but also have fantastic seed heads which I use in the winter. What a useful flower.


Tomorrow I'll have some photo's of my trip to Peter Beales Roses.
TTFN
Gillxx