Try Again .................

Next month, together with some of my husband's family, we're holding a coffee morning for Macmillan Cancer Care in conjunction with their "World's Biggest Coffee Morning" event.  Some of the bits I've been making for the craft table:

 

 

I'm having lots of fun making small things with not too much outlay and can't wait to see what, if anything, will be popular on the day.

Am hoping that the blogging glitch that put me off has righted itself

Garden Party Purse

Another one for the pressie drawer - the first "scrappy" project from the recent sort out.  There's a riot of summer garden colour in this wallet.  All the fabrics in the patchwork came from the scrapbag including the binding leftover from the bag in my first ever blog post.  A few crazy quilt stitches and beads add some extra interest:
 

   

Talking of gardens, this was part of ours in March ............

 and now ...........
 

 
There's still quite a lot to do but it's so much more managable for us now thanks to an enthusiastic young gardener who lives nearby, friends and freecycle for a lot of the bricks and paving.
 

If anybody know how to get rid of these weeds, we'd be really grateful for some advice.  Suddenly appearing out of nowhere a couple of years ago we've having an awful trouble getting rid of them and they're spreading like mad!

Thankyou for all your recent comments, I do read them all and digest what you say - thankyou!!
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2 More Done .............

 I'm glad these wallets are done because I'm seriously bored of them for now ..................

Tidying up to make room for the Christmas tree at the weekend, one finds all sorts of bags stuffed with embroidery bits .........................
 

Setting the scene ready for the festive season.  In reality I expect it will be long gone by then but this is last night ...................
  

It's been snowing for over 24 hours now virtually non-stop albeit very light so we have a mere 8" yet still enough to be snowed in !!
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Christmas Stuff

Shirt no. 1 .............
 

Shirt no. 2 was nearly finished when I noticed my fingertips had devloped a navy tinge ................. from the batik print!  First thoughts were that it would probably be ok for an initial wear (with jeans) but then my husband said "what if it rains?".  Oh yeah!  So it's been in the washing machine and lost quite a lot of dye but still looks ok (pic is prewash) so it's just waiting for some buttons.

A wallet (or purse) ............. just a few French knots acting as random "quilting" stitches.

Opened out .........

A present from her mum for her first married Christmas, mum decided to redress her 1961 Christmas tree fairy but this is as far as it got!

I'm going to redress her but not with the old bits of lace in the pic ............ something more in keeping with her time (evident from her facial features and hair) I think.
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Scraps

Well that didn't take long ..................... I'm stuck albeit hopefully only briefly whilst I decide what to do now that the daisy punch won't cut through the vilene so I'll write a blog post instead!

I  don't know what is up with blogger this morning, the pics are only uploading one at a time and positioning themselves where I don't want them and not wanting to move so ............ I'll do my best.

Any piece of fabric less than, say, 6" goes in the scrapbag and I'm talking about any little scrap here not just sizeable pieces.  It's a while since I turned the bag right out so, looking for some green bits for the next cup, it was emptied out.  Out came all sorts of bits that I'd forgotten about ................ the cover for my sleeve ironing board (so that's where it went), a couple of bits of net that I use for felting, some scraps of lace that I'd cut off a dress I threw away ............. there is such a dilemma with clothes.  Do you freecycle them, give them to charity or remove any buttons and/or bits that you may use and bin the rest?  Depends what they are I suppose but I deeply regret ridding myself of an M&S long silk velvet blouse (a Christmas gift that wasn't really me) ............. I should have kept it and cut it up.   Last year our daughter freecycled a bag full of hardly worn branded hoodies ................... it's only just occured to me that I could have used the lovely pink & blue zips hmmmmm .......

A small amount of plain green was needed so out came my dyed fabrics.  I just love them as they are .......... a rainbow of colour!  It's a ridiculous thing to say I know but I could keep these out and derive pleasure from just looking at them on a daily basis.  Large scale isn't really my thing but maybe I should turn some of this rainbow into something which I could admire on a daily basis ............... a strippy wall hanging perhaps?  Am wondering how much dyeing I'm going to be doing now that we've had a (compulsory) water meter installed!

Towards the end of last year, more out of necessity to create a couple of presents quickly & easily from stuff I already had, I made a couple of wallets ..............

There's enough scraps in the bag to make three more of these in pink, brown & blue ................ I might do that.

Using the laptop it's really had to tell if I have the photographs looking acceptable.  If anybody reads this I would welcome comment as to whether they are too dark, light or whatever - thankyou.