GYB Winner take 2 !

Okay so since the original GYB winner still hasn't answered my email Jack and I drew another winner today and that turned out to be Nanette!
In this case number 13 was lucky!
I have emailed you Nanette : )

I picked Jack up from school yesterday and this plant took my eye in the school grounds, does anyone recognise what it is please?  the stems had a bamboo look to them but then I have never seen these seed heads on a bamboo?

I think I may have a kidney stone again, had one years ago and I appear to have the same pain again, along with a lower groin pain too. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could just flush the damned things out with wine, or dissolve them with gin ~ sigh  lol

Vintage puppets

Nipped into a charity shop today and there was a box of 'vintage' handmade puppets for £30 - no I resisted lol
But they were so funny, well some of them!
They were mostly (painted) fabric heads, over what felt like paper mache shapes.

But at the bottom of the box were these two that really were charming - even Big Ears's dented nose was kind of cute lol
I think the lady puppet is probably one of the Gerry Anderson characters.

A change is as good as a rest ~

A break from the Millefiori BOM whilst waiting to see what rosette 3 will be -
my grandson had asked if Id make him a Trex, so here it is and I faffed a bit with a crochet hook to see if I could make a hexi.

 

The pattern is from the book 'knitted dinosaurs' by Tina Barratt, I borrowed it from the library. 
I can see I may have to buy the book since am pretty sure that Jack will want a whole mixed herd of dino's now.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Knitted-Dinosaurs-Tina-Barrett/dp/1861088175

 

Rosette 2 is finished

Well I still haven't heard from the GYB winner and I remembered that this happened last year. That winner didn't get in touch till about 3 weeks later and when I did post her giveaway gift, I didn't get acknowledgement that she'd received it lol I had to email her several weeks after that!

Sarah doesn't appear to have a blog but does have hundreds of blogs she follows, so goodness only knows when she might read my blog again lol
She did leave an email which is what I have used to contact her - so why do I feel guilty that she's not been in touch? duhh

Rosette 2 is now completed - yeahhh - I'm SO enjoying making these, that's kind of sad though isn't it?
I should really maybe be having a fulfilling relationship with a guy at my time of life, but no, here I am, making out with fabrics lol
The bonus is probably that I don't have to wash anyone's skid marked pants or share my bottles of wine!

There's about a week to go before the March block is released and I'm really looking forward to seeing what it is.
This darned BOM has spoilt me for doing any other stitching mind you, despite having other UFOs in progress.
If I get this cover completed, I am seriously considering having it quilted by a long arm professional, so it stands a chance at looking good.
I have no idea how much that is likely to cost, does anyone have any idea how much folk charge on average?

The raised beds are coming on - here's 2 of them. I need to cut back the tarpaulin sheets yet of course, blues not really my colour! - and the other 2 beds are to the left and behind where I was standing.
Harvey thinks the raised beds are for him to tiddle in mind you .... lol

Rosette 2 is growing and nearing completion : )

This was in a charity shop last weekend and I meant to post it, it made me chuckle. It has press studs at the bottom so whether its a hot water bottle cover or for tucking nightwear away in, I have no idea.
Cute though.
Today was wonderfully sunny, so I took my last of this years, leave days and nipped into town to the library and onto B&Q for more bags of soil for the planters.
A couple more hours in the back garden, in the balmy sun, was just delightful. I was easier on my back this time, I sued the sack trolley I had hidden in the shed lol
The shed whose door is falling apart so it seems silly to still use the padlock but hopefully any thief wont notice that only the top hinge works!

After picking up the series 4 (dvds) of Boardwalk Empire to watch, I nipped into the nearby charity shop that gathers together all the stitchy and yarny stuff from the rest of their Hull charity shops.
Bad move every time I go in really.
However at a £1 each, how can you not bring them home?

Okay Bloggers playing silly buggers and has skew whiffed my picture but you get the idea am sure lol Cracking condition books at a £1 each!

Anyway here's the last round on rosette 2, almost complete. Only 4 more blocks to add, 2 on the left and 2 on the top right.

I have not heard from Sarah who won the draw yet and she doesn't appear to have a blog but in the unlikely event she doesn't get back to me by March ~ I may have to do a second draw!
Fingers crossed she logs in soon since I don't want her to lose out.

Last Saturday was our stitchy club meet and Alice Fox gave us a talk about her work, most of it was complied from her period as Spurn Point Resident Artist. To me her best work is the rust dyed fabrics, much of which was strapped to the rusty metal on the groins on the beach!
They were battered by 2 tides a day for 2/3 week periods, in between her visits to the lighthouse which was her base whilst there.

Club members had items for display on the stage and this cushion was made by our Chairwoman from one of those upholstery sample packs that hang on a coat hangery thing?
You tend to get half a metre of one fabric and several smaller pieces attached, perhaps you've seen them. 
 I really liked it.
Made by (Margaret Wright)

A GYB draw winner! A day late mind you ~

 

It's half term school break and today instead of having Evie, I have Jack for the day to play, and as you can see Harvey is in playful mood too.

I love the reinstated 50s door, although it needs a repaint and I have yet to put the safety film on the delightful fishing boat patterned glass. The original door handles don't exactly 'go' now the house is decorate differently, so I might try and wrap them in fabric scraps rather than replace them. Afew scraps of fabric and some Mod Podge dhould do the trick there.
In fact since its sat in the garage for over a year, the wood has swelled so I have to wait until its dried itself out in the hope it reduces slightly. If not, it will need some sanding down so its closes properly.
Oh and  .....
I had an email from Rae today (  http://www.feltbyrae.com/ ) telling me that my name luckily came out of the draw hat,with 2 others, for the GYB draw  - and besides being thrilled
~ I realised I had forgotten to do my own draw!
( these senior moments are coming thick and fast lol)

SO, since Jack is here, I have asked him to pick a number between 1 and 21, the number of comments on my GYB post.
His first choice was 21 - sometimes so like his Dad - LOL
so on his second try ...
FANFARE ......
Jack said Number 6 and that is Sarah ~
and she had said

Sarah29 January 2015 at 02:43

Hello, so glad you got into the party, and I was able to find your blog! I signed up to follow you. I LOVE that picture of your cat in the sewing machine -- makes me laugh and reminds me of the cat we used to have. She was very helpful, too! I am from the USA, and would LOVE a couple British magazines!

 

Am emailing you Sarah : )

 

Rosette number 2 is taking shape and I have cracked the fussy cutting technique I think on this one. I have some outer blocks cut and ready to stitch on each side but thought I would show the so far stage anyway.

This one is for the bottom right corner of the finished quilt and the two sticky out blocks at the bottom show how the quilts edges will be finished off.

If you don't look too closely at the Y seam joins its not that bad lol This is definitely going to be my learning curve of piecing!

surprisingly several folks are making these up by machine using invisible threads, masking tape and weeny, weeny, zig zag stitching from the front.

I'd like to give it a try, but later, not now Ive started in hand stitch.

 

 

 

I spent all day yesterday setting in position the newly chopped down to 6' x2' raised beds out back and they look okay thankfully. I raised 3 of them up on a layer of bricks, ( need more bricks ) and got 2 of them tarpaulin lined, then third filled with shredded paper and cardboard pieces.

I had to dig up several plants and move them and just hope they all forgive me and continue to grow!

Mind you today, I ache everywhichwhere!!

I am so unfit! But then lugging the raised beds, 60 litre bags of soil, trolley loads of bricks about the garden and digging plants out from claggy, wet clay didn't help lol

I went to bed after a bath, lathered in Volterol - this ageing lark has its downside! In a way I'm only amazed I can still stand upright, had best try walking shortly I think!

 

Many thanks to Vicki of 2bagsfull.blogspot.com for hosting the GYB event and thank you to those of you that have decided to tag along with me on the blog.

I welcome comments and answer all that have email contact and love to natter away by email in between blogs too.

And thank you especially to those of you that have stuck with me on the blog before!

I admire your resolve for punishment lol but really do like having you drop by from time to time : )

I found one miniature Iris flowering in the back garden and I cant tell you thrilled I was to find it! The promise of Spring - I hope!

 

Keep well and warm all ~

 

Lyn

 

Measuring stuff : )

GYB info is in the previous post if your looking for that!

You know that adage about measuring twice and cutting only once?
Well, measuring ahead of time might help on occasion too!
I wanted some raised bed planters made and walked into the local wood yard, sort off t he cuff, since I was passing with buggy and granddaughter at the time, to ask what kind of price they would be.
Common sense would have suggested 4' x 18" ish but no,
I asked for 6' x2', thinking maybe, they'd fit anyway.
Common sense might have suggested I wait till I got home to measure the space properly too.
Anyway, no common sense went with me that day, so I ordered and paid for 4 of them.
So imagine my surprise when they delivered these!
 LOL 6' x 3' - and I'd asked for 4 of them but not this wide! 
So these have sat out back for almost 2 weeks, though the cats have climbed over, round and through them, and have had fun on them at least! 

 

Fortunately, chummy who made them, dropped by today to cut them down to the correct width for me, he had he said, had a senior moment.
Well, I know all about them! Two thirds the width might well fit but I need a bloody mortgage for the earth to fill them all now!

Looking in a charity shop the other day I turned round to see this!
The fact that it was made from a real cats fur makes my skin crawl.
Some poor animal was skinned to produce this piece of tourist trash.
Appalling.

I finally got round to making some of these egg muffins and will be making them many times more! Even Evie at 20 months likes them.
I saw the idea on Facebook and although I didn't write down the recipe, I managed to recreate them well enough.
Lovely eaten warm and actually just as tasty cold!

I put some chopped up bits of ham, a few fine slithers of leeks and 4 chic peas in each muffin case. Then poured in whisked up, seasoned eggs with a little milk. Baked for 15-20 mins on 200 degrees.
They'd work just as well with a bit of cooked broccoli and a little grated cheese in them too I reckon. Light lunches made easy : )

Nipped into the bank in town the other day and looked briefly out of one window and was quite taken aback by the opposite building. The upper storey isn't occupied by the looks of it, but the combination of bright blue sky, the ramshackled-ness of the building and yet its evident past grandeur, the old street lamp and that enthusiastic buddleia plant atop on the right - just struck me as intriguing. 

Talking about the GYB Party, I have been making my way slowly round the blogs on the list and this year I cannot believe how many blogs haven't even done a GYB blog post at all!
They have signed up to take part but then not done a blog post, to take part! A bit sad when you consider how much work goes into organising the event.
Anyway I hope those of you that have taken a stroll round the blogs have enjoyed the jaunt!
: )