I'm so excited!!

Remember I said I may finally get my 15 minutes of fame? (see post on 19th June) well seems like I won't be going after all, having chatted to Tina (Owner of the the Wool Stop) at Knit & Knatter last week, she explained that the TV company would like to feature someone who can spin, and as she can spin and I can't, seems she is the one who really needs to go so would I mind very much dropping out, at first I was disappointed of course, BUT THEN she asked me to look after the shop for her ALL day, imagine little me in her lovely knitting emporium surrounded by all that Yarn...oooh! the temptation, the uncontrollable urge to 'buy just one teeny little ball' of something wonderful and soft and wooly - but resist I must, instead I will console myself with looking and sit and knit and assist customers who come in to buy something for themselves and be happy that she asked me to 'mind the store' while she is away. I also get to have a front seat for the Carnival Fancy Dress parade which goes right past the front door of the shop TWICE on it's way to the showground. I just hope I get everything right and that the books balance at the end of the day. So my friends just in case any of you are near enough to Thornbury where there are lots of lovely places to get coffee and cake or even a spot of lunch and some glorious Hanging baskets to admire, do drop by the Wool Stop and say hello and see our town at it's best on Carnival Day.

That's all for now!
Lx

A Quick Post & Swap Sent

Yesterday I mailed my little swap gift - the needle-book is now winging it's way towards the USA (I hope!!)
After a few false starts I decided to go with something I had tried before (I'm not very good with small things!) and so I made another Matroyska  Doll case.
This is the one I made earlier as I very carefully posted the swap one before photographing it DOH!!!

Last time I was here I was having problems with my pictures, so to bring you up to date these are the ones that I couldn't post last time

Flowers version 2

The flowers in the previous post were taken from this book which is on loan from DD. At Knit and Knatter on Monday Tina said "we probably have enough flowers now and please could we knit more leaves" so that's what I'm onto next (among other things.) Today I have been getting ready for Severn Valley Quilters, tonight is our Annual Skills Night when we have 4 members each demonstrating a skill or technique. I'm doing a Quilt As You Go method and had completely forgotten about it, hence the concentrated sewing sessions of the last few days. I'm even farther behind on the Rowan Knit along than before and I haven't touched the Maisie Mouse Project this week (See Previous post) it's already 6pm here and I'm being picked up at 6.30pm. so better go!

Lx

Big Panic Over!!!

Yesterday I had it all planned, sort out the the nice men from a well known Cable company who were booked to be here all morning to install my new internet connection & phone and then sewing or knitting ALL afternoon. But just when I thought it safe to sit down we had a BIG panic, the telephone rings (Well! that's working the cable men gaily shout!!!) it was DD who had just returned from A&E 'cos darling little granddaughter somehow got hold of and decided to sample Chilli plant food while Mum was busy cleaning windows in the same room!!!! first DD knew was when she heard 'darling little daughter' behind her spitting, coughing and clutching the bottle of plant food, she rushed her to A&E clutching the said bottle. They rang the Poisons Register Unit at Cardiff Hospital who said she may be sick but assured everyone that all would fine and not to worry too much, they (the local hospital) think she may have only swallowed a teaspoonful (if that much!). However DD herself  had an appointment at said Hospital for some treatment advice for the MS and didn't think they would want Little H throwing up all over the place - so can you come she says - of course says I. Thankfully DGD was fine as predicted, was not sick and if anything seemed even more full of beans. Of course having then been persuaded to join them for dinner nothing got done here, but at least my internet is now up and running!

I am progressing with the Needle-case for the swap I joined and I am busy knitting flowers for a 'project' at Knit & Knatter (more on that later as it's all top secret!)

Tina said any shape or size and the brighter the better so this is what I have come up with so far, the pattern for these can be found in I love Knitting by Racheal Henderson which I have borrowed from DD, this book has some really zany patterns in it including knitted pants :-O  The gremlins have got into my camera and I can't get the other pictures to load so I'll keep trying after I finish this and show you later!.

Other news is we may be on TV, Tina at the The Woolstop got a call from the BBC no less, saying they had heard about our Yarn bombing exploits and would 3 or 4 of us be willing to go along to the making of a TV programme, I thought the members would be queuing at the doors to go but Tina was one short :-)) so lil' ol me said I could probably fit it in!!! We may or may not be filmed and they may or may not use the footage but I definitely feel a possible 15 minutes of fame coming on so watch this space and even if we don't get on TV it will be fun to see how it is all done and see some of the presenters at work.
Bye for now I'm of to sort out that darned camera!!
Lx

A Day Out and an update

Hello All,

Accompanied by my son, we set off  by coach for National Memorial Arboretumn. We spent a wonderful day in hot sunshine walking around all the beautiful memorials there, we have 3 generations of family members 'doing their bit' for Queen and Country during both World Wars and in Afghanistan, so it was lovely to go and pay our respects in a small way to all those who did not come back from conflicts far & wide. I took photos of memorials that mean something to us in some way or another and DS has a keen interest in the Historical side of things was able to see the memorials for Regiments and Battles that he has researched. To give you a taste here are some pictures. The site is very beautiful and peaceful, built on reclaimed Gravel Pits where 2 rivers meet- the R.Tame & the R.Trent. 

 all along the rivers there were clouds of Damsel Flies, this one stayed still just long enough!

Everywhere we went there were poppies growing.

 My Maternal Grandfather served in WW1 with the Gloucestershire Regiment, and my Father joined the Glosters after the war. My Father in Law served with the Wiltshire Regiment which is also on this Memorial stone as they have been amalgamated in recent history, he was killed in Italy in 1942, and is buried at Minterno Cemetery in Italy. 

My Father and Uncle (Dad's brother) were both with the Devon & Cornwall Regiment, and Dad was put into the Royal Artillery serving on the North Atlantic Convoys as part of the Maritime Regiment. I also had an Uncle who was in the Merchant Navy (also on the North Atlantic routes.)

 

Bofors Gun - typical of the type of gun my father would have been using, the small metal 'box' to the right is where the gunner would have sat - it was no more than 4 feet high and five feet long. It must have been hell on earth!

 We visited the Royal Artillery Garden of Remembrance which was a lovely peaceful place.

and I particularly wanted to visit the Memorial entitled 'Shot at Dawn' which I found very moving, each post represents one soldier accused of cowardice. Each post has a little plaque with a name, age rank and serial number, some of them were mere boys at just 17 years old.

 The main Memorial is still being added to, it is dedicated to those who have lost their lives since WW2, the stone mason was there adding the names for this last year (17)

one of the walls - covered in names

The slot in this wall has been designed so that on the 11th day of the 11th month at 11am the sun will shine through and hit the centre of a large bronze wreath which can seen where the chap is working in the first picture.

Another Memorial that caught my attention was this one, not because I had any real connection to it but for the sheer Beauty.

Memorial for 'Signals, Intelligence & Communication Security' - the patterns in the stone were stunning and reminded me of the Planet  Mars

I mentioned an update in the title of this post and this is it... on Saturday during a days sewing with some of the girls from Severn Valley I did a little work on my 'Kimono' cushion, I managed to get 2 more borders on although it took me nearly all morning to decide on which colours to use, I think I finally got it right and have decided to leave it there and complete the cushion once I have done some quilting. The 'Kimono' is not sewn on yet as we were advised not to add it till the very last.

I have done a little bit of embroidery on the needle-case project for my swap partner but I cannot show you yet or it may spoil the surprise for her if she happens to pop by, and on the knitting front I have completed 2 more sets of squares in the Rowan Knit Along I am taking part in..

Well that's about it for now, I'm off to Knitter Knatter tonight, I haven't been to the evening group since January what with one thing and another, so it'll be nice to catch up with the girls.
I'll be back again soon
Lx

A weekend knitting effort!

Hiya one and all,

Just a quick picture heavy post today to show you what I achieved over the week-end.

I spent it at home but I was not idle!!! Ted was staying and he still thinks I will take him for an early walk, so we were up by 5.30am, but to be honest after getting attacked by THAT DOG back in January I have decided that we will not go out again. Ted is getting old & stiff in the joints and he loves the garden (we have a large one!) so he gets plenty of exercise chasing the wood pigeons that land there, he ignores everything else except the pigeons!!! I decided early on to tackle 'that sweater' - the one I have been knitting since forever (that's how it feels anyway:-() I may or may not have mentioned that DD bought a Maisie Mouse pattern on the internet (Little H is a BIG fan) having done many picture knits when DD was growing up, "of course I can make it" I cried and set to. Problem is it's a pig to do, as the background on the Chart is dark blue.

This is the pattern

The chart - the knitting needle is at the point I had reached by 4pm

 I started in earnest but found it hard almost impossible to keep track of where I was on the design and at one time I also had around 9 balls of yarn attached, so at most I could only get 2 or 3 rows done at a time before getting exasperated and putting it away. However on Saturday I decided that this was the day and set to only stopping for lunch, by 5pm I had made great progress.

The back - see what I mean about all the yarn

The front

Now I know its too warm for sweaters but it was a bit on the large size when I began so hopefully it will still fit. thankfully I have already made the back and sleeves. Throughout all this effort  Mr T kept me company despite it being quite hot in the conservatory where I was sat.

Also on the knitting front I have now made 18 blocks in the Rowan Afghan Knit Along mentioned in an earlier post, I'm still 3 weeks behind but keeping going as you can see from the pictures

This weeks progress 3 blocks of each colour

 added to the rest of the blocks

The next pattern is called Lace Kisses and I am supposed to follow a chart, which I have never done for lace work before so I wrote all the instructions down to make it a little quicker when doing the other 5 squares.

Also on Saturday I received the details of my partner for the needle case swap which I joined last week,(see previous post) she lives in the USA and I have contacted her and hopefully when she replies I will be able to nip over to her blog and see her preferences. Will keep you informed!

Well that's all for this time it's Westbury Park Quilters tonight and I need to go soon.

Lxx

A video, some Flowers, a Finish and another swap joined!

First up I must tell you about this amazing video which I found on a blog I follow, do drop into My Bearpaw and go to the post for 31st May. I found the video very moving and quite amazing to watch.

I thought I would start my day with a little practice at using my camera and try to take some close up shots of the beautiful blooms in our garden, first lesson was I should have done this yesterday while the sun was shining but... you live and learn as they say, and I thought they looked quite lovely with raindrops on the petals, so this is what I took. First up are the Iris's growing in the pond (my Mum is named for this flower!) 

 

Next are Clematis, these plants were freebies from a magazine. Instructions were to keep them in the warm till summer so into the greenhouse they went, but it looked like they would not survive being only around 3" high so.. after a while DH decided to plant them out and let them take their chances. That was 2 years ago, then suddenly last year we saw some small (very small )shoots and then they just took off, we only lost one (to a severe frost I think) and this year they are flowering beautifully

There is another one but that is a later flowering one so we will not see flowers till around August/September. I also took some close ups of the Dianthus which DH rescued last year from our neighbour, who having bought them forgot to plant them out, & then thinking they were dead (she forgot to water them as well!!!) was going to put them in the bin, well DH popped them in a planter and Lo & Behold they revived and now look like this...

As for the finish mentioned I have completed the Love Hearts piece I started last week and it is now ready to go off to the Guild (previous Post) along with the 2 needle-books.

I found this nice red fabric which I used to back the Redwork and cut a piece large enough to fold over to the front as an edging thus 'killing 2 birds with one stone'

 Here is the completed piece

 and the 2 needle-books

The swap I've joined is over at Amy Made That which I found while looking at some blogs on the Quilting Bloggers Directory which I pop into now and again. I shall be making a needle-case for my swap partner and perhaps I'll make a new friend too!
TTFN
Lx