It's been a good week...

The weather has been wonderful with long light evenings and hot spring days, tho not so good for stitching, the work room gets really hot from around 11.30am till sundown so no progress.... or so you may think, I have been knitting of course, the increases for the BIG sweater project are finished I just have to get the sleeves to 21.5" before I can start the decreasing (did I tell you he had long arms?). The sock project also made progress this week, last weekend the first one looked like this

I had just 'turned the heel and was amazed at how easy it was, trouble is I now am completely obsessed with knitting socks and couldn't put them down, so by Thursday of this week I had finished them both, don't they look splendid? Trouble is I will have to wait till the cooler months to wear them (sigh!)

After some very good news recently, I have started another small knitting project or rather lots of small ones! A few weeks ago we heard that some friends of ours are expecting a baby in late October, they already have children (10 to be exact between them - long story!!!) so this came as a complete surprise but delightful news all the same. While chatting to the 'Mum to be' the other day, I offered to make her some baby jackets, hats etc and she accepted the offer adding that her previous babies have all been born early and quite small, right up my street cos as you all know I love making 'premmie' clothes so I'll start with those. I plan to make a selection using the yarns I have 'in stock' and she can then select those that she likes/needs. After they're done I will make another selection of larger garments, I'm going to aim for a completion date nearer to late August/September to be on the safe side, and if there are any left over I can donate them to the local Maternity/SCBU unit

I promised myself I would sew today so, after a visit to Mum's where I enjoyed a nice cuppa. I got back here and came straight up to the workroom. I managed to get the letters for the Alphabet wall hanging enlarged with the help of the very nice man in the copy shop and they looked about right on the centre panel, once that was done I cleverly (well I thought I was clever and that's what counts eh?) turned the 'h' into an upper case letter. So having cut them out and after lots of careful measuring I bond-a-webbed them in place, I stitched around them as I did on the picture panels. So at last the top is done and looks like this.

I am very pleased with it and plan to push on with the backing, which will be the same fabric as  for the sashing/centre panel but, I will have to piece it using some of the left over block fabrics as I made a silly cutting error and now the piece of backing left will not be big enough:-((( Hopefully I can get it done at Clock Tower Quilter's next Saturday, there will be plenty of room as 3 of our number 'jetted off' to the US yesterday for a Quilt holiday. Lucky Ducks!!! Once today's sewing was completed I made another 15 minutes of play block,

before doing some sorting out, in readiness for the move to my new workroom. I have loads of orphan blocks which have been hanging around for a looong time- you know how it goes new project, better try out the block before we cut the 'nice fabrics'. plus I have some I have been given,  I decided which ones I can/will use and the others I'll donate to Severn Valley's Charity project for 2015. This year we are making seat cushions which will be given to the local Methodist Church, the chairs in the hall are pretty uncomfortable hence the cushions.
I am now sat writing this on the laptop in front of a movie ('Nottinghill' AGAIN... I'm a big fan of Julia Roberts and will watch her films again and again) and when this post is done I will get on with some baby knitting.
Finally the big build continues apace, almost all the floor joists are in and the next job will be taking the roof off the garage to fit the last 3 joists, then building the walls can commence, Whoo Hoo!!! DH says he will be ordering the blocks etc next week so it's all looking very positive.
I'll be signing off till next time, now where's my knitting?
L. XX

It's been a week..

..since I did any sewing, but before I venture into writing this post I would like to welcome new follower David to my little blog, I found him via my 'excursions' into the Grow your Blog event and started to follow him HERE.  We had Little H to stay over last weekend which was busy and lots of fun, and then the usual excuses of life got in the way. but I do have finish to show you all..

these are Barbara's gloves, There seemed to be something very wrong with my camera when I took this so this is not the best picture, the colours are not quite this bright, I'm pleased to report that she was delighted with them but as the weather has brightened somewhat and she is still wearing a finger splint from recent surgery she may not get to wear them for a while. I am still plodding away at the BIG sweater project for DH, I'm on the last few increases for the sleeves, then I'll have to do some careful measuring as he has very long arms, before the final bit of this knitting marathon. I have some yarn ready for my next small project, (I always have a small project on the go at all times which means I can carry it around with me! Is it just me or does anybody else knit in the coffee shop/on the bus etc???) I want to try knitting socks and having spotted these in my wool shop I couldn't resist buying them..

aren't they gorgeous? can't wait to get some on the needles, tho not sure which I will use first so watch this space.

All the Family came over for Easter Sunday lunch which we turned into a family Christmas complete with Crackers and Pigs in Blankets plus I used the meal as an excuse to try out a Cranberry Apple and Bacon stuffing which I found a recipe for in a magazine. Our Christmas if you remember, was a bit of a damp squib with DSIL's illness and hospital stay. So with all the family in the best of health,  this weekend seemed a good time to 'do it all again'. A lovely day was had by all, the weather had improved so Little H was able to play in the garden, and some of us sat in the conservatory after lunch. I invited Barbara round as she was home on her own so it was a great time all round.

Now for a catch up, waaaay back on  19th June last year I promised to show you the results of a secret project I was involved in via the Wool Stop and Knitter Knatter, as the camera was I was using was playing up at the time (do I see a theme emerging here? note to self to buy a new camera and soon!!!!) I never got round to showing you the results so here come the pictures, the event was the Britain in Bloom competition. Our group of knitters were approached by the organizing committee for Thornbury's entry via Tina at the shop, we were asked to make 11 hanging baskets full of knitted flowers for the competition. Were we up for the challenge? YOU BET and here are some of the results, This is the basket outside the Shop

 and a close up

we managed to fill all 11 baskets and they looked super (tho 2 were stolen) and the best news was they got quite a few comments from the judges when they were going round and Thornbury WON a GOLD award

(See Here). I just loved the little bees and butterfly's.

Well I guess that's all for today, I have the newsletter for WPQ to do later so I best get something sorted for that.

Lxx