Bristol Harbour Festival

Sorry I've been a little quiet over the last week or so but I have been away. The boys and I have been visiting my darling husband where he works in Kent for a long weekend and then today I have come away to Bristol for the harbour festival. Its the 40th year this time and I can remember coming with my grandparents (who live here) as a child to see the tall ships.

It doesn't really start properly till tomorrow but we have had a bit of fun wandering round today and thought I'd share some pictures.

Walking with Gran-nan

Someone had put bubbles into one of the fountains in the centre which all the kids were playing in. The boys thought it was great fun

The fountains in the centre also have the water dyed pink at the moment so both boys now have bright pink feet and legs which according to my youngest means he's peppa pig now

After all the fun with the bubbles both boys were tired so had carries home in dyed black fish shortie and Jim Salvia 7 (types of babywraps made by didymos)

Work in Progress Wednesday 3

Well its been a bit slow on the crafts front this week seen as the boys have got chicken pox. I did order a set of Tunisian crochet hooks as a result of going to a lovely ladies house on the weekend and seeing some of the blankets she had been making. I really wanted to have a go after that. So they were ordered on the weekend and arrived super fast

I had a quick play today with them and was surprised how easy it is to do so am going to have a go at a basic blanket first off I think

I also have been working on the wedding cake topper I was asked to make. Its coming along well now so I just hope she likes it when its finished..

And then the rest of my time has been spent on my craft fairy gifts which are just about finished now, just a couple of final alterations and they can be posted off :)

Please check out Tamis blog for other WIPW posts :)

Bargains and maybe a new hobby

So I went today to lovely ladies house as she had advertised some yarn for sale locally. Her house is amazing I want to live in her sewing room and she has this fabulous quilting table. Well anyway back to the point I got a whole bag of yarns, silks, embroidery wools, some undyed wool so I can have a go at dyeing my own, a tapestry frame and some bag handles all for the bargain price of £5 :)

She also showed me some Tunisian crochet she has been working on and I can see a new hobby I might just have to have a go at. Off to look for some Tunisian crochet hooks now.

Oh dear we've chicken pox

Well chicken pox has struck our household. So we are on house arrest for a few days till the spots decide they want to go away. So my eldest wanted to make pancakes as they are his favourite apparently (well today they are anyway) so we had fun cooking

and managed to make some that looked like bear prints somehow which of course the boys though was fab.

I also sorted out some of the garden for them to play out and set up my uber bargain of the week. (This pic was before I tidied it looks much better now honest)

My youngest's play group was tidying out and selling off unused equipment and I got a lovely wooden activity play frame for the garden for £20 (they're about £500 new). So we had fun playing outside till it decided to rain.

Started the Summer Sampler Quilt

I  spotted this last week and thought I'd give this quilt ago as I haven't done a huge amount of pieced work and I tend to favour squares or strip patterns, or just generally random scrappy patterns when doing quilts. I thought it was about time I practised some more on my piece work and what better way than a quilt along to keep me motivated to get it done. Today I have completed the first two sections.  I cut out the pieces required

for the Star of Virginia and the Greek Cross. I haven't done either of these patterns before and found both fairly easy to cut and piece and think they have turned out nicely :)

I'm looking forward to doing the rest now as hopefully should make a nice sampler quilt in the end. Links to the patterns included in this quilt and instructions can be found through Freshly Pieced Blog

WIP Wednesday

Ok so last week I had nothing that was knitted going on well I've actually been through my knitting basket and found a couple of things I'd for gotten about.

Firstly is a jumper I started knitting for DS2. He's grown a bit though since I started this so I don't think it would fit him if I carried on and finished it so am going to undo it and start something else I think. I was using Debbie bliss cashmarino for it so it feels lovely and I don't want to waste it so am thinking maybe a nice shawl for me perhaps.

The second thing is a cardigan/jacket I started for myself with some wool dyed by angels and elephants. Its taken me a bit to find the pattern (couldn't remember where I got it from) but its this one the drops circle jacket I think anyway. Once I found the pattern though I couldn't figure out where in it I was so have undone it and started again

Please have a look at Tami's blog to see what other people have been up to this week

WIP Wednesday - Oops not got very far this week

Well I've had a bit of a bad week when it comes to my sewing this week.

The quilt I am doing as part of the quilt along has gone horribly wrong. I'd gotten the layout sussed and had happily started putting my corners and triangles together when my darling children decided to let the dog into the spare room where it was all laid out. As a result of the following dog attack I was left with this (cry)

I've rescued what I can and finished attaching the corners though some of it is rather frayed now so think it may take some artistic piecing to get it all together. So that's as far as I have gotten with that. Am hoping to nip out later and pick up some more fabric for the solid triangles as I don't seem to have enough here.

DS1's quilt is still the same as last week, as is the vase.

I am planning on starting the summer sampler series quilt this week hopefully if I get chance. Have got lots of scraps I'm planning on using on it so should be nice and colourful hopefully :)

I have managed to make alot of progress on my craft fairy gift unfortunately I can't add any pics of that as its a secret gift.

Quilt Along Update

Well I'm getting a little behind so am going to have to do alot of sewing this week to try and catch up but I have been playing with my layout this week and am finally happy with how its going to look.

I've used Didymos wrap scraps to cut the patterned pieces from so from a distance the quilt seems to be made from solid colours but when you look closely you can see the lovely pattern in the fabric.

If I've identified them correctly it will be made up from the following indios

Indio Purpur-Elfenbein(40% linen, 60% cotton) i think

Indio kobald rouge mit Leinen/Indio Cobalt Rouge (40% linen, 60% cotton)

Indio april 

Ruby-manderine 

Rubenrot

Lila-royal

Sonnengelb

Black and white

Blue and white

Natural

Colourgrown brown

I have followers :)

Yey :) Thank you for being my first followers, I'm all excited. Never had followers before (though I think if I call my husband and tell him I'm excited as I've got people following me he might think I've finally lost it)

My first WIP wednesday post

OK so I've been reading on a few other blogs where they do WIP (work in progress) Wednesday and thought I might give it a go. I figured it may help me finish off some of those project that I seem to have been doing since forever but never actually finishing. I'm afraid I'm not actually doing any crochet or knitting bits this week which seem to be more the focus of WIP but I promise to try and get some started. So here goes, this is a summary of all the little bits I've got on the go this week.

DS1's Quilt

I started this before christmas and I still haven't managed to finish it yet I've got all the pieces cut and mostly sew together for the back and the front now. I have also nearly finished the spider applique I decided (for reasons unknown at the time) to hand sew on rather than use the machine so has taken forever to do.

Vase

I don't like the vases i've got so saw a pattern for making a fabric vase and thought it would be a good way to hide my horrible vases when I have flowers. All the sides on this are finished now its just a case of sewing them together

Quilt along
I've cut alot of the pieces out now from the fabric I had here already. The last few bits I needed have arrived this morning so will carry on cutting pieces and starting to work out my layout this evening.

Craft Fairy
I am taking part in the naturalmamas craft fairy this year. I haven't ever taken part before as I've not really felt I would be good enough but decided to take the plunge and have a go this time. The theory behind this is a little like a secret santa but with crafty things. You are given the name and address and a little information about the person, from which you make them something you think they would like. In return I will receive something handmade from another person. I have had a few ideas for this but haven't actually started yet. As its a secret gift unfortunately I can't really add any pictures of what I'm doing.

Cake Topper
I was asked but a friend to make a cake topper for her wedding cake. This has been a bit of a learning experience for me as I've never done one before but said I'd have a go and am currently on my third attempt at getting it right. The weddings in August so I've got a few weeks left to get it finished. I've got the groom finished just the bride to tackle now :)

What I did this week.

Well I didn't get chance to finish alot of things this week but I did finish a birthday present for my grandma.

It is a make-up with matching brushes wallet,

the wallet

the lining was hand dyed with procion dyes by me.

I have been working on a few other things this week including a quilt for my eldest, I have started cutting out for the Kalidoscope quilt along, done a little work on a wedding cake topper for a friend and started thinking about what I'm planning to do for craft fairy :) so been a little busy.