February already!!

I can't believe that January went so fast!! I've spent the last month had sewing a quilt for my youngest son... he wanted white, grey and black fabric so I decided that I had a good excuse to use up all those outgrown school uniforms!! each square is 8cm and so far I've done 16 across and plan to do 26 squares down although this may end up being wider and longer at the rate his is growing!!

However, there has been one project that was finished and given to a friend of my daughters, her friend was taken into hospital and let home over Christmas but had to return to hospital as she has Cystic Fibrosis. Anyway she was very pleased with it as she had admired the one my daughter has on her bed.

 

Anyway, I'll say bye for now and get back to colouring in and quilting for a while .

ttfn

Lisa

xx

So, last year is done with..

And the last month of 2013 was sadly post free... I was laid out with my back at the beginning of the month and then we headed over to my sisters for a few days and it was lovely but.... my back couldn't take sleeping on such a soft bed allbeit with soft lovely bedding and a kingsize bed too and when we came home on the Monday...(2 days before Christmas) I headed straight to bed with the hope of being able to spend the big day downstairs... after 3 hours of watching t'kids open and play with their pressies I sadly had to return back to bed and have been there ever since.... To date this is the worst fibro flare up I have ever had...the only thing that has given me any relief is hot water bottles on my lower back! the lateral side of my right leg feels like its is burning but freezing cold too... wth? so I thought that as I was laid up I'd make a start on Ethan's quilt... I got about 10 rows of 16 8x8cm squares hand sewn and then.... my right thumb said "you will not sew til the swelling has gone down!" I got a tape measure out and my right thumb is actually a whole centimetre bigger than my left thumb! so, It may be a while til I'm back blogging so I'll say ttfn and look longingly at my crafty stash and my crafty Christmas presents :(






























but... I hope all my dear friends has good christmas and new year celebrations.

bye for now

Lisa xx

 ooh I nearly forgot to show you one of my favourite pressies... look what my fabulous friend sent me for Christmas!! I wondered what was inside and look!! Isn't my friend a clever and wonderful person too!

Wow... this year is going fast...

'Can't believe that I will be having a birthday next week.. seems like only last year I was 21!! hmmm what would I like? love, peace and happiness and maybe a dishwasher to help with clearing up after meals... Well, I am a lucky lady as I have the first 3 already and tbh I don't honestly know where a dishwasher would fit in our kitchen so I guess I will be happy with my life and the good family and friends I have already....

til next time then

WOYWW...229

Well then, its not technically on my desk but on my bed now cos its finished! The blanket I started way back in July... Its only a quick post as the previous post stated that I finished it on Saturday but I thought I'd blog it again as I blogged it when it was started!
Remember this lot?

Well here its is finally finished. 2 metres across and down. I am really pleased with it and love the way the colours blend together too.

















Thanks for visiting my blog and don't forget who started it all...  Here is a link back to Julia's blog :D

Lisa
xx

Ta-dah! it's finally finished... (And a moment in time) and a friend has left to go back to sunnier shores and leaves a big hole in our lives

Since July the 7th I have been working on a project that has taken me thru the summer and yesterday I finally finished it (October 18th).  I had to order extra balls here and there if I was running low on a particular colour... So after spending £135.00 on wool and approx 200 (wo)man hours here its is. Hubby measured it for me and its approx 2 metres across and down. I'm really pleased with the result and have just under a ball of each colour left so I am going to try and make some scatter cushions to match.

So now that's completed, Well, I can turn back to papercrafting for a while although my two boys have put requests in for quilts.... should be a bit easier than knitting or crocheting!

And before I forget... Our dear friend Alison has gone back to her home country of Australia! We will miss her so much when it comes to our yearly retreats in March as she has been to every one so far.... The first one she was quite pregnant with her gorgeous twin boys... And the next one she missed her boys so much but it was quality adult time and a mum needs that at times don't they! Anyway, we had an idea of doing an album for her as a memento of our retreats... I made the cover using some papers from an Echo Park collection and all of us did a page in it at 8x8 size and using kraft paper to link all the layouts together....

I am pretty sure everyone who goes has put their layouts on their blogs but I also have a digital layout to show as Mr W did a lo of himself and Mr P. At the last retreat Mr P cooked on Friday night and Mr W cooked on Saturday night...

The very last page I put an 8x6 print in so Alison can remove it and use it on a layout to go in this book too. I know we all miss her so much already but thank goodness for facebook and skype too.

So I'll say bye for now and til next time.

Note Book Swap

I have been involved in a note book swap with some lovely ladies who are great friends and great crafters too...
Here is mine which I decorated for Tara.

First of all I took the cover off and paint it with gesso and some blue paint... the I cut a piece of white card (SU's whisper white) and placed a mask over the top and rubbed some Adirondack cloudy blue paint over and for the bottom part painted it blue then stamped over that using Adirondack denim inkpad and a large script stamp and used some banana frog stamps and cranberry ink too. I made a heart using pearlescent pva. I then covered it all with mod podge. Using my petal pairs punches I made some flowers and diecut some leaves using a crealies die and added those, I added a crystal swirly and then diecut a shape and stamped the note book letters and stuck all those down. Then I bound it all together changing the brown pages for white pages and sent it off to Tara.

Bye for now

The blanket................. just a few pics!

Okay, so here is the wool I've been using for my blanket... and yep, this is the second lot!! so it's gonna take 30 balls of wool!! We chose the colours together as it's going to be on our bed so I thought we could chose a colour scheme that we both like...

So...I popped on to Samuel Taylors website to get my favourite wool... Sirdar Calico which is a summer weight yarn.  The first colour is called Muslin (a regular favourite), the second is Hopsack (this is a kind of pale sage green and you know, I think it's gonna become a favourite of mine too), third is Cotton White, fourth is Amber (I had to get this asap as the colour has now been discontinued! fifth is Peachie.... and last is Banana (which is cuddled up next to Peachie!  Its the first time I've used the Hopsack, Peachie and Banana and I really like them too!

Then.... I thought ooh some of you might like to see more of the wool to get an idea of the colour scheme















And then......I thought you might like to see the colours all together!!

Isn't this is a real bag full of wonderful gorgeousness!!

And here is the first lot of wool already crocheted up and waiting to join the rest of the wool...

So, now it is the time to get my bamboo crochet hook out... I've taped it up as it has a slight crack in it... I have a spare ready but want to keep using this one as much as I can... It's kept me going and it's funny to notice that it has developed a slight curve to it too...


Anyway, I'll keep you updated and let you know how I am going... I'm hoping it will be finished by mid October now I have all the wool I need plus a bit extra to do the scallop edging too.

Bye for now

Lisa
x

Happy Birthday to you....

Dear Gemma, Hope you have a wonderful day, I always remember Gemma's birthday as its the same day as Dom's (he will be 11).

Here is the card I made for Gemma, hopefully she will get it on time...

The card below is for Dominic and I hope he likes it too.

Thanks for dropping by

Lisa
xx

Six days later and I'm making a good start...

Here is a pic of how far I have gotten with the crocheting... it measures 36 inches wide and 18 inches high... I've got enough wool left to do 2 more rows and that will be the first 6 balls used.... I have 12 more balls left and I've decided to make the blanket 6 feet square so I have calculated that I will need another 18 balls to complete it... I've already ordered 3 more balls of Amber as this has now been discontinued! I reckon that if I can get 3 balls of wool every so often over the next 3 months then I will be fine to complete it when I can. 

Any of you sharp-eyed people out there will notice something different from the original design that I laid out to take a pic of previously.... Well, I had 15 balls of wool (3 balls of each colour) then I decided to add cream to it, I think it looks better than the original design too.

Updated as of 11am 7/72013 - Just ordered 3 balls of Banana :D
Ordered 3 balls of cream (Sirdar calico - muslin) arrived 12/7/2013

This month I are mostly...

Crocheting!! 3 inch squares...I bought the yarn from clickoncrafts.co.uk. It is Sirdar Calico in the colours of Peachie (darker peach tone - 0710), Amber (lighter peach tone - 0714), Hopsack (a pale sage green - 0709), Banana (a soft natural yellow - 0733) and Cotton White (which is well...white - 0723) Hopsack and Peachie are two of the new colours and I think that Amber may have been discontinued which is a shame because its one of my favourite colours. I bought 3 balls of each colour (15 in total) and the plan is to keep it on our bed but it may end up being "borrowed" by one of my boys as they have both said they would like a blanket made... like the one their big sister has on her bed...

So far I've crocheted 38 squares & I've not even finished the first ball from each colour!!

 And this is the pattern I plan on using... sort of a steps design I guess