WOYWW 548

TUA BETHLEHEM DREF

(English: On to Bethlehem Town)

To hear a beautiful version, click here

This is one of my all time favourite Welsh carols - I'm a sucker for a good minor key and mournful sound, that's my Welsh blood coming through!

Anyway, the festive season has well and truly begun here at LLJ HQ....I've already been out playing five times since last week, two of which were covered by the television cameras. It's going to be interesting to see the final programme.

No desk as such today, but yesterday saw me at the WI Craft Club where we made willow stars. Janet demonstrated what to do:

You've never felt such concentration from us girls, lol!

Then we set to - it was really good fun, we all enjoyed though there was the occasional bit of swearing as a bit of willow pinged across the room!!

My mate Helen and her star - Da Iawn, Helen (Very good!)

My attempt!  I enjoyed the weaving part very much - Janet had found wire covered tape which was much easier than using thin willow and more forgiving on the hands. I shall put that in pride of place amidst my Christmas decorations!

All shapes and sizes and all beautiful :-)

I've been practising making Christmas trees out of paper for recycled Table centres for the WI Christmas party. They're improving slowly!

So my desk was the dining room table this time - I was ploughing away and G came in and said Aha! His 52 week challenge topic was Rock Paper Scissors and so we did this:

Fun eh? The little stones with holes in came from the beach near Craster in Northumberland years ago when we lived up there. We have a little bowl of them and they've been with us for 3 decades!

An alternative version:

I don't know which one G used for the challenge in the end but  Gail, if you're reading this, then you might recognise some of the papers you passed onto me!!

On the table is also this:

I've been joining squares the girls in the WI have made to make a baby blanket for a Salvation Army Food Bank appeal that Cindy mentioned on FB. 

And lastly, a fun little project that I've been doing for my own satisfaction and which will end up hanging in the house somewhere - only a little detail of the fabrics though:

Fun huh?!

Right that's it, I'm off playing carols with a small group in an old folks' home this afternoon so my comments may very well be later or tomorrow.

Have a lovely crafty week everyone!

WOYWW 547

I'M LATE, I'M LATE FOR A VERY IMPORTANT DATE....

Well, I thought I'd finished making everything for the WI/RNLI stalls at the fair which is this Friday and then someone turns up with 48 more Ferrero Rocher to knit covers for!!! (This person doesn't knit so has no concept of the time it takes, I think)  I put the call out for helpers and thankfully someone stepped in - bless them!

More little Santa hats (sorry to those folks who've already seen these on FB)

I fancied doing something different and had seen painted wood on Pinterest. My friend's husband obliged with a few slices, the old acrylic paints were dug out and the cobwebs blown off!

I have to say that I really enjoyed doing some painting again!

I put some Stickles highlights on, screwed a little brass cuphook into the top and used some of Sue Dyer's ribbons that she sent me.

Thanks for this Happy Mail Sue, it made my day getting this and it'll definitely be used!

It's been a busy week apart from crafting. I went to the Royal Welsh Winter Fair with my friend Helen, we had a Grand Day Out and enjoyed criticising the judging in the homecraft section, lol! There was lots to see and I admired some of the amazing patchwork and quilting, some folks have soooo much patience:

All different and all gorgeous!

This tripych was the worthy winner, I spent a long time looking at all the details, stitching, bead highlights etc etc.

My band is being filmed at the moment for an hour long programme (6pm Christmas Eve on S4C!) and the camera crews have been in action this week. They were there to record our rehearsal, it was very different for sure, we were far more well behaved for starters!

Cameras were everywhere! The focus is on the people who have been with the band for ages and who are first language Welsh speakers - the programme is about how groups in rural Wales have their Christmas traditions. Watch this space, lol! (I shall mostly be hiding behind my tuba....)

And finally, we did a bit of Christmas shopping yesterday and this was the window display of a secondhand bookshop:

I wonder how long it took them to create it? That's a lot of books! It really looked like a Christmas tree, my pic doesn't do it justice.

Hope you have a good week!

WOYWW 546

RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED REINDEER....

I know... look, I'm sorry ok. Too early for the above lyric this week but it really is the most apt for what's on my desk!

And I'm sorry again - this will be a long post as there's lots to share ;-)

It's definitely Christmas in the JanCave at the moment as I've been busy making items for the WI and RNLI stalls at the town's Christmas festival. There are candy canes, felt Rudolphs, knitted snowmen, googly eyes, beads, ribbon, sparkly felt noses and a new tree decoration that's for our house. Oh and new fabric too!

I'd seen these reindeer on Pinterest but they were beautifully hand stitched - no time for me to do that so machine zigzag stitch it is then! The ribbon hangers are made with ribbon that was donated at the Crop, the felt is from my stash so cost per item to make has been very low.

Rudolph's sparkly nose is made from the offcuts of the fairy wand glitter felt and the snowmen are also from stash yarn, felt and beads. They'll have a Ferrero Rocher sweetie stuffed inside and need hangers attached as well.

I indulged in a little more fabric spending......

...and succumbed to a little collection of beads. I'll enjoy using them over the next year or so - in fact the Christmassy coloured ones will probably see action this week :-D

G and I went over to West Wales on Saturday - the reason was to meet up with Gail, a lady who's read my blog for a few years (and for whom I've made some items in the past). She was destashing her workroom and had wondered if I could use any of the stuff. It was fab to meet her in person after all these years and we had a good catch up! She was so kind in passing on a bootful of treasure:

This is a small selection that I was having a sort through - it'll be brilliant for WI craft club as well as fundraising. Thanks Gail, you're a star!

While we were out West, we went to Newcastle Emlyn, a small town which had some rather fine shops to explore and...oh dear....there was a fabric/yarn emporium. Well, it's a tough life but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do and it would have been rude not to go inside.....

The back end of an LLJ (definitely my best profile, lol!)

So much fabric.....

...so little time. I think that G had stolen Doug Silverwolf's Enabling Hat because he encouraged me to buy all sorts of this. I had to do it cos G said so ( well, there's a first time for everything, lololol!!!)

Newcastle Emlyn has the River Teifi running through and my goodness, it was in full spate after all the rain.

and the ruined castle has a lot of stories about the Golden Dragon. So I took this pic for you Shaz and Doug, it was above the castle gate and was really tricky to get a good shot but you get the idea...

He was a very friendly dragon - we'll definitely go back and visit him again when the weather is a bit kinder!

You probably need a coffee/tea/gin after all this - enjoy!

Have a great week xxxx

WOYWW 545

SPARKLING HEARTS AND DAZZLING BOWS..

Before I kick off the crafting this week, I need to share the news that Shaz Silverwolf is in hospital - she was rushed in with breathing difficulties a couple of days ago after suffering a chest infection and cold which left her unable to breathe. It's good to see she's doing better on her brief blog this morning.

The desk:

Everything has been chucked on the desk today! I'm making items for Christmas craft stalls for both the WI and the RNLI so there doesn't seem much point in putting anything away, I'd only have to get it out again!

There's a pile of little stockings....

Some snowmen that need their carrot noses sewn on (thanks for this pattern Twiglet!)

The RNLI feature Yellow Wellies a lot in various campaigns so I thought I'd make some as Christmas stockings - a couple of sweets will get shoved inside!

I was in Dunelm yesterday and saw some lovely fabrics so got a metre of each as I'm really down in my stash at the moment:

Useful for various things - the tartan fat quarters are lovely but I'm not sure what they'll be used for yet. Christmas coasters maybe?

A lovely lot of lace! I use quite a bit of this as bunting trimmings and in the jewellery wallets so had nearly used all my stash up - it's incredible how quickly it goes.

And finally, I paid a visit to the lovely Deb in Llandeilo the other day, got some mini pompoms and twinkly yarn and couldn't resist these buttons....

Oooooh, sparkly hearts - what's not to like?!

I must finish with a huge thanks to some of my fellow WI members - do you remember the crochet and knitted poppies I was doing a couple of weeks ago? Well, Janet and Lynne did an amazing job putting together the 200 poppies that all the ladies did - they made two wreaths and sewed the remainder on tape which they put on the railings around the Memorial gardens:

Remembering those who fought for the peace we have today.

Have a great week xxx

WOYWW 544

ALL KINDS OF EVERYTHING REMIND ME OF YOU...

A lot went on in the JanCave last week - feeling a bit rough meant I didn't go out and, after a couple of days not doing much, got a bit bored and got a proper crack on with some stuff for the Christmas fairs that are fast approaching. So there's a few things to share with you this morning!

I'm making a few little stocking ornaments and will get some candy canes to put in - that bead box you gave me is still earning its keep Shaz!

These were quick to run up on the machine, using scraps of ribbon and lace. I glued the buttons on though as getting the needle through at this point was impossible! The poppy is there cos I took this pic to send to another WI friend as a reference for something.

The long view!  I've tidied up the ribbons since then - can't bear wasting time searching for stuff....

And today I've started making the fairy wands. As me and the hot glue gun are sworn enemies, I find that doing things in stages is the best way forward! So I've gathered the little bundles of ribbon and held them with a Clover clip, then I wound ribbon around the wands and glued them - lastly, I'll insert them between two glittery felt stars and glue those too. Then I'll spend a happy half hour trying to unglue fingers, eyelashes, clothes, etc etc.....sigh. It'll be worth it though, they do turn out quite nicely.

I always have a stash of the sunglasses cases to hand...

..and have been playing Jenga with the tissue holders!  I'm actually getting quite low on fabric at the moment as I've used so much up this past year and generally haven't bought that much.

When we were staying with Julia last week, G and I went down to Salisbury to revisit old haunts. I went into B&R Textiles, one of my favourite shops which was hard hit when Salisbury was shut during the Novichok poisoning - the poor folk had to close their shop for months and trade was limited to their online presence. So it was good to go in and support them by buying some fabric.

I bought a metre each of the three on the left and the lady gave me the samples on the right when she found out I was making stuff for the RNLI. I've already cut into my three, they're lovely quality and I hope will sell well at the fairs.

That's it for now, me and the b"£$&* glue gun are going to get reacquainted again....sigh....can't type any mor..al..st8ck toge^&$r....

xxxx

WOYWW 543

GONNA GET RIGHT BACK TO WHERE YOU STARTED FROM

Sorry I was absent last week, there was just too much to do before I left the next day to go and stay with Julia - and I knew I wouldn't have time to return comments.  It was a whirlwind of a break but really great to have a good catch up with me ol' mucker!

This is last week's desk:

I'd been asked to make a jewellery roll and the Debbie Shore pattern I'd originally picked just didn't fit the bill. So, to t'Interwebs where I found a blog that had altered a Cath Kidston idea. Instead of being a roll, it folds in thirds and closes with some of my favourite poppers. This is a protoype for my friend Lynne.

There's a lined pocket at the top, a strip of lace to hang dangly earrings from, a stuffed roll to put rings on, which has a velcro closure at one end and a pocket at the bottom. The fabrics are really lovely, I enjoyed making this one!

And here it is folded up - more useful than a jewellery roll which tend to get creased. I might make a couple more of these for the WI stall at the town Christmas evening.

G and I had a lovely stroll around Salisbury last Friday and I may have gone into a fabric shop or two ;-)  I also got a couple of balls of glittery yarn to crochet some flowers to make into brooches:

They turned out ok, the red/green/white version is really lovely especially with a suitable button sewn in the middle!

Right that's it, short and sweet today - don't worry, it won't last......

Have a great week!