WOYWW 838

 SUMMERTIME AND THE LIVING IS EASY..

Hi there lovely Deskers and welcome to another week of inspiration and camaraderie! Linking with other crafters around the world over at Sarah's Craft Shed.

I didn't enjoy the heat last week and I think we had slightly lower temps than the folks in England. On the plus side, we washed our winter duvet and it dried in two hours flat outside! It meant that I did retreat to the cool of the JanCave and got some cutting out and sewing done:

This is all that's left of 2 metres of 150cm wide fabric, not bad huh?

I got six bags, five glasses cases and four purses out of it...as I've said before, I'm generous with many things in life but not fabric, lol!!

I paired this lovely print with purple and lavender spotty cotton. It's slightly old fashioned I know but it's very pretty in reality.

I'd sold the last of the daffodil and hearts print at the last fair so ordered some more and couldn't resist the 'Klimt' sunflowers. That's a lovely cheery sight isn't it?

There are quite a few birthdays coming up and so I dragged all the card making paraphernalia out of the cupboard and set to:

I used up all sorts of paintings and bits and bobs I've done previously so it was a very satisfying session and made me realise that I need to get the paints out more often, it's so enjoyable and yet I never seem to spare the time, ridiculous really....

And that's it, short and sweet. Hope you're all keeping well and happy, see you on the desks later!

xxxxx

WOYWW 837

 GOLDFINCH IN ITS WAKE

GILDS WITH GRACE

Hello all you lovely Deskers - once again we have our weekly meet up at Sarah's, linking up to see what everyone else is getting up to!

It was a red letter day for me on Saturday, I passed the £10,000 mark with my fundraising, woohoo!! I'm still taken aback by how much I've made by selling my bits and bobs and have to thank many friends for their support.

It was a lovely hall but unfortunately the footfall wasn't great. Nevertheless I made enough to take me past the post and we had a nice day catching up with the other stallholders and some old bandmates of mine!

It's been a busy few days and there hasn't been that much activity in the JanCave:

I had two metres of this pretty cotton and chopped it up into various sizes. It's a strange blue to match and none of my spotty linings went apart from this lilac and lime green, my blues just weren't right!

Life has been busy elsewhere however - we went out for a lovely walk on Father's Day, only locally but the weather was fab. We spotted this sweep of wild orchids:

They normally do grow well around here but this year they are exceptional! It wasn't just in this spot either, they're all over the place:

So pretty, it was a joy to see! We walked through the woods on our way out and returned via the beach:

Rhys took this sneaky shot of us, lol! I use hiking poles for when going over uneven ground, they help my wonky ankle. The tide was just on the turn and we had a happy few minutes watching the kite surfers whizzing over the waves.

Back at home, our bird seed feeder has seen more activity and here was a little bird who made us laugh a lot:

This juvenile goldfinch has been hanging around not entirely sure of how to do things. He's still got a lot of fluffy down under his feathers and he was investigating the fish pond quite closely....

And didn't seem at all certain what to do once he got to the perch! He really made us smile, it's the little things sometimes eh?

Hope you have a marvellous week! xxxxxx

WOYWW 836

 OLD FRIENDS, OLD FRIENDS

SAT ON THE PARKBENCH LIKE BOOK ENDS...

Hello lovely Deskers, hope you've had a good week! Mine has been busy in all sorts of ways.  First, the desk:

I've made a start on the new fabric, the sausage dog is all used up and now I'm starting on the butterflies! 

I used up all the cherry blossom too, making different things and found a small remnant of the blue camo so thought I'd make more cross body bags. The smaller is the dimensions as given in the tutorial but I thought I'd scale it up and have a slightly bigger version too. I'm doing a craft fair this weekend and have tried to make more Welsh stuff for it. These bags are quick to make and no faffing around with zips!

Other than that my time was taken up with a visit from an old friend Liz. The weather wasn't the greatest for her but we had a blustery visit to the harbour and beaches:

We got a bit sand blasted! Liz wanted to see the JanCave, she's a very good sewist herself and had a go at my new machine:

And while it was raining, I got on with a few projects and Liz kindly cut some strips out of the scraps box for the next quilt:

Now that's a good friend eh?! Lol.

Lynnecrafts sent me a pic from a FB group of colleagues from our television days:

You can spot Yours Truly bottom left of the group! I worked on all the series of Crosswits, it was great fun and a fast paced show which kept us on our toes. Like Ancient History now, this was possibly taken 40 years ago!! How is that possible?  Ah well, Tempus Fugit and all that *grin*

Hope you have a great week, keep your fingers crossed for me at the fair on Saturday xxxx

WOYWW 835

 I WEAVE THE CLOTH OF MANY COLOURS...

Hi there lovely Deskers, hope you've had a good week! It's been another full on one for me, I've been out a lot and putting in some hours in the JanCave too.

Last Saturday was a quieter time at the craft fair but I still took £60 which is better than nothing!

I had a nice time chatting with my friend Jan Jewellery and the other stall holders!

It's been busy at the sewing machine:

As I was cutting out, ironing then sewing, things got chucked onto the bed. Considering I didn't want it in here, it's been remarkably useful!

I sold a few of these bags on Saturday, this one is for a commission - I had to send for the fabric so might have got a couple of other things too...cough...

All gorgeous but that cherry blossom has to be my favourite.

These all sold out (pic from last week)

I've got enough fabric to make a couple more.

My friend Helen has taken on a Treasurer's role recently and the folders etc were handed over to her in a Macy's plastic bag of all things! So she asked me if I could make a bag of equal dimensions as it was a good size for items not to roll around.

So I measured the Macy's bag, found this gingham cotton canvas I've had for a while and set to....

I boxed the corners so it's a little deeper and put a pocket on the front for pens, small bits and bobs, etc. Helen was really pleased and didn't want the Macy's bag back, lol!!

I have an old friend staying from tomorrow so if I don't get round to commenting today, it may well be the weekend before I am able.  Hope you're keeping well and happy, may your crafting be stress free xxxxx

WOYWW 834

 WOOHOO WITCHY WOMAN

SHE GOT THE MOON IN HER EYE.

It has been a week of two halves, sunny and hot up til Sunday then lots of rain since then (which the garden needed so I'm not complaining)

Thank you Wipso and Twiglet for the beautiful ATCs that arrived, I just adore all the colours and details, you’re so talented!

I've been making up for lost time since I got the JanCave back and have made a batch of cross body bags, totes and zippy bags of all sizes. And they've all been chucked on the bed as I've finished them!

They all need pricing up as I've got a craft fair on Saturday and need to get my act in order. I'm getting my own card reader courtesy of the RNLI which is awesome, the monies taken will go straight into the local fundraising group account so I don't have to bother.

The muted fabric bag turned out really well, I was pleased with the toning zip colour and the little bronze heart zip pulls also added to the overall effect.

I've done a few of the Welsh flag bags too, some for the craft stall, some for an order (thanks Lynne!)

This is a new design I found from a YouTube tutorial, enough for a phone, tissues, doggy bags etc etc. It's quick to make but is like fabric origami towards the end which is great if your fabric is non-directional but a headache if it's not!

Hence the amateur way of working it out on paper after I got it wrong first time!! 

Here's a pic from my holiday that I'd forgotten about, it was part of the Cardigan Weavers' Exhibition at the Woollen Mill:

Unfortunately I managed to cut the third crafter off on the right but it was called The Crafting Witches and it made me smile - I'm sure quite a few of us could recognise ourselves there!!

Have a great week xxxx

WOYWW 833

 SO LONG AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH!

(Sorry, that's the only dolphin related thing I could think of, you'll see why later!)

I enjoyed the anniversary and the Zoom catch up on Saturday, so nice to touch base with folks who are true mates, be it for forty three years (Lynnecrafts!) or more recent additions!  Thank you to the lovely gals who sent some Crafty love through the post too:

Helen, Neet, Mary Anne and Angela - all gorgeous and will be going up on the JanCave shelves where I can see them all the time!

I've been busy sewing in the past week:

More little zipped bags in a grey dog print and black & pink cat version...

I've made a few cross body bags now, it's something else to put on the stall.

I really like the muted colours of this, we shall see if the punters agree (or not!) The little hearts in the box top right are zip pulls, they do add a nice touch to the finished article.

This mock up of a local draper's counter was in the National Wool Museum (free entry with lots of really interesting machines and demos, worth going if you're in the area around Newcastle Emlyn)  I spent a lot of time looking at all the bits and bobs..

especially the threads display:

You wouldn't want to disrupt the order would you?! My rucksack wasn't big enough to sneak this one out....*grin*

We had such a wonderful week away and did some lovely things - one highlight was on the last day when we went on a boat trip out of New Quay:

Row upon row of brightly painted Georgian houses, it's touristy but a lovely place to wander around for a few hours. The main reason for the boat trip and why Cardigan Bay is famous:

We were lucky enough to spot three, this one was the closest and was in the harbour area! Happy Days xx

WOYWW 832

 YOU'RE SIXTEEN, YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL AND YOU'RE MINE

OR

SIXTEEN TONS AND WHAT DO YOU GET?
ANOTHER DAY OLDER AND DEEPER IN DEBT!

Well, how did this happen then? 16 years of crafty snooping and shenanigans and the thing is, it's just as good now as it was back then. The friendships and ideas are still fresh and fun every week and, while we may remember and mourn some wonderful gals who are no longer with us, I'm so very glad our paths crossed. My life has been enhanced so much by this weekly meet-up, thanks to Julia for kick starting it and Sarah for continuing to keep us in line *grin*

This is my virtual ATC:

I just love colour! So it's a simple effort but I enjoyed creating it. Whoever is below me on the list will get this as a card instead of an ATC, hope that's ok xx

Please forgive me if I'm late with commenting but we're away in Ceredigion for a week with this view to look at every day from our holiday cottage:

It's gorgeous in the day and just as beautiful in the evening:

We've not watched much tv, this is too amazing and it's been like this everyday so far.

We've walked and talked and played lots of games of cribbage and Yahtzee, the perfect break with my gorgeous menfolk!

I found a yarn shop - quelle surprise - it was in the undercroft of the newly refurnished Cardigan market, cracking spot eh? I might have bought some more variegated yarn, it would have been rude not to!

And this lady was at the National Wool Museum as part of the Ceredigion Weavers and Spinners Society who are celebrating their 50th Anniversary. She dyes her own rovings and was then spinning them into a beautiful marled yarn.

 One of her hangings, she does freeform stuff and doesn't follow patterns or plans - a kindred spirit there, lol!!

We also found other things to make us happy, this was one of the best:

A topiary Colin the Caterpillar! His head was about 5 ft and length about 30 ft in all, a work of art and he definitely made us smile xx

I'll have more crafting to share next week so will just close with another huge vote of thanks to you all for being such staunch friends and commenters. Thank You and long may it continue!

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