WOYWW 582

YOU GOTTA HAVE FRIENDS...

I was having a proper sulk last weekend, the bounce properly went out of my bungee. It's not often I feel sorry for myself but I did for a couple of days. But my friends turned up trumps!

 Firstly Helen came around and we had a socially distanced natter/cuppa whilst making 5" crochet squares for a community yarnbombing project for later in the year. We both had odds and sods of yarn to use up so it was a very satisfying couple of hours.

We even wove the threads in...what kind girls we are, lol!  Hopefully I'll share the project with you later in the year.

Then another friend Kim offered to make me some cards that I could use in my role as the local WI birthday card monitor - I can make cards but it takes me ages....

Bless her, Kim has made a goodly amount - when you have 40 members of the group, that's a lot of cards to buy and people really do love the handcrafted ones.

I provided the cardstock, toppers and embellishments (some of you may recognise things!) and Kim provided the glue and expertise. I am VERY grateful!! xx

And then another friend Mary invited me and G up for a coffee and natter. The subject got onto masks and I showed Mary the darted one featured last week - she had some fabric and commissioned me to make a couple:

So I got to it straight away as I'd done very little sewing this week....

Isn't it fun?! I can't stand Liqourice Allsorts normally but they do make for a great fabric design. And the finished masks still make me snigger cos they look like bras.....infantile, I know....

One of Mary's dogs is a whippet, she got bored with our conversation after a while:

That is the life eh? Absolute bliss!!

So I may have been in a grump but not anymore, thanks to friends, crochet, cards and dogs!

Have a good week everyone xxxxx

WOYWW 581

DOESN'T TAKE MUCH TO MAKE ME HAPPY....

Another week has flown by and what have I done with my time? That's a very good question - any suggestions on a postcard would be helpful ;-D

Remember the tagliatelle last week? Well, we've moved on to rice noodles now:

I sent for some more tape to finish off the charity bags!

50 of them, all different colours and patterns to appeal to a wide range of ages and tastes. I had fun making these, it wasn't complicated crafting and there was a great deal of enjoyment to be had choosing the fabric combos.

Talking of lovely fabric - this was some happy mail from Sarah Brennan!! Thank you so much, I love the bright cheerful colours and will have a lot of fun thinking about some projects to use these. 

The drawers I keep my haberdashery bits and bobs in needed a sort, so a couple of hours was spent playing nicely:

I know it's sad, but I really do like knowing where stuff is, I can't bear wasting time searching (ratching around, as my dear old mum used to call it!)

I've made loads of masks (not nearly as much as Annie though, lol!) but find them quite claustrophobic -the rest of the family are ok with them, it's just me being weird. Anyhow, I found a really good YouTube video for a five dart version:

The technique is very straightforward but I was just noting down some of the dimensions so I don't have to watch the tutorial again.

It just gives me a bit more room to breathe which I find more bearable so I made a couple more - the daisy print fabric is pretty, don't you think?

The only problem is:

It looks like I'm going into bra production as well, lolol!!!! I would require considerably bigger masks....just sayin'  ;-)

Hope you're having a good week, thanks again to all the wonderful gals linking up from around the world on WOYWW, you really make the difference in these mad times. 

Hugs to you all xxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 580

SOFT AND GENTLE, WARM AND TENDER....

I hope you're all keeping well in the general upheaval that seems to be still prevalent - thank goodness for crafting and our desk/FB buddies, you are all making this weird time a lot more bearable! The link up at WOYWW keeps me on track, at least I know what one day of the week actually is!

Thanks to all who entered the Hare Bag lockdown last week, the winner is:

                   ANGELA (CRAFTING WITH JACK)

Woohoo, I'll get it off to you this week, please can you email me your address? I hope it gives you good service. 

It's a bit of a show and tell today - I have been making more drawstring bags for the Beads of Courage charity but thought I'd show you the results of my retail therapy instead!

I managed to get out to our local town last Saturday to visit the small fabric stall there - Foxglove Fabrics - bless her, she only opened up a couple of months before lockdown, so I thought I'd splash my cash at her business. I bought quite a lot!

There's a whole heap of lovely new stash to play with and I shall dive straight in. The tagliatelle at the front is leftover cotton twill tape from the scrubs bags which I'm using up.

Here are some close ups:

I LOVE this seaside fabric so much - it's great for the bag but I can really see a pair of toddler shorts in it as well!

The bright blue and white spot is the perfect lining too, love it!

I'll end with a pic of the gorgeous flowers my lovely menfolk gave me...just because....

So I'm sharing their prettiness with you, wonderful deskers around the world.

Hope you have a good week! xxxxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 579

IT AIN'T WHAT YOU DO, IT'S THE WAY THAT YOU DO IT

AND THAT'S WHAT GETS RESULTS

While I was pootling around in the JanCave last week, a new acronym just popped into my head - so as well as WOYWW, UFOs, PiFs, etc etc, may I present to you:

                                        INUITS

                         (It's No Use In The Stash)

I am on a mission to use up fabric and yarn, the giveaways, masks and wallets have made good inroads and this week, I stumbled across a Childrens' cancer charity called Beads for Courage - the children get a bead for each stage of the treatment and they need a bag to put them in. Just a smallish lined drawstring bag and as I have sufficient fabric and cords/tape. I thought it would be something I could do.

So that's what you find me doing, cutting out the rectangles of fabric using that template...

...and finding the right fabric to be the lining.

There's very little wastage and before anyone mentions the word Patchwork to use those bits up, it ain't going to happen - I'm not the sort of person to hold onto every scrap!

I do like this colour combo:

I'm trying to sew a variety of colours as the children range from toddlers to teens.

And this was the final piece of a 3m length of fabric that the lovely Debbie Rock donated to me ages ago...it's been so useful and this seemed a good way to finish it off:

The charity has a label they like sewn onto each bag:

Which arrived with a little card for you to write a message on. The gorgeous black and gold elephant fabric is a wrap skirt which my mate Lynne donated to me - it was her late mum's and is much better used for something than being in a drawer.

So the stash slimming is in full swing!!

I started using my tote and Betty kicked off because she fancied it too - so I've made another to giveaway out of this lovely hare fabric:

That was the last of the sage green lining too - woohoo!  So if you fancy it, just let me know in the comments.

And this pic is just for Julia:

See, I do listen sometimes...... ;-D

Have a good crafty week everyone, keep safe and well xxxx

WOYWW 578

GONNA USE IT UP, GONNA WEAR IT OUT....

Thanks to all who have entered my giveaways, it's been great fun and I've enjoyed it very much! There were a lot of entries for the stripey bag, so much so that I did a draw for two totes in the end. So many congrats to:

CARO and LYNNE

Hope you get joy and good use out of them, you lovely gals! 

I'm also waving to Debbie Clarke, who has entered and commented on my posts - thanks for reading my nonsense and joining in!

So when I picked Lynne's name out in second place, I though about what fabric I'd choose for her - no contest really......

Out came some of the Oriental stash - Lynne's is foreground, mine is behind.

Finding a lining wasn't straightforward but this denim blue picked out some of the tones, I had to be very creative with how I cut it however, it just managed to get there!

The bit where you pull the outer through a gap in the inner always seems to be backward and you're never quite sure it's going to turn out ok but.....

It usually does! ( I say usually cos there have been times when I've got to this point and realised the pocket is on upside down!!)  I like the golden dragons romping all over the place and enjoyed making this so much, I thought I'd make a bag for me.

The frayed edge selvedge seemed too nice to trim off so I made it into a pocket top and before you know it, a couple of hours had whizzed by and.....

I love this fabric, it reminds me of Persian tiles - I shall enjoy using this once I've wrestled it back off Betty....she's a minx....

Isn't Happy Mail a treat? I was fortunate enough to have two loads this week:

Two jigsaws from Margaret (Glitter & Glue) which came just in time as I'd completed all the recently bought ones - thank you lovely gal!! And a gorgeous doggy Fat Quarter and some artery forceps (!!!!!) from Annie (Wipso). She had read how much I detest stuffing small tubes etc when sewing and knew that these were perfect for the job. You're so kind Annie, I never thought that forceps would become an integral part of my crafting but they will become essential kit! G, however, is starting to look a bit worried, lolol....... ;-)

Thoughtful gifts from thoughtful friends, it made this LLJ very happy indeed xxxxxxx

Hope you have a really lovely week!