WOYWW CROP TAKE 2........

I think that I was slightly worried about this Crop as it was a smaller gathering than usual. Well, that was stupid huh, as it turned out to be a lovely day with more of a chance to chat! Seeing Shaz looking so well was the high point of the weekend for me - thank you for coming down, lovely gal. You did really well! Sam (Hettie) was poorly and couldn't make it, which was a shame as I was looking forward to seeing her.....

As usual there was chatting, cake (thanks Fiona for the famous Lemon Drizzle) and actually quite a bit of crafting....Heavens to Betsy :-)

The good folk of Burbage were having a Spooky quiz in the hall that evening and, after asking my permission if they could decorate the hall the previous day, did a fine job...it was very atmospheric!!

Some very spooky characters were lurking..

This made me laugh......looks like me after a bad day!!

It was great fun and added to the atmosphere :-)

The girls started arriving and quickly got down to business (they're all fooling you actually, there was lots of chat and cake at this point.....)

Way too mischievous...this was the Naughty Corner! Yes, Fiona and Lisa-Jane...YOU!

I rest my case, M'Lud!!

Margaret and Debbie managed to create some really beautiful items whilst chatting away like the great friends they are.....

 Debbie was making these gorgeous flowers to adorn the mixed media hearts she does so well...they were sparklier in real life.

And Margaret was doing parchment craft...I thought this was amazing but then she showed me what she does with it...

How beautiful is this? I just couldn't get over it...so delicate in appearance. Margaret must have loads of patience as this takes quite a while to complete...so worth it though xx

Shaz!!  Looking awesome in her witchy hat!  I did wonder over the past month whether we'd see her at the Crop, but she is one determined woman and it was fantastic to see her doing amazingly well. Doug is perfecting his shading technique!

I love this photo!  It just sums up the day for me :-D  I had just told them a really rude joke though, which explains the sniggering!!!! Love you Helen and Cindy ;-)

Dolores came all the way from Kent and bought Lizzie with her....a first timer to the Crop, but she follows WOYWW every week and reads our blogs but is unable to comment. Come on Lizzie, you've got to get your blog back up and running then we can return the honour!  Seriously, thanks for coming and being such a good sport. Both these lovely girls had made amazing tags...

Lizzie's.....they were really good!!

And Dolores...honestly, I loved these so much. Great pic of you as well, Dolores!

This was Lizzie's pencil collection....I could have happily walked away with these but will content myself with putting them on my Christmas list for Santa.....ooooh, those colours, they're just so tempting :-)

Kyla was looking Fab-u-lous!  And was a good sport when I asked her to pose for this pic, lolol!!

I love our crafting friends...they're just wonderful :-)

Kyla commandeered the tables at the end of the hall where she was putting her quilt top, batting and backing together...I was impressed that she'd bought her iron. If I'd have known, I'd have brought my ironing pile over for her.... ;-)

Fiona was busy handsewing some patchwork hexies....so meticulous...

Lisa Jane was creating some funky Scrapbook LOs...I loved that in your face paper....

A general view...it looks quiet here but that definitely wasn't the case on the day...

Dolores had bought the AWESOME quilt she's made and wanted some advice on how to square the edges properly.  So we had a committee meeting and lots of thoughts were bandied about about. Can you believe this is the first big quilt Dolores has made?? It is gorgeous....

....as were her nails!! Lol....

Can I give a shout out in praise of Doug Silverwolf? He played a blinder through the day, helping us set up with my menfolk and packing up at the end of the day as well. You're a star...

It was fantastic to see Mary Anne looking so great after her recent health issues too..she was knitting a cowl in this lovely autumnal yarn and had some crochet to show me....

...with a skull pattern in! How clever is that??  I really must try to attempt some more complex crochet...it's too easy to stick with the tried and tested sometimes.

I'm not entirely sure what IS going on here, but it obviously needed two pairs of hands to do it!

Morti and David rocked up at lunchtime...gosh it was so good to see these lovely folk again..it's been too long. Morti was doing the teeniest cross stitch I've ever seen...it was miniscule...she must have amazing eyesight! And David was cross stitching away merrily as well :-)

The usual Rent-a-Crowd photo had to be taken...we were smaller in number but still had a really enjoyable day...

...but there's always one.... :-D  And it's the quiet ones that are the worst, eh Fiona??

Some final images from a wonderful day...

The Goth Quarter!!

Inky mitts are the sign of a great day's crafting....

Extra visitors add to the fun!  My mate Helen and her mum popped in to support my fundraising stall...good to see you, lovely gals!

This made me laugh every time I needed the 'Facilities'!!

But most of all, it couldn't have happened without my Bestie.....

Love ya :-)

So many thanks...to everyone who came, who did all the setting up and unloading of cars (I've had real problems with vertigo and balance recently) and especially who supported my fundraising stall. The profits from your donations for all that craft stuff together with a small amount of subs money left over amounted to £200, which is astonishing. THANK YOU!!

WOYWW - just wonderful....... xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 334

CONGRATULATIONS AND CELEBRATIONS.....

Hello, lovely peeps - hope you've had a good week, filled to the brim with crafty goodness! Thank you to all those who made me laugh by calling me an Old Bag last week... the winner was....drum roll......

Yay, well done Lisa!  I still have your snail mail addy, so will get the bag off to you Toot Sweet :-)

I apologise for what's on my desk...but really, it's for a good cause so I hope you'll forgive me.

Christmas bunting. Yes, I know....it's still October and all things festive shouldn't appear for a while yet. But all the Christmas goods are now on the shelves in Oxfam where I volunteer and the window will be changed this week and I offered to make some bunting to help with the decorations. I'm frantically justifying myself here, can you tell?! 

I still had quite a few triangles already cut out so the process was quite speedy...

I made one length of larger and two of smaller flags - hope they'll fit the bill :-)

I'm determined to make a dent in the stash of double knitting yarn I have, so have started to make large granny squares bordered in white, which I'll join to make a blanket or bedspread. This one is about 15" across - it doesn't look much at the moment, but I got the idea off Pinterest and the overall effect when the squares are joined was really funky. We'll see....but if it reduces my stash and keeps me out of mischief then it's worth doing!

Someone asked to see the other bag I made from the Bicycle fabric last week....

I put deep pockets across both sides...you could get a water bottle in there, for example. As much as I liked the fabric, the pattern repeat was bl*%$y awkward - I just couldn't get a decent layout of two or more bikes. They were too far apart to be completely satisfying.

I made a doorstop with the leftovers and the problem was the same, except the image was too big now:

Ah well, the recipient can always give it away if she doesn't like it!  Two large bags and a doorstop out of a metre and a half of fabric. I'm so mean when it come to cutting carefully, lol :-)

And finally, some Happy Mail arrived from Kim Young as a thank you for something I'd made for her....

Some funky cards to use and a pretty butterfly one from Kim...that made me smile and do a Happy Dance!!  I'm still doing it...look....... :-D

Right, now I've finished this post, I'm off to do the food shopping for this weekend's Crop. I may be some time......

xxxx

WOYWW 333

BAGS, BAGS, BAGS. BAGS,

BAGGITY BAGGITY BAGS......

(not a song, just a comment!)

Hold onto your hats - I've done some more crafting this week. Woohoo!!

It started off last week when a friend presented me with this fun fabric and asked if a bag could be made out of it. I had a furtle in my stash and found this mad green multi spot cotton. It must have been serendipity because there was only about 6 cm square left over at the end. Careful cutting and surreptitious seaming was needed to get it to work out ok! I showed some of this on Facebook as it apparently was Sew Saturday at the weekend......

The things I've found about making bags is that the longest time has to be spent on things like pockets, the zip section etc. The actual sewing-the-bag-together bit is the very last action.

But hopefully it's worth it :-)  There's so much fabric left over, I'm going to make a beach bag sized tote but it'll have to have a different lining.

And then I remembered last week's rash promise of a giveaway! This was yesterday......

This is the ugly part of the process!! You know, the bit where you do actually wonder if everything's going to turn out ok :-)

I used a selection of fabrics from my stash, some old, some new and had fun with trims and stitches from the Dark Side......

Just a basic tote....you can use it to take to the supermarket, it's surprisingly strong. This is Side A.......

...and Side B.  I forgot to take a pic of the rather sexy raspberry and chocolate stripe lining, doh!  You can just see a hint peeking out of the top :-)

So, if you'd like to enter my Giveaway for the Patchwork Tote, then just include the words 'OLD BAG' in your comment. It'll make me happy!

Finally, that wonderful gal, Shaz Silverwolf, finally made The Great Escape from Hospital last week. What fab news is that?! I think we've all been through the wringer following her progress through her hubby's blog. Hopefully she'll mend quickly now she's back home.

Happy Dance :-)

Have a great week! xxxx