WOYWW 840

IT'S LIKE A HEATWAVE...

After a calmer week temperature wise, it looks like we're heading into another heatwave so I'll be doing my best to keep away from the sun and in the cool of the JanCave!

The unexpected craft fair went really well last Saturday, raised a goodly amount:

The tables were smaller so everything looks a bit crammed on but never mind!  The stall next to me was a ceramics one run by a lovely lady, Planet Janet, who appeared on the TV programme The Great British Throw Down. 

She's as mad as a box of frogs, we had a good chat about the programme. She lives locally so hopefully our paths will cross again some time soon.

I thought I'd dig out the blocks I made recently and put some sashing on them:

I was deciding between two spotty fabrics...

...and went for the dove grey one (you're seeing the wrong side here!)

Trimming them up before attaching the side strip - the blocks were too busy just to sew together, it made my eyes ache!

I've been experimenting with some patterns for later in the year so I apologise now for the next two extremely unseasonal pics.....

These are all small and use up a lot of scrap yarn and when you sew them together.....

Makes a snowman chocolate orange cover! I've got a few RNLI ladies going to knit stuff for the Christmas fairs which start in October so need to get the patterns out soon before holidays etc start. They can make them in their own time then! Btw, there's a tennis ball inside this one, too hot for chocolate right now *grin*

If you're of a delicate nature then look away pronto - you see, I've been trying out another knitting pattern for a doll knitted in one piece, then the features are sewn in place afterwards. I'd done the first stage of the outer and started to laugh, it was like Julia and the Elephant all over again:

Errrrm, it's not good is it? G was wondering what on earth I was making! I'm not sure this pattern is for me, I'd snigger too much, lolol!!!

On that happy note, hope you have a good week and keep as cool as you can xxxx

WOYWW 839

 THE HEAT IS ON.....

Wow, what a Scorcher! It's been way too hot for me over the past week and my little corner of Wales hasn't had it half as bad as some of you lot in the South East.  I feel for you, I really do, hope the temps are going down from today. 

I've spent some time in the JanCave with a nice breeze coming through the open window:

I didn't hang around with the new fabrics as shown last week!

They do make for pretty gift sets! I've got an unexpected craft fair this Saturday (was offered a cancellation spot) so thought I'd make a few more items for the stall.

I love this Klimt-esque sunflower design, it's a really soft cotton too, lovely to handle. I'm doing one set each of the green and yellow lining. There was just enough over to make a little zippy bag or two as well:

Hopefully these will appeal to someone!

My mate Helen passed on some curtains she no longer had use for, they were made from Next Cotton fabric so perfect for upcycling. I started unpicking one afternoon:

Sitting on the JanCave bed in the breeze, it was lovely! However it took me so long to unpick the first one that I just cut off the heading tape of the second, I had to sacrifice some fabric that way but it was either that or my sanity!!  The fabric will make great beach bags or peg bags, perfect around here.

That's it for today, short and sweet. Hope you're keeping as cool as you can xxxxxx

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