WOYWW - THE BIG 9.0.0!!

 CONGRATULATIONS AND CELEBRATIONS!

Happy 900th everyone! I had a trawl around the posts ending with '00' and there were some nice makes to show but it hit me that it's not the crafting that brings me back every week, it's you lot..my friends.. and so without any apology whatsoever, I'm repeating my 800th post (edited), a look back over many Crops and the wonderful folk who've been part of this Desky madness for so long xx  All updating is in this red text, I also deleted the former comments so that new ones could take their place 🥰

And so, without any further ado, here we go   .....

Well, who'd have thunk it eh? An idea from our lovely Julia to see what other folks were doing every Wednesday and here it is, 900 episodes later. Surely a candidate for the longest running blog, crafty or not! There are many reasons for its success but surely the foundation stone of it all is friendship. Virtual friends became real ones and it's been wonderful (and occasionally very sad) to be part of your lives.

Sarah thought it would be nice to share memories for the 900th Bloggyversary so I've had a trawl through the archives and this is the journey through my eyes. Buckle up, it's a long one! You may need a large coffee, tea or gin to see you through.......

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I couldn't even begin to tell you how many things I've made but it's a lot and there's so much that I'd forgotten about too.

I officially joined the Deskers in July 2011, having resisted Julia's blandishments for a while! The one thing I'm proud of is persuading Julia to meet up with WOYWWers in real life, what could possibly go wrong, lol!

The first  crop was in October 2012:

When we discovered that meeting strangers off the Internet wasn't that scary! It was lovely to put faces to names and we had fun:

Helen still has the sign I believe, lol!

Other meet ups followed, another Crop happened in 2013 by popular demand.

Some faces who are still around and others who aren't - the flip side of the joy of having all these friends is the sadness when they pass away. We’ve had to say goodbye to quite a few Deskers...

That's how I remember Shaz Silverwolf - what a wonderful woman.

And Janet Fairythoughts was the first desker Julia and I ever met - we ambushed her in the haberdashery shop she worked in!

Of course if it wasn't for this gal we'd never have met each other:

And I even offered bed and board to folks who'd travelled a fair old way:

Here's Sam (Hettie) with her beautiful lace - we met up a couple of years ago in Abergavenny for a coffee and catch up, she's not changed one bit!

Another year 2014 and another Crop, more people started attending from far and wide:

There's some familiar faces there! Mary Anne always stood at the back as she's so tall and Debbie Rock attended for the first time. Such a shy person, it was a big achievement for her to attend in person - another gal who passed away too soon.

Pear shaped Chris (her blog name!) Debbie and Helen.

A nice pic of Cindy in action!

Our Lisa-Jane (still as bonkers!) and Fiona, who is now Mayor of Gillingham, Dorset (I think.)

Enough said!!

Another year passes and Crop 2015 brought a few more folk along:

A slightly smaller gathering but just as loud!

Lovely to see Dolores (Cardarian).

This pic of Kyla makes me laugh!!

And Mary Anne was knitting mightily even then!

A great photo of some fab friends - Doug and Shaz Silverwolf and Morti and David Bromilow.

In 2016 Julia had her big op so I stepped in and ran WOYWW for a few months whilst she recovered. It was good fun and I enjoyed it very much. 

I also went up to Shrewsbury to meet with those naughty sisters Twiglet and Wipso aka Jo and Annie. We get on like a house on fire and I'm proud to be their Honorary Little Sister!

We've had some fun over the years and these gals have been so generous in sharing their expertise, fabrics, yarns, patterns and love xx

Crop 2016:

Margaret Glitter and Glue joined us for the first time...

...and had a ball meeting everyone in person. (edit: I've lost contact with Margaret since she moved away from North Wales, is anyone else in touch? I'd love to know how she is)

Christine (Bishopsmate) passed away a couple of years ago but this is how I think of her, always smiling and of course the pink hair!

And here's a pic of when LynneCrafts came to stay in May 2017 - we've been friends since 1982 and Lynne has crafted all her life so I was very happy when she joined in WOYWW a couple of years ago:

The Crop was organised by Margaret that year and we all went up to Llandudno:

Where I met Neet for the first time and what a rock chick she was, it was fab to say Hi in person. (It broke my heart when Neet passed away earlier this year, she had been such a strong supporter of my blog, we messaged often and exchanged stash and ideas. Goodness I miss her.)

And the first time of meeting Sarah too who was accompanied by Eva.

I think this was Elizabeth's first Crop too.

It was lovely to meet Anne Copperbeech and Chris (Mrs D) as well. 

This next pic is one of my favourites - I'd love to know what they were gossiping about.

Another year moved on and the Crop moved to Shrewsbury, organised by Jo and Annie:

I love this pic, lol!

We saw some old faces:

Lolol!! And also some new folks, having 'known' Caro for years, it was wonderful to meet in person:

And Catriona, who posts her crafts on Facebook:

Another fab day that went past too quickly.

Lol, twits!  I couldn't have done all this without my wonderful Gordon, who is very good at taking pics for my blog, almost as good as me ;-D

I haven't shared much of my crafting even though that's the raison d'etre of WOYWW. What has become most important has been the many many wonderful people I've met, I'd never have crossed their paths otherwise and my life would have been poorer for it - may it continue for many more years under the guidance of Sarah. I love being part of the whole Desky Shenanigans from all over the Globe. 

Sending my love to all current deskers and remembering those wonderful people who brought joy into our lives before they were taken too soon.

I've tried to feature as many friends as possible but if I've missed anyone out then I sincerely apologise. Hope you've enjoyed sharing a few of my memories of a wonderful, mad, loving, joyous and craft-filled 900 WOYWWs xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 899

 YOU GOTTA HAVE FRIENDS....

Hi everyone, hope you're having a good week! Isn't it nicer now it's not so hot, I'm even enjoying the showers we're having as are the gardens. One more week to the Big 9.0.0., what a landmark that is, WOYWW must surely be one of the longest running blogs around and that definitely deserves celebrating! I hope that that old time deskers might consider returning for a week, it would be lovely to see some old friends back again.

I've been making gnomes...as you do...

Ready for stuffing and assembling! As well as sewn ones there are also knitted versions:

Just ready for a chocolate orange! But I'm not buying those yet, way too early.

The best thing about the past two days however is that Julia came to stay, we've not seen each other for a while so it's been like old times, we've laughed a lot! We've been down the beach and yesterday went to Aberglasney:

It was looking so good despite the recent high temps, the autumn planting is very much to the fore:

The dahlia bank was stunning, all bronze, orange, purple and burgundy colours - inspiration for next year!

There was a smart craft exhibition in the main house, lots of lovely art and jewellery. Julia and I were both taken by this display of small jugs and drinking vessels:

Fun huh? It would make a great jigsaw don't you think?! The same potter had done some seriously weird things as well:

The strangest teapots I've ever seen, you wouldn't get a decent sized brew out of them lol!!

And Julia had a good mosey around the JanCave:

My dear old mate! We have had a lot of fun xxx

Big hugs go out to Helen as well who's been in the wars this week, hope you're ok and your broken wrist isn't causing you too much aggro. Hope you're feeling as ok as you can be xx

Enjoy your week, I'm looking forward to seeing some vintage pics for the 900th edition, got to have a good search in my dusty old vault! xxxxxxx

WOYWW 898

 DON'T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON ME...

Hi there lovely gals, hope you've had a good week! I'm so much happier now the temps have dropped a bit, it's much more comfortable and more conducive to a bit of crafting.

The JanCave is still full of animal print!

I cut up the whole of the four metres I ordered so there's been a lot of sewing!  This has taken precedence over the strips squares for the quilt, that'll happen another time.

There might have been another fabric order...cough...

These were on offer on the PoundFabrics website, it would have been rude not to lol. The cat print isn't really my colourway preference but I know it'll sell, the dog print is a canvas as I'm low on ordinary tote bags. G's sister brought me this roll of snowflake printed Scandi linen:

I can see this being cut up to make hanging hearts with a snowflake in the middle of each heart, red gingham ribbon and a wooden button...you get the idea!

I have been on the receiving end of a lot of yarn and fabric, mostly from my RNLI friend whose wife passed away:

The electric yarn winder has worked overtime but we've condensed it all into two boxes, these are stacked three or four deep. There is a lot of yarn! Hopefully my RNLI crafting buddies will come with carrier bags and take most of it away!

I was also passed on some fabric (there's loads more to come), some silk went to my SiL Jill, who fancies making a jacket and I kept the bits that were large enough to do something with, there were an awful lot of teeny scraps which I haven't kept:

A sort of Cath Kidston vintagey vibe - maybe another quilt in the future....

We stayed in our back garden to view the eclipse, G rigged up a cereal box/binoculars which worked quite well but our favourite image was this, the eclipse filtered through next door's bamboo onto our garage wall...fun!

Only two weeks until the 900 anniversary, I'm looking out some old posts, it should be a good bit of reminiscing! Have a great week everyone xxx

WOYWW 897

 THERE'S A WHOLE LOTTA MESSIN' GOING ON!

Hi everyone, hope you've been having a good week! It's been a busy one here, with the first market for a while, a couple of commission makes and finishing off the strips squares as well. Oh and dodging the heat too lol!

I got a corner spot at the local market on Saturday, there were fewer traders this time (due to event clashes) so I spread out a bit. It was a quiet morning but I sold a few things and it was good to get back into the swing.

Meanwhile, my birthday fabrics arrived:

Which included some Chr*STmas ones (sorry!)  I'd had a commission for a cross body bag in the leopardskin fabric so got 4m of it, it's a popular design.

I chopped up all 4m of it, so there's a pile of things ready on the bed in the JanCave but I needed to get the bag finished quick:

The lady needs it for her holiday which is fast approaching! It's a smart combo eh?

I carried on sewing the strips squares and laid them out on the landing, firstly in a colour fade...

..but didn't like it one bit! So I swapped a few squares about...

...and didn't like that either! I know, fussy so and so... Third time lucky maybe?

A bit better? Anyhow I decided to stop overthinking things and this is how it's going to stay so I piled each row up and now have a pile ready to be sewn when I feel like it!

Another birthday present was a jigsaw puzzle (my boys know me so well lol!!) and, as usual, once it was out on the table I couldn't leave it alone so it got done pretty quickly.

The craft room! Good choice lads, I really enjoyed doing it and it made me realise that I don't actually have that much stash really *grin*  What comes in gets used pretty much immediately.

And that's my bitty old week, hope yours has been more serene than mine - stay safe in this next heatwave especially you folks in the south and south east, I think I'm going to have to do a rain dance, perhaps we could all join in together.

Only three more weeks until the 900th edition of WOYWW! I'll be searching out some vintage photos to share for that one, it's definitely worth celebrating xxxx