WOYWW 651

 ALL YOU CAN DO IS STEP BACK IN TIME...

A short and sweet post today linking up with all the deskers for WOYWW at Stamping Ground - apologies straight away, I'm gadding for the next few days so comments may happen at the weekend!

I was a brave crafter this week and had to put on my Big Girl Pants......curtains had to be made.... they were for the big square bay window in my kitchen and believe you me, if I could have bought them from Dunelm, I'd have done so in a flash!!

I found some fabric on Amothreads (I needed 11.4m and there was 13 of this loose weave ivory, meant to be huh?!)  After making the basic curtain I then had the scary part of inserting the eyelets and cutting holes in what I'd just made......shiver.....

They turned out ok, just don't look too closely at the sewing!

I saw so many folks starting to make their Christmas cards last week that I thought I'd better get a shift on:

Lovely papers aren't they? I couldn't resist them when I was pootling around ebay!

And now that the crochet snowflakes and angels have finished, I thought I'd start a blanket to use up stash yarn:

Pretty in pink!

And that's it for me - I thought you might like to see G's ongoing project. Ages ago, someone donated boxes of old glass negative plates to his photography society and they'd got dumped in a cupboard and forgotten about. G thought this was a shame and has undertaken the mammoth task of digitising them. 

First he takes a pic using a proper Heath Robinson set-up then uploads them to Photoshop:

Then he has to turn it to a positive image and tidy them up a bit:

It's that magic moment when an image is seen properly for the first time in goodness knows how many years!

And this is the result:

Isn't it fantastic? Obviously a set up picture but wonderful nevertheless. There are other pics from this well to do family but there's no info on names or dates. Hopefully when G has finished and this is given to the County Archives it can go onto the public domain and someone may be able to help.

It's a real labour of love but G is really enjoying himself!

Hope you have a wonderful week - have fun, create some noise and do something you enjoy!

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WOYWW 650

 WE WALKED THROUGH STREETS AND BACK IN TIME

Gosh it's been another packed week but almost nothing to do with crafting! I've got quite a few things to do for craft stalls and yarnbombing and may well have to make a list..*gasp, horror!*

The Christmas trees are finished though:

They turned out quite well and all for free too - pine cones from my mate Helen, the log slices were leftovers from last year, the beads and paint were already in my stash - that's satisfying crafting eh?

And that's it, no other desk action to show but if you'd care to accompany me, I shall give you a little guided tour of Tenby, a delightful seaside town in Wales! We took a friend who was staying this weekend and were rewarded with a mild and dry day. 

It's so pretty with the painted Georgian houses, the tide was right in too...

There were lots of little snickets to wander down...

and rows of fishermen's cottages to gawp at...

And teeny tiny places that even I would bang my head on the door frame!

We got a little bit of festive spirit looking in the windows of this place...

And I spotted the wool shop sign! A small but perfectly formed establishment, it would have been rude not to buy a bit more yarn ;-)

We had a really lovely day and enjoyed a picnic of fresh lobster rolls eaten on a bench looking at this:

It's a tough life!

Sunday morning found me playing with my silver band for the Remembrance parade and service in the next village - even though it was only a small affair, it was no less heartfelt than the bigger occasions and was the first time out for us since December 2019....

We all enjoyed playing very much, it was a good thing to be part of.

Hope you all have a grand week and I'll try to have more on my desk for you next time xx

WOYWW 649

 ALL KINDS OF EVERYTHING...

It has been a busy week - I ask myself how I had time to go to work as the hours just seem to fill themselves up without much encouragement from me! 

There has been lots of crafting from making items for the WI Christmas stall to yarnbombing, the usual stuff. I had a request for some personalised bunting for a new baby, the first I've made for goodness knows how long!

I know it looks staged but I always lay out the flags in order to then select the right trims, buttons etc etc. And Alffi is the Welsh spelling of Alfie, I haven't got it wrong (this time!)

I've had the blue bias binding for ages so it was nice to be able to use it, and the seaside theme colours just worked well. Hope the new parents like it!

My mate Kim came over a couple of days ago for some chat, coffee and crafting - we painted and glittered some pine cones to look like mini Christmas trees...there may have been more sparkly stuff on us rather than the cones *grin*

The Glitter Goddess! After they dried for a day, I hot glued them to some wood slices:

I'll stick some small beads on to look like decorations - they've cost nothing to make, apart from time, so any small profit will be good!

I'm doing some green ones too and will stick on brightly coloured beads as 'baubles'.

I've also become quite obsessed with angels!

Here's the tutorial on Youtube, they're very quick and easy to run up so I'll make some for the harbour yarnbombing as well. This is twinkly yarn which looks better in reality than the photo!

I'll leave you with a couple of photos sent me by a friend who'd been to the Simply Christmas expo at the NEC - it really tickled her and she thought I'd like it. Made me hoot so I thought I'd share with you - be warned though, there's nudey bits on show.....

The details are fantastic and so clever!

Lolol - whoever made this was one clever person - who says crafting has to be boring eh?!!

Have fun this week and keep out of mischief - or go create some of your own, life really is too short to be serious all the time......

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WOYWW 648

 ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE.....

Thank goodness for Wednesdays and WOYWW, at least I know what one of the days is each week - and thank goodness for lovely friends who are so supportive with comments and ideas, I think we all get a huge kick from meeting up, sharing the highs and lows.

I've been doing some more sewing to get a few things in stock, a couple of folks enquired about buying some bags, please feel free to ask if you see anything that catches your eye!

I had another delivery from Amothreads as I had used up every single piece of my furnishing fabric - I do try to have a mix that will appeal to a variety of tastes. These all came in two or three metre lengths and I thought it would be fun to show you exactly what I get from 2 sq metres!

Four tote bags on the left, four sets of handles (top centre), 6 squares that I'll make into a doorstop (top right), handle for said doorstop (bottom right), 3 each of mini purses and glasses cases (bottom centre) and all that was left was that teeny tiny pile of scraps in the middle. See, told you I was a scrooge, lol!!

Just plain old totes but they sell well, so why fix what ain't broke?!  Everytime I put a ribbon tag on the side, I think of Julia saying I told you so *grin*

Other crafting has taken place - I'm helping to make some Christmas Crafts for our WI fundraising at a local fair and made up some kits for other knitters to do some Christmas pudding covers for Ferrero Rocher choccies, I'm doing other things instead:

Pattern, yarn, felt and beads!

And the town yarnbombing is going to be changed in late November to be Christmassy so off to YouTube I trotted to find a snowflake pattern - I went for a simple pattern at first as I've never made one before and it looks effective in a sparkly white yarn. This one needs blocking though, the points just become more pointy so it's worth doing:

Fun and takes no time at all - I've done a few of these now and feel the need to make something different....back to YouTube again then!

Hope you've had a good week, keeping well and out of the madness. It looks as if things are going to get more stringent in Wales again so we wait to see....

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WOYWW 647

 I'M IN PIECES, BITS AND PIECES

It was a funny old week last week, neither G or I felt great (not Covid!) so we cancelled some engagements and had a very quiet time again though I did sort out the furnishing fabric stash and, believe or not, there wasn't much left so I used the rag tag ends to make some totes for the RNLI. That's it all gone.....well, until the new delivery from Amothreads arrives, lol!!

So that's what my desk was like a couple of days ago...

Using up all the odds and ends is very satisfying!

The hare bag has a plain linen back as there wasn't enough for both sides, there was enough for two each of the pink and black fabrics and one of the stripey at the end. I roll them up and tie them with ribbon to display in the box at the cafe.

And I've finished the final beanie hat from the chunky yarn so will send them off tomorrow:

A herd of hats *grin*

There was also time to sit and do a jigsaw:

Fun and quick to do cos there was lots of detail - my boys call it Cardboard Crack, because once it's out on the table, I can't leave it alone!

Short and sweet today, hope you're all keeping well (especially you Wipso) xxxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 646 (I do like a palindrome!)

 WHO PUT THE COLOURS IN THE RAINBOW?

Thanks for all the lovely comments last week, it really cheered me up after I waved Julia off that morning wishing we'd had more time together - better than nothing I know but we had too much to say in too little time, lol!

After not completing much at all in the last post, today is completely different - I've been having mad making sessions  and my workdesk has been covered in more fabric than a Savile Row tailor *happy dance*

This was a new ebay purchase, I'm doing more bags etc to sell in the cafe - I had a good time picking out linings for it, rock 'n roll huh?

Lots waiting to be ironed....

Colours everywhere!

A pile of cases and purses waiting to be poppered! The weather hasn't been too great so it was the perfect excuse to play in the JanCave - I had another bout of vertigo as well and sitting still concentrating on sewing helps with the dizziness and takes my mind off it.

There's also been some downstairs crafting (Twiglet, stop sniggering!!)

Knitting ribbed beanies in chunky wool so they grow quickly, they're for Hats for the Homeless. I can do one in an evening as they're very straightforward, I always do ribbed hats because they are stretchy and can fit most heads well. The Fifty Maps books was a prezzy from Julia and is incredibly interesting (I am a Map nerd!)

That's it for today, short and sweet. Hope you're keeping safe and well, have a cracking week xxx

WOYWW 645

 YOU GOTTA HAVE FRIENDS....

The desk looks like this today:

Yup, nothing, zip, nada! There's a reason for that....

Julia came to stay!! Woohoo! It was a short notice sorta thing and we've spent a lot of time catching up, there haven't been many awkward silences (chance would be a fine thing *grin*)

It's been marvellous to see her, the first time for what seems like forever. Only a quick visit but worth it!

I have bought some more fabric though, on a stash replacement kick:

From the Amothreads company again, not the hugest choice but it's so much cheaper for the charity projects.

I had bought some fun fabric a while ago to make a preChristmas prezzy for Julia, she who loves all things kitsch.

It looks plain from the outside...

..but gives you a surprise on the inside, lol! 'Useful' bags are a bit of a running gag between us two so it seemed only fitting.

It's lots of fun!

G had a chance to buy some photography studio equipment recently and set it up in the hall to check it all out:

He had a fun time setting it all up and asked me to sit in front of the backdrop to check exposures. Now I hate having my photo taken but had to sit for ages and I got bored, so thought I'd muck around.

And the result is a photo that I really quite like (probably cos half my face is hidden!)  

Hope you have a good week and achieve a bit more crafting than I've managed.  xxxxxxxxxxxx