Can you believe it? I'm back!!

I'm Back... 2012 passed  me by in a blur of teacher training and new job, but things are calming down (or realistically I am choosing to make more 'me' time...)

I have signed up to Bobo Bun's 'Swap 4 things SWAP' to kick start my 2013 blogging adventure again.

Linda x

Don't Faint!

Well, after a conspicuous absence, I have at last found time in my PGCE teacher training year to be creative (out of school!)

This was inspired by Marmalade Rose's wonderful fabric house designs - Thank you!

For a first attempt, I am pleased with the result ad hopefully Mother and Father - in - Law will be too! (A Golden Wedding Present!)

Linda x

Venturing in to the sewing basket..........

Well hello there, teacher training is going really well and life has never been so hectic! Today I ventured into my sewing basket for the first time since August :-( and only to find the ribbon to hang the Christmas cards on! Think I can feel the starting of my first New Year's resolution...........

HaPpY ChRiStMas and A HaPpY NeW YeAr - may it be a peaceful one x

Where Have I been ?

Sorry, sorry, sorry!!!!

Well I have had a change of direction in my life and am now undertaking my primary teacher training this year. It is extremely hard work but great fun and I'm thoroughly enjoying myself. However, it leaves little (read that as 'no' time) to craft :-(

Hopefully Christmas time will see a break from work and the sewing machine regaining its place on my desk! For the meanwhile I am consoling myself reading the craftseller magazine, which is a fab read.

So for now I will snatch moments to catch up with all you lovely bloggers instead.

Linda x

Charleston and Dapper Flappers!

Hello All,

Been a bit slow on the blogging front, however I have found time for a few makes :

FELTING JUMPERS AGAIN............

This one I needle felted the cupcake on to it, it's lined

with lovely Laura Ashley purple iris fabric.

Then R's Brownie Pack celebrates its 90th Birthday in April so they have a 1930's Charleston / disco.

This was an old nightie now transformed into a rather dapper flapper dress - I rather pleased with this!!

The rest of my time has been taken up with revising for some tests

 - I'll fill you in on that another time - a different change of direction for me, hopefully...............

Linda x

ShArE ThE BlOgGy LOVE :-)

Wow!!! THANK YOU CLOBELLE!!! I received my lovely Valentine's swap

 from Chloe from Clobelle blog - make sure you visit her!

 A lovely coloured jelly roll, A knitted bobbly scarf, Thorntons chocolates, a little heart tape measure.....

..

A Love Toast Stamp, A fab red hanging heart, a strawberry pack bag, hot water bottle cover.........

Not forgetting a sweet purple heart dish and some "Flirty" wool. Aren't I the lucky one !

On not such a good point, my parcel sent 1st class post on the 4th February

 has still not arrived with Chloe :-( 

ThAnK YoU Again x

I also thought I would share with you my latest felt picture

 - this one is for me this time! Apologies for the flash!

I  hope to catch up with you all again soon.

Linda x

Hello, here is the finished quilt for my son - it looks great!

I have also been busy finishing some felt pieces started before Christmas. I have made these into book covers.

I will have to think what my next project will be now - Any ideas ?

Linda 

Picture it - on a Quilt!

"I'm cold, Mum" has been a familiar cry from my 12 year old son, so I decided to make him a quilt. I had a go last winter and make one for my daughter, so decided to do the same again.

But what do you do for a 12 year old?

 I decide to heat transfer photos of him over the last 12 years on to calico and use lots of blues (although you may see a green and yellow NCFC football emblem sneaked in!) to make it.

I am really pleased with the results - a photo to follow of  it finished in due course. So now both my children will have a lasting memory of their childhood.

Linda x

Kirstie eat your heart out!

As you may have read previously, our daughter was born on Christmas Day and celebrated her 8th Birthday this year. No one is ever able to manage Birthday cake on Christmas Day so this year I attempted a gingerbread cookie Christmas tree (thanks to a Lakeland template kit!) with the children breaking off a star as when they were hungry - a success!

Secondly, this is my finished picture for my Mum for Christmas. "Blue bells and Morning Glory"  - felt embellished with ribbon and stitching, unfortunately the light is not great but I was really pleased with the final piece.

All which it leaves me to do now is wish you a Happy and Safe New Year - I think 2011 will see my life taking a different direction - more to follow in due course.

Linda x

ThAnK U SeCrEt sAnTa !!

Thank you Secret Santa - I'm afraid in my haste ( and trying to keep an eye on the children opening presents in a hurry) I never took a photo of the lovely packaging and handmake crocheted tag, but inside lots of lovely candy cane material there was choc reindeer, pretty pins, a felted stone, needlecase, mug, tissues and a little crocheted robin I'm sure I have seen on someone's blog............ I wonder whose ??

Thank you again Secret Santa x 

A Midwife with Antlers, playing Jingle Bells, eight years ago!!

Yes at 2am tomorrow, Christmas Day, I gave birth to our lovely daughter  Rebecca. She was the first baby born in James Paget Hospital Gorleston that Christmas and the nursing staff were very lovely - having your baby delivered by a midwife wearing antlers and jingle bells playing was certainly novel.

As was my husband's quote for the local paper which stated" We were happy Rebecca had arrived safely, but she made a bit of a mess of Christmas Day" - heavens forbid!!

So tomorrow will be filled with Merry Christmas wishes and Happy Birthday's and far too much eating, drinkingand being merry.

Have a lovely time everyone and I look forward to sharing my Secret Santa present with you all.

Linda x

Thank You Secret Santa !

Just a very quick update to let Santa know the Secret Santa Swap parcel has arrived safely and is sitting under the tree ready for Christmas! ThAnK yOu!!

Snails pace!

I must start with an apology at how slow I have been recently to blog! No excuse except busy nights and not enough time to collect my thoughts!

So today a brief update :

More experimenting with felt and machine embrodiery.

  My friend's and my first craft stall at the local school Christmas fair - we both came away with a tidy profit and things left for Christmas presents - so a result all in all!

Ah... my visit to Birmingham NEC to see Aha say farewell! Very enjoyable.

Last but not least - our Cub Christmas Tree Festival Second place "Best of Britain."

The lovely Secret Santa Swap has been completed and sent and I am looking forward to receiving mine!! :-)

I hope this week sees lots of carol singing, mince pie eating and a little less excitableness (is that a word?) from the children!

Linda x

Free Stitch Embroidery and Felting

These are the two felting pictures now framed as per my last post.

So I thought I would have another go - This time I tried to be too precise with "where and what" I wanted the final picture to look like - something I have now discovered with felting is - it has a mind of its own! I wasn't overly pleased with the results so I thought I would have a go at free stitch machining on the flowers - and I liked the results!

I'm really enjoying trying this new craft!

Half term is flying by already - today was spent at a wet and windy Minsmere, birdwatching. We saw a siskin ( well it was a yellow bird in flight - identified as a siskin by a warden, for us!) This was followed by a hot chocolate!

Now working out how to be first in the queue to get my "Take That" tickets when they go on sale on Friday!!

Linda x

Felting is FAB!

 After a trip to Ally Pally and the Knit and Stitching Show, I purchased several bags of merino wool tops and silk bits and bobs to have a go at felting. I had an idea and was really pleased with the results. This is the method I used :



I "half felted" some lovely reds and oranges together to make the poppy colours. I laid the merino wool tops in the three layers (in different directions) on bubble wrap, together with some silk tops (when I could disconnect them from my hands!) and wool for the stalks. I then cut the half felt poppy shapes and placed on. I covered the whole lot with hot, soapy water, holding each poppy as I did so it didn't move, covered the top with the bubble wrap and massaged and rubbed the fibres for 15 minutes.

This is how the fibres felted giving a lovely texture and the colours I was especially pleased with.

I also had a go with pinks and purples.

Last night I spent embellishing the poppies and embroidering and embellishing the pink flowers. I'm now off to get the poppy felt framed and will let you see the final results soon!

Now the hard part - do I keep it for myself or give to someone for Christmas - DeCiSiOnS!!



GOKTASTIC!

Hello, I spent last night with Gok (well ofsorts!) I was lucky to get tickets to see him at a "Dinner with Gok Wan at Carrow Road, Norwich." What a great evening it was - he was funny, thought provoking, teasing compere Kevin Piper unbearably and just a great chap. He coped with 400 mainly female ladies very well, all wanting his photo!

Today it has taken a while for me to get going after the late night but I have just had my first go at felting with some merino wool tops I purchased at Ally Pally last Saturday. The Knit and Stitching Show was fab - but 4 1/2 hours each way on a coach was a little taxing!!

I'll post the felting results next time.

Have a lovely weekend.

New makes for shh........ (Christmas!)

Hello,

It has all been happening here - Last weekend saw a major repair in the fish pond thanks to a hole made by a sharp stone, and for once, it was hubby's fault not my sons!

However, we found 50 small fish (this year's fry) we didn't even know we had!

I finished making some shoulder bags ready for Christmas presents - I'm trying to make a handmade present for all the ladies / girls this year - don't think I can think of enough ideas to include the men!

Also I had my first go at felting in the washing machine with some lovely eco yarn  - knited flowers - the dahlia can up a treat - going to try felt a rose over the weekend - will let you see progress when next

blogging.

I'm resurrecting my violin tomorrow after (cough cough) 22 years for a play day at the Beccles Music Festival with the London Mozart Orchestra accompanied by my son (grade 1 distinction trombone) so I'm sure we will have fun :-)

Linda x

A 40th Birthday Treat????

Yes............ I'm the one in the pink top - dangling from a cargo net in a tree in Thetford forest Go  Ape !!

My "friends" bought me this opportunity (?) as part of my 40th Birthday pressent. In fact 11 of us did it - 7 adults and 4 children.

My son had a fab time (no fear!)

As you can see, it isn't for the faint hearted! To round off the day we came down to earth and joined the younger children and their chaperones for a champagne pic-nic. What fab friends I have.

I will forgive them for sticking me up a tree and not being able to pull the handbrake on in my car until at least three days later - I am fairly fit (a regular spinner) but my arms are weak!

I must say the next part of my present is a half day cooking workshop with the Humble Cake Bakery in Flixton, Bungay (Christmas goodies) This seems a much safer option! Then lucky me and my hubby are off to Chelsea Flower show next year to round off  my 40th year.

Hope you are all settling back into the routine of school and blogging might become a bit more regular for me.

Linda

Whoops - Another month has gone!! New Makes!

Hello, sorry I've been so lazy with my blog over the summer. I have been experimenting with 100 Flowers to

Knit and crotchet, hence the bluebell brooch,

and this rose brooch. I am trying a poppy next.

Also it has been my Mother in Laws Birthday and I made her a patriotic cushion to go with the Emma Bridgewater Union Jack teapot we got her on our hols in Derbyshire.

 

Next, I kept driving past a little antiques shop in my local town and this cheerful little face kept smiling at me and I was smitten..........

Eventually I gave in and sent hubby to negotiate a price - I thought it was an ornament but it is actually a vase, she makes me smile :-)

And a great piece of luck - A friend told me about a furniture warehouse clearance this weekend and the fact that they sell end rolls of upholstery fabric (at a fiver each!) - well it would have been rude not to get any!!! Even hubby was impressed with my bargains!

Let's hope the weather cheers up this week - we were all on hold last week, which was wet and windy, the washing machine broke, but had good times at Southwold Maize Maze and Africa Alive.

Makes Makes Makes

Time has flown by and only a little crafting has been accomplished...

Lovely Amy Butler squares from ebay have made two lovely cushions.

Some material received for my birthday has made a lovely notebook cover

A Tilda book idea for the jar with the pin cushion lid to be made into "Make Do and Mend" sewing kits and the cupcake brooches for fun.

What shall I make next ?