Photo Scavenger Hunt

Hello Folks.

I decided to join in a Photo Scavenger Hunt this month.  I haven't done them for quite a few years, the group I was in had to find 10 things and sometimes that was a bit too much.  This one is being run by KJSutcliffe at I live, I love, I craft, I am me and is only a list of 5 things and a choice of our own.  I have fallen down at the first hurdle though, I missed the deadline date!  Anyway here are my pictures.

Circle.

Colin, my robot vacuum cleaner.  Life changer.

Triangle.

The triangles of my Patchwork Forest quilt top, which I finished in May.

Square

My quilting square, without which the above trees would have been more difficult to make.  (I thought quilting rulers were not really necessary, how wrong could I be?)

Star

The flowers of my Allium Christophii.

Splat

Pigeon Poo

My Own Choice

A Foxglove just starting to bloom.

Those are my pictures for May.  

I will watch the deadline for June!

Bye for now .................Clicky Needles.

Making

Hello Folks.

This week has wizzed past as they all seem to at the moment.

I have been keeping busy.

I laid my patchwork trees out on the floor and faffed around with them for a long time, took photos and swapped blocks around until I was happy.  The dog was not helpful as he kept walking over them and messing up the pattern.

I numbered the columns and used pointers so I sewed the right side.

Using Minty, my 1967 Singer Featherweight, I sewed the blocks into columns and pressed the seams to one side.  I was surprised how long pressing took.

I then sewed the rows, right to left and the next row left to right so it didn't distort too much.  I pinned the corner seams to get them lined up, I'm pleased with the result.  More seam pressing.  

 Here is the completed quilt top.

 I pronounce myself to be well pleased with it.  I am ready for the next step but........

.........I had completely forgotten about Miss Clicky's kitchen curtains, as I had tidied the fabric away in the craft room (out of sight, out of mind.)  You might remember that I offered to make curtains and blinds for Miss Clicky and her hubby's house (I must think of a name for him), I completed the blinds in February.  I'm back on the curtains and with the lockdown easing hopefully I will be able to deliver them when finished.

Mr Clicky's jumper continues on and is my tv knitting.  

I am absolutely loving this project.  The Jamieson and Smith's yarn real pleasure to use.  The yolk is taking some time with 400 odd stitches and the widest part and some rows have all three colours of yarn.  The plus side?  My continental knitting is having lots of practise.

It's a bank holiday tomorrow and would it normally be half term for schools, but no holidays as lockdown continues.  Strange times.

Hope you're keeping safe and busy.

Bye for now............Clicky Needles.

Another Week Passes

Hello All!

Well I'm pleased everybody else is as confused as me when it comes to the day of the week.  Thankfully I remembered the bins and didn't wake up early which was a bonus.

In the supermarket last week the first peonies of the year.  These ones a delicate single flower, not that I knew that when I bought them, those buds were held tight.

On the wall behind you can see my new tea towel.  I was browsing on-line for orange tea towels to go with my kitchen when I came across this one.  I bought it to use, well, as a tea towel but I decided to use it as art instead.  The line at the bottom says 'Think about that the next time you sling me around like a useless rag.'  Still nothing for wiping up though.

The garden is looking good, as they always do in spring.   I still can't believe that this time last year it looked like this.

Today, this.  There are lots of gaps to fill, the garden centres here opened this week, but I'll leave it for a bit before going.

There are some lovely flowers appearing.  The alliums which I dug up are bursting purple.

These are Allium Sensation.

Allium cristophii, when this comes out fully, it will be the football sized.

And one given to me by my neighbour who has since moved, I think it is called Ivory Queen.

This is in the white border, last year looking like this

Now, after some hard graft.

The hawthorn tree that we planted over our wall as a tiny seedling 20 years ago is also in full flower.  This is excellent at stopping the footballs coming over.  

I got down to cementing in the washing line this week.  Why didn't you do when you laid the turf last year? I hear you ask.  Well, the answer is, I did.  The spike in the ground was only about 20cm, and I questioned at the time whether this would be enough to hold a load of washing and not fall over, but I followed the instructions to the letter.  Guess what?  It fell over.  I finally got round to digging a bigger hole, and put loads and loads of cement in it.  I am pleased to report that it is staying put.   Washing on the line.  This makes me happy.

It was the kids' birthdays this week.  Miss Clicky was 25 and Master Clicky 21.  Master Clicky works in an engineering company and is still at work.   He made Brownies and a Victoria Sponge to take in for his colleagues.  They were a great success.  No family celebrations at the moment but when we get back together again, I'm sure there will be some.

When I started this post I was planning on showing some making too, but the garden has taken over, so that'll be next time.

Stay safe my friends.......Clicky Needles.

Pottering Along

Hello Folks!

I am good at pottering.  This is, of course, good, because that is what life seems to have become in The Lockdown.

Yesterday I ventured to the supermarket.  I even put make-up and earrings on.  The weather was glorious, which was just as well because the queueing was long.

This supermarket has a one way system within the store too, great if you remember everything first time round.  I must admit to reversing up aisles with my trolly just to be facing the right direction on the final sweep.  

On the way home I stopped in a layby to admire the view.  I took in a massive gulp of Gloucestershire air and listened to the birdsong, it felt naughty even though there was no one else around.  Well, mental health and all that.

 I have recovered from the scrubs stress and have been sewing for pleasure.  I came across a tutorial in Pinterest for a book mark here.  These took all of 10 minutes to make and were super, super easy.

No more folded down page corners.

The pleasure from making these was definitely doubled because I used Minty the Featherweight, she's out now and we're making more little Christmas Tree blocks. 

A few days back ~ or it could be weeks, who knows? ~ I had a marathon cutting morning day and went through the last of my fabric.  I'm hoping to start assembling the quilt soon.

I've been pottering in the garden too, I repotted a clematis which got shoved in a nasty plastic pot when the garden was dug up.  It spent the last two summers flopped over and looking, well, rubbish.

I put it in a nicer pot, cut some dogwood for supports and fashioned a wigwam of sorts.   That's a bit better.

This is an early morning post.  I woke at 4.45am this morning so I decided on a cup of tea.  Just as well really because when I looked out, I realised I had forgotten to put the bins out.  I tried to clank the wheelie bins quietly so as not to wake the neighbours up.  The bins got changed from Friday to Thursday about 3 years ago and it still catches me out ~ either that or I have no idea what day it is.  I did think it was Friday on Monday at one point, there's no hope.

Out of my bedroom window the sun is promising to appear and we're in for a few more days good weather.

That's me for now.

Have a good day................Clicky Needles.

Sewing for the NHS

Hello there.

Well, I have definitely awol lately.  I spent my two weeks self isolating and decided that I would spend my time sewing for the NHS.  Sewists or sewers (not the underground sort) were asked to help make scrub bags, hats or scrubs themselves.  I set up my machines in the garden, the majority of sewing being done on my 1945 Singer 201 and any zigzagging done on the modern Brother.  I started off making laundry bags and some shocking pink scrub hats from old duvet covers.

I then decided to make some of the much needed scrubs.  I was delivered a roll of black fabric and a pattern and set about cutting and making.  At this point I need to tell you that I have not made a garment for 20 years and I have never made trousers.  There was a lot of bad language and quite a bit of seam unpicking too but eventually I got three pairs of black scrubs made.  They took me a long time, all the seams were French Seamed as I haven't got an overlocker.  I got some tape for the waistband from Amazon, I went for bright.

I popped a crochet heart in the pockets.

In the meantime more green pairs delivered to make too.  I found it to be hard, and less and less enjoyable.

In the end I made 17 bags 7 hats 

and 5 sets of scrubs.  They were collected today and will be given to people in the NHS that need them.  I have decided to leave the sewing to more experienced people than me.  I was pleased to think that I have helped out in the fight against this horrible virus in a very small way.

That's me for now, I'm off to read all the blogs I have missed out on over the last few weeks.

Bye for now...........Clicky Needles.

Home

Hello there!

I arrived back in the UK in one piece.  As I suspected social distancing in both airports was pretty much non existent.  At O'Hare, the only flight out was to Heathrow, so I found a seat in the lounge well away from others.  Of course, people then came and sat in the spaces near to me.  I made sure I washed my hands frequently and tried to avoid others as much as possible, especially in queues.  It's a shame not all did this.   The crew on the plane had no masks or gloves so they were really vulnerable, an issue that has been hi-lighted on the news today.  

Anyway, I am keeping at home, and away from Master Clicky, and so far, touch wood, I am fine.

Yesterday was a lovely day so I mowed the lawn, did some weeding and washed the patio and bistro set too.  After that I settled down with some lunch and a cup of tea to crochet a rainbow.

It's a pattern from Kerry Jane Designs and is circle folded in half and sewn over a piece of cardboard.  It is my window for all to see.

Our garden is in its first year after the remodelling last year.  It needs a lot more plants but that'll have to wait.  The primulas that I saved from the diggers are coming into bloom.  

Firstly a self seeded cowslip that has popped up in the white border.   I'll let it flower and then move it somewhere else. 

What I would consider to be 'ordinary' primroses....

and polyanthus/cowslip mixes

and a lovely auricula which my Mum and Dad grew from seed.

Also flowering is a pretty Brunnera (perennial Forget-Me-Knot) ~ I love the variegated leaves,

and a lime green Euphorbia which also came from Mum and Dad's last year.  I love the contrast with the black fence.

When I arrived home, food indoors was a bit scarce.  Master Clicky is an on-line food shopper and when the lockdown came was unable to get a home delivery slot.  Consequently he hadn't been shopping for a few weeks.  After much nagging from me he finally went to the supermarket but didn't really come home with a 'mum' shop, think more cakes and chocolate and you'd be there.  He forgot eggs and I have trying to get him to get some ever since.  I mentioned this to my neighbour as we were talking; me upstairs and her in her garden as she was hanging her washing out, and she very kindly put some on my doorstep.  

Lastly some news on the iPad.  I emailed (again) customer services at the airline and explained that we had phoned the number given but no-one answered.  This assistant was very helpful, unlike the other, and she managed to get in touch with the O'Hare manager, who confirmed that they did indeed have it and even sent a picture!  It is now waiting to be collected.  I am so pleased, although when I'll actually have it back is anybody's guess.

That's me for now, tomorrow is predicted to be warm and sunny, so I'll be in the garden.

Stay safe................Clicky Needles.