WOYWW - Week 557

Hello Everyone,

Wednesday again! Another What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday over at Julia's Stamping Ground! And I'm still not into full crafting mode but there's been some progress, I've been pottering about in the craft room and - surprise, surprise - the desk is no longer as clear as it was last week.

Nothing too exciting.  There's a clutter of bits and bobs, found in the wrong place, that need to be put away in the right place. There's stamps, both in the box and on the desk - the latter a Debbie Moore freebie that came with a magazine. I used the bee stamp in the set on the masterboard and the new blog header shared in my last post here. Since then, the masterboard has become the toppers on these cards.

There's been a bit of action at the sewing machine - not much, but still some.

The embroidered panel in the middle was a sort of sampler that I've been working on for far too long. Really, it was just an excuse to try out new stitches and remind myself of those I was taught at school. Once finished, I decided to make a small cushion. It will be a constant remind of the hours spent stitching.

And now the book bit:

Dr Richard Shepherd is the UK's top forensic pathologist, having performed over 20,000 postmortems. In his autobiography, Unnatural Causes, he remembers the most high profile cases he worked on during the course of his career - cases like the Hungerford Massacre, the death of Princess Diana, the Clapham Rail Disaster, the London bombings of 2005 - to name a few. It's a fascinating memoir, a record of a remarkable career and, despite the gory bits, I really enjoyed listening to Dr Shepherd tell his story - he has a good narrator's voice. 

That's it from me this week. I'm off now to see what Julia and our fellow deskers have been showing us today.

Take care everyone and have a great week ahead.

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - WOYWW Week 409

Hi Everyone,

Late again for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday over at Julia's Stamping Ground! Our Internet was iffy earlier, it kept going off and on - such a pain! We also needed to switch everything off while an electrician fitted a new alarm - not such a pain. He did a really neat job. All this meant I had to find something else to do - i.e. apart from housework - and I did.

Embossing with the Grand Calibur. Repetitive but fun. This job has been on my to-do list for way too long so I decided this morning was the perfect opportunity to get out the basket of card scraps, my stash of underused embossing folders and the equally underused GC. It's not riveting stuff but that box of embossed cardstock should come in very useful for cardmaking. I think I might move on to die-cutting next.

I've made a wee bit of progress on the embroidery project. That's triple blanket stitch I'm working on at the moment.

And that is all I have to report this week.

Hope you've had a very happy WOYWW and here's to a great crafty week ahead.

Friday Smiles

Hi Everyone,

I hope you have all had a lovely week with plenty to smile about. As usual I'm joining Annie over at A Stitch In Time with a Friday Smile or two, though I nearly didn't as I thought I'd shared all the things that made me smile already. Or so I thought! But, sharing photos on Facebook probably doesn't count so here's a few shots from Sunday trip out to the RSPB Visitor Centre  and Castle Semple Lochwinnoch.

Our first stop - the RSPB Visitor Centre where we enjoyed the picnic we took with us. I left wishing I was a kid again so I could go pond dipping - it looked like lots of fun.

This pussy willow just made me smile - those furry catkins are always a welcome sight.

The loch at Castle Semple. The birds are so well fed it has made them almost tame.

This swan seemed to recognise the person who was feeding him.

A rare photo of the two of us together. A lovely young woman, who was just passing as I was taking a pic of himself, kindly offered to take this shot with the yachts on the loch behind us.

Something else that I've been enjoying is this embroidery. There's no pattern to it, just rows of stitch combinations found in a book, Hand-Stitched Crazy Patchwork by Hazel Blomkamp, giving me the chance to learn new stitches and re-learn the ones that were taught at school more than sixty years ago. Notice - the rows are not particularly straight - I do try, even to drawing lines on the fabric with a ruler!

And finally, having overindulged due to a Mother's Day box of my favourite chocolates, this funny was so reassuring.

Wishing you all a very happy weekend and a wonderful week ahead.

Friday Smiles

Evening All,

It's quite a wee while since I joined in with Annie's Friday Smile meme - a month actually! I don't know where the time has flown - well, I do but won't dwell on it - however it's nice to be back with plenty to smile about.

First up, this little chap.

My great-grandson Callum, 21 months, popped in, accompanied by his dad of course, for lunch on Wednesday. He's very picky with his food, I almost was at a loss on what to feed him as he passed up on buttered bread fingers, chopped egg, tomato, etc. etc., but I discovered he'll eat scrambled eggs and crisps. A very strange combination - he loves crisps! He loved playing with the doll's house you can just about see in the background so I think one may be on his birthday wishlist now.

Next up, this big chap.

My grandson Josh. He's just moved into a modern town apartment, on his own after years of sharing with a friend, and today I got to visit for the first time. As you can see he's mightily pleased with his new home - this photo was taken in the second bedroom which he has fitted up as the snooker room much to his grandad's delight.

This is the view he has from his lounge, St Joseph's Church - a lovely old red sandstone building.

And as if that wasn't enough the postman delivered two items that also had me smiling. The first was this.

I've been struggling to work on this embroidery on a round hoop so I've treated myself to this square snap frame which is just the ticket.

And the second is this book.

Obviously I bought this book for it's contents but what I didn't realise is that it is actually covered in printed fabric. I keep stroking it ... the fabricaholics among you will understand!

So that's just some of what made me smile this week. If you would like to see more then do pop over to Annie's blog, A Stitch In Time, where you will find links to other's smiley posts every Friday.

Take care and have a lovely weekend. Oh, and for those of us in the UK, don't forget that the clocks go forward one hour on Sunday.

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - WOYWW Week 405

Hello Deskers, Followers and All,

Welcome to my new follower - Valerija - it's lovely to see you here.

It's yet another Wednesday, another WOYWW over at Julia's Stamping Ground, and so another excuse to reveal all! 

So what's on my desk today. Well, not a lot really so I'll share with you new goodies brought back from the craft shows, Hobbycrafts, Scottish Quilting and The Stitching & Sewing Shows, at the SECC, Glasgow, on Friday.

Lots of lovely fabric and fat quarters - these were found in in the Stitching & Sewing Show - all earmarked for particular projects.

These, on the other hand, were an impulse buy. I spotted the beautiful panel when buying the green fabric you can see at the back of the photo above. It just spoke to me! And as the seller was cutting it off I noticed that the pink fabric on a nearby bolt was the perfect match. Serendipity!

Lastly, the only papercrafting goodies - a tiny alphabet stamp set and a couple of glue tapes - vital for papercrafting of any kind. Read on to see why I picked up so few papercrafting goodies.

The postie has been busy!

I have fellow bloggers, BJ, BJCraftCorner, and Shaz, Silverwolf Cards, to thank for the purchase of these goodies. I'm looking forward to inking up those fabulous Hobby Art stamp sets - the March Hares were spotted on Shaz's blog and whilst online my hand slipped and added the set of Season verses to the basket. What can you do when that happens? And there was no resisting the set of Sizzix Alphabet dies spotted on BJ's blog, so useful for scrapbooking, and then there was the Shaz's post about the so inexpensive Chinese dies - my resistance hit an all-time low!

Finally, here's the knitted sweater I've made for my little great-granddaughter. It's not perfect but then I'm very out of practice and had forgotten how loosely I knit. Still practice makes perfect. 

I added a few little embroidered daisies because it looked a bit plain when finished.

As well as being WOYWW day it's also International Women's Day and the theme for 2017 is 'Be Bold For Change', so here's to a bold and changing, for the good of course, world for all women everywhere, and then, perhaps, it would be women's day every day. 

Happy WOYWW and have a wonderful week.

WOYWW 378 - Blog Break Over

Hello Everyone,

I'm back! After a very extended blog break and raring to go too.

I've not been entirely idle over the last couple of months, just not as productive as you busy people! What follows is by way of an update - if I can remember how to upload photos, etc., - I'm feeling kinda rusty!

Some pottering around, sorting out and tidying of the craft room has been going on and because of that my desk doesn't look too bad today.

Quite clean and tidy really!

As I said already I haven't been entirely idle. I've managed to complete a few small projects. Here's a wee round-up.

I finally finished this embroidered lavender panel and decided to use it to make a cushion cover for my sister's birthday in July. My late mother crocheted the trim and I've been treasuring it for years. However, it made the perfect finishing touch for this project.

I also managed to finish this giant granny square in time for my niece's birthday last week - it's a combination of all her favourite colours. It's the second I've made but I'm moving on and have started crocheting hexagons to make a multi-coloured throw.

The EM and I celebrated our 20th anniversary in July so to mark the occasion I made up this small photo album covering our 20 plus years together.

There are way too many pages to show here but here's a wee selection to give an idea of the contents.

And that is the sum total of my summer crafting - not a lot to show for so many weeks off. I've really been taking things easy but, on looking back, it's been an eventful time. Two dear friends got married in Gibraltar in June so there was a their wedding party to go to when they returned. Then there was our great-grandson's first birthday party/barbecue. We've also been away on a couple of short trips, one to Northumberland and the other to the Lake District - both thoroughly enjoyable. Even the weather was kind to us. Finally, my baby sister, she's 10 years younger than me, came up from London on a week's visit. All-in-all, it's been a great summer for us and hopefully it's not quite over yet.

I hope you've all had a lovely summer too, even if the weather hasn't always been all that lovely. I'm off now to check out as many desks as I can before dinner. It could take me the entire week to get around to see all your desks so please bear with!

Take care everyone and have a great week ahead.

Sewing - Crazy Patchwork Needlecase

Hi Everyone,

I have a really quick share today.

I've been working on this needlecase for some time. The cover is crazy patchwork sewn with hand embroidery. The cover is made from patches from a variety of ditsy printed cotton fabric and embroidery stitches - chain stitch, cross stitch, herringbone, lazy daisies, etc. I used two colours of DMC floss in shades of wine and pink.

Instead of cutting the felt inner with pinking shears, I machined a pretty scalloped stitch down the edges, using a pink rayon thread (40wt Wonderfil),  and trimmed the excess fabric away. Another decorative stitch was used to sew the felt inner to the cotton lining. 

The ribbon tie was machine stitched to the centre of the cover.  

The ribbon tie was also machine stitched to the centre of the patchwork cover. To finish the needlecase I sewed the lining to the cover.

The cover took the longest to make - all that hand stitching - but once that was done it just took minutes to complete. I'm planning to make a few more but I won't be doing hand embroidery - giving my hands a rest - instead I'll use some of the many decorative stitches on my sewing machine. In the meantime, this one will take pride of place in my embroidery box.

Take care and stay safe everyone.

And Happy Crafting,

Apology, Explanation, A Hanging Heart & A Smile

Hello Everyone,

Apologies for being a poor blogger and even poorer commenter over recent weeks. Fact is, due to the arthritis which affects my hands, arms and shoulders, I'm finding keyboarding painful. The last few months have been particularly bad and I'm now limited to what I can do. Such a pain!

I've been referred for physiotherapy, of course, and hopefully this will help me deal with the painful spasms I'm experiencing. In the meantime, I'm having to limit the type and amount of craftwork I do, not to mention keyboarding!

However, being unwilling to give up altogether, I have a plan. That is to continue blogging, just less frequently, for the foreseeable future and see how that works out. Mostly I'll post photographs but accompany them with less chat ... that could be a relief to some folk :)

So, in that spirit, here's a photo of a hanging heart I've just finished making.

I hand embroidered the flowers using a transfer from Lesley Taylor's lovely book, Flowers. The design is done on cream cotton with DMC embroidery floss. I haven't embroidered by hand in 50 years, and it could be my last for another 50 years!  I should live so long :)

As it is Friday, I can't forget to add a little funny for Annie's Friday Smiles.

I'd love this little kitty to take me through my physio exercises :)

So there you are, my tale of woe, my plan, and my latest creation, and something to smile about.

Take care and happy crafting,

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - WOYWW Week 364

Afternoon WOYWWers and All,

I hope all is well and good with you today. Once again, thank you so much for all your lovely comments, I enjoy reading them, of course, and appreciate you taking the time to leave them.

Wednesday again! Time for me to join in with Head Desker, Julia, over at Stamping Ground for What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday.

It's been another busy week and I'd like to say that it's been a productive one craftwise, but, no, it just has not. The Christmas album is still a work in progress, as is the giant crochet square and the miniscule bit of embroidery I'm working on. But today I have other irons in the fire, so to speak. I'm almost overdue on the project you can see in it's various parts on my craft desk: stamps, inks, marker pens, and a sheet of Clarity coated postcard. The brayer is getting an airing today; it's many months since that has happened. I just hope I remember how to use it! The notepaper with instructions on how to make a mini book, from a 12"x12" sheet of cardstock, is nothing to do with the proposed project ... but I just might get around to making it up one day ... it's all one day with me at the moment!!! 

The fluffy stuff is out again and, in answer to LLJ's question of last week, this is a puff paint that, when gently heated, puffs up. It's available in various colours though I only have the white. Depending where it is used, it can give the appearance of snow, white fur, clouds, or anything else you can think of that looks fluffy and puffy.

On the sewing table I have stuff sorted out to applique tartan flowers and butterflies on to a plain tote bag. Now that folks in England have to pay for carrier bags, I thought I'd make this for my youngest sister who lives in London. The shapes have been cut out of Bondaweb using the dies that can just about be seen sitting on top of the little black drawer set in the first photo. Next step is to iron them on to the fabric and cut them out ready to apply to the front of the bag. 

The giant granny square throw in my favourite autumnal shades.

Reviving a long forgotten skill - that is, long forgotten by me!

I haven't embroidered for something like 50 years. I'm planning to incorporate this little piece into a patchwork needle case - that'll be one day when it's finished, of course!

I'ts lunchtime now so I'm off to have a bite to eat before settling down to do a bit of desk-hopping. I'd like to say that I managed to visit everyone last week but it wouldn't be true. Sorry! Time just ran away from me and life got in the way. Hopefully, I'll do better this week.

Happy Crafting,