WOYWW 845

 ALL THE GOOD THINGS....

Happy WOYWW Day to all you lovely Deskers, hope you've had a good week! It's been another few days of C madness and fabric overload....nah, what am I saying? There's never too much fabric, just not enough time lol!

My birthday present arrived, lots of spotty, a few pretty cottons and a few metres of fusible fleece - I was pretty low on just about everything so my vouchers came in very handy. I got 4m of the butterfly batik on the left and might make myself something.

Then I had just as much fun reordering the JanCave shelves - yes, I AM that sad *grin*

The top shelf display changes regularly as I like to put up things that friends have sent.

On the following day, more fabric arrived courtesy of a fellow market stallholder from Pembrey. It was 2 bin bags of unused premium furnishing fabric oddments from her neighbour whose wife had passed away.

These heaps were a metre high! I took out what I wanted, kept some aside for my SiL and the rest went to Wipso and Twiglet for their charity makes ( I did check with them first!!)

The gnomes are breeding:

Think they've been to the pub, done a bit too much quaffing and are now up for a fight....I daren't turn my back!

Yesterday, G and I decided to get out before the temps really ramped up so we took our breakfast down to the harbour and watched the very high tide come in (8.8m if you're interested!)

We had a stroll afterwards, it was a really nice thing to do for a change.

These little birds are Turnstones, normally to be found dibbling in the mud at the sea edge, they were taking shelter from the waves on the harbour wall. They really twittered and squabbled, like East Enders (or Pobol y Cwm as we're in Wales!)

It really was a lovely way to start the day!

Have a great week everyone and I hope the heat doesn't make you melt too much xx

WOYWW 844

 I'M A LUCKY GIRL, I FOUND MY FRIENDS

This Joni Mitchell lyric really hits the nail on the head! I'm so very grateful for the online group of crafting friends that have become part of my life xx  I had a lovely birthday last Friday and thank you to the gorgeous gals who sent me handmade cards:

From Lynne, Julia, Helen, Cindy, Jo and Annie plus Kim and Sue, two local mates. I love them all, so bright and cheerful. Plus Eva from Austria (a blog reader who's become a penpal) made me this:

Just beautiful and so clever. I really must get my free machine foot back out!

I had fabric vouchers from the boys which I've already spent! Plus Rhys got me this from his weekend away in Winchester:

A gorgeous little enamel and crystal brooch which has already taken pride of place on my purple denim jacket! I love the little cotton reel. My boys do give exceedingly good prezzies xx

The JanCave hasn't really seen that much action this week, I'm still cutting out bits and bobs:

And sorry, the C stuff is still out in force...

Pinning sets of three pieces that will become gnomes eventually!  G's sister sent me some fabric that she got from a charity shop:

All cotton, some still had the Doughty's paper labels on. These will come in handy, they're all of the same tone aren't they? I see a quilt coming on.

Most of my crafting time has been spent knitting:

...and sewing up! I've been distributing yarns, patterns and embellishments around various friends who are helping out lol! I tried a new pattern which takes a basic body and can turn into a snowman/gnome/Santa/ Reindeer. It's ever so easy, I've really enjoyed knitting some up.

Rudolph! Cute huh? I made up my own antlers, the pattern's were just too faffy and I think they look ok. I might morph this into a baby penguin as well, we'll see if it works out or not!

Hope you've had a good week, thanks for turning up and reading my nonsense again, I do really appreciate it xx

LLJ xxxxxxx

WOYWW 843

 WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRIS..........

(Nope, can't do it this week either....!)

Hi everyone, hope you've had a great week whatever it is you've been up to. I've been busy with a family visit, working in the RNLI shop and doing a craft fair last Saturday.

I was in my usual spot in the hall, I can put up my stand to hang the bags on and it's out of the way.  I sold one quilt, not the one in this pic but an older diagonal stripes version, so was pleased with that!

Pembrey Memorial Hall is a beauty, it was refurbished a couple of years ago and is a pleasant place to be for a couple of hours. This was just before we opened, it got really busy later and my other pics have too many children in to be published. Funny to think my brothers and I spent many hours here in our youth!

After my weekend visitors (niece Clare and family, the kids were sleeping in the JanCave) I put everything back and started cutting out gnomes....as you do...

.

And I found where I'd put the festive box, hooray for remembering lol!

Most of the crafting is taking place on my dining table, I'm sewing up projects whilst the cooking is going on or between other jobs:

I think the snowmen have had one too many Gluhweins, they're real lightweights - the gnomes are obviously made of sterner stuff. The little mouse is a chocolate orange cover and was quite straightforward to do - another RNLI lady is knitting most of these, I did a good bit of delegating there *grin* but she did volunteer to do them so I don't feel too guilty.

I'm still not sure if they've sobered up yet....lol! 

When knitting the mouse's dress, it required two strands of DK knitted together and to avoid getting separate balls tangled, I came up with the patented Appleton system:

Looks daft but worked a treat - I do love low tech solutions!!

Sorry about all the C stuff but I've just got to crack on with it to get sufficient made, the first fairs are only 10 weeks away, blimey.....

Take care and lots of love

LLJ xxxxx

WOYWW 842

 OH I WISH IT COULD BE CHRI............

(Nope, can't do that quite yet........!)

Sorry about the lyric today but you'll see why it came to mind in a bit! Joining in with lovely Deskers around the world at Sarah's, it's always inspiring to see what everyone else is creating.

The temps have calmed down so I'm much happier! Funnily enough I've not done much sewing in the past week though I did finish off the cross body bags from the gifted curtain fabric:

Horizontal and vertical beachy stripes! They actually do work really well, I'm hoping to sell some at the Pembrey market this Saturday.  I did do some sorting of strips as I may do another quilt now I have sufficient:

I've tried a few ways of sorting but this method based on length seems to work well for me - I do like creating order out of chaos, in fabric anyway lol!

Most of the crafting has been in a festive knitting theme. I had a few RNLI friends pop around yesterday to pick up patterns/yarn/embellishments for the craft fairs later in the year:

That way I could keep a list of who's making what so we don't end up with too many of one thing. It's so nice that everyone wants to be involved and it means I don't have to make so much. It's the non knitty stuff to organise next. I had made a few samples to show:

The first snowman encouraged his mates to come along.....

And I wouldn't trust this lot either!!  The folks have now got sufficient time to make up stuff as things get busier in October and that's really not that far away.

Another nice session in the dining room was a long overdue catch up with Lynnecrafts!

Great pic! We had a good old chat whilst Lynne crocheted a chicken and I knitted a mouse....as you do! Isn't it lovely that you don't really have to explain that last sentence? Everyone just knows what you're on about *grin*

Have a fab week everyone and have fun. You bored with retirement yet Sarah??! Lololol xxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 841

 IT'S TOO DARN HOT......

Hi all you lovely Deskers - welcome to another week of sharing and desky snooping to see what amazing crafts we're all making. Link up over at Sarah's if you fancy joining in!

Scorchio - that's the only word I can think of that describes the past week. I just can't cope with heat like that so stayed in the cool of the JanCave with a breeze coming through. I also moved my sewing machine downstairs so (a) I was by the open patio doors and (b) the quilt I was binding could spread over the dining table!!

It was nice to see all those blocks coming together.

Putting the binding on involves some slow stitching, you can't rush with a walking foot!

And Ta-Da.....

It turned out ok, I'm quite pleased with the colour layout. See if this goes at the next market in Pembrey on the 26th. I still love the fact that you can make something beautiful out of leftovers xx

I also did a bit of knitting outside in the shade but it was still too hot for me:

The tennis ball in my knitting box is masquerading as a Terry's Chocolate Orange to block out the snowmen covers to a good shape.

Thankfully, the temps have gone down massively over the past couple of days so I've returned to the JanCave - my mission was to have a mass cutting out session of the curtains that my friend Helen donated recently:

I managed to get 4 beach bags, four totes, five cross body bags, 2 pegbags and three zipped bags, not bad eh?  The lined bags were from a YouTube tutorial:

The cotton is lovely and sturdy so this design didn't need any fusible fleece or interfacing, it was relatively quick to make as well. For the lining I used cotton fabric from a duvet cover found in the Dunelm bargain bin (£10 for a superking size!):

I thought it went well - the bags look perfect for the beach so I might put a couple in the tearoom where they sell my stuff, worth a try! Because every penny really does count, the crew from the Burry Port RNLI were out on 12 shouts over the hot weekend, rescuing people cut off by the tide, jet skiers, separated children and broken down fishing boats.  They're an amazing (and brave) bunch of men and women!

And that's it, hope you've all had a good week and have coped with the heat as best as you could. Have fun crafting over the next few days xx

WOYWW 840

IT'S LIKE A HEATWAVE...

After a calmer week temperature wise, it looks like we're heading into another heatwave so I'll be doing my best to keep away from the sun and in the cool of the JanCave!

The unexpected craft fair went really well last Saturday, raised a goodly amount:

The tables were smaller so everything looks a bit crammed on but never mind!  The stall next to me was a ceramics one run by a lovely lady, Planet Janet, who appeared on the TV programme The Great British Throw Down. 

She's as mad as a box of frogs, we had a good chat about the programme. She lives locally so hopefully our paths will cross again some time soon.

I thought I'd dig out the blocks I made recently and put some sashing on them:

I was deciding between two spotty fabrics...

...and went for the dove grey one (you're seeing the wrong side here!)

Trimming them up before attaching the side strip - the blocks were too busy just to sew together, it made my eyes ache!

I've been experimenting with some patterns for later in the year so I apologise now for the next two extremely unseasonal pics.....

These are all small and use up a lot of scrap yarn and when you sew them together.....

Makes a snowman chocolate orange cover! I've got a few RNLI ladies going to knit stuff for the Christmas fairs which start in October so need to get the patterns out soon before holidays etc start. They can make them in their own time then! Btw, there's a tennis ball inside this one, too hot for chocolate right now *grin*

If you're of a delicate nature then look away pronto - you see, I've been trying out another knitting pattern for a doll knitted in one piece, then the features are sewn in place afterwards. I'd done the first stage of the outer and started to laugh, it was like Julia and the Elephant all over again:

Errrrm, it's not good is it? G was wondering what on earth I was making! I'm not sure this pattern is for me, I'd snigger too much, lolol!!!

On that happy note, hope you have a good week and keep as cool as you can xxxx

WOYWW 839

 THE HEAT IS ON.....

Wow, what a Scorcher! It's been way too hot for me over the past week and my little corner of Wales hasn't had it half as bad as some of you lot in the South East.  I feel for you, I really do, hope the temps are going down from today. 

I've spent some time in the JanCave with a nice breeze coming through the open window:

I didn't hang around with the new fabrics as shown last week!

They do make for pretty gift sets! I've got an unexpected craft fair this Saturday (was offered a cancellation spot) so thought I'd make a few more items for the stall.

I love this Klimt-esque sunflower design, it's a really soft cotton too, lovely to handle. I'm doing one set each of the green and yellow lining. There was just enough over to make a little zippy bag or two as well:

Hopefully these will appeal to someone!

My mate Helen passed on some curtains she no longer had use for, they were made from Next Cotton fabric so perfect for upcycling. I started unpicking one afternoon:

Sitting on the JanCave bed in the breeze, it was lovely! However it took me so long to unpick the first one that I just cut off the heading tape of the second, I had to sacrifice some fabric that way but it was either that or my sanity!!  The fabric will make great beach bags or peg bags, perfect around here.

That's it for today, short and sweet. Hope you're keeping as cool as you can xxxxxx