September round up

 September has been a very busy month and today, 25th September is my first blogspot of the month.

On 18th September my husband and I celebrated our Golden Wedding Anniversary. We decided to mark this wonderful occasion with a series of celebration lunches, the first one on 4th September, another on 12th September and a third one tomorrow. Another will be held in North Yorkshire early October.  They have all been in different venues in various parts of the country which we felt were more convenient for various branches of the family. Many of our relatives are now elderly and we though it was best to have lunches within easy reach. All occasions have been super.

We have been spoiled with cards, gifts and so much love, it’s been amazing.

Two cards particularly stood out:

A lovely personalised card from our daughter, son in law and granddaughter.

And another from my sister and her husband who celebrated their Diamond Anniversary on 23rd September. They received a card from our Queen!

In between celebrations I have done some sewing and knitting. 

RSC orange blocks:

Other RSC blocks:

Some Sunshine Lotto blocks:

And I have knitted a little white cardigan and a striped blanket for another parcel to send to Evie, the trainee midwife in London.

Joining with Angela’s So scrappy blog.

A busy week

 I have had a busy week finishing the baby clothes knitting I wanted to put in a parcel to post yesterday.

I made another cardigan and matching hat in mint green using a ball of yarn given to me by a friend. I didn’t add a flower as I thought this colour might be ok for a boy.

Then I made another pink hat with a flower to match the second pink cardigan I had knitted.

I was able to send these knitted items to Evie, the trainee midwife.

 I also added one babygrow and 10 vests I had bought from Charity Shops, some of them had never been worn!

I also added  2 cardigans and a hoodie I had knitted for my friend Amy when she was pregnant. After her baby outgrew them she returned them to me and asked me to pass them on. I put them away in a drawer, forgot about them and found them by accident a few days ago. Honestly they are in super condition and it was a no brainer to add them to the parcel.

I also finished a quilt block for Church. One lady asked for people to make blocks to create a quilt to reflect the Covid Pandemic. In order to depict the 2m Social Distancing spacing required, our local council stuck paper flower markers at 2m distances along pavements outside shops so that people spaced themselves correctly when queuing to enter the shop. I thought they were very pretty , all lovely colours: pinks, purples, yellows etc which brightened the grey pavements and certainly lifted my mood.

This is my representation:

So, no RSC sewing this week and I didn’t once pick up my Twinkler quilt to do any hand quilting. Perhaps next week?

Working on the RSC Flimsy

 Continuing with the RSC Twinkler quilt. I have machine quilted vertically and horizontally around the blocks and have now started to hand stitch around the stars using a fawn coloured Perle thread.

I have been doing lots of baby knitting to donate to needy Expectant Mums in London.

Three sets of cardigans and little hats:

And a basket weave blanket which finishes at 24” square.

Linking up with Angela’s Soscrappy RSC blog

Christmas in July

 First of all, the RSC blocks I’ve made recently. Some Wonky stars and three Ticky Tacky houses.

Not much sewing in the last couple of weeks because I’ve finally had my Christmas present!

Back in November last year my husband asked what I would like for my Christmas present and I said a new sewing table as I have been using my son’s old desk for the last 24 years. Not ideal because the desk had drawers on the right and with the kneehole on the left it meant that my sewing machine was on the left of the desk and nowhere for my sewing to rest. Particularly difficult when I was machine quilting or sewing on binding when I had to balance the work on my knee to take the weight! I also decided to have two shelves put up on the wall above the sewing table and a set of shelves too. Our carpenter was too busy in the run up to Christmas and then another long Covid Lockdown and our carpenter became difficult to contact. Eventually the job was done on 21st July! Better late than never, I’m delighted with the result.

I spent a long time last weekend sorting out all the things I had taken out of the room ready for the carpenter to assemble everything. I sorted out all my RSC projects, putting them into labelled plastic  boxes which went onto my new shelving units.

Then I sorted out all my tins containing all sorts of bits and pieces and labelled all of those too. They went up onto the wall shelves. All my other equipment, plus rulers etc are in the drawers, all to hand when I’m sewing. 

In between I’ve been knitting. One of my quilting friends has a young friend who is training to become a midwife. She is at a hospital in London which has a lot of mothers living in deprived conditions, so the Maternity staff try to make up baby packages for the Mums to take home including baby clothes. They welcome hand knitted jackets, hats and little blankets so I’ve started knitting. I made this little cardigan and am now knitting a second one. I have lots of yarn so I’ll continue knitting until I run out.

Yesterday was a big day as I went to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC,Birmingham. Obviously there wasn’t a Show last year due to Covid so it was exciting to go yesterday. Lots of differences: 10, 000 less tickets on offer over the 4 days of the Show, an extra hall(which are like aircraft hangars), wider aisles, everyone had to wear a mask and observe social distancing and so on. Most of the larger traders didn’t attend which was a shame and there were not many people there either. I don’t think there were as many Competition quilts and all the Galleries were home grown people and collections, not the world wide variety we are used to. Glad I went but it was all rather surreal. Nice to have fewer people though as I was able to see the quilts easily, photograph the ones that particularly caught my eye and move around quickly so I covered the whole Show very easily. Other years I’ve gone two or three of the four days but one day was more than enough time to see everything. I didn’t make many purchases but I did buy two metres of this rainbow fabric which will be a useful backing for an RSC project.

I’ll write another post just on the Show as I have lots of photos to sort through.

Joining up with Angela’s So Scrappy blog for RSC 2021.

Busy knitting

My young friend Amy's baby is due in August.  She and her husband know if it's a boy or girl but are keeping that secret until baby is born. I wanted to knit a couple of cardigans/hoodies for her and asked for colours. Navy and grey were two of the colours mentioned so here is the cardigan I finished a couple of days ago.

I haven't knitted for a while and decided to buy some new baby patterns.  I have real problems with spacial awareness and found the knitting instructions hard to follow. I knitted the Left front OK but when it came to the Right front and the pattern just said "Reverse instruction of Left front" I got in a mess.  Fortunately one of my Patchwork friends who is an expert knitter came to my aid and I managed to finish it.  Don't think I'll be using this pattern again though!

However, I was pleased with how it turned out.  A hooded jacket is next - a different pattern - which I hope I can cope with.

New baby quilt being created

Our step granddaughter has asked me if I would make a baby boy quilt for her friend who knows the baby she is expecting in June will be a boy. We have looked at some photos of baby quilts I have made and she has chosen a strippy style one with the name appliqued near the top.

I made a start on it this week and have made 2 strips of Happy Blocks:

And 2 strips of fabric circles: each one is a different animal fabric.

 I have already started to applique these with hand blanket stitching. Once they are all stitched I will create a strippy quilt, interspersing these strips with strips of bright fabrics.
I enjoy making these quilts as I design as I go along. Good fun!

I have also started some baby knitting today. One of my young friends is expecting a baby in August and I asked  her if she would like some hand knitted cardigans.  Yes was the answer so I was off to the Wool Shop for some new patterns and wool. Amy sent me some photos of the type of style she likes and when I looked through my patterns I decided I needed more up-to-date ones.
The colours are different for me too - navy, grey, yellow, red. I have bought navy and grey for one cardigan and a lovely variegated soft greys wool for a hooded jacket.  I haven't done any knitting for a while so this is a lovely change for me.

Well, I'm off to do a few more rows of knitting before I make our tea.