Contented

Wordplay

 

Regular readers of my blog might have noticed that, whilst I blogged about joining the wordplay project several months ago, I have yet to actually produce anything for it!  I've got to admit, after failing to come up with anything for the first two words (sugar & sunday) I was starting to worry that I just wasn't creative/imaginitive/good enough.  And I did feel this even more so when I first saw what the word for September was.  However, I gave myself a bit of a talking to - it's not a competition, there's no right or wrong, it's just meant to be a bit of fun, I should just chill out about it and enjoy it!  After that, when I thought about the word again, two images came immediately to mind - colour (as in, awash with..) and water.  And from there, it actually became rather obvious to me what I should do. 

 

 

 

I used Fossil Fern fabrics, by Benartex.  I absolutely love these.  The colours are so vibrant, but at the same time have a very watery quality about them.  I only had four fat quarters of it in my stash, so decided to use just those to put together a little mini quilt, pretty much just making it up as I went along.  I did the little bit of embroidery first, then quilted it by hand before finishing with dark navy binding.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out, it's very me, although the colours are much brighter in real life. 

Now, just have to wait another 3 weeks to find out what the next word will be!

R x

Casting off and casting on

This week I finished knitting these socks,

 

knit in the gorgeous "Prize Fuschia" colourway from junofibrearts@etsy.com, and then promptly cast on again for another pair, this time in a self patterning wool from modernknitting,

 

I almost can't wait for the cooler weather just so I can wear them!

I have also completed the wordplay challenge for this month - even though the deadline is not till 20th Sept, once I had the idea I had to run with it!

 

I'll do a proper reveal in another post.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

R x

Where does the time go?

I can't believe there is only a week of school left.  I'm not ready!!  I feel like there is still so much I need to do and not enough time to do it in.  I also feel like I have loads to blog about, but my thoughts are all a bit jumbled up and over the place, so forgive me if this seems like a bit of a mish mash!

 

I received this lovely, seasidey piece of fabric and the card from Julia of Hand Knitted Things as a thank you for arranging the seaside swap!  Julia, that was so kind of you, thank you! 

I have also managed to get myself pretty much sorted with my own swap stuff, and am now ready to post!  Here are a couple of sneaky peaks:

 

 

I hope that doesn't give too much away!  Don't forget, the deadline is 31st July and the Flickr group is here.

On Friday evening we went with some friends to the Tonbridge music festival.  It's held every year on the lawn in front of Tonbridge Castle, but this is the first time we've been.  We took a picnic and had a fab time!

The main acts are usually tribute bands, and we saw the Bandit Beatles and Abba Magic.  The Abba band were definitely loads better than the Beatles (their fake voices were awful!) but there was a really good atmosphere, especially once it got dark.  At the end there was a fireworks display, so I got to try out the fireworks setting on my camera!

 

 

The deadline for the first Wordplay challenge is tomorrow - and I haven't done it.  I feel bad, falling at the first hurdle as it were, but the idea that I had just didn't pan out as I'd hoped, (the word was "sugar") and my mind was just a complete blank for any other ideas.  Plus with all the other end-of-term stuff going on, something had to give and this was it.  I'm definitely planning to try again with the next word though, so I'll keep you posted on that.

This morning I was helping in school with some of the other mums, preparing a load of Spanish food for Year 6 to have a little fiesta, to celebrate the end of their Spanish lessons.  We made 3 kinds of paella, Spanish omelette, bread & chorizo and some kind of potato dish that I forget the name of (fried potato with a spicy tomato sauce on it).  We dished it all up to the kids and they all seemed to really enjoy it (most of them that is, William, typically, found it all too spicy!).  When I left at about 11.20 they were all up and dancing with their Spanish teacher and having a wonderful time!

Right, must go, loads to do!  Have a great week, everyone!

R x

Another random post

* Yesterday I wanted to crack on with the zippy pouches I still needed to make for the summer fair - it did not go well!  First I realised that I had bought the wrong kind of interfacing (for the SECOND time running!) but I carried on, completely f***ed it up anyway and broke a needle in the process.  Grrrr.  Today I had another go, BROKE ANOTHER NEEDLE, but did at least manage to work out where I went wrong yesterday and produced one pouch.  But I'm now so hacked off about it that I've decided not to make any more (just for the time being) - what I've made so far will have to be enough!

* Luckily, just at that moment the postman knocked, and delivered some canvas fabric, which meant I could make a start on the end of term gifts for Joe's teachers.  I've decided to make them a simple tote bag each - I don't think you can ever have too many of those, especially when you have school books and stuff to lug around.

Usually we just make some fudge or brownies for the teachers but I really want to show my appreciation for everything that has been done for Joe, so figured that, hopefully, something handmade will be a bit more meaningful.

* Another lovely thing - in the playground this morning Kate, a TA who's recently been brought into Joe's class to work with him on a one to one basis, came up to me and said how much she loves working with Joe, "he's a little breath of fresh air" she said!  It makes me feel so relieved & happy that the people who are working with him really do seem to care about him (and that he likes them too!) 

* I think I may have spoken too soon - almost as soon as I had written that I would not be starting any more big projects for the summer, than I started to think that I really, REALLY wanted to start on another quilt!!  But I will at least restrain myself until I've checked off all the other things on the list first!

* Speaking of which, I've had a few ideas for word play.  When I think of sugar I think "white" - so I want to use some different white fabrics and then some white on white embroidery.  Which means another trip to the fabric shop as I have no white embroidery thread! 

Sorry for the randomness of this post, my mind seems to be a bit all over the place today!

Enjoy the rest of the week!

R x

Sugar

 

The word chosen for round one of word play is "sugar".   I don't have the foggiest idea yet what I'm going to do with it - but I'm really excited about playing around with some ideas (once I get them that is!!).  I think I should be ok - I think I might have had trouble with some of the other words that were suggested, but they may still come up again in future months!  (The word I suggested was "warm", just in case you were interested)  I can't wait to see what everyone else is going to create. 

Just for the record, this is what my sewing to-do list is looking like at the moment:

1. Finish 4 zippy pouches for the summer fair - deadline 26th June

2. Finish tying Georgina quilt and bind - deadline - whenever!

3. Word play - deadline 14 July

4. Make end of year gifts for teachers - deadline 19th July

5. Seaside swap - deadline 31st July

So not looking too hectic then.  I'm not sure if I shall start any more big projects between the end of school and September - although there are lots of things I want to make, it won't be fair to the kids if I spend their summer hols sewing, so I might have to put the sewing machine away for August.  I have some sock yarn waiting in my knitting bag so maybe that'll be my summer holiday project - it's much easier to squeeze in a few minutes knitting here and there! 

Oh, and before I forget, here's the finished baby/lap quilt, all bound and washed and looking rather lovely, if I do say so myself!

 

 

Have a great week!

R x

Word play

Hello!  I'm feeling very chuffed with myself tonight as, you might have noticed, I have finally worked out how to get a button onto my sidebar!  YAY!!!  (I did have some help - I found a tutorial on Bella Dia) I can't tell you how frustrating it has been, not being able to do it, but now that I have I must go and write it all down quickly so that I don't forget! 

But ANYWAY, back to the subject, Julie at Up Up Creative is hosting a creative challenge called word play - basically, once a month a word will be chosen and then participants have a month to create something using that word as their inspiration, it could be sewing, drawing, painting, writing, etc.  There will be a flickr group too for folks to post pics of their creations.  This idea really appealed to me - I sometimes think that I'm not very good at coming up with ideas for things, but the seaside swap has seen me with ideas coming out of my ears, and I thought it would be really interesting to participate in something like this - to push myself a little bit and have a go at creating something just for the challenge of it.  Also, as much as I love swaps (and you know I LOVE swaps!), with this the only pressure will be from myself - I won't need to worry about getting something posted off in time or making something that a swap partner would like and, if I decide not to participate some months, then that's fine too.  But I hope I won't feel like that too often.  I can't wait to find out what the first word will be!  Does anyone else fancy playing too?

R x