200th Follower Give-away.

A big thank you to all you peeps that follow my blog and leave such wonderful comments, they are so encouraging.. I love to read them all.

So here are my little gifts to celebrate reaching 200 followers (now risen to 211!)
It includes a patchwork pin cushion, a quilted needle case, a quilted fan design zip up purse,( I use a purse like this for my scissors, rotary cutter and un-picker)  All made by me in a selection of very pretty pinky  fabrics, also a  card of pins and a pretty little scissors.

Here is a close up of the little cutey scissors, when I saw these in the little haberdashery in my home town in Wales, I knew they were perfect for gifts.

To enter:-

You have to be a follower.
Promote my give-away on your own blog.
Leave your name and email address in a comment.

I will draw the winner on Saturday July 6th.

 

Granny progress.

Still crocheting!! And I am making good progress. I have been crocheting my granny squares and have left everything else. The other evening we were sitting with the TV on and Dh suddenly said..'I admire your patience in carrying on with your blanket' on seeing my squares increasing. I didn't like to say out loud but I certainly thought... that's a silly thing to say, I could do this all day and all night, trouble is house work etc keeps getting in the way! LOL

I have decided not to do just granny squares in my  blanket, but to include them in a design that involves crocheting 'rounds' around them. As you can see I am now going round each square with the cream yarn. On thing to note is that I have sewn in all the ends as I go, so don't have that task to do when it is finished.

 There is no separate colour matches just very colourful. And I love deep pinks and reds so it will be bright. I can't wait to get it finished.

 Hope you too have something that you love doing.

Happy hooking!

Where does the time go to?

 

Time is rushing by and on checking my blog I see that I started blogging end of July 2008, so  I will be sorting out another present for my followers then..Where did those 5 years go to?

Thank you to all of you that leave a comment it is very encouraging and I am slowly making my way through the list of followers. What is sad to see that some have stopped blogging, and I often wonder why? Did they get fed up, work too busy, illness or discouraged by some silly remark left on their blog? I hope not the last reason, as  I like to think that in blog land we are all really nice people with hearts of gold!

'Keep calm and carry on blogging!'

Thank you again to all my followers.

Gardening in the sun.

 

We have spent the afternoon gardening and it is begining to show how much we have done.

The flowers are now  beginning to flower; all late because of the late spring.

This heron was my Aunt's pride and joy, she used to repaint it each year and I did at first, but I think it looks better not so white. It seems to  blend in better with the variegated grasses and foxgloves with the look of ageing. Saying that she died in 1990, and she had had it for a few years before that, so it is old!

It was she that brought me up with my grand mother after my mother died when I was two, and I still miss her. She would have loved this garden and would have been so proud of my successes!

When ever she came to stay from Wales, where I had labels on my seeds in the garden, she used to tease me by saying, the labels had grown!

My pots which I do every year and grow most of the flowers from seed. It keeps me busy and happy to see the all the colours. I never have themed colour beds or pots I like all the colours together.

And this is our tiny veg patch. We have another at the top of the garden and of course I grow quite a few plants in the green house. Edging the path are strawberries and they are already ripening.

This bottom end is my herb garden, today we had mint to complement our lamb dinner

And this evening we ate our Sunday tea outside in the sunshine. With our salmon we had our own salad leaves, lettuce and radish DH's favourites. Lots of other veggies to come and hopefully this year I will have avoided blight on my tomatoes. Last year the whole outside plants were affected although we did have a good crop from the green house plants.

I am crocheting at the moment and may be showing soon, although I still have a lot to do to get this project finished.
Happy Days

A beautiful walk

We live within a stone's throw of a 90 acre meadow. Although council owned, of course like a lot of places today it is maintained by volunteers.

It is a beautiful place with wild life, wild flowers and an abundance of blackberries and sloes in the Autumn..

Nell loves to run free there but checks now and then if we are behind her! Today we did hide behind a bush, and she came racing back to find us.

 

This is what we saw today..

 

And a close up.

 

So you can see why we love living here.

Dh took the photos!

 

A happy time and a lovely walk.

 

 

 

 

Hacked email

Hi All

I haven't posted for a while and now I am writing to apologise.. If you have received an odd email from me, it was not me..  My email has been hacked.

I am very sorry if you received anything...I moderate for our local Free Cycle and a lot of spam comes through so I can only think this is why my email have been compromised.

I will be posting about things I have been doing and also my 'give away' to celebrate my 200 followers in the next few days.

Not enough hours in the day to get everything done!!

Happy Days

Saturday evening after an afternoon of gardening

What is nicer than a BBQ after a heavy stint of gardening??

 

DH had been very busy when I was out this morning at my sewing group.. he went out and bought this BBQ so of course he had to try it out?

Did I stop him ??? Oh no, I say and waited to be waited on!

 

We had a very delicious meal of steak, baked potato and salad.. I ate olives and drank home made wine while he played with the new BBQ!
Happy Days!

It must be love!! LOL

Chris xx

Anniversaries of the Heart and Cup cake.

Voila! I have finished another one of my Blackbird Anniversaries of the Heart.

This one has my eldest son's date of birth and his initials.

 

 

I am very pleased with it especially as some of the floss wasn't the set colours but I just matched up the colours.. this because I have a lot of Cresent Colours and Weeks Dye Works that I bought ages ago.

So I now have all three sons completed and next one will be with my daughter's name and dates.

I am doing these in family groups, so this one will be my four children.

 

And this is my cup cake pin cushion. I used some pretty pink colours and bows.

I have seen them with beads dangling but I thought enough is enough!

 

 

I finished it off with a Suffolk puff  ( yoyo ) and a pearly button.

 

It was a very pleasent afternoon sewing.

Hope you too have had enjoyment from some nice things to make.

My next project is going to be some crochet work.

             Chris xx

A super weekend

We have had a super weekend as my DS and DIL have stayed here as they were picking up her son from Heathrow this morning. This is his first trip home from Australia where he went to a new job three months ago.

We have thoroughly enjoyed their company. DH and DS chatted about 'men' things which my hubby loved.

We all sat out in the garden and my DIL was very impressed and has taken some ideas home for their garden.

Aren't these double tulips beautiful?  When they first flowered they were a lime cream colour and as they have grown they have developed into this lovely cream colour.

 

And this auricular was just one or two flowers last year but this year with some tender care and feeding they have burgeon into this beautiful clump!

Today we are relaxing and enjoying sitting around, maybe a walk later in the meadow, which is just up the way for us, to see the bluebells.

Hope your day is a good one too.

Chris xx

Now why did I make these? ( +Some cross stitch progress)

 

 

I don't

need them and probably won't use them but I so loved making them!

Knitted cotton face cloths.

I often get make up on my face cloths, so these are too pretty to spoil with black streaks, but they are lovely and soft.

The mauve one was knitted from the corner.

Here is the pattern I did.

Cast on 4 stitches

Row 1. k 2, yon, k2 (5 sts)

Row 2. K

Row 3. K2, yon, K1, yon, k2 (7sts)

Row 4. K

Row 5 K2.yon,k3, yon,k2 (9sts)

Row 6 K

Carry on like this increasing 2 sts on each row until you have knitted as much as you want.

Then reverse the process.

Knit 2 yon sl 1, k1. p sl s o, k to last 4 stitches cast off 2 and yon k2

next row k3 cast off 1 (by slipping a st and passing it over the next k st) k to last 5 sts,

cast off 2 and knit 3

Till you only have 4 stitches left.

Cast off

I did a row of  hd crochet and then a picot stitch in two colours

 

The other two are knitted in waffle stitch

Cast on 53

K first 3 rows in seed stitch

Pattern

Row 1 seed stitch 3, then k to last three seed st 3

Row 2. Seed stitch 3, p to last 3 stitches, seed stitch 3

Row 3. Seed stitch 3, p2, k1, repeat to last 3, seed stitch 3

Row 4. Seed st 3, k2, p1, repeat to last 3, seed stitch 3

These 4 rows form the pattern.

Knit in pattern  as much as you want then finish with 3 rows of seed stitch.

A pretty and easy pattern

I used Dk cotton and size 8 needles (Old measurement I don't know the new)

( Seed st is k1, p1, k1, p1 across row, then next row p1, k1, p1 and so on)

 

 

And some cross stitch progress.

My Welcome Cat.

I have got to the cat and all the colour changes are not proving easy, but I like this so shall carry on

And some progress on my Chatelaine.

Convent's Herbal Garden

I will finish this altho' some of the speciality stitches needed a practice before I attempted them on the fabric, but I thought this is mine so what I do will be fine!

I have decided this is a more winter stitching project so it will be put in the bottom of my basket till the summer is over!

Happy Days, the sun has been glorious here the last few days and we have sat in the garden for breakfast. This morning we were serenaded by a wren, such a tiny little bird but such a sweet song.
We watched the blue tits flying to and fro so we guess the eggs have hatched and the little ones are keeping them busy. They can lay between 7 and 15 eggs!! Cor!! Fancy having 15 kids all at a time !!LOL

Keep calm and keep crafting, and pop a prayer in between those stitches!

 

Chris xx