It's Been A Funny Old Time.....

 With our January Mini Mania reveal - this month's theme was House and Home.

I had started an applique piece which I had intended to be vaguely similar to this  

 

This piece hangs in my local Library, and was worked on over a number of years by ladies at the Library.

But as the deadline drew closer, I was not happy with what I had started, so in the bin it went!

A rummage  in my scrap box and after a fairly hurried day of sewing ...😓

 Here is My Street of Houses.

 Nothing like I had planned, but a finish non the less 😏

Because I had been sorting scraps - AGAIN!- I put together 6 Incubator size quilts ready for our Project Linus day at my local group 

For many years I have been chasing the foot pedal across the floor of me sewing space. So much so, that I am sure my right leg has stretched longer than my left 😳 so another dive in the scraps and in less than 20 minutes, I had made a non slip mat for said pedal.

why have I not done this before!?!

                           

It is the season for Seville Oranges - I love homemade Marmalade - I like to make it with much less sugar than any recipe asks for.  So a quick trip to a local farm shop and then the boiling commenced.

And I now have enough Marmalade to last me well into the next century year or so

just need to add the labels

 Last weekend saw a visit from all the family, and on Saturday we all trooped off to a local farm centre.  Of all the animals that were on display, this proud peacock stole the show.

 And on a freezing weekend, playing in cold water is a must!

 Especially after a bit of an "event" 😱

This is the jigsaw that Mr T has spent the weeks since Christmas completing. I mean weeks!!

 He is thinking of actually framing this one. There is a LOT of just plain white.

A few minutes silence...........

Grandpa was not happy

 I say, he shouldn't have left it where it could be found 😑


 But after a concerted effort from members of the family and a couple of very late nights.......

 the question I ask myself now - Why Five weeks for the first attempt?


We had some very good news at Christmas... 

 So baby knitting has begun for Darling Daughter. More good news this week as they have had an offer accepted on a house that is much nearer to us, than the hour or so that they live now.



I had the day to myself on Saturday, so I grabbed a bunch of squares that I had cut from my scraps some time ago, and pieced another, this time larger, Linus quilt.

And, as you do , a scrappy pieced back

 Just the binding to go on this one.

 Floating about the internet a couple of weeks ago, I saw something that I thought a friend of mine would like to do when she was away on an extended holiday.  I prep'd the fabric squares for her and gifted them. They have gone off to warmer climes, but as I worked on them, I thought how nice a piece they would make for the new baby.

So I have made some for myself.

Each square has to be blanket stitched before a crochet border worked.  It may be that 80/20 wadding that I have used, but the blanket stitching is quite hard going, so I will stitch them in batches and add the crochet as I go along.

We had our monthly Crochet group meeting on Friday and I got two of the crochet borders finished.

But my third attempt was so much better, ( it helps if you read the pattern right!) so I unpicked the mornings work and have re done those squares.  The pattern is in American terms, and uses an English Double Treble Crochet stitch, but I think I may be a bit loose on my gauge so I have used English Treble Crochet and it looks much neater.

a bit of blocking will  tidy them up

 So 3 down and 33 to go!