Monday 23 May 2011

OH! WHAT A LOVELY DAY.



I have had such a lovely time today, this morning I popped down to Leasingham village hall for the st. Barnabas hospice grand sale, fill a bag with fabric for a quid! wow   -had to be there.
There was stufff ,  lovely stuff   everywhere I felt like I had died and gone to heaven.....

I found a bag of sparkly, glittery brocade offcuts, I feel a bag coming on........


assorted embroidered lace doilies, God I do so love old stuff, it has a history, a life, character and wear  and tear, I get such a buzz just from handling old textiles.

I found a gorgeous hand knitted jumper body but the arms were missing, its a lovely shade of cornflower blue, if I sew up the edges it will make a lovely pram blanket for our youngest pipsqueak-- who actually rides about the village in a pram!
And does this round doillie say yellow to you? yes, definitely yellow....


and look at these lovely square shell sequin like things, a whole bag.yayy!



how about this marvelous olden days baby bib, the stitching is so tiny and it was spotlessly clean, clearly made in the days before spaghetti hoops..

Look how tiny this rolled edge is...cant actually see the tiny stitches in the linen.
And I found some lovely crewelwork fabric[ book cover, or bag?]And some old linen and two tablecloths and two boxes of buttons, one of which I managed to drop all over the floor and everyone helped me pick up[ and well done leasing ham, that was a very clean floor].
.

I missed out on a big Euphoria in a pot, shame, as mine died this winter, and then I had tea and cake, with tablecloth and  small vase of flowers, and then Frankie walked in, so I went back to the fabric stalls and we found some offcuts of wool men's suiting's, which is perfect as Frankie has gone all Sue Spargot and we are going to do something from her book soon.

Then we had more tea and cake, and Frankie, who has just returned from Malvern, brought me  a lovely unbirthday present of some gorgeous threads from the African lady, such a kind friend, then I bought some homemade cake for Mr, shed man, who has finished the decking and is now mending my car, he is a good lad, and sadly for him. he isn't married to a woman who bakes[it would cut into my sewing time and create unrealistic expectations]


After dashing home to drop off my purchases and pick up the sprogs we shot over to spalding to the unique farm studios for their wool day,

look at the baby Alpaca, isn't he lovely, ooooooh  I  want one


 Angela was dyeing wool  in a microwave, sadly she couldn't boil up her daffodil heads for dyeing as it was way too windy to light the gas burners, hand painting wool really is great fun..


there was GIANT knitting..

Nigel was doing big french knitting .there was weaving and spinning and felt making and fleece dyeing and some  really gorgeous handmade  honey soap- also made by Angela 




and of course, sheep shearing, some very agile Australians were divesting the Jacobs of their warm winter coats.


not very dignified, but effective.


Before
and after...


the alpacas were napping as we left tired but happy.
I had a really nice day, it felt like a weeks holiday rolled into one day, lovely

And if you want to see what happens to the lace doillie--go here.




Wednesday 11 May 2011

SCOUTING, CAKEING, THINKING,NOT MUCH SEWING....

THINKING------I was in primark last week, and I saw these four great little brooches on a card, for £1.50
bargain!
And I thought, wouldn't they be great, pinned onto the front of a personal book cover, as a gift for someone.[ notice how I am completely fixated on book covers at the moment?]
Bish Bash Bosh!spent all week making a book cover for my daughters friend, and I have really enjoyed it!



Last year we made Amelia a fabric birthday card, and its been on her wall all year, so I knew it would be appreciated, sometimes, you make something as a gift and its not really wanted, so I am care full who I give gifts to.



I really really enjoyed making this but, it has created a number of requests from other people for similar items.
Number seven asked me to make a book cover from her favourite [torn ]trousers and you know how I love re purposing fabrics,so,
here we go again.....

CAKING---------Seem to have eaten about , a ton of cake recently two family birthdays plus Trudi, plus, this week,- Frankie, happy birthday Frankie!  
here are some pics of the famous ice cream cake, loved by all of my family, contains no cake whatsoever, only ice cream, and layers of sweets, very easy to make,  yum yum......








SCOUTING----That's why I haven't been about much, packing, tenting, camping, unpacking, washing, practise tenting in garden,
not much sewing.......