Project 365 week 17

Been a busy busy week between one thing and another and I have to admit I am tired. Not been a lot of sewing going on due to lack of time, and one of the joys of a hobby is fitting it it when you have time. But it is my wee bit of therapy that chills and relaxes me so not been much relaxation time this week.
Not really complaining nice to see so much of the grandchildren and the extra work will pay for the holiday the first week in June.

Sunday

No overtime today so took a diversion on the way home to pick up the last two caches from the trail we did with Lilly last week. Lovely sunny afternoon with a nice shine on the river

Sun on river Ayr

Monday


A walk over the fields after work.

in the field 

Tuesday

As I am doing holiday cover for the usual cleaner at the complex then I was in the town. I received a message to say there was a new cache launched just round the corner and so as I had time I went to get it. A joint FTF ( first to find) as I caught up with somebody else looking for it at the same time.
 DD1 was taking Bob to the hospital for blood tests etc as his allergies are getting way out of control despite everything she is trying. She did not want to have to take the three wee ones in with her so I met up with her at the hospital and took them on a mini adventure. Bob was not overly keen on the woods but Dinky enjoyed herself more.

sitting on the Goldilock chairs 

Wednedsay

Something a bit different for lunch today, a mixed bag of basmati and wild rice with some oven cooked vegetables and gammon left from tea.

yummy lunch

Thursday

Another cache launched while I was in working so just popped by to get it as well. Was the first to find this one. DD2 came down with Ziggy for a few days and we took a run to Saltcoats in the evening to pick up a computer chair for hubby. Took the dog a walk along the beach dunes while we were there.

look I am cute

Friday

Been an interesting day with the dogs. This time last year Lilly went mental at DD2's dog Jack and attacked him constantly and there was no way you could have the two of them in the same house. Well this time is much better, while she will growl when he stands up and stretches, ( and if the two of them were left alone I dont doubt she would attack him) she has been great with little growling and no attacking and has walked past him lying on the floor to get in and out of the room. She is turning her head away from him. Hugh improvements and I am really pleased with this.

Ziggy, Lilly and granddad 

Saturday

No overtime today as babysitting Ziggy tonight. When mummy and daddy had gone out we had some playtime, followed by a bath before stories and bedtime. It is a portable bath that we use in front of the fire as we don't have a bath in the bathroom. Have to say she is a great baby - very content, but I am quite pleased she stayed with us considering she does not really know us as she has not been down for a few weeks.

splashing in the bath

Project 365 week 16

Sunday

One birthday cake ready for tomorrow. Managed to find some Plamil chocolate but after using some in the cake I did not have enough to totally cover the top so I made some shapes and popped in some Jelly tots.

Monday

Bobs birthday today. He turned 11. He loved his quilt that I made so worth the time it took.I loved Auntie H's present so will need to get a picture of him in it for this week.

Tuesday

A walk up to bluebell woods with hubby and Lilly. Quite liked the "little house on the prairie" that  somebody has built.

Wednesday

A friend had asked could I make cushions for her two boys with something from five nights at Freddy's, this was the finished results. the boys loved them.

Thursday

Today is a year since we adopted little Lilly. To celebrate we took her for a 5 mile walk along the river to do some geocaching. She loves to run free off of her lead and had a lot of fun.We found all five of the caches we looked for so a good day was had by all.
We managed to pick up a few trackables that we will move on to Arran when we go next month.

Friday

Got to love a bargain. How could any one resist the one I spotted in Asda?

Saturday

An unexpected prize turned up in the post yesterday. Will make a present for one of the twins for their next birthday.

Celebrating Lilly's first "Gotcha Day"

Today is the first anniversary of the day we got Lilly.

A lot has happened in her first year with us, and have to say we have come on very well with her socialisation. She is not perfect and will still woof at some dogs, others she ignores. We doubt she will ever meet and greet and run and play with dogs we meet while out for walks, but we accept that is part of who she is.

Today we took her out to do some geocaching. Not really done much with her, just bits and pieces when on holiday. It is quite difficult to concentrate on her as well as looking for caches, but now that she comes back most times to a call it is a little bit easier.

There was a new trail of seven put out along the River Ayr a few weeks back and so we decided to go and look for them. We have previously ( without the dog) done a lot of the others along the river a number of years ago. Nice to see somebody fill the gap along the recognised walk to keep up the interest for local cachers. We managed five of them before we turned back as the other two were near to a village and there were people walking their dogs, so we avoided spoiling her day.

The weather was ideal and made for a nice five mile walk.

The river was needed to rinse the dog off after we trailed through a rather muddy patch.

rather muddy at the beginning of the walk. 

down at the river 

sitting nice

with a cache

bottom of the boardwalk

helping me look for a cache

exploring some ruins 

This little dog does have a good life and it was the right decision to rescue her.

Project 365 week 15

Sunday

Hubby had nipped down the the local shop. Lilly lay staring at the window patiently waiting on him coming back.

Monday

My material collection has outgrown the cupboard it was in. So rather than having bits and pieces scattered over various rooms we have moved stuff around to accommodate it all in one room. two under bed storage boxes plus five crates are now all in one room. Have managed to colour coordinate the boxes to make it easier to work with. Have to say it is easier to keep tidy. Only colour I am lacking in is red, very little at all in red.

Tuesday

A cold but sunny walk round the fishery with Lilly and hubby. She amused herself by chasing the oyster catchers.

Wednesday

Finished off Bobs birthday present. One double sided minecraft quilt with wadding in the middle. Not his birthday till Monday but he does not read the blog or go on Facebook so quite safe in sharing it.

Thursday

Minky had had a mishap nearly puling off one of his finger nails while he was out yesterday so DD1 was taking him to the nurse to get it redressed. I looked after the others, we went to the library and then onto the park. Spud got the chance to go in the swing since I didn't have both the twins with me. She loved it and was laughing her head off.

Friday

A bit of home baking, two cakes came out whole the other one came out in bits, but then it  needs cutting anyway.....lol
A sultana and banana cake the top prinkles with pumpkin and sesame seeds and a few flaked almonds. The others are just a plain sponge with chunks of marzipan in.

Saturday

Had to buy a new vacuum cleaner last week. The last one lasted for more than 12 years so cannot realy complain  We decided on a cordless, often takes longer to unwind it, plug it in and wind it back up than it does to vacuum, well no more. Lightweight enough to trail up and down the stairs easily but sturdy enough to do a good job. A review may follow if I get time in the next few weeks.

#Trash2Treasure for #cashforkids

At the start of the year I decided it was about time I put my sewing machine to a bit more use than it has had in the last ten years, and so I started messing about with patchwork and applique. I do not have much money to spare and as this was all experimental I was not prepared to go out and buy new material by the metre so I looked round charity shops and selected some curtains and quilt covers I liked the patterns and colours of and bought them.
I have to say my collection has grown as if I see some I like I tend to buy them, and I also have some lovely friends who have passed me items they no longer want. My collection use to sit on two shelves of a small cupboard but this week hubby and I have been moving things round and making it easier to find what I want as well as making it easier to keep tidy. I have organised them by colours.

I made my first applique picture for Spud's 1st birthday last month. It is double sided, was far from perfect, the edge was a bit squint and the pictures were off centre, but it still made a nice personalised present. The colour combinations were good and the over all effect (imo) nice.

  People liked it and a few people asked if they could get one. At the same time I had hears the adverts that our local radio station were looking for 500 people to sign up and to raise £100 before December 30th this year. So I decided if people wanted my products I could make them for charity. I knew before they were fit to sell they needed to improve so I did some experimenting and practising. I had taken one into work to show one of the girls who wanted one and luckily enough one of the other staff on that day makes a lot of crafting products and came up with some good ideas and tips for me.

I have found a few easier ways to complete the finishing stages of the products and am happy what I am making now is value for money. The first one I made took me approx eight hours, I have that time down to between three and four hours now depending on how complex I make the design.

So I am going to take you through the step of making a pyjama case. I was asked to make it for Ellie who likes rabbits. That was the only specification I was given and so I had full free artistic flair to do what I want. I decided that a 12 inch square would do the job well..

My starting point for any project for me is a search on pinterest. I had to decide did I want a rabbit with say grass and flowers, or did I want to make my rabbit in different materials like I did with the fox above, or did I want a silhouette?

I chose these from the various ones I saw, and printed them out in different sizes so I had a choice of how they could look.

I cut them out and tested them on my piece of material for size and decided these two larger rabbits fitted well.

My next stage is to search my large material supply and look for some that look good together.  I chose two different but compatible materials.

I then needed to trace round my shapes on to bondaweb, cut them out and iron on to the wrong side of the material. This makes it easier to sew round the edges of the shapes as they are ironed down first rather than just left loose.

As I decided that I was just making each rabbit from only one type of material rather than making various parts in different types, I needed to add something else to the project to ensure it was not to bare. I decided to make strips of the two materials I was using and to make a striped border. I cut 1 inch strips and sew them together, then cut across the strips and sewed the strips together to make two pieces long enough to cover the sides.

I used metallic thread in for the top of the stitches just to add to the overall appeal of the piece.I did one of the rabbits with a zig zag stitch and as I was working with different materials I did the other with a large running stitch.  I then stitched the border onto the front and used the iron to press it down ready for finishing. 

My next task was placing the name. This can often make or break a piece of work which is why I try it in various places before the actual sticking down.  

Once the design was finished sewing I finished off the piece by stitching the side seams down to  create an envelope pillow design. A great design as it does not require a zip but still allows you to use it as a cushion cover if she changes her mind.

Voila!!! One completes project and I am pleased with how it has turned out. A rabbit even fits in with the Easter theme.

Project 365 week 14

My little blog turned 6 this week, never thought it would last this long, it has changed and evolved but I still enjoy doing it, so long may it last.


Sunday

No overtime so home to help with some work in the garden. Lilly spends time with her nose stuck through the fence looking for the neighbours dog. I have to say it gets a lot less grief than it did a year ago.

Lilly looking for trouble

Monday

It is Bob's birthday later this month, so having asked him what he prefers at the moment, the answer was Minecraft so I am making a Minecraft quilt. Here are the first 2 pieces. Not sure yet whether to make it from 9 on the front with a plain back, or too make it double sided with pictures on both sides. So far I have 8 done. They are fairly quick to sew but rather tedious to cut out.

the first two minecraft squares 

Tuesday

Had a Facebook message from a friend to ask did I want some quilts and new sheets for my applique, so I jumped at the chance.
The orange/red one will make great owls. All the blues will go brilliant together in some 9 patch squares.

look forward to using this 

Wednesday

Teenagers can be volatile people. This week Fifi decided to go off the rails a bit, nothing illegal just fairly typical teenage stuff. . For those of you with teenagers you can probably understand, for those of you who have not got that far yet, just wait....Family harmony has been restored with lessons learnt by them all. My daughter did phone and ask me for advice, to which I told her I had made many mistakes in bringing them up and she had to do it her own way, so she did.

She spent a lot of time reading and colouring while she was here. Love the title of her artwork.

bored doodles 

Thursday

Visit day. Stopped at the graveyard to eat lunch. Love the blossom on the tree with a view of the hills.

blossom and blue sky

Friday

Second visit of the week to the vet for Lilly. Think she has seen a vet more in the eleven months we have had her than the last dog did in 15 years. Still in pain and trouble swallowing but Wednesdays injection has helped. Need to look at long term pain killing if she goes downhill again.  After the vet we took a walk along the beach. Have to say her behaviour in the vet was also much much better. A few little woofs towards other dogs but in general well behaved. Nice to see all our hard work paying off.

Lilly chasing some swans 

Saturday

Hubby had a nice early  (8.30 am) hospital appointment to pick up his hearing aid he was fitted for a few months back. It will take some getting use to. He also got fited for a second one while he was there.

Project 365 week 13

Well a quarter of a way through the year and into the lighter nights and evening walks. Makes for more interesting pictures.

Sunday

No overtime today. It was a beautiful warm and sunny afternoon so when hubby picked me up ( he had kept the car) we went for a lovely sunny walk.

Monday

Bob had GP appointment at the same time as the twins were due out of nursery. So I picked up Spud and Little J who daughter was watching for a few hours and went and picked them up. When DD1 told them I was picking them up Minky was excited and told me he loved Grandma and Dinky was not amused as she does not. Minky was excited to see me but Dinky's face was tripping her and she would not talk to me. Until I mentioned lets go to the park, and that was it as happy as Larry and we had a great half hour in the sunshine.
Later on we took Bob into town for a night of Bowling with the Scouts, well he bowled with some of the leaders but the rest of the children did laser quest which Bob cannot do as he cannot see in the dark. We have had some beautiful sunsets the last two nights, but tonight was disappointing. Here is hubby taking a few pictures.

Tuesday

One of the joys of having grandchildren old enough to be clever. Fifi and Bob chose the component parts for my Mothers Day present, and made them up all by themselves. I am hoping they survive as I am not good with real plants. But it looks beautiful sat on the table.

Wednesday

Hubby is to be best man at a friends wedding in May. The wedding is on Arran and apparently the ferries can be busy and we may struggle to get the car on, so we have booked our tickets to make sure. DD2 and DD3 put together the money to pay for them for my Mothers day pressie. We have never been to Arran before and decided to make the most of the dog/house sitter that volunteered to come and stay and are going for the week to explore and geocache. Looking forward to it.

Thursday

DD3 is away to see Ghost the musical in Glasgow. But she forgot to pick her ticket up and would not have time to bus home and back into town to get the train, so I volunteered to pick her up and run her. She would do the same for any one of us.

This is the cute husky puppy her in-laws have just acquired

Friday

Watching the twins while DD1 takes Bob to Centrestage. We went to the library as I wanted some more audiobooks. We sat and read half a dozen books and then went to the park.  I asked them to stand nice while I took a picture - hmmmm maybe not.

Saturday

Finally got round to ordering labels for my pieces of applique. Who knows one day I may be famous and these labels will verify the items are original......lol

ps there has been quilting going on during the week. I got these done.These were all ordered by the same person, will be delivered on Monday and this will get the ball rolling for the money coming in for the charity.