Little Stitches

I spent Saturday at an embroidery class taught by the very lovely Aneela Hoey.

Aneela and Pennie did a fantastic job organising the day, especially considering that it was their first time at organising such an event. We were kept well fed and watered with tea & posh biscuits, a lovely lunch (in the sunshine) and afternoon cake (a-m-a-z-i-n-g chocolate brownies and cheesecake) Should you be in the Henley/Berks area and looking for a caterer then please look up Thames Catering. The company that Pennie runs alongside her Husband.


It was nice to see some faces that I had either met or recognised from The Fat Quarterly Retreat back in June as well as some new ones.





After practicing our stiches we all got stuck in to the “Cherry on the Tree Swing” pattern . I stitched onto some osnaberg, which is a natural, unbleached cotton fabric with a texture a bit like linen only about half the price. My filling stich needs a bit of practice – Aneela’s tip was to make fairly big stiches, mine are far too small but I am happy enough with my first attempt.


I love my copy of Little Stitches, and have been picking it up anytime I have a spare moment. If you love Aneela’s fabrics (sherbet pips, little apples, walk in the woods) or follow her blog, then you will really enjoy her book.  The book comes with 12 projects for using her designs as well as over 100 embroidery designs. You can trace the designs straight from the book or use the iron-on-transfers.


There are at least 3 patterns I am desperate to start once I have finished Cherry although I also fancy stitching another version, this time all in a dark graphite grey (like a pencil drawing) and then adding a pop of colour to just her dress maybe using applique?


Thank you Aneela, Pennie and all the other stitchy ladies! I had a fantastic day and it was well worth the course fee.


You can read more about the day from these guys, Ruth, Hadley, (who might have even got a picture or two of me) Kelly and  Elena.


Whilst I am on the subject of embroidery, my bloggy friend Miss Pixie has set up a shop selling her original embroidered makes that she has designed and made.  Please pay her a little visit

Summer 2012 (part 2) The Last Week

I know, I know  we are over half way through September (how did that happen!) and you are probably well over reading about everyone's Summer by now but I still haven’t managed to catch up with myself lol.


We had such an eventful final week of the school hols that it needed a separate blog post.


The Little Fella turned Five. We went bowling with the Cousins and a couple of Friends followed by a little Tea Party in our (newly tidied) garden. This years cake request was for Lightning McQueen. Unfortunately my cake decorating skills don’t stretch to making racing cars so we settled for this.





Buttercream frosting with crushed Oreo type cookies for the road, golden sugar for the sandy desert, fondant icing cactus and some little fudge and honeycomb ice-cream sprinkles for the small rocks/stones. Finished with some well-scrubbed toys.




For all previous Birthdays, I have bought Birthday T’shirts.  This year I decided to make my own. I cut a number 5 from Interfacing and then simply sewed scraps of boyish fabrics using the stich & flip method. Ironed on and then raw-edge appliqued into the shirt.


Next up was our annual family pilgrimage to Broadstairs in Kent. It is my favourite place in the world!  My Mum came here for day trips and holidays with her Grandparents as a child, my brother and I did the same when we were little and and now it is the turn of my children. That is FIVE generations of my family who have enjoyed this little seaside resort. And during all that time, very little has changed.





Finally there was our trip to the Paralympics. 

We had a fantastic morning watching the Athletics. We kept silent for the blind long jumpers that needed to hear their guides, watched blind runners running alongside their guides, hand- cycling, Saw Josie Pearson win us a Gold Medal for discus, but the best part of the day was watching an amazing javelin final, where all the competitors beat their PB and we saw the world record broken at least 6 times by Iran and China followed by crazy somersault celebrations from many of the competitors.

We then spent a very hot afternoon watching live bands in the Olympic Village. It was truly a once in a lifetime event, and I am so pleased that we had the opportunity to be there.



Then on to this week,


The Little Man started in Reception (full time) and my Little Fella started Nursery (part time). It was a far bigger event for me than for them. 

Both boys have been very excited for weeks, it was lovely to see how excited and happy they were when dropped off to their new classrooms, but at the same time I felt a little sad at saying goodbye to their baby days.


Now I have some spare time in the mornings whilst the The Little Fella is at Nursery School, I wonder if I will manage to get those curtains finished anytime soon!

Summer 2012 (Part One!)

Warning this is a long and picture heavy post mainly for my own benefit, with little or no mention of sewing/craft! You might not want to read on (unless you are nosy like me and always read to the bottom of the screen)

"None of us can make it rain - but we can all use less water"

I think the saying “be careful what you wish for” rang true this Summer in the UK.
No sooner had a near-country-wide drought been declared in April and households were banned from using hosepipes, than the rain began to fall, and fall and fall for about 12 weeks solid. The wettest UK Summer on record.

The Little Man either outgrew or put holes in the knees of ALL his school trousers in the last 3 weeks of term.  So despite the weather he was packed off to Nursery in shorts that were made from his cut down trousers.

teacher gifts - IKEA spice jars filled with chocolates and a homemade card

 

 

We said good bye to The Little Man’s Nursery Class and The Little Fella’s Preschool with a Prom!!!!! Both boys have been through the preschool so I have known the staff for 3 yrs. Gulp!
I found it very hard to say goodbye.

I love this photo- you can really see their different personalities.

The Olympic Flag passed through our little corner of Suburbia.  We were the first stop of the day, so we had to get out very early.  I was amazed by how many people lined the streets. The boys loved watching all the sponsers trucks passing by but were not very impressed by some man running past with a torch.That man happened to be James Cracknell Oh well at least they have a story to tell their grandchildren.


We attended the Blessing of my Cousin’s Marriage.  I felt honoured to be asked to do a reading. (Good ole’ Corinthians 13) and I made a card which I know I took a photo of but cannot find it anywhere!



We spent the best part of the Summer at Hurley.  On the River Thames between Henley and Marlow.  We spent 2 weeks here as a family and then the boys have been back and forth, staying with their Grandparents.


Playing with cousins, messing in the river, long walks to Hurley Lock for ice-cream, even longer walks to Marlow (3 miles each way) and never a single moan, The rain finally stopped apart from the odd day so we were able to get out and make the most of what was left of the Summer.


Whilst the boys were away The Husband and I painted the house and attacked the very neglected garden (we hadn’t stepped foot in there since Easter!, overgrown is an understatement!)

There was also the odd day out. Legoland (NOT my favourite place to go in school holidays!) Chessington World of Adventures, The Look Out Centre in Bracknell and Playground at Swinley Forest, Kids club at the local Cinema (£2.00 per child and adults free ) and of course the local park. (Luckily the MIL bought us all Merlin passes with her Tesco points which allow us free entry into the main theme parks, London Eye and some Aquariums. (How can those theme parks justify their admission prices??!!)

Evenings were spent glued to the Olympics – didn’t we do well? just shows what a bit of investment in the younger generations can do! We have even managed to get some Paralympic Athletics tickets, I am so excited to be part of something so special!

I didn't manage to get much sewing done, although I got into hand-embroidery and completed a couple of projects whilst in Hurley.

I finally have new curtains for the living/front/family room.  However, I have a very wide 1930’s bay window which requires me to sew two pairs together and take up as they are also a bit too long.  My time at the machine has been so limited lately that I cannot justify using the machine for anything else. So the curtains just sit there, looking at me, waiting.  In case you are wondering, it still works out cheaper for me to buy two pairs and sew them together rather than making them from scratch (which would be slightly easier).

So until they are done, things are going to carry on being quiet round here!

And well done to any of you that managed to read this far! Part Two is coming up next...