Its Finally Finished

Its Finally Finished

For those of you that follow my blog, you know that I started some redwork whilst on holiday in April, I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but it was something to do when we had some rain.

Well I have finally finished it, its my version of a Lynne Edwards pattern, I added an extra border and embroidered rather than applique.  Its called the 'Tree of Life'  which is rather apt as my Mum died this summer rather suddenly, and all my creativeness seem to go out of the window.

This wall-hanging will hang at the top of my stairs, so every time I come into the house I will see it, and will also see it when I go up stairs.

I finished this in the same week, we heard that the gold leaf we had commissioned has now been added to the 'Tree of Life'  in St Elizabeth's hospice here in Ipswich.

Things here are slowly getting back to normal.  I have been busy planning workshops for the first four months in the new year, mostly techniques that have been requested.  We are doing a couple of sessions with textured quilting - Italian corded, trapunto and french cording.  I have enjoyed doing technique workshops, rather than having to create a project.

In between all the workshop planning, I have got back into knitting in the evenings.  Have been knitting socks for my husband, he now has five pairs, and have also knitted two pairs of trainer socks for my future daughter in law.  I belong to a Facebook knit and natter group, and kept seeing all the lovely shawls they all making, so have made a couple, one as a present and one for me.  Haven't taken any pictures yet, as the light hasn't been brilliant, will post pictures as soon as I do.  Have enjoyed knitting for a change.

Had a bit of retail therapy at our local quilt show at Duxford (Imperial War Musuem).  Lovely day out, was great to see the quilts on display and all the new fabrics.  Lots of ideas.  We have also had a Hobbycraft shop open locally, so another place to wile away  a couple of hours.

Hope you are all busy creating and getting things ready for Christmas. 

Remember to enjoy yourself.  Happy Stitching

Julie

Strippy Crocheted Blanket

Mastered the crocheting in rows and have finally finished my blanket.

Really pleased with it, used up all the bits of wool left from making the granny squares. Followed Lucy's blog on the Attic 24 site, which helped a lot. Sewing in all the ends was a bit time consuming, but am pleased with the finished result.

Am back into the swing of things with classes.  Even my creative brain has jumped into gear.  Now busy planning my classes for the new year.

Hope you are all busy creating 

Julie

Start of a new month

Sorry i haven't posted for a while, but I have had some major changes in my family.
My Dad went into a Care home the day before Easter, as my Mum said she couldn't look after him any more. She had been his full time carer for the last 10 years, then at the beginning of April she was disgnosed with bowel cancer. Then on my return from holiday in May she was diagnosdd with a second cancer - billiary cancer (liver) then a secondary in the lining of her stomach. We were told she had months not years to live. In fact we only had 3 months, she died on the 7th July.
During that time, I couldn't concentrate on designing, so decided to do some more knitting. I could follow a pattern, I didn't need to concentrate to knit, so I made my husband another pair of socks, and have started a pair of trainer socks as part of a christmas present.

I also crocheted some granny squares to make into a blanket at a later date.

We have now cleared the house and it is ready to go on the market. 

We have had some good news in the last couple of weeks, my eldest son has asked his girlfriend of 6 years to marry him. She said yes, so we have a wedding to look forward to next year, and my youngest son has just bought his first house.

We can now start focussing on the future, hubbie and I are having a long weekend in Edinburgh, we left the car at home, and caught the train up north. Great relaxing weekend, plenty of walking and ticking off items on my bucket list.  

Back to planning workshops and designing next week, and making the king size quilt that is waiting to be started.

Hope you have all had a good summer, and continue creating.

Happy sewing

Julie

Sorry for the delay

Sorry for the delay in posting, but had  problems with my parents  that needed sorting. Things have been sorted to some degree, but will be ongoing for a while. During this time I have kept up to date with teaching, but had no hand sewing for evenings, so have started knitting again. I joined the facebook page of Winwick Mum, and have been knitting socks.

I got the bug so much that just before we came away on holiday I had this delivery from the Wool Warehouse

So plenty of handwork for the next few months.

We have managed to have our usual 3 weeks in Florida, we fly home on Monday. I bought some handsewing with me, which I have managed to finish as we had 1 day of complete rain, 4 inches in a morning. This was a pattern by Lynne Edwards that appeared in 'Todays Quilter', thoroughly enjoyed stitching this.

 Will add the borders sometime soon, no rush to finish this.

Hope you are all busy creating. Happy stitching.

Julie

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone.  Hope you all had a healthy and happy Christmas and New Year.

I am feeling really proud of myself, as some of you may know, I took myself to the local wool shop 'Jenny Wren's' to learn to crochet a while back, and after much deliberating and reading Attic 24's blog I decided to use up all the bits of wool I had to make a granny square crochet blanket.

I made 144 squares, and then had to work out how to stitch them together.  One of my students who does a lot of crocheting suggested I joined them together using a chain stitch.  So I treated the project as if it was patchwork and joined the horizontals together then the verticals.  Then I decided to add an outer border, which I did through reading more of the blogs, and even made a loopy (technical term) final edge.  I must say I am very pleased with the finished result.

I took it into class today to show the student who had helped me with stitching them together, and everyone was amazed, as a lot of them struggle to get the centre to lay flat as I have done in the past.

Here is a picture of the finished item, plus one of the edging.

My next technique to master, is to crochet in rows, and again I have been following Attic 24's blog as she gives a good tutorial which has lot of pictures.  So that is my next challenge.

It is great to have some hand work to do that is not sewing, but saying that must get back to a stained glass applique block and redwork block that I have started that are for workshops in April.

Happy Sewing everyone.

Julie

It's Nearly Here

Well Christmas is fast approaching and the jobs to be done by Christmas Eve seem to be stacking up.

All teaching is finished to the New Year, but a few worksheets waiting to be typed up ready for workshops next year.  But these can be done at my leisure.

My youngest son arrived home from Hampshire yesterday for 2 weeks, bring with  him a surprise gift for my husband and I.  He had decided to make himself some mince pies, having not ventured into cake making since he was at senior school and did food technology.  I must admit he did a very good job, even adding chopped satsumas and apples to a bought jar of mincemeat to give a different taste.  He informed me he had looked up the Paul Hollywood recipe.  Didn't get a chance to take a picture before they were eaten.  Looks like my job of feeding his freezer with cakes could be on the line!

One of the jobs I can now tick off my list is icing the Christmas cake, this I have done this afternoon after we had been for a walk.  Just got the chocolate brownies to make on Christmas Eve for those of the family who don't like Christmas pudding.  We are spending the day at my sisters house, with the complete family as my Dad hasn't had a good year health wise, so we all decided to make the effort to be together on that day for him and my Mum.  There will be 15 of us, ranging from my sisters son who is 12 up to my Dad who is 86.

On Boxing day we are spending the day at my eldest son's house, as this is the first Christmas that he and his girlfriend  have lived together, and they wanted to 'do' Christmas for us Mum's.

My husband has now been signed off by the consultant after his back op, and is gradually getting better.  His rehab is to walk a little and often,  he aims to walk about 6 miles a day in about 3-4 outings.  I try and go with him at least once a day, which I really look forward to, as from June to November when he had the op, he couldn't really walk at all, as he was in so much pain.  We are both hoping for a healthier New Year for him.  Things are looking promising.

Hope you have all finished those last minute projects, that we try and do in the last few days.  This is my latest one

After I finished this stitchery design, I decided to mount it over an artist canvas, as I found it makes it easier to hang.  I have taken a picture down and hang this up instead.  Hope you like it.

Well time to sign off, hope you all have a happy and healthy Christmas and New Year.

Keep Stitchin'

Julie

Time is Running Away

Where is the time going, it will soon be the end of the year.  Have spent the last few weeks busy preparing workshops for the New Year, with ideas provided by my students.

The first one was a cover for an A4 ring binder to hold all the notes from classes, and the second was a Japanese folded bag.

The students have to bring a block for the ring binder that they can incorporate into the front of the folder.  I choose to stitch a butterfly as I was using up a piece of butterfly fabric.  The bag was made using up some fabric I bought in the States a while back.  Now we have to supply our own shopping bags I thought this made a great cheerful bag.  Now to take the drawings for the next idea and produce a project and a worksheet to go with it.

Have spent the last few days sewing in the ends of my grannie squares.  I could never crochet properly, but went on a afternoon class at Jenny Wren's in Ipswich and have mastered it now.  Better late than never.  So from following an idea from Attic 24's blog, I choose myself 20 different colour wool's and have made a number of squares from each one, and am in the process of working out a design to then stitch them all together.  At the moment I have 144 squares waiting to be stitched together.

I have also been stitching a couple of wall hangings ready for Christmas - no pictures yet.  I am normally fairly organised, but this year am totally to pot.  My husband has just had a back op, and prior to this couldn't do much at all, now he is feeling a lot better, but cannot drive for 6-8 weeks and lift anything heavy - not even a kettle of water to make me a cup of tea.  He has to walk little and often.  I went out with him this afternoon, and we walked a reasonable distance and at a fair pace.  Something we haven't done. for months.  It will be great to get back to walking together again.  I bought him a Fit Bit, so he can track his exercise patterns, which he thinks is good, but it does get a bit boring with all the statistics he keeps telling me.  The boys also have one each, so they can keep an eye on him, to make sure he is walking enough.

Hope you are all well, and getting prepared for Christmas.

Happy Stitching

Julie