OLD AND NEW PROJECTS

 

While I am sticking to my vow to complete UFOs this year I am also starting small quick projects that I know I will finish and will not end up adding to my UFO pile.  There was some happy dancing this week when a parcel arrived from HanneMADE in the UK. Anne Brooke's designs caught my eye when I saw them on a blogger friend's post a while ago. One's own creativity is encouraged with these embroideries and I have discovered some new stitches on the enclosed cards. 

                  I fell in love with this magnificent hare.

In my last post I forgot to show the 2 pillowslips I made for my grandsons. The 2 year old loves Paw Patrol and they both love Bluey . Unfortunately, trying to place the directional fabric the right way scrambled my brain and Paw Patrol ended up facing the wrong way. I don't think it will really matter in the whole scheme of things.

One of my UFOs is another little Civil War quilt I started quite a while ago. 2 days ago I found all the pieces cut and labelled, some already hand stitched together and I had pieced a lot of the small half  triangle rows. However, I remembered why I had stopped stitching this project...something was awry with the small half square triangles , they did not fit properly when I hand stitched them to the large half square triangles. So, I sat down with the graph I had made to cut the templates , scratched my head, walked away, scratched my head again and I still couldn't work out how I messed it up. I was so frustrated I just thought I would throw it all away and move on to the next UFO. Last night I came to my senses and simply unpicked all the blocks. 

Rather than give up on the whole project I have decided to just piece the large half square blocks together and put the rows of smaller hsts in my stash for another little quilt one day.

Have you ever had a comedy movie moment? Yesterday I was making myself a smoothie for lunch as usual. I had put the almond milk, fruit , yogurt and macca powder in the blender and spilt the LSA when I was adding it. I thought I would clean up the mess off the bench and blender and during this process I must have knocked the ON button. Well, the blender spewed everything over me, the sink, the wall, the stove, the bench and on the framed embroidery I have on the wall. All I could do was laugh. Needless to say, I am still finding smoothie in places I never thought it would reach. While using my mini iron to press the afore mentioned blocks I managed to burn my fingers! 

Well, I am about to make a smoothie for my lunch now rather more cautiously  and I shall keep away from the iron. An afternoon of embroidery preparation is ahead.

Stay safe.

NOT MUCH CRAFTING

 

It has been a couple of weeks since my last post as I really haven't done much at all after I injured myself playing with my grandsons. As well as bruising my clavicle and chin I also managed to hurt my wrist, and 2 fingers on my right hand. So, that is what grandma gets having fun lol. It won't stop me playing with them though. 

I have trimmed the 2 embroideries ready to hang somewhere but still haven't found that "somewhere" so they are sitting on my sewing table. My B.O.M  pandemic quilt that I finished months ago just needed the bottom row added so I finally got around to that but I need to look for some border fabric and then decide if I want to take it to my quilter or hand quilt it myself. Apparently my quilter had someone drop off 15 quilts and another lady dropped off 8! At least she is still in business with all the stored pandemic quilts out there.

I have added more rows to my blanket.

Last week we had a brush with Covid. My hubby was out with his professional carer the Friday before which involved being in his car travelling to and from medical appointments as usual. On that weekend his carer notified him that he and his wife were very ill and were going to have a Covid test on the Sunday. So, we isolated until the results came in. Tuesday night the carer notified us that he and his wife both tested positive despited being doubly vaccinated. He sounded terrible on the phone and his wife could be heard in the background coughing badly. So, off we went Wednesday to be tested which involved parking the furtherest point away which was where disabled parking was. Typical! Then we were told we should have registered despite the website listing it as not requiring booking. We were supposed to have codes on our phones but my phone won't do QR codes. We finally got in line and waited around 50 minutes in the queue which I found difficult standing for so long ( my FMS) and then after giving all our info and proof of identity we were taken to the testing room.  Guess what? They told us we would have to be come back and be tested the next day, day 6! Well, that was not going to happen and I stated that fact. Then one of the nurses told us they had people who would come to our home to test us!! Really??? Where was that info?  We were told to phone them and request a test at home the next day. Can they give us the phone numbet? No! They ended up testing us there and after ages on the phone we booked someone to come on Thursday morning. They were certainly prompt because I hadn't even had time to shower when they arrived. Both tests were negative for us both but there was conflicting info on websites about hubby needing to remain in isolation being a primary contact. Despite living in the same house apparently I could go out and about! Makes no sense to me. Then those regs changed on Thursday midnight. Funny how one day he would need to keep isolating and the next day he didn't ! So, we decided it was best that neither of us go to my dad's 90th birthday celebration yesterday. I did not want to risk passing Covid onto my parents. It was only a small afternoon tea with immediate family, 10 of us including my parents. I haven't seen my youngest daughter since February but at least she briefly dropped by afterwards. My eldest daughter arranged a video chat so we could see everyone and watch dad cut the cake.

So, I really want to remind people that you can become quite ill with Covid even if you have been doubly vaccinated. They are no longer reporting how many people with Covid are in hospital who have been doubly vaccinated . Just as Vic has opened up and people are getting out and about enjoying life as much as they can, there is a very real threat still out there especially if masks will no longer be required. I am in no hurry to eat out or go to large shopping centres.

Sorry for the long winded post, but this is the new normal they were talking about. One never knows when they may have to isolate or quarantine. We can make plans but need to accept our plans may change any time. 

Please stay safe.

( I have no idea why the font size keeps changing lol).

PUMPKINS

 

I have always loved pictures of pumpkins , ravens, acorns and oak leaves so I decided to attempt making a crocheted pumpkin. I used a cotton yarn but had to use acrylic yarn for the stem as I didn't have a suitable colour in cotton. I am not completely happy with the stem but shall walk away and see how I feel about it later.

My youngest daughter carves pumpkins every Halloween and this is the one she made this year.

 

I haven't done much again this past week apart from adding some rows to my crocheted blanket but it is not much bigger than my last pic.  At least I found time to finish another good book.

               I hope you have enjoyed a lovely weekend .

HIBERNATION

 

It is a long weekend again, ( they seem to come around a lot), so I am hibernating until the tourists go home. It is bedlam out there. Music, cars revving, illegal fireworks and crackers going off at all hours makes it a rather stressful time for us. I didn't post yesterday because I hadn't finished my 2nd embroidery or made much progress with my crochet but I just finished the embroidery moments ago. Here it is.

I have been crocheting a pumpkin which is not quite at the half way mark.

So that is all I have achieved this past week. At least it is something.

Stay safe.