Teds Poncho

 Thank you for all your lovely comments it's great to be back again and I'm going to try and blog more often, it may be easier now that Autumn is officially here and the garden is winding down, I'm a fair weather gardener and rarely venture out once the weather changes.  I'm looking forward to Spring already and have bought lots of Spring bulbs, I'm going to plant them in pots and will look forward to them emerging in the Spring, I still need to buy some crocus as well and these will be dotted about my lawn both front and back of the house. 

Teds Poncho

Have you heard of the Red Hatters?  click on the name if you haven't and it will take you to the Red Hatter site.  We have a Red Hatters group in our u3a which has just started up again since before Covid.  We have a few male members who don't mind wearing the obligatory red hat and purple clothing.  One of them is Ted and although he's in very poor health it is obvious that Ted wants to embrace life and throw himself into as many activities as his declining health allows. Ted approached me and asked me if I would crochet him a purple poncho, I think our upcoming outing to a Abba thank you for the music evening  triggered this request as poncho's were very much the thing in the 70's

Well we sat and pondered, time was short as I was in the middle of making things for my upcoming grandchild and charity makes, so it was decided that a granny square poncho would be the quickest to make. I made a few samples so that he could choose which pattern he wanted...

He chose number two and I started making it, but it soon became apparent that because of all the other stuff I was trying to make there was no way I would finish it in time, so I made the decision with Teds blessing that it would look much better if the patterned  squares were just around the edges and plain purple squares in the centre. 

 I could have approached my crochet group and asked for their help but as you must realise everyone's tension is different and for the poncho to look good the squares need to be the same size, however because time was short, Pamela who runs the knitting group as well as being as member of my crochet group insisted on trying to help and she made quite a few of the plain purple squares thank you lovely Pamela! 

I'm so pleased to say that we did it!!

It consists of 69, 6 inch squares - there are 116 tassels! yes I counted them and the ends that needed to be woven in were in their hundreds. 

I used Stylecraft special dk and it took 1000 grams.

I found this such a lovely project I love making granny squares don't you? 

Fingers crossed Ted will like it I will try and get a photo of him wearing it and show you with his permission of course. 

Have a great Sunday 😘😘

Linking with..

Slow Sunday Stitching

A New Addition

As always my apologies for my very sporadic blogging, time just gets away from me, it seems to go faster the older you get, I will get back into the flow someday because I really don't want to totally abandon this little space of mine.

 I think we all look forward to the day when we will become grandparents, I know I did and I made lots of baby things and put them in a special granny suitcase up in the loft.  My wish was granted five years ago when little Mikey was born to son number one.  Since then it has been a very trying time for my lovely family, if you remember Mikey's mummy sadly miscarried a couple of years ago and there have been several unsuccessful attempts at IVF for another two members of my family.

Then son number two and my lovely daughter-in-law came to visit and presented me with a photo of a scan at twelve weeks, I was overjoyed for them but it always comes with trepidation, the hope that all will be ok after the previous IVF heartbreak that they have been through. I feel that now I can breathe easy as the pregnancy is going well and the baby is due end of this month.

My daughter-in-law asked me if I would make a baby blanket and sent me a photo of what she would like, silly question really OF COURSE !! I will make a baby blanket and anything else your heart desires, it will be an honour.😊

So here is the one that she chose, it didn't me long to make as it's made in Aran yarn, 

I couldn't help but think how times have changed, we used to make baby blankets in fine 3 or 4ply, then we moved onto dk but nowadays the younger generation seem to prefer the thicker yarns like aran or even chunky.

I used James C Brett Baby Aran Yarn in cream and you can find the pattern here

With some of the yarn I had left over I made this cute little hat

You can find the pattern here

I will show you what else I have made in another post because the crafting has been going on quite steadily throughout the Summer, at the moment I am trying to finish this for my daughters birthday next week..

Its an experiment and I'm not sure if I'll like it when it's done, I got the idea from Lucy at Attic24, my daughter said she needed a pencil case and I thought that I would try this out, I will let you know how I get on, I'll be working on this today whilst sitting in the sunshine making the most of this lovely weather we are having before it comes to an end.

My garden in September 😍

I hope you are all enjoying a lovely Sunday 😘😘

Linking with..

Slow Sunday Stitching

Oombawka Design: ...

Wednesday Link Party

Saying Hi And A Lovely Summer Display

 I can't believe that my last post was Easter, where does the time fly? the year is almost half over already.

I thought I would just show you the Marina display that we have been working towards for the past year, we eventually erected it at the beginning of June and it has been providing lots of fun and enjoyment for the people of Seaham

Choose your flavour of ice cream

Shamus keeps his beady eye on things

So much nicer in real life of course, it's impossible to capture the full effect on camera.

I hope that all my lovely blogging friends are happy and well and are having a lovely Sunday 😊 xx

Easter Blessings

 

Lots On The Go

 Hello and a happy Sunday morning to you all, as always a huge thank you for all the lovely comments on my last post.

I have unearthed something which I bought several years ago (although it just seems like yesterday) I had quite forgotten all about it until I decided to sew some seed beads in the centre of my embroidered flower and it stirred the memory..

I have brought it out from under the settee where it was residing and I will work on it now and then, the top part is finished so now on to the sea of poppies. I'm hoping that I have enough of the beads to finish it as the company I bought it from has gone out of business, that will tell you how long ago it is since I bought it. 

I seem to have quite a few sewing works in progress at the moment...

My lovely heart and flowers embroidery is coming along nicely I think the hardest part is trying to decide which colours to choose...

Then of course The Year of Doodles stitchery and as you can see I'm well into the month of March

I have also started a cross stitch this little gnome here...

you can find the pattern here, I'm finding it hard counting all the little squares it's certainly not good for my eyes. I've only managed a few stitches so it's going to take me forever but there's no hurry is there?

As for the Marina creatures a big thank you to my lovely friend Babs who has added these cuties to the family...

At the moment I am busy crocheting a banner to advertise our u3a, it's going to be two meters wide and I'm finding the crochet letters quite a challenge, this is what I've managed so far..

The crochet alphabet is a free pattern and can be found here

So I have lots to be getting on with, I hope you all have a peaceful Sunday and a great week ahead.😘😘

 Linking with the ladies at

Slow Stitching Sunday

Meet Shamus and A Bit Of Embroidery

 I just love this little fella, my feelings were quite mixed as I started to crochet all the individual parts but once he was assembled I quite fell in love with him he has such a sweet face don't you think.😀

Shamus the seagull will join the rest of the sea creatures that we are creating to decorate our Mariner in early Summer. In the meantime he is sat on my stairs I may make a couple of friends to keep him company, time permitting.

You can find the paid pattern for Shamus here he is called Marvin in the pattern but he looked like a Shamus to me.😂

I have completed the month of February on the Year Of Doodles Stitchery

This is a lovely project, it's nice to pick it up and sew a few stitches now and then. I'm looking forward to starting March and picking out the colours is part of the fun. I'm thinking greens, yellows, purples and pinks probably similar to February, they are my favourite colours after all.

and I started the heart stitchery I showed you last week...

I'm enjoying this too, just taking it nice and slow, I'm going to enjoy sewing this this afternoon and the good news is days are getting longer and because we have more natural light there are more sewing hours to enjoy.

I hope you all have a peaceful Sunday and week ahead, see you next time.😘😘

Linking with..

Slow Sunday Stitching

Handmade Monday

Love Hearts

Thank you for all the lovely comments in my last post, I am really enjoying the Year Of Doodles stitchery and the month of February is coming along fine in fact I have almost finished it.  

I have been looking for another stitching project something small with a heart theme to add to my heart themed collection after all I don't think that you can have too many hearts around you and this month being the month of love is a great time to start one I think, what about this...

 

You can download the free pdf here

and just because Valentines day will be with us next week I made some love bugs 

Cute don't you think? you can find the pattern for them here

Tea anyone?

I'm in the mood for making fiddly things right now which is just as well because this little tea set fit that bill to perfection and I think it was worth the effort it's so cute.  This is destined for our Marina yarn bombing operation which is taking place this Summer, we are trying to decide how best to display it, we are thinking of having a picnic table so I'm planning to make other edible projects too. You can find the pattern for the tea set here

This starfish has put in an appearance as well

Pattern here

At the moment I'm busy crocheting a crab I mean to say what else would you be doing on a Sunday haha

Have a great Valentine's Day sending love and hugs your way😘😘

Linking with 

Slow Sunday Stitching

Handmade Monday

The loop scoop

Oombawka Wednesday Link Party

The First Month

 The first month of the year has been a very busy one, I haven't even had time to post or visit you lovely people so I'm making time just to check in and say hi. 

I have been busy with my involvement with my local u3a we have a lot of issues to deal with at the moment one of them being my term on the committee is coming to an end along with six other committee members and trying to get people to come onto the committee is proving to be a challenge.  I will still stay on as communications officer and manage their website and as group coordinator as you don't need to be on the committee in order to do those roles. However if someone would like to take them over I wouldn't stand in their way.  It's a shame that people don't like to get involved in the running of things but enjoy the facilities and numerous groups that are on offer. If we don't have a committee then unfortunately we will have to close down but fingers crossed it won't come to that we have until April to get more committee members on board. 

I have been crafting none stop throughout January with lots of projects on the go I started this at the beginning of the year and hope to complete a section a month...

A YEAR OF DOODLES

I finished January yesterday just in time for the start of the new month and I'm now choosing colours for February, I'm thinking lots of pink and red because of valentines and maybe some yellow and purple because of the Spring bulbs that I hope will soon begin to appear.

You can find the pre printed fabric here to purchase on Stitchdoodles

I did complete the Festive Forrest embroidery and will show you once I have it framed.

Then just to keep things interesting along with the sewing I have been making these..

These little owls are requested by NHAP.  They place one in a little bag along with a message and are left outside for someone to find in the hope that it will put a smile on someones face and also to bring awareness of NHAP and the work that it does, I have just been to my sewing group today and they are going to make some fabric ones too.

As if that wasn't enough we are going to decorate our Mariner again, regular readers of my blog will remember this back in 2019, can you believe that display was left intact throughout the whole of the summer, people loved it and came from miles around just to see it.  It had a mention in our local press as well.  We felt that we needed to spread a little joy again in these depressing times so watch this space as all kinds of beach themed objects begin to emerge. 

I hope you have all had a lovely start to the new year, I'm going to have a pop around to see what you have all been up to. 😊