WOYWW # 190

I hope all my WOYWW friends have managed to stay safe and warm this week, with all this White stuff around.

I actually love the snow, but what I don’t like is the icy and lays under the soft snow on the pavements making it treacherous to walk. BoJangles wasn’t too impressed either and I had to laugh as I watched him make is way around the edge of the patio and under the bench where the snow hadn’t settled until he could go no further. He then gingerly put his front paws in it, decided it was too cold and made B-Line straight back in, where he stayed in front of the radiator for the rest of the day………what a life!

Still, the snow is a very good reason to stay inside in the warm, grab a steaming cup of coffee and visit a few of my crafty friends who hang out at The Stamping Ground on Wednesdays to show what’s on their desks.

Mine this week has the remnants of my very first card making session of the year.

As you can see, I’ve been making some little gift cards for the LillyBo Quilt Project that Jo has started.

I know exactly where Jo was coming from when she decided she wanted to do this project because I felt the same when I lost my dad back in 2010 and we made Quilts For The Hospice that cared for him, so when Jo asked for help I was only too happy to hold up my hand.  But as you’ve heard me say many times before on here, I’m absolutely useless with a sewing machine, so I’ve offered to made gift cards to go with each of the quilts instead.

Have to say, these are a great way of using up all my scraps!


No photo of my knitting this week, but it’s coming along nicely and I’m a little ahead of where I expected to be.
The first two quarters of the shawl took a week each do but as I’m beginning to remember the pattern I must be knitting faster because I finished the other two quarters last week and have now made a start on the edging which is 20 stitches at its widest part and has to go right around the outside, so it might take some time to finish.


Stay warm and……………..

Happy Crafting!

Sue
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The culmination of one year’s work (WOYWW #107)

Today is going to be quite a hard day for me, but tinged with the sadness that today would have been dads 88th birthday is a good and happy feeling too. You know, the kind of feeling you get when something you’ve been working on for a very long time is finally finished and you can sit back feel proud of what you and some very special friends have achieved.

By now you must be thinking, what the hell is she going on about, it’s Wednesday and we're only here to see what’s she has on her desk, but today I’m not going to show you my desk at all.

What I am going to show you though is my sofa because it’s covered with nine beautiful lap quilts and thirteen cushions that have been made for the hospice that cared for dad in his last months.

Dad and I came up with the idea while he was having his treatment at the hospice because we wanted to give something useful back to them as a special thank you from the family for all the kindness and care they gave to dad. Mind you, I couldn’t have completed the project if it hadn’t been for some very special people and I can’t thank them all enough for making my insane idea of making nine quilts and matching cushions happen.

There have been a few road and air miles involved in this project too.

Four sets of the squares were cross stitched by two lovely ladies in Holland, Marg and Marie-Thérèse.
I didn’t even know them until my friend Nicki suggested that they might like to give me a hand with the cross stitching, so I sent them all the threads and material they would need and also one square stitched by me. The reason for that was that I wanted to have at least one piece of my own stitching on each and every one of the quilts so I also stitched all the logo's.

I myself stitches all the squares for another four sets and also some of the Gerbera’s squares for the final quilt which was being stitched in Bristol by my other wonderful friend Sharon.

As we finished the sets of squares we sent them out to Nicki in Switzerland, another very special friend and very clever lady with a sewing machine, and she stitched her magic with the fabric that dad paid for himself and made all the squares into the beautiful quilts and cushions.


Last week they all arrived back in the UK and later this afternoon my two brothers and I are making a very special journey to the hospice on dad’s birthday to deliver the quilts and cushions together with this card that I’ve made.

Following this are some close ups of all the quilts and cushions if you would like to see them but be warned, there’s a lot of photos and later today I hope to have a photo of us actually handing over the quilts.

Thanks for stopping by this week and don’t forget to visit Julia to see what everyone else is up to this Wednesday.

Have a great day and…………
Happy Crafting!
Sue
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Quilt #1

Quilt #2

Quilt #3

Quilt #4 -

Quilt No5

Quilt #6

Quilt #7

Quilt #8

Quilt #9

Update

I have one final photo to share with you from this afternoon.

Right to left - Essie, one of the nurses who spent an awful lot of time with dad, Michael (middle brother) Keith (eldest brother) and me. (didn't realise just how White my hair is now)

The nursing staff were overwhelmed with the quilts and cushions and we spent a lovely hour on the unit catching up with the staff who looked after dad.

Thanks once again girls for all your stitching and making a very personal project so very special.
Sue
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What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday Year 3 (#105)

Well, what an exciting week it’s been.

What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday has celebrated its 2nd birthday with a worldwide PIF (that’s a Pay it Forward of gifts for those not in the know) and it’s all thanks to Julia over at the Stamping Ground.  And because it was such a special week I even made a big effort and managed to get round to everyone for the first time, but I think it will be a one off because it took forever and a day. 
I admire you girls who manage it every week but I'm afraid I'll be going back to my random visits, by looking to see what number I am on the blog list and then visit everyone who's number ends in the same one as mine. That works well for me and it usually means that I visit different people each week.

Anyway, emails have been flying backwards and forwards us we've all been waiting with bated breath for Mr. (or Mrs.) Postie to deliver our awaited treasures.

I’m pleased to report that my wait ended yesterday when a little surprise dropped onto my doormat and inside was this lovely little card and pretty mini wooden tray/hanger from the very talented Ali.

Thank you so much Ali, it’s absolutely gorgeous!

I love that each of the little sections behind the flowers and the bird are covered in what must be hundreds of tiny little blue seed beads that make such a lush and sparkly backing and if you look closely at the picture of my desk this week you can see it hanging from the shelf where it will live until I find somewhere better (and safer) to hang it.

I think it’s also safe to show you gifts and cards I made to send to Teresa and Julia and it’s very strange because I used the exact same colours as Ali did for my gift.

I’ve made them both wall hangings that are the same, but different.

This one’s Teresa’s:

And this one’s Julia’s:

I can’t actually take full credit for the design because the idea came from a class I did at a local craft shop last year.
Mind you, I didn’t have all the materials we used in the class so I’ve had to improvise.
The first thing was the canvas for the base.
Julia’s one was fine but when I came to do Teresa's one do you think I could find a square canvas the size I wanted, not on your life. In the end I had the idea of covering a chipboard square with canvas photo paper and it worked perfectly. I also had to use the canvas paper again on one of the smaller squares and was worried that it wouldn’t emboss properly but that
worked out fine too.

They were great projects to work on and it was fun getting messy with alcohol and distress inks, as well as playing with metal and embossing folders. Throw into the mix some acrylic paint and beads and you can imagine what my desk was looking like on that day, suffice to say, you couldn’t see it Lol!

The cards I made to go with them were both the same.

I’m loving these easel fold cards at the moment, so thought I would have a go at a different shape. As you can see, I’ve based the design on the wall hangings.

So back to my desk this week and on it you can see the working of a card I’ve made for the Daring Cardmaker’s challenge this week. You can see the finished card Here.

The only other thing that might be of some interest is my big box of eye shadows. They were a bargain buy after Christmas a couple of years ago from Superdrug and I use them as chalks. The colours are great because they are real dusky shades and not colours that I’ve ever seen in chalks.

Well, that’s it from me and I’m sorry that this turned out to be a long and picture heave post but I had so much I wanted to share with you all.

Have a great day and…………
Happy Crafting!
Sue
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