Wordy Wednesday

Instead of muttering about my bad blogging,

I will just write a photo-heavy post

to give a small indication of what I have been up to....

I have been making things 

for the Church Christmas fair with a friend

(who is now sick of pom-poms!!)

*****

I have longarm-quilted an old lady's quilt,

that needed quite a bit of TLC to even get it on the machine...

But it has turned out beautifully.

*****

Miss Kalico has turned 4!

A cake for home: 

Some lovely gifts from friends...

And a cake for the party! 

***** 

I made a little something for a colleague

who loves Lavender...

The Bullion stitch addiction continues

though not as relentlessly as before ;)

*****

I have made my ornament for the SSCS15...

This one took 2 evenings 

and was a lot trickier than I imagined,

but hopefully it will be well received.

******

And I am working on a few secret projects.

This one involves top levels of investigation

in order to correctly tailor the concept to the recipient.

So I am sewing although nothing for me.

I had grand plans to make Miss-Kalico and I

Halloween costumes, but I ran out of time :(

A friend gave me a Halloween costume 

in a rather tiny size. Although I was flattered,

I preferred to leave certain curves and bulges to people's imagination ;o)

Anyway, I will try and blog more soon xx

Wordless Wednesday - No time for tea!

Minecraft - Steve - Tablet/I-pad case

I made this Minecraft tablet case for my son's birthday.

He unwrapped it and said:

"Ah it's Steve",

So apparently this is Steve from Minecraft.

One is never too old to learn!!

This time, I did all of it on my machine,

no last minute hand stitching any seams

and I rounded the corners of the flap to give it a better shape.

I also baked a cake.

Can you spot the number '9'?

I would like to be all caked out,

but my husband and daughter's birthday's are up next!

Miss Kalico is hoping for a purple princess party

(as one does when one is 3 going on 4!)

Daim Bar Cake

A friend at work loves Daim Bar's

and as it was her birthday,

I made her a Daim bar cake.

Basically it's a simple vanilla sponge

with some crushed Daim Bar pieces in the batter.

Then I iced the cake with 'Caramel Frosting'

(the recipe was found here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/7506/caramel-frosting-i/

I doubled the quantities of the frosting recipe

so that I could put the frosting inside and on top.

Then I topped the cake with crushed Daim bar pieces

and mini Daim bars.

I believe it tasted ok ;o)

*****

I also embroidered a sheep 

in Bullion stitch on a heart as a little gift.

*****

Now I'm making another Minecraft patchwork block

as my other son has his birthday tomorrow....

I didn't measure this one 

so it's a bit of trial and error as to what it will end up as...

A tablet case WAS the plan, but we will see!

Wordless Wednesday - Minecraft Creeper Tablet Case (for someone special's 11th birthday!)

Wordless Wednesday: My Neighbour's Lavender

Why yes I did!

I did get a bit obsessed with Bullion stitch...

And made more and more 

including some with roses and rosebuds!

And I did make Miss-Kalico a princess dress....

BUT I didn't make a purple one!

So a purple shirt underneath had to do.

And Minnie mouse slippers completed the look ;o)

Bullions and Bamburgh (part1)

My first bullion stitch bee!

I decided to decorate some stuffed hearts

with embroidered roses

I tried a few different techniques

and then I remembered that I had a book on Bullion stitch,

so I tried some bullion stitch roses.... these were my first ones....

And then I changed needles, thread strand quantity etc. 

until I found a way to get them to work for me.

These were before I added the green leaves.

*****

And now on to some of our holiday snaps

We rented our friend's gorgeous holiday home 

in Bamburgh, Northumberland.

This entailed lovely day trips

with lots of walking.

Rockpooling and walking

on this day...

to Dunstanburgh Castle.

Of course I had forgotten our National Trust passes in the car

which was seriously too far to walk back for! so we

didn't explore the ruins, but just had a quick look around.

The walk back takes you to the little harbour village of Craster

where smoked kippers are a local speciality.

The smoked kipper restaurant was closed, but the pub opposite,

The Jolly Fisherman was still serving lunch and what a lunch!

Highly recommended!!!

We sampled the fish cakes and some of us shared the Fish Board

all very yummy.

***

Another day trip took us to Alnwick Castle

where some of Downton Abbey was filmed.

Besides a nosey around the castle including a display of 

some of the Downton costumes etc (no photos allowed!!)

There was loads for the children to do.

One little person found the dressing up worthy of another trip!

Pure ecstasy!

So I have come home 

with grand plans to make Miss-Kalico a 

Princess outfit.

Plans! No action as yet!

Did I say there was loads for the kids to do?

Well there was including Harry potter Broomstick training

and Master (Middle) Kalico

also enjoyed the dressing up

and games and activities...

A great day out (and holiday week) was had by all!

Wordless Wednesday: Making Kids Clothes or as I like to call it: Stashbusting!