Whirlwind warning.

I am glad to report that the whirlwind was me, I woke up early yesterday and hit the ground running and have barely stopped since. Thankfully I have not needed painkillers since Saturday I just have to remember to ease off a bit now and then.

A warm welcome to some new followers, Sarina McKewen-Bell, Knollgardener, John Wooldridge, John Gray from Going Gently ( who I now follow after being a lurker for ages) and Sue from Our New Life in the Country, who I have followed for a while and taken inspiration and recipes from willy nilly. She relocated to North Wales a while ago and is working hard to get the new place up and running. 

I can knock numbers 21 - 23 off my list,

3 plump little cushions, made from orphan blocks that were made to try out new patterns and play with measurements, they have 12" cushion pads in them and are just the job to tuck in the small of your back. Alas they are not for me, at least not until Francesca has seen them.

The second batch of tomato chutney, slightly different recipe, I made a batch of Chilli last night so had to use dried crushed chillies in this, I made a bit more as well, you notice that I managed to get a half jar for testing again, most important testing is.

In the background there are 3 large Kilner bottles ready for infused oil, they were £1 each from Home Bargains, I am going back on Saturday to see if they have any more, the little ones usually sell at almost £2 each. I can think of at least 6 people who would be happy to get a bottle of flavoured oil in a few months.

When I took Ben out yesterday afternoon I stumbled across some ripe blackberries, I nipped home and got a container and snapped up a few, with some of the apples from Cardigan I soon had the jelly bag full. 4 1/2 jars ready to tuck away. I am good at getting a half jar to taste, lots of practice I suppose. 1 of these will go to Maggie tomorrow and the rest will be squirreled away to be joined by many more.

I am not a fan of inserting zips, so I need more practice. I have a pattern, well loads really, for a simple zippered pouch in several sizes. I looked at zips and am just not prepared to pay over £2 for a little zip to make a coin purse. I had a look online and got this little lot for 69 p each, a bakers dozen for less than £10 with postage. I chose bright colours that I use constantly and a selection of sizes. I do buy things from boot sales and CS just for zips and buttons sometimes but have worked my way through my stock. Plus at this price I can justify using new ones, and as these will possibly become gifts it is more fitting.

On the subject of fitting, I have seen mention of sewing patterns from Deer + Doe, I have Googled them but can not find a web page that will open. Does anyone out there know of a site that I can get onto to have a look see and possibly order from?

Reasons to be grateful.

1.  Lots of rain showers but plenty of hot sun in between.

2.  The containers of veg and salad are doing well.

3.  There will be pounds and pounds of blackberries coming along.

4.  I am off to cardigan to see the grands at the weekend.

5.  I have another project to finish off tonight with a bit of gentle hand sewing.

If you pop back to the Zips you will see a bit of the new project in the right top corner.

I will share tomorrow, it is for the Red Cross, I need  to contact the local branch and find out where to drop them off as I will soon have a big bag of things for them.

I still have not made a sizable dent in the fabric stash, good thing really as after tomorrow's finish I will still have 76 items to make.

Sad news about Robin Williams this morning, there were some clips of him on the TV at various events, it was noticable that in just about all them his mouth was smiling but his eyes were not. In repose his face and expressions were quite melancholy. He will be severely missed in the world of film, anyone who has seen the "wiggling derriere" of Mrs Doubtfire or heard the joyous bellow of "Good morning Vietnam" will never forget the talent that was there.  I first encountered him In Mork and Mindy and loved it, then of course I have watched Jumanji more times than is reasonable for a grown woman.

Good bye Robin, I hope you have finally found peace.

TTFN                                                        Pam

Monday and the house seems empty.

Fran has gone back to Beckenham and the house is so quiet without her, even Ben has hidden himself away in disgust. It will n ot be long before she is back though, the last week in August she has a week booked off and wants to fit in a weekend before then.
We had a good time while she was here, we went to Crosshands on Saturday to the fabric and haberdashery shop, Isabeau Inspirations to have a look for fabric. Fran wants me to make her some skirts, she found 2 patterns that she likes.

The "blue" is really Teal and a gorgeous colour, the little owls are as cute as can be.

Hayley, who owns the shop is very nice and lives a few yards away from me on the other side of the road.

On Sunday we went to Swansea and went into Hobbycraft, I have to say that I was not over impressed by the fabric area, very small and over priced. However Fran found some fabric for another skirt.

No pressure but she would like to wear this next Saturday.

I found some mixed buttons for £5, my button tin was getting very low.

We went to Dunelm Mills and I found this basket, I will be replacing the lining, for £6, I love it. I was going to buy one next time I was in Cardigan but they start at £30 there, I like £6 much better.

Here is the fourth 18" cushion for James and Cerys, I think that brings my total of stash makes up to 12 but will check later. I have some 12" to make and 2 bigger ones then I will be full on with skirts I think. Before that I will have to have a mega sort out in the sewing/dining room, there is not a suare inch of surface without fabric, pins, clips, scissors or something on it. Things were so bad at one point that there was no room for my tea. disaster. I had to have a 2 minute blitz.

Now that is out of the way I have new followers to welcome, Mornings Minion, Chickpea, Susan Davies, Oh Pioneer,Donna Perry,Gwen Cauldwell and Lynne Lewis, then there those of you on Bloglovin that I do not know how to find. If anyone can point me in the right direction I would be grateful. I rather think that I will be looking at some new blogs a bit later on.

I better cut the grass first or I will not be able to get to the washing whirlygig.

Reasons to be grateful.

1.  More lovely sunshine.

2.  Baby toms on my plants.

3.  Radishes going to seed for the peppery pods.

4.  Lots of pretty fabric for sewing.

5.  I was able to go to Tesco and drop a load of long life milk into the food bank collection point.

The baby toms are really tiny, but they will grow. I love radish seed pods in a salad, they burst in your mouth and explode with flavour. I will not be counting Fran's skirts in my challenge as they have not come from my stash. I will be adding all the scraps to it though.

I was told that there is always a shortage of milk at the food banks and indeed there were several boxes of cereals but only 1 pint of milk on Saturday. I do not shop that often but will try to drop a 6 pack off every time.

It is now well gone 5 and still too hot to cut grass, I may have some dinner first, Ben needs a decent walk and it will have to wait till it cools down.

Tea time now.

     TTFN                                                           Pam

Sunday Sewing and a request for help.

I have completed another cushion for James and Cerys,

 I know that it is neither HST,s or Rail Fence. Yet again I have pulled finished blocks from my stash. These are 6" blocks that I made 2 years ago while in Wales and when I dug them out I decided that they were a good contrast to the last 2.

I pulled some scrappy patchwork at the same time and that will become cushion number 4. Then Francesca would like a cushion and I found some 12" blocks that I will turn into 3 small cushions, possibly for myself.

Now for my cry for help.

A couple of weeks or so ago Fran sent me details of an on line site that made skirts from unusual/original fabrics. I had a look and queried the design, they looked very bunched up at the waist. Fran went ahead and ordered one in the Alice in Wonderland print, when it arrived she rang me and said that it did not hang like the ones on the website. I just said bring it with you and I will have a look.

As you can see the printed panel is not level at the seam.

While the quality of the panel is quite good the rest is very poor quality, I would never buy such thin flimsy stuff.

As for the skirt itself, all it is is a 2 metre length with 1 seam, turned over at the top and sewn leaving a slot with ribbon threaded through it. My question is does anyone know of a pattern that I could use for a skirt, keeping all the 2 mtr panel (I have decent fabric for the top) without having all the gathers at the waist. Francesca is petite and only needs a 22" length, the panel is 8" finished length so there is a deal of fabric to lose in a 14" drop.

I have seen skirts in a border print but they are all very full, my A line skirt pattern looks good on Fran but the panel would be out of shape if I used it

Lots of you make wonderful clothes and I would love any help or advice that you can send me.

Now that I have read that through, it seems an impossible task. I do not think that keeping the full panel is a viable option, but I will wait to see what comes back to me.

 Reasons to be grateful.

1.  Another overnight rain, no need to water the garden today.

2.  Glorious sunshine all day.

3. 2 loads of laundry done and dried on the line.

4.  Meatloaf for dinner. NO NO not the singer.

5.  Fresh Pineapple for pudding. (45p each RTC)

I do like pineapple but it is usually so pricey but I snapped up 2 at that price, I also got 5 peaches and 5 nectarine for 90p the lot.

Dinner is smelling good and it is time to put the cauli cheese in the oven, the jacket potatoes may need shunting up a shelf as well.

Ben has a new toy, a simple hard ball on a piece of rope. It is bright pink but he does not care, he has great fun chasing it and when he has had enough he carries it around instead of bringing it back to be thrown.

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend as much as I am mine.

      TTFN                                                           Pam.