Happy St David's Day

Hello Lovelies, hope you are all well and happy.  Just a quick post to say Happy St David's Day to everyone from Wales.

The lovely daffodil is the flower of Wales and I was going to try and make one for this post but messing around with the computer meant that I ran out of time yesterday and thinking about starting to crochet a flower at 1am in the morning is not a good idea.  I have had to resort to an picture I found on Google images - sorry Folks, failed on this one.

 

The sun is shining here and although it is a little cold, I feel that spring may be on the way - let's hope so.  For all our friends in Australia I guess that you are all bidding goodbye to summer and welcoming in the autumn so I hope the weather is being kind to you all.  It is so good to see you all again and I have been working hard trying to sort out the dreaded gremlins from the last few days - not sure if it has worked but hey ho let's try!

 

When I went to Skipton a few weeks ago to Lucy's workshop she gave us all a packet of the most wonderful dried lavender, the smell was just gorgeous.  I have had a love of this plant for many years.  When I was nursing I also trained as an aromatherapist with Tisserand and used aromatherapy with some of my patients.  Lavender in particular was really excellent and the smell always takes me back to those nursing days of mine.  Lucy bought hers from a place in York which I looked up on the internet (what would we do without it now?) and found they had a special offer on which I couldn't resist.  It arrived yesterday and the smell coming from the box was just heavenly - I can still smell it in the hall where my husband had put the box and when I opened it, lovely Friends I wish you could smell it..........perfect.

 

 

If you like lavender do have a look at the site - I have signed up for a newsletter and have already popped a couple of tiny bags of it into my sewing pouches - lovely!

 

 

My other parcel which I am so excited about came from a really helpful and nice lady called Theresa who has a shop on Ebay.  I am a big lover of applique and embroidery and she has the most fabulous pieces which can be used for any number of projects including quilts.  I just love them and wish I had a machine which could do them like she does.  I have loads of ideas running amok in my head now of projects I am going to make incorporating them.  There are so many talented and creative people around and I am really happy to have found her.  She has been in touch a couple of times and has been really helpful.  I have bought four up to now and can't wait to use them.  Have a look at them and see if you like them too.

 

These two cuties are fabulous - the fabric Theresa uses is really good quality and the finish is immaculate.

 

I can't make up my mind which one I like the best - I just love them all.

 

 

If you have a look on Ebay you can find her - please leave some for me though........

 

 

Now I have been busy this week but did actually manage to make something myself.  I had a tiny scrap of fabric left over from the Frozen cushions I made for the little Peeps - have been trying to get more of this but it appears to be sold out everywhere and I find that shipping from the USA is quite pricey.  I will have to wait until it all calms down a bit and then buy more - by which time the Peeps will have probably moved on to another new Disney character!

 

I had bought a pattern from Craft Pixie ages ago - sorry about the colour of the paper but it was all I had left at the time and I don't have a colour copier unfortunately.   I worked out that I had just enough to make two of these purses if I was careful with the fabric.  I thought it was quite a cute design and it did say minimal sewing required - sounds good to me.

 

 

I must admit that I struggled with the first one I made as the instructions went against the usual way I have been taught to make a bag or purse.  I had help from Rachel but even she had a tussle with it, although I am sure that you sewers out there would find it is very easy. 

 

 

I also had to be careful to make sure that the images came out in the right places but it was very difficult as I had so little fabric to play with - I don't know why I didn't buy more at the time.

 

 

I tried to fussy cut the relevant images for each purse as each of my little Peeps has a definite favourite when it comes to the two sisters so I had to make sure that the right (Frozen) sister went to the right Peep if you follow me......

 

 

It was all a bit of a rush in the end as I had to post them off to them yesterday and hopefully they will arrive today and of course I couldn't possibly send one without the other could I?  I wasn't that pleased with the end result but it was the best I could do and I hope they will be forgiving of the errors.  I am sure all they will see will be their favourite characters.  I do love this about children as they see through all the bits that are not quite right.

 

 

 

Well my Lovely Friends I have to leave you now to sort out housework and marking in readiness for Monday morning.  I do hope you have a fabulous day and enjoy yourselves.  Thank you for your wonderful comments which mean so much to me and I continue to find so much inspiration from all of you in your blogs - I couldn't imagine my life without you all now and it is incredible to think that I wasn't blogging this time last year.  I send you all my love and best wishes wherever you are in our world, keep safe and happy all of you.  Big hugs to you, Dorothy :-)xxxxxxxxxxxxxx