Wool Steak and TV fame

The last few weeks have been a real whirl wind. I spent most of it organising a surprise 30th birthday party for the Mr and then we got burgled a few days before the party. The intruders stole the usual electrical goods, TV, computer, camera etc along with some jewellery and Flo's piggy bank :-( There's nothing that we could have done about it, but it just feels like a sad thing to happen.

The surprise party went really well. Everyone seemed to have a good time, including Flo who was allowed to stay up late and party till the late hour of 9pm! She enjoyed dancing, pointing at all the old pictures of Daddy and dragging my handbag around with her. The Mr. had a great time too and got some suitably manly presents for a 30 year old. One particularly apt present was a couple of fine steaks! When we opened up their special cold bag I found this inside:

It's basically just a bag stuffed with natural wool which keeps your meat cold. Brilliant.

I'm really missing my camera already. I keep seeing things I want to snap and the realise that my camera's probably on Ebay right now! So not many pictures to share with you I'm afraid. The above was taken on the Mr's phone and emailed to me.

On a more positive note Purl Alpaca's have asked if they can use my photos of the Cleo skirt I made on their TV slot on the Create and Craft channel. It will be on Thursday at 5pm Sky channel 671, Freeview 36 and Freesat 813 if you fancy watching. I'll let you know if I can get a link to the show once it's aired.

Top Tip

My Mum was helping me iron and cut out my new quilt project and she came up with the genius idea to hang the ironed fabric from a skirt hanger so that it stays relatively flat while you cut. With Flo running about like a crazy nut it's meant that I don't need to get the iron out every time I need to cut more fabric. Top tip!

However unless you hang it somewhere they can't reach it doesn't stop toddlers from trying to steal it, presumably for their own secret quilting projects?

Now you see them... now you don't!

Here are the finished baby trousers which I'm calling Isla's camo pants as they're for baby Isla and are a little bit camouflage.

I made a couple of mods to the design, making the legs a few rows longer (46 rows) and adding elastic into the waistband rather than doing an i-cord tie fastening. I'm pleased with them despite them being a little mental in colour! I enjoyed the project so much I'm going to make some more but in a solid colour and with the seed stitch patterning. I wonder if I can make them adult sized?

Crafting not Rioting please!

With all the riots going on in London it’s been a rather unsettling time, but crafting has been keeping my spirits up. Knitting on the tube into work genuinely seemed to bring some kind of calm to people who smiled and watched as I worked away. But when Flo’s nursery called to say they were locking all of the parameter gates and I was sent home from work I got a bit twitchy again. But once the family was safely home and I got stuck into some quilting I was a much calmer person. Crafting not rioting people!

It’s so sad to see the destruction of people’s communities. The saddest parts are where independent shops and people’s homes/ cars have been destroyed. I can’t imagine what they are going thorough having to rebuild from scratch. Let’s hope the violence, looting and destruction is put an end to soon.

I promised I’d share a picture of my finished Lacy Blue top. And here it is:

My good friend James Diggle came over to do a little photo shoot for the magazine the other day and took this photo among others, which were all a bit too ‘catalogue model’. You can just about see the gold coffee bean buttons on the bust, which I think really set off the shimmering blue of the yarn. I’m really glad it’s finished and I’ve worn it a few times already. There’s nothing like a successful project to make you smile.

My new quilting project is making me smile too. Look at those prints!