WOYWW 182

EVERYWHERE I GO,
EVERYWHERE I GO, MY LORD,
EVERYWHERE I GO,
SOMEBODY'S TALKING ABOUT JESUS

I have really enjoyed researching carols on Youtube, discovering some artists of whom I'd not previously heard. Check out this Acapella group, Chanticleer - what amazing voices:
There is something very sexy about a bloke singing his heart out!! 


I ran out of the hearts material for my brother's bags  so am using this fabric that I bought in The Cotton Angel in Monmouth last year. I am ashamed to say that I had forgotten about it until I was rootling around in my boxes of stash...










And here's the finished article - it's a pretty, fresh fabric. I must make more stuff with it in the New Year!









And here's a message from my brother...
LunchladyJan's brother here - there are rather a lot of you who want to know what the tupperware boxes are for. First of all I have a surplus of little tupperware boxes - its a long story - so I thought that this Christmas everyone will get a little present (or set of), and the defining rule is that they must all fit in the box, and rather than wrapping it up, I asked little sis to make a bag or 6. So if you have any ideas what can go into the box, both male and female versions, I will only be too pleased to receive your thoughts. Bath Xmas Fair starts soon, and I'm sure lots of little prezzies will soon be winging their way into my little shopping bag.

Happy Xmas (if I can say that in November) to you all around the world

LLJ's big bro Steve

Well, there you go - now you know (and me as well!!)

Here's something else I've made this week - black satin, black lace and dark teal silk....what do they add up to??

A Goth Evening bag for my eldest son's girlfriend. I cut out rough trapezoid shapes, didn't measure the handles, no pattern or tacking was involved and the detachable Corsage brooch was thrown together. My old Sewing Teacher at school would be horrified....... *grin*  Once a rebel.......
WOYWWers, that's the end of Desk News. Proceed at your own peril :)

What else has been happening then?
Here's a neat little machine. Kate swapped it with me at the WOYWW crop - I made her a beading mat. You put seed beads in it and turn the spindle with your other hand and the beads magically whizz up the needle. There's an eye through which you can thread some cotton/tigertail and the beads travel up the needle and onto the thread. It's brilliant and no batteries are required!! It was an object of fascination in our house.....


I'll make crafters of them yet! Actually G3 was the best of us all, he really had the knack of getting the needle at just the right angle for the beads to whizz up. Thank you to Morti who gave me an excellent tutorial on it.

Julia, Di (PIxie) and I went for a girly day out last Friday. Di enjoyed herself Very Much in KraftKrazy. My Jeep could hardly move afterwards cos of the weight of new stash in the boot *grin* I bought these in a fab wool shop we found..
OOOhh, look at that rainbow of colours. Yum. It was quite pricey so I just bought a couple of balls, enough to make a snood for me or maybe a little cardigan if I can bear to give it away!

And finally....my angels for the swap have probably reached their destinations by now, so I can show them to you...
Serena (left) because she looked serene and Gloria (right) because she looks as if she was a bit of a good time girl before she joined the Choirs Invisible, lol!! I hope they make their new owners Twiglet and JoZart smile!!

Have a great week :D xxxx


WOYWW 181

Bethlehem Down is full of the starlight — 
Winds for the spices, and stars for the gold, 
Mary for sleep, and for lullaby music 
Songs of a shepherd by Bethlehem fold.

Sorry folks, it's Carols from now until the Big Day...just cos I adore them! This one, Bethlehem Down by Peter Warlock, is my absolute favourite - minor key, mysterious, gorgeous words. It gives me the Tingly Winglies, it does.
Follow this link -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yefnj5kvJTw
Turn the volume up, close your eyes and let King's College Choir transport you.

Straight in with my desk this week (bloomin' heck, THAT makes a change....) on which lies a pretend Cath Kidston fabric for a little girl's apron together with some contrasting green spotty for the apron strings. The faux CK fabric was £5.99 a metre, that's a bit better than £20 for the real McCoy. CK is such a rip off, makes me mad...... swiftly moving on :D

I love my storage area, everything is to hand. I don't care that it's not very chi-chi, I know where everything is so don't have to waste time searching for stuff. I like my 'Man Drawers' which are full of buttons, thread etc etc rather than screws and nails. The old doorstop on the top holds down fabric when I'm cutting, that gardening carry tote is perfect for my scissors, rulers and other accoutrements!
My brother commissioned me to make 6 drawstring bags that the tupperware box featured above could fit into. I thought I'd line them because the end product is nicer - so am just having a test to see if the blue goes with the little hearts fabric....
Here's the end result - I'm quite pleased with it. Just hope my brother likes them too...whatever he's going to do with them :D
Someone asked if they could have Christmassy bunting to fit down their stairs and they wanted red and green. So on a recent visit to C&H fabrics in Winchester (Fairythoughts wasn't in that day) I spotted these - they'll go nicely with the stash I already have. I was a good girl and only bought 50cms of each.
I have been trying really hard to resist spending on more goodies but these little tubs of beads were only £1 each in KraftKrazy...sigh..they leapt into my hand, I tell you. Goodness knows what I'm going to do with them! A little bit of Christmas Gorgeousness, no doubt :D

And finally, WOYWWers must be the most generous bunch out there in cyberspace! No sooner had I remarked that my Christmas trees needed some fairy folk peering out, than these fab little Canadian Corknisse gnomes arrived, courtesy of Famfa! Thank you sooooooo much, Sam, they are just brilliant!! Not only are they the perfect scale for the trees, they made us all hoot - I absolutely love 'em, but having seen the minuteness of the stitches, you must have patience to spare! 
They are going to have pride of place on top of my piano this Christmas time - thank you again, it was a lovely thought!

Have a great week, everyone :D



WOYWW 180

I SIT AND WAIT,
DOES AN ANGEL CONTEMPLATE MY FATE
AND DO THEY KNOW THE PLACES WHERE WE GO
WHEN WE'RE GREY AND OLD,
CAUSE I HAVE BEEN TOLD
THAT SALVATION LETS THEIR WINGS UNFOLD.
(Robbie Williams, I take it all back.. you're not the complete ignoramus I previously took you for. The lyrics to Angels are absolutely amazing....)

I'm taking part in JoZart's Angel Swap. It's been an interesting progress of ideas, starting out with wild and wacky colours but as I thought more about what Angels actually mean to me, I realised it was all about white and silver, light and beauty. Hmm, I thought and changed track....
 I've been to the Far Side...of the stitch selection on my machine! To boldly go where no LLJ has been before *grin* I'm doing white on white embroidery, no measuring of course, just going for it.




And every angel has to have silver lame wings!!! That lame fabric has been in my stash for aeons, I knew there was a reason to hang on to it :)



One of the robe fronts, embellished with a few icy blue little bugle beads.



Blimey, this is all a bit monochrome..we'll soon change that.....
I had a stall at the Craft Fair in my Village Hall (where the WOYWW Crop was held..that seems ages ago now) I went for Christmas big time and did quite well. Colour, yay!!

The bunting, bags and beading were popular - and yes, I am knitting! Can't bear hanging around doing nothing all day :) Have you spotted my pinny made from the Dunelm fabric? It got a lot of comments on the day!




I tried to do one of the Ribbon Trees that Jaki has shown...never again, too fiddly for me - you must have high patience levels, Jaki!!
You can just see some Christmas stockings made out of mad Dalmation fur fabric...what?? Just call me Cruella, lol. 
On Sunday, my band were in Marlborough marching in the Remembrance Day parade and then playing in the service afterwards - you can see G3 second from left in the front row...I joined them at the Memorial (not feeling too great, you see..)





I am playing but am hidden!!




Anthony playing Last Post and Reveille...he must have nerves of steel. There were crowds of people, the only sound was his cornet. Amazing.







And for those of you who demanded to see the bride last week, well, here she is!
                                             The newlyweds!
DH and I took the photos that day...this is one of our favourites. 
There is nothing quite like a hug from the one you love....awwwwwww

Have a great week!

WOYWW 179

STEP WE GAILY ON WE GO,
HEEL FOR HEEL AND TOE FOR TOE,
ARM IN ARM AND ON WE GO
ALL FOR MAIRI'S WEDDING

Sue and David's wedding actually! She looked completely awesome in a 50's full skirted black and white polka dot dress, it was a wonderful day! I'm only showing these pics to let you see the bunting in situ! This is the before shot..the after is still in the camera!!
                                  
DH and I took the wedding photos - these two show the twin themes of pink and vintage tea party!!



 Sue made this awesome teapot cake!



The shoes were commissioned from Shoes of Prey and the bouquet came from a local florist. Hot pink ruled the day :)







Ok, back to the desk! There's ricrac braid in white, red, green and silver; also buttons, gingham and linen triangles. More bunting??
 Nope, a mini forest of Christmas trees!! Little cones, stuffed and weighted down, like a beanbag. Ricrac tinsel and button baubles complete the decorations.



I know they're off centre and higgledy piggledy, but I rather like them. They're going to be my decoration of choice this festive season! All we need now is to see a few little gnomes peering around the sides *grin* 








And here's that Christmas fabric I showed last week made up as a table centre and place mats - I'll see if they go at one of the fairs that are coming up. If not, I'll be more than happy to keep 'em!

Blimey - the table needs a polish...... like that's going to happen!!!! LOL
And here's what I was making with the skully fabric - two dribble catchers and a  bandanna for Carmen's new baby, Logan. As he and the parcel have safely arrived, I can show you. It's ok, you know, Carmen loves all things Goth, so these weren't a random departure from baby blue!!
Wonder if Mothercare would take me on as a new babywear designer.... :D

PS The keys turned up!!! Yay! They were stuck in some random foldy bit inside the rucksack that both DH and I had searched. We obviously need to get our eyes checked...sigh. 

WOYWW 769

 WE'LL MEET AGAIN.... I'm going to take a break from blogging for a while - please don't worry, all is ok! - think I just need a...