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I am posting a test as I haven't been on here for sooo long that I wonder if it still works

A leaving card for our Teacher.

I attend a class on a Thursday night and have an eighty one year old teacher.  Sadly, because of family commitments she has had to leave.  This was the card that we all signed.

Tried to make it appropriate for the occasion and the person by stitching paper onto the card, she loved it!  Stamps are from Chocolate Baroque, apart from the large mannequin that I have had for years and cannot remember where I bought it. 

Topiary Tree

Made this for Mum-in-law, it took me year to complete as it was interrupted with other things that I had to finish and more projects that I began. I even took it to Australia for three weeks, but not one stitch was attempted!

Wedding Invitations

Made for a friend in the shabby chic style.  I managed to find this wonderful ribbon from Berties Bows, which I think has really made them pretty.  Behind the main invite there was a postcard for people to reply by posting it as their RSVP and another with hotel and wedding gift information.

Oz and Mum-in-Law, oh and Gandmother!

My son lives in Sydney and got married at the end of March to Anna in Woolgoolga NSW. Had a lovely three week holiday, firstly flying into Brisbane to see my sister's family members, drove down to Woolgoolga for the wedding, stayed a week and then took a three day drive to get to Sydney and flew home after a week.  Met some lovely people, stayed in some nice places, saw some beautiful views and generally had a good time, although now have a few pennies less in my pocket!  Managed to find one or two items of cloth, silk and patterns to bring home, now need to make them into something!

Going to be a Grandmother in January, a honeymoon baby, so something else to get excited about. Made my Daughter In Law this free standing photo frame and inserted the 3d scan of the bubba. Can you see his/her little face?

Christmas Stocking - smocking

I still attend my sewing class on a Thursday night. At Christmas we all make something to hang in the house. This was my contribution for 2013. It's not a very good photo, taken with my iPhone. 

Wedding Seating Plan

New Year's Eve was spent in lovely Tunbridge Wells, with a wedding at 4pm at High Rocks. Earlier in the year I had made the invites and keeping the same theme I made the seating plan too.  Never made one before and there were 14 tables. I only made it on 29th December as I didn't get the information until late and then we had Christmas, which I spent in London, so was rather stressed, however not as stressed as the bride who on the same day was making tier 2 and 3 of her wedding cake and it was going wrong. All came out fine in the end!

Abbi's Birthday

It's Abbi's birthday next Saturday, as is mine and the "little girl" across the street is now a "young lady".  Not sure if she is going to be 15 or 16, but I can assure you she is a lot younger than me!  I'm going to spend my birthday in a place near Barcelona with my Brother, Sister, Step Niece and Andy, my other half.  I don't ever remember spending my birthday on holiday before and looking forward to it.

Nature is beautiful!

I'm not sure where this photo came from, I saw it on Facebook, but I would be more than happy if I had a view like this in my garden.  Nature is so wonderful at times!

Re-making a necklace..............

Quite a few years ago I was bought this lovely Pilgrim necklace as a leaving present from work and I loved it, but sadly over the years the acrylic beads have scratched and become dull, so I decided to buy some replacement beads and try and re-make it - this is the result.......

I managed to keep the lovely green beads and one or two of the beads that were crystal, but I replaced everything else with crystal/quartz/glass beads and I'm quite pleased with the result.  The colours are much more vibrant than the acrylic beads and when the light shines on them they look beautiful.

Even managed to find a nice little dragon fly to replace the enamelled piece that had scratched.

Three Bags Full Sir!

BAG MAKING WITH SUE

Had an absolutely fabulous day on Saturday making bags with Sue. Sandra, Kim, Sue and me go back a long way, we met on our first day of secondary school, aged 11 and 45 years later are still firm friends.  Sue is the seamstress amongst us and every now and again we get together and have a craft day and for the first time chose some kind of sewing.  Sue had already made some bags to the highest spec and basically taught us how to do the same!  We have all dabbled in a bit of dress-making, but I have never lined something before to this standard, I did my wedding dress, but that was easy.  Our top stitching may not be as good as Sue's, but we were all pretty proud of what we produced in her kitchen.  Each piece of the pattern was cut out four times, the main fabric, the Interfacing, the lining and the interlining.....phew that seemed to take ages, but well worth it in the end as it gives a lovely expensive feel to the bags.

The beautiful lining in Kim and my bags

Top-stitching on the straps on my bag to help stiffen them

The material on my bag frayed so overlocked the edges

Kim's finished bag

Sandra's finished bag, which is the same design as mine, but how different it looks in different material

My finished bag - the panels at the front are pockets, which are also lined

back view of my bag

Wedding Invitations

I have made two lots of wedding invites already this year, 53 of these and 80 almost identical invites with just the flower being a rose bud instead of an open rose, the colour and size were the same.  Both were for friends for weddings in August and December of this year.  I supplied them with the ribbon untied so that it didn't get too creased and left it up to them to "tie the knot" and trim after they had written inside.

A6 gate fold white pearlescent card with white pearlescent paper insert.  The paper roses were glued on and the gold hearts are an old "docraft" stamp and I used gold embossing powder on this.  Simple, but effective I think.  Both parties were very pleased with them, so that was good enough for me.

A baby card and some Christmas bells

I keep feeling guilty when friends ask me for my blog address and I have to explain that I haven't updated it for a while.  Note to self:  Upload a photo of something I am working on each week.......well we'll see won't we!  It's been a bit of a poo nine months really, my Brother-In-Law died of Cancer and my Sister looked after him at home right until the end so we (family and friends) took turns in supporting and helping her, he died at the end of June and then in November I had a heart attack, not a serious one, but one nonetheless and am trying desperately to change my bad habits and lead a healthier life, but the weather has not been kind to us.  

On a happier note my Son and girlfriend visited from Australia during December and in October they got engaged and are getting married March 2014 in Woolgoolga, Coffs Harbour, Australia, which is where she comes from......some something to get in shape for.....oh and to save for!

Friends of ours recently brought baby Casey into the world and this is a card I made for them.  I haven't yet had a cuddle with the new born and must arrange a visit.  I blame the weather, this snow doesn't inspire one to get off their backsides and do anything.....watching TV with a crochet hook and ball of wool is all I can muster these days, oh and snoozing!  

I succumbed and bought a Martha Stewart edge punch, mainly because I have been asked three times during the past year to make/design wedding invitations and thought that this lends itself to a romantic theme.  

I bought the gingham card at a show in Five Lakes, Essex (cannot remember the show's name) in blue and I have some in pink too, love it for baby cards.  The tile is a 2" square piece of stampbord coloured with alcohol inks and about four layers of clear UTEE  plus a little gold embossing powder that I stamped into with the foot stamp.  

I have also made two lots of wedding invites this year already, although they were almost identical, which made the second lot easier, just a slight variation with the flower, but made some mocks for them to look at.  I shall put them up here when I gather the photos together, some.  I never know whether I will find them on my camera, Andy's camera or my iPhone to be honest.......another note to self:  Be more organised!

I have also been sewing and made this little Christmas ornament to try out smocking, which I haven't done since my school days.

The one on the right is my one and the purple one I bought at the Warner Archive Christmas sale in Braintree, but it was made by a friend in my Thursday class.  I wanted to make more, but with the heart attack happening it changed a few things before Christmas, I shall make some more next year to give out to friends and family.  Some of the girls made Christmas crackers with the central body beaded and smocked, they were lovely.  

More to come from my crafting world.......

Carol xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 Been Sewing......

Attended a couple of workshops during the summer holidays, the above is the finished article from one of them.  I never finish anything on the actual day and I hate "not finishing" things....so Eileen, here they are!

I have been crafting......honestly

It's a whole year since I last blogged and I feel so ashamed that I haven't got around to putting my stuff on here.  It also means that I have a lot of blogs to visit too. Anyway here are a few things that I have been up to the past year.

My friend asked me to make her a couple of hair clips for her holiday, this is one of them.  Very easy to make, just cut five or six rounds of organza of slightly different sizes.  Hold each piece individually down on a heat-proof surface (I used a chop stick) and carefully burn/melt the edges with your heat gun to make the edges shrivel slightly.  You can use a candle flame, but I always use the heat gun.  Arrange pieces, pin through all layers and sew right through all layers, then shape it to how you want it and secure with one or two stiches.  Sew on required embellishments and then either a comb or brooch pin.  Eazy Peazy!  I did make two, but didn't photograph the other one, maybe she will give me a photo of her wearing it.

My friend's Son gets married in two weeks and between us we made the wedding invitations, order of service, seating plan and place settings, I am going to the wedding so will take a photo of the tables and the seating plan on the day.  I introduced my friend to card-making and she very quickly got hooked (didn't we all), so much so that she ended up making wedding invites for her friend's daughter.  I must admit I did all the cutting and showed Sue what to do and she ended up doing most of the work, which she found very relaxing.  The photo isn't very good as I took it with my phone, never mind.

I love to craft in the garden when I can, usually sewing.

Some sad news, my brother-in-law died very recently and my Sister suggested that she gives me his silk ties to see what I can make from them as she knows that I use very small pieces of material on some of my projects.  I then proceeded to get some ideas on the Internet and was amazed at the amount of people that do this, rugs, dresses, bags, you name it, I found it.  So I am looking forward to receiving these and making them into some lovely things for my sister.  I will of course post these on here.  

I am on two workshops next month for machine embroidery and hand sewing with mixed media, so looking forward to it as I haven't been to a class either for a year.  It is a friend of mine that is the tutor and I think it will be great.

Bye for now, have a great day and I look forward to visiting a few of your blogs, I have a lot to catch up on.

Carol x