A Whole Lot of Sewing!

Apologies for not posting last week. It means you are a week late in seeing this gorgeous snow scene stitched by Jill. She had to pinch it back from the person she made it for just so she could bring it along and show us. Glad that she did. Jill is now working on a beautiful wall hanging.

If I had posted when I should have, other than Jill's gorgeous finish, it would have been the Karen show. As you can see I had quite a few finishes. All but one of them are for my sister. The keyring went to my mum

On Tuesday there Freya showed us an unusual craft. She has taken up sugar craft. This pretty fondant doll actually contains a creme egg! Looks so good it would be a shame to eat it.

Lyn brought these knitted flowers along. Yes, that's right, she knitted them from lace. The same lace she used to make her hedgehogs. These were being sold over the Easter weekend at Hobbycraft.

This beautifully decorated cake was one of the raffle prizes. Donna was the proud owner of this cake. We were all in awe of it. Linda also won a gorgeous bracelet. As a result Lyn and the Hobbycraft team raised £796 for Together for Short Lives.

We had a new member along on Tuesday too. Her name is Fran and she mainly does cross stitch. She was stitching a beautiful wood scene. We loved the magnet attached to her stitching which stopped her from losing her scissors or needle.

Izzi continued with her bag making lessons. The ladies were busy making the handles for their bags. The above is the work of Janice, Margaret and Helen!

Easter and Bag Prep!

It's almost Easter but there hasn't been much in the way of Easter crafts this year. Last week was the first we saw of any Easter projects. Margaret knitted these little bunny egg covers. The kit was free with one of the knitting magazines, Let's Knit. She knitted them up in just a day. They are both going to her daughters. Don't be fooled by the image. They are both the same size but the pink one seems to be bowing it's head.

Janice has also been knitting bunnies. I think this was a pattern she found online. The bulk of the body is made from just a square of knitting. Quite effective and yet simple! I love all the different colours.

 Lyn also gave us some info on an Easter Parade that Hobbycraft are holding. You can read the details but basically there is a bonnet contest and a raffle with some good prizes. The proceeds of which are going to Together For Short Lives. This is a charity which support children and families with serious illness.

Margaret is still on the baby knitting. She has finished another baby set. This time for a boy. She is knitting for a friend who is expecting and has been knitting for either as she doesn't want to know what the baby will be. Having done the girls outfits and blanket she is now working on a set for a boy.

Alison is still working her way through all those freebie cross stitch patterns. This one is one of two and came from Cross Stitcher. She is working on the second one of the kit.

A while ago I posted some photo's of dresses that Izzi had stitched up from old pillow cases. She has been at it again and made these two beautiful dresses. The yellow one was made from a pillow case that Roberta had given her. Both are gorgeous. These are for a charity called Dress a Girl Around the World. A worthwhile cause. Izzi is hoping to do more so if you have any old pillow cases that still have life in them but you don't want pass them on.

Izzi is also continuing with bag lesson preperation. She took some of those making bags into another room to get their material ready and taught us all a few things while she was there.

First of all she taught us about the grain of fabric. It's more important than you would think. For example the stretch in the material is different. You can see in the photo above that the fabric is stretching out but if you had tried to stretch it in another direction it wouldn't happen. By not paying attention to that it can cause sagging where you don't want it to sag or not enough give where you need it.

Here Izzi has layered up the fabrics that are going to be used on one bag and used a pattern to mark it out. Izzi would normally just use fabric chalk to mark it out but she is showing everyone how to pin the pattern down and cut around it.

Here is one all ready. This lovely owl fabric is going to become a bag for Fiona. You can't see it but under the fabric are another two layers. This is to stop knitting needles from poking through the bag when it's done.

I can't wait to see them all finished. The final work will be done during Gartmore.

We're All About the Bags

Yep, we are all about the bags this week. Caroline has another great gift idea for Easter. She has been making these cute felt bags to give to friends and family. This one with the bunny she brought along already finished but was working on more.

She also had the fantastic idea of using cookie cutters as stencils. Personally I love this idea.

This is the bag she was working on on Tuesday night. The yellow chick goes well with the purple. The flowers also just set it off (big thank you to Lyn and the team at Hobbycraft for those).

She has also finished a blue one with contrasting stitching. These are all stitched by hand and beautifully done too. Caroline emailed me the photo's as they will be going to people this weekend. Last I heard she was working on getting more finished.

As you know Roberta has been learning to scrapbook. Helen has been showing her a different page layout every week. She made this bag to carry her album and goodies in. I love the fabric.

Margaret also finished her black top. Sadly we didn't quite have the weather for it this week but it does look good. She is now working on some socks which will be her second pair.

I was also working on stitching up this cushion on Tuesday. It's also an Easter present so I won't be able to bring it along on Tuesday to show everyone.

I also finally ordered some business cards for the group. We had some back when we were in Borders. Obviously the details on those are out of date and I have been meaning to get new ones for a while. They have our blog details on the back so they are ideal for handing out to new members. They have arrived and I will bring them along on Tuesday.