Saturday 26 April 2014

Roll, roll, roll.....

I've been hiding these for a while now.

Its become a bit of a tradition for the quirky quilters to create a gift bag of little useful bits and pieces (often hand made) to each other for a birthday.

Its fantastic to receive one of these, in fact they've been known to raise a tear.

As we've all begun to dabble a bit in Crochet I decided that a quilted crochet hook case would be the perfect gift for my friends.  They were made in two batches for the pre Christmas and post Christmas birthdays but the process was pretty much the same for both....

Check the instructions which are not mine...they come from here, then find the fabric for the appropriate quirky personality....

 

Measure carefully, including the trimming ribbon...


Make a little needle pocket...

 




Line up the main pocket and the backing and sew some channels for the hooks...

 

They needed a "something" to keep the roll closed and the hooks safe... so I hunted out some ribbon, cord and even crocheted up a chain of crochet stitches with button ends to do the job....



 

A final trim and a turn...

 

and they were done..

 

 

They look even better with hooks in them...


They look even better with some hooks in  -hope their recipients like them!!!

Sunday 13 April 2014

Colour me spring!

I'm suffering  bit of blossom overload this year!  I can't get over just how much there is of it, all along the roadsides (must be blackthorn) the railway lines on the way to work (more blackthorn) The parks on the way to work ( usually ornamental cherry) ...and now the garden has joined in too...



I'm crossing my fingers for a bumper morello cherry crop, because look....I'm not the only one appreciating the blossom....



This evenings sunshine made the Acer positively glow, camera doesn't quite do it justice but you get the gist...

 

 

Who said gold and red were autumn colours?

Now there's a bit of a tale in bee keeping circles (can you have bee keeping urban myths?) about the unsuccessful pollination of a whole orchard of apples.  The farmer made the mistake of not mowing the grass under the trees before the bees arrived and so the bees gorged themselves on dandelions and ignored the apple blossom.  Seeing this worker get her head down into this dandelion, its a tale I can well believe...

Clean bee arrives...






Best go home and wash that mucky face....


Friday 11 April 2014

I remembered!!!

Its been a while since I've needed to make frames,  and as I was gathering everything I needed together it did occur to me that I might not remember how...


Thankfully just like riding a bike it all came flooding back...
Slice the wedge off from the top bar...


Tap in the side bars...


Pop the bottom bar into its groove..give a little tap to make it snug...


Slide in a sheet of foundation bees wax and bend the long wire loops to 90'...


If it doesn't fit, like the one above, trim a little from the side....


See! ... a little trim and it fits perfectly...


Tap in another bottom bar to trap the wax in place...


Finally nail the wedge back in place ...


So, why am I making all these frames? 
Well its all about keeping the disease levels in the hives down, as the brood frames are used to hatch new bees over and over again they gradually get dirtier and dirtier; more and  more mis-shapen with thousands of little feet walking over them day in day out.  So its good practice to change out brood frames every 3 years...so its time for the frames from my first year of bee keeping to go; just look how dirty they are....

 

Look at the difference between 3 year old frames and fresh new foundation....


Now all I need to do is suit up and set about switching out old frames...better dash its starting to cloud over....

Saturday 5 April 2014

Quietly quilting....

I've been looking forward to this class to make a giant dahlia quilt for quite some time.  At one stage I did think I was going to have work and miss the class completely, thank fully that option didn't last and I was able to pack some fabric that I'd dyed earlier, a sewing kit and head out to enjoy myself....

Fabric and instructions organised and ready.....


Sewing kit, notebook and pattern open and ready for action....


Fortified by tea...


Definitely ready for action!

There was drawing round templates and cutting of petals...and pretty soon the plan for the centre of the giant dahlia became clear....

 

 

There was a whole new piecing starting and finishing technique to learn, and with the added benefit of the loan of some posh pins (£10 a box you've gotta be kidding me!!) ....


I was joining pieces together in no time at all...


At lunch time I took a stroll around the class and had a look at how everyone else was getting along...

 

 

There were both bright ones and pastel ones all coming together quite nicely and steadily...

 

 

 

After a quick lunch we found our selves progressing onto round two, and getting to grips with a natty little gadget that adds 1/4" seam to the curved portion of the template...

 

And look !! I even got one piece sewn in....


I know I've broken my new year's resolution not to start something new but this is going to be the perfect antidote to working life at the moment...if I can just sew in one piece a night it'll be finished in no time at all!!

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