Tuesday 27 July 2010

Ooh "L" ... plates have gone!




Today is a good day .. My daughter passed her driving test .. first time ... which is quite unheard of in the UK,  my DIL is currently in labour with our first grandchild and I am guest posting over at Mega-Crafty!  On top of this I found a good deal on the car insurance for said daughter  (Can you believe one company quoted £6000 ... yes thats six thousand? Yeah  .. I don't think so.. thanks all the same)  and I got new spec lenses that allow me to see without craning my neck at some ridiculous angle to see the computer screen!


Life is good today!  But baby p ... you really need to hurry up ...your poor nanny is getting fed up of waiting to put a name and date on your quilt !  Yes alright I'll make another pair of shoes while I wait!








Uhm yes ... the baby quilt. Thanks for the advice on the letter fabric. It was all taken on board, processed and thrown back in the air I'm afraid. I decided that I actually really didn't like the tumbler quilt enough so guess what ?  I made 2 more tops  and let the mummy and daddy decide which they wanted.  They choose the hedgehog quilt and if you pop over to Mega-Crafty blog you can see the cushion I made to go with it. (The other quilt has robots on it .. I liked  but mummy wasn't so keen ... so I'm glad I asked.)




Meg (who has never met a craft she doesn't like)  is hosting Sewing 101 on her blog Mega-Crafty this week and has asked a couple of people to guest blog .. including me!  I was thrilled!  Meg is a brilliant crafter and has some pretty nifty inspirational ideas.  I downloaded her paper-making tutorial recently and can't wait to give it a go. (Maddy and Christine if your reading this we need to rearrange that play date that had to be cancelled!!!)  


But how cool to be a guest on another blog?  Of course I had a minor panic attack whilst I was trying to decide what tutorial to do. I was vacillating between the cushion cover and a peg bag. In the end common sense prevailed .... pegs aren't a common item across the pond! Truth be told they aren't that common at Chez Tracey's sometimes although I have been very very good of late and feel very housewifey pinning  out my basket of freshly washed laundry and I do admit a passion for bright white 'scratchy towels that smell of the outdoors'.


Speaking of bright white ..why is it when you peg washing to dry outside any residual stains are bleached out by the sun?  I know its bleached out but what is the chemical change that happens to make stains disappear? Answers on a post card please!  I did read on a forum recently about using Hydrogen peroxide to remove stains (which presumably works on the the same principal as sunlight) ... but does anyone use HP and what do you do with it ?  I ask because I have a bottle of it.  Not sure why but its in the cupboard and I dont plan on bleaching my hair anytime soon.. although no 3 son may as he died his hair BLUE for the holidays. (No please dont ask  he's 14  ... does that explain it?)


Well I am off to catch some z's before we are woken in the middle of the night with some news ... hopefully!


Hey Mr P if you read this ... you could be going to sleeping with a Granny tomorrow .. oh el!











Monday 5 July 2010

one thousand fabrics and not one thats right!




Argh! Can anyone tell me why it is that you never have that one piece of fabric you really need in your stash? It always seems to be the way - Murphy's Law as they say. So ladies I need some help ... can I make do with something out of my stash or do I really need to go shopping?

I posted a short video of the little baby quilt I made today for impending grandson no 1 but I need some input about fabric for applique letters. I want to add the babys name to the bottom border and offered up a couple of fabrics for audition. None of them are really grabbing my fancy but I would like to use something from the stash if I can. Not that I'm a cheap scape but its that feel-good factor you get when you know you really are stash busting! So please have a look and let me know your thoughts.

Excuse the photo btw - its an iphoto one which isn't so hot but I am quite impressed with the video.

The daddy btw - No 1 son is immortalised in the screen print on the left hand side - just above the dotty blue fabric. One day I'll do something with that!