WOYWW 495

Good morning fellow deskers.  Time to show off the state of my desk, and then hop round to everyone else taking part.  Link up at The Stamping Ground  if you want to join in.

Side desk has been sewing station  this weekend.  I didn't get as much of the quilt done as planned, but progress was made!

Main desk has Christening cards I made and a keepsake box for the Christening in Sunderland last Sunday.  The christening that we didn't quite attend!  Mr M was in charge of the travel plans.  We needed to set off at 10am to get there in plenty of time for the 1pm Christening.  At 10am he picked up the invitation to check the postcode and realised the Christening was at 11am!  So we missed it!  Next time I am in charge!  Besides the card and keepsake box, my desk has some cheap acrylic paints from The Range for use with the Gelli plate, and I treated myself to some new colouring pencils from Amazon.

Close up of the Christening cards

And of the keepsake box, I am really into making these at present!

That's all for me!  Have a lovely week, and I'll be round visiting when I get home from work this evening, Heather x

WOYWW 494

Good morning all, we seem to be hurtling towards the end of the year at a rapid pace!  I had to check, but yes it is Wednesday once more and that means WoYWW.  Head on over to the Stamping Ground if you want to know what it's all about, and join in.

I am once again a Great Aunt.  This time to a beautiful little girl.  My main desk shows the result of this weekend's crafting, inbetween babysitting our grandsons who came for a sleepover (hence the tidyish desks).

A keepsake box - not sure if you can see the glittery pink letters!

Side desk has some crackle top coat and base coat, and some Adirondack inks that I bought to try with the Gelli plate!

Talking of which, many thanks for all the helpful comments last week.  What can I say - you are all so helpful and wonderful!

There are also 4 "C" card toppers.  I bought some fluffy stuff, so I wanted to try it and see how it turned out.  Not too bad.

No sewing work this week, so my plan is to catch up on Saturday when Mr M is out for the day.  Sunday we are off to Sunderland for a christening - great-nephew this time, so no crafting will be done at all.  Oooh, will I still manage 3 quilts before Christmas! Lol.

Have a lovely crafty week, and i shall be doing my rounds this evening when I get home from work. Please leave a comment so I know you stopped by, Heather x

WOYWW 493

Good morning all, I really can't believe another week has gone by so quickly and it's time for our weekly desk hop courtesy of  WOYWW .  Photos were taken last night, but my desk hasn't changed overnight.  I treated myself to a Gelli plate at weekend, watched a few You Tube tutorials and then got stuck in to have some fun.  I was a bit disappointed at first as the tutorials I watched all had lovely clear prints, and my first attempts were all dotty and splodgy, the ink 'beaded up' on the Gelli plate.  I was using Distress Oxides as in the tutorial, and a brayer.  Anyway I persevered, and although not as good as the ones I had seen, I did manage to produce some that I was happy with, for a beginner.  These may end up becoming backgrounds for cards.  I left them to dry on my main desk and they are still there 2 days later!  Some of the tutorials used acrylic paint, others used inks.  I'd be interested in your comments about the best results you've had, and what you used.

My side desk is still sewing station.  I've stitched all the quilt squares into rows and now stitching the rows together.  I've spotted my big mistake- I must have been slightly out on the seam allowance for some of the squares, as the rows do not perfectly line up. Lesson learned for the future.  For this quilt, I don't think 2 year old Emily will complain. 

Julia - my clear stamps were moved from the windowsill within 1 minute of reading your words of wisdom! 

I took a jar of my Apple butter to Leeds on Saturday to give my daughter.  She liked it, so maybe it wasn't too bad after all (although I will be checking next time I go over to see if she's actually eaten any).  Thank you to Shoshi for emailing me some recipes to try.

Thanks for stopping by,  and please leave a comment so I can be sure to visit you too. It will be when I am home from work before I do my visiting, but I will get to you. Have a great day, Heather xx

WOYWW 492

Good morning all.  Time for desk hopping courtesy of Julia and WOYWW .    Sorry I missed last week.  Mr M decided to share his cough and cold with me, so I've been wiped out for most off the week.  I did feel a bit better Friday, and managed to make a Get Well card for a work colleague who is in hospital.

First one looked a bit girly, so I will save this for when I need a female get well card!

I love the leaf stamps.  They came free  with a stamping magazine.  I used my stamp and die set for the flowers (the one that cuts to the right size).
I coloured the flowers with promarkers.

Back to the drawing board for something a bit more masculine.  I used the same leaf stamps and a few different distress inks.

I coloured some MDF letters gold and glued them on.  Job done.

The rest of my crafty week has been sewing.  I thought I had better make a start on the quilts I want to be ready for Christmas.  

I cut out all the squares for the first quilt and the strips for the sides, top and bottom, and a panel where I will add the name.  I laid them out on my bed to see what it would look like.

The layout didn't look too bad, so I took a photo to make sure I remembered where each piece should go.

And that brings me to my desk shot, which is why we are here.  My side desk has been converted into sewing corner, complete with a massive pink mat that almost fills the entire desk.  

I've finished reading the instructions, had a couple of practise sessions, and away we go!  Not sure how long a quilt takes to make, but I'm banking on getting each one finished in 2 weeks.

Lurking on the windowsill in the background is a new basket for my stamp storage, as I want the lidded box for material.  I think I might be a hoarder....

On my main desk is a "maybe" for the name panel.

 I cut the letters out on my scan & cut using freezer paper (as googled and found on you tube).  I'm not sure they are big enough, so I'll wait till I've stitched up the squares of the quilt and see how they look.

I cut a few extra letters to practise stitching the letters. The machine was hard to manage so I might hand stitch them on.

I also attempted to make Apple butter for the first time this weekend.  We had some when we were in Canada and it was lovely.  I found a few different recipes and tried one.  Not anywhere near as nice as the Canadian one ... I'll try a different recipe next time.  Or if anyone has a tried and tested recipe, please let me know.

Thanks for visiting my blog, please do leave a comment then I can be sure to visit your blog.  Have a great week, Heather x