« March 2006 | Main | May 2006 »
I am so enjoying the process of putting together the colours for my first ever quilt. It is going to be just lik
e Mum's and I have been waking up early to spend time in the shed before work. I am back at work again now - it has been so nice to have time off, but probably about time I was back! 
Here is a bit of the amazing floor Geoff and his workshop made. Now here is a pattern for a quilt Mum!
Lovely Easter. We spent Good Friday and Good Saturday with my Mum and Dad. Mum makes the most fantastic quilts.
I have never made anything this amazing. I am a knitter really - and a mat maker I suppose. But I asked Mum to show me what to do and I'm going to have a try.
This is a little quilt she made for Dad to have when he has his afternoon nap. She is very dismissive of it, but I really like it. So this is what I am going to start with. Unlike that completely hand stitched hexagon quilt, this is all machined, and will test my ability to stay accurate!
I didn't get a picture of Dad's window box, but that is superb too!
Easter Day and up to the top of Herbie's Hill to roll eggs. This year we had a whole Spanish Family to help us out! All the winners were from this family - the fastest and the most patient, though every egg did eventually break.
My Easter treat was this set of cheerful plates and cups and saucers from our Oxfam shop. Exactly right for the afternoon tea we made with what was supposed to be lemon cake but was in fact my very first grapefruit cake due to the lack of lemons and Martha's Ingenuity.
I work in the Hexham Oxfam shop on some Fridays sorting and pricing the childrens book donations.I take out all the half coloured colouring books, the sticker books that have been stuck, the story books with jam on the pages and anything that has been sucked. Then I sort them into cateogries and price them ready to sell.
This is the store room.
I love finding copies of books my three loved when they were little and I can buy them for my freinds children now.
I also get to have a good look at the other stuff. Oxfam volunteers pay the same price for goods that customers pay. We have 'the Green Book' where everything is written down and scrutinised!
These pink things were waiting for me to take them home.
The pink spotty curtains will go up at the window in my shed with plenty left over for 'other things' The mugs are just wonderful. The ribbon was not Oxfam, but the Sewing Shop's closing down sale at 10p a metre. Six metres.
Then - an inexplicable purchase. Three trays of tiny glasses - 150 in all - for some reason that is not yet clear to me.
Knitting projects I have on the go number about five at any one time. Here is the red jumper that has been knit in the round from scraps collected after a serious Kaffe Fasset cardigan many years ago. I like having no seams. I cast on the sleeves and knit them down from the shoulder . My knitting friends pointed out that there are much funkier colours in the sleeves than the body. This is due to the eight year pause between the knitting of each!
And here is some Opal sock yarn on it's way to being another jumper.
Saturday and raining hard. We will finish painting the porch today - more red and pink!
Tuesday is Hexham Knitting Group Day - from 1.00 pm in Cafe Nero friends start arriving and knitting happens. Yesterday, Dorothy produced the knitted coffee cup and saucer she had made for the girls to put on the counter - no photo as I didn't have my camera - but look at the necklace Margaret made.
Not knitted, but created from silk casings beads and other bits of cleverness!
I am on holiday from work for two glorious weeks, so I have been in the shed making small mats - 8x8 - I'll finish them and get some pictures here. Here is my neighbour Thea helping me out.
