I heart pippi

Cup of tea for one. 

This is one of the days when I love working part time. I had two really hard days in work, was out with friends last night to celebrate a big birthday and this afternoon I am at home and the sun is shining. Radio 4 is on and I am listening to Benedict Cumberband pretending he is the great Horace Rumpole. I think Leo McKern may have met his match. If you have missed this, do catch up on BBC iplayer or whatever the radio version is called.

This week has been a week of catch up, sewing wise. Monday was St Patrick's day, and for me that meant a glorious day off work. Yes, even working part time does not take away from the joy of a bank holiday when your husband is at work! The weather wasn't great, St Patrick couldn't decide whether to turn over the stone or not. Not sure what that actually means, something to do with the change in the weather. So Monday was spent reading, the new Agatha Raisin if you are interested, and catching up with my Bee Blessed blocks, having a cup of tea and marks and spencer macaroon and chatting to Ronald, our head. (sorry about the bad photo Ronald, photo of a photo)

Ronald in his St Patrick's Day hat

February Bee Blessed blocks were a heart set in a white frame. My first one was perfect but the main body of the heart only measured 9.25 in not 9.5 in. That will teach me to put my glasses on. Apart from that it was a perfect heart. Heart numbers 2 and 3 both thankfully looked good too.

March Bee Blessed blocks were Pippi Longstocking, based on the character Little Pippi Longstocking from the books of the same name. Swedish books written in 1969. (isn't google great?) These were to follow along loose guidelines set by Judith, the centre square to be 8.5 in and 2 in squares set around. A sort of free form patchwork I always think. The sort of thing I like, no awkward points and not too many rules. But rules are there for a reason. Pippi mark 1 had a too small dress, or so I thought. Pippi mark 2 was bald, I cut the top of her head off. Pippi mark 3 had her hair growing in the wrong direction. Pippi mark 4 had legs that were wider than her dress. Pippi mark 5 and 6 were just grand but were really recycled earlier Pippi prototypes.

I really enjoyed making these little folks, in fact I had to post then straight away or I would have been tempted to keep them. I have been making Bee Blessed blocks most months from the end of the summer and some I feel have worked better than others. Maybe it is I am getting better, or maybe it is because I am less and less trying to use up old fabrics and I am beginning to build up a very small stash of new fabrics. I think it shows.

I have also made a start on the rugby quilt, I seem to have been banging on about this for ages, but finally I have made a start and completed 5 disappearing 4 patches, and numerous piled up ready to cut and disappear.

anyone for hopscotch?

Next on the agenda are my spider's web squares for Sarah in the Modern Irish Scrappy Bee. I am looking forward to making these. I have never tried this before and I think it will be fun. I have my grey ash Kona and am ready to go.

Something I had promised I would do this week was make a start on my Whole Lotta Bag for Hazel. I had forgotten to buy some vilene though and it was needed from the word go, so Kilroot it is tomorrow for that and piping cord. ~We have plans to go away and she would like to take her bag with her.

One last finish this week is 3 of the 4 little jumpers for Barnardo's Barney Bear. Barnado's are running a campaign with libraries for knitters to knit a jumper for Barney Bear. These will be sold at a later date and the makers all entered into a raffle for a Kindle fire. The jumper knits up really quickly, or it does if you opt for the vest style rather than the raglan sleeve version. Call into your local library for details and a free pattern if you are interested.



jumpers for Barney Bear

I just have to show you the birthday cake for my friend last night. A lady somewhere in Antrim baked it, a friend of one of our friends if you know what I mean. We are all scrapbookers and had gone out to celebrate Louie's 70 birthday. The cake was spectacular, perfect for a scrapbooker. We went to a Chinese restaurant and before we left the head waitress said they wanted to say how great it was we were all still good friends and had such a great lifestyle. They hoped they would be like us when they were our age. A compliment we thought, but quite a few of us are still in our 50s or just scraping 60!

Helen
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