WOYWW - the wonders of nature

Firstly ....
Isn't nature wonderful?
And doesn't she always have little surprises for us now and then.......

My tomatoes are very slow to ripen so we have picked a tress and brought it indoors hoping to speed up the process.
The variety is Gardener's Delight - I can't think why!!!!

OK now back to the serious stuff - here's my table this week for all you WOYWWers who like to pop in to see what I have been up to.
As you will see - it's my usual approach - cover all the cr..   er   rubbish, with things I have been making.

• Two gorgeous little waistcoats for a friend of a friend's grandsons. I have made 7 altogether now so I think I have earned the "waistcoat makers" badge, don't you??
• My little dragonfly picture that is now in our blog shop. Annie and I have had fun dumfing these.
• Below is the little hoodie that I finished for Sam. I have also knitted a bolero for Lexi and a shrug for Lou. There is another shrug on the go and I have an order for another bolero so - never a dull moment here!

Well that's me for this week.
Thanks to all who popped over to see me last week - what a cheery, friendly bunch you are.
See you soon.
x Jo

WOYWW - Two for the price of one!

Wednesday again!! Where do the weeks go?

Good morning all - my table is looking much the same, with just one or two bits and bobs that I have been busy with.
You may remember the needle-felted collage from a few weeks ago?
Well, I took the scissors to it and made two pictures from one.
The more I looked at it the more I felt it was two pictures really.
Now they are mounted onto some cream fabric and stretched over small artists canvas, I am pleased with the result. What do you think? We have a craft fair coming up so they will help fill our table.

In the top corner you can see two little fabric collages that I have made for the twins' birthday cards.
In the bottom corner are the pretty little mother of pearl buttons I bought from the car boot sale.

AND here are the jars of blackberry jelly and beetroot chutney that I made this week - Yum

Update

Beetroot chutney recipe.....

Ingredients:

• 3 Ibs beetroot
• 1 large onion
• 1 large cooking apple
• 12ozs sugar
• Level tspn salt
• 1 pint pickling vinegar

The amounts of vegetables aren't crucial really and I often add more onion, apples or even courgettes to the mixture.
Method:

1. Cook beetroot, peel and dice into small pieces
2. Peel and dice onions
3. Peel and dice apple
4. Put into large pan and add sugar, salt and vinegar.
5. Bring to the boil and simmer until ingredients are soft.
6. Fill jars and label.

Tasty on meat sandwiches or added to salads.

And lastly a "Painted lady" in my garden for the first time for ages.

So there we are - short and sweet.
Have a great week - now to see what the lovely Julia has been up to and join in our happy blog hop.
x Jo

WOYWW - new supplies

 Happy Wednesday to all our brilliant blogging friends who choose to drop in each week to see what we are up to. 

I must apologise for the fact that I missed a few of my favourite desk visits last week. My laptop is on a go slow - don't know why - think I need my clever nephew to give it a going over!! 

Also I must admit, I did get very taken up with all the Paralympic coverage. I loved every minute and was so full of admiration for all concerned. Congrats to everyone - it was a brilliant event.

Now - my table today has 3 new items that I have never used before - it's a "learn something new" week for me!! Modge Podge and freezer paper - lots of folk use these so I thought I might give them a try in some crafty activity or other. Also, there is a pack of Transfer Artist Paper - I saw the lovely Karen had been using it and The Craft Barn had lots of suggestions and posts about it last week. It fascinated me so I am going to try it.

In the front are little notecards from Vistaprint with my pretty felted dragonfly picture on them. It was free offer for 10 plus envelopes - bargain!!

On the left is a tiny felted canvas that I started but never got going with on fun day Monday.

Annie and I will pop each little canvas in the blog shop once they are finished.

This was my felting fun work table, in the sunshine, at the end of last week.

Today it's bright but there is a cold north wind, so I am indoors parcelling up my latest pic.

This was the first stage - just wet felted with some needle-felted yarns, lace and wool rovings.

I will blog the finished one when it's new owner has seen it.

 And lastly my latest hoodies - don't they look cosy?

OK folks - thanks for popping in - I promise I will try to get round a few more desks this week.

Have fun
x Jo

WOYWW - outdoors!

This week I have been making the most of any sunny weather, so my work table is outdoors on the patio. From here I can enjoy the fresh air and the view of the hills.

I am wet felting some larger background pieces and needed the space to use my bamboo roller blind to felt the wool rovings. Usually I use bubble wrap and a bamboo placemat.

Here are the little background pieces that I made for Annie last week.......

 

AND I know we have had lots of rain, but why do slugs like to crawl down the outside of my windows?!!

 

Maybe it's to keep out of reach of this monster which I found by our compost bin.......

 

AND this ferocious sparrow hawk flew into Annie's glass door - luckily, although stunned, he managed to fly away soon after.

My latest makes are for dressing up boxes...
Katie Morag kilts....

They are only made in polycotton but they look quite realistic I think - even down to the pretend kilt pin ( I didn't think real ones would be safe in a classroom sitiation!!)

Well, that's it for today.
I have a dragonfly picture to "dumf" today but will be round to check out a few WOYWW desks when I need a breather.
Join in the fun over at Julia's Stamping Ground - there are lots of fab desks to visit and so many clever crafty folk out there!!
x Jo