A first for me!

I realise I have not posted for several weeks, mostly because I took the children away for a road trip. We spent a week at my Dad's house having lots of fun. I particularly enjoyed that he cooked, cleaned, did the washing AND ironing. I had a very relaxing week. We then went off for our camping road trip. We saw a lot of different parts of Wales. I plan on blogging about a few of the amazing places we visited over the next week or so. But tonight I am too excited about what I have done today so I need to post about that now.

I FINISHED a school cardigan for Stephanie.  I am rather proud of it and myself for completing it. Here have a peek;

Stephanie choose which pattern I should follow, she picked this one American girl. I didn't use the recommended wool, I used a this yarn. It knitted up slightly narrower than the recommended wool, which I decided would be good as Stephanie is becoming rather tall and slim so I thought it would fit her body shape nicely. As she is asleep now I have finally finished it will have to wait until tomorrow for me to see if this estimation was correct.....

Another summer dress

Today I found time to make Stephanie the dress she asked me for the other week. Her specifications were that;


1. it had the bodice all flat (as opposed to the smocked dresses I made her)
2. the skirt had to go up when she spins.

I remember when I was little testing skirts and they were only good enough if they went up- think dirty dancing triggered that requirement, however Stephanie has not seen that film yet so unsure where hers comes from.

I don't have a pattern for a fulls circle skirted dress. So I used a pattern I already had for the bodice and made the skirt part up. Stephanie came home half way through me making it, she put it on half finished and got me to safety pin it together so that she could test its twirl factor. I'm very pleased to say it passed!

Oh and I even managed to recycle the buttons I used to fasten the back- they came off of one of Dylan's old, stained school shirts!

Apples apples everywhere!

This morning I decided to make apple turners before breakfast as the children were still in bed. I am planning on freezing them, so they can be used as and when.

I am making up a little food parcel each time I go to visit my mum at the moment as she has lung cancer and is due to start chemo and radiotherapy very soon, I figured she lives too far away for me to go and do dinner everyday so I am stocking her freezer with made foods so she just has to put them in to warm. Of course she may not feel like eating much but at least if it's there she can. We won't know until treatment starts how it will affect her.

Apples

I have found this week that I have an abundance of apples. I am trying to think of different things that I can do with them. Today I have made a batch of apple sauce. I love to eat apple sauce as a dessert, I know most people like it with meats but I am not a fan of meat and fruit at the same time. I followed the directions here.

All I need to do now is make the labels. I still have a carrier bag of apples to use up. Tomorrow I am planning on making a batch of apple crumbles to freeze. I feel that I will have several more apples to use up over the coming days/weeks, please leave your comments for favourite ways to use apples.

Quilting update

We have been busy this week, what with it being summer- you mean you hadn't noticed?
Here is a small glimpse into what we have done so far this week;

We went to Dover Castle to watch the Knights tournament. We were most impressed that the Knight from the South won!

We have also been to Deal Castle. Stephanie is there in the gateway, she is the person on the very left.

We also went to the beach and spent a lot of time perusing different stones. We also watched somebody jet skiing this is now something daredevil Stephanie must do apparently. Personally I'm still coming to terms with her climbing the climbing wall last week, not sure I'm ready to watch her jet skiing just yet!

Today we went to the fair with my brother, all three of them had lots of fun. It was a little too hot to keep going on rides so we came home early and had ice cream in the garden instead.

In between all the busyness I have been finding half hour or so here and there to work on Stephanie's quilt.

here are the blocks I made this morning.

These are 2 which are not quite complete. I'm trying to use up all the offcuts of the fabrics I have used in the blocks made so far so that I have minimal waste. I am planning on attempting some triangular blocks, and Stephanie has asked me to make some diamonds. These are stretching my beginners piecing ability, but as I become happy with the blocks I will show them to you.