Re-use and Re-cycle

The first of this years seeds have been potted up woohoo!!

Lots of little paper pots have been made with the freebie papers that drop through the letterbox,   old margarine tubs have been cut up to make the plant labels and the seed trays and propagators are from my freecycle collection last year.  Pretty good going I think and a really good use of bits and pieces around the house.

Potted up today were;-

Gardeners Delight Tomatoes
Geraniums
Candy Cane Sweet Peas
Aubergines

All are now residing on a window sill in the spare bedroom, fingers crossed they sprout and grow.

The weather as expected was not great today  - we debated all morning whether we should venture to the Lottie,  in the end though it was a no-go,  how disappointing :(.   I consoled myself with planting up the seeds and re-checking my planting list!

I spent a little time this afternoon at the lovely sewing machine tackling the quilt I have been working on since Christmas  - it is huge.   The end is in sight as all the blocks have been cut, ironed, sewn together, ironed some more, batting and backing applied and pinned and the hardest bit of quilting all the layers together is now under way.  This is really tough to do as there is just so much of it and it is a wrestle with all the fabric and the sewing machine.   I can only work on the actual quilting for short periods of time as it is exhausting!  Tonight I am cutting the strips to make the binding - I'm looking forward to this as then it will be done.

A very little sneak peak of the quilt.

Finally today my latest ornament - I have seen these types of things in a few places and decided I wanted one,  I had forgotten about the twisted willow growing in the garden, which is now getting huge.  Mr Milly thought I had lost the plot when I stood for ages in the garden looking at the willow tree - I wasn't mindlessly looking though I was deciding which bits would be the best to cut for my ornament.   Finally the decision was made and a few snips later, a bit of arranging in a vase and bingo - I had exactly what I wanted.   My oldest nephew had helped me last weekend collect some acorn cups when we were at the Lottie - another one in the family who thought I was losing the plot LOL!!

Anyway - it was a good excuse to do some needle felting - the result an acorn tree!   The plan is to change the decorations throughout the year  - hearts during February,  Eggs at Easter,  Pumpkins at Halloween,  baubles at Christmas and whatever else takes my fancy for the rest of the time.

Not a great photo - I'll try to take one in the daylight tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting today.
Alison x

Cookies

Do you remember these?

Today the first of the cookies in a jar have been created!  My oldest niece DJ called this morning to tell me the cookies were underway - how lovely to know that the gifts are being used.   I have been sent these lovely photos to show progress of the cookie making.

DJ mixing the cookies

This picture made me laugh....  these cookies
 won't be allowed to burn!  LOL

Yum -Well I'm impressed!



All done ...

I think they look great - and DJ does too  :) x

I've been playing a little more with the needle felting,  I think I am getting better as my fingers only have a few punctures this time!

Bear

Flower Fairy

Toadstool House

Mr Milly has claimed the little bear and a couple of the others have been claimed by My Girl and the Portuguese Housekeeper - in fact the girls had a bit of a fight over them which was quite entertaining LOL!



Gifts

For Christmas this year I was really lucky with my gifts from  the lovely Mr Milly,    one gift I did know about was my new sewing machine.......   I love it!  I have had mine for 25 years and although going strong it was really showing its age and behaving like an old lady.  This one will be kept for Mr Girl at her request.

The new one is all singing and dancing,  I think it has something like 225 stitches,  automatic button holes,  clip on presser feet - no more fiddling with a tiny screwdriver to change the feet AND an automatic needle threader - this is brilliant, especially as my eyes struggle now with threading a needle - that is my age according  to my optician (he really cheered me up that day!! LOL).

So here it is the new well loved machine.......

And what does a new machine need?  Well a new cover of course....  brilliant practice on the machine,  a bit of quilting, some patchwork and then some applique - me and Mr Milly worked on this one together as the maths and angles is just not my thing and his number crunching was really needed.   Mr Milly also arranged the patchwork,  I did try to get him to cut out the 42,  2 inch squares but he was having none of that!

I think Mr Milly is worried that I don't have enough to do and occupy me - and after watching Kirstie Allsopp' Homemade Home he gave me a needle felting kit for Christmas.

The kit looks like this;-



Book, wool, needle tools, felting mat..



I have been having a play  with the needles and wool and after puncturing my fingers on numerous occassions - the needles are barbed, triangular and incredibly sharp,  my index finger and thumb looks like  pincushions!  I think I am starting to get the hang of it  - and learning to keep my fingers out of the way!  Very briefly - you get some wool,  place it on a brush/sponge and stab it multiple times with a needle to mat it and sculpt into whatever you are creating.   Brilliant therapy after a hard day at work!

My first couple of efforts - with some more to follow in the next couple of days.



Gnome Garden - 20p to give an idea of the scale



Learnt today - A collection of ladybirds is ' A loveliness of Ladybirds' - how cute is that!!