Friday Already!!!

Friday and January 5th already. It doesn't seem five minutes since we were preparing for Christmas does it?

The only thing left of our decorations now is a very glittery kitchen carpet which will probably take several hooverings to get rid of.

I made a good start on sorting the crafty stuff and now have two shopping bags full of card, paper, punches and equipment for Ruby. Still a way to go though.

Today I need to go out and do a small shop for veg and salad and a few other bits but I am waiting until Andy gets back from his check up at the hospital as I don't want to leave Smudge on his own.....he has already pee'd in the kitchen this morning. I'm not sure this medication he is on is helping matters at all......and he has just done it again while I was out putting washing in the tumble dryer. I despair.

Once back from shopping I am hoping to get the quilt top finished and then I will layer and quilt it early next week seeing as I will be out for most of the weekend.

I wasn't planning on making another quilt for a while but I made the mistake of watching a video from Fat Quarter Shop on You Tube last night. Oh my word the quilt was just delicious and looks a fairly quick make. A 9 1/2 inch ruler has been ordered this morning and I shall be having a sort through my fabrics to see if I have anything suitable to make it with.

Andy has just phoned to say he is on his way back so I'll go and get ready to go out into the nasty weather....more rain and absolutely freezing.

Keep dry and warm.

Sheila-x-

The Lights Are Coming Down!!!

Today is our day for taking down all of the Christmas stuff and putting it all away.
I love it all I really do but now it's been up for over a month I am ready for it all to be gone.

Tomorrow I will have a good clean up and then we'll be back to normal and I can get on with my plans for changes I want to make this year.
I'd like to make new curtains for both the lounge and the kitchen although I will hold off on the lounge ones as at some point this year we are going to have to replace the sofas and I don't really know what we will go for.

I'm off upstairs shortly to have a good sort out of the craft stuff I still have up there to see what I can pass on to Ruby, what can be kept for when she is older and what can be sent to the charity shop or thrown away.
I'm then hoping that whatever is left will fit into underbed storage boxes out of the way.

This year I want to be a better time manager so that I get plenty of time to sew and with that in mind I am doing myself a weekly rota of jobs that will be done on set days to which I will add jobs from the odd job list plus meal prep all to be done by no later than 1pm so that I have at least a couple of hours before I have to start cooking tea.
If I don't feel like sewing I will have a batch cooking day to keep the freezer full of meals ready to whip out on busy sewing days.
Will I manage it? It depends what life chucks at me I suppose but I will try my hardest to stick to my routines.

Andy is craving a dinner with gravy today so I have pulled out some pork chops to have with some veg and roast potatoes which should make his tummy happy.

Off to crack on then.
Hope you all have a good day.
Sheila-x-

Happy Birthday My Gorgeous Girl!!!

Today we have a birthday in the house......DD is 38 years old.
We started off the day with a visit to the doctors surgery for my blood test but then went straight off to Derby where we had breakfast and she spent some of her birthday money.
I picked up some wadding and binding for Andy's quilt and a couple of colours of jumbo ric rac braid for the skirts and dresses I will be making for the girls.
We didn't stay long. The shops are full of reduced Christmas tat and not much else and as Ruby is visiting after school today I wanted to get home to tidy up.
DD is off out for tea with friends so we are just having a simple tea of soup (tinned....shock, horror) and crusty bread.
Ruby is allowed pudding when she comes to Ganma's so tonight I am making a layered Black Forest Sundae with chocolate cake, cherry pie filling and ice cream with a whipped cream topping. She'll love that.

Yesterday I did some sewing and it felt so good.
One sock bag made and already in use and some good progress on Andy's quilt. I was hoping to get that finished at the weekend but I have dates on Saturday and Sunday with my girls. I'll be looking after them while DDIL works from home and then I am staying on for a while to have a crafty session with Ruby to teach her how to use all her crafting goodies we bought her.

Very strong winds here today and very dark clouds with the occasional session of blinding sunlight which gave me quite a headache on the way back from Derby.
I hope the winds don't cause any damage where you are.
Sheila-x-

Let's See If It Works Today!!!

Another go with the pictures of my sewing room.
I don't know what was going wrong yesterday but it was just having none of it.

Here goes the before.....

The dining room had become a dumping ground over Christmas and was a real mess.

More mess.

....and even more mess but that unit with the orange boxes is going to help tidy some of it away. A bargain for £20 from the charity shop it's an older style Ikea toy storage unit and the equivalent in a new design is around £60.

.......and after.........

Ok so it won't let me add captions now without moving the photos so............

Top picture is the new SKARSTA table cranked up and ready for cutting out. It's very, very sturdy and really easy to crank up and down. The handle pushes in and clips to the underneath.
The two filing cabinets hide a multitude of sins from sewing equipment to elastic and bias binding and glues and paints to my collection of precuts such as Layer Cakes and Jelly Rolls.

Pic 2...UFO's in the green tray, overlocker threads in the cream basket, scraps, Christmas fabrics, fat quarters and thicker fabrics in the orange boxes.The computer is now off the table so I don't have to move it every time I want to sew.
The handweight is used to hold my rulers down when cutting....a fabulous tip picked up from Jordan Fabrics on You Tube.

Pic 3....Top two boxes store all my dressmaking and crafting patterns and the others hold things like felt, lace and net.

Pic 4....Under table storage holds lots of fabric, batting, fleece and ribbons.

So that is it as it is at the moment. It's not posh but it's mine. There are a few changes I would like to make as I go along but it's a very workable room. Nice and bright with all the windows although I do curse them sometimes as I would love to have room to put a design wall for pinning up quilt layouts.

Today I will be making DD's sock bag and then making a start on sewing together the quilt I have had cut out for Andy for months.

The weather is foul here today....dark, wet and windy so I think I am going to be in the right place. I could have gone out with DD but I declined.

Hope you all have a great day.
Sheila-x-

New Year....New Sewing Room!!!

Well here we go off into 2018. A new year full of hopes and possibilities. I hope it's a good one for everyone.

I am very happy to be starting the new year with a dedicated space for my sewing and crafting.
There are photos to share but I am having trouble adding them this morning.....Blogger won't let me put them in the order I want so I'll leave it and try again tomorrow.

Some gorgeous smells wafting around the kitchen. There is a large piece of beef roasting and we will be having that shortly with all the trimmings and hopefully here will be enough left to freeze in some gravy for future meals.

And that is about it for Tea Towel Mansion today. Nothing exciting going on. The sofa huggers will be sofa hugging all day and I will be in my new room sorting out fabric and maybe doing a bit of tweaking.

Hope you all have a lovely day.
Sheila-x-