Sunday, August 3, 2014

Summer Vacation

My parents arrived on the 1st of July for a two week vacation.  Our plan was to spend as much time with our two grand daughters - The Bean and Sissy, float in the pool, build a small pergola at each end of the deck and do a little sewing and knitting!  Well I can honestly say we accomplished it all!  We went out a couple of times for coffee and cake and reading magazines at our local Starbucks inside Barnes and Noble!  Mum and I caught up sharing all the things that we've made over the past year. Then we planned out what we wanted to do if we had time whilst we were together and went fabric shopping! We were able to cut out and start our zip purses - mum was making two for gifts, and mum cut out and sewed together a baby quilt (like the ones I made for Sissy and my craft show).  She also knitted and felted a wool bag and made a knitted doll for Sissy.  The doll has become a "requirement" for each of mum's grand daughters and great grand daughters!  She first knitted the dolls for twinnee and I when we were tiny babies and has since knitted at least five more!

This is Dolly!


The very last thing we made together was a pair of boxer shorts for each of us to wear to bed! I bought the fabric from Joann Fabrics a few years ago to add to my stash!! We finished them the morning before they left!


Dad and hubby built my pergola which I absolutely love!  Last time mum and dad were here, Dad and hubby built me a potting shed for my vegetable garden!  I'm so lucky!  I planted some climbing plants to grow up the pergola but don't think they'll get very high as we're halfway through the growing season but next year I'll be able to start them a lot earlier.  We just have to put up my lights and we're done!


I haven't quite finished my zip purse yet but hope to get to it sometime this week.  Until next time...

Friday, August 1, 2014

Crochet Blanket

This is the first crocheted blanket I have ever made so it's a learn as you go project!  I found the blanket on Pinterest (no surprise there!) at Three Beans in a Pod .  I went to Joann Fabrics and chose 5 colours - 4 for the circles and 1 for the squares. I'm using Vickie Howell Sheep(ish) yarn that has 70% acrylic and 30% wool in it.  You can make approximately 10 circles from one ball of yarn so I only bought one of each colour for the circles and two for the squares - hopefully that's enough because I bought it a while ago and I'm not sure my Joann's still carries it!!!

Here's my progress so far - the circles are pretty quick and easy to do.


I just have a few more purples to go ...


And here is one of the turquoise circles made into a square with the green...


I hope to get started with the squares this weekend and then I can lay them out and decide how I want to put them together. Can't wait to get it finished