Competition

If anyone is having a problem leaving a comment on the previous post to be entered into the draw for the pincushion you can leave a comment on this post too. I will be drawing the name on Sunday at lunchtime. Lucy x

50th Post!

Well, it's my 50th post and in true blogger style that means there's a giveaway!

Up for grabs is this little spotty pincushion with a stitchery from one of the Japanese books I got for my birthday and a little co-ordinating tag.

So if you would like a chance to win please leave a comment on my blog before 12 noon (UK time) on Sunday 14th October and I will draw a name out of the hat - or use a random number selector on the computer if I am inundated with replies (as if!)

Lucy x

P.S. I will be closing my Etsy shop briefly from next Wednesday as I have a craft fair coming up so if there is anything there that you fancy, in the words of Janis Joplin, "get it while you can"!

Messing About

I have been messing about lately. Loads of ideas are buzzing around but I don't seem to be able to sit down and do anything really productive. I have quite a few orders at the moment for fleece blankets, cushions, quilts, wallets, pictures, dolls and so on but I am finding it really hard to knuckle down and do them! I think I must be a very primitive hunter-gatherer type - I like going out and getting the work but get distracted when it comes to doing it!

I'm probably being too self-critical. I have pretty much finished the baby-clothes quilt top (although I can't show you it as my friend who ordered it may look on here) and I made Grandpa Biscuit's quilt top over the weekend - these both now need to wait until Friday when I plan to go shopping for the wadding. I've also made these little purses that will be going into my Etsy.

I didn't manage to do much crafting yesterday except for this little elephant purse because I went back to school! I have volunteered to help in Fred's school on Monday mornings and yesterday was my first day. I spent most of the time cutting out on the guillotine but also did a bit of colouring in and shape-drawing-round with the reception class. In the afternoon (which I had forgotten until the day) I had meet-the-teacher in Fred's class so I had to rush back up to school and then rush home again as I had arranged for my friend Jackie to call round to discuss fabrics for a cushion she has comissioned for her sister. Then I rushed back to school to pick up Fred and Daisy, called in on Daisy's friend who was off poorly to give her a comic and then went back up to collect Dorothy from her guitar lesson. She then had Brownies! So it was a rushy-around day.

My next post will be No.50 and I plan to have a little giveaway so I am playing around with some ideas this morning for that. So watch this space. Lucy x

P.S. Thanks for all of your amusing comments about Dorothy's doll - perhaps we should call her Peg, not Annie! What made me laugh most was the fact that I wasn't even trying to be funny! The doll was made from a kit and we have genuinely lost one of her stripey legs! I suppose I could make her a plain one - then she would really fit in with our family as we all wear odd socks!

P.P.S. I have changed my "name" for commenting on other people's posts to "Lucy Locket-Pocket" to avoid any confusion with "Gill at Lucy Locket" who already had that name when I joined blogger with "Lucy Locket Recycled Her Pocket" - I just didn't realise until it was too late that there was another crafty "Lucy Locket" blog.

Thank You!

Strips it is!

Thanks for all your advice on my father-in-law's quilt. I went with the strips - which is what I really wanted to do all along before I dithered! Here is the finished quilt top - it's not very accurate and unfortunately the border fabric is rather stretchy so it didn't really behave very well when I was sewing it on. But I don't think Grandpa Biscuit is going to complain.

Daisy has been at a friend's house today so we have had a day of only 2 children - so Fred built his wooden castle and played with daddy while Dorothy and I finally put together the doll that we have been making for about 4 years! She has sadly lost one leg over the years of construction so we just hope she is good at hopping!

squares or strips?

I need some advice.
I'm making a quilt for my lovely father-in-law who had a serious stroke in March. I wanted to make something that would show how much I care about him and these fabrics from the Chocolat by Moda really seem to suit him. I love the brushed cotton for the borders - the colour is perfect and it is so soft and snuggly.
The fabrics are from two charm packs so are pre-cut (not entirely accurately!) and I have stitched them together as they came. The patchwork bit will be in the middle with the duck-egg blue for a 3" (ish) border. But my problem now is do I sew it in squares or strips?

What do you think I should do?
All answers on the back of a postcard in my comments section please!!!

My Tidy Sitting Room

As you will all be well aware I am a really, really, really untidy person. But today I tidied! Then I took photos to prove it! (because I know how quickly it will be messy and it may be another couple of years before I get round to tidying again)

So here is my tidy sitting room:

Now my friends always laugh at me because my pictures are wonky. Last week Alison said it looked like I had shaken the wall! I replied that I never got round to straightening the pictures because the rest of the room was so awful. Today they are fairly straight - and Alison is coming round for a drink later!

Monkee Maker will like this post because she admits to being nosy and wanted us all to show where we did our knitting. I objected that this was discrimination against stitchers so she said we were included too. So here is where I sit to do my hand sewing.

These are some of my creations - except for the little Noah doll (bottom, middle) that was made by a really talented girl called Maria. (by the way, don't my Mummy and Daddy look lovely??)
I am always really impressed with other people's photos of their homes and then look at our house and think "Eurgh!" but I'm pleased that today it looks OK!

Now, back to being creative. I have been having trouble getting down to doing things even though I now have quite a few orders. I think it is because I have loads of new fabrics and different projects on the go and can never organise them clearly enough to be able to pick something up and get on with it. (Alternatively it could be because I'm just not getting on with it!) Anyway, assuming that it is because I need to be more organised I treated myself to these little suitcases to sort all my different current projects into - don't they look nice?
Have I produced anything since I bought them yesterday? No, of course not! I was too busy tidying!


When my friend Michelle asked me to make her pink elephant wallet this is what I came up with.

Fortunately she loved it, unfortunately her daughter really loved it too and there was a very real danger that Michelle might have lost it. To prevent this tragedy I made Eleanor a little elephant purse - this is the lovely Thank You present she gave me.


When I read the note inside I was really touched so I thought I would show you that too - doesn't it make creating things so worth while when you get real appreciation for it?
Finally I need to tell you how clever I am! I can make crumble!

I have never liked crumble as a pudding (no matter what fruit there was in the bottom). I didn't like the way it "clagged" to the roof of your mouth when you ate it.

But those days are long gone (and so is any hope I had of finding my waist!).

I can make crumble - and it is yummy!

So far I have made rhubarb (from the allotment) crumble and apple (from the garden) crumble. But the best to date has to be "Gran-Gran crumble".

No Monkee Maker, this doesn't mean it is made from little old grannies. In fact it is made from blackberries (from the allotment) and apples (from the garden). It is called Gran-Gran crumble after my wonderful Granny who died a few years ago, just 6 months before her 100th birthday. I always associate blackberry and apple with her - partly because she used to make the best jam and also because I can remember blackberrying with her in the woods near her home before she came to live with us when I was 7. The apples I used were special to her too as they came from the tree I planted on what would have been her 100th birthday. Granny was a truly wonderful person and I grew up with her as my best friend - how lucky we were to have her living in our garden! (she did have a cottage there, honest!) I really miss her but feel very privileged to have had her for so long.

So here is a photo of my Gran-Gran crumble - unfortunately I burnt it a bit but it still tasted delicious!

It's sunny!

The weather here for the last couple of days has been really sunny and a little bit cold - just how I like it! Unfortuately we spent most of the weekend tidying the little monsters' bedroom. Fred and Daisy share the largest room but 99% of the time the floor is completely covered by at least a foot deep of clutter, clothes, books, toys, discarded drawings etc. It drives us completely demented and every couple of months we spend a whole weekend (at least) tidying it. We have resorted to having proper locks on the toy cupboards so they have to ask to get things out - which of course than can, on the proviso they have put away whatever else they had been playing with. Unfortunately they have been known to find the keys...........(this is a photo from halfway through the last major tidy-up! I wasn't exaggerating was I?)

A sensible, grown up mummy would be able to keep on top of the mess and never let it get to horror status but that's not me! Much as I would love to be organised and tidy and super-mummy-like it just doesn't seem to happen. I think I get distracted by all the boring things like sewing and gardening, seeing friends and blogging - and the fun stuff like housework just gets missed! What should I do?
You'd never think these little darlings could make such a mess!

So, having spent the weekend tidying upstairs, downstairs is now completely horrendous. I managed to stall tackling it by about an hour by calling in to see my lovely friend Helen for a cup of tea (and some toast!) but the chaos was still here waiting for me!

Now, a sensible, grown up mummy would probably tackle it in little bits until it was done. Have I done this? No. I have decided to completely rearrange the sitting room and dining room (all one large area) - except for my lovely sewing end which just needs tidying a little bit. So the furniture is pretty much all in the middle of the room. The floor is covered with the clean laundry that needs to be put away, the odd socks that need sorting, the children's toys that they have left lying around and the books that fell from the huge bookcase that I moved backwards and forwards between the two "rooms" before deciding where to put it - without removing any of the books first!

Well, never mind, only three hours to go before I have to pick up the children - but then again I have to the kitchen to tackle, the supper to prepare and a chocolate courgette cake and blackberry and apple crumble to make - and that is before I start on my craft orders.

Before I go, I was tagged by Leanne to do this meme:

7 honest things about myself

1. I'm really very untidy! (Had you guessed?)
2. I have a super tidy person inside me dying to get out - I can be really ultra organised (sometimes)
3. I'm the youngest of 5 children
4. I studied for a PhD in Roman politics, part-time for 5 years, but unfortunately did not manage to complete it before life, money, family etc took over - it is all still there 3/4s finished in my wardrobe upstairs :(
5. I only had 6 months of sewing lessons at school and was never taught to type but these are the skills that I now use to make money
6. My lovely husband is an archaeologist and as Agatha Christie apparently said "the good thing about being married to an archaeologist is, the older you get, the more interested in you they become!"
7. I was a newspaper-delivery-girl for two weeks when I was pregnant with Daisy and used to push the heavy weekend papers around in Dorothy's buggy!

I now have to tag 7 people so here they are
Monkee Maker - Kerry,
Lesley - Moogsmum,
Hannah - gently tiptoe,
Julia - weirdbunny,
Sarah - a stitch in time,
Jo - Frenchknots
and Anna - Thimbleanna


So I'm sorry there are no lovely fabricy-crafty-pretty photos on here - I hate it when blogs are all words and now eye-candy! When I find a clear surface I will try to do something creative and post a photo of it soon! Lucy x