Not for those of a sensitive disposition

Okay then.

So you want to see Mrs Trashy's quilt?


Are you sure?


Yes?


It's a good one!


But first there are some important points that you need to bear in mind

1. Mr Locket is an archaeologist
2. Mrs Locket was an ancient historian (before her brain got marshmallowed by having three little Lockets)
3. Mrs Trashy knows about 1 and 2
   
4. Mrs Trashy lives in the South West of England
5. Mrs Trashy has a bit of a donkey thing going on
6. Mrs Trashy left me a little warning note on the parcel
   

and most importantly of all

Mrs Trashy has a wickedly funny, if rather wacky, sense of humour

So you still want to see it?


Still sure?



Really sure?



Okay

Ladies and gentlemen (you never know, there might be a gentleman reading this) may I proudly present Trashalou's amazing mini quilt



and ta-da! here it is on the quilt wall!


What?


That's the back?


Are you sure?


And you want me to turn it over?


Are you REALLY sure?


Ok, here it is


What's that?


You want a close up?


Are you really, really, REALLY sure?


Avert your eyes granny...............................





because here we have the one and only

Cerne Abbas DONKEY

in ALL his glory!

And for those of you less familiar with this curious Dorset landmark you can find out LOADS more HERE.

Trashy you are a total genius! This quilt had me crying with laughter (and I laughed even more when you told me how much you giggled as you stitched it!) You are completely bonkers and I am so delighted that you are my friend!

Thank you!

P.S. Come back next time when I shall have some nice tame photos of my newly tidied sheds and drying onions and garlic - much less racy!

Brilliant Blogland

We had the most fantastic day on Thursday when the Locket tribe invaded the lovely Quilty's home and stayed for NINE WHOLE HOURS!!!!!

Not one or two hours but NINE!

And we had the most fantastic time! Youngest Quilty and Daisy Locket are the same age and get on so well - you'd think they had known each other forever. They spent practically the whole day outside rollerblading (Daisy's first attempt) and were found towards the end of the day rolling up and down with umbrellas hoping for rain?!!

Dorothy Locket and Quilty 3 are the same age and have so much in common - I don't think they stopped talking all day and swapped books, sewed ladybirds and went off for a walk to the Quilty Allotment and had fun there too.


Meanwhile Fred was spoilt rotten by Clare's two eldest daughters - they were so kind and spent ages with him showing him how to play on a nintendo, helping him with puzzles, and playing cars and all sorts. I really appreciated how much time they gave him when they could just have gone off and done their own things and Fred absolutely loved it and tried to attach himself to the table leg so he wouldn't have to leave! When we eventually prized him off he ran and hid behind the curtains instead!

I didn't get many photos but Clare has written a lovely post about our visit so pop over to see the motley crew!

When we eventually dragged ourselves away and got home the children just fell into bed and then at 9.30pm there was a knock on the door...................

my Russian Doll swap parcel from Emma at Silverpebble had arrived!!!!!!

The postie wasn't working overtime - he'd just left it with one of my neighbours who had obviously seen our car and realised we were home.

Now this was a parcel that I was seriously excited about getting - Emma and I have been chatting on the phone lately so she has become an almost real imaginary friend now and she had hinted that the parcel was on the large side - especially for a necklace!


And there were so many lovely goodies in the parcel for me


my gorgeous necklace that I can't seem to get a good photograph of - sorry Emma it really doesn't show it off well enough.

And she had also included all these amazing goodies


beautiful old buttons, fabrics and lace, amazing beads, a really pretty handmade Russian Doll card and a lovely old smocking book

and then there was my birthday present - "for whenever it is" - along with instructions to have a glass of dry white wine - no problem there Emma!


The necklace is made of Chinese lampwork beads - they are so beautiful and make a lovely cluster.

But that's not all! Emma also included presents for the Little Lockets


and it is amazing, Emma couldn't have chosen more perfect presents for each of them


a fantastic science kit for brainbox Dot - she was so impressed!


a beautiful ring that Daisy has turned into a necklace by pinching the lovely turquoise ribbon from my birthday necklace

and a pair of ammonite fossils with a lovely handwritten description of them and web-sites to visit to find more for Fred - he absolutely loves them and no-one else is allowed to touch them!

Thank you so much Emma - everything is absolutely gorgeous and you have been so generous. I've worn my beautiful russian doll necklace every day since it arrived - I love it!

So this brings me to the reason for the title of this post - Brilliant Blogland. I could never have imagined a year and a half ago that I would start a blog and "meet" the most amazing friends - some of you I've never actually met in real life and may never have the chance to, others I talk to on the phone and get the chance to meet every now and then and others live near me so I can meet them more regularly - but you are all wonderful! An outsider hearing about blogland and bloggy meet-ups, swaps and giveaways, would no-doubt be very sceptical about "cyber friendships" (and I'm sure I would have been a few years ago too) but it's the most fantastic way to make friends with fabulous people with such similar interests, tastes and obsessions! I can't think of any other way to find such like-minded friends!

So a HUGE THANK YOU to good old Blogland - you're the best!

P.S. another parcel arrived yesterday.......................... my mini quilt from Trashy! But I'm afraid you are going to have to wait until the next post to see it as it definitely needs a post of its very own!!!

Like the Curate's egg

This holiday has been like the poor old Curate's egg - parts of it were excellent, others fairly rotten!

The Ladybird Club and I have been having fun making new outfits for their dolls (again using their own outgrown clothes)


and aprons for the two hard-working girls (that boy is such a skiver!)

Minnie-Mae has a cooking apron and Mimi likes to clean (she is waiting for her mop and duster to be made and is hoping for a bucket too)

The dolls then had a trip to see Mamma Mia (they didn't understand the naughty bits fortunately)and then went to Asda where they very demurely sat in the trolley



until they spotted that all-essential offer - 3 for £10!

(Minnie-Mae was apparently sleeping when we left the house. I'm sure that has nothing to do with a nearly 11 year old not wanting to take a mad rag doll out with her equally mad mother who would be bound to take mad photos at inappropriately mad times and locations)

When they had sobered up they decided to adopt some pets so the Ladybirds got busy


and then those cheeky dolls insisted that they be allowed to join the Ladybird Club too.


Finally we had to turn our hands to bookmaking using this very helpful publication and the little Lockets' literary genius-iosity.

(these books really are titchy - only about 3x2cm and I wish you could see the children's illustrations inside - very cute!)

Where the Wee Things Are by Fred Locket

One day I woke up and I got my clothes on and I went downstairs to get my breakfast and I said we are just going to play Mum so I went to the woods and in the wood we found a little puppy the puppy was lost and sad so we said you can live with us so the puppy said yes ok and so we went home

(hmm, think we need to work on Fred's punctuation, don't you?)

Moby Dink by Dorothy Locket

I am a widdle white whale.
My name is Moby Dink.
I am widdle enough to fit in a bucket.
I’m not going to talk about those mean old whale hunters
This is what happened when I sailed the seven seas in a bucket
I sailed all around the world meeting exotic whales and dolphins.
I also met my mother who had escaped from the evil whale hunters.
She found her own bucket and sailed home with me.
For tea we had some delicious whale hunters – Mwahaha ha haONLY JOKING!

Chicken Little by Daisy Locket

One day Mimi and her Ducky were going for an adventure.
Mum packed her and Ducky some food.
She put in chocolate mice, lemonade, milk and cheese and salami sandwiches.
Beatrix asked mum if she could go too.
Mum said “Of course you can”.
The girls and Ducky ran up stairs to their bedroom
and got what they needed then ran downstairs and out of the door.
They went through the garden and shut the garden gate.
They went to play in the woods.
Then they sat down on the patchy rug and started to eat.
When Ducky had finished eating he went for a swim.
While he was swimming he saw his old friend from school
“Hi Little” said Ducky “do you want to come and see my friends?”
When they got back to the girls they said Hello and introduced themselves.
They decided it was late so they went home
and Chicken Little came to live in the Chicken house.

The End

But by the time Mr Locket got home from work Mrs Locket was at her wits-end because the little Lockets had started arguing AGAIN.

The only solution was to retreat to the tent armed with my mobile (so I could text everyone to complain about how annoying my little darlings were being), a mug of wine (not for quantity but because all our wine glasses are broken) and a book.

I stayed there for some time and Mr Locket even brought out further refreshments.

But maybe my choice of reading matter was less than ideal. It certainly didn't make me feel better about my non-existant parenting skills!

And then THE REALLY GOOD BIT OF THIS WEEK was getting a lovely parcel from my lovely, loony friend Mrs Moogsmum this morning


how gorgeous is this wrapping paper and those stickers?


and look - not only did she include the pouch that I won for her 200th post giveaway but she also made me a matching-smatching notebook cover and bought me some Cath Kidston snitch-wipers!

I'm sorry the photo is so rubbish but my camera is really playing up at the moment and I'm not techno enough to work out why.

So I'm nearly half way through the holidays and I know I will really miss them when they all go back to school - especially as Dot is going up to comp, but phew! it's certainly hard work!

Holiday highs and lows

Well another week of the summer holidays is nearly over - especially as Mr Locket has tomorrow off work - although I won't be having much fun as I have to have a tooth taken out in the morning :(

It has been a week of highs and lows - as any of you with children will, I'm sure, appreciate! Lesley thought it was incredibly funny when one morning, at a low point, I went and hid in the tent in the garden so I could phone her in peace - unfortunately it didn't work!

My favourite high point was going to see Mamma Mia on Tuesday - I managed to tag along with my friend and her family and I loved it. I laughed and laughed and laughed and was so close to bursting into song several times - fortunately I stopped myself in time!

And I'm really pleased that I managed to send Gina her mini-quilt, sewn by me but designed and drawn by Daisy Locket who had complete artistic control over the colours and fabrics


If you go to Gina's blog you will see why this quilt was specially for her.

Another high point has been making things with the Ladybirds.

Yesterday Clare blogged about the new patterns she had bought from this etsy shop so I had a chat with her and ended up ordering two of them for myself - this one and this one.

The little Ladybirds and I set about making them together - I did all the sewing while they did the stuffing and designed how they wanted them to look, what colour hair they would have and what gazillionty outfits they needed. They also chose their names and wrote little passages about them Ric-Rac style.

So may I please introduce you to

Millie-May(Dorothy's), B-Boy (Fred's) and Mimi (Daisy's)
currently dressed in their pyjamas as "Lucy" (that's what the dolls call me - so cheeky) hasn't made them anything else to wear yet

And here they are in complete bed-wear

and now tucked up under their brand new blankets.

All their clothes have been made from some recent cast offs from the Little Lockets - so far I have used a t-shirt, a dress, a rugby shirt, a hooded sweatshirt for Boy's blanket with a pocket from a pair of shorts and a cotton knit jumper for Millie-May's blanket. Mimi's blanket has been made using some of the gorgeous flannel that Michaela sent me because apparently ducks are Mimi's "favourite"!

The children have really enjoyed making these dolls and have many more plans for their clothes and accessories - I'm sure you can all imagine how tricky it has been to sew three at once and keep them all happy but I have had lots of fun. Just don't look too closely as these are made to "home standards" where speed has been more important than quality.

Another good thing that I have done this week is relocate the quilt wall to the sitting room so I can look at them even more often and finally get a decent photograph

but now my camera is messing about so the photo isn't that decent after all!

So I think the highs have out-weighed the lows but I wish there was a magic spell that would stop brothers and sisters from arguing!

I hope you have all had a good week.

Lucy x

Birthdays!

It is going to be Dorothy Locket's 11th birthday in a few weeks time and for once I am completely stuck for ideas for what to get her apart from books (as always!!!) so any tips would be very gratefully received!

But FAR MORE IMPORTANTLY it will be my birthday a week after hers!!!!

Now my birthday is a wonderful opportunity for me to stock up with even more crafty goodness in the form of books and supplies because basically I end up doing the choosing for Mr Locket, my parents and my in-laws (it's a tough job but someone's got to do it)

This is where you guys come in....................

what I'd like you to do is share you most favourite craft books with me - the ones I really NEED to get - I may well have some of them already but I'm sure there are loads more that I simply HAVE to have!

(these are some (!) of the lovely books I already have - I know, there are loads, but when can you ever have enough craft books?)

For instance, is Amy Butler's In Stitches worth buying?

Should I get Apples for Jam?

What about Doodle Stitching? Which is the best Japanese book or magazine? Is it worth getting that cute retro children's sewing book whose name I have forgotten?

Or should I save all my money and buy a Gocco printer? Or do I need to be confident at drawing first?

What do you reckon?

I should be buying some decent clothes but I'm too fat for that and craft books NEVER make you feel fat do they?!!!

The Beach, a Blanket and a pair of Bunnies

Today has definitely been the best day of the holidays so far - and the children all agree! After Dot's final Manga art lesson at the local library we zipped through the Tyne Tunnel and met Quiltdude and the young Quilties at the beach.

Now the little Lockets and the young Quilties had never met each other before but they slotted together like old friends and had the most wonderful afternoon splashing in the sea

and burying each other in the sand


while Clare and I chatted and built and smashed sandcastles.

We all had so much fun and we hope to meet up again very soon. Clare's girls are all absolutely lovely and the little Lockets really enjoyed their company - I'm going to be using them as good examples whenever mine turn yucky!

So how do you complete the perfect day at the beach?

Well with delicious ice cream of course..............................

and a trip to the bestest ever wool shop - Ring-a-Rosie. Barbara said she could smell the suncream the moment we walked through the door - then again there were 9 of us! I hope there wasn't too much sand on the carpet Barbara!


I bought these two balls of wool for my blanket - Oh I do love a good ripple! And here it is


I have been busily crocheting at the library while Dot does her art class and Daisy and Fred read/draw/write/entertain themselves. I was aware that I might look rather unusual crocheting away in the corner but I thought it was quite a homely, mumsy image until the lovely librarian said I looked like I was waiting for an execution! Apparently women in the French Revolution were encouraged to bring their knitting along to the show at the guillotine!

Well that shattered my image well and truly!

So obviously I need to restore the happy homely image and how better than with a pair of lovestruck bunnies?

May I introduce you to Alfie

a new bunny on the block for a new baby boy

But don't let his tender age fool you.............................

he soon had eyes for a certain young lady bunny by the name of Wendy Wabbit

(Wendy is rather special as she has been made from Dorothy and Daisy's clothes including the dress Dot wore for her first birthday and the dresses they both wore for their dedication service (a bit like a christening but not quite!) - she's quite psychedelic but I love her anyway!!!)

Naturally they kept a modest distance at first - Wendy was being quite coy

but it wasn't long before they were tentatively holding hands..........................

what a good job Alfie has gone to live a few streets away!

Gorgeous Gifts and a Giveaway

Hello again everyone! Thanks for all your lovely comments on my last post - they were all greatly appreciated. Ironically that rather pathetic post was also my 200th so in true bloggy fashion I will be having a giveaway but more of that later.

Far more exciting news (as far as I'm concerned!) is this wonderful parcel of goodness that arrived today from Val at Dottycookie.

I was dashing out of the door to take Dorothy to some Manga art classes at our local library when the postie arrived so I had to grab my parcel and run - which meant I couldn't squeak as loudly as I wanted when I opened my beautiful quilt

isn't it amazing?

and in her note Val said "I have cheated a little bit with the extras" - too right she did!

The parcel was full to bursting with all these amazing goodies for me (and I promise to share the chocolate with Mr Locket but he can keep his hands off my fabric and trimmings!) I think I am most excited about the little hedgehog button - it is amazingly neat and intricate - I'm going to have to design a picture around it I think!

And then there were individual parcels for the little Lockets too! Val had made some of her gorgeous crocheted and beaded hairbands for the girls - which they have been wearing ever since - and this lovely pencil case with pens in for Fred. They were really delighted.

Thank you Val - you have been incredibly generous and your parcel made us all very happy!

So moving on to my 200th post giveaway. I have decided to follow Jodie's excellent example and do a "retrospective giveaway" so anyone who commented on my last post has been entered in the pot for a chance to win some crafty supplies - sorry it's not a handmade something but you all know why that is!

So I put everyone's names in a pot and let the littlest Locket do the picking - well that's what I was going to do but the little Lockets started arguing about who was going to choose so I got Mr Locket to do it instead - and out came

THIMBLEANNA

So Anna I will check and see if I still have your address and will get your parcel sent out in the next couple of days - I hope you find the things useful!

Lucy x