Silence is golden

Hello and welcome to my new follower Kathy at Kathyinozarks,Thank you so much for visiting and following my blog.

Silence is golden .....right....so they say.......
thats all very well but in my case it has been forced on me and I'd rather have a good chinwag here on my blog then spend a week of lurking and not being able to get a post together....ok enough whining!

Yippee! yippee! I have finally finished my zillion threads make and here it is :

This was a request from one of my sisters for her first future grandchild.A very near future babe as he/she is due late February and baby isn't obliging at all by showing his/her gender. Hence the cot cover had to be made in mint green.

Now I have to say I did not like this project at all.....the pattern was purchased by my sister and not really what I would have chosen.

I'm a bit finicky where having to crochet something I don't like is concerned. I will usually give up on a project if I don't like what I am doing,but well I had to make the exception this time. It has weighed heavy with me because of this. 
I had troubles from the start with it as the pattern called for Tunisian Hooks which I didn't have and couldn't find in my local yarn store so I ordered them online. There was a mix up with the order and I received something else so I had to send the parcel back and reorder tch!

As all this was time consuming I decided to tweak the pattern and use another stitch and I chose Alison's blanket stitch which you can find on her blog Modern Grace.  I really do like that stitch as it just flows and gives a very nice finish to the whole blanket .

Alison's baby blanket

It adapted quite well to the pattern until I got to the lamb...oh that lamb.......for a while now I am going to detest lambs....at least the crochet type!  I also had to embroidery the eyes and nose on the lamb. The eyes because the pattern indicated buttons for the eyes....BUTTONS...on a baby's blanket....no way was I going to put buttons on a baby's blanket far too risky. I was quite surprised that was included in the pattern. I embroidered the nose because it just didn't look like a nose.

That lamb was hard work and the stitch needed a lot of tweaking to get it right. I got there though! As for the zillion threads I have that sorted as I shall line the back of the cot cover with fine white polarfleece.

I just have to work out how to mitre corners on the sewing machine this evening and I'll get a seam done in a jiffy ,then hand sew the lining to the cover and bobs your uncle I'll get it off to my sister in Westbury UK this coming week. There is a also a matching cushion cover but that is easy peasy compared to that b****** lamb but the main thing is to get the cot cover to my sister before baby makes an appearance so I'll do that a bit more in my own time.
I used a Nº 5 Hook for the cover and a No 3,50 hook for the flowers. The yarn used was SMC Bravo from Coats in Mint Green ,Blue,White and Pink, Blue DMC Nº 798 embroidery floss and some white ribbon.

 I haven't washed the cover as yet but I will have to and the lining too before I sew it to the cover in case of shrinkage.  I'm crossing fingers there is no shrinkage as I have just the one piece of polarfleece.

Have a great Sunday!

Amanda :-)

When cleaning is a pleasure!

 Hello and welcome to my new followers Shirley at Colours of a Butterfly and Tracy at Mad about Bags  
 Shirley is a newbie to blogging with only nine followers at present. She says herself she is happiest when creating something and also her really friendly approach is so inviting......well worth a visit.   Tracy is well known in blogland and has quite a following. She was also the hostess of the super Christmas cracker swap which was really a delight to participate in.
  Thank you both for visiting and for following my blog.

                                                      ok so its a spoon but a Lladro spoon!


Dear Blogger friends
Big sigh!..... I have so little to show you craft-wise as I am trying to finish the zillion thread ends wip that I must complete by the end of the month and get it off to my sister.  Another big sigh too because I've been itching to get on here all week and post, although I haven't got much to say except perhaps the following which I saved for a time like this.

I collect china and porcelain as I know many of you do ( I have seen some really beautiful pieces displayed on some of your blogs),a couple of months ago I thought  I'd enjoy getting out my bits of china and washing them. Its the only sort of cleaning I really like doing the other sort are cleaning obligations which are a dead bore but a necessity. Washing my china is a pleasure! Well I thought to take a photo or two to display on my blog and show off my collection but up to now I had other things to say and display and didn't get around to posting them. This post seems right for these photos now. All the same I'm not going to bore you too much with this so I've only added one of my china bits ....another piece at another time....on another I don't know what to say post.

 This is the smallest piece in my  Lladro collection. It is part of a collection of four spoons ...I'm still waiting for the other three spoons!
I'm lucky in that Manises the town where Lladro is made is in Valencia which isn't too far from us so occasionally I get to visit the factory shop.

Lladro Museum and Shop, Manises Valencia

Now then how about this for a horror story every time I tell people I cringe to think of it and yes I have to admit I also get a little angry.

About two years ago we had all the apartment painted and there was quite a bit of cleaning to do afterwards ... you know as there usually is after these sort of things. As we both worked I enlisted my husband to help me clean the lounge and furniture and that included my glass cabinet where I house a part of my china collection. My husband as usual does his interpretation of Speedy Gonzalez and whizzes around cleaning everything at top speed. He washed and dried the glass shelves in the cabinet replaced them in the cabinet and came to pick up the china I had washed to return them to the cabinet......when I then heard an almighty crash of glass falling and smashing. Well I thought he had fallen over the cabinet so I ran into the lounge to find china and glass everywhere. He hadn't fallen over the cabinet but forgot to place the top glass shelf in the cabinet and went to put two figures on the top shelf at the same time and being as the shelf wasn't there the figures fell down hitting the second shelf which then hit the third shelf and that hit the last shelf knocking off all the rest of my china.
Needless to say I was furious as I lost two large pieces of Lladro, a piece of Delft,two pieces of Capidimonte and some Dresden. What really really upset me most was my Grandmother's Wedgewood jewel pot which was over 60 years old was smashed to smithereens.
Grrr! Sr P is not allowed to touch my china ever,since then!!!

Have a great weekend

Amanda :-)

Dispatched

What fantastic photos of the snow in the Uk on so many blogs and also on the news here. It all looks so beautiful....

This is what Alicante looked like today.

 Looks lovely doesn't it?...... But....its freezing out there and so blustery.....the wind is icy cold and I've seen people huddling into their coats and even wearing gloves and woolly hats! It is snowing up in the mountains!   I got my six sizes too big fleeced anorak out to wear for our evening walk. I don't usually use that except when I go back to the UK in winter or when we go up to the mountains in winter. Glad I wore it though.

Giveaway parcels have now been dispatched. Last Thursday over the channel to Maggie at Flowers in the Window and this morning to Meredith at Mereknits over the pond to Florida.
I hope you get them very soon ladies and enjoy!

In the crafts arena I'm slogging away at this still....this here with all the ends which have multiplied horrendously. I have the chore of the untidy ends sorted in my mind though I know what I'm going to do but can't tell you as yet or show you . It should be finished by the end of this month in fact it must be finished by then and posted off to my sister in the UK. I've been doing it since October but had to put it to one side in December to do my Christmas makes,now I have to go full out to get it finished in time!

A short post........ homework awaits to be corrected which I must hand back tomorrow!...sigh!!!

keep well

Amanda :-)