Christmas and quilting

Our daughter and her fiancé have been over to visit us for christmas. We have had a lovely time with them both and were sorry they had to go back to England. .
They did send me a lovely gift of a set of Cath Kidson books, which includes a bag to sew. I cant wait to start all the wonderful projects inside.
I have unpicked the quilting I began on the bag we are making in our patchwork class as I was spoiling it as my tension was too tight. Hopefully I have learned from this mistake.. it looks a lot better this time.. I am sewing circles as I wanted to be a bit different from the diamonds everyone else was quilting, and thanks to Dolores for the idea of different size circles it's looking good so far.

Lucky us!!

Yesterday we were lucky enough to win a huge jamon in the raffle at our local supermarket. Dave and I had our photos taken.
Last night was also the dinner for the village ladies association. We all enjoyed the meal at the hotel balcon, followed by a bit of dancing.

Antique quilt repair

One of my neighbours asked me if I could repair his antique quilt.  The edges were very worn and I followed some advice I found online to do as little as possible. So I sewed bias binding around the edge ( 10meters) by hand.. and repaired the holes in it too. Hopefully it will last a few more years yet.

Christmas Market

Dave and I have had a lovely day at the christmas market here in competa. We chatted to loads of friends old and new who called at the stall to say hello. Thank you

Clothes repairs

Using techniques I have learned in patchwork classes, I have put bias onto a pair of jeans to neaten the very frayed edges.
I also used appliqué to hide a hole in a blouse..
Hopefully they will now be wearable.

Handwarmers

I have been invited to attend the christmas market here in competa on the 7th of December, so I have been busy making pairs of rice filled handwarmers to sell. ( hopefully)
Once they have been in the microwave for 30 seconds they will keep warm for 30 minutes or more.
Ideal for cold hands in this weather.

Finished jumper

I have finally finished knitting myself a jumper!!!
It was a labour of love as it has dolman sleeves and therefore had lots of stitches. It will keep me nice and warm during the winter. I used a new technique for me called grafting to join the front and back along the shoulders and sleeves so I wouldn't have an obvious seam line.
Here is the result...

Covers

I have been making two entirely different types of cover.  One for my overlocker, made with leftover scraps, and a padded cover for an A5 size book during patchwork class, on which I appliquéd a bird which looks cute, however I will not make any more of these.
Instead I am looking forward to making a patchwork bag in the next few classes from a kit our teacher Dolores sent away for.

Viewing watercolours

Many thanks to Sergio Fernandez for displaying my watercolor paintings for sale in his new office here in Competa.
Don't forget to call in to wish him luck in his new venture if you are in the area.

Baby croc style shoes

Following the knitting and crochet club yesterday, I promised to draft a pattern for the baby croc style I had been explaining how to make stitch by stitch (  in Spanish)
Here is the result of all my endeavours.
Please feel free to use it. Also a picture of the finished croc style shoes newborn size

Sunshine on the terrace

November and here I am frightening the neighbours wearing my bikini ;-)listening to the mp3 player and knitting too.. heaven

Mirror painting

What a strange day it has been. Beginning this morning when I was about to go in the shower. A film crew arrived at the bottom of the stairs leading to our front door,  and began to film. They were English and I have no idea what program they were from...
Dave and I also bought an old mirror from the local charity shop,  which I have painted in matt black. It is now hanging in a corner of the sitting room thanks to the hook put in by Dave.

Good news

Some good news this morning as a local property consultant here in Competa, Sergio Fernandez,  has agreed to hang some of my watercolor paintings for sale in his new office.
So anyone who calls in will be able to view them.

Finished bag

I managed to finish the flying geese patterned bag, which looks very nice, all in Christmas colours.
This afternoon I played scrabble which is normally every fortnight, and  even managed to win a game. We all opted to try Miguels fish, chips and mushy peas which were delicious. It was really warm and sunny sitting on his terrace too!

Busy bee

I have been a busy bee so far this week and it is only Wednesday.
Here are a few photos of some of the things we have been doing,  including Angelita's crochet dress and cardigan she has made for her granddaughter, which is gorgeous.
Also some of the bags that the ladies of the patchwork group are making, including those of Magny, Rosa and Auxilliadora.

Jumper knitting

The jumper I am knitting for myself is knitting up a treat.
I am finding  the pattern easy to knit up despite the amount of stitches I have on the needles.
Dave and I have had our front door open all afternoon as it had been lovely and sunny here.

Plant pot painting part 2

The blue paint looked ok but needed a bit of zing.. so I added polka dots in white with a dabber made out of a broken knitting needle.
The plant pots looked so nice we invested in another  2 and I decided to paint an urn we already had on the windowsill to match.
They look lovely and bright.

Plant pot painting

Dave and I have been looking for some new plant pots for outside the house since we had the painting done.
Despite looking, we could not find anything we liked so I decided to paint some plain ones that were 3 € each at the local florist.
We had some left over paint which I coloured with dye and added some sealant too.
I began to paint..

Bag making

We have begun to make a bag in our patchwork class. I have been making the sides and top of the bag using layers ot material wadding and extra strong interfacing. I posted several pictures on the Competa patchworkblogspot.com showing some of the ladies work.
Here are a couple of photos of what I have been up to.

Quilt binding

I brought the sewing machine down to the dining room so I could use the table to take the size and weight of the quilt. I was very lucky to just have cut enough binding too!!.
Picture below of how much was leftover.
Anyway so far so good.. I am now hand stitching the edge of the binding to the top.. it is looking lovely.

Phew!!

Sorted.. saw one of my friends and the same thing had happened to her!! But the good news is that the interfacing will dissolve in water ..

Ironing disaster

Eek I finished the band of flying geese and went to press it under a cloth.. disaster.. the interfacing shrunk.. what a mess to try and sort out ! So I am now looking for advice..

Patchwork and knitting

Tuesday's patchwork group saw six of us beginning to make a circular zipped bag with a flying geese pattern. It is looking nice so far and I am managing to use up some scraps too which is a bonus.
I have also begun to knit a jumper for myself from an old pattern. .
So old that it even says that some people now have washing machines..haha. but I am enjoying knitting during the not so light evenings as the crochet is a bit too dark to do.