February Round Up

I'm sure many of you will be pleased to know that my large pink breasts have left the building. Yes, the LCGB decided they were needed at St Richards Hospital, Chichester, where they are hopefully now teaching parents-to-be about breastfeeding.

I quite miss them sitting around the place; but I still have the pattern so could always knit more. Would it be crafty perving if I attempted to alter the pattern to make them a bit smaller? I think slightly smaller ones would be useful in so many more decorative instances.

●●●●●●

I have a bit of dilemma. I'm not everso fond of spiders: I'm not an arachnophobe, but neither do I actively enjoy the presence of our eight-legged friends. (Don't know whether any of you reading remember a post of long ago on the subject of my encounter with another spider? I still feel guilty about that; No.1 still laughs about it.) Anyway, during the big snow earlier this month, I noticed a spider in the kitchen. This is him:

I didn't have the heart to put him out because it was freezing degrees outside and I was worried that he'd die of spidery hypothermia or something. So I just left him. He made a little web next to the bookcase in the kitchen, and within a few days had ventured along the tiles towards the hob. I spoke to him when the kids were out, the hamster was asleep and the cat was upstairs sleeping on someone's bed. That might have been a bad move - befriending him. I thought he looked a bit like a Cyril, and thus he was christened: Cyril the spider.

The thing is - the snow has gone now, and Cyril is definitely growing. Should I put him out? I've tried to hide him from No.1 as spiders trigger her scream function all too readily. Cyril is my guilty secret, I quite like his subtly stripey legs and ability to wander up walls. But I think it might be approaching the time to part company. *Sigh* Looks like a short-lived 'fun whilst it lasted' kind of thing?

●●●●●●

I now have a few 'thank you's to deliver. Firstly to Julia at Marmalade Kiss who sent me (and lots of others - the postage must have been shocking!) some pages from an old bible she was given. The pages are huge, thick, and wonderfully aged. There were a couple of pictures in my 'wodge' along with the pages of script:

Beautiful, aren't they? Thank you so much Julia - x - I keep changing my mind as to what, precisely, I want to do with it, but be assured once I have decided, I will blog it.

●●●●●●

Now thank you to Jill for passing on this 'Lemonade Award' to me - it's a pretty one. Jill passed it on to those she could imagine sitting out having lemonade with, which makes it all the more lovely to receive. Thanks Jill - x. (If you're into handmade jewellery, you need to check out Jill's blog and her Etsy Shop - she makes beautiful things).

●●●●●●

Thank you to Julia at Primrose Corner for this Kreativ award. She didn't know it, but she really gave me a lift that day. I was having a bit of a bad day, and the email she sent after I'd left a comment to thank her for the award was so nice and kind that it put all the crubbish with which I'd been dealing back into perspective for me. Thank you Julia - you didn't know you were helping, but you did - x.

●●●●●●

Thank you to Mr Catalyst at Oddball Observations and Dawn at Twisted Sister for this Proximidada award. They state:

"Nominated bloggers are exceedingly charming, they aim to find and be friends."

I don't know about the charming bit, but I'm always open to finding and being friends.

For those who don't know Mr Cat's blog, he is a former radio presenter who is now enjoying his retirement in sunny Arizona. He posts some fabulous photos - his blue skies and sunshine have kept me going through our long, cold British winter this year. Thanks for the award Mr Cat - x - I appreciate it.

Dawn is a sweetheart and was one of my first bloggy buddies. A wise, funny and strong woman who takes great pictures of Newfoundland where she lives, and writes about anything and everything. Don't tell her but I'd like to visit her one day and see that scenery for myself. Thanks Dawn - x.

●●●●●●

Did you fellow owners of small people enjoy the February half term break? We certainly did. One day we went out for a pub lunch with some friends - 9 adults and all their children. There was a table of mums, a table of girls (all of them 11 and 12 - biggest, loudest table) and a table of boys. One of the boys was 13, the others were much younger. That 13 year old did sterling work. Of course the younger boys were keen to impress him (younger boys just LOVE bigger, older boys, don't they?) but I was aghast to witness them having a conversation about 'interesting facts'. No.2 announced he had a VERY interesting fact and I just knew what was coming. 'Oh yes?' said the 13 year old. 'Did you know people can fart, even after they're dead?' responded No.2. Oh God. Everyone heard it.

Us mums all clubbed together and bought 4 of these mahoosive puddings, with a pile of spoons for the kids. You can't really tell from that picture (taken from the menu) how huge the glasses are. Think 'large goldfish bowl'. Anyway, all four desserts were gone in minutes. :-O

●●●●●●

I must apologise for not commenting on lots of blogs over the last few days. The reason was that early this week I was cooking dinner and managed to burn the fingertip 'pads' of the thumb and first three fingers of my left hand. They are still rather tender, and typing is particularly 'ouchy' (this blog post, apart from this paragraph, was written before I burned myself). I've still been reading blogs, just not commenting much. It's made me realise just how many jobs/tasks I do which rely on utilisation of fingertips/pads. Hopefully, I shall have fully functioning fingers very soon. (I am left-handed and haven't been able to sew, knit, or even be a hooker. :-( )

●●●●●●

Right, that's enough random blabbering for today. See you next month!

© Author

Might Spring Be Considering Springing?

And about blinkin' time too, I hear UK readers shouting. Blimey, it's been a bit of a long, cold winter here, compared to many of recent years. All that snow and ice has finally melted (only in the last few days though) and the sun seems to have remembered how to shine. It only does it in small bursts, peeping shyly from behind clouds, but there's no doubt it's there, and that it has a little warmth in its rays. I've even woken to the birds singing - a sure sign that the seasons are turning.

The trees are still wearing their winter twigs:

But just the light of the sun shining in the distance makes things somehow look a little greener and more promising:

I needed to get out and into some air yesterday. It's been a rather stressy week (for various reasons) Chez Wrinkle, so the Wrinklets and I hopped into the car and headed towards a local village which was holding a jumble sale. They didn't really want to go, but as always perked up once we were there. It was held in a barn, and growing in the woodland outside, there were clumps of snowdrops:

Once inside we all browsed the tables there - it was like an indoor car boot sale. No.1 came away with a couple of DVDs, a video of Billy Elliot (she's never seen it), a new swimming bag and a sweet little green beaded votive holder. No.2 bought some hand-held weights (he wants muscles, doncha know), some football cards and 3 Simpsons videos. And me? I didn't get much at all - just two items:

The red patterned piece of fabric is 2 metres, the other one is probably at least 4 metres. Guess how much the lady wanted for them? Go on ... No? OK then, I'll tell you. She asked for 50 pence. 25 pence for each of them. As you can imagine, I bought both, and warn you that you might see them featuring in some more bag experiments on a blog near you in the not too distant future!

After we left the sale, I took some photos - it is a pretty village. I'd have taken some shots of the gorgeous old houses, but the kids were too embarrassed to be seen with this batty old woman and her camera. 'Go home!' they urged me. Oh well, guess I'll have to go back on my own some time?

Another clue that spring is fast approaching? Bunches of daffodils for sale - so now I have a large vase of them in the sitting room, and another smaller vase on the kitchen windowsill:

You can't beat a perky daff to cheer you up, can you?

© Author

Old Dog - New Tricks

I do love to learn new things. Not all new things of course, because trying to learn how to circumnavigate the Arctic Circle in a hang glider would not be something in which I'd be remotely interested. Similarly, should someone offer a course to teach the basic rudiments of how to build a petrol-driven engine, I can't say I'd be the first in line. Of course, if the teacher of said course was charming, handsome, funny and in possession of plenty of patience as regards dense females with the 'mechanical gene' missing, I might consider it, but ... then again, maybe not.

However, if there's a crafty thing to learn, then I'll invariably want to learn it. Thus the recent crochet experiment, which didn't go well. But being tenacious (read bloody minded and stubborn) I have continued to try to develop my talents as a hooker, and have now taught myself how to do circles and squares:

And I have further practiced the art of the crocheted flower, still with an eye on making something (though I know not what) for Mum:

(They're not quite the colours I'd choose for me, but they are 'mum colours'). I shall keep on practising until I have made something that I'm actually happy with. On current form that might be in around 20 years time.

●●●●●●

The other thing I am still trying to 'do' is bags. Regular readers will know that after attempting to overcome my bag phobia, I did make some tote bags at Christmas. These were well received, and I really do want to learn a lot more about bag making. I see some truly stunning bags around the Blogosphere and would love to be able to make some like it myself.

At this stage of my bag-making journey I don't want to 'waste' good fabric on very much less than perfect bags, but I'm happy to use thrifted fabric on my baggy experiments. Thus when I saw this skirt hanging in a charity shop for the princely sum of £1, I snapped it up:

No.1, who was with me at the time was appalled. "You can't buy that!" she said, her chin hitting the floor ... "it's hideous!" But all I was interested in was the fabric - the denim was of the highest quality - chunky, firm, uniform in dye, and only £1 for a gathered-skirtage. And as many of you know, a gathered skirt reaps a far better 'harvest' than a panelled skirt.

So I bought it. I brought it home, I cut it up and it started to look a whole lot better:

I found some coordinating thrifted fabric in my stash, and set about making a bag. I wanted to try making one with a separate gusset piece, and with rounded corners. The lining was made from one of dad's old shirts (which mum and I kept precisely for bit-part sewing roles). This is the finished bag:

And this is the 'gynaecological view' (term coined by Trashy):

I'm not sure I particularly like this bag all that much, although it is about the right size for me. I think the best bit is the flower brooch I pinned on - and that was made by Ginny; but I learned LOADS from making it. I learned about turning through a gap in the lining rather than inserting the lining upright and sewing both sides together that way. I learned about attaching a strap at the sides, instead of handles at the front and back. I learned about contrast fabrics. I learned about pockets and their positioning inside the bag. I learned about a gusset as an extra pattern piece, about top stitching and about curved corners. (I also learned that if you don't use the special machine needles you bought for denim, your standard needles will break).

So next time, I might try out some 'better' fabric. I might try a pattern which is a little bit more challenging. I need to try out a 'fastening' of some sort (not a zip though. Not yet anyway - still scared of those!) I think I'd like to put a facing inside the top of the interior of a bag I'd actually use, and I'd like to try the addition of differently made straps and handles.

●●●●●●

Do any of you remember my posting about winning a giveaway at Andrea's blog - Indigo Blue? Amongst all the loveliness she sent was a copy of Sew Hip which included the 'how to' for a pillowcase tote bag. Andrea also sent a bright cerise pillow case. No.1 made it quite clear that the resulting bag would be 'hers' - she needs a new PE bag, so that's fine. She wanted it to have a pale pink lining though - hmmmm, that wasn't part of the deal. I started making it and felt it really needed *something* on the side(s) to detract from it's square pink-ness, but no ... No.1 would not hear of any appliqué of any kind. She also asked that it be a bit less 'wide'. I think perhaps she was mistaking me for someone who knew something about making a bag from a pillowcase, instead of someone who didn't really have a clue. Anyway ... I piddled around with it for a while and the result is/was this:

No appliqué, just as Madam requested, and made less 'wide' by the addition of a couple of pleats on each side in the centre of the 'top bit' (technical bag-making term). I simply sewed a button at the top of the pleating on each side (a hand-painted silk button - a pack of them were a gift from a friend some time ago). I completed it when No.1 was out and awaited her viewing of the finished item with some trepidation - as she gets older it gets harder for me to anticipate what she'll like and what she won't. I left it hanging in the hall and was thrilled when she fell upon it declaring love at first sight. Phew!

Thanks again for the giveaway prize Andrea - x - I enjoyed the pillowcase tote so much I might make some more as shopping bags.

●●●●●●

So ... contrary to the popular saying, it is possible for an old dog (that's me) to learn some new tricks (that's those ^), even if it does take a while.

© Author

Through The Keyhole

Do you remember that TV programme in which Loyd Grossman showed us round a famous person's house? And then at the end we had to guess who lived there? Well, imagine the strangled sounds of Mr Grossman's Irritable Vowel Syndrome guiding you round this property, and see if you can guess who resides in it.

A bird's eye view of the roof looks like this:

The 'tiles' and edge of the roof appear to involve decorative features including 'sprinkles' and slices of Cadbury's Fudge:

The gable end of the house is very pretty:

With detailing such as Jelly Tot highlights:

And snowy hearts with metallic pink balls:

The front door has a sugared green border, and silver door 'knob'

Who lives in a house like this? Over to you, dear Reader.

Come on then - you be the judges, who do you think lives in that house? A pretty house with the extremely pleasing aroma of ginger. Any idea?

This is who lives there:

The Jelly Baby Family!

We've had this gingerbread house kit in the cupboard for some time. I did intend to do it as an activity with the kids over the Christmas holidays, but we didn't get round to it. A couple of weekends ago, however, we decided it would liven up a quiet Saturday. This is how it ended up looking:

The kit was a gift brought back from a holiday some friends had in Sweden; when we opened the box, we found the chimney 'pieces' broken (I did try to cement them together with icing, but it didn't work) so it's a house with no chimney - obviously Santa would need to find another way in. The Wrinklets had a great time making this, especially No.1, who asked if anyone got to make their living from doing stuff like decorating cakes. You wouldn't believe the mess in the kitchen when they'd finished, it looked like an explosion in a Rowntree factory, and there was a horrible 'crunch' underfoot until I'd swept the floor, washed it, and then hoovered.

We'd never made a gingerbread house before, but I think we'll definitely do another one in the future. They slowly demolished the house all week - that's the gingerbread house, not the one in which we live. Although now I come to think of it, they have a pretty good go at demolishing that every single week.

●●●●●●

The monkey I promised Trash for her Bushfire Appeal raffle is now finished. I'll leave it to the winner to name her:

Socks in various shades of pink. The fabric for the dress was one of FQ's that WMK sent me for our Valentine Swap back in February 2008. When I went to our local fabric shop to buy the trim for the monkey's dress, I was seeking small ricrac in a cerise colour. They didn't have any, so I ended up with what you see. The lady serving was very helpful, and asked what it was for - when I told her it was for a monkey as a prize in a raffle for the Bushfire Appeal, she insisted I didn't have to pay for the trim. People are nice, aren't they?

Please click over and support the efforts of crafty bloggers to help those in real need. Thank you.

© Author

Mid Month Mutterings (Feb '09)

More ramblings from the keyboard of yours truly

●●●●●●

Firstly, I must mention this: Because of my blogging habit I am much more aware than I perhaps otherwise would be, of the subject and extent of the horrendous bush fires in Australia this month. I read lots of Aussie blogs, and those bloggers have all been complaining of the recent extreme heat over there, so I knew the country was pretty 'dry'.

Not being a country well-endowed with 'bush', we in the UK don't witness the phenomenon of 'bush fire' so can only imagine how terrifying it must be to have one's home under threat, or consumed by an advancing wall of fire. There is an appeal being co-ordinated by the Australian Red Cross to aid those affected by the fires, and now the British Red Cross has launched it's own appeal (just click over to either place if you'd like to help). The Wrinklets and I watched some reports on the news, and both those lovely children asked if they could send some of their pocket money, bless them. For those of a crafty persuasion, The Toy Society is organising the gifting of soft toys to those in need. Over at Beyond Pink and Blue, a lovely project called Rainbow Comfort Packs has been set up. It's another way to help, for those who are so inclined.

The sublimely bonkers but wonderful blogger known as Mrs Trash is organising a raffle of handmade 'stuff', and one of the prizes will be a sock monkey made by moi. Please click over to Trashy's place and help her raise a whole lot of dosh for the people of her homeland. People who have lost everything. Whole towns have been burned to the ground - it really doesn't bear thinking about. The fact that some of these fires have been started deliberately beggars belief. Why? Why? Why? would someone do something like that? :-(

My thoughts are with the people affected, and their loved ones.

●●●●●●

On an altogether less shocking note, this month started on an uplifting note for me personally, when I got a parcel from Ginny of The Flour Loft. She has wound up her blog, and as a last 'goodbye' ran a giveaway. The Flour Loft was one of the first blogs I ever 'found' and got brave enough on which to comment, over 18 months ago. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I was lucky enough to win the giveaway. My goodness me, I received a bumper bundle:

Two beautiful flower brooches made from recycled fabric; three sets of ceramic buttons - one of flowers, one of hearts, and one of footballs. I shall, at some point, be making something special to warrant the use of those! A really gorgeous handmade card, and not one, not two, but three bars of Milky Bar! :-D But there's more ... those lovelies were all packed inside a bigger lovely ... look at this!:

Isn't it wonderful? A handmade bag with the prettiest appliqué in velvet, and embellished with beads. I was really touched by Ginny's generosity, but very pleased to have something bearing her (and Alice's) 'stamp' of style. I bought their book 'Sew Fabulous' at Christmas, so now I have plenty of 'Alice & Ginny' stuff, including the directions on how to make some of my own. Thank you so much Ginny - x - it was very kind of you. I am glad we will still see you in Blogland via your photos at Sweet Myrtle, and hope that one day you will resurrect your craft blog. In the meantime, I wish you and Alice all the best for the future success of your business (and books).

●●●●●●

Now, I got tagged by the lovely Trish of Menopausal Stoners to post the 4th picture from the 4th folder in my Pictures on the poota. OK then, here you go:

Georgie-cat when she was Georgie-kitten. She's like all cats in trying to get into any box or bowl, even if it's teeny-tiny and plainly too small for her. In this instance she was only around 14 weeks old (that would make it the summer of 2005) so the bowl wasn't too small for her. I'm glad I had the camera to hand because the photo makes me smile.

Thanks for tagging me Trish - x. If any of you don't know Trish's blog, go and visit her. She writes beautifully on life, work, family and especially on the subject of men. I learn loads from reading her posts.

●●●●●●

This month was the one of Katy's FQ Swap. My swap partner was Emma at Bagladee - which suited me just fine as I know her blog well, and therefore know she is as addicted to fabric as I am. We decided we would both send our parcels on the same day; we also decided that as we are well blessed in the fabric department(s) we would send 4 fat quarters each instead of the 2 Katy suggested in her guidelines for the swap. My parcel arrived very early one morning. "Can I open it?" asked No.2. "No you can't ... it's fabric for me" I said. So after the school run, I had the pleasure of opening my package and finding this lot inside:

Did you see? Did you? Fabric with sock monkeys on it! How brilliant is that?! Along with the delicious fabric, Emma sent a pretty card, some really nice ribbons, some sweeties for the kids and some wonderful buttons. Buttons with spots and checks on! Thank you so much Emma - x - I love the contents of my swap parcel.

Emma had said she loved 'happy brights and dots' so I rummaged through my stash and found her some very bright brights, along with some dots. I also sent some heart ribbons, and a brooch:

I'd like to say a very big Thank You! too to Katy - x - for organising the whole swappage, it was a good one.

●●●●●●

As I was chopping carrots the other night, I wondered - do you, dear reader, chop the ends off before you peel (assuming you peel at all)? Or after? I generally chop before peeling, but is there merit in peeling before one chops? And how do you chop them? In rounds or lengthways? Perhaps diagonally for a change? (Can you imagine how tiring it would be to be encumbered with a brain like mine?!)

●●●●●●

I'll leave you with a photo I took of a morning sky at the start of this month just before the snow arrived. I especially love the graduations in colour:

●●●●●●

© Author

February Snow (& The Winner of the Giveaway is ... )

For the past week much of the UK has been under a layer of snow. The reason you'll have seen so much of this 'news' on British Blogs is that it's not very common for the snow to be either as heavy or as widespread as it has been over the past 7 days. I saw lots of bloggy friends posting that their kids were off on Monday and Tuesday, but although we had snow, it wasn't bad enough for the schools to close. However, on Thursday we woke up to this:

And it showed no signs of stopping. I switched on the local radio station. (The only time I ever listen to a local radio station is in these circumstances - to ascertain whether or not the schools are open). They were announcing school closures every few minutes. In the end I suspect it would have been easier for them to list the schools which were actually OPEN. So ... the Wrinklets both had an unexpected day off school, which pleased them both enormously. The snow kept on coming, blanketing everything in white:

We went outside, where we found our next door neighbours from one side building a snowman. The neighbour from the other side was clearing all the pavements, bless him. A large snowball fight broke out, which was great fun.

Doesn't snow make the trees look lovely?

Soon No.2 disappeared into next door to play with their kids. So No.1 and I adjourned to our back garden, where we decided to build a snow 'thing'. A snowman perhaps? No, we decided on a snow monkey - just to be a bit different. In the end she didn't look too bad - we named her Gloria ('Glo' for short):

As we stood back to admire our handiwork, No.1 said she thought Glo would look splendid wearing the knitted boobies. (Sometimes I am in no doubt whatsoever that that girl has inherited a good few of my genes ;-) ). Well, I rather liked this idea, so we tried them out:

What do you think? Looks a bit of a trollop doesn't she?

More heavy snow overnight on Thursday/Friday meant another 'snow day' off school on Friday. No.2 and I watched early in the morning as our neighbour tried to get his van out of the car park in front of our houses ... it wasn't driving, it was ice skating in a vehicle. Mum lives on a hill and spent 2 days watching cars slide back down it as they vainly tried to escape. The sun came out yesterday which helped quite a bit, although I still had some wheel spin as I tried to get out of our car park. We needed to go into town and get supplies, and judging by the crowds, so did the rest of the town. One man couldn't get his car out of Waitrose car park - we counted one man in the car and TEN outside it, pushing, digging and generally stood around chattering about how they could get it out. (I couldn't help but think that if the driver were a woman, she'd never live it down).

The Met Office website suggests things are going to improve a little, though I see they're forecasting more heavy snow for us on Monday night, so who knows when all this freezing madness will end? It was fun for a while, but I'm fed up with it now.

●●●●●●

Yesterday, we drew the winner of my corner of the Great International Stash-Busting Giveaway, hosted by the very lovely Katy. I must say I was totally astonished at the number of entries to this giveaway, and thrilled to have so many new visitors. I hope at least a few of them won't be too shy to visit again. I will try, but am not sure I'll ever get round to everyone's blogs to say a personal 'hi and thank you' ... just in case I don't, I'll post it here - *T*H*A*N*K* *Y*O*U*!* for visiting and entering your name in the bloggy giveaway.

Anyway, the kids insisted on a proper draw rather than a random number generator, so I copied all the comments, printed them off, cut them up into individual entries, and put them in a bowl. No.2 then kindly put his sticky mitt in and drew the name of the winner.

It was Jackie, of Jackie's Stitches (she lives in Florida - she has pictures of lovely sunshiney blue skies - a hell of a lot better than this white-out we have here!) Congratulations Jackie, the charm squares will be winging their way to you as soon as you let me have your address (there's an email in your inbox!) A really big THANK YOU! to Katy for dreaming up the idea, and for organising it all ... I'm betting there'll be another one along later in the year!

I'm apparently going to have to do another giveaway soon so No.1 can pull a name out too. Tsk ... kids!

© Author

Large Pink Breasts & A Little Stash Giveaway

I have seen quite a few bloggers, in the past, post about finding it difficult to find an appropriate title for their post(s). I'm not sure whether it's a good or a bad thing that I have never had that problem. The titles of my posts are merely a reflection of what any readers can expect to read about (and possibly see) in each post. Thus a post entitled 'Large Pink Breasts & A Little Stash Giveaway' will, naturally, be about some large pink breasts, as well as a little stash giveaway.

Shall I start with the breasts or the giveaway? As I mentioned the breasts first, perhaps I should start there?

A couple of weeks ago I was alerted, via an email from a lovely friend about this story on the BBC website. 'NHS Seeks Woolly Breast Knitters' is a fabulous title for a story, and one which intrigued me, the proud owner of knitting needles and the ability to knit small(ish) projects. Basically, it would seem that Health Visitors are using knitted breasts to demonstrate breastfeeding to expectant parents; they are apparently a darned sight cheaper than latex ones, and in this time of the Credit Crunch, we all need to save as much dosh as we can. I'm a big fan of breastfeeding - I used my own breasticles to provide sustenance to both my Wrinklets (No.1 showed an extreme reluctance to give up the habit, insisting on a bedtime 'booby' until she was 2. No.2 fed enthusiastically until he was around 17 months old - all fine until the day I got one out and he just laughed at it and declined the offer. Charming.)

Anyway, I digress ... I visited the website of the Lactation Consultants of Great Britain where I found a pattern, and duly set to work. A short time later, I was the proud owner of this pair of specimens:

Sorry about the lighting - makes them look jaundiced! They're not exactly small and dainty ones ... a picture with a large apple to give some perspective:

No.1 thinks they are absolutely hilarious. No.2, when he saw the first one was absolutely mortified and wanted me to put it away ... at which point I had a strong sense of déja vu that took me right back to the day he decided to stop breastfeeding.

A friend suggested I attach some ribbon and use them in place of furry dice to hang from a car's rear-view mirror. What do you think?:

The life of a crafty blogger is a many and varied one ... I'm glad one of my neighbours didn't come out and comment on what I was doing when I was taking that picture.

●●●●●●

The little stash giveaway part of this post is my contribution in Katy's Great International Stash-busting Scrap Giveaway. There are a whole host of bloggers taking part in this giveaway today - head over to Katy's Blog (I'm a Ginger Monkey) to see a full list, then get yourselves over to those blogs to win some fabric.

For my part, I am giving away some 5" charm squares. This is just a start, if I can get myself properly organised, I'm sure I could sort out more stash to give away. As I said, what I have for you today are Charm Squares - over 90 of them:

There are plains:

Grrrrrrr, Blogger is turning my pictures sideways again!

There are tone on tones:

There are prints:

Click on the picture to see the prints in detail

They are all 100% cotton quality quilting fabric. I used to use a lot of small pieces of fabric in my crafting - largely for card-making and appliqué and these charm squares were useful for that. However, I find myself doing less and less of those crafts, and thought someone, somewhere might find them useful. I read on DC's blog that this is supposed to be a one-day-only giveaway, but I think I'll leave it open for 3 or 4 days. I'll get one of the kids to draw the winner at the weekend. If you have no blog, can you please make sure you leave me an email address so I can let you know if you win. Thank you muchly.

●●●●●●

Please say in your comment if you would like to be in the draw for the charm squares - if not, I'll assume you are just commenting on my large pink breasts. ;-)

EDIT: The giveaway is is now closed. I will draw the winner tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who entered.

© Author