This week's smiles....week 209

Hello all. Here we are at our weekly catch up of the smiles we share. My weeks seem to be keeping pretty busy but there are lots of smiles amongst it all. Many thanks to all those who took time out of their busy lives to share their own smiles.....I really do enjoy seeing what makes you all smile so please keep up the good work.

The Memory bears I showed you on Wednesday have been collected and I have to say both customers were very moved by their little bears.....I'm so lucky to be able to make special bears out of very treasured fabrics and it's always special when I see their reactions.

Storm front Doris swept across the country on Thursday and it got pretty scary at times on my journey to the hairdressers. There were branches off trees and rubbish bins and their contents blown across the roads but thankfully I got home safely and Milly and I stayed tucked up in the warm while storm Doris blew over...

This is her fav spot in my sewing room but for some reason she is lying across her bed here....I'm sure she would be more comfy the other way on but she says she is really cosy.

My other smiles this week have been seeing our first daffodils coming into bloom and the snowdrops last blooms opening (and surviving Milly running over them!).

I doubt my snowdrops won't last much longer but they sure have made me smile while they have been here....and hopefully they will have spread more by next year.

That's it from me for today.   Please leave me a little comment so I know you've called in and, if you can, link your own smiles below too.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW.....

Hello all.  I've got lots to share with you today cos it's been a busy, productive week here at Sewing by Annie's so here goes....

Having, eventually, sold my industrial sewing machine I have now bought a new table to go where it stood in my sewing room and have set it up for my embellishing machine....it had stood pretty much neglected under it's dust cover since we moved houses and to be honest I had forgotten the pleasure had by using it.  I really enjoyed making these little note book covers.....a bit of dumfing [check R.side bar if you don't know what this is], some machine embroidery and a few beads and hey presto......

I then looked at my full to overflowing box of scrap fabrics and decided to use some of them.  I chose colours that toned/matched and made two pieces of crazy patchwork, embellished it with machine embroidery and....

....made two fabric book covers with it. 

These little owls were another idea I made as little gifts suitable for teachers at the end of the school year....They are little paperweights and used up more of my fabric scraps.....I do have rather a lot of fabric scraps don't I?

The rest of the week I have been making more of my Memory bears.  I feel very honoured helping grieving families by using special items of clothing to remember much loved members of their families. 

These three were made from a much loved husband and father's trousers, scarf and coat lining and the little red ear on each of them is a little fabric taken from a hat that was his all time favourite......it was very special for me to learn a little of the character of the man before I incorporated some into the three bears.

This one was made in memory of a much loved dad and it was by special request that I added the buttons on the front.....I rather like this effect don't you?  The pinstriped grey on the right side was from his trousers he had worn at his wedding.

There you go....sorry I took so long this week but I knew some of you would want to see what I've been up to.  Please leave me a little comment to let me know you've called by and I will do my best to pay you a return visit.  I do read all the blogs but am unable to leave comments on some....sorry.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles....week 208

Happy Friday to one and all.  This is my day of the week when I search out a couple of photos to share with you of my smiles during the week and invite you all to link up your own smiles below.  There is so much bad news out there that my aim is to try to balance it out with as many smiles as I can so please do your best to join in the make the world a happier place to be.

Many thanks to those who joined in last week....I do love seeing what makes us all smile so please keep up the good work my friends.

My smiles this week keep coming......  I shared the exciting news about my little Memory bears on Wednesday and yesterday I heard that another school [an even bigger one!] has shown a lot of interest in them so I'm really buzzing now.  I have a few pics of some of my Grandchildren to share with you this week...

Little Theo is starting weaning now and this pic really made me smile.....I love seeing how little ones react to new experiences and 'real food' is a big hit with Theo as you can see.  :-)

Phoebe, Lulu and Steve are still in their pyjamas but you can see just how much they are enjoying their new game of Uno at the weekend.....I love seeing them playing happily together.  There is a lot to learn with playing Uno but the girls are so patient with their little brother.

Phoebe and Steve then moved on to a game of chess!!  I love the concentration in the faces.

That's all my smiles for today folks.  Now please leave me a little message to say you've called in and if you can please link up your own smiles below.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW....

Hello all.  It's been an exciting week for me here at Sewing by Annie.  I know many of you will have seen me posting about my little Memory bears on my Sewing by Annie facebook page and this week they have gone viral locally....one of the big local schools has shared them on their school page and there has been lots of interest....so much so that I have now offered any local school willing to share my bears £1/school bear sold for one of their pupils to go for their school fund.....I'm buzzing here as you can imagine.

So on my desk this week are the little Easter projects I've been working on in case I get very busy with my bears.....and if I do I will be training up the grandchildren to help me keep up with demand.

My little bunnies in their carrot sleeping bags.  It looks like they are having a sleep over and as my daughter Amy commented....She thought they would be bed hopping in the night!  :-) :-)

My Easter chicks....each has a little pocket on the front that chocolates/money could be popped into.

The other thing I'm sharing today is some fabric I've bought this week.  They are fat quarters on offer at Aldis this week [what you maybe can't see is there is 2 fat quarters in each pile!].  They just jumped into my trolley at the weekend....as it does!

It was just too good value to leave it sitting there.

There you go.  It's short and sweet this week just how Julia likes it.  I hope you like my little makes this week and will leave me a little comment so I know you've called by.  I will do my best to call by at yours as soon as I can.  Hope you all are well and happy and have a really creative week ahead of you.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles.....week 207

Hello all.  Here we are at my weekly blog looking at my smiles for the week.

Many thanks to the 6 who joined in again last week.  I love seeing what makes you smile each week so thank you for joining in the fun.

My smiles this week are of the signs of spring in the garden.  I really love Spring so it always makes me smile when I see it getting closer.  The nights are drawing out now too and that also makes me smile.

We planted snowdrops up in the one corner of our garden mostly under some new lawn and they are now starting to get established.  It might take a few years for them to really be a good show but I just love it when they fight their way through the frozen ground.

The front garden had daffodils sprouting up everywhere now and as you can see there are even some coming into bud.

Spring is on it's way....wahooooooooo. 😍😍😍😍

That's it from me for today.  I've had a busy week with sewing projects so it's been a happy and productive week. Please leave me a little comment so I know you've called in and if you can please share your own smiles by linking them up below.  Go on, lets fill our week with smiles.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW....

Hello all.  Here we are at our Wednesday catch up with a lot of creative desks from all round the world.

First I will share my desk for this week...

I've been busy making a new batch of my tooth fairy pillows....here they are in the making......

....and here they are all completed.  They are proving very popular and the new design is a special request....the Hulk!

Then as promised here is what I was working on last week....

I've been making the apple shapes into mug rugs suitable for teacher's gifts.  I'm not sure you can read the poem I wrote to go with it at the top but it's enough said that I had a couple of sleepless nights with poetry buzzing round my head to write it. 😄😄😄

The other show and tell for those interested it what was in the foil box on the shelf last week.  It was found in a box when we emptied a few more and they are all things I made many years ago but are still waiting for mounts and frames! ......

Two embroideries needing circular mounts....yes those really are lots of french knots in the pic on the left to make the paving slabs!

One of the many cross stitch pics I designed of our old house.

A cross stitch pic of one of my fav poems.....from back in 1996!!!

Two little characters I cross stitched that are still waiting framing....they are from the Usborne books stories about Apple Tree farm.

There you go.  Maybe I should get them framed eh?

Thanks for calling by this week. If you leave me a little message to let me know you've called by and I will do my best to pay you a return visit.  I must apologise for those I didn't leave comments on last week. Google+ blogs won't let me comment and several others weren't playing nicely for me.

This week's smiles....week 206

Where do these week's go?  The days seem shorter and I think someone pinches a day each week for me....how about you?  It only seems 5 mins since I was looking for smiles to share with your last week.

First let me thank the 5 of you who shared their smiles with us last week.  I really do appreciate your help in doing our bit to make the world a happier place to be .....you can never have too many smiles can you?

I am sharing just a couple of photos this week.....I did try to snap my little snowdrops that are starting to bloom on the lawn but you couldn't see them clear enough to share them so maybe by next week they will have grown big enough so you can see them.

My first share is a floral one though.  Just look at my gorgeous amaryllis [Mark and Gina bought it me for my birthday back in October so it's been a long time coming but is soooooo worth the wait].  I've had many of these over the years ...usually with one stem but occasionally with two but this one has three stems.  The first to bloom has 4 flower heads and the second has 4 more just starting to open.  I'm not sure how many the third stem is going to have yet but isn't it stunning?  The blooms are the darkest red and look just like velvet....I love it and it makes me smile every time I look at it.

My next pic of of Milly watching her fav programme of the week on the telly.  It's the one on BBC1 on a Tuesday night with the spy cameras on the animals and she just loves it.  I'm really not sure what she thinks she would do if it was real crocodile but she sure makes us chuckle and we end up watching her each week more than the telly.

That's all I'm sharing this week so please leave me a little message so I know you've called by and if you can please link up your own smiles too.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW....

Here we are again exposing our creative messes spaces with our friends from all round the world.  January has been and gone and here we are in February!!!!  Where does the time fly to?  I have had another varied week with sewing.....

I made 4 square table cloths in this pretty pink fabric for coffee mornings in the church near our old house. 

Up on the shelf behind you might be able to see a box that once held cooking foil.....it's now holding something special that I just might show you at some point [if you're interested of course 😀].

I shortened curtains in this pretty grey fabric.

With the offcuts from when I made the fabric box a couple of weeks back I made 4 pretty coasters.....

....and I then made these for another little project I am working on.....more of that at a later date maybe?

I feel I have teased a little this week....it's a ploy to keep you coming back of course 😂😂😂😂

That's all from me for today.  Please leave me a little message to let me know you've called in and I will do my best to pop over to yours as soon as I can.

Hugs,

Annie x