Snip, snip

Hello!

We've been on holiday and come back again. And we've been to help a cousin get married, so now Normal Life can be Resumed. As if there was such a thing.

There are projects a go-go here, and in the midst of allotment clearing/tidying, washing, cleaning, working, playing, making jam/cake/jelly/supper, delivering children to summer camp and all that stuff I am trying to polish off a few UFOs and clear the mending pile, and generally, you know Tidy UP.

So, to get back to the previous post, I have decided. I have thunk and thunk and then I worked it out. Best thing to do: trim and square.

I was a bit loathe to size my squares down and lose overall size in the quilt top, but as a newbie quilter I figured I ought to learn how to do it right, rather than learn how to do it badly. So, I am downsizing my squares, but they will be much easier to piece together and the overall result will be better (I hope). 

My parents will be visiting later in August, so again - I have an eye on the clock and wonder if I can turn this thing round this time? 

Heroes

Lots has been happening here, but the blogger app on my phone has stopped working, so none of the posts I have written recently have made it through the ether to the blog. I'm having to write this on a laptop, which feels very retro and strange...

Anyway, if you are sitting comfortably, then I'll begin.

The other day I found myself at home with two boys (one larger, one smaller). It was raining, so we needed something to do other than watch TV (which the larger boy would do all day if permitted). 

I had seen a blog somewhere (can't find it now) about making superhero masks, which seemed perfect for the bean, as his role play usually involves being a superhero or a ninja (or both). We have a good pile of craft felt in the house, and we set to work using the felt and some aged bondaweb.

The bean chose which masks he wanted to make; we made some templates using paper and bondaweb; cut them out and ironed them onto the felt. Easy peasy.

Of course, I will not mention at all, the small - really very small - incident with the new iron and a piece of black felt. I guess it must be another of those arcane rules of physics that when buying a new iron it is necessary, in a balancing kind of a way, for the dial on the new iron to work in the opposite way to the dial on the old iron. So, I feel entirely blameless here when I tell you that innocently turned the dial the wrong way and melted lots a tiny bit of black felt onto the footplate of our new iron. I say 'our' iron, but I should be clear about this: my husband bought the iron; he chose it and paid for it and has - until last week - been the only person in the house to use it. Fortunately I did manage to remove the evidence of this small mishap from the shiny iron, so my husband is None. The. Wiser.

Anyway, superheroes are not to be phased by such happenings, and we made 3 masks in all, one for each child superhero in the house. Note the glinting eye of Batbaby...