And still ...

We're waiting for all the money to come in before we get the final total! Watch this space.

Now our thoughts are turning to Christmas. Caroline is preparing for the Christmas window and for yarn bombing; on Tuesday she was trying our her new Tulip knitting needles (free gift from the Knitting and Stitching Show) making an angel.

Major plans for more fund-raising have been postponed until next year, to give us time to recover from the poppies. It's amazing how making a simple thing like a poppy can sap your energy!

I'm playing with various ideas. How about this?

Not everyone has a plant support in their living room.

And then there's these:

Five wreath frames. After making the poppy wreath I've discovered I'd rather work with these than with the polystyrene wreaths.

They do, however, have some rather sharp bits where 2 wires meet. I fiddled about with toy stuffing to pad it, thought about quilting-type wadding. Quilting wadding wouldn't go round the bends. The toy stuffing wouldn't stay where it was put.

I needed to find a way to hold it in place.

And then it came to me:

I've bound the joins with Elastoplast!

So then I needed the crochet cover to sew things to. Never listen to kids when they tell you Maths is useless. The trusty formula of πd came to my aid and I made about 32 inches, the circumference of the inner ring. 

I've used double crochet into the back loop so it's quite elastic and should stretch to fit the outer ring.

As you can tell from the colours, it's a Christmas leaves ring. But I've got this snow one in my head too.

Busy busy!

Interim update

Poppy making is over for this year.


 


Caroline did an amazing, eye-catching window, with photos of Brett Linley, in whose memory we were selling poppies.

Christine's had another nice write-up in the Birmingham Mail.




















I've finished one, very purple blanket:

And begun another:

This one is for Gareth, who should be moving into a new house in a fortnight or so.

But this is only an interim update, because I'm waiting for the launch of the next charity drive before I start burbling about it.

And I don't know yet how much money we raised for the poppies. I know we exceeded our £500 target.

Watch this space!

Get your poppies now - last few days!

We've had an interesting week in the shop. On Monday a man who was passing stuck his head in the doors to tell the 'girls' to get a copy of the paper. (People do things like that in Bournville). This is why:



A feature on the village carried this photo of Caroline and Julie as its main focus. There was a very nice report to go with it.

Then on Wednesday it was Stitch Bournville. We'd run out of poppies AGAIN, so Jules and Sandie were making leaves and I was on poppies.


I'd hoped to introduce us individually, but the photos are all stuck together!

Top left introduces Gillian and Kate-the-Nurse, both of whom appear regularly in the blog. Gillian is our felting expert; she's just made a fabulous new bag for display in the shop. Kate-the-Nurse has made some amazing tea-cosies which are being sold in aid of Marie Curie.

Deliveries included more colours of Louisa Harding's Amitola, which left me panting, and the complete range of Rico 2-ply cotton. I very much want to try it; the colours are really vibrant.

Caroline and I have been protecting our poppies from people trying to buy them - or sell them, come to that! She's been working on some of her extra-extra special ones to make a vase of them for Julie's window; I've been making a wreath for the other window.

I acquired a metal frame from Louise's shop, two or three doors down, some weeks ago, but all the experiments with leaves were unsuccessful. Then there was a kerching! moment: the florist at Louise's had talked about moss!. So I made 'moss' and wrapped it round the frame.

Then I sewed on the string of leaves I'd made. Those who know me realise I have all sorts of lazy ways; this one saves darning in ends all the time.

And finally I added the poppies. Of course I miscalculated when it came to sewing them on, but it will have to do; I have fluffy poppies to make!

Note the elegant hanging device; here we have the whole picture:

That's Rhiannon getting arm ache!

For once, I'm quite pleased with something I've made, and I'm going to use the basics to make a Christmas wreath. But it won't be red and green!