Hello my friends. I’m late today… have had three appallingly bad nights on the trot, so waking this morning definitely carried a government health warning! (As does this post – it’s a bit longer than normal – sorry Julia!!) However… better late than never – so my desk today!

As you can see, I am doing some pergamano upstairs on my landing work space.  You can see my parchment, embossing mat, ball tools for embossing, the storage containers for the rest of my tools, some printed images ready for cards for the hotel, an open tin of wax for sticking the ball tool into so it slides smoothly over the parchment, my address labels, and the usual clutter. So many of you didn’t know what pergamano was, I thought I’d best take a couple of extra shots to show you.

This is the pattern I hope to do It was in the Parchment craft magazine. I’ll change it a little so as to make it into a card rather than place it on a stand. As you can see there is a lot of work in it. First up trace the design onto a piece of parchment…

Then begin to emboss the pattern on the back or front, depending on whether that part of the pattern needs to be elevated or made into a valley! You do this a bit at a time because you are warming the parchment and stretching it. So, do an hour, then go and do something else, etc! After this I will need to prick a pattern in the parchment with a sharp pointed tool – not out yet, nor will be until I’m ready to do that part – so keep your eyes open for part 2!!! It will take a few days to do a pattern this size – that’s an A4 piece of parchment!

So, what do I do when waiting for the parchment to rest?

< I crochet together blankets. You all seem to think I crochet really fast - not at all true - I simply do the joining up on most of these blankets - especially the knitted ones. A local lady makes these fantastic coloured strips - and I put them together as a whole. These two are about 4feet square - so ideal for an older person in Uganda to keep warm in the evenings.

Or…. I make bags. The first 10 are now made and ready to go out when the group leave here in July for Uganda.

Or alternately, I pop down to the Welsh Highland Railway station at Caernarfon, buy my resident’s pass which gives me the privilege of travelling for 1/3rd of the normal fare…. and…

…. spend a day on the train, travelling through the most stunning scenery, made even more so by the glorious day, and get fantastic views all day. This is Snowdon – Wales’ highest mountain at 3,500feet, for those not in Britain. Excuse the reflection – it was taken through the train window!

So, there you have it folks – that’s me. Still basking in that glorious day out, still working on the birthday card, still sewing together squarish squares and strips of knitting, and setting out on my second set of 10 bags for Uganda.

Take care dear friends. God bless.

Margaret

Good morning my friends. Thank you to all those who visited last week, and your lovely kind comments. I’m so sorry I can’t leave a comment on several of your blogs. I don’t do google plus you see, and some on google plus I CAN comment on, and a few I simply can’t. Don’t understand it – but, I did manage to visit you all, and enjoyed what I saw. So, if you left me a message, and didn’t get a comment from me, I’m so sorry. Jill, I’m sorry you didn’t leave your WOYWW number, and I couldn’t find you to comment – Serif, who host my site, don’t have the facility yet of making your names a link to get straight back to your site… However, I’ll be around to you all again later today and the next couple of days – Mrs D is coming over for a coffee this morning, you see, so I don’t suppose we will get a lot done other than a good natter and catch up!

So… my desk this morning.

Not a lot that is exciting, I’m afraid. My scrap pad, a roll of low tack tape I haven’t put away, my address labels, tools, and a couple of cards almost finished for the hotel – copies of the one which didn’t even make the stand the other week!

And a view to the right of where I sit to work –

A couple more cards, my box of embossing powders (Hmm – seems I need a larger box!), a pile of Christmas newsletters which need change of address or other things doing with them, my specs, my computer with that glorious autumn picture on the screen  (taken when I went to Chatsworth Garden last year with the family), the church notice sheet (which needs completely re-thinking, so is sitting there until I do!), the notebook contains my notes from a very lengthy phonecall to CCLI – the copyright licencing authority for church music and words – boy, is copyright law complicated!!! (and extremely expensive), and some odds and ends.

So, what else have I been up to this week – well, a friend called round a couple of weeks ago saying she was sorting the attic, and would I like these for Uganda. “These” were a bag of wool and a bag of fabric. So, the colours were so glorious, I set to and made a blanket…

Aren’t those colours just great? Unfortunately, I didn’t realise when I hastily took the photo that behind the settee is an appalling shot of how lazy I am! Remember the fireplace which was taken out weeks ago?? Well, this just shows I haven’t yet painted that part of the wall – it’s still bare plaster!!! Ooops!

So that’s me this week folks. Messy, doing lots, and now have a dining table filled with the makings for 10 bags for Uganda – done three, nearly finished the fourth. Should be able to show you some of those next week…

Take care dear folk. God bless.

Margaret

Hello my friends. Here we are at Wednesday again – how time flies! I trust this finds you well and enjoying lots of craft time. I don’t have an actual desk shot to show you this week as there has been absolutely NO activity on it all week. The reason? I have been away visiting family and friends. However, before I went I managed to do a whole load of finishing… I took over 120 cards to the hotel for their opening week. Then…

The wavy blanket – and the exciting thing was that when finished, the weight of the whole blanket pulled out the wavy sides!!

A pergamano birthday card for my son in law’s mum – it took two attempts as I made a ghastly, irredeemable error the first time so had to begin again!

A fun birthday card for my youngest grandie – simple, but enjoyed by said grandson!

And lastly, a picture from my weekend away – one of my sons in law viewing Snowdon from the comfort of his dining room!!!!! He is modelling an arran sweater made for him by my daughter. Her first MAJOR knitting project. I am given to understand it went the length of the room in frustration a few times when being started – but she persevered, and the end result is there for all to see. Well done!

So that’s it from me this week folks. I do hope even more can come to the WOYWW crop now the date has been changed – as Julia says, one of those things! Have a good look at her site and see the new date.

Take care everyone. God bless.

Margaret

Bore da I chi heddiw.

Dydd Dewi Sant Hapus.

Can you believe it is March 1st already – St David’s Day – and not a daffodil to be found in my house because  I haven’t been outside for days (too busy). So, instead, my desk – which will explain why I haven’t been outside…

Talk about neat and tidy! This is the dining room table – where I have worked all week. The left hand box contains, bagged neatly, 100 bag front pieces, 100 linings and 100 straps – all cut out and parcelled up into packs of 10 for folk to sew together ready for taking to Uganda for the children. The right hand box contains all the cards I have made, neatly packed and priced, for the hotel. I go over to them this week and we set them up ready for opening next Monday. Wow!! Well over 100 cards in there now, and yes, I realise that as soon as I put them out at the hotel I will need to start again because the box will be empty!

I’ve also been cracking on with the blanket I showed you last week – and it now could act as a tablecloth – it has certainly grown!!

Still somewhat wavy down the edge – so I have hidden that untidy bit!!

Remember the dies I was having trouble with the other week? Well, I emailed Pink Frog and they got me to send them the dies and said they would try them out and see what was going on. They were brilliant. Within four days I had them back, tried, tested, and with all the samples of their testing sent back plus hints on where to put shims etc. So, Mrs D and I had a fun day playing…

Aren’t they simply stunning? So – a round of applause for Pink Frog, I think, for helping out folk like me so readily!!!

So that’s me folks. Neat and tidy, and all set to begin again! But first, a birthday card for my youngest grandie, and a card for my daughter’s Mother in law….

Take care, my friends. Thank you to so many who visited last week. I’m so sorry for the two or three I can’t leave messages for – especially when you are good enough to leave a comment on my post. I couldn’t find an email for you…. sorry… I would have sent my comment that way…

God bless.

Margaret