Farewell to Belstead and CUPCAKES!

I have SO much creative stuff to share but my poor fingers can barely type as they are so chapped and cracked from all the scrubbing and cleaning I have done over the past 2-3 weeks! Our daughter and son in law have moved with their two little girls from the house opposite us to a bungalow just around the corner and yes, you guessed it, we have been helping them most days. Thankfully they are now finally installed. Phew!!
Here I am with all the wonderful scrapbookers at Belstead House, our last weekend there. It is closing at the end of December and I feel very sad about it. I was SO thrilled to be given the most gorgeous wallhanging made by all of the girls and put together, upstairs, by Emma on the Friday night. Thank you Emma :) Each 6" square is so very special...it really is a wonderful treasure and is hanging in my studio so I can enjoy seeing it every day

I'm sorry the photo quality is not very good. It has been pretty gloomy here for the past few days!

Each of these squares has such a special meaning to me.....This one is from Barbara...a Tangram with wings!

This is from Debs.....dangulators is one of my 'words' and I always have to add ribbons and pockets to my scrapbooks

 

A delightful piece of patchwork from Pam....with my word 'exiterated'....this seems to be a permanant state of affairs at Belstead....

 

gorgeous dyed fabric and more lovely dangulators from Lynda....

 

A very sophisticated square from Tracie.....so beautifully painted and such lovely words........we are all going to get together next November at Grafham water! The fun will continue

Sandie sacrificed a piece of screen printed fabric for me and she has printed my picture onto fabric too!!

and Claire added really dainty wire flowers to this lovely square.......:)

 and I LOVE all those buttons from Pauline...........and another of those words!

Stardust, smiles and laughter from Linda....how special!

I laughed when I saw this square from Jill....complete with the doily challenge on it! Here she has used it as a stencil.....and look at the 'aged to perfection' confetti!!

 

Lots of woven ribbons, and upcycled bits and pices from Toni, Jean and Jacqui....remember those jointed shiny fishes?

 

                            and this gorgeous square made by Emma has a tiny pocket in it....

 

with a perfectly folded, hilarious piece about my name and its meaning,  and me. LOVE it!

 

Jo made this square and this is a picture of me ckecking our lottery numbers in February.  I was SO SURE we were going to win so we could buy Belstead but it was not to be......

 

and inside the pocket was this tag....and a lottery ticket for Saturday night. Sadly it was not a winner. LOL!

 

I feel so very, very special to be given something so beautiful! Thank you to all of you special people who made it and to Emma for putting it together

xxxx

 

 

and finally.....it was Barbara's birthday this week and so we celebrated early while we were all at Belstead

 

 I baked lots of cup cakes before I left home and then, on Satuday, assembled them in my bedroom!

I made litte stands for each one using card roll from wrapping paper (NO LOO ROLLS!) cut into 2" length and painted them white then they were stamped with musical notes. This was to remind the girls of the song I wrote about Belstead and which we all sang to the tune of Wild Clover!!

 They were piped with buttercream.....

and each one had a little flag of printed sentiments about friendship in them.

Barbara's also had 7 candles which we lit and were blown out immediately for fear of setting off the fire alarm!!!!!

 

Happy Birthday Barbara

xxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grace's quilt, Belstead, friends in purple and STUFF!

Now then...I'm really busy as always but I have lots to share AND I also want to use todays promt for Shimelle's course 'True Stories' on using 'if' when writing. So here goes for a quick experiment.....

If I could go to Belstead every weekend just think how much I would achieve!

Here, there ware three of the screen printed fairies that I am applying to a quilt for Graces' birthday tomorrow! I layered them onto wadding and then free machined them, making each a little different. Later in the post you will see that I beaded and embroidered each one too...

If only time would stand still just for a while, I would always have a wonderful stash of things to sell. Here, I have got out the spiral notebooks I bought a year ago and finally got around to decorating. I have laminated the photos and added ribbons and torn fabrics. Yummy! At the back is a little pile of paper maze books I made and three diary covers in the making.....

If these don't sell, I shall have plenty of notepads to fill with my thoughts for a very long time!

If only she knew I was taking her picture! My dear friend Barbara was wearing these cracking purple gloves just crying out to be pictured!

If only our lottery tickets were winners we'd spend our whole lives here...the best place on earth, where time stands still, where laughter fills the air, where ideas flow, where food appears and where we walk to the river and get back in time for tea and home made cake.....
Here I am with the 'two Barbaras', Elaine and Wendy...the other girls could be pulled away from their machines!!!!!

Back home........today

If I sit here all morning I might get this finished... I was at my machine by 7.30 this morning and finally finished at 2pm ...I just have the ends to sew in and one more fairy to replace as I scorched her!!!!!

If Grace doesn't like it I shall cry! I have made it for her to have on her bed at home...but it looks pretty good right here and goes with the curtains I screen printed for her

If you look closely, you can see the details of each little fairy...

If my memory card wasn't full you would have seen a few more of them too!

Take care everyone.....keep making and creating.....

Moira

PS Yes...I know that the 'if 'thing should be carefully penned blogging IF ONLY I HAD THE TIME!!!! But now the quilt is done I will have.....