Table Runner (and still girly)

This has been a weekend of mixed weather - dull and cloudy yesterday, bright sunshine for most of today but now at half past four it's gone dull and cloudy again.  I've been working with the linen fabric again this weekend. I found some gorgeous soft pink fabric with a lovely delicate design so I decided to make a runner which would be suitable for the chest of drawers in my bedroom but, in different colours would make a nice spring runner for the dining room.

I laid out the pieces

but discovered I had cut the centre piece the wrong size so I had to do some alterations.  I also made the first border narrower to accommodate the stitchery design I wanted to use.

I'm learning the ins and outs of my design programme (Affinity Design) and can now manipulate shapes.  It's a slow process because I have never really worked with a computer design from scratch. Most of my patterns have been hand drawn.  I printed the page and traced them on to fusible web.

After ironing on the flowers and leaves

 I drew a vine which 'loops' around the inner border

and chose some colours to embroider.  The earthier colours on the left are the ones I'll be working with.

So this is the first corner done.  I work on the linen attached to the wadding but will wait until it's all sewn before I put the backing on (like a cushion cover) and quilt through all the layers.

It measures about 15" x 24"

From the 'bakery' this week a simple traybake. Four ingredients - Rice Crispies, toffee, marshmallows and butter

Put the ingredients in (minus the rice crispies)

and melt them very slowly

 to a smooth sauce

add the crispies

 and press into a tin.

There's enough for immediate use and some left for the biscuit tin for snacks at work next week. Yum.

John and Steph are off to Lanzarote with the boys next week so I popped down this afternoon.  It was such a lovely day so I walked round. I was following a man who was out for a walk with twin boys (about 2-3 years old).  When we got to a quiet little cul de sac the boys stopped and looked for traffic. One of them only looked one way before he crossed.  His daddy told him he had to look both ways because if something had been coming he would have got squished flat, like a pizza.  The little boy said - "could you put me in a pizza box then" he asked.  I didn't hear the answer because I was too busy chortling.

Now I'm going to make a beef stew, tidy my stuff away and prepare myself for the week to come - lots of meetings and setting our new budget for next year.

Flossy is continuing to improve and her fur is growing back now. She's been a brave little bunny and am still full of wonder that she survived.