WOYWW 251 with Birthday Patchwork

Nipping in for WOYWW, after two weeks absence, to share my "work desk" with the world thanks to the marvellous idea of Julia and all the participants who join in each Wednesday. All will be revealed in glorious detail over on the Stamping Ground.

I've been helping a friend who has been ill, and she has been in and out of hospital, so it has absorbed most of my spare time but I've still managed a bit of hand stitched patchwork during my travels, to and from her house or the hospital. As a result, I've been working on my knee with just a little box of tricks.

Here's the result of my car crafting, arranged in random order. I'll balance the colours out before I stitch them together, when I have made enough. 24 x 4 inch squares of Japanese folded patchwork made and only 246 to go! At the least and they'll all need stitching together!

Here's my little box of tricks I carry round to enable me to stitch on the go.....

Tuesday was the first time we could manage to meet up to celebrate Neet's birthday and we had a lovely Thai meal together at the Thai Kitchen in Hannigans pub and it was so good to catch up and have a good natter, a glass of wine and some excellent food. 

The pub restaurant, on the Bury Road, rates No 1 of over 200 Bolton eateries rated on Tripadvisor and I must admit that I can well recommend it. It also serves good English food.

I love this pic (below) of Neet, after our meal, looking so relaxed and mellow!

Belated Happy Birthday to a special friend and thanks for a lovely day together.

I can now show the gift I made for the birthday girl.

 I saw this scrap buster table runner on Missouri Star Quilters 

(Jenny does so many fabulous, easy to follow, video tutorials) 

and I had the idea to convert it to a seat cover for Neet to use in her craft room.

With elastic across the middle, at the back, this turned into......

this with the addition of some large flat beads to weight and decorate the front and back points. This seat has a low back but it would easily fit a higher one.

I sewed together all the offcuts of fabric quite haphazardly and made a handy tote for her craft shopping as an extra gift.

 A great way to use up scraps!

Front and back are quite different.

I've been following the travel and adventures of Flat Susan (check her moves and all the fun here)

When I took her with me to Germany on her maiden trip I bought this small globe for Neet to mark all her "Ports of Call" and today I was amazed to see how many places she had visited all over the world. I wonder how many miles she has travelled in less than a year?

Hello to all the lovely WOYWW bloggers I usually visit and I do hope time allows me to get around to lots of you for a nosey this week. 

I have been missing but I have missed you!