Yoo Hoo, I'm back!

I don't quite know what happened there! One minute it's the end of June, and the next it's the beginning of August. The time has just run away from me. First of all I had trouble with my internet connection, and had to get a new router sent from BT. In addition to that, I have been in complete turmoil at home as I'm having some decorating done, and so every room is in a mess at the moment. My book shelves have been seriously under strain for some time (I don't know where all those books keep coming from) so I decided I needed some new shelves, plus a few extras, which means there is currently a book mountain in my bedroom, and I am likely to be buried under a book avalanche any day now. Goodness knows where the CDs are going to go when I clear those out tomorrow. I really should have less stuff. I did manage to have a bit of a wardrobe cull yesterday, and took a couple of bags to the charity shop today. Anyway, enough of excuses....

I have done a bit of sewing. I bought a vintage blouse from the flea market in St Albans a few weeks ago. I loved it, but to be honest, it was a bit on the snug side, and a bit short in the body for me. It was however, much more my friend Jill's style, albeit a bit too big for her. She liked it though, so I altered it and now it fits her beautifully, so it became an early birthday present for her.I've also have found time to harvest some of the lavender growing in my garden, and I made these:-
I have to say, it takes quite a lot of lavender to fill a lavender bag. However, the blisters on my hands, caused by using the secateurs, have nearly healed now, so as long as we get a dry day or two, I should be able to harvest some more.
Last weekend I went to Hawkwood College near Stroud in Glocestershire to do a weekend course in stitched books. It's the second year running that we've been there, and it's a great weekend. The building and the setting is lovely, and the food is wonderfulThe tutor was Frances Pickering - a great teacher, and her books are beautifulThe theme this year was "A New Lease of Life" and the aim was to use old fabrics, embroideries and haberdashery. Here are some of Frances' books....

And here are some pictures of the books that the class produced. I hope I've included something from everyone, and apologies to anyone if I've left you out - I got confused about which books I'd photographed and which I hadn't! I can't put names to many of them, and in no particular order ......

The one below is mine, and relates to my C&G project ....

This one is Jill's - she claims not to be a stitcher, but this is her first bit of free machine embroidery, which is quite impressive!

And the next one is from my friend Pam ...

It was a fantastic weekend, and we've already booked for next year. Right, that's it, I'm off now. It's taken me a couple of hours to complete this post - does anyone else find it incredibly frustrating trying to get pictures in the right order on here??? If there's a trick to it, I haven't figured it out yet!

I'll try not to leave it so long next time.